How to Avoid the Seven Common Mistakes of Marketers

Every day, without knowing it, marketers of all kinds make the same common mistakes – and end up destroying their brands. So says the author of a forthcoming book, Brand Busters: Seven Common Mistakes Marketers Make. In it, Chris Wirthwein, CEO of 5MetaCom shares keys to identifying and avoiding these seven basic errors, commonly made when marketing technical and scientific products:

1. Taking “needs” instead of wants
2. Falling in love with your product, instead of your customer
3. Believing that marketing is a Science or an Art
4. Trying to please everyone
5. Forgetting that people forget
6. Believing your price is too high – without proof
7. Believing you must sell your product on an economic basis

Brand Busters helps readers learn from the slip-ups of others and instructs them on how to avoid mistakes and get on with efficient marketing. A quick and easy read, the book provides sound, yet surprisingly simple to apply advice. No matter what kind of product or service they offer, marketers will discover in Brand Busters new ideas for making marketing more efficient and effective.

Just how important is avoiding pitfalls? The author explains: “In the best case, mistakes go unnoticed,” says Wirthwein. “The marketing fails to connect, so the audience ignores you and moves on. But in the worst case,” he adds, “a mistake can destroy a product or financially ruin an entire industry for decades to come.” Wirthwein says readers will discover a true-life example of just this type of marketing disaster in chapter six.

With wit and wisdom – plus dozens of pertinent examples – Wirthwein shares insights based on his 20+ years of experience running an ad agency that specializes in technical and scientific products. In that time, he has advised some of the world’s best known, most successful brands on how to market their innovations in the U.S. and across the globe. “To be truthful, it’s stuff that’s really hard to market,” says the author. “And the secrets of how to do it have never been written…until now.”

A List of Favorites from a Marketing Prof

From time to time we ask our customers and friends in marketing and market research the titles of their all-time favorite marketing books--the ones that stay on their shelves and that they consult. With the plethora of new marketing books available, it is surprising how many of their favorite books are "oldies." This is a list from Mark L. Renaghan, a retired associate dean and marketing professor at the Statler School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. If you'd like to submit your list of "favorites," send an email to doris@paramountbooks.com. Please make sure to tell us how you would like to be identified.

Most of these books are available from amazon.com.


1. Future Perfect by Stan Davis
2. Multivariate Data Analysis by Joseph Hair et al
3. Discovering the Soul of Service by Leonard Berry
4. Delivering Profitable Value by David Lanning
5. Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations by Gilbert Churchill

Tween and cell phone use

According to a new MediaPost article, pre-teens are more connected than ever before, thanks to a rise in mobile phone use.

The Nielsen Company released the findings of an in-depth study on the mobile media and cross-media behavior of U.S. tweens (ages 8-12). The report estimates that 35% of tweens own a mobile phone, 20% of tweens have used text messaging, and 21% of tweens have used ring & answer tones, the article said.

The "godfathers" of the tween market are Dave Siegel, Greg Livingston, and Tim Coffey of The Wonder Group whose groundbreaking book, The Great Tween Buying Machine, came out in 2001 and for the first time defined what it means to be a "tween" consumer. You can still buy copies of the original hardcover of this book from Paramount Market Publishing.

Based on their on-going research on kids and markets, the three co-founders of WonderGroup wrote The New SuperConsumer, Mom+Kid in 2006, defining the new relationship between moms and their kids and the growing influence of kids on family purchases.

One point that The New Super Consumer makes is how much more proficient tweens and teens are at multi-tasking than their parents are. With the rise of cell phone use and text messaging, this multitasking is increasing exponentially. Even walking down the street now is usually accompanied by some other activity, especially the use of the cell phone.

Pepper Miller on Black consumer value

Despite worrying statistics about the state of Black Americans, co-author Pepper Miller (What's Black About It?) says that there are other trends that are hopeful signs for the Black community. In an article in the Nov. 16 issue of Advertising Age, she cites three positive developments:

• A growing Black consciousness movement that is quiet but persistent led by Black mega churches and internet organizations such as colorofchange.org.
• The growing economic power of Black females.
• The emergence of "Thrivals," identified by Nat Irvin, "who are dictating a new future for themselves free from the history of victimization and oppression."

Miller is working on a new book about African Americans in the U.S., which I'm sure will contain further insights based on the market research of her firm, The Hunter Miller Group.

Dunkin' Donuts: The Inside Story

The Nov. 27th Morning Edition on NPR featured a story about Dunkin' Donuts new marketing campaign that pits it directly against Starbucks. The program interviewed the chief of strategy for Hill Holiday, the agency that created the new advertising campaigns.

What you didn't learn from the interview is revealed in Dona Vitale's book, Consumer Insights 2.0, which includes a detailed case study of how Dunkin' Donuts did its research and discovered how to differentiate itself from Starbucks and become a national brand.

Consumer Insights 2.0 tells readers how to set up a Consumer Insights department within a company and use its resources to develop new initiatives throughout an entire company. With the new attention to the Dunkin' Donuts campaigns which grew directly out of the work of the Consumer Insights department at Dunkin, other consumer companies may finally get the drift: that a marketing research department which serves a whole company has more power than having numerous departments and divisions do research on their own without integrating the findings.

Green Customer News launches

Local Companies Cooperate to Distribute News About Green Consumers

Ithaca, NY- Nov. 27, 2007 As consumers increase their consciousness about the impact of businesses on the environment, businesses are paying more attention to how to market their products to these more eco-conscious consumers.

To help marketers learn more about their potential “green” customers, Paramount Market Publishing, Inc. today launched a weekly electronic newsletter called GreenCustomerNews in cooperation with Syracuse-based Earthsense.

Earthsense has surveyed 30,000 U.S. adults, focusing on issues of environment and sustainability and their impact on people’s purchase decisions, voting behavior, attitudes toward companies, and personal product choices. The Earthsense Eco-Insights Survey integrates over 240 environmental, health and other databases to provide unique profiles of communities and consumer segments.

GreenCustomerNews uses data from the on-going surveys of Earthsense to help consumer marketers better understand the changing attitudes of U.S. customers on issues that affect the environment and how those changing attitudes affect purchase behavior.

