WEB MARKETING: Don't Be Afraid To Go Backwards.

The rule in web marketing (maybe all marketing?) seems to be: newer is better. But that isn't always the case, and in some cases, old technology can be better technology.

That was the situation a NOISE client was faced with recently when reviewing the performance of a web-based provider of transaction services. The provider had upgraded their original product to a second version, which incorporated a number of bells and whistles. Most of the bells and whistles were aesthetic, which it was argued would indirectly add to sales closure rates, while a few programing trinkets actually created opportunities for new revenue.

However, Version 2.0 also made it much more difficult for the consumer to a) quickly and easily identify value-added discounts that would encourage upselling and additional spending and b) simply complete their transactions.

As a result, upon significant review with sales departments, marketing departments and NOISE, the client chose to go technologically backwards — to the simpler, cleaner, easier-to-upsell portal.

Fewer bells? Yes. Fewer whistles? Yes. More upselling and more satisfied customers? It appears so.

The lesson? Don't be bound to use new technology just because it's there — and don't be afraid to step backwards, when in fact it means moving your organization forward.

Source: NOISE
Reported by: John Sprecher

BRANDING: The Power of the Short Story.

With so much talk about branding today, NOISE would like to put in a plug for very little branding talk. No more than, say, two minutes.

At NOISE, two minutes is roughly how long (and not much longer) we believe it should take for you to articulate your brand story. If you're not familiar with the concept of the brand story, you should be. At NOISE, the brand story:

• Is your narrative heart and soul.
  
• Is all fact and no fiction, part prose and part poetry, who you are and what you are and why you are.
  
• Is written to be used both textually and orally.
  
• Is as powerful as text-only, as it is with pictures and music.
  
• Has a beginning, middle and end, and — in the end — it clearly defines for everyone, from your employees to your consumers, what your brand promises and what will be delivered when interacting with your brand.
  
• Is simple, complex, fact-filled, goal-driven, multi-dimensional, powerful, emotional and persuasive.
• Is the Kool-Aid® from which everyone in your organization should drink from and refresh with every day.
• Is the launch point and measuring stick for all of your marketing and communications.
• Is you.
  

Do you have a brand story? If so, could any member of your organization articulate it? Does it meet the criteria above? Can you tell it to me in two minutes or less?

It's true that every brand has a story. It's also true that some brands are better than others at telling theirs. If your brand has a case of writer's block, contact NOISE. We're expert at the fine art of brand storytelling. Just ask our many successful clients. Just look at our results and, for whatever they're worth, our awards. The end.

Source: NOISE
Reported by: John Sprecher

ADVERTISING: The Demise of Creative?

Those of us (like NOISE) who believe (and know) that creative advertising can be effective advertising, find the concept of the "embedded product plug" somewhat distasteful and distinctly old school — you know, like classically bad Geritol commercials in the middle of some grainy 50s black and white variety show.

But as digital video recording becomes a staple in more television-viewing households, the fact is, according to Adweek, that formerly-coveted commercial times are being fast forwarded through in favor of content. In recent years, product placement (read: Paula Abdul sipping something out of her Coke glass or Jack Bauer taking no prisoners in his Ford Escort) has been utilized in all ways, and in all kinds of different programming. Now, however, advertisers are taking it a step further (cue the ominous music).

Embedded product plugs, reminiscent of those from early radio broadcasts touting their sponsor, are emerging as a new trend in live and live-to-tape television programs such as afternoon talk shows and late night programming. Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night With Conan O’Brian, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno have all featured live commercials. In these live spots, one of the show’s personalities is typically featured in a skit using or promoting the product by name. Advertisers have found that live commercials score better, touting increased customer recognition of the brand, especially when followed with a traditional spot.

While live commercials fell out of favor with late night programs in the 1970s due to multiple sponsorships, embedded product plugs may be on the way back. Those of us who appreciate the value of the well-crafted advertising message can only shudder. Oh, and just for giggles, here's one of those well-crafted messages of yore.

SOURCE: Adweek, NOISE
Reported by: Lori Sansoucie, PR Director and John Sprecher

SOCIAL MARKETING: Is There Any Group More Social Than Teens?

Ah, the teenage years. Puberty. Angst. Zits. And not only do teens adamantly tune out their parents, they tune out traditional or conventional marketing. Whatever can we do to effectively reach and market to this persnickety audience?

Well, according to PR Week, more brands than ever are jumping on the social marketing bandwagon. Marketers have found that aligning with causes that teens are interested in and passionate about is key to a successful campaign. Popular tactics include using teen-targeted celebrities, promoting via television and in-school programming, word-of-mouth and social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and mobile text messaging.

