Product Positioning Map | Strategic Planning | Jump start 2010
Many visitors have dowloaded this form and I am thrilled that others find it useful. Feedback from your target audience is a crucial element when planning and implementing a holistic marketing strategy for your company. I prefer to provide a visually compelling/customized form when gathering information for clients. This exercise is simple to conduct and will provide actionable insights. You can download the generic form below from www.marketingholistics.com. It’s also a snap for me to provide a custom designed positioning template (PDF format). You can specify two value variables and four product variables.
In fact, I’ll design your custom template at no charge between now and January 31, 2010.
Visit the Marketing Holistics website to download the generic PDF or shoot me a fast e-mail and I’ll customize it for your use.
Learning about Learning | Does that make sense for marketing?
LEARNING STYLES are fascinating and include: 
Accommodators – who learn by doing
Divergors – who learn by observing
Convergors - who learn by problem solving
Assimilators - who learn by getting information
CRITICAL CONSIDERATIONS include:
How do I learn?
How do others learn?
What can I learn today that is new and helpful?
How do I feel about the new knowledge I gain?
The challenge for marketers is to be able to identify the learning styles of a particular constituency/market. A successful internet marketer must be able to accommodate various learning styles. People frequently use the internet to research online and buy offline. A pet peeve when I ask a simple question is the person who does not glance up from a computer screen, waves a hand around in the air and seems truly disinterested. This happens to everyone.
Some marketing professions simply do not help their clients learn more about critical internet marketing functions. Some marketing professionals play their cards fairly close to the vest and prefer not share their knowledge or insights. A few years ago, when working with an SEO/SEM team, my manager instructed the technical staff not to answer my questions because I needed to figure things out for myself. He would then deliberately give me a vague assignment and refuse to clarify his intent. I am on the inside team and wondered how the client might feel. I called him on this and he did not appreciate it. Years ago, in a university marketing department another manger gave me an unclear assignment, would not clarify for me and acted impatient when I did not complete the work. She stamped her foot. I reported her to personnel. What I learned from this experience is that internal teams are very sensitive and sometimes dysfunctional. Our mutual boss was more concerned that I went “out of the department” for assistance than about the fact that I was not receiving effective direction. As a result of these and other similar experiences, I tend to go to the opposite extreme and prefer to explain “things” with abundant clarity.
Identifying and accommodating different learning styles is also important for the modern marketer who is, in essence, a facilitator and instructor. Marketers must identify and target segments. Similar challenges face instructors who must instinctively utilize a variety of pedagogical elements which are most relevant to a particular learning style. If I need to learn how to use a particular feature on my Blackberry I can ask a friend, who may pull the unit from my hand and perform the function and hand it back to me, I can go back to the Sprint store and take a number and wait in line or simply consult the manual.
Several years ago I worked in technology sales and the training was simply inadequate. The technical experts were permanently on voice mail and auto reply. A few days ago, I heard that this company just closed their Connecticut and New Jersey sales offices. My reply to former colleague’s email: “flawed business model.”
A few weeks ago, I was working with a team to design a presentation about the Economic Meltdown. I suggested providing a handout for a book about the history of the Federal Reserve System. I was thinking the study would be interesting and relevant for the audience and supportive of our position. Two members of the team really resisted: one from arrogance…he thought his opinions and input sufficient making independent documentation unnecessary; and another resisted from control….she wanted to edit my handout but would not read the book because she did not have time. Although this collaborative experience was far from optimal, the audience obviously appreciated the handout which was succinct and relevant. I am particularly sensitive to inadequate and rushed explanations.
Marketers must address multiple learning styles. Years ago when I first attended college, we would have a textbook and that was it. Books were not expensive, typically less than $25.00. Texts seem quite expensive today by comparison. I recently purchased a Business Law text for $185.00 – light winter reading for me between holidays. A hefty text price tag fortunately includes additional learning opportunities such as Power Points, online quizzes, and companion websites. As a side note: the price tag of the text prompted me to become a Barnes & Noble member to earn an extra discount. Wise decision since I have saved multiple times the price of membership!
