Hudson's Bay Could Learn From Apple

I love Apple but after the iOS 7 update, hate it!

It came glitches.  I lost some data so off to the Apple store.

20 minutes later, problem solved.

And I left buying a new case for my iphone.

Back to loving Apple.

Hudson's Bay should borrow a page from Apple.

Hudson's Bay spends millions in advertising.

But they can't seem to find anyone to man a cash register.

Apple gets it.  

They have the portable handheld devices that takes credit cards and debit cards. And they email you your receipt.

Think of how much data you have now collected.  The marketing you can do.

And save me the aggravation of walking through your store looking to give someone money!

Want To Sell More? Fire Your Ad Agency.

If you are in advertising sales, the headline shouldn't surprise you.

The right of passage in advertising is to knock heads with an ad agency when they have not included you in a buy.

Ad agencies buy media based on age groups like adults 25-54, adults 18-49, females 25-54.

When you focus on age groups,  a very important criteria is missed,  the ones with money!

Derek Dunham has a great post about a large group of people who are ignored by almost all advertising.

"But with less than 5% of advertising spend aimed specifically at this age group, advertisers are either not seeing the opportunity or don't know how to engage this audience", writes Dunham.

I am 53 and my youngest are twins who will be 25 in January.  Both work and they do okay.

The wear running shows and I wear dress shoes.

I own my house, they rent.

Our cars are paid for, they have payments.

Can you see the picture?

Other than being related the only thing we have in common is we are in the 25-54 age group.

Bob Hoffman and Sharon Krinsky and their Type | A agency have put together a great video.

If you want to sell more, watch this.

I just don’t get any of this TV ad.

A bunch of mascots who have had lunch and its time to pay the bill.

A geek waiter with a handful of debit  cards with NHL team logos on it. 

He says, “gentlemen, lets see who is going to pay”.

He picks the Vancouver Canucks

And says, “who has the Vancouver Canucks”.

Now unless you were dropped on your head as a baby or been smoking crack with Rob Ford, how the heck do you miss the mascot with the VANCOUVER CANUCKS LOGO on him!

To Scotia Bank, please stop please stop playing this dumb commercial.

You would better off to have Rob Ford amongst those mascots and pulled his debit card to pay and then handed it to him so he could cut up a couple of lines to snort. 

A Visit To The Eye Doctor

I took my 84 year old father in law to the eye doctor. 

He wasn’t looking forward to it.  He began reading all the license plates of the cars in front of us and the make and model and where the car was bought.

I wondered why he was doing this.  It’s not like he had to prove anything to me or that the doctor was going to ask me how his vision was.

My father in law has glaucoma, cataracts and macular degeneration. 

The doctor says it comes with age.  There isn’t anything he can do about the macular degeneration and the cataract is not bad enough to operate.  With the glaucoma, he said to just keep using the drops and see you in six months.

On the way home, more license plate reading.

And then he mentioned how his grandma and grandpa used to fight over the magnifying glass to read the paper.

It got me thinking about the history of eyeglasses.  Wikipedia says they go back to around 1286 in Italy.  It also says that Benjamin Franklin invented the bifocals.

Knowing what I pay today for eyeglasses you have to believe back then the cost just made it impossible to afford and there must have been a lot of, “blind as a bat” people.

Saving grace back then is they rode horses.  Lots of open space. No worries of crashing.

Then again they also carried guns.

Maybe that is where the phrase, “couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn came from”!

Fake Traffic Is Causing a Crisis for Advertisers | Adweek

Fake Traffic Is Causing a Crisis for Advertisers | Adweek

The Ad Contrarian: The Devolution Of Social Media Marketing

The Ad Contrarian: The Devolution Of Social Media Marketing: Every time I try to explain to someone who is not in the ad business (and some people who are) why social media marketing has been a disapp...

The Ad Contrarian: Beware Of Marketers With Ideologies

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Social Media May Finally Be Dying, But The BS Around It Hasn’t

Social media may finally be dying, but the BS around it hasn’t (via Pando Daily)

By Brandon Mendelson On May 13, 2013 Editor’s note: Gary Vaynerchuk disputes three points in the story. He says he never used a book-buying service like ResultSource. That is, he says, a “categorical lie.” Gary says he appeared on Conan, Meg Ryan, and Ellen before being represented by CAA…

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Internet Is A Blessing And A Curse

I love the internet.

It is a fountain of information and killed the Encyclopedia.

