Balihoo

Mexican fast food chain Del Taco took its Facebook fan base from roughly 20,000 to nearly 60,000 in just seven weeks after launching their Facebook-based "The Del Taco Super Special Show".   

Del Taco vice president of marketing John Cappasola says that their new, multiplatform marketing approach will hopefully help to broaden their customer base. "Looking at our position in the category, it's important that we find ways to extend our reach as efficiently as possible," Cappasola says. "We knew that integrating what we were doing—a traditional media approach—with social media was going to be really important for us."

The QSR brand is continually monitoring impressions, click-throughs and other metrics and using that information to tweak their placement of online and social media ads for the show, as well as the creative and offers featured.  For example, online ads are now relying on both coupons AND viral tools to encourage current fans to recruit their friends and family to become Del Taco Facebook fans.

Great to see that the Mexican chain is also using Twitter to promote the show and other special offers/coupons. It is great to see how tightly their complete franchise marketing plan seems to be tied together. (They are incorporating shoutouts to their Facebook page (specifically to The Del Taco Super Special Show") in numerous media forms (radio, tv, print, etc.)

While Del Taco is relatively late to the game with Facebook, they are proving that even for for a late-adopter, social networking can greatly impact one's franchise marketing strategy and local internet marketing efforts!

• Greatest Generation: born prior to 1946 (Ages: 65-plus)
• Boomers: 1946-1964 (Ages: 46-64)
• Generation X: 1965-1976 (Ages: 34-45)
• Millennials: 1977-1994 (Ages: 16-33)
  
  With our beloved Boomers struggling, we are turning to the Gen X and Gen Y demos, with their disposable incomes, technology addictions and consumption-happy habits to perk things up.
  
  Anyone with a medium sized family can see at a glance that there are some huge differences between how these three demographics go about consuming media - How do you seek out products or services? What media types do you turn to (or perhaps have attached to you) every day? Now compare your answers to those of your younger cousin, grandmother, nephew, father, etc...... While Boomers are more apt to still rely on their daily newspaper or respond to direct mail flyers, Gen X and Y'ers are far more likely to rely on the internet for both new and entertainment and are more likely to respond positively to email marketing and mobile coupons. 
  
  Been dragging your feet when it comes to looking into local internet marketing? Now is the time to take a step back and consider who your most viable target audience is - there is a good chance that your Yellow Page or radio spot just isn't worth the investment anymore.
  As a small business, how are you planning on getting your local advertising in front of this audience? Perhaps it time to mix up your local store marketing and media planning strategy?

Many moons ago I wrote of an epic Balihoo vs. Wild journey into the depths of the Hells Canyon Wilderness. At the end of that article, I promised our loyal blog roll that I would keep them abreast of Balihoo’s next expedition into the wilderness. At the time, there were quiet murmurs of a First Annual Winter Yurt Trip. I sadly report that such a journey never took place and is still a coming of age tale. Several of our large outdoor apparel/gear sponsors backed out at the last minute due to ‘unexpected market conditions’ leaving us without sufficient financial backing to commence our research-driven exploratory journey. I personally think those sponsors could have weathered the economic storm had they taken advantage of Balihoo’s Local Marketing Automation platform but that’s neither here nor there and is best conveyed in one of my previous blogs titled, Outdoor Adventures in Co-op Advertising.

So while the Yurt Trip never took place, I am pleased to announce that we did manage to recently dawn our sub zero degree down jackets, resembling the fearless infantry of the 10^th Mountain Division circa 1943, and hit the slopes at our favorite alpine skiing venue. To those of you who don’t reside in the Treasure Valley, Bogus Basin may not mean much to you. But for those of us who call this area home, well… we look at Bogus Basin as 'The Matterhorn of the Boise Alps'. A group of eleven Balihoo winter-sport extraordinaires impressed bystanders (Caribou, Wolves, Grizzly Bears and even a Yeti) with a dazzling display of 360 Helicopters, Daffys and Backscratchers. Après Backscratcher, was greeted with delicious nutrient enriched hot toddys at BaseCamp to cure our aching muscles, halt frostbite and reduce the side-effects of our early-stage Pulmonary Edema (a medical condition most commonly developed at high altitudes).

All-in-all, it was another stunning display of the can-do and will-do mindset of Balihoo’s team and an even further testament to what makes this place so unique. Its the people folks. We’ve got great people.

Please stay tuned for the next Balihoo vs. Wild journey coming this Spring. Planning for a record-breaking cross-country bicycle trek are already in the works.
 

This post, Local Franchisee Marketing - 10 Things You Need to Know, was originally written and posted by Shane Vaughan on our old blog on 7/14/09.

