1 vs. 100: Marketing in the Face of Constrained Demand

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 by Zac Monahan

In 2008, the 100 Thing Challenge created quite a stir on the web, motivating people to own fewer material possessions and cap that ownership at 100 personal items. While Dave Bruno’s challenge lasted for a finite period, some analysts think recession fueled decreases in consumer spending may represent a permanent trend in consumer behavior.

When considered along with the 100 Thing Challenge, the idea of a permanent decreasing in spending leads to a challenging thought experiment for marketers: what if your advertising not only had to generate interest from consumers but also had to motivate them to displace another possession prior to acquiring your product?

The thought begs a number of questions:

How does your marketing emphasize the value your brand provides?
Would severely constrained demand change your approach to demonstrating this value?
If yes, would that approach be different in Albuquerque, New Mexico compared to Augusta, Maine?
How would you coordinate your efforts in different geographic areas across multiple mediums?

At Balihoo, we believe that knowledge and know-how to adapt marketing to local markets probably already exists within your Brand’s organization. Rather, what most brands are missing are the tools to execute locally. Balihoo’s local marketing software simplifies and automates your local marketing strategy, enabling national brands to collaborate with franchisees and affiliates to drive demand and appeal to local buyers with local needs. Specifically for national brands, Balihoo provides tools to streamline funds allocation and administrative oversight of Co-op Advertising programs. Take a look at our White Papers to see how our software can help both your franchisees, and affiliates to drive sales with creative and targeted campaigns tailored to the local level.

Let Us Organize Your Skittles

Friday, August 20, 2010 by Paul Price

Imagine a big jar filled with Skittles. The Skittles are randomly distributed throughout the jar; a jumbled mishmash of red, green, yellow, purple and orange. The jar is on a machine that shakes it vigorously. Now, imagine that this shaking action is captured on a video and played in reverse.

There is no way that you can tell the video is being played in reverse. When the video is played backward, the candies bounce just as they would when played forward. You have no way to know if the video is playing forward or in reverse.

Now, record a new video in your mind. This time, start with a jar where the Skittles are arranged in colored layers. Moving from the bottom to the top, you have red, green, yellow, purple and finally a orange layer. As the machine shakes the jar, the candies bounce and collide until they are again randomly distributed.

In this video, you can easily distinguish a forward playing recording from one that plays in reverse. This experiment illustrates the effect of entropy known as the arrow of time. The basic principle of this model is that without the help of an external exertion of energy, a system tends to become less ordered over time. Interestingly, this is the only physical property that seems to define the flow of time from past to future.

I got to thinking about this principle as I was mowing, weeding and maintaining my yard yesterday afternoon. Everything in life follows this principle: yards, cars, homes, computer systems, roads and even business strategies including your local advertising strategy. It will slowly fall apart and become less effective over time if you don't continually test, measure and refine it. For example, if local internet marketing was not a part of your strategy a few years ago, it may not have hurt your sales. But, today, if you aren't investing in local internet marketing, then you are almost certainly losing opportunities.

Even if you are executing a successful local pay-per-click campaign today, it is almost guaranteed to be less successful in the future if you don't continually test, measure and refine your approach. The same goes for all other mediums, strategies, tactics and local marketing ideas. You have to stay up-to-date on the new tools and techniques or your competitors who do keep up will leave you behind.

As a national brand, local affiliate, reseller or independent small business owner, you have a lot to worry about, and probably don't have time to get into the nuts and bolts of fighting local advertising entropy. That is where Balihoo comes in. We do that work for you; from ad builder software to email campaign automation, microsites and local media buying. Click here to take a look at some of our whitepapers and case studies. If you are a franchisee or product reseller, then direct your national brands to Balihoo, so that we can help them and you to get your skittles (aka: local store marketing strategy) to look more like this:

A Simple Thought on Simplicity

Monday, August 2, 2010 by Kelly Mason

“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.”

This sentiment by Longfellow has outlived its time. Longfellow was writing in the mid-1800's. If you were magically shot back to this era, think how quiet, how simple things would seem compared to today's world of iPod's and twitter and Jumbo Trons.

In building marketing software tools for local advertisers, this idea takes on a whole new level of importance. The more complicated the process, the harder it is to simplify, AND the more important it is to simplify.

You can have the coolest features ever, but if they're not usable, your users will call you out on it, as they should. When it comes to a new feature, take what you think should be there, and then strip it down to what absolutely needs to be there, and then make sure that is simple. When it comes to building local marketing software, which is complicated in its nature, it doesn't always work out that way, but I will continue to use this idea to check myself.