Teen brand Aéropostale recently engaged its consumers by asking them to get involved in a cause for teen homelessness by donating pairs of jeans. Victoria’s Secret Pink brand hosts an annual "Pajama Party" (pillow fights anyone?) that coincides with the back-to-school season. The event features performances by popular singers and the option to shop for products in advance of release to retail.

Bottom line: Teen brands don’t rely on any one vehicle to carry their message because teens don’t absorb media in one continuous spot. Which in an ironic way, makes teens sound like every other audience today.

SOURCE: PRWeek, NOISE
Reported by: Lori Sansoucie, PR Director and Krista Schmidt, PR Associate

E-MARKETING: Make Your First Impression a Long-Lasting One.

While many of us now employ some form of e-marketing in our overall branding efforts, and almost all of us devote serious time, energy and resources to acquiring the almighty e-mail address, a lot of us may be overlooking one of the most crucial components to long-term success: the welcome e-mail.

According to Jeanniey Mullen, founder of the E-mail Experience Council, the "welcome message has become probably the most critical message in an e-mail marketing program because it not only serves to acknowledge permission and a relationship, but sets up expectations for how that relationship is going to develop." In other words, it creates a positive first impression.

The article in Marketing News goes on to identify a number of successful welcome e-mail tactics, including:

• An acknowledgment (subject line) that this is a welcome email, significantly improving open rates.
• A link to your website or e-commerce site.
• Delivery within 10 minutes of the consumer's interaction with your website or data entry.
• Rewards and incentives.
• The option to go to your website to enter more personalized data (if not collected earlier), to better pre-qualify the subscriber.

Mullen concludes that across all industries, research over the past two years indicates that the first three e-mails somebody receives from your company will define, for them, whether this is a relationship they're interested in maintaining. Guess that means we all have three chances to make a first impression. Or we get three strikes, and we're out.

SOURCE: Marketing News, NOISE
REPORTED BY: John Sprecher

INCENTIVE MARKETING: Wearing Your Brand on Your Sleeve.

Incentives come in all shapes, sizes, prices and value points. But according to a recent article in Ad Age, one of the most popular, inexpensive and enduring incentives remains the mighty (yes) t-shirt.

Don't pshaw just yet. According to the magazine's Lenore Skenazy, the t-shirt "might bring your brand close to immortality. A t-shirt is a conversation starter, a touchstone, a symbol. Oftentimes, it's not only a reflection and statement of the company that sponsors it, but also the person wearing it. T-shirts remain an attractive draw everywhere — as a giveaway at an event, a trophy for a corporate tournament, in a goody bag at a conference."

But let's face it. Cool t-shirts are cool and something to be embraced. Ugly t-shirts are, well, destined to polish furniture, dry automobiles or a fate worse. So if you're thinking of branded apparel for your company or org — whether it's a lowly t-shirt, mighty polo or anything else (NOISE once gave away branded men's boxers!) — make sure you design something people will actually want to wear. Do that, and they'll become yet another extension of your brand. And you can never have too many of those.

SOURCE: Ad Age, NOISE
REPORTED BY: Kimberley Parker

BRANDING: Put Your Organization to the Test.

As regular readers of Trendspottings well know, this blog isn't about blatant self-promotion of NOISE — but rather, about providing new, worthwhile, practical and applicable information that you as a marketer can use to improve your brand and brand equity. But there is a NOISE service that we believe fits the definition above, and it's time to tell you about it.

We call it a Brandoscopy. It's a simple, entertaining, thoughtful online quiz that tests a person's (or organization's) awareness, understanding, integration and delivery of your brand — whether that person is the chief executive officer, the nightly maintenance engineer, or anyone and everyone in between.

You see, every customer touch point is an opportunity to positively promote and reinforce your brand, because your brand is defined by your customer's most recent experience. A positive customer experience helps create a valued, desired brand. A negative customer experience — and that can derive from infractions large or trivial — obviously begets negative feelings toward a brand. And as we all know, hell hath no fury like a consumer scorned.

We encourage you to take our Brandoscopy by clicking here. It'll be over in a minute and your test results are available immediately. And if you're interested in having your entire organization take the exam to better understand your level of brand integration, simply contact John Sprecher at johns@make-noise.com. We'll help you promote participation, collect data and review results.

Are you ready for a Brandoscopy? Take a seat and take the test. We promise it won't hurt a bit.