Balihoo recently penned an article for one of our favorite sites for franchise news - Blue MauMau.  Article can be seen here, or you can read the full article below!  

Local Franchisee Marketing - 10 Things You Need to Know 

If you’re a franchisee, you’re probably already doing some local marketing — even if it’s just listing your business in the local Yellow Pages.  Think additional advertising will cost too much?  Think you don’t need an online presence?  Or does “online presence” seem to be the opposite of “local media”?

In fact, every company, no matter how large or small, can benefit from using local media effectively.  And it doesn’t have to break your budget!  Here’s a list of the Top Ten things you need to know to make Local Marketing work for you. 

1.  Know Your Target Audience.

First, last, and always:  Pay attention to your target market!  If you’re not focused on your customers, you cannot hope to win their attention — or their business. 

Be specific about who you’re trying to reach.  Men?  Women?  Retirees? Mothers?  Sports Fans? Chinchilla owners?  People with other particular interests?  Other small businesses, such as real-estate firms?  Dental offices? 

Now that you’ve clearly defined your target audience, consider what marketing messages will resonate with them.  What problem does your product or service solve for them?  Think carefully about where you should position your communications so your target audience will see, read — and act on them.

If possible, develop a “profile” of your target customer.  Give them a name to easily refer to them, let’s use “Katie” for an example.  Where does Katie work?  Is she married?  Kids?  What does she do in her free time?  What is Katie’s household income?  The more specific, the better. 

2.  Measure, Measure, Measure. 

There’s an old saying, “Half the money you spend on advertising is wasted, and you don’t know which half.”  Unfortunately, this is true in many cases, but it doesn’t have to be.  Careful planning and – most importantly, measurement, ensures your advertising is working hard for your business.    

It’s all about ROI — Return On Investment.  This may sound complicated, but it’s actually pretty easy to calculate.  Simply take the benefit you receive from an investment, and subtract the cost of that investment.  Divide the result by the cost of that investment.  (Benefit - Cost)/Cost. 

You can apply this to any business investment, including marketing campaigns.  And you should.  ROI tells you if a given effort is providing a net benefit to your bottom line, and if so, the size of the gain.  You’ll want to get the highest ROI possible from your marketing dollars, and you can’t improve what you don’t measure.   

3.  Buy Media; Don’t Be Sold

Strategically buy your media, don’t allow yourself to be “sold.”  Make sure you evaluate all options, across all communications channels, not just whoever happens to knock on your door.  And evaluate them in terms of their effectiveness for your target market, not necessarily in terms of your personal interests!

Also, make sure that any reps who call on you know you’re considering other placement; they will probably sweeten their rates.

4.  Integrate Your Marketing Messages.

Don’t spend all of your marketing dollars on a single medium.  Why not?  Because multi-channel marketing efforts perform better.  In one study, over a few years multi-channel customers spent at least several hundred dollars more in comparison with single-channel customers.  Multiply that difference by your total number of customers, and you can see there’s real value to be had.

As you venture into multi-channel marketing, be sure to integrate your marketing.  You’ll need to convey the same message across all channels.

And don’t forget some powerful experiential channels that many small franchises overlook.  Your storefront or office, your signage, your employees, and your product are all sending messages of their own.  Are those experiential messages consistent with your advertising messages?  Are they consistent with the message you want to send?

5.  Relations With Local Media.

The thing to remember about local media is that when your business is down, so is theirs.   Just like you, your local media want long-term repeatable revenue in a down economy.  They want to keep your business!  This means now is the time to renegotiate your contracts.

This is especially true of local print media.  Understand the downward pricing pressure exerted on these media by the power of the internet:  In 2008, print classified ad spend was down to about half what it was in 2000!  Blame Craigslist, Google, and Yahoo — then put this knowledge to work for you.

6. Newspapers Are Still a Valid Option.

Although readership is shrinking, newspapers are still a valid local advertising option. 

Particularly in smaller markets, newspapers carry more weight with the local audience. 

Older readers in particular continue to rely on newspapers, especially for local info.

But make sure you supplement ad placement in the print version with placement on the newspaper’s own on-line presence.  In 2008, newspapers actually accounted for over one-quarter of all local online advertising!

And consider writing up a press release announcing your company’s opening, refurbishment, website, sale, or upcoming special event — anything that could be seen as “news.”  Get it out to your local papers.  They may not take it, but they might if they need to fill a spot in a hurry.   

7.   Digital Works Locally.

You say you don’t think of interactive or online media as being “local”? 

In fact, local online advertising is expected to grow 6% in 2009, to a total spend of $13.3 Billion.  In a broader sense, local digital media includes things like Google Maps, Yahoo Local, and online yellow pages.  These are growing too.