Providing a variety of options which consider multiple learning styles facilitates communication. The principles of learning also apply to marketing. I have always found that it is very easy to ask a person how they prefer to gain knowledge. It saves everyone time and energy because you learn up front what works best for the person and how to vary an explanation. For example, when teaching a group of students about Adobe Photoshop, I ask the class: how many people prefer to learn by observing, by doing, by getting information, by figuring out themselves? I am always amazed at the variety of answers. A good instructor and marketer will frequently stop and ask questions like: “Are you with me?, Does that make sense?” Does it?
The Johari Model of self-awareness | Holistic Marketing
SELF AWARENESS means knowing about one’s idealized self in terms of aspirations as well as a sense of your presence at present. A component of self-awareness is knowing how one is perceived by others. 
The Johari Model is a graphic model developed in the 1950′s which aids in the interpretation of self-awareness. This exercises involves psychological communication and the diagram is fairly self-explanatory.
What’s involved:
- Apply a list of words to yourself.
- Have others apply the same list to you.
- Note the similarities
- Note the differences.
- Act on the insights
Do I have the courage to take a test in my blog? My personality is warm, upbeat, artistic, curious and engaging. I am interested in the arts particularly photography and design. I also like the politics of the Civil Rights Movement. I prefer to be generous but have tamed down that impulse over the years. I am happily married to a smart, kind, successful gentleman. We have two dogs and no children. I know “team dynamics” are a crucial business skill to develop. I am interested in marketing and working with small entrepreneurial businesses permits me the latitude to leverage my core communication skills.
I am also obsessed with learning new skills and improving existing ones. Right now I am reading four books:
- Web Analytics 2.o new by Avinash Kaushik [he was an author@Google - and donates the proceedes from his two book to charity]
- The Art of SEO by Enge Spencer, Fishkin and Stricchiola [fuzzy logic and semantic intent]
- Eyetracking Web Usability by Nielsen & Pernice [heat maps & gaze plots]
- Search Engine Optimization for Dummies by Clay & Esparza [anyone can do a redirect]
and have at least eight more piled on my night table.
The need to learn traces back to my childhood because my parents rewarded me for being a good student. Their praise and approval motivated me to constantly strive for “very good grades.” Now I learn for the pure sake of love of learning. Coworkers think that I have a high energy level and am focused and determined. Sometimes I am a tad impatient but always find time to help others. The good news is that it is never too late to improve and learn new things. My husband thinks that I am focused, motivated and smart but he also thinks that I sometimes allow myself to get a bit sidetracked by unimportant details and people with difficult personalities. He is 100% correct. I consider myself extremely responsive.
Shifting gears and seeing connections: Carl Jung identified four psychological archetypes: thinking, feeling, sensing and intuition. Understanding how other people relate has always helped me to create compelling visual communication. SWOT analysis, a classical marketing exercise involves determining an organizations internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. Holisitic Marketing also has four components: Relationship marketing, integrated marketing, internal marketing, & performance marketing. A Product Positioning Map also has four quadrants:At this point I am wondering why the above tests, models, models and maps all have four components and if there is something about the underlying structure of four components that becomes visually and literally compelling?
Getting Back to Chihuahuas…
Susan Payne breeds, handles and judges Chihuahuas. Her book, The Chihuahua, was just published by Kennel Club Classics. I finished reading her book from cover to cover. The section on the history of the breed is very interesting and my favorite part. In Mexico dogs were believed to accompany souls to heaven. The Chihuahua has tremendous “star quality.” Every Chihuahua has a story. Susan Payne emphasizes the importance of finding a breeder that breeds to the standard which is crucial for the health of the dog.
In 2006, my husband and I had visited the Springfield, MA, Dog Show the previous winter. We were interested in finding a Bassett Hound . We are very partial to these hounds. We spotted a little girl named Edith who ate rocks and another fine guy named Grissom. We were just not ready at that time. The following year we rescued Seamus, who is the most perfect and handsomest dog in the entire world. Seamus has taken over our plush rocker/recliner- a birthday present for my husband. Seamus has a sister, Holly 
who is 
also a “rescue hound.” These guys are spoiled. They get scrambled eggs for breakfast on Sunday and have a beautiful dog bed from ORVIS that is big enough and comfortable enough for me to spend the night with them although I typically do not do so. However, I brush their teeth almost every day. Get the picture!!! Seamus even has his own blog and frankly, the ladies swoon over him. As you can see, the rescue league ad for Holly, claiming that she was “the best of breed” may have been an exaggeration but the part about “her sweetness” was right on.