Transforming Granite

Monday, August 2, 2010 by Matt Borud

Last Saturday, Balihoo had the pleasure of presenting at the Granite Transformations annual franchise convention in New Orleans. Now this was a significant occasion for several reasons beyond franchise marketing - namely it being my first time in the Big Easy. After the celebration of Balihoo's arrival subsided, it was time to get down to business and talk local store marketing with some eager and engaged franchisees.

The marketing team at Granite Transformation has taken an active and aggressive approach to solving issues that countless franchise organizations face. How can a national marketing team better support local franchisees? Is your brand's creative material compelling and effective - does it help sell your product? How can your marketing team manage seemingly limitless local customizations for hundreds of franchisees across the country? How can you ensure your franchisees are using brand approved advertising material in their local advertising efforts, and how can you track and report on the results? How can your franchisees leverage Facebook, Twitter, local PR, SEO, blogs and YouTube? This list goes on and on - and frankly it requires much more than sophisticated ad builder software or someone to manage your local media buying. It requires a team of dedicated marketing experts each specializing in key challenge areas your franchisees face.

Kudos to Carl, the Granite Transformations FAC, and the rest of their marketing team for building a strong network of marketing and advertising experts for their franchisees to leverage. From PR to creative agency, online and social media marketing to franchise marketing software - Granite Transformation has covered their bases and giving their franchisees the tools necessary to thrive in a competitive and challenging market. There are certainly more hurdles to overcome, but the question becomes, whether you're a marketing executive, a franchisee looking for local marketing help, or a prospective franchisee checking out different opportunities - is your organization bold enough to take the steps Granite Transformations has taken to ensure they're franchisees have the most innovative local store marketing tools in the industry? If the answer to that question is 'no' - it may be time to reevaluate your franchise marketing strategies and talk with Balihoo about what we can do for your organization's marketing effort. Because at the end of the day, you're competing with Granite Transformations, whether for home improvement business, the consumer's limited budget and mindshare or your next well-qualified potential franchisees - and they just retooled like the Miami Heat.

From all of us at Balihoo, we're very excited to kick off our relationship with the Granite Transformations team next week. Thank you for your hospitality last weekend and the opportunity to partner - we're looking forward to a successful relationship!

The Local Marketing Puzzle

Friday, July 30, 2010 by Paul Price

Are you a local advertiser who is trying to figure out the most efficient way to drum up more business? A few years ago when asked about local marketing, a small business owner may have expressed the kind of frustration this cat is feeling:

It was kind of hard and frustrating, especially with no opposable thumbs. And, as in the case of a color blind cat, it was difficult to really understand the effectiveness and results of your efforts. That was then. Now local store marketing is something a little more akin to this:

You'd think that it would be getting easier, right? I can reach out to individual consumers with all this new whiz-bang technology, right? But with all of the fragmentation of publishers, and new complexity that sits between them and the advertiser it can be a pretty daunting task to just understand the landscape, let alone achieve tangible results. We're talking about agencies, ad servers, media buying platforms, creative optimization, analytics, data suppliers and aggregation, data optimizers, ad exchanges, ad networks, performance analysis, print ad builders, yield optimization, social tools, publisher tools, etc. How do you make sense of all of these puzzle pieces and get them to work together seamlessly?

At the end of the day you simply want more people to spend more money in your store. It would be really nice if it were handed to you like this:

Ok, nobody is going to hand you a completely solved marketing solution. Every business and market is different, there is no perfect one-size-fits-all solution. But the tools and expertise to help you get there are available. Check out our white papers and cases studies to see how Balihoo, the premier provider of local marketing software and services, can help you solve your local marketing puzzle so that you can spend more time chasing mice and playing with balls of yarn. Oops, I got my analogy a little mixed up.

The Czech Dream

Friday, July 23, 2010 by Phil Bear

Back in 2003, roughly 19 years after Ghostbusters was released in theaters, two Czech film makers decided to create a documentary about the impact that marketing has on people.

Their plan was a simple one. They would create a massive marketing campaign for a shopping mall, and its grand opening. Sounds pretty straight forward right? Wrong! The M Night Shyamalan twist? The shopping mall never has, and never will exist.

Looks like you just got air-bended.

The two film students, Remunda and Klusák, created a marketing campaign around a shopping mall called Czech Dream that was going to "open" a month from the start of the campaign. We're talking radio, television, billboards, and even a jingle.

When the big day arrived, and the 3000+ people that showed up for the opening walked towards the front of the "store", they found this:

Bruce Willis is dead the whole movie!!!!

