Fern Mallis, widely credited with creating New York “Fashion Week” and former VP of Marketing at IMG, discusses marketing in the fashion industry.

Fern Mallis was interviewed by Green Buzz Agency after a panel she led on Social Media and Marketing at Afingo’s “Behind the Seams.” Presented at Manhattan’s world-famous Fashion Institute of Technology, “Behind The Seams” saw 30 top designers, apparel manufacturing insiders, head buyers of top retail chains, editors, and celebrity tastemakers to offer wisdom, opinions, and tips to a diverse audience of fashion fans.

The Green Buzz Agency Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people   We are the leader in corporate, web, and online video production services in Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, and NYC!

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A Guest Blog Post by Jennifer Schaus, Principal of Jennifer Schaus & Associates, Washington, DC

Marketing any product or service requires understanding your buyer; the what, the who, where, when, how and why.  Marketing to the government is the same.  The Federal Government is the worlds LARGEST buyer, spending over $400 Billion dollars annually on anything from armored vehicles to pens and pencils to socks.

The WHAT

The Federal Government buys anything from armored vehicles to socks and pens and pencils.  In addition to products, they also buy services ranging from IT to HVAC and construction.  The key component in your offering is to ensure you have a solution that fits the needs and budget of the government.

The WHO

There are usually several players involved in the buying process.  This will usually include several individuals such as a Program Manager and a Contracting Officer (those who sign off and approve the purchase).

The WHERE

Although Washington, DC is the hub of the Federal Government, much of what happens here is policy related.  Major and minor purchases take place both in Washington and at various government locations around the country and world.  These locations can be military bases or field offices for The FBI or The Department of Agriculture.  This information is public and therefore spending some time to build relationships within your local government community will be advantageous to your sales process.

The WHEN

The Federal Government fiscal year runs from October 1^st to September 31^st.  Every agency has a publically available budget information as well as details on historical purchases.  Because of a use-it-or-lose-it process, the federal 4^th quarter tends to see great spikes in purchases.  The 1^st quarter can tend to be slow due to budgets being approved (“Continuing Resolution”).

The Green Buzz Agency Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people   We are the leader in corporate, web, and online video production services in Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, and NYC!

The HOW

The government is a slow buyer.  They tend to be risk-adverse.  Anything you can do to make the buying process easier for them, the more likely they are to buy from you.  The government can purchase using p-cards (procurement cards) most of which have spending limits at $3k.  They can purchase directly from you using a competitive bid system, sole sourcing your solution &/or through contract vehicles such as the GSA Schedule, the VA Schedule, etc.  These contract vehicles usually have completed the vetting process and established your “best” pricing upfront, thus eliminating paperwork and time on the buyers side.

The WHY

The government tends to be reactive rather than proactive and this is a simple fact.  Most of what they buy is in response to a crisis or great need and these are usually the high-dollar purchases.  For example, as a reaction to 9/11, there was a tremendous increase in the government purchasing security systems – products and services.  All agencies have a website stating their mission.  Using this available data to conduct research and understanding your customer will help you make a more effective and tailored marketing pitch.

Additionally The Small Business Administration has set-aside goals for contracts.  They set levels and disperse grades at the end of the fiscal year to every agency based on meeting (or not) certain goals.  You can use the grades to determine which agency received poor marks and back into targeting them (if you meet one of the small business designations).  These goals can range from awarding contracts to woman-owned businesses, HUB-zone businesses, Veteran-owned, disabled, 8a, etc.  If your firm holds any of these formal designations, you become more attractive to the buyer.

Resources Available

Various resources are available both for purchase (from commercial companies who specialize in B2G) and gratis (government websites).  Carroll Publishing, FedSources, Input (now Deltek), Leadership Directories are examples of commercial firms, data aggregators, who provide marketing list of government buyers as well as some value-added data on solicitations and agency intel.  FedBizOps and FPDS are examples of government websites that house data on solicitations, budgets, past and future.  PTAC offices are also available and useful to those who are just beginning in the B2G sector.