Local search is also a powerful tool, increasingly replacing printed Yellow Pages.  People used to “let their fingers do the walking;” now it’s the mouse!  Local search is when a potential customer uses a search engine to find your kind of business, adding the name of your city or town.  When that happens, you want that customer to see your company’s link — front and center!

8.  Build Your Online Presence — Beyond Your Own Website.

Local search will work more effectively for you if you have your own website — and get it on the first page of search results.

To rise in the search rankings, your site needs to have relevant keywords but not appear “keyword-stuffed” — containing nothing but keywords and no useful knowledge.

A single website is not enough; keywords are not enough.  Search engines also take into account how many websites have links to yours.  This is an indication of how useful and relevant your content is. 

You can build links to your website from your own Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter pages.  This will help you rise in the search rankings.  But it means you need to have a strategic plan for your online presence, and commit resources to implementing it.

9. Build a Relationship.  

Attracting a new customer costs about 5 times as much as keeping an existing one.  To control your customer acquisition costs, therefore, you need to build an emotional connection between your customers and your brand.  (And yes, all companies have a brand, even if they don’t realize it!)

To do this, foster a relationship with your customers outside of the buying interaction. 

Direct mail, email, social media, blogs, and Twitter can all contribute.

10.  Email Marketing Is Your Friend.

Once you build up a solid email list, email marketing is relatively inexpensive and highly targeted.  If done right, you know you are communicating a relevant message to motivated customers who want a relationship with you.  That’s a marketer’s dream!

How do you build your own email list?  Offer a “membership” campaign on your website.  Give something of value exclusively to members (i.e., discount coupon, etc.) in return for their email addresses.  Make sure you respect their privacy and take care in how you use customer contact info — and tell them about your privacy commitment.

• Don’t spam your customers.  Use a “preference center” on your website that will allow customers to tell you how often they want to hear from you, and on what topics.
• Frequency:  Daily; Weekly; Only when there’s a sale? 
• Potential Topics:  Arrival of new merchandise; Monthly newsletter containing tips & how-to advice; When you have an event just for “members;” Only when you’re about to have a sale? 

Then, respect that preference!  Nothing is more annoying to a customer (and therefore destructive of the relationship you’re trying to build) than when they’ve told a company their preferences — and then that company ignores them. 

There you have it:  The Top 10 Things You Need To Know About Local Franchise Marketing.  It isn’t just the Yellow Pages any more!

This post, Bathroom Advertising, was originally posted by Shane Vaughan on our old blog.

In the past decade, in-bathroom advertising has become an important staple in many a marketers arsenal of communication methods.  Marketers love it - a truly captive audience, their attention is directed at the space in front of them for approximately 90 seconds with nothing else to do but read your ad.  It’s also naturally a fantastic method to targeting gender-specific messages with 100% accuracy (I would hope!).  Additionally, the ads reach the audience typically most coveted by marketers, 21-35 year olds in a social setting, which suggests a group with disposable income who like to go out and spend money.
 

Whether you like the concept of advertising in the bathroom or not, it’s hard to argue with the metrics as seen in this Barbour & Monroe survey:

• 84% Recalled seeing specific advertisements in the restrooms
• 92% Were able to name specific advertisers without prompting
• 88% Recalled at least 4 selling points in the ads surveyed
• 98% Reacted positively or neutral to seeing ads in restroom facilities 

  This particular medium is an excellent example of the value the Balihoo provides businesses and brands with local advertising needs. Bathroom advertising companies are typically local, which makes them very difficult for marketers to find and buy their ad inventory.  Working with Balihoo, we can help you find local advertising options (bathrooms if need be) in nearly every market!
   

For 2.5 years now, we at Balihoo have applied, practiced, refined and tweaked agile development concepts to create a highly functioning and well oiled product development process.  Yes, we still have issues - the real world and a constantly changing marketplace will do that to you.  Our process is still evolving to this day and will continue to do so to support the changing face of our company, but in general it is stable and predictable which is a great feat as anyone in software will tell you.

Our chosen path for product development started with a flavor of Agile called Scrum.  You see Agile is not a methodology as some might suggest - it is a mind-set.  At its core it is about

·             Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

·             Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

·             Responding to change over following a plan

I say we started with a flavor of Agile called Scrum.  The thing is  - every company and situation are different.  People who fail with Agile are looking for a cookbook.  Agile, Scrum, XP or any of the other buzzwords thrown around are not cookbooks, and if you try and treat them as such you will end up abandoning the concept as ‘great idea but won’t work here’.  It takes effort, experimentation, and hard work to figure out what works best in any organization, but the payoffs can be great.

