MAD MARKETING TACTICS™ !: memes

Showing posts with label memes. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Worst Product Name... Ever!

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Why on Earth would anyone choose (assuming no torture by a sadist from one of the former Eastern Bloc nations [i.e., Turdistan], or the promise of a hunting trip with Dick Cheney) to name a product or service Monitis? It sounds like a disease. It rhymes with Colitis, Bursitis, Arthritis and a whole host of __itises.

As the author (having destroyed all of the opposition) of The Mad Marketing Tactics Blog, I have to go on the record as saying that that name will most definitely hurt the sales of the product. Names are critically important in marketing and branding -- especially if they are either favorably or unfavorably associated with other product names or words in common usage. If you name a product (with due credit to Piriform) something like CCleaner, it sounds wholesome, useful and efficient. It is a clever hybrid of C drive and Cleaner. It actually describes what it does.

But then there's Monitis.

Here's what WebProNews had to say in a brief advertisement of Monitis (you can try it for free!), which sounded to me, and perhaps to other people, like getting a chance to audition herpes -- or worse. It even has a "moan" in it. Yet, the way the product is described, perhaps it is something great that just happens to have a horrible name; sort of like Smuckers jam. But then, they had an excuse, because it was a family name. And they even promoted a mildly self-deprecating campaign -- "With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good." It helped to boost sales, and once people tried it, they continued to be loyal customers. Let's see how Monitis fares:

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---------------

Please remember that I do not endorse the product. Nor do I seek to defame it. It might be good, it might be bad. But none of that matters. The only thing that matters to a marketing and branding professional is that the name stinks. Period.

Thank you as always for reading me, and for sharing my articles with your colleagues, cohorts, comrades, co-conspirators and connections through your ever-increasing use of the various social media platforms. And when I say thank you, I mean it sincerely.

Douglas E. Castle for The Mad Marketing Tactics Blog and for CFI Business Growth

I'm actually a very friendly, approachable, engaging fellow. I don't have Monitis, either.

Labels, Tags, Keywords, Categories And Search Terms For This Article:

marketing, names, branding, sales, web products, C-drive cleaners, cloud computing, Monitis, hepatitis, crowdfunding, CFI, business, growth, humor, memes, impressions, LinkedIn, Douglas E. Castle, WebProNews, CCleaner, naming things, associations...

Sponsored By:
CFI - CrowdFunding Incubator LLC
ICS - International Connection Services
Global Edge Technologies Group LLC
CFI Business Growth
Douglas E. Castle On LinkedIn - Join Me!

#MadMarketing

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

QR Codes: Powerful Marketing Meets Contemporary Art

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It's indisputable. One of the most increasingly used arrows in the Mad Marketing Tactics quiver is the QR Code -- a curious mixture of powerful instant marketing and contemporary art. They effectively use minimal advertising 'real estate" or available space to convey the greatest amount of crucial information. Efficient? No?

QR codes (those funny-looking little "stamps" that you've been seeing everyplace -- you know, the ones that remind you of bar codes at the supermarket, except that they are more square, and contain seemingly random patterns within them instead of a series of vertical stripes of varied thickness) have become all the rage. QR stands for Quick Response.

A QR stamp is a powerful mobile device-readable marketing tool which can be placed on a poster, in a store window, on the outside of a mailing piece or magazine, a business card a T-shirt, a coffee mug, a temporary tattoo, a laminated ID badge -- virtually anywhere. And they have taken on the role of being some sort of pop art. Some companies are now actually modifying these two-dimensional icons to make them extra colorful, or to make them look like neon or graffiti. If there's a surface, it can be home to a QR Code....even if that surface is a side of a moving truck, or a T-shirt, or a briefcase!

I can use a simple, free downloadable application on my iPhone [I'm virtually chained to it anyway] to capture these symbols and translate them. They usually lead me to a mobile-friendly website, but on occasion they have just contained a message in simple words, a name and a phone number, a slogan or meme, an image or collage of images or even a direct link to a music video or media production.