For more information on any of the above services, please contact Jennifer Schaus at JSchaus@JenniferSchaus.com

]]> http://www.greenbuzzagency.com/effective-marketing-to-the-federal-government/feed 0 http://www.greenbuzzagency.com/real-time-marketing-for-business-growth http://www.greenbuzzagency.com/real-time-marketing-for-business-growth#comments Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:08:45 +0000 admin http://www.greenbuzzagency.com/?p=1482

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This is a book excerpt from our friends at FT Press. This excerpt is taken from Real-Time Marketing for Business Growth: How to Use Social Media, Measure Marketing, and Create a Culture of Execution by Monique Reece.

Purpose-Driven Companies Make Higher Profits

If you want higher profits, have a purpose. Writing this section of your plan will increase profits while also creating a business that is more fun and meaningful for you, your employees, and your customers. Companies that clearly define their mission, vision, and guiding principles, and communicate this consistently across the organization, have significantly higher profit per employee than companies who perform poorly in this area.¹ Success Profiles, a performance management company, studied 600 businesses and found that the average profit per employee in the survey increased from $7,802 per employee to $27,401 in companies that make this a best practice in their organization.

If you think things like mission, vision, values, goals, culture, and company purpose are merely “soft,” nice-to-have attributes for a business, this fact alone should change your mind.

As the leader driving the development of this important effort, you have the opportunity to create the experience people have with your company. If you are the company founder, you will develop the mission, vision, values, and goals to inspire your employees. If you are a marketing or strategic planning executive, you will have the opportunity to drive this process and communicate the messages in unique and creative ways so they are understood and integrated into the company culture. You will facilitate this important assignment and communicate the messages in your internal company brand campaign. As you will learn in the chapters that follow, an internal brand campaign is as important as your external campaigns because it inspires the actions and behaviors that ultimately become part of your brand.

The Green Buzz Agency Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people   Our company is the leader in corporate, web, and online video production services to Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, and NYC!

We will explore several examples of companies that have done an exceptional job of defining their purpose. We will also look at a few special companies that have taken the road less traveled to create a company where company purpose is THE distinct competitive advantage for their company. Author Jim Collins defines the characteristics of companies like this in his book Good to Great. CEOs like Tony Hsieh of Zappos and Kimberly Jordon of New Belgium Brewery run companies powered by purpose.

Create Raving Fans

While hundreds of companies are beginning to embrace the concept of a purpose-driven organization, these companies tend to be the exception, rather than the rule. I find this surprising given the fact that not only are these companies adored by their employees and customers, but they also deliver consistent profitability and return to their shareholders. Perhaps I am oversimplifying this concept, but when you have a choice to run a great company versus a mediocre company, why not create a great company? Not only will you have more fun; but you will create loyal employees and customers who are “Raving Fans.” ²

Raving Fans, the title of a book coauthored by Ken Blanchard, describes customers who believe so much in a company’s people and products that they actually become a part of the sales force. The way to create customers who are raving fans is to first treat your employees with great care and respect. If you do this, they in turn will care for customers. The result of creating raving fan customers, being the employer of choice, and the investment of choice is a “triple bottom line.” As Blanchard is famous for saying, “Profit is the applause you get for taking care of your customers and creating a motivating environment for your people.”³

Blanchard not only writes about companies with extraordinary purpose, he runs a company that lives by these principles every day. As Chief Spiritual Officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies, Ken Blanchard’s role is to lead others at a higher level. He not only does this in his organization, but he also teaches other companies to embrace this concept. If you don’t think this concept is important, especially in tough economic times, read on to see how Blanchard handled a difficult choice in our last recession during the period of time immediately following the 9/11 tragedy.

This is a book excerpt from our friends at Pearson Education. Each excerpt will be taken from one of Pearson’s excellent Marketing titles. This is our second excerpt from Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site, 2nd Edition by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt from Que Publishing.

Search Marketing Is Big Business

You can tell a new marketing technique is taking off by noticing the number of consultants who
hang out their shingles to help you do it! Several kinds of firms are involved in search marketing:

• Search consultants. A brand new kind of consultancy has sprung up in the past several
years, variously known as SEO consultants or SEM consultants. These new firms, led by
iProspect, OneupWeb, and Global Strategies International, handle search marketing and
nothing else.