The point the filmmakers were trying to make, from my perspective, is that we are all suckers for marketing. But it didn't strike me that way. Throughout the movie they are advertising legitimate items (be it celery, chain-link, or Ghostbusters on BluRay) with a good price. People in the film were showing up for specific things. They didn't show up because they were brainwashed by marketing.

Consumers have something they want or need. Marketing effectively is the way in which brands reach consumers about the products they, the consumer, already have interest in. How is this a bad thing? If anything, it needs to be done better. Enter Balihoo.

Balihoo, and our local marketing automation software, give national brands the ability to reach consumers that have a want or a need. We provide brands with the tools (via our sweet ad builder software), and the knowledge (thanks to our incredible local media planning team) to market national brands through local stores and dealers effectively.

Lastly, if you only watch one Czech movie about two film makers who market a make-believe shopping mall, Czech Dream is definitely the movie I recommend.

Freedom

Friday, July 9, 2010 by Chuck Mitten

Ever think about what it means to be free? On this week shortened by our observance of the 4th of July holiday, I figure it's worth a neuro-cycle or two. I'll start by offering my sincere thanks to all our men and women in uniform for your sacrifices.

Now, the concept of "freedom" can go in a lot of directions, but I'd like to spend a second talking about freedom of choice. One of the beauties of life in this great nation is that we get to choose: What to write... What to read... Where to live... What to drive... Ultimately, a lot of your and my freedom comes down to choosing how to spend our money. After all, isn't economic freedom really just the ability to use our time and ingenuity to create buying power, and then wield that power to get what's most important to us?

All that wonderful freedom creates a challenge, though, when it comes to effectively communicating with those free-willed (or is it willy-nilly?) consumers as they gleefully make their local choices. As business people, we want to *influence* those choices. We want those emancipated masses to choose... well... Us. But they're all thinking about themselves, and making decisions based on their individual values and preferences. So what actually compels each consumer to act -- to pull out his or her wallet and part with their hard-earned money? That, too varies immensely.

The way I see it, Balihoo's Local Marketing Automation platform is *entirely* about that freedom and variety: We provide the marketing software tools and services that enable national brands to maintain precious brand integrity while simultaneously empowering local affiliates (dealers, distributors, franchisees, etc.) to execute the marketing that is most likely to entice the unfettered consumers in their neighborhood to actually buy something. We literally make it easy for local marketers to grow their business by getting consumers to choose them. That, my friends, is a beautiful thing...

Balihoo. We're all about freedom. And we wouldn't have it any other way.

God bless America.

See the Whole (Product)

Friday, July 2, 2010 by Kevin Donaldson

Companies are not just the sum of their parts.

One of the concepts of lean software development is 'See the Whole'. While one of the more abstract concepts, I believe it not only applies effectively to software development, but also at a much higher level.

First - See the Whole, does not imply that you need to/should ignore details but more importantly be aware of temptations to optimize parts at the expense of the whole. For instance, a common issue that befalls many a SaaS (Software as a Service) company is thinking of oneself as only a software company. There is nothing wrong with being 'primarily' a software company but very few companies can/should claim the term only and expect to be successful.

Even if you distinguish internally between software development and supporting/additional services, your customer likely doesn't know and/or care about the distinction. To them, they are interacting with you (the company) - not a specific department, tool or service. Its all part of the same experience.

The question is then: why do we organize our business's in a way that is so counter intuitive to this? Early stage startups often organize correctly simply due to the limited scope of offering and team size, but as a company grows and transitions, organizational silo'ing is an unfortunate side effect that is hard to prevent. This results in teams thinking about their part of the puzzle, and less and less about the whole picture. Even the discipline of product management falls into this trap. Product managers in SaaS companies typically manage software products only.

At Balihoo we have been going through a transition this year both in terms of growth and helping the organization think about our offering as a 'Whole Product'. Our product is not just a local marketing software platform, but the the collective set of everything that our customers interact with. Easy on the surface. At this point our discussions are limited to a subset of the organization while we work through the execution challenges, however simply re-orienting our focusing on the whole product has already increased our ability to 'see' better. Here are a few early examples:

Functional managers no longer localize their thinking about their piece of the offering but often think more holistically, which drives more questions and earlier identification of issues.
Product strategy now becomes a cross functional initiative and not just limited to the software. In the past we would release new features in our software and then identify 'wrap around' services. Now we think about these in advance, which creates a more well rounded product and hence a better customer experience.
New discussions on how to expand the product roadmap beyond just a focus on the software and its upcoming features to thinking around whole product priorities.

There are still challenges.