Besides consumer demographics, the electronic version of GreenCustomerNews provides interactive links to resources and examples of the kinds of advertising and products that are resonating with American consumers. Subscribers may also print out a version of the newsletter to share with colleagues.
The challenge for companies in today's business environment is to capitalize efficiently on consumerism in a sustainable manner. Corporate social responsibility is no longer a buzzword. Common business terms such as “triple bottom line” and “balanced scorecard” reflect this shift in focus. According to Amy Hebard, PhD, president and founder of Earthsense, “Companies that focus on the ideals of people, planet, and profit as the three pillars of responsible business tell us that addressing social and environmental issues is not in conflict with their financial goals, and can be critical to long-term corporate success. But they are looking for smart data to help them prioritize and best address stakeholder concerns. Our data help them do exactly that.”

Doris Walsh, president of Paramount Market Publishing, added, “We saw this as an excellent opportunity to make sure that the data being collected by Earthsense is readily available to businesses who need it. By distributing the newsletter electronically, we are making our own effort to cut down on the use of natural resources while making timely and relevant information easily accessible to busy marketers.”
Click here for sample issue and subscription information for GreenCustomerNews.

Bob Berkman, author of The Art of Strategic Listening: Finding Market Intelligence on Blogs and Social Media speaks at conference

Bob Berkman, author of The Art of Strategic Listening: Finding Market Intelligence on Blogs and Social Media is going to speak at the 2008 Connecticut Library Association (CLA) Conference.

2008 CLA Conference

* Date: April 28 - 30, 2008
* Place: Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa
* The 117th Annual Conference will be held Monday, April 28 - Wednesday, April 30, 2008. Details will be posted when available!

www.ctlibraryassociation.org

When color isn't a good thing

Ever since newspapers have added color to their pages, it has become more difficult for older eyes (that's 50 and over and sometimes 40) to read many of the advertisements. The reason is that advertisers have gotten sucked into believing that if their ad has a colored background it will be more eyecatching.

The comics are especially bad offenders. If you love Doonesbury, it is frustrating not to be able to see the words of your favorite characters, but when those words are in tiny type, on gold, tan, or green backgrounds, they are really hard to read. And Doonesbury is certainly not the only offender.

One reason advertisers, comic strip artists, and others believe that type on color works is that they often look at the draft from a laser printer. The type from that printer will show up much clearer than on newsprint which absorbs the ink.

Most of the books on boomers that we publishing these days have a section that talks about the physical issues that begin to affect people as they pass into their 60s. Advertisers should be aware of these. Like it or not, they do have an effect on response rates. And twentysomething advertising designers aren't as tuned in as they should be.

For more on this, consult books like Advertising to Baby Boomers by Chuck Nyren, After Sixty, edited by Leslie Harris and Michelle Edelman, and Baby Boomers and Their Parents by George Moschis and Anil Mathur.

Finding a book close to home

Many times potential bookbuyers ask us whether there is a copy of a specific book in a library near them. For a long time, it was difficult to answer this question. Although many libraries buy directly from Paramount, even more libraries use services known to the industry as library jobbers. When we sell to these jobbers we have no idea who the end user will be.

The problem has been solved by the introduction of www.WorldCat.org. This website allows you to enter the name of a book, its ISBN, or author. Give the site your zip code and it will list the libraries that have the title, from the closest to you to the furthest away. It is also a good way to find out just how popular a book is with librarians. Soon you will be able to click from a link on www.paramountbooks.com to find which of our books are in which libraries worldwide.

Google Book Search provides the same information. Enter the title of a book that interests you and then click on the line that says, "Find this book in a library." You can find Google Book Search in the "Advanced Search" section of Google.

Obviously booksellers and publishers like Paramount like to sell directly to customers. But we also like our books to be read and used. If the library is your preference, use one of these handy tools to locate a book in a library near you. If there is no library near you with the title, don't hestitate to let your librarian know that you would like to be able to have the book.

Spanish language NETWORKS have doubled

Spanish language NETWORKS have doubled...

National Spanish-language broadcast networks
1992-1993 2
2006-2007 4

along with their AUDIENCE...

Combined average primetime audience of Hispanic viewers
1992-1993 2.4 million
2006-2007 4.1 million

and AD SPENDING

Combined average primetime audience of Hispanic viewers
2001 $1.8 billion
2006 $3.05 billion +

-Nielsen Monitor-Plus and Nielsen Media Relations

Not such a big market? Look beyond those numbers-
If you need to know the real size of this audience, what they're watching, and what they buy-you need Latinization by Cristina Benetiz:

page 72 . . .

Just prior to the 2006 Major League season, Angles owner Arte Moreno signed a lucrative contract with Fox Sports Net.

page 75 . . .

. . . the 2006 World Cup received major network coverage on ABC, ESPN, and Univision . . . a new 24-hour soccer channel, GolTV, features soccer teams from all of Latin America. GolTV has signed deals with many major U.S. cable carriers, and in 2006 signed a deal with DirecTV now reaching 7.5 million households.

page 102 . . .

. . . the 2005 Super Bowl -- the first time Toyota developed a bicultural, bilingual ad with Spanish and English dialogue. Since May 2004, Toyota has ranked number one in the Hispanic market.
Read more >>

PMP Direct Price: $24.95 Order now >>

Make sure your whole marketing, advertising, and sales team is on the same page
5-Pack Price: $99.00 Order now >>

Health insurance

The U.S. Census Bureau reported last week that the percentage of people without health insurance climbed to 15.8 percent in 2006, up from 15.3 percent in 2005. The number of people without health insurance increased to 47 million, an increase of 2 million during the past year.

We are wondering whether the growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S. is having an effect. About 34 percent of Hispanics do without health insurance, the highest of any ethnic group.

As our books, The Whole Enchilada and Marketing to American Latinos: A Guide to the In-Culture Approach, Part II explain, many Hispanics are used to self-medicating or having their moms give them over-the-counter drugs. Many drugs that are available only by prescription in the U.S. are available in Mexico without a doctor's order. In addition, a large proportion of the Mexican population lives close enough to the border that they can seek medical and dental care in Mexico. Since few U.S. health insurers will cover health care in Mexico, these residents may feel that health insurance is not useful.