• Traditional advertising agencies. At the other end of the spectrum are the old-line adver-
tising agencies that have been around for years. Just as firms such as Young & Rubicam
and Ogilvy & Mather handle TV, radio, and print advertising, in recent years they have
taken on Web advertising. Starting with banner ads, they have now moved into search
marketing, too. Some ad agencies handle paid search only, whereas others offer SEO
consulting for organic search, too.

• Interactive advertising agencies. In between the two extremes, interactive agencies
handle anything online, ranging from search marketing to banner ads to e-mail cam-
paigns. Sometimes these agencies are subsidiaries of the traditional ad agencies, such
as OgilvyInteractive, whereas others, such as Avenue A | Razorfish, are smaller, inde-
pendent firms.

All of these firms are competing for your growing interactive marketing budget—projected
to be 9 percent of all advertising spending by 2011. Your organization might already work with
one of these companies, or might be looking for a search marketing partner. What is most impor-
tant at this point is your interest in allocating part of your marketing budget to search, because
you will soon see that achieving success is rather challenging.

The Green Buzz Agency Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people   Our company is the leader in corporate, web, and online video production services to Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, and NYC!

The Challenge of Search Success

Now that you know the basics of Web search, and you know how big a marketing opportunity it
is, it must be time for a reality check: Search marketing is not easy to do.
And, unlike most marketing efforts, the bigger you are, the harder it is. We know that in
marketing, size has inherent advantages. The bigger the budget, the more advertising you can
buy, the more free media coverage you can coax, the better a public relations person you can hire,
and on and on. But search marketing is different.
Companies with well-known brand names assume it is easy for their Web site to rank
highly in search results, but John Tawadros (of search marketing firm iProspect) explains that
“the field is more equal. Just because you’re a big name doesn’t mean much to the search
engines.” In fact, well-known brands have lots of competition for search rankings, both from their
competitors and from their allies—many resellers rank highly for well-known brands. Amazon
may rank well when a searcher searches for “sony dvd player”—possibly even higher than
Sony’s Web site.
It is actually easier in some ways for small Web sites to succeed in search marketing than
large ones. For instance, fewer people need to know what to do, and the whole Web site is man-
aged one way by one team. As soon as your site is large enough that you hear some telltale con-
versations about separating your team or even your site into multiple parts, then search marketing
has just gotten tougher:

• We need multiple teams of specialists. “The copy writers and the HTML coders really
should be in different departments. . . .”

• We need multiple product sites. “Each product line should really run its own separate
Web site. . . .”

• We need multiple audiences. “We should really have different user experiences for con-
sumers than for our business customers. . . .”

• We need multiple countries. “It is really easier for everyone if the Canada and the U.S.
sites are separate. . . .”

• We need multiple technologies. “We decided to keep using the Apache server for the mar-
keting information, but we are putting all of the commerce functions into WebSphere®. . . .”

“Green Buzz Agency staff and their finished product was of the highest professional quality. Our project requests were not only respected and delivered but also met with other, more expansive, suggestions and ideas. Their experience and dedication to their work was highly evident in our final project, which exceeded our original concept.”

Lisa Nichols, Director, International Programs: American Seed Trade Association

So youʼve been doing the local open-mic night circuit for a while now, youʼve just recorded
your first EP or album and are ready to start getting the word out about your brand. Hereʼs
a quick music marketing check-list to help you get on your way:

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1. Define your brand – Ensure you branding is clear, consistent and professional across all
your online and offline platforms. Define your identity who/where you target
audience are.  Go to your fans, donʼt expect them to come to you.
2. Collect “currency” – Email addresses, mobile numbers and zip codes are the new
currency of the music industry. Email is one the most effective direct marketing
channels to fans. Make sure you are collecting fan data wherever you are both online
and offline.  Two great newsletter services are mailchimp.com or fanbridge.com
3. Create a website – having your own website instantly create a professional brand. It
also acts as a uniting hub for all your other social networking sites. Remember, if
Myspace or Facebook died tomorrow, all your fan data would be lost. Having a website
ensure you are in total control of your brand and fan data. If you canʼt afford a website
yet, then just get a holding page with a newsletter sign-up on it and links to your social
networking sites.
4. Prioritize quality over quantity – Prioritize connecting with fans one by one over
applications that “autobot” fans onto your social networking sites. This will inspire
loyalty in your fan base and will ultimately be the most effective way in turning potential
fans into super fans.