But while the internet puts the information at your finger tips, it has also become a curse.

Sturgeon's Law says ninety percent of everything is crap, and I think Theodore Sturgeon was being kind to the internet.

Aeroplan and Air Canada, A Match Made In The Skies

A couple of days ago I posted about trying to redeem my Aeroplan points with Air Canada.

It would have cost me about $130 more for the flight using my points than buying a ticket outright with Westjet.

For shits and giggles I thought I would check and see what a paid ticket with Air Canada is.

You don't have to adjust your computers for this.

One hundred dollars less with the same airline to book a cash ticket.

Air Canada, still not happy until you are unhappy.

19 Mind Blowing Facts About People Over 50

The Reason I Am Done With Aeroplan

We collected Aeroplan miles for a long time.  That was the easy part. 

Booking them for flights; a nightmare.  

Always jumping through hopes to accommodate them.

But this takes the cake.

On the left I am trying to use up the last of our miles.

To reach my destination, I am short 17,762 miles.

Topping them up, my cost with taxes is $613.31.

On the right Westjet.

Buying a ticket outright, $481.16!

Aeroplan (Air Canada)'s motto continues to shine.

"We aren't happy until you are completely unhappy".

 

How Do You Spell Customer Service

Why do you make it so difficult for customers to spend money with you.

Stop telling me "what you can't do" and tell me "what you can do."

Deep thoughts from Latitude 36 10' Longitude 4 45'

Budweiser And The Buddy Cup

George Parker from Adscam/The Horror Blog wrote about Budweiser and their new Facebook project.



I can just see how this plays out.  Drunk guy in bar trying to clink mugs with girl and then goes and creeps her out on Facebook.

What happen to make friends the Norm way?

When The Father Of Advertising Speaks

“The sole function of advertising is to sell things.”  David Ogilvy

Random Thoughts For The Week

Want to know if the company you are considering to deal with has lousy customer service?  

Call them and see how hard it is to speak to a live person.  

By the way, Manitoba Telephone System, your customer service sucks.

I hate websites who have chat functions and pop up asking me if they can help me.  

I can click on “contact us” if I want your help.

I also hate pop up ads that test every bit of your sanity trying to close the ad.  

Make it that hard and out of spite I won’t shop at your place.  And stop using pop ups.

Please don’t tell me that “facebook” is where everyone is and you have to be there.  

Facebook, like Twitter is not an advertising strategy, it’s a tool.

Why are you sending me to your Facebook page and not your website!

On Facebook likes, can you pay your bills with them?

Last point about likes, you liked Petro Canada's page.  Now realistically, how many times have you been back?

Read this one in a blog and I paraphrase, “social media and the digital  has allowed millions of us to express ourselves through blogs and blog talk radio. It has fragmented traditional media”.  Right (Dr. Evil voice). 

Yes the newspaper model is broken and there are some challenges but radio still reaches 94% of the population and even with all the TV channels, more people are watching TV than ever before.  

Fragment that.

Traditional Media VS Smartphone Use

Wayne Ens from Ensmedia.com recently wrote a post on SmartPhone use and a report published by eMarketer.  

eMarketer help online media people sell more digital media, published this research in one of their releases.  

Sourcing the document quoted at the bottom of the graph, Wayne discovered the following: 

"Traditional media were the biggest motivation for beginning a search on a SmartPhone, followed by word-of-mouth."

With respect to Mark Twain, "The death of traditional media has been greatly exaggerated".

You can find the full eMarketer report here. 

The Ad Contrarian: The Data Delusion

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QR Codes=Wasted Space

I once saw a QR code on the side of a Transit Bus.  And it wasn't just a little code, it was about 1 foot by 1 foot.

Try snapping that code.

This morning I received an email from my health practitioner asking me to rate my visit to them the day before.   As I scrolled down the message, there was a QR code.

So how do I snap on the code as when I looking at the message on my iphone?

I used my finger and safari told me it couldn't open the page because the server cannot be found.

I opened the email on my desktop.  I was able to use my mouse and I expected the redirect to take me to my practitioner's website.

Nope.

It took me to Demand Force who is collecting all the comments and posting it on a page they host for the practitioner.

Just wondering why you would not have a redirect back to your own webpage.  Isn't the whole idea of having a website, to have customers and future customers come to YOUR webpage not a facebook page or in this case Demand Force's website?

And back to QR codes.

Why have this?


Get rid of the new shiny toy the social media gurus are telling you to use and list your website.

