Category Archives: Marketing

If Google went away, would you care?

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How would Google impact your life if by happenstance, they just,”went away”? As a casual user of the web, I would think that you wouldn’t miss a beat, you’d just migrate over to Yahoo or MSN or one of the hundreds or thousands of other second tier search engines out there. Would your results suck? Would they be tainted by gross inacurracies? I’m sorry to say, and it probably pains Google to hear this (not really) but the answer is more than likely, no and no.

You see, the other search engines are not that bad, in fact Ask.com for instance, is really really good. But when you are trying to compete against this Goliath of a company, you’re little pebbles will have no noticeable effect or impact, no matter how cool and powerful.

I imagine that if Google went away, their 10,674 employees would have to find new jobs doing something that we have no clue about. Since they are so secretive anyways… Then there are the tens of thousands of people that make money on Adsense. What would they do? Arghhhh!!!! Get real jobs?  I suppose they might go back to that fine affiliate marketing model that was and is still so annoying. Here’s a thought. Maybe the CTR on banners would go north of 1% if Google went away?

SEO and SEM professionals would naturally just shift their attention in the forums and their blogs to bitching about Yahoo and MSN’s “Algo” and why it’s so unfair, and why they never get back to you, and why they never give you a straight answer, and why you need to do it “this way”.  They also would be lost without having a Google toolbar that gave them their PR’s; Oh and Matt Cutts, the Google Guru, would probably be an authority on something, but it just won’t be in search.

Would there be less web sites if Google wasn’t around? What would be the ideal business model for making money on the web? Yahoo would own PPC outright at this point so what would they do differently if Google wasn’t around?

Would MSN be even more formidable if Google wasn’t around? Since Google has come on the scene, casual water cooler talk has shifted from, “I wonder what Microsoft will release next”? to “Did you see where Google’s stock is at”?

Are we better off socially because Google is so entrenched into our daily lives? Do they make us better at what we do? Do they solve nagging problems that previously existed before they came on the scene? Do they have our best interests at heart? Does Google care about you and I?

What do you think life would be like without Google? Does Google impact your life?

Dumb People and Technology

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According to Wikipedia:

Dumb may refer to:

  • Stupidity, the state of
  • Dumbing down, a term referring to over-simplification

I recently wrote about the fact that sometimes technology and the use thereof, may be too complicated for some “slower” people to grasp, therefore what they might use their computer for, might not neccessarily be what others use it for. Is that ok?

In creating web apps and websites, we always try to dumb down what we are creating, in the hopes that its simplicity will push it over the top in terms of the broadest possible audience grasping what we are trying to convey. In lieu of words sometimes we create icons. Yet other large manufacturers choose to assume that people will “get it” and if they have problems just call the help desk. Can you say focus group? Or lack thereof?

Maybe Dumb people shouldn’t operate computers? Maybe we underestimate the dumb person; Or perhaps they use it to go to YouTube? Do dumb people use email? Has anyone or any company actually looked at that sector of the public to see, just what they use the computer for? Is it a group that we should market to? Are we missing out on this demographic? Or do we just assume that they will get it? Isn’t it the goal of all technology innovations that they are accessible to all? If so, doesn’t that mean regardless of your mental capacity, that that person will be able to grasp it? That you, the slow one, will get it?

Is technology biased towards people who are educated? If it is, do they leave the dumb people in their wake? What are dumb people supposed to do? Rely on smarter people? Or the Geek Squad? Do dumb people want a  crack at technology and what it has to offer?  Does technology provide a fair shake to people who want to learn but just are really really challenged?

A dumb person might have the grandest of intentions when buying a computer, but what are they to do when they have to install software, get an internet connection, download updates, install security software, burn a disc, download some music from itunes, buy some porn, etc etc etc…?

You see the world is moving more and more towards a paperless virtual high speed electronic environment. But it moves at a speed that not a lot of people are comfortable with. And you know what? Technology could not care less! Social networking sites are great but I’m willing to bet the affluency of the users is solid middle class and up. Educationally, we provide our 1st graders with a solid foundation for technology, but we’ve forgotten about the boomers and some gen X’ers even, and those who may have slipped through the cracks and those that it just passed right over. For whatever reason, those people are missing out on what technology can do for them. But now that I think about it, maybe they don’t care. Maybe to them, playing FreeCell, Bejeweled and watching Videos on YouTube, is just fine…

Google Envy

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 GE…  Google Envy. We all have it. Even if you don’t admit it because you are above that, deep down you know you have it.