The Green Buzz Agency Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people   Our company is the leader in corporate, web, and online video production services to Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, and NYC!

5. Be media ready – Ensure you have both physical and digital copies of your music
available, and a biography and/or press release too. Many journalists still want to
receive physical product in order to judge the professionalism of an artist. However
make sure you also have your full album available for download via a hidden website. I
recommend Soundcloud for this.
6. Donʼt forget about offline marketing – Online marketing has made connecting with fans
on a global level so much easier. We can now communicate with people in real time all
over the world. However, donʼt forget about your offline marketing. Your live
performance, fan interaction at gigs, and face to face networking are still fundamental.
Be aggressive (but nice!) in BOTH your offline and online marketing.
7. Know your rights – Ensure you aware of the different ways of earning money online and
offline. Make sure you sign up to SoundExchange (itʼs free!) in order to collect your
digital royalties and keep up to date with issues affecting musicians by checking in with
The Future of Music Coalition.
8. Be creative, be personal - Donʼt be afraid to ask your fans for input into your creative
process. If they see you are listening to them, it will incentivize their loyalty and you will
create word-of-mouth buzz.
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Jem Bahaijoub is the founder of imaginePR, a music PR and marketing company based in
Washington, DC. You can connect with her on twitter @jembahaijoub or Facebook
www.facebook.com/imaginePR

“Green Buzz Agency has been very easy to work with throughout the entire production process, from developing creative concepts to the receipt of deliverables. Open and clear communication can be difficult to find with out-sourced help, but it is definitely something that Green Buzz values and works hard to maintain. Their diligent work and quick turn-around makes them stand out from other agencies.”

Crystal Hudson, Game Operations & New Media Manager: Washington Mystics

A Facebook presence is becoming an increasingly complex part of a marketers strategy to understand an engage with fans and customers alike.  Clearly the objective is not to start a page and hope fans will find you.  Because as we all know, hope is not a strategy. You need to plan for success. It is important to understand the unique aspects of Facebook’s functionality to deliver the best experience for your fans which should beget more fans. Facebook can help drive brand awareness, loyalty, engagement, and ultimately, benefit to your bottom line.

Having a seat at the table with clients for the last 4 years, below is a 3-step condensed reference guide for using Facebook as a strategic marketing channel:

Step 1 – Develop a Creative Brief: Take the good ole fashioned creative brief, and make it work for you in social media.  Here are a few questions you should ask as you develop your strategy:

• Why do you want to be on Facebook? (And the answer isn’t because everyone is doing it!)
• What role will Facebook play for the brand or business?  Customer loyalty? Customer service?  Product development?  Drive awareness of new sales or special offers? A hybrid?  Nail this down – it will matter in every aspect going forward.
• What type of business are you?  Who are your target customers?  Are there new voices you want to engage with to expand or maximize your understanding of their needs?
• How expansive is your current digital strategy?  How does social media fit into your marketing mix and budget – and consider the priority of Facebook to determine budgets, timing, manpower, etc
• Who will be handling the administrative aspects and ongoing communication via your Facebook page? Are there multiple internal constituents that will want to sign off on posts?   You should also plan for the inevitable real time need to respond to help requests or issues with your product or service.  Lastly, check to see if your company has a social media policy.  It will likely need to be modified to reflect the real time nature of Facebook and your publishing strategy.
• What is your brand personality and messaging tone?  Consider adapting that for a social media environment where character limitations will challenge the traditional messaging architecture.
• What other social media tools should you use; and how will those differ in message, tone and purpose from your Facebook page?  i.e. Twitter, LinkedIn, company blog)
• How will you handle spam and response management to make your Facebook page a safe destination? As spam has increased, what words or terms do you want to track and moderate? Facebook provides the basic ability to delete unwanted comments and report or block users who violate Facebook’s Statements of Rights and Responsibilities.  Page administrators tend to use these functions while going through whichever moderation process they use, which brings us to the three moderation methods:  manual, automatic and one that combines the previous two.

The Green Buzz Agency Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people   Our company is the leader in corporate, web, and online video production services to Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, and NYC!