One of the key concepts used in Scrum that we have kept, is the concept of a morning stand up or more affectionately known as the morning scrum.   At its core the morning scrum is really a communication tool with an underlying theme of self organization.  It is focused on:

·             shared commitment

·             communicating daily status, progress and plans

·             identifying obstacles so the team can take steps to remove them

·             setting direction and focus

·             building a team

On the surface, it might sound like any other meeting, but it is much more than that.  (You can learn more about how a morning standup/scrum is organized in software development here)  For example, it takes place  every morning, everyone stands, its only 15 minutes, and its organized around 3 basic questions. They are:

·             What did I accomplish yesterday?

·             What do I plan to accomplish today?

·             What roadblocks or issues are standing in my way ?

There is actually a 4th one that could be used at the manager scrum: What other teams will I impact by what I am doing?

As an organization we decided that it might be worth adopting this concept across all teams in the organization separately.  Of course it would need to lose some of the software development nuances, but again - thinking about underlying concepts and purpose we thought it would be an excellent tool for other/all groups to increase the rate of communication without sacrificing time,  drive issue ownership and resolution more quickly, and generally get the day going with a bang.

Now, a few weeks into this experiment we have all teams carrying out a planning exercises (mostly on a calendar month basis), track ’stories’ (goals) on a visual board and communicate status to their teammates with with a standup each morning.  I know that some will say: ‘That wouldn’t work for us because of the work we do’….  We have account management, sales and even our creative development team trying and adapting the concept.

In addition the management team is also doing it as well, which comes with additional challenges due to the typical cross functional nature of the work, the sheer diversity of items worked on, and ensuring that we  do not duplicate items that are already being managed by sub teams.

(Image: Balihoo Mgmt Team Scrum Tracking board)

Everyone is still trying to figure out how to make the concept best work for their teams, but early feedback is already positive.  For example, At the management level, we have dropped our bi-weekly mgmt meetings now, and they only come on the calendar for special topics.  We have had a number of people in the organization say that the morning scrums get everyone energized and focused for the day, and almost universally everyone agrees that the near real time, quick view of what’s going on around, helps keep important information flowing and helps drive issues to resolution much faster.

Only time will tell how things evolve and change, but for now we will continue to iterate and adapt the process to fit our demanding organizational needs.   Many startups call themselves agile as a synonym to chaos, however with simple tools like the morning scrum, it can start to feel a little more organized and maintaining or even increasing the organizations agility.

I am a self-professed magazine fien. I currently subscribe to (gasp) 11 magazines (Real Simple, Runners World, The Week, Glamour, Shape, US Weekly, Women’s Health, Bon Apetite, Outside, Self, and Cooking Light). I pay between $7.99 and $64.95 for each subscription.

Over the past month, I have been amazed at some of the deals that have arrived in my mailbox. It seems that almost all of my subscription fees have been drastically cut. So a few weeks ago when I saw this AdAge article, it didn't really surprise me. A whopping two-thirds of the 344 magazines analyzed have dropped their per-copy subscription prices. Even more interesting – the price choppers are continuing to lose subscribers.

The less money magazines generate from subscribers, the more publishers depend on advertising dollars. Only, as anyone in the advertising world knows, print advertising dollars aren’t as easy to come by as they once were. In addition, the less a reader has to pay to obtain the magazine, the less they may value the magazine (and thereby the advertising brands that they are exposed to). It isn’t clear though, whether a subscription purchased at a drastically reduced cost provides as valuable of a reader for advertisers as a subscription that is actively sought out.

If single-copy purchasers, subscribers AND advertisers are all less willing to ante up and both single-copy sales and subscriptions are down, what should magazines do?  For many, they are turning more attention to their websites. For example, Runners World, Real Simple and Cooking Light have fantastic websites (I know because I have all three bookmarked). I spend more time online than I do reading, watching television, listening to the radio, etc. If your target demographic includes someone like me, turning to local internet marketing would be a good bet.

While I love my magazines, they more often than not fuel my love of the internet - I often "get my chef on" (as my husband calls it) with a recipe I pull from one of my favorite magazine's websites AFTER perusing my coveted magazine collection. With the economy in its current state, affordable, effective local marketing ideas are a necessity, it comes as no surprise that more and more neighborhood businesses are amping up their local advertising efforts. If you are a local business owner and haven't changed your local advertising strategy in ages, take another look at your online options, you might be surprised at who is online and how affordable it is to get in front of them.

Note:  This post originally appeared on the old Balihoo blog on 01/26/09

Balihoo’s Director of Media Buying Katie Bergerud wrote the below article for the Idaho Statesman’s ‘Starting Up’ series early last year. Katie shares her abundant knowledge and provides useful information for any local business trying to determine how to market during this formidable economic time.