A Los Angeles employer of several Hispanics tells us that given a choice between more wages and health insurance, her employees always prefer a wage hike. These are all people who are legally working in the U.S., but they prefer to go to Mexico for their health care.

It is possible we are in a period of transition where U.S. Hispanics need to learn to trust the U.S. health care system and U.S. healthcare providers need to employ more Spanish speakers in order to give Hispanics the level of comfort they need to use our system. It is also possible that U.S. health insurance companies need to make more of an effort to fashion policies that will meet the needs of Hispanics and then to market those policies more effectively.

Nielsen to Generate National Ratings for Both English -and Spanish Language Television from the Same Panel

A significant example of the corporate acceptance of the Latin influence on American culture is Nielsen Media Research's decision to combine its English and Spanish language television viewing panels. You can find the whole press release at the Nielsen Media Research Web site, but here are some excerpts.

New York, NY, August 27, 2007 – The Nielsen Company announced that beginning today it will produce all national Hispanic ratings through its National People Meter (NPM) panel, the same sample that is used to produce ratings for non-Hispanic networks. This will put national Spanish-language television on a level playing field with English-language television, providing a common ratings number for all national networks.

As a consequence of providing ratings from a single national sample for all television networks regardless of language, Nielsen will retire its separate National Hispanic People Meter (NHPM) panel, which has measured Hispanic households since 1992. This completes a transition that started in late 2005, when a number of Spanish language networks began to use ratings data from the NPM sample.

The growth of Hispanic television in recent years has resulted from the growing market power of the Hispanic population as a whole:

• The number of Hispanic viewers in the U.S. has risen from 22.2 million, or 9% of the total U.S. population, in 1992-93 to 38.9 million, or 14% of the total population in 2005-06.

• Ad spending on Spanish-language network and cable television has grown from approximately $1.8 billion in 2001 to more than $3.05 billion in 2006, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

• In the 1992-1993 television season, there were two national Spanish-language broadcast networks, attracting a combined average primetime audience of 2.4 million Hispanic viewers. In the 2006-2007 television season, there were four national Spanish-language broadcast networks with a combined average primetime audience of 4.1 million Hispanic viewers.

“By providing the marketplace with a single source of television ratings regardless of language, Nielsen will allow the television industry to evaluate both English and Spanish language television and audiences side-by-side,” said Sara Erichson, Executive Vice President, Nielsen Media Research North America. “This step is part of Nielsen’s commitment to continuously improve the quality and accuracy of its measurement and to ensure that our measurements reflect the growing diversity of the entire U.S. population.”

If you are interested in listening to some discussion on this topic, there was a report on NPR - Morning Edition

Media researcher Brad Adgate discusses the change and the growth of the Hispanic television market with Renee Montagne.

Source : NPR - Morning Edition

The Latinization of American food and lifestyle.

American culture has been through many transitions. Most Americans take pride in the fact that the United States is a "melting pot" that has adopted the influences of many different ethnic more 200-year history. We may say we are going to an Italian restaurant, but we certainly think of pizza and pasta as a stable of American cuisine.

Latinization is a buzz word right now, but as Cristina Benitez' book, Latinization, points out, Latino influences are being adopted so quickly in the U.S. that they will soon be mainstream culture. Latinization is simply the most recent transition of American culture.

This month shows many examples of this main stream adoption of the Latin influence.

1. The upscale epicurean magazine Gourmet devotes the September special issue to the exploration, taste, and celebration of Latino culture.
   
   The magazine showcases the voices and food-loving adventures of Latino writers Junot Diaz, who takes readers inside his Dominican New York, and Ana Menedez, who offers a tour of the Cuban culinary scene in Miami.
   
   
2. In the September issue of the magazine Every Day With Rachael Ray, the energetic talk show host introduces two new contributors, chef and author Daisy Martinez and interior designer and home improvement maven Evette Ríos, both of whom are Puerto Rican.
   
   
3. Cable's Food Network has ordered an additional 13 episodes of its daytime entertaining and food program Simply Delicioso, hosted by Colombia-born lifestyle aficionada Ingrid Hoffman. The show airs Saturdays on the cable food channel at 11:30 a.m. ET. She also serves as host of the Spanish-language show Delicioso on Galavisión/Univision and is considered to be the first TV host to have two Latino lifestyle programs in two languages airing on two cable networks. Hoffman's cookbook, Simply Deliciosio: A Collection of Everyday Recipes With a Latin Twist, is being published by Clarkson Potter/Random House and is scheduled for release in February 2008.

Celebrity: Who Needs It?

A recent Pew Research Survey found that 87 percent of the public says celebrity scandals receive too much news coverage. Moreover, they blame the news media, with 54 percent saying the news organizations give too much coverage to celebrities.

How did we get into this mess where the scandals associated with celebrity get so much attention and the good deeds that people do go uncovered? The public seems to blame cable and network news for most of the coverage, with internet news sites not too far behind.

We realized that much of this trend toward celebrity coverage started with the death of Princess Diana. The public couldn't get enough coverage, it seemed. But this was a young mother who was part of the British Royal Family and who, in her own right, had earned the respect of many people for the charities she supported. The news media apparently misinterpreted this interest to mean that every slut who was famous for being famous deserved such detailed coverage. Now, we can't get away from it.

Obviously, advertisers are supporting this coverage in the belief that they will earn eyeballs, but we think the tide is turning. Advertisers and their agencies need to think about whether they want to be associated with something that the public is learning to detest. If people associate your product with such demeaning news, does that make the product more attractive? Are there better ways to spend those advertising dollars that will elevate your product in the eyes of consumers?

It would be quite easy for a public that is getting sick to death of "the famous" and their infamous and silly scandals to turn off this coverage, simply by finding out which advertisers support it and sending them a message. No more!!

If the Pew study is representative (and we think it is), it's time for advertisers to link back to the thinking public and let the news and cable channels talk to themselves.

Where do new products come from?

We're working on a new book by Robert Berkman that discusses "social listening." It will help companies tap into conversations on the Internet to learn more about their customers, their industries, how their companies are perceived, and possibly find clues to new products.

Sometimes it seems like there can be no new products because everything has already been invented. But then you see an innovative product and realize that someone has been listening to customers and thinking about their needs. For example, we just ran across "Days Ago," a product that attaches to leftovers or other items so you know how long they have been sitting around and whether they are safe to consume.