In real terms, these QR codes take a great deal of information and shrink it into a little stamp, although I've seen these things tattooed on a woman's forearm, a college kid's sweatshirt, and magnified to a giant placard outside on the sidewalk in front of an Asian-Fusion restaurant. No kidding. They have become single 'snapshots' that contain access to volumes of information, or to websites, mobile sites, videos and other images.

Mad Marketing Tactics enthusiasts are utilizing QR codes (as well as some bar codes), and some very slick images with embedded QR codes to mystify and engage passers by.

Images, even very obscure ones, are more likely to catch the eye than printed words or elaborate lists. And once captured in a mobile device, they can be used repeatedly, like little bookmarks in order to open the door to the same destination.

And don't be fooled by the notion of "Quick". Quite often, a curious prospective customer (not realizing that he or she might in fact be a prospective customer at all), merely photographs the image, the mysterious symbol, and translates it later.

If you can construct a thematic marketing, promotional or branding strategy that is anchored on the creative use of QR codes, please tell me about it, so that I may request your autograph over a cup (biodegradable, environmentally-friendly, post-consumer content) of coffee. I'll buy.

Thank you for reading me, tweeting me, and shooting me out of the cannon into your giant Colosseum of social media buddies!

Douglas E. Castle for The Mad Marketing Tactics Blog and CFI - CrowdFunding Incubator LLC

p.s. If you'd like to generate and design some of your own QR codes, please click on the button below:

Douglas E. Castle's Incredible QR Code Creator Wizard

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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Fear Increases Your Followers And Sales - Mad Marketing Tactics Revisits.

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More followers, disciples, meme virality, unique visitors and ultimately sales profits (where customers purchase your service, your newsletter or your product) can be generated, generally speaking, by fear of loss than by an opportunity to gain. It's behavioral psychology 101.

Fear produces an immediate, defensive call to action, while the opportunity for gain (which may require an investment of effort, time or funds) tends to be less compelling -- laziness, tight finances, and an institutionalized endemic lack of driving ambition make opportunity more optional.

In putting together an ad campaign, you may optimize your results by combining both elements of fear and opportunity, or as they say in Colombia (the country and not the university, which is spelled C-o-l-u-m-b-i-a), "Plata o plomo" -- silver or lead.

Stansberry Associates, an investment advisory service, publisher and terrific promoter, is a source I look at for some insights into The Global Futurist Blog, when I decide to speak of doomsday scenarios, negative selling and self-fulfilling prophesies. While I don't offer investment or financial advice, and while I don't agree with or endorse Stansberry's investment strategies or his picture of the future, you'll absolutely enjoy his video:

Just click on the link which follows, and come back to The Mad Marketing Tactics Blog when you've finished, and had an opportunity to take your antacid of choice, or your grandmother's anti-anxiety pills [kidding. don't do this. it's illegal. and the expiry date is sometimes close to the time of the Korean War]:

http://pro.stansberryresearch.com/1206CORRUPTN/LPSIN707/

Getting the mixture into your messaging can be challenging. The lure is fear, and a need for defense -- the opportunity is the 'solution' or 'cure,' combined with a chance for rapid, easy, relatively inexpensive (in terms of the value proposition) gain. At the risk of sounding a bit crude, its a bit of the traditional tactic of 'bait and switch,' but done with much more legitimacy and subtlety. In this way, your brand won't be tarnished, and you will avoid a reputation as a sneak.

Fear commands attention, acts as a motivator and opens doors -- but without either a good product or value-added service to address the fear, or a wonderful opportunity to gleaned by cozying up to your brand, you will look like a 'quick buck artist'. My mother doesn't like that. Neither do most people.

The artful use of fear combined with a solution and an opportunity for true gain are elements for a good branding and marketing campaign. Capische?

Douglas E. Castle

p.s. Please follow us on Twitter at @MadMarketing. If you like to choose from a giant variety of additional Twitter Feeds (on varied topics, from great feed sources and continuously updated visit The Twitterlinks Hubspot Blog.

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