Step 2 – Create an Engaging, Ongoing Experience

• Speak in your brand or business voice, but respect the Facebook platform for length of post.  Also, look to how your fans comment to adjust for tone and approachability.  Vary first and third person to relfect the conversational approach that is appropriate for a particular piece of content.
• Plan to vary your posts to include multimedia posts: Vary and keep posts engaging and eye-catching.  Consider polls or quizzes to engage your fans in a two-way conversation.
• Utilize the power of the news feed:  Vitrue has found the news feed to be 110 times greater reach, and for instance, including a URL on a wall post allows “shares” by your fans which is just one way to drive more engagement through the news feed.
• Optimize and customize Tab content that can be used periodically in conjunction with your news feed.  With the news feed moving so rapidly you should include compelling, informative and engaging content or promotions via a coupon that harnesses the ongoing constant presence of a Tab.
• Target your posts:  Segment your fans through geo-location and language for relevancy using Open Graph objects.
• Use custom URL to shorten links:  Give your links authenticity and protect your analytics from competitors by using a custom or branded shortening tool for long URLs.

Step 3 – Develop a Conversational Calendar:

• Start with a 14 or 30-day advanced planning to layout events, topics and content that might be meaningful to your brand advocates.  Planning in advance will maximize the time you have to create meaningful and appropriate content
• Evaluate the number of posts for optimal reception by your fans.  We currently recommend staggering messaging for most businesses to 2-3 times a day.  This should vary if you are a media outlet publishing real time news content versus a B2B product or service.
• Time of day/day of week matters.  Consider the context of your business and when it makes sense to communicate.  For example, if you are a restaurant, before lunch and early evening prior to dinner might be optimal times for posting.
• Remember and capitalize on special events, holidays, news or milestones that are specific to your business that might be of interest to your followers, i.e. Labor Day is prime time for sales of consumer home goods
• Lastly, but not least:  measure to manage.  Track responses to your post by type, day, time as well as plays and shares.  This will help you iterate your calendar, post type and posting schedule.

This post is intended to be a high-level summary to get you started and moving in the right direction. Clearly social media is vast and requires ongoing refinement and thinking.  Please leave your thoughts or comments below on what has worked well for you in using Facebook as a Strategic Marketing Channel.

Erika Jolly Brookes is Vice President, Marketing at Vitrue. Follow her on twitter @ebrookes or email her at erika@vitrue.com.

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We all know the old philosophy question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it did it still make a sound?”  Regardless of where you come out on the question, if you’re a technology marketer about to bring a new product out the answer is a resounding “NO.”  Back in the day a launch was pretty straightforward, varying only by scale: put out a press release, get your media prepped, coordinate your advertising, mailings and coordinate customer updates, tradeshows, collateral.  There were natural gathering points for announcements and people waited eagerly to see what was new and exciting.

That was then.

Now, a marketer has to cut through the fog of information, find the audience hiding inside, and figure out how to get the attention of the attention-challenged long enough for it to register in their consciousness.  In a few hundred words I can’t guide you through the intricacies of building out a multi-channel launch plan but I can share what I’ve learned to help you off in the right direction:  First, know your target and why they will care.

Second, know your space.  That is, don’t make people work at understanding where your product fits.  This is not the time to create a market—that comes later with the analysts, press, broader marketing activities.  Find the world the product lives in and place it at the top of the heap.  Tout its value and advantages over others in the space.

Third, find out “where they live.”  That still means knowing what your targets read, where they go for information, what events they attend, but it also now means what blogs they read, who they follow on Twitter, who they know and what groups they participate in on LinkedIn among others.

Fourth, message frequently—but more briefly– adjust your message to your different audiences, and invite dialog.  Product launches today are not the one way flow of the past; it can’t be a fire hose of information because people won’t stay still long enough to get soaked.  Use social media liberally, but don’t use it rashly.  There’s a fine but definite line between social media spam and real announcements.  There have been enough books and seminars built on the topic that I won’t even attempt to educate on that topic, but I will urge you to either hire an expert, learn from an expert, or leave it to an expert.