It's a product that taps into consumer concerns about food safety. It's reuseable and reasonably priced.

Berkman's book, which will be available in a couple of months, will help new product developers, public relations firms, marketers and others to tap into the kinds of informal conversations, videos, and blogs on the Internet that give depth to understanding customers. It's chock full of information that will help you sort through the various tools available to find conversations and content appropriate for your research needs and and set up feeds to your computer so you are always in the loop. If you'd like to know when this book is available and receive special pricing, subscribe to the "What's New in Marketing" emails.

Another book that will help you think about the development of new products for kids is Marketing to the New SuperConsumer Mom+Kid. Seasoned new product developers, Dave Siegel, Greg Livingston, and Tim Coffey have included lots of tips for new product development as well as useful market research in this book. LaunchForce is a spin-off of their company, WonderGroup, and is a company you may want to talk with if you are working on developing products that appeal to kids and their moms.

Books on flash drives?

At Paramount, we are learning the flexibility of using flash drives to back up and to transmit manuscripts from writer to editor to designer. Since we are preparing most of our book files to be available as downloads, we wondered whether there is a market among librarians or corporate marketers for books on a flash drive.

It occurred to us that these could be useful for:

1. searches on key words and concepts
   
2. corporate marketers who are traveling and want to take a book with them for further research
3. libraries that may have a tattered copy of an older book that they would still like to keep in their collections; the pdf on a flash drive would make the book available in a downloadable version making it unnecessary to keep the book on the shelf
4. libraries that need more than one copy of a book because it is being assigned as supplemental reading
5. corporate libraries that need more than one copy of a book

So, we thought we'd put the question to our readers: If you could pay $99 and put any of up to 7 of our titles that you need on a flash drive, would you do it?

If we gathered together titles on like segments (baby boomers, kids, multicultural) or on like research techniques (moderating, for example), would you be interested in having these books on a flash drive?

We await your comments and suggestions. email Tim@paramountbooks.com

Email List Segmentation

What is email segmentation?

A segment is a portion of a database that has similar characteristics. Those characteristics are used to market in a relevant manner. Segmenting is vital to ensure that you are getting appropriate information to the appropriate audience.

In traditional marketing segmentation can be difficult and expensive. Most marketers resort to mailing to "segments" defined as people who subscribe to a certain trade magazine or who have ordered from a particular catalog. Most traditional marketers don't even try to segment their "house" lists because it is inefficient to mail in small quantities. However, if someone is receiving mail from you that is inappropriate or not relevant to their connection with your business then you run the very real risk of fatigue and disinterest. You do not want this. Segmenting your list gives you the direct connection to that audience with the information most relevant to them and makes a lot more sense when the delivery vehicle is email.

For small businesses it may still be difficult because you need to spend time analyzing your database and your customers' behavior. This takes time and thus costs money. It is however, a vital piece of the email marketing puzzle.

It has been found that open rates in email campaigns are higher when the list is smaller. In a study done by Morgan Stewart, Director of Strategic Services from ExactTarget, list size was an incredible predictor of both open and click-through response rates. Open and click-through rates were approximately 2.5 times higher for emails sent to fewer than 100 subscribers than for emails sent to 10,000 subscribers or more. *

Consider the following before sending your next email to your list.

1. Which subscribers should receive this message? Identify at least one group that should not receive this message. If you can't, you probably are not protecting your subscribers from irrelevant messages.
2. What information can we leverage to increase the relevance of this message? If you have collected information on the subscriber interests, make sure it's leveraged to drive dynamic content. Use demographic data to determine the right products, message, and offers to deliver.

* Source: Email Marketing by the Numbers by Chris Baggott.

Baby Boomers and Vacations

As baby boomers turn the corner to their sixties and head into retirement, most travel companies are trying to figure out how to target them. In her new book, Turning Silver Into Gold, Mary Furlong says that most boomers are eager to travel and they are looking for out-of-the ordinary experiences including adventure travel, educational travel, and luxury travel.

It's not surprising that Boomers want to travel. Cheryl Russell writes in the latest edition of American Consumers, the newsletter from New Strategist, that Americans have the least vacation days of any developed country. She points out that on Americans get an average of only 13 vacation days a year and they have 3.5 million square miles in the U.S. (besides the whole rest of the world) to explore.

Says Russell, " The Europeans must feel sorry for us. The British get 28 vacation days a year on average, the Germans 35, and the French 37. And they have a lot less territory to cover. Maybe it is time for a new quality-of-life statistic, the How Much of Your Country Have You Seen Indicator, calculated by dividing vacation days by square miles times 1 million. Higher is better. The French have 37 days a year to explore their 211,000 square miles. We have 13 days a year to explore 3.5 million square miles. The French indicator is a lofty 175.2. Ours is a measly 3.7. You can bet the French are much more familiar with their geography than we are with ours."

Many Boomers have worked since they were teenagers and want to finally have some fun. This could be a problem, even when they have time on their hands. In their new book, Baby Boomers and Their Parents, George Moschis and Anil Mathur, point out that some boomers will barely have enough money to stay overnight in the motel down the road, let alone travel extensively and expensively. Still, those who do have money enough are ready to hit the road and looking for new, fun options with which to enjoy retirement.

'Latinization' of the U.S. Transforming Business, Culture and Life Itself

New book illustrates how marketers, employers and others are learning to embrace the changes and capitalize on Latinos' growing influence

CHICAGO, July 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Most marketers, civic leaders,
academics and others who track the changing face of the United States are
well aware that at 44 million-plus, the Hispanic population is the largest
ethnic group in the U.S. and the fastest growing. A new book,"Latinization: How Latino Culture is Transforming the U.S.," (Paramount Market Publishing; $24.95; ISBN 978-0-9786602-5-3; 125 pages, hardcover) provides valuable insights into this mounting phenomenon. Latino purchasing power is estimated to reach $1.2 trillion in 2011, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth.

Author Cristina Benitez (http://www.lazoslatinos.com/mediaroom/cristina_benitez_bio.pdf) defines Latinization as a movement, a force that represents a series of Latino values and trends that are shaping contemporary American culture. It's a combination of factors from the 22 Spanish-speaking countries that are homelands to the Hispanic population of the U.S. These influences are as wide-ranging as Argentinean tango, dulce de leche desserts and the fast-growing popularity of Mexican cuisine.

