Subject: The Buzz on Events, Why Databases Fail, and More

From: Chief Marketer <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 11:40:26 -0600

January 18, 2005 | A PRIMEDIA Property |

Table of Contents
Is Your Website or Catalog a Winner?
Event Marketing: The Buzz for 2005
Data Strategies: Why Databases Fail
Search Engines: You Have Traffic...Now What?
Multichannel: The More Media the Merrier
Branding: Beyond the Product
Advertising: New Medium's Par for the Course

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From The Editor
Is Your Website or Catalog a Winner?
Would you like to see your e-commerce site or print catalog -- or that of your clients -- get the recognition it deserves? Then enter CATALOG AGE's Annual Catalog Awards and I.Merchant Awards, the industry's most prestigious award programs. Due to popular demand, the deadline has been extended to the end of the week.

To download an Annual Catalog Award entry, visit catalogagemag.com/specialreports/ACA%20Entry%20Form.pdf

To download an I.Merchant Award entry, visit catalogagemag.com/specialreports/IMA%20Entry%20Form.pdf

For more information, visit catalogagemag.com/specialreports/ACARules.pdf or contact Heather Retzlaff at 203-358-4233 or [email-masked].

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This Week's Stories
Event Marketing: The Buzz for 2005
PROMO
Last year the average budget for event marketing rose to $901,935, up from $827,911 in 2003, according to PROMO's 2004 Event Marketing Study. With all these marketing dollars being plunked down on tricked-out trucks, mega events, and street teams, PROMO checked in with industry experts to find out what the hot trends are for events this year.

"It has becoming increasingly clear that the traditional sponsorship model as we know it is changing," notes Michael O'Hara Lynch, senior vice president, event and sponsorship marketing for San Francisco-based Visa. "As a result of continued clutter in the marketplace and changes in technology...the days of the 'official product' sponsorship have passed, and as a result you'll see event marketers looking for better-integrated programs."

Lynch also says that more marketers will try to benefit from technology such as mobile phones and PDAs, a sentiment echoed by several other experts. "We are always exploring new ways to integrate technologies such as camera phones, MP3 players, IM'ing, and text messaging into our events and promotions," says Matthew Glass, chairman/CEO of New York-based Grand Central Marketing. "For example, we will be executing a program this year with street teams around the country, capturing consumer data on the same hand-held device that will take photos and send e-mails to participants. This will allow us to deliver our client's message on site and have it repeated with additional branding and product information when they get home."

The emphasis on mobile technology extends beyond consumer marketing to the b-to-b arena, adds Mike Reisman, principal of Velocity Sports & Entertainment in Wilton CT: "Some b-to-b marketers are extending the trade show environment by sending mobile teams into office buildings and lobbies to get their product messages across."

To read more about trends and advances in event marketing, visit PROMO.

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Online Shopping: Traffic Trends, Keyword Intelligence and Customer Segmentation
Thursday, January 27, 2:00-3:00pm ET

Gain insight into 2004 Web traffic metrics and online consumer shopping patterns, including:

Which sites had the biggest traffic gains in 2004?

How did the 2004 Holiday season do?

The impact of comparison shopping sites on retail traffic.

Search terms and search engines: Which refer the most visits to retail sites?

Click here to attend:
http://catalogagemag.com/webinars/online-shopping-trends-webinar/

Data Strategies: Why Databases Fail
LIST AND DATA STRATEGIES FOR The MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT
Database marketing worksonly if the customer benefits by it, according to Arthur Middleton Hughes, vice president/solutions architect for Richardson, TX-based marketing services firm KnowledgeBase Marketing. Many companies keep databases on file but never use them. "The important thing about a database is using it to make money," Hughes says. "Building a database is easy, but making money with a database is hard."

The lack of a marketing strategy is a major reason databases fail, Hughes says. Basic strategy dictates that you put yourself in the customer's shoes and ask, "What would I want to be on this database? What's in it for me?" If you can't come up with a good answer, he says, the database will fail.

