Corporate Eye

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Archives for June 2009

New Marketing vs. Old Marketing: Using the Same Message


There’s nothing wrong with using the same marketing techniques over and over; especially if they’re getting results. And results are just what the Mars company seem to be getting. First introduced to American GI’s in World War II, their M&M chocolate candies have been a delicious and fun to watch marketing plan from the very beginning.

Here is an older video commercial of one of the M&M debuts from 1960. Does anyone remember this one?



They’re marketing has always been a hit because their product is so much fun and it’s fun to eat! But what I see from them is consistency across the line, no matter when the time of their commercial was. During a period where social media and new media are pretty hot, companies like Mars are staying consistent and productive with their same message. Take a look at this one from the 90s:

Marketing techniques are only as effective, as they are effective. If they are working for your company, is it really necessary to change them? Does it really make a significant difference if the marketing message looks different to your consumers, or are they more concerned with the product behind the message? What do you think?

I think the Mars company hit the marketing nail on the head with their consistency in their marketing message. This proves that it really doesn’t take a whole lot of new marketing ideas or twists to convey their message. Mars has proven that with theirs.


Best Corporate Career Site? Another Look at Award-winning Yahoo


yahoo-careers

Back in April, when Yahoo was named the Best Corporate Careers Website in the ERE Recruiting Excellence Awards, I was on the trail of another story and merely swooped by the site for a look.  Nothing fabulous or fascinating jumped out, so I didn’t go back for an in-depth examination.  Until now.

ERE subsequently published more detail about why Yahoo won, complimenting the widespread use of technology, prominent display of awards, product integration, and a combined marketing approach designed to drive traffic to the career site.  All of which turns out to be true–and so well done that the result is not flashy, just very satisfying.  So I enjoyed taking a more leisurely tour of the site.

In fact, I had an excellent adventure, thanks to a front-page link called “Play in the Sandbox.”  Click on it, and transport into the magic realm of Yahoo! Research, where your inner geek is bound to find some fun.  For example:  access to a huge list of technical articles, including one I couldn’t resist downloading:  On trusting your socks to find each other addresses “design issues that may arise as a result of the deployment of networks of devices that will constitute the ‘Internet of Things’.”  (I’ll let you know how it turns out.)

yahoo-research

The sandbox feature is certain to have appeal for some of the very people Yahoo! most wants to find and hire.  So my takeaway impression is that the company has analyzed the interests of their target audiences and has come up with creative ways to engage them.  Which may be the most important step in creating a successful career site.

Full disclosure . . .  I’m a diehard Yahoo! fan.  I find their search engine superior to Google’s and I love the personalization capabilities that let me create an attractive and really useful online information center.  So I’ll highlight this comment from ERE:

As we all know, Yahoo has been undergoing turmoil in recent years, so it’s particularly amazing that despite the turmoil, coupled with the economic downturn, its HR team put together an amazing Web 2.0 rebuilding effort.  The result of this transformation?  A career site that went from being ranked as one of the worst sites (on the prestigious CareerXroads ranking) to one of the best sites, all in a short period. The redesign tripled the amount of content consumed by its visitors, which led to increased conversion rates.

Take an extra look at that last sentence.  I couldn’t find confirmation or more detail–but assuming that ERE has the facts, Yahoo got a great return on its redesign investment.


Bond Investors are Investors Too

For many companies, Investor Relations is all about the stockholders.  This focus is not surprising.  Regulatory filings are generally focused around company stock, and there tend to be more stock investors than bond investors ringing the phones of the IR group.

Stock investors tend to be a more fickle bunch, especially retail investors looking for quick trading profits.  Such investors are actually the least likely to ever even see your IR page, let alone examine it carefully.  However, longer-term investors, and certainly institutional investors will want to devour as much information as possible about the company and its operations.  Often, this research is a quest for information that others don’t realize yet, or that is being misinterpreted by the markets.

If others don’t realize just how strong the company is, or how quickly it will recover from its recent missteps, then buying now in order to wait for others to finally see the more obvious data come in can result in a tidy profit.  However, finding such information means wading deep into documents, filings, and transcripts in search of uncovered stones, since just about everyone will be aware of more obvious elements like P/E ratios and earnings statements.

The quest of many IR departments is thus to fulfill the basic legal and regulatory requirements for the majority of visitors, as well as provide data and information to be absorbed by media, analysts, and those investors and potential investors who want ever more data.

What about Debt Investors?

For many years now, the IR departments of many companies have simply outsourced their bond-based Investor Relations to the various debt ratings agencies like Moody’s, Standard and Poors, and Fitch.  However, with the financial meltdown came the uncomfortable realization that the ratings agencies don’t always know best.

Still, most debt investors at least start their investment research with the bond ratings provided by the rating firms.  Yet, many IR websites don’t even acknowledge the company has bonds outstanding, let alone provide ratings or research.  This may be a mistake, especially for companies with solid ratings.

Consider the income investor looking for, perhaps, a dividend paying stock.  Maybe, for whatever reason, he decides that while he likes the company, the stock just isn’t right for him right now.  But, his attention is drawn to the Debt or Bonds link on the IR site and maybe, he likes what he sees there.  Purchasing those bonds would surely keep the company on the radar of such an investor and may result in a share purchase later, particularly if the stock is unfairly beaten down by surrounding events.