In 1998, Benitez founded Lazos Latinos (http://www.lazoslatinos.com/intro/main.html), a Chicago-based strategic branding and advertising company that focuses on the Hispanic market. In 2005, she developed the concept of Latinization to help Fortune 500 companies and to develop Latino leadership empowerment. Benitez advises top-tier corporations and organizations, including Exelon, Kraft General Foods, General Electric, PepsiCo and Deloitte Consulting.

"Latinization" focuses on the positive influences Latinos exert on their new country, covering topics from culture to the high value Latinos place on family relationships. Using real-world examples, Benitez provides essential lessons about how to craft successful marketing messages and advises corporations on how to develop Latino leaders and create stronger relationships with Latino employees. Most importantly, readers of "Latinization" will enhance their understanding of the fast-growing Hispanic population: Latinos accounted for 36 percent of the 100 million people added to the U.S. population over the past four decades. Benitez's book illuminates Latino-influenced factors that impact everything from this population's purchasing habits (http://hortmgt.aem.cornell.edu/pdf/smart_marketing/cuellar7-06.pdf) to new product development and Internet usage. For example, tortilla and taco chip sales are growing at a rate 2.5 times faster than potato chip sales, according to a report compiled by AC Nielsen for the Tortilla Industry Association. Supermarket sales of tortillas are rising while white bread sales decline.

With a foreword by Henry Cisneros, "Latinization" also features the knowledge of 20 Latino experts offering lessons in their respective fields. "Latinization" can be ordered at http://www.paramountbooks.com or from online booksellers Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders. Review copies are available from Paramount at (888) 787-8100.

Image handling in Emails: What it really means

In my last post, I referred to the handling of images by "client emails." Client emails are the applications you use to read your email including Gmail, AOL, Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, and many many more.

A lot of the discussion about how different applications you use to read your emails handle images and the effect that has on the effectiveness of your email is not written in a way to help those who are less technical understand the impact. This post is designed to help explain to "non-techies" what all of this means.

The application you use to read your email displays images used for many things including site or email navigation (links to sections of a web site), to display an ad in a certain way i.e. controlling the font usage or the space around the ad.

It is usually a designer who wants to make sure an ad looks a particular way - font size, font color, photo of the product or person, and so forth. To accomplish this designers create images exactly the way they want them to look and then embed that into an email. See the Macy's example here. (middle of the page)

What do you mean by navigation? On the top of a web site or some emails, there are links to sections of a web site. Those links sometimes change when you run your mouse over them. Most of the time those are images.

Are my images of my office building, or office personnel for example affected by this? Yes, anything that is an image is affected.

Now that the definition of images is clearer, we move on to ALT tags.

Alt tags have been around since the beginning of the html code. The ALT tag refers to "Alternate" — some text added to the code to be displayed if the image is not displayed. This is an important consideration. With the default of most email applications set to NOT display images, this text is what appears instead (to complicate things more, some emails do not display the Alt tag). This Alt text can be used to encourage the receiver to load the images (usually done by pressing a "load images" button in the email application). With this in mind, go back to this post and see the examples of emails with the images off.

Hopefully this has helped clear up this previous post for more of you. Go ahead and re-read it.

Images off : Image Handling Tips for e-mail campaigns

Anna Billstram posts two interesting articles about image handling in emails.
Images Off: Unfortunately, It’s the First Impression and Review: 10 Emails with Images-Off.

She offers some tips. (Read both articles for more information)

Tips: How to Design For Images-Off
- Use of non-image HTML techniques, such as colored background tables and colored text.
- Enticing, clever alt-tags that induce viewers to select “images on”
- Reducing the number of images above the fold
- Not relying on one large image for your email
- For tabbed headers and menu header, using tables and text instead of small images

Tips On How to Get Them to Turn On Images

* Ask your customer to whitelist you (you already probably do this!)
* Entice them with subject line or alt-text to view images. “Special offer in this image- select images-on” button at the top of their email. “Great offer here- just click ‘view images!’
* Do appropriate alt-text for your email. Use the usual copywriting rules and style guides.
* Make the email look good even with images off (see last post, “Review: 10 Emails With Images-Off” for good, and bad, examples)
* Move the design focus away from images for this first email. Use HTML in addition to images, but not solely images.
* Don’t use spacer images for layout. Use CSS to position text.

This post at Campaign Monitor, gives detailed information on how many different email clients handle alt text in e-mails.

This is interesting and valuable reading. There are screen shots from all the em-mail clients reviewed.

The Email Open Rate Metric

The open rate for emails is the most cited metric in email marketing. It is becoming, however, a hotly discussed metric. The discussion mainly falls on the definition of the open rate, as well as the ability to confirm the validity of the open rate however it is defined.

While definitions vary slightly, the definition most cited and accepted is the number of individuals who open an e-mail divided by the net number of emails delivered after all the bounces are subtracted.

This seems simple enough, except that we also need to define when an email is opened. An "open" is impossible to track in a text only email. An open is tracked in an html email when the receiving computer calls for a graphic that is within the e-mail. As Internet service providers, corporate IT departments, and email client applications increasingly block images by default, some mail is getting opened and is not being registered as an open.

Further, email client applications are changing rapidly. Many applications have a preview pane to view an email. This preview pane can collect the images, thus register that email as an open, even if the end user is simply scrolling through his list of emails. That is to say, the receiver may have looked at the email or he may have scrolled right over the email without a pause. Also, with more people carrying Blackberrys, iPhones, and other personal digital assistants, the accuracy of the open definition is even more in question.

The discussion then becomes, is this open rate metric a valid tool. I believe it is. While not 100 percent accurate, it does give valuable insight into the effect of the email campaign. In the text- only days it was extremely difficult to gauge email marketing effectiveness. Using this metric with other statistical analysis (web traffic statistics, landing page statistics, click through rates) will continue to give meaningful information to your email marketing team.

Email Marketing Subject Line; The Best and Worst.

Emailing is such a new field that there is little data to help purveyors of e-commerce determine the best practices. With all the "rules" about words that shouldn't be included in subject lines because they will trigger spam filters, it is hard to know what subject lines will pass the test and cause the reader to want to open the email. I found an analysis by MailChimp.com to be useful.