Well it is definitely time to switch gears and get back to Chihuahuas!
A colleague of my husband, Steve, was at the 2006 Springfield show with her tiny Chihuahua. I took a few pictures of Sue Pease and her pet and sent her a few prints. Several months later, Sue Pease’s friend, Chihuahua breeder, Susan Payne, asked my permission to use a few of my photos in a book she was writing for Kennel Club Classics. That’s how I met Susan Payne in the Spring of 2007 when I took some photos for the book she was authoring about Chihuahuas.
Of course, I was thrilled at this opportunity and took more photos for Susan Payne over the next few days. During the process I learned more about this charming breed. Susan’s interesting and informative book, The Chihuahua, is now available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The cover of the book is shown at the left. Sue Pease also happens to be a contributor to this fine book. Photographing pets for personal pleasure is very different than photographing dogs to document the characteristics of a particular breed. Breed standards are very important. The Chihuahua has a section on animal care which provides so much valuable information. I just learned that there is a small space where plates join in their skulls and I imagine this spot is vulnerable.
I prefer to take pictures. Writing a blog post is quite a task for me but practice makes perfect. I admire people who are prolific/adept writers and realize that the process is not as easy as the final product might make it seem.
I’ve included my favorite photo from this project in my post. I also really love the photo of Broadway dog trainer, Bill Berloni, who looks like he has his hands quite full. Of course, you will have to read this book to find out why. Perhaps you will discover why this tiny little creature is so popular and adored by millions of people around the world. All the Chihuahuas that I have met are smart, confident and well-behaved and to be perfectly honest I don’t think I can say that about all the bassett hounds I’ve met.
Gardenias | my favorite fragrant flowers
Flowers make me happy. I love photographing flowers…white flowers are more challenging. Photoshop CS4 has introduced the adjustments panel which makes granular edits a snap.
Many white flowers are particularly fragrant. Freesia, lily of the valley, tuber roses, honeysuckle, lilac, roses, casablanca lilies, peonies, hyacinths, jasmine and magnolia all have a heavenly aroma.
White flower facts:
The White Flower Farm in Litchfield, CT was originally founded by a NY Times reporter. At first, he bred only white flowers. The strains were hard to maintain, though, and colors crept in.
The JFK library is Boston, MA has a beautiful planting of rambling roses and pines reminiscent of the Cape Code seashore. Over the years, pink roses have appeared because the white strain orignally planted is impossible to maintain intact in nature.
Shakespeare’s works are planted with multiple references to flowers.
Antheriums, orchids, amaryllis, and cala lilies are beautiful and a pleasure to photograph but not so fragrant.
Site Maps | xml site maps – what’s the difference?
Site maps are used for more than planning and efficient repurposing/redesigning. I recently received my monthly newsletter from internet marketing guru, Bruce Clay. I already knew that when the Google bot first comes to your server, it eagerly searches for the site map and uses the file as a guide to spider all the pages in your site. Bruce uses Google’s site map as a good usability example. Google is perfection in my book. Bruce provides a link to Google’s webmaster guidelines.
Putting information architecture & usability issues aside for the moment, the site map serves as a list of everything the spider needs to digest and index. Appropriate naming conventions are critical for this reason. Then, if your page titles, meta keywords, headers, and content support and inform the page naming, you are on your way to achieving a page one organic position and this is crucial for the internet marketer.
Bruce’s article gets a bit tricky and granular at this point. He competently draws the distinction between site maps and xml sitemaps. Bruce explains that Sitemaps are lists of links in XML, files read by Spiders and traditional html Site Maps could easily be used by humans to navigate a site.