Read her full article here:

Starting Up: Tough Times are the Right Time for an Integrated Marketing Plan

Originally Published: February 26, 2009

One of my favorite mantras is, “The greatest fortunes are made in down markets.” A reason for this is that as an economy decelerates, the cost of goods and services required to build a company correspondingly decreases. Among these costs are the media space and advertising services required to market your company.

Savvy marketers know that during a recession, their competitors will reduce marketing expenses, thereby creating an opportunity to grab market share at a relatively low cost. While advertising costs are down today, over the past few years media options have grown exponentially and become more sophisticated. So you should take this downturn as an opportunity to refurbish your marketing strategy.

My company, Balihoo, offers software and services that allow franchisees to market locally. We have a bird’s-eye view of marketing trends and a wealth of experience helping companies leverage the down market to boost sales.

There is no universal marketing strategy that I can advocate. Every company has to reach different audiences and offer varying messages, thus you will need to develop your own plan. However, I can offer one general approach in light of this economy and the modern advertising tools you have at your disposal: Build an integrated marketing plan, negotiate the heck out of it, measure performance, and adjust your media mix accordingly.

Now is the time to build a marketing plan that uses multiple, coordinated advertising media - otherwise known as an integrated plan. You know your demographic best, so select media that give you best access to your target audience. Further, your plan should have clear goals and measurable objectives aligned with your strategy. Ensure you differentiate between brand-building tactics, which should have longer-term objectives and measurements, and direct response tactics, which will yield shorter-term results and different metrics to measure them.

Ad sellers are caught in the same economic pinch as you - they have goals to meet and abundant competition, and they will negotiate. Shop around for the best advertising rates, which may mean exploring new media. For example, even if you’ve never advertised on radio, it doesn’t hurt to see what radio stations are offering. So long as that medium offers adequate access to your demographic, such exploration may lead to a more cost-effective medium.

Build a strategy that puts return on investment first and construct metrics that measure performance. An important first step is to choose media that allow you to measure performance whether it’s through an online tool, report or service offered by the media vendor, or through tactics you implement, like varying phone numbers or referral codes in different ads.

While tracking results by medium is important, with an integrated campaign you’ll need to measure results holistically across all activities to know when one activity might be affecting another. For example, if you are concurrently running Internet and newspaper ads, a significant portion of your leads could come from Web searches people conduct after seeing your newspaper ad. Failing to account for this could make you over-value online advertising and misappropriate ad dollars in the future. Tracking these interactions will be challenging, but to see the whole picture you should combine your per-medium metrics with old-fashioned customer feedback. Ask customers what first drove them to your business.

The advertisement itself is as important as the medium you choose. Whenever possible, test different ads within the same medium to measure which is more effective. As you see different approaches or media winning over others, be ready to reallocate ad dollars to the winning combination. Perhaps the best advice I can give is to stick to your plan despite the recession. By advertising when others aren’t, you will be able to relatively increase your brand awareness, then leverage it to gain even more market share once consumers start to spend again.

Katie Bergerud recently relocated from Seattle to join Balihoo in Boise, where she is director of media buying.

She can be reached at kbergerud@balihoo.com.

Starting Up is a series published on Thursdays. The columns grew from discussions between the Statesman and local tech and entrepreneurial leaders and are coordinated by Julie Howard, a marketing specialist for the Idaho Department of Commerce. Reach her at julie.howard@commerce.idaho.gov.

Now that we are  just a month and a half away from May, a “special” (and sometimes, borderline foul) month around the Balihoo office, I thought it was time to send out an early reminder to our 'manly' men (and their incredibly tolerant wives). In anticipation for this great month of mustached madness, we decided to bring back a blog post from our old blog.

This post, Mustache May, was originally posted by Alex Fascilla on 5/21/10 on our old blog.

Every May, the male employees of Balihoo rekindle a tradition that has endured nearly two years now of snickering, prickling, and general distaste. This month, this celebration that sits at the precipice of spring and summer, that ‘creeps out’ most and disgusts others, has come to be known as the Month of the Mustache.  That’s correct, a mustache: that ever-distinguishing strip of hair that adorns the space above a man’s upper lip.

With just the slightest nudge from Balihoo, the man’s mustache currently enjoys a renaissance of sorts in our post-millennial world.  Granted, this renaissance currently faces an overwhelming oppressive force spearheaded by the opposite sex, but with our ‘staches worn like a badge, we should, nay, will, overcome any obstacle that stands in our collective way.  I encourage you, reader, to frequent the offices of Balihoo during this time to offer your encouragement and support.  Without your well-wishes, the man’s ‘stache is dangerously close to being shaved from the face of this earth.