SOURCE: NOISE
Reported by: John Sprecher

INTERACTIVE MARKETING: Where Women Are a Healthy Majority.

It's no secret that women are the primary drivers of health care decisions, and clearly the number one target of health care marketing. Now, hospitals and other health care marketers can make it easier than ever for women to have the decision-making information they need, right at their fingertips, by simply providing it on their websites.

A recent study by comScore shows that today, a healthy majority of women — 60% — are more likely to search the internet for health information than turning to family or friends. And when not consulting a physician, that number rises to 85%.

The study shows that women are specifically using web-based health information:

• To organize findings.
  
• To learn and share via user-generated online content.
• To become more proactive in their health, wellness, education and treatment.

NOISE is expert at health care marketing, with highly successful campaigns that have recently been nationally featured in Adweek and HealthLeaders Media. Whatever health care promotion you're undertaking, our strong recommendation is to utilize traditional advertising, public relations and promotion to drive your consumers where they want to go: your website.

SOURCE: Marketing Management, NOISE
REPORTED BY: John Sprecher

HOSPITALITY: The Gift Shop Comes to the Guest Room.

Upscale hospitality marketers would be well-advised to forever delete the catchphrase "all the comforts of home" from their marketing communications. The reason? A fast-growing in-room catalog and e-commerce service called Hotels at Home.

Launched in 2000, Hotels at Home today services almost 3,000 hotels — including the Hilton, Sheraton and Westin brands — and 750,000 hotel rooms worldwide. As a free extension (yes, you read correctly, free) of the client hotel's marketing program, Hotels at Home creates an integrated marketing program that includes branded-to-client catalog, website and other components. Products for purchase can include virtually anything the hotel wishes to offer — from traditional bathrobes and coffee mugs, to mattresses, blankets, furniture, even artwork. Hotels at Home purchases these items from the client's vendors, stocks them and ships them, all for a percentage of sales. So all the comforts of home would, in theory, be the comforts of the hotel. Get it?

While Hotels at Home may not generate a significant revenue stream for upscale properties, NOISE believes the branding cache that the service provides, in delivering a perception of extreme quality that's packaged to your unique brand (and did we mention, it's free?), is well worth investigating. Learn more at hotelsathome.com.

SOURCE: Marketing News, NOISE
Reported by: John Sprecher

ADVERTISING: When Selecting an Agency, Size Doesn't Matter.

In America, the thinking forever has tended to go: bigger is better. But that isn't necessarily true as it relates to selecting an advertising agency, according to a recent issue of Ad Age. In the article, author Eric Webber (formerly of mega agencies and now leading a boutique firm) opines that smaller agencies are by nature more nimble, adaptable and resourceful — which is ultimately good for everyone. He goes on to note that:

1. Small agencies don't have silos (or if they do, they're not very tall). In mega-agency worlds, billable rates are too sky-high to spend time in collaboration with adjacent groups. In smaller agencies, other departments — media, interactive, PR — can drop in on meetings with creative teams and copywriters to give ideas early on in the process. At NOISE, it's our practice to build a team of multi-disciplinarians to tackle a branding, marketing or imaging challenge, because odds are an integrated approach will be most effective.
2. The best small agencies adhere to mega-agency disciplines like strategic, goal-driven branding and marketing — but instill their work with passion, creativity, dare and (dare we say it?) risk that most large firms squash. The proof? It’s becoming almost commonplace at awards ceremonies to see "David" agencies sweeping the creative floor with the “Goliaths." (Plug alert: Witness NOISE's dominattion last month of the 2007 Southwest Florida Addy Competition, with 42 awards, plus Best-of-Show. And NOISE's March, 2008 invitation to pitch the California Division of Tourism's Interactive Marketing Division.)

We work in an interesting time. The theoretical critical mass cost efficiencies at larger advertising agencies are clearly being outweighed by the insane amounts of money these firms charge. Many of these firms are rife with safe thinking, wet-upon passions and a me-first mentality. Just a few years ago, merger mania was seeming to threaten the existence of any agency with less than 50 employees. But in the true spirit of Trendspottings, we've spotted a change in that trend — and the boutique agency may be more popular than ever for a variety of service, attention, creativity, passion, cost, results and other factors.

Source: Ad Age, NOISE
Reported by: Kimberley Parker

CONSUMERS: It's the Luxury Economy, Stupid.