The common thread among the subject lines that have the best open rates, according to MailChimp is the use of a company name that actually identifies the source of the email.
Perhaps this gives recipients some level of comfort that the mail is from someone they know, or with whom they have a business relationship. These subject lines seem boring.

However, go to the link below to see the Worst subject lines and you will notice that they are more "spam like," and like some wording you might see in a print advertisement for a diet pill or a big car sale. "Big savings!" MailChimp notes that most people get so much spam in their mailboxes that they ignore any subject line that even looks like it could be spam.

The 4 Cs of Truth in Communications by Isabelle Albanese includes a chapter on email that is probably worth a look. One way to make sure your subject line attracts your customers is to make sure it meets the expectations of the potential customer. If the customer opted in for "special promotional deals," then telling her that a discount coupon is in the email may be a good option. If, on the other hand, the customer is expecting to get a "newsletter" with tips about how to use your product or service more efficiently, trumpeting a discounted offer in the subject line probably won't work.

Here are the subject lines that MailChimp.com found worked best.

According to MailChimp.com,

Best Open Rates (60%-87%)

1. [COMPANYNAME] Sales & Marketing Newsletter
2. Eye on the [COMPANYNAME] Update (Oct 31 - Nov 4)
3. [COMPANYNAME] Staff Shirts & Photos
4. [COMPANYNAME] May 2005 News Bulletin!
5. [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter - February 2006
6. [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter - January 2006 [ *|FNAME|* *|LNAME|* ]
7. [COMPANYNAME] and [COMPANYNAME] Invites You!
8. Happy Holidays from [COMPANYNAME]
9. ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] Staff!
10. ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] West Staff!!
11. Invitation from [COMPANYNAME]
12. [COMPANYNAME] Jan/Feb 2006 Newsletter
13. Website news - Issue 3
14. Upcoming Events at [COMPANYNAME]
15. [COMPANYNAME] Councils: Letter of Interest
16. [COMPANYNAME] Coffee Exchange - Post-Katrina Update
17. We're Throwing a Party
18. October 2005 Newsletter
19. [COMPANYNAME]: 02.10.06
20. [COMPANYNAME] Racing Newsletter


Worst Open Rates (1%-14%) See their post for the worst Subject Lines.

* Study only included campaigns sent to at least 100 recipients.

What does 4i4l mean?

If you market to kids and moms these days (and who doesn't?), you should subscribe to the free e-newsletter published by WonderGroup. The newsletter chronicles new trends among youth and highlights new product and advertising campaigns and with a name change to SuperConsumer University, it will be refocused on the mom and kid dynamic. You can subscribe at the url above or click here.

Principals of WonderGroup are David Siegel, Tim Coffey, and Greg Livingston. They are also the authors of two of Paramount Market Publishing's bestselling books. The Great Tween Buying Machine and their most recent book, Marketing to the New SuperConsumer Mom+Kid.

Mom and kid (4i4l--4 eyes, 4 legs) are a new buying powerhouse with moms giving ever more consideration to products their kids favor. In Marketing to the New SuperConsumer, the authors note that moms even ask their kids (boys and girls) to help them choose their outfits and hair styles.

In its latest issue, WonderGroup reports on family mealtime and says that reports of its rebirth may be overrated. Here's a partial quote from the latest newsletter, written by WonderGroup president, Dave Siegel.

"WonderGroup used its proprietary mom-u-mentary video research to get a bird's-eye view of today’s family dinner to see for itself and its clients just what these dinners are really like.

"What we found was somewhat troubling…even if the family dinner may, in some respect, be alive…in many occaisions, it sure isn’t well! Here’s just some of what we observed:

"The family dinner hour has become the family dinner 15 minutes! And during this time the whole family is actually sitting down together for only about 8 minutes! Family members are often leaving the table to answer a phone, get something more out of the fridge, take bathroom breaks and more.

"There are constant interruptions. Cell phones ring, TVs blast, kids scream. Often, when the family does sit together, there is woefully little dialogue, bonding and/or socializing taking place.

"The TV is often on. In fact, many times the TV is actually serving as the source for conversation or the reason to eat together!

"There are many implications that can be drawn from these dinnertime observations: new products that might help mom ensure that all food is easily ready and accessible during those precious 15 minutes of family time; conversation starters or simple games to be played and talked over together during dinner; even new ways to incorporate the TV into conversations... perhaps even a family review of commercials! Think about it!"

For more from the latest newsletter, go to www.wondergroup.com.

Whatever happened to American Demographics?

A frequent question to Jim Madden and myself, both of whom worked at American Demographics, is whatever happened to the magazine. The short answer is that it was sold to Advertising Age and is now incorporated into that magazine and its website.

For those not in the know, American Demographics magazine was founded in 1979 by Peter Francese, to help planners and marketers better understand the U.S. Census that would be taken in 1980 and to use the data from it in their work. This was an era when massive changes in technology were making it easier to analyze and use data and to make it available much more quickly.

The magazine at first had the feel of an academic journal, but under the guidance of Bryant Robey, the first editor, it quickly turned into a readable monthly loaded with what we used to call "distant early warnings" about trends. One loyal reader told me just a year or so ago how much he missed the magazine. "With every issue, I'd be wandering into other people's offices and saying, 'Did you know this?' It was a wonderful compendium of data and insights."

For many years it boasted signature covers illustrated by Tom Parker. Readers often requested copies of the covers for their offices.

The magazine was purchased by Dow Jones, Inc. in 1981 and sold several times before being acquired by Crain's Advertising Age in the first part of this decade.

Several former staffers remain in the Ithaca area and in publishing. Penelope Wickham who was the marketing director founded New Strategist Publications, which publishes reference books based primarily on government and other survey data, including the U.S. Census. The books are ably edited by Cheryl Russell. We have commended their American Consumer newsletter to you before and continue to do so.

Jim Madden and I founded Paramount Market Publishing, Inc. in 1999 to carry on the magazine's book publishing program. I was publisher of the magazine from 1988 to 1990, after having been an editor. Jim was associate publisher in charge of the book publishing program.