Fifth, work out early looks by journalists, bloggers, even analysts.  Most can be trusted to keep your confidentiality if there’s a time sensitivity to the launch.  Otherwise, letting them leak out a first look can start generating buzz for you ahead of your own efforts.  And, if they don’t like what they see that informs you how you need to proceed BEFORE you launch and someone seagulls on you.

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Sixth, email isn’t a dirty word.  Used well it’s still a key vehicle for reaching large numbers of targeted potential customers, and new product introductions rank high on the list of things interested parties will open an email to learn about.  And stick with it.  With spam rules in mind, work your lists and database thoughtfully.  And as an aside, don’t be shy about cleaning your list up.  It’s false comfort to have a 20k database of names, 15k of whom have never opened a thing you’ve sent them or about which you know very little if anything.  Better to have a clean, targeted database of 5k interested parties to which you can add more.  Don’t worry about opt-outs either: they’re telling you they’re not interested in what you’re telling them, so save yourself the trouble.

Seventh, wherever possible, use whatever customer information you can.  Whether it’s an anonymized case study or a full-fledged testimonial, or  even a single quote from a beta customer, that adds dramatic credibility to your efforts.  If they’ll talk to the press or analysts, all the better.  If they’ll appear on your behalf at an event, better still.  Regardless of how much or how little, find someone other than your own people who will say something about what you’ve brought out to market.

Finally, keep it fresh by tying the launch into the larger business or technology issues the product serves.  Share information with your targets, involve them, even passively, in your community building.  Familiarity breeds interest (another old saw notwithstanding), and the more you wrap around the product through its launch period and beyond, the more noise that tree will make when it falls.

Alan E. Gold is the  Chief Marketing Officer at TradeStone Software, Inc. Follow him on twitter @alanegold or email him at agold@tradestonesoftware.com or reach him on skype by his handle: alan.gold

Due to the current economic uncertainty, government contracting is looking more and more secure and lucrative so it’s not surprising that even commercial businesses are vying for more government contracts. Yet a government customer can be more difficult to acquire because of the bureaucracy and formal bidding process. For companies selling products and services to the federal government, traditional marketing strategies may not work. The challenges for marketers are made even more difficult when dealing with government decision- makers who are difficult to engage via conventional means. When doing business with commercial clients, one does not have to navigate through all the federal requirements necessary when bidding a contract. However, the best kept secret is that when doing business with the federal government, it is still about relationship building, just as much as it is about meeting the requirements in the RFP.

The concept that the government customer is the ultimate target for customer relationship management (CRM) is gaining traction among government marketers. For government contractors, we must shift the spotlight to our customers rather than focusing on our products and services. The reason is that the government customer expects to be in control and is in control more than ever before. The development of a CRM strategy for a government-serving company could lead to increased sales leads and relationship-building within the federal government while increasing market share. The challenge for many companies is without a clear understanding of how to execute a CRM strategy for government customers, it would be unwise to implement a CRM strategy, since substantial resources are needed.

The Green Buzz Agency Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people  We are a Washington DC based Agency specializing in effective corporate video production!

Companies should first develop and publish a CRM strategy, and develop a long-term implementation plan to achieve the CRM best practices for the government IT sector. The CRM strategy should include a description of the corporate strategy, corporate business goals, organizational structure of the CRM effort and a communications plan. Shortly after finalizing the CRM strategy section, the internal communications plan for the company can be developed and published. It is vital that the internal staff be aware of the benefits of CRM for it to work. To do so, the best way is to conduct a pilot program before officially launching the full-scale program.

A CRM Pilot Program is a long-term goal and only viable once the processes are in place. Prior to the pilot program, the marketing team must prove to the executive staff that the organizational departments are able to function properly with a small margin for error. This will be determined based on interviews with managers of the departments involved and also by doing test runs and shadow plans for a span of 3 months. The customer for the pilot program will be chosen from a list of customers provided by senior sales staff. Once agreed upon, marketing will create marketing materials including a brochure, microsite and e-commerce center specifically for the customer. The pilot program will span six months to gather enough data to make unforeseen tactical changes, evaluate processes, and assess additional supporting areas which may be needed. Once the pilot is closed to the customer, the marketing team and strategy executives will create an extensive report and incorporate lessons learned into the original CRM strategy. Then, the final report will be presented to all staff.