It what appears to be yet another troubling sign for our economy (not that signs advertising $4 per gallon diesel fuel aren't troubling enough), along comes Unity Marketing's "Luxury Consumption Index," a quarterly survey that examines the spending pattern of more than 1,000 consumers with an average income in excess of $150,000.

In what should come as no surprise to any marketer that targets an audience with discretionary income, luxury consumer confidence in our economy is eroding just like everyone else's — and with it, so also is luxury consumer spending. According to the fourth quarter 2007 Luxury Consumption Index, spending by higher income consumers in America dropped to its lowest level in four years — almost 13% off of average.

If nothing else, this weak performance at the top of the economic pyramid confirms what many discretionary-dollar marketers have seen or suspected for a long time. Our advice if you target big spenders? Get with your marketing people, your agency or both right now, assemble in a room, close the door, put your thinking caps on and don't come out until you've developed some creative packaging, partnering, pricing or value-added promotions that'll incent those consumers to open their wallets for you.

Or call us.

SOURCE: Marketing Management, NOISE

BRANDING: When Is a Warranty Worth More Than a Customer?

That was the question I was asking myself when I hung up the phone a few weeks ago following a surreal conversation with the manager of Florida Leather Gallery in Bonita Springs, Florida. Florida Leather Gallery is an upscale furniture retail chain with headquarters in Tampa.

The issue at hand (or better, my three-year-old's hand) was the pink children's marker he had taken to an arm and seat cushion of our new, cream-colored couch. Fortunately for us, we had purchased the extended five-year warranty to cover occasions just like this. Or so we thought.

What transpired over the course of numerous phone calls was, in fact, surreal-like. The bottom line: the store manager essentially blew up his brand, by insisting that his $200 in warranty was more important than our satisfaction (and word of mouth referral).

To him, it didn't matter that we had specifically asked of his salesperson if such damage by a child was covered (this wasn't the first time our artist son has expressed himself with marker). It didn't matter that his salesperson said yes. It didn't matter that he, the store manager, expressed surpirse that the warranty vendor (an independent company in Michigan) rejected our claim. It didn't matter that we had spent thousands of dollars on quality furniture, from a quality furniture store, and that this negative experience could forever taint our perception of his brand. He was not going to refund us a dime on what we believed was, now, a toothless warranty!

Clients, vendors, friends: This is the essence of what NOISE preaches when we say, "the customer experience IS your brand."

At that point in our minds, Florida Leather Gallery was that store manager. Cheap. Intractable. More interested in keeping the $200 or so they made off our warranty, than in our satisfaction, word of mouth referrals, and potential future purchases.

Fortunately for Florida Leather Gallery, their president, Tom Matter, knows more about branding than his store manager. To his credit, he seized the opportunity I presented him by way of a copied letter to the store manager, to place a personal telephone call to us, at which time he apologized, rebated us the warranty cost, and funded the warranty himself.

Lesson: Your customer's experience is your brand. That experience can be defined from the global (mass media advertising) to the trivial (a rude customer service representative). Make sure that every messenger of your brand speaks the same message, makes the same promise, and delivers the same positive experience. Or you, too, could wind up losing thousands of dollars of future sales over a couple of bucks.

WEB MARKETING: Women Rule.

Who are you messaging with your important web marketing? If you're not talking to women, you're making a major mistake. According to Ad Age, 2007 is the year that women surpassed men in online activity. But what really presses a woman's "hot buttons" in digital marketing? Here's the story:

1. Women's Community. Talk to women and give them an opportunity to talk back. In 2007, the number of women visiting female-oriented social communities jumped 35%, to more than 70 million.

2. Let Their Fingers Do the Shopping. More than 54% of women shopped online in 2007 — 68% of those in households with incomes greater than $100,000. What did they buy? In order of popularity: travel, adult clothing, health and beauty products, financial products, and food or groceries.

3. Show Me the Video. Women are now catching up to men in online video viewing. This year, 43% of all women online have visited a site like youtube.com, versus only 27% last year. What catches the online woman's eye? First and foremost, music videos and movie previews.

4. Oh Mother, Where Art Tho? Odds are, in front of the computer. One of the most active submarkets of online females is moms — more than 43 million of them, online daily, spending an average of 85 minutes online.

5. Forget the Carpal Tunnel, All That Time Online is Healthy! It's a fact. More than 84% of all women utilize the web for health care and related information. Betwen the ages of 25 to 34, that number rises to plus-90%.

Bottom lines here? If you're in travel, health care, apparel, child and baby products, health and beauty products or services, financial services and food, you'll find a ready and willing audience in online females. So market to them, video to them, and give them a chance to exercise their voice.