To read more, visit CATALOG AGE.

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Search Engines: You Have Traffic...Now What?
By Thomas Obrey
DIRECT TIPS
Your search engine marketing and optimization strategies appear tobe paying off--traffic to your Website has climbed appreciably, and prospects are reading through your pages of online content. That's great news, to be sure, but your work isn't done yet. Once a visitor is on your site, there is a small window of opportunity to gain as much information as possible to help hone your marketing efforts:

* Analyze your Web logs. Look to see which search engines users are coming from and the words that brought them to you. Keep track of phrases you see often. It's important to understand how your users evolve.

* Demonstrate search-phrase reinforcement. As you begin to see patterns or trends, use them as a guide to map keyword-rich content to specific pages. This will improve relevance and increase the length of their visit.

* Conduct demographic research. Build profiles of your users and prioritize them so that you know who your content is speaking to and avoid ignoring certain audiences.

To read more about how to make the most of increased Website traffic and to maximize your search marketing efforts, visit DIRECT.

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Multichannel: The More Media the Merrier
With the exception of coupons in the grocery segment, no one medium determines the buying behavior of a majority of shoppers, according to the latest Simultaneous Media Survey from BIGresearch.

Among the more than 14,000 consumers surveyed, coupons influenced 52% of respondents when shopping for groceries. News inserts influenced 40%, followed by word of mouth (31%). But only 9% said that the Internet influenced their grocery shopping decisions.

Yet 19% said that the Internet influenced their electronics shopping decisions. Word of mouth was the greatest influence here, however, with 35% citing it as an influence. News inserts were the second most influential medium (26%), followed by TV broadcasts (24%).

Among those shopping for apparel, news inserts were again the most influential medium (28%), followed by word of mouth (26%), and TV (20%). When shopping for home improvement items, word of mouth was cited most frequently as an influence (26%), followed by news inserts (22%), and TV (19%).

"The consumer's determination of which media most influences their purchases is a basic building block for increased advertising ROI," Joe Pilotta, Ph.D., vice president of research for BIGresearch said in a statement. "If consumers are not receptive to a media, blanket exposures cannot make it influential."

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Branding: Beyond the Product
By Heather Retzlaff
CATALOG AGE
With corporate scandals and bankruptcies rampant, it's no wonder that customers' trust in brands has dropped during the past year. And a loss of trust can be fatal to a brand, Tara Weiner, vice chairman/national managing partner, consumer business industries practice at financial advisory services provider Deloitte, told attendees of a Monday session of the National Retail Federation's 94th Annual Convention and Expo.

When brand value represents 60% of a company's stock market value, according to an Interbrand study, how can a company turn the tide and increase consumer trust again? By realizing that a brand is more than just product, Weiner said: "Products have a limited life cycle; brands can live for almost forever."

Jim Beeman, Nike USA account marketing director, offered advice for maintaining strong brand awareness with consumers:

1. Begin with the end in mind.
2. Execution, execution, execution.
3. Capture the consumer's heart with insight.
4. Be relevant to the consumer and the customer.

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Advertising: New Medium's Par for the Course
You figured you could grab your golf clubs and head to the driving range to escape the frustrations of the day--not to mention the omnipresence of marketing messages. Well, even the driving range won't be free of promotional messages if a Pittsburgh-based company named Golf Ad Mats has its way.

According to a press release, Golf Ad Mats installs four-color, waterproof ad inserts into driving range mats. "Ads in magazines and newspapers get lost in a sea of other ads, whereas the Golf Ad Mats advertising inserts are impossible for golfers to miss," said national sales manager John Matschner. "Golf Ad Mats is unique because they provide a captive audience."

Of course, if that captive audience is having a frustrating day at the range, let's hope he doesn't associate it with the advertisement that was staring up at him during that time...

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