Operationalizing some of these concepts could create cross functional conflict
It could put additional pressure on our ability to stay agile (ie - seen as overhead on process)
It might be subject to interpretation and mean different things to different people
It will take some work to make it tangible to everyone across the organization

Nevertheless, creating a finely tuned machine should always be an organizational goal no matter how many leaks, squeaks and gear grinding is currently happening. Here's to Seeing the whole!

This is part of a series on thinking lean. Previous Posts:

Decide as Late as Possible

Marketing Software Tools Continue to Impress PART DEUX: Chasing Your Consumer

Monday, June 28, 2010 by Alex Fascilla

I'm exasperated as I reach the top of the 4th floor stairwell and jump-kick the steel bar that stretches across the fire door, gaining entry to a long hall. I'm sprinting now, the noise coming from the pounding of my feet hitting the end of the hall and bouncing back at the speed of sound, echoing throughout. I take a sharp left down an adjacent hall, immediately noticing a large window at the other end, stretching to the floor. "Should I Die Hard-it and dive through the double-pane glass, hoping to land atop the building below? Or do I Master-Key-Guy-Off-The-Matrix 2-it and duck into any one of the rooms I'm passing now at a rate of two per second, instantly launching me to a new corner of the earth?"

Neither, see, because I'm only figuratively escaping the pursuer. I know, boring.

In all actuality, last week, while scanning Eastbay for footwear that's a little less enclosed (flops) than what I've currently got, I 'picked up a tail' as they say in every cop movie ever made. Spending approximately three minutes looking at a particularly interesting pair was my first mistake. Unfortunately, this totally harmless activity gave the re-marketing 'parasite' enough time to 'latch on'. I know this because for the next three days a good 80% of the websites I visited featured multiple Eastbay ads--and not just any old banner ad, but a banner ad featuring the exact shoe I was looking at! Perhaps the most remarkable thing, however, was that this was on everything from big sites like MSN.com, all the way to little local news sites like KATV.com.

As I blogged in early March via an article in MediaBuyerPlanner, this re-marketing technology enables retailers to serve future ads on other sites to try enticing buyers that browsed but didn't buy into returning to remind them what they've left behind. The article pointed to how underutilized this marketing software tool really is. Well, I'm here to tell you, while parasitic, this technology is both ingenious, effective, and quickly becoming less than underutilized. How do I know they're effective? Well, allow me to finish the story...

...Being old-fashioned concerning chase scenes, I quickly choose the former, ripping my jacket off as I sprint and swinging it around my body to cover my torso and head as I punch through the curiously easy-to-shatter window. The jacket floats down into the alley below as I miss my landing, hitting the edge of the building's top, dangling with both arms fully extended, fingers curled around the lip of the stone that caps the building's waist-high wall. Kicking my feet against the edge of the building, I pull myself up and over onto roof and collapse with a grunt. I look up to realize I'm surrounded by goons. With guns. Caught.

That's right, I know re-marketing is effective because what really happened is I clicked on the damn banner ad the third day and bought the damn shoes hook-line-and-sinker. [To get the ads to go away? or because I wanted them? Hmmm...]

Nice work, Eastbay--retail marketing at its best. I can't wait for others to adopt this technology. I'm sure they can't either!

For more information on cool marketing software tools, download Balihoo's whitepaper here.

Time for Local Out of Home Advertising to Go Digital

Monday, June 28, 2010 by Ian Mundorff

Long before there was the internet, cable or broadcast television, even print, there was out-of-home advertising. Almost elegant in its simplicity, it's tended to be static, 2 dimensional, and downright polite in its lack of intrusiveness. In recognition of those features, us media planners have rewarded its contribution to advertising by paying comparatively low rates for your highway billboard and bus bench...a fault that the outdoor advertising industry has somehow spun into a virtue.

Ah, but then it occurred to them to plug in the billboards. Digital Out of Home (whose acronym gets a second 'O,' robbing us of the pleasure of a D'OH) consists of the Times Square "Spectaculars" pictured above and the LED billboards on the side of the highway, but also includes the closed-loop TV screen you see in your local coffee shop, pharmacy, and super market.

It's also one of those few media that has continued rapid acceleration in the face of the past few years' economics. Leading U.S. DOOH network, Adcentricity, recently published it's 2010 Outlook white-paper, and sees revenues jumping from $3B U.S. this year to $4.5B by 2013, an enviable growth curve in a sluggish economy.