SOURCE: Ad Age, NOISE

BRANDING: Another Call for Turning the Box Upside Down.

If you're one of the large and growing number of NOISE website fans (and there are, in fact, many of you), you've read our mantra about branding leadership that goes: "We don't just think outside the box. We turn it upside down and sometimes even break it apart."

Well, along comes a new, dynamic essay in Ad Age by Bernd Schmitt, Professor of Business at Columbia Business School and Executive Director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership. In his diatribe entitled "To Build Truly Global Brands, You've Got to Break the Rules," Schmitt argues against the following assumptions:

1. YOU NEED TO USE COMMUNICATIONS TO BUILD THE BRAND. According to Schmitt, "a great product or service or original retail concept alone won't do. You've got to get the message out." Yet in his argument (and NOISE agrees), that doesn't necessarily mean traditional advertising. In fact, you should probably just throw the term "traditional advertising" out of your vocabulary as a) something approaching extinction and b) a massive waste of money. So the point is, yes, use communications: but new communications as we know them today and a creative mix of 'em.

2. YOU NEED TO USE ASPIRATIONAL APPEALS. We give this a double-two-thumbs up (four thumbs?) as both true and false — which is also what Schmitt states. The twist here is, while aspirational appeals still need to be made, they MUST be made in the context of real people or the real world (like Dove's wonderful "Campaign for Real Beauty"), because we're all way too cynical (particularly younger adults). And why are we cynical? Because (see above) traditional advertising has taught us to be that way.

3. YOU NEED TO USE GLOBAL MEDIA. Schmitt argues "not true" and NOISE agrees — to a point. If your audience is global, obviously forms of global media (web) are mandates. But what Schmitt is suggesting is that brands look to "global opportunities" (like sponsoring something in a high-global-visibility area like Times Square) on local levels. Same impact, different focal point.

The bottom line from Professor Schmitt and Professor NOISE? To most effectively build your brand today, you need to turn that box upside down and be open to any on-strategy creative thought — no matter how wild and crazy it might first seem.

SOURCE: Ad Age, NOISE

INCENTIVE MARKETING: Motivate the Troops By Shipping Them Out.

According to a 2006 study by Incentive Federation, corporations are finding that travel rewards have become the leading motivator to inspire sales forces, reward employees or even attract new customers. Of more than 1,100 marketing executives surveyed, nearly one in three U.S. companies currently uses some form of incentive marketing — to internal, external or both audiences. While 33% of those employ merchandise incentives, the fastest-growing and (seemingly therefore) most popular incentive is travel-related.

As specialists in travel and tourism marketing, NOISE has conceived, developed, promoted and managed a variety of extremely successful strategic partnerships that incent consumers with travel or travel-related rewards (see media praise of such a strategy here). Our experience has found that finding the right-fit travel marketing partner isn't always easy — it takes a lot of work and persistence to penetrate the Maginot Line that some corporate marketing departments place between you and the decision makers. But when you are successful in finding the fit, the cross-promotional results can well exceed your expectations.

SOURCE: Marketing News, NOISE

DIGITAL MARKETING: How To Generate Click-Click-Clickthrough.

It's true that online ads — specifically banner ads on mass-market web destinations — are increasingly decreasing in effectiveness. Clickthrough rates have been steadily declining for years, with 2007's average clickthrough rate a precipitious 67% less than 2006.

But this doesn't mean that online ads, from web banners to pay-per-click programs, should be thrown out like yesterday's news (sorry, newspapers). Smart marketers and agencies know that today, the key word in digital marketing is targeting.

According to an article in BusinessWeek, targeted digital marketing demands two things to be successful: a web media outlet that provides targeted content to its users (think search engines, social networks, special interest websites or web portals like health, travel and beauty), as well as a smart marketing campaign that targets the ad message to the audience and content (think unique promotions, special offers and customized messages). Combine the two correctly and effectively, the editors of BusinessWeek content you'll see clickthrough increases of 30% to 300%.

Advice?

Seek targeted-content media. Develop targeted-message advertising. And always always always purchase clicks, rather than impressions.

SOURCE: BusinessWeek, NOISE

BRANDING: Product As Hero Vs. Product As Evil.

We've all heard about product as hero advertising. But how about product as hero branding? That's what Hummer is undertaking. Literally.

GM's new marketing campaign aims to rescue their declining Hummer image by highlighting its exploits. The Hummer SUV line has recently been swept up in an almost perfect storm of outrageous gas prices, the rise in environmental consciousness and the war in Iraq. "The brand came to represent an icon for all things evil," says Megan Stooke, GM's marketing director.