I have found that many people are a bit confused about the difference between site maps and xml sitemaps. Recently, an internet marketing sales manager asked me to discuss/present the differences to his team who probably thought that anyone who found all this interesting and exciting was a bit __________. (fill in the blank)
The really cool/interesting thing is that the site maps and sitemaps (below) are literally opposite sides of the same valuable coin.
- XML sitemap code snippet
Bottom line: make life easy for the Google Bot and also make life easy for your web development team/
Wireframes | maybe useful for now | maybe time for a new tool!
I subscribe to a number of online marketing industry publications. Previously I have blogged about articles from:
- Advertising Age
- Bruce Clay
- Imedia Connection
- Grok.com
- Website Magazine
Website Magazine typically has interesting articles and the subscription is free. I will discuss an article from the May Edition: Construction Before Coding by Kristin Reilly, Marketing Coordinator for the Irwin Siegel Agency – www.siegelagency.com. Perfect timing, I thought then, “a article somewhat relevant to our weekly assignment on wireframes.” I was taking an Internet Advertising & Promotion course at SCSU (Southern Connecticut State University). I really like the process of continual learning at the university level. In a classroom, as a marketing professional, I am exposed to simultaneous multiple viewpoints moderated by an expert, in this instance, Professor Kristin Kimball of the SCSCU Communications Department. In fact, this blog post was originally part of our semester blog assignment. I saved several of my favorite posts, modifiied them slightly and re-published them under Marketing Holistics because these assignments helped me to expand and refine my original thinking on a variety of concepts related to internet marketing.
In retrospect, the article was not as helpful for our assignment and I actually found it confusing. The more detailed documentation provided by our instruction in this assignment’s learning module and our class text, Communicating Design : Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning by Dan Brown, provided a clearer perspective. Since I noticed an information conflict between our text and the article, I decided to dig a bit deeper.
On one hand, several takeaway seo tips from this article would provide good reference points for a client.
- meta tags and description should match the copy on each page
- keep all index pages f or every section in the root folder and put secondary pages in their own folder
- keep an xml copy of sitemap and submit to search engines
- build your template and css after mapping you content into the wireframe
- brand is important and the design needs to clearly communicate the product
- use the wireframe to design the site’s navigation
- navigation style, content and position are the most important to the end user
The article explains that the first and most important steps, often overlooked, is constructing the wireframe – a step which the author skipped on her first web assignment. Not doing this resulted in major complication.
I know exactly how this feels. My first web project in the real world was to transfer an undergraduate university print catalog ( quark document ) into a FRONT PAGE web sub-site. This was a project from hell because I had no technical support, no department buy in, and an unreasonably tight time frame. What I learned foremost from that project was:
- the need to always use the best tool for the project which of course in this case was not Front Page.
- how important it is to understand the difference between print & web delivery
- you can do anything when you are determined
Wireframing was not a concept taught at the university level back in 2001.
On the other hand, I think Kristin Reilly is confusing a site map with a wireframe and our class text supports my assertion. I visited www.siegelagency.com to get a sense of the agency’s web presence. Overall…o.k. I still could not help but think that that her article was a bit off mark. This actually decreased the credability of Website Magazine in my mind. I’d be curious to know what everyone thinks about conflicting information on the internet, how they determine the validity and the resulting impression incorrectly presented information leaves.
Then I began to see the difference between a web site wireframe and a web page wireframe. I realized our assignment is about the web page wireframe and Kristin Reilly is talking about the web site wireframe but she shows what looks to me like a site map. There must be an essential difference. This prompted me to search further.
http://wireframes.linowski.ca/
provided information on Wireframes explaining that they are an important design tool used in Web development. Wireframes are a visualization tool for presenting proposed functions, structure and content of a Web page or Web site. A wireframe separates the graphic elements of a Web Site from the functional elements in such a way that Web teams can easily explain how users will interact with the Web site.