So why are those of us charged with allocating your advertising media dollars flocking to this emerging media? Here are a few good reasons:

Reach: While it pales in comparison to the nearly half-million billboards that line America's highways (sigh), DOOH now exceeds 150k screens nation-wide, and reaches 2/3rds of the population.
Location, Location, Location: Only 150k screens? Yes, but many of those are in places where we're better able to distinguish the audience's mindset. At the gym? Perhaps you'd like a sports drink? At the doctors? You might like some aspirin.
Interactivity: Remember that part about OOH being static? So much for that. DOOH's pictures are not only moving, but interactive. As dated as it is, this brilliant example from Nike through agency R/GA still gets me excited about the potential of a huge glowing wall.

What's this have to do with you and your local marketing efforts? I'd like to tell you we'll be recommending a giant interactive billboard in Time Square with every media plan, but let's take this one step at a time. DOOH is a great local advertising tool, allowing you to select from multiple venues, and, unlike broadcast, allows you to choose a relatively precise geographic footprint for your ads. Speaking of which, even if you don't have a 90 foot electronic billboard loaded in our ad builder software, we can work with your existing television and OOH creative to find new and more select audiences.

If you'd like to talk about the future of what local DOOH can do for you and you're one of our co-op or franchise marketing partners, check out how Balihoo can help with your local media planning. If you're still looking for a Local Marketing Automation solution, make sure to check out our demo.

Let them know you're listening!

Thursday, June 24, 2010 by Kallen Hayes

A few months ago, during one of Balihoo's Friday morning trips to the local Starbucks coffee shop, I noticed an interesting display on the counter. It was a clear container full of green sticks with little mermaids adorning their tops. What caught my eye, in particular, was the message on the display. In case you can't read it on the attached picture, it says:

'Inspired By You! A great idea brought to us by YOU. Keep 'em coming - we're listening!
- MyStarbucksIdea.com

I was immediately impressed with Starbucks' proactive approach to connecting with their customers and letting them know they're listening. I quickly realized it wasn't about spilled coffee, the need to stir in four packets of sugar, or cute green mermaids. Starbucks easily could have produced the 'splash sticks' and simply started stocking them in their shops alongside the sugar packets and napkins. But instead, they took the time to create a new display and a friendly message to catch the eyes of their customers as they ordered coffee.

Connecting with customers is something all business should strive to do. And there is no better opportunity to reach out and show them you care than when you have clearly listened to their feedback and acted on it.

Being a growing company, Balihoo has a lot to learn from our customers. Although we already think our co-op advertising and local marketing software is pretty cool, we realize there is a long path of development ahead of us, and much of that path is yet to be mapped. We will have to listen to our customers and continue building our product so it doesn't just meet their needs and expectations, it exceeds them.

We're already doing a lot to give our current users the opportunity to let us know what they think about our software and how we can make it better. From our user experience study group, to email surveys and the feedback tool in the corner of our homepage, we want people to feel comfortable telling us exactly what they want.

And from my own experience interacting with our users, I'm going to agree with Starbucks that it's a lot more fun to make a big deal about a new product, new design, or new feature, than to quietly launch it and wait to see who notices.

Modern Family - Ya Dig?

Thursday, June 3, 2010 by Meghann Splittgerber

Modern Family is one of the funniest shows on television (admit it) and with the first season

behind us I catch myself reflecting in merriment on the the pure hilarity of the show. It gets me thinking about what makes the show tick, is it the characters, the acting, the writing? The scenarios? What is it exactly?

I'll tell you what it is...it's smart. The premise is simple, it is based on a family, diverse and complicated, which viewers relate to. Each family branch has its own structure and story but is ultimately connected to the whole. Each individual's identity is reliant on the Family. In is not at all unlike what we provide to our customers through our local marketing software. While each franchise has it's own personality and unique set of circumstances, it is also an integral part of the corporate brand.

Balihoo's local marketing software tool allows franchises to localize their advertising efforts and to do it in a way that is aligned with their corporate strategy as well as unique to the individual franchise business.

While client strategies may differ, the core concept remains consistent. Enabling business owners to market effectively and easily. Just like a healthy functioning family provides the security and support to successful living.

Testing the User Experience before Development

Tuesday, June 1, 2010 by Kevin Donaldson

Eric Ries , who is one of the driving forces behind the Lean startup movement has a great definition for a startup:

"A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a product or service in conditions of extreme uncertainty."

Note that it has nothing to do with the size of the company, the sector of the economy or the industry the business is involved in. However, a key term in here: 'uncertainty'. The implication: you need to be extremely nimble in how you go about creating and delivering your products and services.

One of the great things about software, compared with, say building construction, is that the costs are relatively low to: build a part of your product, let people try it out and then decide if you want to change it/tear it down later. Good luck doing that with a building or a bridge!