How turn turn your business from an evil empire into something heroic? Take a tip from GM's playbook:

The new Hummer campaign strives to position the vehicle as a "force for good" with a very humanitarian purpose. The campaign is called "Hummer Heroes" and portrays how rescue workers and owners rely on Hummers to help others, specifically in disaster-response scenarios. The campaign hopes to humanize the brand with its serious approach; one upcoming TV spot will use real newspaper headlines, such as a tornado rescue in Colorado. GM is also launching a microsite at www.hummerhelps.com that encourages owners to submit stories and photos, illustrating how they assisted others in need.

Buy a Hummer and save humanity. Are you convinced?

Does your brand need more heroic branding? What are you doing to position your brand as a force for good and not evil? While it may sound funny, it's serious business. Think about it. Forward-thinking marketers are.

SOURCE: Advertising Age, NOISE

Reported by: Kimberley Parket

RETAIL MARKETING: Out With the Old, In With the New, Still the Same Push.

Certainly one of the oldest (if not the oldest) form of advertising is point of purchase. Today, thousands of years since the world's first sale took place (we won't go so far as to suggest the point-of-purchase ad was for the world's oldest profession!), point of purchase (or if you prefer, point of sale) advertising remains a highly-effective way to stimulate sales, add-on sales, upsales or spontaneous sales for a variety of products, in a variety of situations.

However, POP has clearly evolved in recent years beyond the traditional, static, one-dimensional sign, banner or poster to fully-walking-upright technology — including interactive, touch-screen, digital or even video displays. More importantly to retail marketers, the strategy still works — in supermarkets, for instance, delivering on average a 1.2% to almost 20.0% lift in brand sales (depending on product and type of display), while in pharmacies pulling an average 6.5% brand sales lift. According to Point-of-Purchase Advertising International (POPAI), the global association for marketing at retail, the same positive results should be anticipated in virtually any retail setting.

So if you're marketing on the ground, give that marketing a push with POP.

SOURCE: Marketing News, NOISE

Reported by: John Sprecher

MARKETING: In Defense of Free Speech (On the Part of Your Consumer).

The interaction that consumers now have today with advertisers — via web logs, shared videos and much more — should impart this lesson for all of us: you can't hide your head in the sand anymore.

The fact is, according to a fine essay in Marketing Management that NOISE thoroughly endorses, "marketing is not a one-way lecture anymore; it's a two-way conversation. Receipt of the (branding, advertising or public relations) message is no longer the endpoint of media communications; rather, it's the beginning of a reaction by those at the receiving end."

The essay goes on to point out that marketers who choose to ignore comments or criticism by their consumers are living in a fantasy world, and that any company that tries to stifle criticism will only engender more criticism and mistrust. Those customers are going to air those comments or criticisms anyway — so why not encourage them to interact with you, via your website or other customer touch points? — where you can control their diatribes or damage, and (ideally) turn a negative into a positive, gaining you the most valuable, positive word-of-mouth-or-keyboard customer of all (the one who receives "above and beyond" care and has had their underwhelming overwhelmed).

As the essay concludes, "the messages of every brand are now filtered and remade...from consumers as much as from competitors. New approaches to marketing communications are imperative. Marketers must learn to listen to others, not simply revel in hearing themselves talk."

Amen to that.

So marketers, look to your websites and customer service centers — and make it easy for your consumers to opine, while being prepared to respond positively.

SOURCE: Marketing Management, NOISE

E-MARKETING: Top 10 E-Mail Essentials.

Your time is valuable. The same can be said of your potential customers. So when you're trying to reach them through e-marketing, make sure you address — in Letterman fashion — the "top 10 e-mail essentials." According to Email Insider, these are:

1. A link to the customer's (assuming pre-registration) preferences and profile page.
2. Link to comment on story or provide feedback.
3. Link to back issues or other offers where appropriate.
4. Like to web version of e-blast.
5. Link to related information or offers, products or services on your website.
6. Description or link to shipping and/or return policies.
7. Privacy policy or link to it.
8. Phone, e-mail or contact info for newsletter staff or related departments (sales,customer service).
9. Forward to a friend instructions.
10. Unsubscribe link.

While some of these may seem obvious, others are often overlooked. Make sure your e-marketing includes 'em all and you'll look like the pro that you are.

SOURCE: Email Insider, Visit Florida, NOISE

Reported by: John Sprecher