In conclusion, take a cautious stance when developing CRM plan and consider implementation to avoid costly pitfalls. If a company decides to implement a CMR strategy for government customers, the marketing team must be able to measure the results to tie it to profits, provide value for the customer and engage the customers. The government customer is unique and providing products and services to the government can be problematic. Fortunately for established companies, they have the expertise and history of serving the government. However, there is sometimes a lack the operational means to capture the customer needs. Without doing their due diligence, companies will not be able to implement a successful CRM program.

Victoria Schmidt is the Marketing Manager at Avaya Government Solutions. Follow her @Phishskins or email her at victoria.schmidt@ymail.com

As a marketer, chances are you’ve found one, if not several ways to segment your target audiences – age, gender, education, household income, home ownership or other key demographic characteristics.  Demographics can tell you the “who” about your target audience, but they fall short in giving you the insights to “what, how, and why” audiences react the way they do. Enter the field of psychographics that offers more valuable insights about interests, opinions and activities of defined segments of people.  Let’s get you started with one of the easiest ways to gain these insights: generational profiling.  Right now, the majority of your target audiences will fall into the four active generations: Civics, Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials.

Civics (now ages 65-85) Born prior to 1945, Civics also are referred to as the Greatest Generation and “Masters of the American Dream.” These men and women were raised in an era of American progress, economic growth, highlighted by traditional families, safe schooling and a new world order.   This generation came of age during the post-depression, World War II era – when they were called on to serve a cause greater than themselves, this generation responded in whatever way they could (think: war effort work, war bonds, victory gardens, etc.). They entered a job market eager for their contribution and found company structures that supported the traditional 30- or 40-year career.  They are the last generation to have a healthy savings account and the post-retirement support of a traditional pension system.

Baby Boomers (now ages 46-64) Born between 1946 and 1964, the Boomers were the largest generation in American history numbering more than 75 million. Raised in an era of extreme optimism, opportunity and progress, most Boomers grew up in two-parent households, with safe schools, and job security.  As a group, this generation is characterized by a deep reaction to all forms of tradition – religious, familial, cultural, musical, societal.  We can credit Boomers with the rise of rock-n-roll, the mass entry of women into the workforce and the societal upheaval necessary to achieve desegregation. However, while achieving much, Boomers are a self-absorbed generation that demands personal recognition and fulfillment. As evidence, we can look at Boomers sky-high divorce rates, their quest to “never be old” (or perceived as being/acting old), and their hunger for personal wealth and materialistic gain. The popular phrase, “He who has the most toys when he dies, wins!” is distinctly a Boomer mentality. Their focus on personal fulfillment has left deep impressions with their children (Gen Xers and Millennials) and on the shape of our current culture.

The Green Buzz Agency Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people  We are a Washington DC based Agency specializing in effective corporate video production!

Gen Xers (now ages 31-45) Born between 1965 and 1979, this is the smallest generation in modern American history, numbering slightly less than 50 million. Considered to be the most ignored and most misunderstood generation, Xers are the first in American history that will not do better than the previous generation. They grew up in two-career families with rapidly rising divorce rates, downsizing, the dawning of the high-tech and information age and the introduction of the entertainment culture.  As the first generation to be marketed to as youth, they seek truth as a countermeasure to the “hype” of empty promises. For Xers, there never was a notion of “job security” and most credit the initial and subsequent dot-com booms from the entrepreneurial drive of this generation.  Driven by a quest for balance and security, Gen X seeks to counter the instability of their youth with a drive to achieve balance both at work and at home.

Millennials (now ages 10-30) Born between 1980 and 2000, Millennials (also called Gen Y) are the largest generation in American history at more than 100 million. They are the most diverse (1 in 3 is not white), most educated, most marketed to, most medicated, and most cared for generation in history.  Nearly half of Millennials were raised by divorced parents, 33% lived with a single parent, and nearly 75% had working mothers.  Millennials have come of age during a time of rapid technological and social shifts. The advent of SMS (texting) created whole new paradigms of communication and interaction. More than 95% of Millennials have an account on at least one social networking site. Characterized as impatient and with a high need for immediate response, Millennials reflect the shift to real-time information and sharing. This generation began in an era of rapid American economic growth and prosperity and the presence of America as the lone global superpower, but they lacked security of safe school environments or stable home environments. Interestingly, despite the shifts around them, Millennials exhibit confidence, connectedness and values similar to Civics, with a deep sense of being called to a cause greater than themselves. Today, only half of Millennials have entered the workforce but they are being highly studied and are certain to have a dramatic impact in how we define “work, play and pray.”