One of the most common areas that these build-test-learn cycles occur at Balihoo is with the user interface of our Local Marketing Automation software. Our goal is to make software that is intuitive and pleasing to use so that our customers feel awesome about what it allows them to do. However, doing this in the space of local advertising and local marketing automation is no easy task.

Furthermore, usability is also much more of an art than science and like art, its quality is often subjective. This means that we are continually trying to hone and improve our user experience using as many objective means as possible. At Balihoo we use a number of different techniques to better understand our customers, refine our user experience (some of these we have profiled here, here and here), and we are constantly looking for new creative options to test these.

One option we are currently trying out is called FiveSecondTest. FiveSecondTest allows you to upload design mocks for new screens and have users execute a quick visual test of two primary types:

Memory test: where the user looks at the screen for 5 seconds and then types in as many of the things that stood out to them
Click test: user can view the screen for 5 seconds and is asked to click on the areas of the screen that stand out to them. Once completed they have the option to type in descriptions for what they think these different things are/do

After playing with both options so far my favorite is the Click test. This is likely because our goals are primarily about user conversion - creating an experience to help the user take the appropriate action when looking at a screen. (However, I could see though if your goal was perhaps branding - the memory test might actually be preferable.)

Here is an example of an initial test we ran on a new home page for a franchise marketing client.

You can see from this test where the users clicked and what comments they left. The red dots indicate something a user clicked on in the five seconds made available. Each dot also corresponds to a comment, (which can also be viewed in a consolidated list under the results tab).

This can be amazingly helpful to refine and tweak designs with real feedback all before a developer even has to touch the code. It becomes a really fast way to execute simple usability tests and A/B tests on new designs we are considering within our marketing software tools. Its amazing how things as simple as color can create different reactions in users. Our initial tests are positive, so now we have yet another tool in our belt to help us stay nimble under conditions of uncertainty!

Brand Affinity Technologies = Celebrity Trafficking + Local Store Marketing... Huh?

Friday, May 28, 2010 by Alex Fascilla

Hey folks, let's kick this off real quick and review our old standbys when it comes to advertising approaches/appeals (Caps indicates yelling):

    * BANDWAGON APPROACH
    * HUMOR APPROACH
    * SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE APPROACH
    * TESTIMONIAL (Hint: this is the one this blog is about!)
    * GLITTERING GENERALITIES APPROACH
    * SNOB APPEAL
    * APPROACH APPROACH

That last one was included to make sure you are paying attention. There is no such thing as an 'approach approach'. [Seriously, I just typed that word so many times it looks weird to me now.] Anyway, that may not be the most comprehensive list of appeals used when advertising but we're only going to focus on one; one that I'm sure is in the list... I think.

As Wired Magazine and the New York Times recently reported, garnering celebrity endorsements (and more specifically, professional athlete endorsements) for TESTIMONIALS is about to become quite the turn-key affair. A company called Brand Affinity Technologies has created an online marketplace that connects local advertisers and what Brand Affinity might call a 'regional celebrity' for use in local marketing and media creative.

So, while you may not be the fanatical Vikings fan that I am (which I find incomprehensible) and thus probably do not know their starting Center is John Sullivan, those in Minneapolis that see him in a Burger Jones ad are going to recognize him and subesequently take him up on his recommendation to "come on down and take the Sully Burger challenege!" Burger Jones is banking on that fact, anyway. As well as the fact that out-eating their favorite center in the National football League is something all Minneapolins (Minneapeeps?) aspire to do.

Garnering celebrity endorsements is something that's traditionally been very difficult. Time, expense, lengthly contracts, and just tracking down the damn celebrity, have all hobbled the process. With Brand Affinity promising to rid the ordeal of long-term contracts and reduce negotiation times to no more than 96 hours, most of those pain points are removed and a platform that makes creating celebrity testimonials more simple emerges!

So... with their catering to local/regional marketers, wouldn't it just go over like gangbusters if Balihoo and Brand Affinity Technologies teamed up and a BAT component was integrated into our ad builder software? Now that's a top-to-bottom marketing software tool! Imagine this, my local marketing audience: Balihoo creates your brand, plans and buys your media, produces and builds your BAT-supplied, celebrity-infused ads, and then follows up with constant campaign optimization... AND it all takes place within one easy-to-use platform? DONE. Nailed it.

And hey, as I'm leagally obligated to say, even without the Brand Affinity Technology component, our software can do incredible things. Check it out! In the meantime, however, I suggest you incorporate more of the bandwagon approach into your ads. Why? C'mon! Because everyone else is!