Others still in the area and working in research, writing, or publishing include Diane Crispell, Martha Farnsworth Riche, Brad Edmondson, Carol Terrizzi, and Caroline Arthur.

What? An ad agency doesn't want my business?

Chuck Nyren is a savvy copywriter who believes that many advertising agencies are missing the boat by not employing baby boomer copywriters and designers at their agencies. However, he also lays some of the onus for making sure that advertisements are age-appropriate at the doorstep of the client. While he encourages clients to consider the services of small-to-medium-sized agencies, he says there are some reasons why these agencies may not accept a client. These are just some of the insights you will find in Chuck's book, Advertising to Baby Boomers.

In most cases, small-to-medium-sized advertising agencies want you as a client. Some good reasons why they may not accept you:

• If a conflict of interest exists, (an account with a product or
service similar to yours) an ethical agency will not handle
you. However, because they are small or mid-sized, the
chance of this is slim.

• In good times, some smaller agencies overextend themselves.
Rarely do they turn away business, but it does happen.

• Some agencies do not like to handle products they believe
to be harmful. A few might not handle liquor, wine, or
beer. Others are environmentally conscious.

• Agencies often turn down political campaigns for (you
guessed it) political reasons, or because they do not want to
alienate their clients. (If you were a Republican, would you
be thrilled about your agency handling a Democratic
campaign? And vice-versa.)

• More often than not, small to mid-sized agency owners are
very involved with their clients. Some only want to handle
a manageable number of accounts. Give them credit for
honesty and integrity.

• A few agencies think of themselves as specialists. For
example, some agencies specialize in the health industry.
They may handle a few non-health, but related products and
services (for example, insurance). But if you walk in with a
revolutionary new egg beater or a reversible, edible necktie,
they might just tell you,“We don’t really know much about
this type of product, don’t know how to advertise and brand
it, so you would be better off with another agency.” Again,
give them credit for honesty and integrity.

Two queasy reasons why they may not want you for a client:

• An agency might consider your company or product or
service unworthy to be in their stable. Every industry has
snooty companies.

• Related to the above, they may not want to handle a specific target market
because they believe it will reflect poorly on their agency.
Along with Baby Boomers and their elders, some agencies do not want to target ethnic groups, religious groups, or certain economic groups.

2050 is already here

We just came back from a Hispanic marketing conference in Los Angeles. Most the attendees were seasoned Hispanic marketers and it was amazing to hear them say that many firms still don't have their act together when it comes to marketing to Hispanics, let alone other ethnic groups. One of the chairpersons, Armando Martin, pointed out that in the top 20 markets in the United States, all are already 50 percent or more ethnic, meaning that more than 50 percent of their residents are Hispanic, Black, or Asian. Yet most retailers in these markets, which probably account for more than 50 percent of their sales, are still targeting "white guys" as their main audience.

Many marketers think that they don't have to worry about targeting Hispanics, Blacks, or Asians until at least 2050 when these groups are projected to be a larger share of the population. But in the largest markets in the United States, 2050 is already here. If you aren't looking at your markets city by city, you should be. One excellent source is available from Paramount. It's called U.S. Diversity Markets Report, 2006. It is released every two years, so the next edition will be available early in 2008. But if the top 20 markets are important to you, don't wait.

One PMP author, Isabel Valdes, previewed her new book, which will be out in early October. In this new volume, Ms. Valdes takes a detailed look at Hispanics by generation and length of time in the United States. To learn more about What's New in Marketing, Sign up for our Email Newsletter and you will receive updates on new books, release dates, and special pricing.

Sign up for our Free Email Newsletter

Confusion about Baby Boomers

A total of 76 million Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. The peak of births was in 1957, hence the news that there is one person in the U.S. turning 50 every 8 seconds. That is true for 2007, but it won't go on forever. And we are hearing a lot of misinformation these days about the baby boom.

Cheryl Russell, editorial director of New Strategist Publications and considered the guru of data about the baby boom generation, says that the baby boom peaked with 78 million people in 2005, having added 2 million people plus from immigration. Since most people immigrate when they are in their twenties and thirties, the baby boom was gaining about 200,000 people a year during the 1980s and 1990s. Now that boomers are aged 43 to 61, there are fewer immigrants in their age group to add to their numbers. Add to that the fact that there are about 223,000 deaths among baby boomers each year and rising, the baby boom cohort is beginning to shrink. Expect the number of deaths to grow by about 10 percent a year. In short, Boomers have reached the tipping point in growth and now their cohort is beginning to shrink.

A radio news story the other day said the number of baby boomers is increasing and would shortly reach 80 million. That's just plain wrong. Baby boomers are a strong consumer group for many products and services. But don't let anyone tell you that their numbers are growing stronger.

Believe it or not, some time in the next decade they will be outnumbered by the Millennial Generation as immigrants add to the population in that cohort.

Sustained thought

We see a lot of book proposals that read more like PowerPoint presentations. It's not surprising. It is so easy to create a presentation these days and if it's good and has an interesting point of view or new insights, someone in the audience is bound to say, "You should write a book."

However, a few lines of text, some photos, and a few charts aren't really enough to create a book with legs. And, whatever you think about books, the really great ones have legs. They are selling from a publisher's backlist for many years after they are written. A presentation, on the other hand, is fleeting. There is no sustained thought, working through the arguments and making a case for the insights.

We at Paramount Market Publishing, Inc. think a good business book should contain wisdom and insights from the trenches. That is why most of our authors are in their forties and fifties and have been working in their fields of marketing and market research for a minimum of 15 or 20 years.

They can share antecdotes backed up with research and facts. They can write with confidence about their topics and they know the difference between a trend and a fad. Their thoughts are sustained because their knowledge is deep. Their books will be in the libraries of marketers for many years to come. That's why our slogan is "Practical Books for Smart Marketers."

Making you think

In my last comment I referred to the work of Tom Asacker, one of our favorite authors at Paramount Market Publishing. Today I got another thought-provoking article from him about the use of the word "authentic," which seems to be the buzz word of the year. Unlike bloggers who are writing just to talk to themselves, Tom often shares thoughts that he has been sorting through for a long time. Hence, the name of his book and website, A Clear Eye. You can sign up to receive his occasional thoughts. It is absolutely free, well-written, and always thought provoking. Before you use the word authentic again, hit this link and you may never use the word again.