In contemporary times, GE is the term used metaphorically to refer to the idea that we all wish  we worked for Google, had Google stock. or were bought by Google. In more subtler terms it refers to the anxieties we as marketers and site owners and SEO folks feel about our impact in Google’s search engine.

Think about our world and how Google has managed to work its  way into our lexicon.   Lik Pez, Google is a proper noun.  Pez is a candy and Google is…. Google. But where they differ is that I can’t “Pez you” but I can “Google you”.  You know this conversation happens a half million times a day… “Hey I Googled Thomas/Cynthia last night, and you won’t believe what I found!”

So alas, Pez is not a verb and Google has become one. How many companies can become a verb? Not Microsoft, Nike, Coke, McDonalds, Toyota, NBC, Rolling Stone, The Rolling Stones, Yahoo, The NFL, The NBA, Nintendo, Sony, The World Cup, The Olympics, Not even…. Microsoft-cue the reveal music.

I wonder if Microsoft has Google envy? I used to have Microsoft envy. In fact right after the bubble burst in my dot com world, I still had Microsoft envy. I wanted Microsoft to buy my company. Didn’t they buy anything that was cool and had a pulse back then? They were the big dog and I think we all worked for small start-ups with the hope that Microsoft would notice us and decide to buy us. It’s at this juncture that we should bring in Andy Rooney from 60 Minutes.

Andy: “Do you ever wonder if Microsoft has GE? or Google Envy? I bet they do. I know I do. I think we all have Google Envy. Even my dog has Google Envy.

As a world that now uses technology in every day life in every way possible, we now measure things by our ability to search for them on Google. It’s almost as if it’s the great judge of legitimacy. However, from the perspective of the marketer and the SEO’r, it’s also the gold standard by which one is measured. If you rank #1 in Google, then you must be good. Because Google said so. 

So it just goes without saying that Yahoo and MSN, the other 2 search engine’s, should have major GE. They fight over the scraps of what is left in Google’s vapor trail. And like it.  I envision Shaq going up against Herbie the wannabe dentist destined for Misfit Island, and The Keebler Elf. All fighting over the gold and girl, and it really not being much of a fight. It’s just not fair. But I like Shaq, he’s a likeable guy. I even think Herbie and the Keebler Elf are cool, but in the end, you know they wish they could trade places with the big man. Even if they don’t admit it.

Technology. Is it making our lives easier? Or does it complicate them?

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While thinking of what to write about this morning I thought that some questions should be asked.

Does technology serve a broad audience?  Or a broad enough audience? In other words, are we serving enough people, with what technology brings to the table? What do people who happen to have a computer, who have no more than a high school education, and possibly less, use the computer for? Do they use it to look at porn? Do they use it to set up My Space? Is it for Flickr? Music? Email? Is the computer user friendly enough for people who might be learning challenged? If it’s not, then what do they do with it?

Who do we as marketers and web masters gear our websites to? What is the demographic? Do we even consider the number of people using a computer who don’t really fit the audience that we THINK we are attracting? Do we even TRY to speak to that segment?

Is the cell phone and it’s current capabilities the “dumb’ed  down” version of the PC? Is what is on the phone from a spec standpoint what all users en masse want? Or what we think will sell more phones? Do we not give the people that use any type of technology on a day to day basis, enough credit for what they want? and how they might want to utilize it?

When does any type of app, fly completely over someone’s head? What is the level, when someone just shuts it down and says,”this is too difficult”? Will all generations from here on out be so technically gifted, and knowledgable that nothing will be impossible for them to grasp? Regardless of educational levels?

What does user friendly really imply? Does everyone need a computer? If so why? If not, how come? Does anyone use a fax machine anymore?  Why is YouTube so popular? Why is MySpace the same? Does anyone care about social networking? DO I really want my friends to know what I’m doing at all times?  How can I find really cool web sites? Without having to put up with google ads?

And speaking of Google, should I care about what they do? and how they do it? Does Google make my life easier? Does Microsoft? Does technology make my life easier, or does it complicate it because of updates and licences and fees and subscriptions and user names and passwords and security threats and viruses and hackers and…..???

