In recent decades, the rate of social, technological, educational, and economic change has accelerated to the point where different generations have grown up altogether with varying “standards” and life experiences. These differences have shaped the unique value systems of each generation.
Research indicates that the majority of intergenerational conflicts arise from value differences. Understanding generational values and how they have developed over the years can help us all to alleviate stress among the generations, as well as challenge one of the misconceptions that sabotage marketing to older audiences:
#2: Generation gaps are shrinking.
Just because older and younger generations’ lifestyles share similarities—especially when it comes to technology adaptation—don’t assume the gap is shrinking. In fact, the generation gap (historically referred to in the singular) appears to be multiplying.
Consider people who are now in their seventies: Married, working, and raising children at a young age, they followed the rules and did things by the book. They value discipline and doing the right thing, even if it means taking the more difficult route. And, for accomplishing this,they wish to be respected.
By comparison, today’s fifty-year-olds grew up testing the system, pushing the limits. They paved the way, and expect their kids to do the same. “Boomers” want personal gratification, so messages such as, “Your contribution is unique,” work best. “Generation X-ers,” on the other hand, want independence. They like to hear, “Do it your way.”
According to Morris Massey in “The People Puzzle,” “we cannot change the generations, nor reconcile their differences. Instead, we need to acknowledge the validity of their values, and to change how we motivate and work with differing generations.”
For marketers, the challenge is remembering that, unless we’ve experienced something personally, we can’t truly relate—or, to use an old hippy phrase, know where someone is “coming from.” Accept that we can’t change the way older audiences will perceive or evaluate our offerings. Instead, believe that their reactions will be based on deeply held value systems and a lifetime of experiences that may differ greatly from our own.
We are, after all, products of our generations.
- Robbie Magee
Posted in Advertising, Communication, MF, Marketing, Mature Market, Senior Marketing | 2 Comments »
With less money in the wallets of the more conscientious shopper, marketers are challenged with differentiating their brands in a more selective environment.
With so much economic chaos in their world, consumers are seeking brand relationships that put them in greater control of their product or service selection, the prices they pay, and even how they experience and interact with your brand. They expect better deals and more recognition for their loyalty—without compromising quality. These sentiments are the new “normal,” and as with other recessions, they aren’t likely to go away anytime soon.
Last year, 75 percent of consumers changed their purchasing behavior—some by trading down, others by altering their lifestyles. For example, more than 40 percent of consumers now buy private label brands. In the cold and allergy medicine category, for instance, more than 20 percent of consumers tried a lower-priced option—and 48 percent thought the experience was better than expected.
Evolving your brand value to align with the new consumer mindset is critical to a post-recession marketing strategy. For example, with a dramatic increase in “comparative shopping,” rather than reacting with discounts that decrease brand value, get creative with product solutions, terms, and value-added promotions. You could even head off the comparative shopping process by providing a competitor comparison tool or campaign. Recently, Bayer Healthcare shifted its usual efficacy-focused Aleve advertising to a head-to-head competitive campaign. A new TV spot and online savings calculator spelled out a cost-per-dose story to offset its perceived premium price relative to Tylenol and other lower cost brands.
In addition, if you lead with price and do not communicate the value of your brand, at best it will be perceived on par with the competition, and more likely as a dispensable commodity. Instead, tell the consumer why your brand is worth every penny of the higher price, a la the old L’Oreal or Michelin campaigns. You’ll have a better chance of sustaining brand loyalty, especially during turbulent economic times.
Customer engagement is also more important than ever. And, in the new “normal,” it is expected. Your customers have a growing need to connect with brands as part of their desire for more empowered, thoughtful decision making. Providing information online and encouraging referrals and recommendations are particularly important to brands in categories where consumers are known to do their “homework” before making purchase decisions.
A side benefit to delivering knowledge-based content is that it fosters viral marketing, particularly with consumers who share experiences as part of their desire to gather information. This offers your company the opportunity to build clout for your brand, manage your reputation, and better understand the changing consumer mindset.
Taking charge of your brand online isn’t always easy or predictable, but a solid social media strategy will ensure consumer engagement that aligns your brand voice with theirs, while actively listening to inform the evolution of your brand, of course.
–Julie Wegman
Posted in Ad business, Advertising, Brand Strategy, MF | No Comments »
At the Martino Flynn Digital Media Services department, we constantly strive to find ways to be more efficient and bring down costs. This is especially important in these tough economic times.