That people can remember.




 

Burger King And Their Coffee Bean

Burger King is getting more aggressive in the coffee market.

A Wall Street Journal article says BK is teaming with Seattle's best to go after McDonalds.  

I wonder how much BK is going to blow on this venture.

With that, I checked out their TV ads for the coffee.

I was so excited that they were using 100% Arabica beans.  Not.  Just being sarcastic.  

Had coffee with my posse yesterday and not one of us mentioned we were so happy we were drinking coffee made from the Arabica bean.

Okay so maybe diehard coffee drinkers know their Arabica bean from their Robusta.  So I decided to google it.

Found out that global warning could wipe out the bean by 2080.  No big deal, I won't be drinking it then.

But it also says the bean is responsible for 70% of the global market.  

Its the most popular bean in the world.

It's the same bean McDonalds and Wendys uses, so says Google.

Burger King now trails both McDonalds and Wendys in the burger wars.

Starbucks, Seattle's Best, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonalds, Wendys.  

I don't like BK's chances on this.

Psst. BK.  Skip the coffee, go for the green teas!

Disconnect In Your Advertising

I never understood why real estate agents buy into the big newspaper ad that features a little picture of them and 150 other agents.

I guess in this case the agents are paying into an advertising fund so they likely don't have much of a say as to how that money is spent.  Usually the real estate company elects an advertising committee who directs the advertising fund.

ReMax was recognizing their agents in a variety of different classes with no explanation.  So I thought I would guess what the category means with my explanation in brackets.

Lifetime Achievement  (Like the title says they have been at it all their working life)

Hall of Fame (Life time batting average of .333.  Oops sold 3 out of every 10 houses they listed)

Diamond Club (Like the Diamond Jubilee, 60 years of service)

Chairman Club (Won a trip to China to see Mao's tomb)

Platinum Club (Qualified for a Platinum credit card)

100% Club (Had perfect attendance to work last year)

Executive Club (Can't sell so they teach)

Why wouldn't they have just skipped the ad and instead used it for a better TV ad.

How does Jim Croce's, I Got A Name, have any relevance.

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Would You Pay To Increase Twitter Followers

Of all the social media sites, I do like twitter.

When I am on twitter, it feels like dinner at an Italian house.  Everybody is talking but who is really listening. .

Where I am not sold on twitter is, as an advertising strategy.

A lot of followers or getting a lot of followers I am not sure will guarantee success.  And I was left scratching my head when I received this email showing me how I can increase my following up to 50,000 with a click of a mouse.

It just feels like spam.

Are You Losing Business To Online

Over the lunch hour I wandered through the mall next door.

I stopped into the travel agency to ask, "What size am I allowed as a carry on".

"No idea", replied the travel agent. "Depends on the airline".

Fair enough I thought, even though we only have two airlines in Canada in Westjet and Air Canada.

When I asked about Westjet, I got the same response.  "Don't know".

Instead of letting her watch my eye twitch and face contort and want to scream, "how in the world would you not know this", I walked out and muttered under my breath: No wonder people are booking on line!

Why Your Advertising Message May Fall On Deaf Ears

If you are in business there is a level of expectation.

So if you are in the restaurant business, I would expect your food to be “tasty and delicious”

If you are a garage, I expect that you have” licensed qualified mechanics”.

My personal favorite is “friendly and knowledgeable sales staff”.

Yet too often, businesses think these attributes must be in their advertising message.

Do you see why it’s easy to blame the media you are using for failure when really no one is buying the things that are a given.

Not to let the sales person off the hook.  You should not allowing these phrases in the message.

What Is A Like On Facebook Worth

Craig Street Cats is a non-profit organization working to improve the lives of Winnipeg's roaming cats.  And of course non profits are always short on cash.

The put together a Facebook page looking for money to pay off their veterinary bills.

They had about a 1000 "Likes" on the page.  What did a "Like" do for them?  

Find out the rest of the story here.

Ad Aged: My hope for 2013.

Fantastic post!

Ad Aged: My hope for 2013.: Here's my wish for 2013. It's simple. It's one sentence. Just three words, actually. Let's get serious. Let's not spend time on th...

About Your Website

If you have one, drive traffic to it not a facebook page.

A like on facebook means absolutely nothing.

In fact, taking someone away from your site to a facebook page only puts money in the pocket of facebook.

How?

You notice that there are ads on facebook pages.  Well those ads mean money for facebook not you.