A typical wireframe includes:
- key page elements and their location, such as header, footer, navigation, content objects, branding elements
- grouping of elements, such as side bars, navigation bars, content areas
- labeling, page title, navigation links, headings to content objects
- place holders, content text and images
A website wireframe (also “web wire frame”, “web wireframe”, “web wireframing”) is a basic visual guide used in web design to suggest the structure of a website and relationships between its pages. A webpage wireframe is a similar illustration of the layout of fundamental elements in the interface. Because of this, they are often completed before any artwork is developed. When completed correctly they will provide a visual reference upon which to structure each page. Wireframes also allow for the development of variations of a layout to maintain design consistency throughout the site.
I consulted a few more sources so I could really get this straight:
- http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/html_wireframes_and_prototypes_all_gain_and_no_pain
- http://deyalexander.com/resources/uxd/wireframes.html
- http://iainstitute.org/tools/
Bottom line: my confusion prompted me to learn more about wireframes.
Advertising Clutter | the user is in control…
According to this interesting, well-reasoned scholarly journal article, the rapid growth of online advertising raises concerns about advertising clutter in the online media environment. This is a long, difficult but worthwhile read and I have summarized the key points to encourage further exploration.
This paper proposes an integrated model of advertising clutter that considers the unique interactive characteristics of online media. Authors, Louisa Ha from Bowling Green State University & Kin McCann from Northern Illinois University review the structural, information processing and functional approaches to clutter. The scholars integrate these components into a new comprehensive framework that explores consumer responses to AD CLUTTER differentiating consumer analysis from media centered analysis. The primary difference is attributed to the distinction between user/audience control and advertiser control.
For me, the main takeaway from an internet marketing and advertising perspective, is the ability of the marketer to effectively control the perception of AD CLUTTER by understanding how and why the audience reacts.
According to this article, mediating factors include attitudes toward advertising in general, specific media contexts and task orientations. Particular attention is focused on the how the perception of clutter creates negative advertising effects. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB): U.S. internet advertising revenue reach $10 billion in the first half of 2007.
Structural, functional & information processing approaches are the major paradigms used to examine consumer response: the three dimensions of AD CLUTTER are: quantity (proportion of advertisements in the media vehicle; intrusiveness (the degree of interruption); and competitiveness (the degree of similarity). Functional is the most relevant processing approach when considering AD CLUTTER.
Functional explains consumer response by distinguishing the use motive, emphasizing the active role of consumers when exploring, information seeking, entertaining & shopping. Identification of motive is the main consideration to control negative reactance to AD CLUTTER.
Additional takeaways:
- Ads, typically, are not viewed as a negative externality when offering useful product information.
- Overload theory indicates that absorption of one piece of information will be at the expense of another piece of information.
- Perceived lack of relevance is also tied into peripheral cues such as color and execution.
Reactance theory has been used to explain resistance to and avoidance of clutter. Online medium possesses the dual characters of a captive medium and a self-paced. Pop up pop/under, delivery time, delay in timing and timing manipulations. On line AD CLUTTER is defined as a high number of ads in various formats appearing on a single web page.
This article is a must read for any advertising professional already well versed in the general industry rules but seeking a deeper psychological/behavioral understanding of what makes people “click.” I could not resist including this screen shot which gives advice about AD CLUTTER and inadvertantly demonstrates exactly what to avoid.
Scholarly Work Cited:
-
An integrated model of advertising clutter in offline and online media.
Ha, Louisa, and Kim McCann.. “An integrated model of advertising clutter in offline and online media.” International Journal of Advertising 27.4 (Nov. 2008): 569-592. Business Source Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 5 Apr. 2009 <http://0-search.ebscohost.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=34216818&site=ehost-live>.
Politics and Blogging
My husband is very interested in politics so one ear in our liberal house is always tuned to a political discussion. Personally, I have less than zero tolerance for the “right” viewpoint. It seems that the “right” is winged out a bit and lacks leadership. Years ago, as an undergrad, I started as a political science major but switched to art history and now study Business Administration. Not exactly full circle but definitely non linear.
Recently, I ran across an interesting scholarly article that connects politics and blogging. This study applies Word Wide Web network theory to an examination of the community structure of the 2004 U.S. Democratic Presidential candidates John Kerry’s blog. The study used data mining to reveal strong similarities between candidate’s blog networks and Word Wide Web networks. Burstiness is comment activity during real-world campaigns. Blog networks are interpersonal communication devices.