Likewise, a potential investor who is on the fence about a stock purchase may have already devoured all of the information provided, but still hasn’t been able to come to a solid conclusion.  Upon clicking on the Debt links in the sidebar, the investor notices that the company’s outstanding bond issues are all highly rated.  Even better,  he notes that the bonds are all issued at low rates suggesting both the consensus opinion that the company is sound, and that it can use the leverage provided by the capital markets if the opportunity arises.  Combined with the other “pluses” from the rest of the time spent on the IR site, those bond ratings turn the potential investor into a shareholder.

Providing Bond Information

Certainly, a company’s debt information can confuse an otherwise clean and solid Investor Relations web page.  That is why it is often wise to create a sub-site for debt ratings and other bond information.

old-mutual-investor-relations-page

Old Mutual provides just such information in a clean and classic fashion.  On an investor relations site filled with information, a single link is displayed.  This serves both to avoid complicating the investment information sought by equity investors and shareholders, and by being the same kind of link in the menu as all the others, it also conveys that debt information is regarded as just as important by the company as the other similarly linked items.

Choosing to title the menu link as “Debt Investors” allows the company to sidestep any negative connotation regarding its outstanding bonds.  This section, the title suggests, will not be an excuse for having excess debt, but rather a way to ensure that investors in such products are properly informed.

Once clicked, the bond investor finds themselves on an internal landing page where at-a-glance information is provided in the form of a table.  An investor, whether equity or debt can peruse the outstanding issues and their ratings.  If further details are desired, links are provided both in the form of sub-menus.  Each issue is also clickable resulting in the user being shown the offering circular for that particular issue.

debt-ratings

The company also provides its overall ratings, and links to the full company report from the rating agencies.  This ensures that the prospective investor will go from here to impartial third-party research rather than a Google search sending them to whatever commentator happens to have chosen the right keywords for their search engine optimization efforts.

Old Mutual goes a step further by providing a dedicated Debt investor contact for users.  Any savvy debt investor knows that their is a world of difference between an equity investment and buying a company’s bonds, and it must be reassuring to see that the company understands that as well.

Investor Relations Best Practices

Consider incorporating debt ratings and bond information on your investor relations website as well.  Take care to ensure that the additional details do not add to the overall complexity of the IR webpages by segregating them under their own easy to find link or menu option.  However, don’t make the mistake of “burying” debt information under other seemingly related links.  Bond data is not so common on IR sites yet that a bond investor will look very far to find it.  Two levels deep in the menu structure virtually guarantees the user will have left the site before finding what they are looking for.

Regulatorily speaking, providing links to companies like the rating agencies are some of the safest links an investor page can make, as they are already widely regarded as impartial third-party links.  However, linking to only one agency with the highest rating would be a mistake.  If possible, provide links to all three major rating agencies, in addition to any other provided links.

The investor who finds what they are looking for on your official IR site will find little incentive to go elsewhere, and with the current environment that rewards company criticism over praise, that may be half the battle.

Penske Rescues Saturn from GM

saturn-penskeI remember back in 1994 when I bought my first Saturn and in 1996 when I bought my second Saturn.  I didn’t buy another after that.

In the beginning, Saturn was a brand built on differentiation and word-of-mouth marketing.  It was a brand that created expectations and lived up to them.  It was a brand with a clear brand promise, “a different kind of car company,” and it lived up to that brand promise again and again.  The result was a powerful cult brand with a large band of loyal brand advocates.  It became a relationship brand that relied on brand experiences — in the showroom, in the service department, at the manufacturing plant, and even at the annual Saturn owners picnic, which drew thousands of loyal Saturn owners from around the United States each year to share their love of the Saturn brand.

In just a few years later, everything changed, and Saturn has never been the same. [Read more…] about Penske Rescues Saturn from GM

Will the Palm Pre Smartphone Get Enough Exposure in Time?

Some sing the praises of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter for their businesses. There are some online marketing companies who use these platforms strictly for their exposure benefits.  They do have their advantages, and of course their disadvantages, but every business has to weigh them both to see if they are reaping the benefits and meeting the goals that they need to in order to say it’s “working for them.”

During a time when social media reigns supreme, companies use their social networking presence to market and showcase their new products. Recently, the Palm company used their marketing tactics with the popular Facebook platform to highlight their new-to-be-released Pre SmartPhone.

Although Palm only holds a small percentage of the market, they are positioned to possibly take back a fragment of that loyalty by offering a stiff, competitive product that rivals other brands.

Palm has just 4% of the U.S. smartphone market, according to IDC, while RIM leads with 55%, followed by Apple with 20%. (source)

Palm is using the Facebook site to create a buzz and engage consumers about what they can expect on the anticipated June 22 release date. As time goes on, surely the buzz will become greater and greater in hopes of lucrative sales that be a huge boost to the Palm corporation.

As of this date, the Facebook page for Palm only has 522 fans – not even 1000 or an even 600. But with their Twitter link, they have over 10,000 followers! With a release date a few short weeks away, will Palm be able to gain enough exposure and perhaps fans on their Facebook page that will transfer to store sales or online sales?

Facebook and Twitter serve two wholly different purposes, of which I won’t elaborate here since anyone who is a follower of either can appreciate the difference. But, Facebook does offer different (not necessarily more or better) features than Twitter, What do you think Palm can or should do in a short time to increase their Facebook exposure and page? What do I think? Glad you asked!

Since I am a big fan of social networking, I think they could gain a lot of exposure for this release by including their Facebook page link or logo on all of their advertisements. Even promote it on their Twitter page, perhaps. Facebook will allow for users to interact, see photos, elaboration on links and even talk among followers. Consumers want lots of information before they make major purchases, and social sites like Facebook and Twitter are ideal for sharing information.

Now, what do you think?