Tools to Succeed

Monday, May 17, 2010 by Caroline Moore

Everyday my company, Balihoo, engages with Franchises and Brands to look at local marketing automation and to discuss our software as a solution to help their Franchisees, affiliates and distributors with local store marketing.

I am consistently impressed by the number of clients that value marketing and advertising and put adequate dollars toward this initiative. They understand the need to "get the word out" about their great product and services. No longer can you just put up a sign and expect business to walk through the door. A business's location can be an immense benefit, but today's consumers are savvy and do not just award their business frivolously. Additionally, you must apply an integrated marketing strategy to reach those consumers. Local Internet marketing, local store marketing, and traditional marketing must all come together as part of the local advertising budget and plan for a franchisee or affiliate.

I am also consistently shocked at the number of Franchises or Brands that do not account for local advertising and offer few local marketing ideas to their affiliates. Marketing is a key contributor to the success of a new business. Additionally, if you are launching into a market space that is already occupied by competitors, you have to stand out. You have to make some noise! There are media vehicles that are more cost efficient than others and there are some vehicles that offer a better fit to reach the target audience. A market analysis and a good plan go a long way in getting the biggest return on investment for the affiliate or franchisee.

Overall, advertising and marketing is not a "nice to have" for businesses, especially new businesses, it is a "need to have". Understanding the importance and value quality local advertising and a good marketing plan can bring, will have long term implications on the success or failure of a business.

A blog about blogging dentists...

Monday, May 3, 2010 by Matt Borud

When most people outside of the tech sector, Gen Y or Millennials think of a blogger, the unfortunate image of a socially awkward Dungeons and Dragons aficionado planted in front of a computer screen with little more than Mountain Dew and Doritos as sustenance is the first thing to come to mind. However in recent years as "New Media" has taken greater hold and many blogs have gone from a journal-like hobby to a legitimate source for breaking news and ultimately revenue generation, the blogger has also become more mainstream and, dare I say, even cool.

At Balihoo, we help businesses better connect with local audiences through more relevant local advertising and marketing ideas. One of our finest clients, as a colleague so eloquently described last week, is Nobel Biocare and their network of dental healthcare providers. Nobel wanted to partner with Balihoo for our stable of marketing software tools and local advertising experience. One question that often comes up when speaking with Nobel practices is "how can my practice better leverage social media and local internet marketing?" Certainly a Facebook page and a Twitter account is a good (and free) place to start but as I've been paying more and more attention to the dental industry, and more specifically the dental implant community, it's becoming clearer and clearer that a practice blog is more imperative than ever.

One of the biggest challenges we run into when developing a local advertising and media buying strategy for a dental specialist is how do we effectively educate the consumer about dental implants and the accompanying procedures. The short answer is it's difficult to do in a 30-second TV spot, radio ad, billboard, or direct mailer. However, an up to date and relevant blog can provide those answers, unique to each practice, in one easy to access forum.

A dental blog gives your practice an opportunity to speak directly to the consumer in a controlled environment and tell them what's unique about your practice, your procedures, and overall experience. A quality and informative blog will ideally drive more traffic to your door by answering qualified consumers questions and spurring them to come in and meet with you.

There are a lot of questions surrounding a dental implant procedure. How much does it cost? Will my insurance cover it? What's the process like? Is it painful? Just as you would take great care to answer these questions with a patient in the chair, your blog will give you the same opportunity to speak to all those consumers looking to learn more before spending time on a consultation in your office. I suggest posting something relevant once a week. Be creative and involve everyone in the practice. Blog about changes or improvements to your office, interesting new procedures, successful patient experiences along with the more standard general information like insurance, FAQ's or procedural expectations.

Local marketing and advertising is all about connecting with nearby consumers in a unique and individualized fashion. It's about relating to their interests, communicating that you care about what's important to them, and treating each relationship with importance of the one-on-one interaction that it is. When looking for new and better local internet marketing ideas, a blog is a great way to make that connection and provide local consumers with the information they need to make an educated decision.

Eco-Friendly is Great Dental Marketing

Friday, April 23, 2010 by Matt Borud

Like New Year resolutions and Festivus, Earth Day is a yearly opportunity to reconfirm our commitment to healthy causes and challenge ourselves to feats of eco strength and sustainability. With many business jumping on the "green" bandwagon, it's important to note all the advances the dental community has made in making practices more friendly to Mother Earth, and what it can do for your practices local marketing efforts.