It is also my firm belief that Balihoo should not be the only purveyor of fine mustaches during this majestic month of May maturation.  I strongly promote participation across all sectors of business.  I call upon you, healthcare providers, and you, civil engineers, and you, carnival workers, to will the hair below your nose to blossom so we can demonstrate to the world the amazing ‘stachodiversity present in our limitless human gene pool.  I ask that you keep your head held high and your ‘stache even higher as we usher in a new era in human history: The Bristle Age.

(NOTE: this era only lasts for the month of May of each year because let’s be honest: these mustaches we sport are super gross)

On the heels of our recent successful on-time launch of the next version of our Local Marketing Automation platform, I though I would go back and revisit what we have accomplished over the past few months and some of what lead up to this initiative.

From a macro perspective, it might actually be considered almost textbook SaaS (Software as a Service)development: Build and prototype quickly, get customers early, get feedback, drive to early revenue, continue iterating the product features and re-architect the technology in a just-in-time fashion.  Then, of course add in your typical startup constraints - budget limitations, resource constraints, just to spice things up!

Let me first take you back to the dog days of summer in August 08 when we launch what might now be called the beta release of our Local Marketing Automation platform (although we resisted the convention of actually calling it a beta) with our first set of customers.  The application showed immediate value, and our user base grew quickly.  However, by December of 2008, it became obvious that from an operational and scale perspective we had a few issues that might get worse given our current trajectory.  Additionally, aggregated customer support call data indicated a number of recurring themes, in addition to feedback from the field with potential clients showing some leading indicators of potential cracks that might become problematic when our growth track continued.  All of these diverse data points were indicating a need for a larger revolutionary overhaul over the current evolutionary development model.

January 2009: In addition to our standard ongoing iterative development process, we began brainstorming ideas for how the application could be redesigned to make a revolutionary leap forward.  We did this with a user-centric approach, starting at the user interface and worked backwards into more of the technical aspects of the design.  Even though our product falls under the B2B application space, our focus was to designing it for a B2C user from a design and usability perspective.  We wanted to make the application intuitive and usable, without the need for extensive training.  We first looked at other sites that were popular on the web that had related functions and worked well in the consumer world.  We then took these design concepts, mixed them with our domain expertise and applied them to our product.  This first produced a few hand drawn mocks, followed with some more functional screen flows put together in PowerPoint.

Next, we shopped these around to our all teams internally - sales, marketing with a deep focused on the groups that interacted with the app and our customers directly (inside sales, account mgmt, support).  They were our best window to our customers without the time or luxury for extensive market research.  Along with this, we presented the conceptual flows to our current client base.  From here, we moved forward by presenting the concepts to a select set of actual end-user customers identified by our account management team.  Looking back at my files there were at least a dozen major revisions through these prototyping exercises with many many more minor tweaks.

Now that we had a good idea of where we were going, the next step was to engage our creative team, who then gave the life to our wire-frames as they would appear in the real application.  This also served as an exercise in breaking down our interface into named visual components to support a common language when talking with our technical team.  This turned out to be a critical factor in ensuring we could develop the solution at breakneck speed.

So, to give some perspective - we did all of the above over a 2.5 month timeframe through Mid-March as a side project, while we still continuing to do iterative development to enhance the existing product (being extremely careful not to develop things that would likely be thrown away with the upcoming redesign).

In March we started working with our technical team on design to see what the new concepts would mean to the underlying architecture (data and business logic).  It indicated large changes - but for the better.  We would be able to throw out a lot of things and build new structures that would support our customers more effectively.  (In the end 80+% of our data structure and code base would be rebuilt).

In April we started the first of two formal development sprints with stabilization periods between each that would span a total of approximately 12 weeks.  In that periods of time, the product and development teams (with the support of the rest of the company) carried out a Herculean effort of rapid design and development - making constant adjustments as new issues arose.

About 4 weeks into the effort we locked down our release date to June 15.  This was critical to support ongoing sales efforts and work with clients to support their internal planning.  Due to the large number of dependencies and the scope of the change, about 6 weeks in, we had to start managing the overall effort with more of a ‘traditional software project management’ technique to incorporate all of the other pieces required for a release of this magnitude (customer transition & training efforts, outbound communication, cross company testing etc.)  However, at the core we continued to follow agile development principals, and the agile mind-set.

The cut-over was planned on a weekend, to give us the most time to react to any issues with the deployment.  We used almost all of the hours in that weekend to upgrade, convert customer data and validate to ensure a successful go-live on Monday morning.  On Monday June 15 the latest release of our Local Marketing Automation platform went live! … breath.