For me, the main takeaways of this interesting article:
- There was little use of blogs before 2004 to engage citizens
- 2004 campaign introduced strong use of social software and was inspired by the unsuccessful primary campaign of Howard Dean
- Barak Obama used his senate blog and podcasts and campaigned successfully leveraging technology
- Blogs sidestep the mainstream media
- Network theory has its foundation in math graph theory and overlays the scalable theory of internet communication
- The world wide web is a scale free network which gains distinction from random networks
- Network theory is useful when applied to real word social networks, information networks, tech networks, and bio networks
- Patterns of linking structure exhibits a power law distribution which results in a smaller number of web pages having a great majority of inbound links
- Information is rapidly diffused via scale free networks
- Weak ties serve as bridges between diverse networks and network values scale exponentially
- The internet and blogs reengage citizens
- Cyberbalkanization (really cool word…but nothing in Wikipedia) is group polarization and the movement to more extra positions.
- Additional Reading
- Burstiness predicts states of network development
- A few blog users are responsible for a great percentage of comments
- Analysis of the Kerry Blog data included retrieving and storing data after the campaign blog went down and looking through code for time stamping, names, comments, etc.
- SQL uses robust macro analysis – this technique was employed to retrieve the data
- Power law applies the notion of early entrance and continuity
- Surface level burstiness maps to real world events – this a very significant finding
Run a search for author Sharon Meraz at http://www.allacademic.com
Meraz, Sharon. “Using Blogs to Extend the Public Sphere? Data Mining the John Kerry Candidate Blog for Networked Community Structure Dynamics” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Dresden International Congress Centre, Dresden, Germany, 2009-02-05
MIT website | blogging about blogging | the power of metrics
Blogging began as a form of public/individual reflection. Savvy marketers realized blogging provided a new channel to communicate persuasively so the nature/purpose of this communication channel changed rapidly.
According to Wikipedia they are many different types of blogs:
- Corporate Blogs – enhance corporate communication. [ Google's Blog ]
- Genre Blogs – blogs which focus on a particular subject
[ Suing Google over Adsense ]
[ Oberman wants Scarborough fired] - Personal Blogs – ongoing diary or commentary
- Question Blogs – can use RSS syndication to convey answers
- Media Type Blogs -inserting media like photos, videos, etc.
- Device Type Blogs -defined by the device used to compose it…on my blackberry….maybe a microblog would be easier
What category/categories apply to BoingBoing, the world’s most popular blog?
What does blogging have to do with MIT’s website?
MIT Media Labs – launched the blogdex project to determine the social property of blogs. Visit MIT’s website. This site gets almost 2,000,000 unique visitors per month. The web team is really doing their job. MIT changes the home page daily. Is this is a case of breaking the rules once the rules are known?
This is what the site says about itself: The MIT web sites host more than 1,118,000 documents and receive more than 7,000,000 hits per day from all over the world. The image and background colors on the MIT home page change daily to call attention to each new spotlight. The MIT logo shown above is the graphical key to the background designs on the second-level pages. These pages use an enlarged and cropped logo as a background to bring together the categories of life at MIT. The MIT site is sponsored by Information Services & Technology (IS&T) and Public Relations Services (PRS).
Getting back to metrics. You can’t improve what you can’t measure. Objective measurements are more valuable than subjective ones. Compete is a great analytical resource. I am taking some MBA courses at Southern Connecticut State University. Compete tells me that the design and content of the MIT site is more compelling than the design of the SCSU website. How? Simple! Compete proves it…metrically. This is information I could effectively use to influence policy within an organization.
More things for me to consider for the next few posts.
- Why Tags are important for advertising and promotion on the internet.
- Blogs are ranked by Technorati based on the number of incoming links….links are the roads of the internet.
- Mainstream journalists write blogs.
- There are Legal Liabilites and unforseen consequences of blogs.
- Blogs are harder to control than traditional media….leverage the lack of control.
- I learned something new today – MIT’s unique unit of measurement is the Smoot.
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