What’s this mean to you as a marketer?

Move beyond the known demographics and push to better understand your audiences (and your co-workers) based on their generational affiliation. Revisit your marketing channels, your messages, and your calls-to-action and view them through the generational lens. Add depth to your demographics with generational profiling and you’ll gain a better understanding of your audiences’ values and motivations – and you can apply that kind of knowledge to your brand and its bottom line.

Note: data on generations can be found through the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Labor, Pew Research, Nielsen Research, Forrester Research, Cone Research, and others.

Jenny Schmitt is the Senior Spark at CloudSpark, an award-winning communications strategy company based in Atlanta. A frequent speaker and media contributor, Jenny has been quoted in BrandWeek, Nielsen’s Small Business, and USA Today among others; she regularly contributes to blogs relating to comnmunications and social media. She can be reached at jschmitt(at)cloudspark(dot)com or on Twitter @cloudspark.

Today’s event marketing landscape has shifted and now interactive product launches for video games, technology platforms, and hand-held devices demand consumer touch and feel. They require the creation of a brand aura around the launch and unfettered hands-on trial. You supply the experience, and your users supply the PR. User-generated PR is far more powerful than anything your agency can create.

If you’re on the fence, think about this: Infinity Ward and their partners have mastered this multi-layered approach and landed over $300 million in sales during Modern Warfare 2’s first 24 hours on the market.

Today’s consumers expect to battle test your product, and read the reviews of others during the product launch. Confidence in your product is generated as consumers step behind the marketing veil to experience your product and tell others of their experience through the social media pipeline: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the blogosphere. You must influence this process.

We’ve learned that experience sells. Product experience, brand experience and execution experience are now required to sell. Product launches certainly must be accompanied by the air war of brand positioning and mass market ads. However, the actual creation of scalable (meaning repeatable across the social network) brand experiences now acts as the ground troops of product launches within the technical product domain. And I don’t think this approach just applies to technology products, they simply represent the tip of the spear. Technology focused products and their respective consumers rely on word of mouth and user-generated reviews rather than a high profile spokesperson or shotgun ad hitting a sedate market. Technology products merit – in fact require – transferable proof your product meets expected levels of experience, quality and satisfaction. And if you don’t provide such proof, expect to be ridiculed in the user-generated press.

The Green Buzz Agency Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people  We are a Washington DC based Agency specializing in corporate video production!

Technology product launches differ from traditional first-time product trials as consumers tend to be more sensitive and invested in their technology. Unlike traditional sampling trial events (such as food or drink products) where the goal is to have consumers try a less-known product for the first time and convert them into buyers, the experience with technology is usually for an (often highly) anticipated product which consumers have built an expectation for. If expectations are not met both from a performance and an emotional standpoint it can result in lost sales. When I showcase a technology product for the first time, the environment and user experience is vital to make sure it meets or exceeds consumer expectations. Below are my five keys to achieve this:

1. Venue and event selection – the venue is an important part of the experience and event attendees must closely align with your target market.

2. Setting and atmosphere – does the environment fit the audience and product branding? Music, lighting, furniture, layout, food and beverage, staff, uniforms etc. all play a part in creating the right ambiance.

3. Demonstration and user interaction – the product must be used in the right context so consumers can better relate to the experience. Try and demonstrate the product in a way that not only boasts its attributes and benefits but also in a way which makes sense to your core consumer.

4. Supporting elements – green screen, premiums and giveaways, and special guests or performances can greatly enhance the user experience from an emotional standpoint.

5. Extending the experience – promotion through social media both before and after the launch with tools such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and more traditional PR to share user experience for those who could not attend the event, but want to share the excitement of a product launch.

Craig Goldstein is the Chief Operations Officer and Founder of UCG Marketing, which is an award-winning full service experiential marketing and promotions agency based in Boston. Email him at cgoldstein@ucgmarketing.com