In retrospect, here is what I would consider to be our 5 key success factors for this redesign:

• Relentless focus on the customer, and letting form drive function
• Domain knowledge backed up with real world experience from the beta allowing us to design/build rapidly and make fast decisions
• Fanatical focus on prioritization to time-box the effort
• A passionate product and engineering team with a ‘lets getr done’ attitude
• An all hands on deck mentality across the company to support the product release where and when needed

Within days of launch, feedback has started rolling in from the our support team and through our customer transition/training webinars being held.  Here is a quote our support team received on day 2:

“I just wanted to say thank you for what you’ve done with the tool.  I had a list of things that I wanted to see changed, and this new version has covered almost all of them.  I really appreciate the changes you’ve made.  It is a lot more user friendly.”

Of course you can never sit on your laurels for very long as constant improvement is a must to stay competitive, but at the end of the day this is really what product development is all about. A satisfied, excited customer.

Active Network – twitter.com/activenetwork
Amazon – twitter.com/amazon

American Airlines - twitter.com/AAirwaves
Anthropologie – twitter.com/anthropologie

Baskin-Robbins – twitter.com/BaskinRobbins
Barefoot Wine - twitter.com/barefootwine
Ben & Jerry’s – twitter.com/cherrygarcia

Best Buy - twitter.com/bestbuy

Bigelow Tea – twitter.com/bigelowtea
BMW - twitter.com/bmw

Bojangles – twitter.com/gottawannaneeda
Bosco Chocolate Syrup – twitter.com/scott_so
Build-A-Bear Workshop - twitter.com/buildabear
Cabela’s - twitter.com/cabelas

Cabot Cheese – twitter.com/cabotcoop
Cadbury – twitter.com/CadburyFriends

Carpet One Floor & Home - twitter.com/carpetone
Charm City Burger – twitter.com/charmcityburger
ComputerGeeks – twitter.com/ComputerGeeks
Constant Contact – twitter.com/ctcthelp
Dairy Queen - twitter.com/dairyqueen
Dell – twitter.com/Direct2Dell
Delta - twitter.com/DeltaAirLines
Dippin’ Dots – twitter.com/realdippindots

Discovery Channel – twitter.com/DiscoveryChPR
Domino’s Pizza - twitter.com/dominos
DunkinDonuts – twitter.com/DunkinDonuts
Eastbay – twitter.com/Eastbay
Etsy - twitter.com/etsy
Fast Company – twitter.com/fastcompany
Fiji Water - twitter.com/FIJIWater
Flooring America - twitter.com/flooringamerica
Flying Dog Beer – twitter.com/flyingdog
Ford Trucks – twitter.com/fordtrucks
ForRent.com – twitter.com/AptsForRent
Gandolfo’s NY Deli - twitter.com/gandolfos
Gatorade – twitter.com/Gatorade

GM Trucks – twitter.com/GMtruckclub
Greenling Organic – twitter.com/greenling_com
GU Energy – twitter.com/GUenergy
H&R Block – twitter.com/HRBlock
Harley Davidson – twitter.com/harleydavidson
Hertz – twitter.com/connectbyhertz
Home Depot – twitter.com/thehomedepot
HP Snapfish – twitter.com/snapfishbyhp
Ikea Fans – twitter.com/ikeafans
Infusionsoft – twitter.com/Infusionsoft
Inkfruit – twitter.com/inkfruit
iPhone – twitter.com/iphone
Jetblue – twitter.com/JetBlue
Joost – twitter.com/joost_com
Kodak – twitter.com/kodakCB
Landor.com – twitter.com/landor_dot_com
Lands End – twitter.com/LandsEndChat
Lilly Pulitzer - twitter.com/xxlilly

L’Express – twitter.com/LEXPRESS
M&M’S – Ms. Green –twitter.com/mmsgreen

Magicomm – twitter.com/magicomm
MarketingProfs – twitter.com/marketingprofs
Marriott – twitter.com/MarriottIntl
McDonald’s –twitter.com/mcdonalds

MGM Grand Hotel and Casino – twitter.com/mgmgrand

Moxie Java (Boise) - twitter.com/moxie_java
Nestle - twitter.com/nestle

Nike Basketball – twitter.com/nikebasketball

Nordstrom – twitter.com/nordstrom

North Face – twitter.com/thenorthface
nuBound- twitter.com/nuBound

Pancheros Mexican Grill – twitter.com/pancheros
Parts Express – twitter.com/Parts_Express
Patagonia – twitter.com/patagonia