Many tools are available that help web developers accomplish cost savings. Enterprise-,ready content management systems and frameworks are some of these tools. Today lets focus on frameworks. A framework supports the development of dynamic web sites and alleviates repetitive activities in web development. In the PHP community there are many frameworks to choose from: CakePHP, Symphony, Zend, Code Igniter, and Kohana are just a few. Competition is a wonderful thing but how do you choose? Although these frameworks have many similarities, some of them are built differently. Furthermore, some of these frameworks will work better on certain server configurations than on others. Symphony and Zend, for instance, may not work as well on shared hosting as Code Igniter or Kohana would.
Features that a framework offers also play a role in deciding which one is best for your needs and requirements. These range from calendars, payment gateways, database connectivity, encryption, html helpers, language helpers, session management, ajax support, paginator, javascript helpers, URI helpers, MVC implementation, and data filtering are just some features. If a framework in question doesn’t include a feature you need, can it be extended easily?
Good up to date documentation is very important for learning a framework. A strong helpful community that offers help and support can make a huge difference as well. If documentation is bad and the community is non- existent, the learning curve will be much higher. This is especially important for PHP beginners trying to learn a framework.
At Martino Flynn, we needed a flexible framework that could be used on just about any web host. It was important to choose one that featured a small footprint, good community backing, average documentation, fast, and a good set of helpful features. Code Igniter fit the bill nicely as our framework of choice. However, never limit yourself to one framework. For some projects a different framework may be the better choice than the one you prefer. Therefore, it is important to be familiar with what other frameworks have to offer.
- Mike Ruschak
Posted in Technology | 1 Comment »
Producing a corporate video isn’t the huge undertaking it appears to be as long as you partner with a smart producer and plan your project thoroughly and efficiently.
A corporate video offers many benefits: attracting new prospects, communicating with current customers, employees, or investors. There’s a huge economic benefit as well. I’m a great advocate of shoot once and distribute multiple times for different venues and platforms. For any project, always plan on shooting enough additional b-roll footage and interviews to edit and re-edit for multiple applications. This takes some planning and coordinating, but it pays dividends down the road.
Shooting–in most cases–is the most time-consuming and often the most logistically challenging part of a video project, especially if you’re shooting in multiple company locations or facilities and working around an executive’s busy schedule. So once you’re there, take advantage of the opportunity and start building a video library of footage for later use. This makes it easy to repurpose that footage to create new videos for tradeshows, lobby videos, blogs, banner ads, sales presentations, employee orientation and most especially, videos for your company’s Website.
Embedded Web videos convert into more click-through rates, per hit, than any other form of on-line information. Expand the distribution of your video to reach the widest possible audience via email and social networking sites. Sending a video to 200 employees, customers or prospects will get a 50% better response than simply sending an email.
Let’s face it; too much text and too few rich-media applications make for a dull Website. With a low tolerance for boredom, Internet surfers quickly abandon sites that do not offer something fresh and attention grabbing. Improved technology allows flash video to load very quickly, but you still want to keep your videos short and concise to assure that a user will hang in there and watch the entire clip.
Television has become the second most popular medium for entertainment, only to be outdone by the Internet, and while TV advertising costs are prohibitive for some companies, Web video is extremely cost effective and will give you the best chance to promote your company, product or service to the widest audience.
–John Marianetti
Posted in Ad business, Creative, MF, Social Media, Technology | No Comments »
Predict (v): to declare or indicate in advance; especially: foretell on the basis of observation, experience, or scientific reason.
In anticipation of the New Year, I began making mental notes over the past month about predictions I had for the marketing world in 2010. But chances are that many already have the same ideas as me. So rather than list a host of these, I decided instead to create a compilation of 10 articles and posts—each with its own “top 10” list of 2010 predictions around a particular marketing-related topic.
In other words, I’ve subtly outfitted this post with nearly 100 projections for 2010! Here they are in no particular order (with the exception of the first, of course). Drum roll, please!
1. Public relations
2. Social media (generic)
3. Social media (specific)
4. Online marketing
5. Digital marketing
6. Web design
7. Wireless
8. News media (minus 2)
9. Personal branding
10. Tech terms (out with the old)
Do any of these predictions resonate with you? If not, I’d love to hear yours.
Before we say adieu to 2009, I leave you with a humorous Huffington Post piece on this year’s top 10 PR blunders. (Note: #1 may be a sensitive topic in this joint). Best wishes in the New Year!
- Sharon Harper
Posted in Advertising, Communication, Holiday, Interactive, MF, Marketing, Media, Online Advertising, Public Relations, SEM, Social Media, Technology, Trend Spotting | No Comments »
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