Do we know what we want? Do you know what we want? Do we know what you want?  We all think we do, but you know what? No you don’t, and neither do we..

Emerson Direct and Smoke Away and the art of Typosquatting

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Recently I was doing some searches on one of the products that Emerson Direct owns and markets,  Smoke Away. I was intrigued to find that I could do a search on some variations of the term “smoke away” i.e. “smok away” “smokesaway” and was able to come up with a) quite a few companies/competitors that use mispellings of that search term in the hopes that they can lure folks in to a completely different site via ppc and organci rankings and b) people who bought variations of the url www.smokeaway.com in the hopes of luring folks into a site that sells a completely different type of smoking cessation product. One of the worst examples of this is a company that ranks #2 and #1 organically in some of the SE’s for the term “Smoke Away” but doesn’t even have a product remotely similar with Smoke Away and…the term isn’t even in their URL! An underhanded but great job of SEO. But that’s a topic for another day. 

The above mentioned examples of URL hijacking are called Typosquatting. I’m sure you have read recently about some companies that were forced to give up the URL’s that they purchased because of rights violations in regard to the usage of these bad URL’s for profit. 

Typosquatting  is a form of cybersquatting which relies on mistakes such as typographical errors made by users when typing in the address into the browser. We have all done it. You think you have typed in an address properly, and something completely different pops up. What appears is generally a page full of  Google ad sense ads or some faux directory that looks like a directory but in reality are again, ad links and bogus content.

Generally, the victim site of typosquatting will be a frequently visited website.  An example of this would be typing in Goggle.com instead of Google. Try it right now and see for yourself.  The variations of this range from a common mispelling to adding a different extension onto the domain. i.e. adding .org when it should have been .com

Once on the typosquatter’s site, the user may also be tricked into thinking that they are in fact on the real site; through the use of copied or similar logos, website layouts or content. Sometimes competitors of the victim site will do this. I would be even more concerned about a site that resorts to this because this is a border line example of phishing.

Sometimes, the typosquatters will use the domains to distribute viruses, adware, spyware or other malware.  But generally these bottom feeders are either selling advertising to firms based on keywords similar to the misspelled word in the domain or are using it to run Google adsense.

The line between typosquatting and registering a brandable variant of a generic domain name blurs dependent on the circumstance of each situation but as I tell children, if you think it is wrong, then chances are, it is. A brandable variant of a branded term would seem to me like starting a company called Fored Cars or Fordcars when it so closely resemble the Ford Motor Company.

I suppose that’s what lawyers are there for, to sort through all of this. What  you really need to be made aware of though is, who is using your name and for what purpose, and are they making money off of it? As a marketer and a brand owner, you need to protect your brand all the time.

Technology and the Housing market, how can we help?

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I’m open for ideas today on how technology could help the slumping housing market. From coast to coast, people can’t afford to buy a house and other can’t afford to stay in their house. So I sit and here and wonder, what I can do to help ease the pain and create ways for a) homeowners to keep their houses and for b) homebuyers to get into a house without giving up their first born.

I know that that might be asking a lot of technology, but we spend so much time automating what we do and creating tools to simplify what we do, why can’t we figure out ways that make it easier for people to own a home or afford a home?

It doesn’t even have to be for profit, but I know one of the hurdles would be how do we bring this technology to those people? How do we bring it down to the streets? I wonder every day. Certainly there are some solutions out there. Someone has to have a brainstorm of some sort that can jump start the conversation!

We do so much with technology, and we’ve come so far, but right now we need to help whats going on in the housing market. I know there are some people who have made a lot of money off of the real estate market but there are also a lot of good people who are hurting. if technology could provide a path that eased the pain, then truly technology is altruistic at it’s core.

I’m open to answers and ideas.

Ownyourbrand.com

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I recently came across this site and decided to engage the author for a comment he made in one of his posts. His comment was, “Remember, a true brand owner refuses to tell anyone’s story but their own.” I took umbrage with that comment with the following:

  • Marc Says:
    September 6th, 2007 at 11:39 am Mike, shouldn’t a brand owner be someone who “chooses” to tell their own story,”rather” than someone elses? Unless, you/they pay me to tell your/their story, then in that case, I will evangelize rather than “tell”. Just thinking that to refuse, might be burning a bridge.