Pepsi – twitter.com/pepsi

PizzaHut - twitter.com/pizzahut
PlanetGreen – twitter.com/planetgreen
Playboy – twitter.com/Playboy
popchips – twitter.com/popchips
Popeye’s Chicken – twitter.com/PopeyesChicken
Quiznos –twitter.com/quiznos

Red Hat – twitter.com/redhatnews
REI - twitter.com/REI_CoOp  

Ron’s Home And Hardware – twitter.com/rons
Rubbermaid – twitter.com/Rubbermaid
Sacre Bleu Wine – twitter.com/sacrebleuwine

Safeway - twitter.com/safeway
Salesforce.com – twitter.com/successforce
Scuba Diver Girls – twitter.com/scubadivergirls
SEGA – twitter.com/segaamerica
Share Our Strength – twitter.com/sharestrength
Sierra Trading Post – twitter.com/sierratp
Southwest Airlines – twitter.com/southwestair
Starbucks – twitter.com/starbucks

Subway –twitter.com/subwayfreshbuzz

Taco Bell – twitter.com/TacoBellTruck

Tasti D-Lite - twitter.com/Tastidlite
The Oregonian – twitter.com/oregonian
The Sims3 – twitter.com/thesims3
TheHandbagShop – twitter.com/thehandbagshop
Thomson Reuters – twitter.com/thomsonreuters
Thomson Reuters Careers – twitter.com/TRCareers
Tiara Hotels & Resorts – twitter.com/TiaraHotels
Tillamook Cheese – twitter.com/TillamookCheese

Times Online – twitter.com/timesonline
Trader Joe’s – twitter.com/traderjoes
Triathlete Magazine – twitter.com/TriathleteMag
TurboTax – twitter.com/turbotax
Urban Outfitters – twitter.com/UrbanOutfitters

Vera Bradley - twitter.com/VeraBradley

Vitamin Water - twitter.com/vitaminwater
VIBE Magazine – twitter.com/VibeMagazine
Virgin – twitter.com/virgindotcom

Volvo (US) - twitter.com/VolvoCars_US
Wachovia – twitter.com/Wachovia
Weight Watchers – twitter.com/weightwatchers

It’s an idiom the advertising industry has tossed around for years: grab the low hanging fruit.  These are the people already looking for a particular product or service, they know what they want, they’re familiar with an established company, and all they need is a little nudge to get them walking in the door to spend money. 

But what about the high hanging fruit?  The people content with the status quo who aren’t looking to try something new or different.  Appealing to this group is particularly challenging for service companies that must rely on their prospective clients to proactively reach out in order to engage with a new company.  

I’m going to throw myself in the category of the high hanging fruit.  I’m quite positive I’ve stuck with the same handful of companies my entire life that are providing crucial services including tax preparation, financial planning, and insurance.  In order to prompt me to try a new company, I would need to be convinced that what I’ve been doing for the last 10 or so years is not the best option, that it would be worth it to schedule an appointment in my already packed schedule, or that I actually need a new service I’m not currently utilizing.

Many of the service companies actively looking for new clients are running national campaigns that have done well to establish their respective brands as household names.  As an average Jane consumer, I enjoy watching the Aflac duck risk his life on a daily basis, I’m charmed by the Geico gecko, and I think the Fidelity green line is ingenious.  These memorable campaigns are great at keeping their brands top of mind and may be enough to attract the low hanging fruit, but I would argue that a more aggressive approach is sometimes needed in order to attract the consumer base a little further out of reach. 

To bridge the gap between advertisements that I, as a consumer, perceive as sheer entertainment and those that will influence my behavior, these companies need to complement their national campaigns with advertising strategies that deliver a more personalized touch.  Their services need to be presented as tangible and easy to obtain, I need to feel like a qualified potential client, and most importantly, I need to be assured that there is a real person behind the catchy message who wants to meet me and is waiting just down the street to be my new agent, advisor, or consultant. 

People in the high hanging fruit category like me don’t want to call 1-800 numbers and talk to someone across the country who doesn’t know us.  We’re perhaps a little too timid to walk into an office without a friendly invitation, and we might not even realize there is a local branch of a well-known company in our area.  Through local marketing efforts, these national companies can give me a map to their office, a picture of a person to meet, and phone number that will be answered by someone in my same county, let alone continent. 

National companies can equip their local affiliates with the tools and resources they need to complete the challenging puzzle of local advertising.  Witty campaigns are a great start, but co-op programs, locally customized advertising material, and a smart media planning strategy are what it takes to fill in the missing pieces.  These local marketing ideas can transform amusing ads into influential ads that will, (to continue with the allegory), give a tree a good shaking to knock the top fruits from their secure holding and bring them falling into the net below.