A Clear Eye for Branding Translates Well

Tom Asacker's book, A Clear Eye for Branding, is now available in Korean and in an English edition in India. If you enjoyed his book, you will find more of his wisdom and insight at his website www.acleareye.com. If you have never seen him present, you are in for a treat. Just go to his website and click on videos of some of his presentations. Tom is one of the best thinkers around when it comes to consumer behavior and marketing strategy. Paramount Market Publishing will have a new book from him in 2008.

Award-winning Author at Paramount Books

Pepper Miller, author of What's Black About It has been honored with the 2007 MAXX award as Research Executive of the Year by Target Market News.

MAXX stands for Marketing to African Americans with Excellence. The awards program annually recognizes the contributions, innovations and exceptional performance of African American professionals in the fields of marketing, advertising, media and consumer research. Her book, What's Black About It from Paramount Market Publishng and co-authored with Herb Kemp (2005), was the first in many years to explain why the importance of the African American market in the United States and how African American consumers differ from their white counterparts.

Miller, president of the Hunter-Miller Group, joins the select group that includes Eugene Morris, chairman and ceo of E. Morris Communications (Advertising Executive of the Year); Catherine L. Hughes and Alfred L. Liggins III, both of Radio One who were named media executives of the year, Gwen Kelly, senior marketing manager, African American Initiatives at Wal-Mart (marketing executive of the year); Michelle Flowers, president and ceo of Flowers Communications Group (public relations executive of the year), and Carol H. Williams, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Carol H. Williams Advertising, who was given the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The honorees were selected by the editors, writers and contributors of Target Market News, and are considered on the basis of the longevity of their careers, their advocacy of American American marketing, and the professional accomplishments that distinguish them within the industry.

”We are especially honored to give well-deserved recognition to these professionals for being champions for the African American consumer market” said Target Market News president and publisher, Ken Smikle.

“Through their persistent pursuit of excellence, they have been influential in setting benchmarks for all those doing business with African American consumers,” said Smikle “We encourage the entire industry to join us in celebrating our honorees for their unique accomplishments in elevating the field of African American marketing and media.”

Candidates were considered for recognition on the basis of being African American executives with distinctive careers, and who, throughout the course of their professional careers, have endeavored to promote greater understanding of, growth of, and sensitivity toward, the African American consumer market.

The honorees for the second annual MAAX Awards will be feted on July 2, 2007 at an awards dinner during the Eighth Annual Black Consumer Research and Advertising Summit. The event, hosted by Target Market News at the Chicago Wyndham Hotel, is the nation’s largest annual gathering of African American marketing, media and research professionals.

Paramount congratulates Pepper Miller on her achievement and looks forward to publication of her next book in 2008.

Moral compass needed more than ever

A couple of years ago we published a book called A Knights Code of Business: How to Achieve Character and Competence in the Corporate World Its intent was to help employees and employers navigate the ethical and personal issues that arise in the corporate world. Author Gene DelVecchio laid out a series of scenarios that would help determine right from wrong. He did it with a sense of humor assisted by his illustrator, Roderick Fong. The book bombed. Nobody, it seems, wanted to know about how to approach sensitive issues in the workplace.

Lately, however, we are feeling like this book is more needed than ever. We are seeing more and more "shading" of right and wrong by people who should be leading the country with their integrity. Take Paul Wolfowitz. If he had followed the dictums of A Knight's Code, he would still be president of The World Bank. Says Del Vecchio in a chapter on indecency, "Appearances are truths." In other words, as our esteemed President would say, if people believed there was favoritism in Wolfowitz's treatment of his girlfriend, there was. It doesn't matter whether he tried to deal with it in an ethical way. Following Del Vecchio's advice, his girlfriend would have been gone from The World Bank before he ever arrived or he wouldn't have taken the job.

And then there is Alberto Gonzales, pressuring former Attorney General John Ashcroft, as he lay in his hospital bed, to sign off on an illegal wiretaping program. Unethical? Sure.

Maybe these folks don't have time to read, but they should. More than ever, this country needs people who know right from wrong, truth from lies, and who value their integrity more than their paycheck and ego.

Beware the unreadable business card!

Recently we’ve had occasion to look at dozens of business cards and it is amazing how bad some of them are. You would think that a business card should be highly legible and allow people to immediately be able to use the contact information (phone, email, street address.) Yet you would be amazed how often the contact information is in tiny, very light gray type, whereas the name of the business card owner is very large in dark type. Sometimes there is a photo of the owner or an absurdly large logo taking up most of the space on the card. Baby Boomers are now all aged 40 and older, just the time when the eyes have a harder time seeing small, light type. They are also the majority of the workforce and certainly the majority of folks exchanging business cards at conferences and other events. Take an objective look at your business card. If your contact information isn’t accessible, go for a new design.

Millenials and Pop Culture

Entertainment companies of all kinds continue to seek the Holy Grail--young people between the ages of 18 and 29 who are the trendsetters in determining what is and is not popular culture. Millennials and Pop Culture, a new book by generational experts William Strauss and Neil Howe explores the reasons that Millennials, people born between 1982 and the present, have become turned off by the entertainment establishment and makes recommendations for ways the entertainment giants will have to change if they are going to attract this generation.


One reason this market is so important--in addition to its reputation as trendsetters--is that it is 80 million strong, even bigger than the baby boom generation. Its spending power isn't as deep as the boomers, of course, because these kids are just entering their earning years, but their influence over the spending of their parents and grandparents is great.


Strauss and Howe suggest four strategies for dealing with this generation:
Tell stories in an optimistic framework. Millennials are a "can-do" generation that believes they can sold problems. They are confident as a group and believe they will make a contribution to a better world.
Craft stories about ambitious young women. The new attitudes of young women may be key to this generation.
Craft stories with a new male style. While the baby boom generation wrings its hands about what is happening to young men, these very same young men are creating a new style for themselves. They are ridding themselves of many of the stereotypes that have held them back and accepting the fact that it is okay to adopt some new behaviors that don't emphasize traditional masculine values.
Treat Millennials as active users of culture, not just passive viewers. With all the electronic tools available to this generation, it was inevitable that they would make music, films, games, and other forms of entertainment, not just wait for someone else to do.