    •  Mikes comment was the following:

    Mike Wagner Says:
    September 6th, 2007 at 4:19 pm

    Marc,

    You make a good point! No reason to burn any bridges.

    The formation of the my proposition that a brand owner “is someone who refuses to tell anyone’s story but their own” comes from my consultative work with owners, senior executives and managers who often imitate the brand story of others rather than create their own unique story.

    It’s an abdication of their own creative powers either individually or collectively to be authentic and different.

    Plus, “me too!” brand stories are seldom remarkable in a noisy marketplace.

    That’s why I suggest this “me too!” path is one that must be “refusted.”

    Of course marketers get paid to tell the brand story of their clients. And that’s a good thing.

    Still, the best is when a brand story finds such a deep level of affinity with consumers that they voluntarily tell the brand story of a product or service they have come to love.

    Thanks for making the conversation all the better here.

    Encouraging to hear from you.

    Keep creating,
    Mike

    Which leads me to say that Mike is right and so am I!!! The bottom line is you need to create your own identity with your brand. You need to have uniqueness, and the product needs to be able to stand on its own without the primary selling point being a low price point. That’s the great thing about marketing or the challenge of marketing. Someone creates a product because they see a need. But then after they have created that product ,they are now in the same boat as their competitors, how  do they differentiate themselves?

    The essence of the true marketer is someone who can step in the shoes of their client and understand the product, the audience, the message, and the best method to get the message out there. Wouldn’t you agree? What am I missing?

    Emerson, what’s in a name? or Emerson Direct, what does it mean?

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    What does Emerson Direct Response mean? It actually starts with the web site Emerson Direct and from there it has other iterations such as Emerson Direct Response and Emerson Direct Marketing. All of these names point to the Direct Response Marketing Industry, but if we really want to dig deeper, The name, the actual root origin of the name Emerson Direct comes from, a cat… That’s right, a cat.

    We digress though. Emerson was not just any cat. He lived to be 19 people years, and to a cat thats older than dirt. Emerson was also one of the coolest cats We had ever been around. Cool in the sense, that he was quite unflappable and very much a people’s cat. Ornery at times but always very affectionate. He was a sleek siamese blue point, and his name truly fit his demeanor.

     We could tell many stories about Emerson but lets just say that we miss Emerson and although he was replaced, he was never replaceable. So in tribute to Emerson, Emerson Direct was founded.

    Digg – Excellent Ready Made Logos

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    Quoted from http://digg.com/design/Excellent_Ready_Made_Logos:

    Digg – Excellent Ready Made Logos

    Excellent Ready Made Logos

    Check out this site, it carries excellent ready made logos categories neatly to find an appropriate logo for business. The logos are really cool and reasonably priced. Free business stationery design is provided with all logo orders.

    Digital Response Marketing

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    Digital Response Marketing is the new accepted form of marketing to consumers. It is a direct result and offshoot of traditional types of 20th century marketing. However there are some distinguishable characteristics which enhance its value proposition from other types of marketing or advertising. The first characteristic is that its metrics are measured by consumer response via email, mobile phone/pda and or website. The 2nd characteristic is its ability to push a message to the consumer in the quickest way possible with as minimal a cost as possible.  Digital Response Marketing is redefining and will redefine how marketers push their product to consumers. With the explosion of mobile phones, laptop computers, Blogs and social networking sites such as MySpace.com, it only stands to reason that these consumers are more reachable than ever, but are also savvier and more wary of traditional marketing methods. However, they are also a captive audience and a perfect receptacle to digital response marketing methods involving Opt-in email, mobile messaging, social network advertising and RSS feeds. Simply put DRM is the right marketing method at the right time for Web 2.0 With declining numbers in traditional media, and the move to a more mobile and digitally engaged audience, solicited and unsolicited commercial communication with consumers or businesses is becoming more and more daunting. Because of this paradigm shift, a need for a more focused and non traditional method of driving purchases and calls to action to consumers is needed.  The solution is a specific “call-to-action” via Digital Response Marketing where the push and pull of information is all digital, completely automated, and involves bleeding edge technical resources. This aspect of Digital Response Marketing not only involves a heavy emphasis on traceable and measurable results regardless of medium, but also on individuals who understand the technology necessary to achieve quantifiable results but also on the potential of emerging markets.