There have been several significant "green" developments in recent years. Advances like mercury-free fillings and filtration systems, steam-based sterilization tools, and X-rays that use digital imagery technology to minimize toxic developing chemicals are all providing for a much healthier patient experience. This isn't limited to in-practice efforts either. Dental practices have the luxury of a captive audience when a patient is in the chair. Recommendations like turning off the water while you brush - some estimate we're losing 27 billion glasses of clean water EVERY DAY because we're leaving the water running - tend to stick better in the patient's mind than another green plug from elsewhere.

Not only are these changes great for the environment and patient health, they're a great way to advertise locally and differentiate your practice from your competitors. Successful local marketing is much more than fancy ad builder software or co-op advertising programs - its about finding new and different ways to connect with your patients and their interests. Eco friendly products and procedures translate to great local marketing ideas because more and more consumers are making buying decisions with green vendors in mind. Many consumers are looking for service providers who share their values, and when making green and sustainable business decisions, it's important to message them to the consumer through appropriate local marketing and advertising mechanisms and bring them in your door.

The Evolution of User Interface Design & the iPad

Tuesday, April 6, 2010 by Kevin Donaldson

My oldest son is 4. Not so long ago I sat him down at the computer to teach him how to use a mouse. It was amazing to watch him figure out this strangely named device, and make the connection between hand movement and a pointer on a screen in front of him. Children are learning sponges and coupled with the built-in tenacity of a child he was using it proficiently in less than 30 minutes.

However, consider for a moment the complexity of the entire interface experience on a typical computer. A movable pointer device that doesn't really interact with screen, and a keyboard that is covered with letters and symbols way beyond just a standard alpha character set. When you think about it for a moment, it's frighteningly complicated.

Now think about a device like the iPad. If dropped in front of a new user how long would it take for them to start playing with it and figuring things out? They touch the screen, and there is an immediate feedback loop. It's tactile, and gives direct feedback to the user at the physical point of contact. There is zero separation between hand and eye, bringing you back to the days of finger painting as a child. A different experience entirely and likely a little more fun too!

One of my favorite bloggers is Dave Troy. He writes a blog called Fueled by Randomness. Last week he wrote an interesting article on the iPad and the Brain, where he referenced the iPad as the 4th turning of the computing paradigm. First came calculators, then keyboards, then the mouse/GUI's and the web, and now the iPad. Dave argues that the iPad will open up new parts of the brain:

By allowing a tactile experience, by allowing people to interact with the world using two hands, by promoting and enabling ubiquitous network connections, the iPad will extend the range and the reach of computing to places we haven’t yet conceived....

The world around us is reflected by our interactions with it. We create based on what we can perceive, and we perceive what we can sense. The fact that you can use two hands with this thing and that it appears to be quick and responsive is a really big deal. It will light up whole new parts of the brain, especially the right hemisphere — potentially making our computing more artistic and visual.

We have all seen movies like Minority Report however touch based computing is already here - at least in an infant stage. Arguably the iPhone has brought this type of touch computing to the main-steam but with a small screen application are limited. Yes, while iPhone apps have been built for almost everything, some are a better fit for the device than others; however, this was the product developers only option. The iPad changes this. However users will not compare the iPad and its applications to other mobile smart phones, but to PC's. This creates design challenges across the board.

Take mobile app product development. Simply porting iPhone apps into the iPad might be technically easy but will likely result in sub-optimal user experience (similar to the issues when people ported client-server apps to the web). How can these apps be scaled up to take advantage of the new size? Do they even need to be scaled up or is their use in a phone sized device the perfect application? Should they be rebuilt for the iPad and no longer supported on the iPhone?

Then take web application development teams. Product designers that now think primarily in terms of typing and clicks in a linear fashion may need to shift to thinking in terms of 'touches' and finger movements in non linear paths? How about the ability to use both hands at once and not just for typing? How will designers build web apps that function well under 'legacy' tools (mouse/keyboard) as well as fingers or will that actually make the experience sub-optimal by design constraints?

As a Product Manager - I think about how these shifts will impact the Balihoo local marketing software application and other many other applications in the market. How might they be designed differently if I was designing for an iPad vs. a mouse and keyboard. It is both scary and exciting at the same time! It's scary because after 25 years of mouse + GUI we still have lots of room for improvement on user interaction, and then we change the model. However, on the other hand, by changing the paradigm, and going back in some respects to a more primitive interaction model, maybe this is what we need to make the next big leap in simplifying the user experience! (And maybe even bringing in a little more fun to computing!)

I will leave you with this forward looking video by Microsoft that shows us a great vision for what touch based computing can be like in the (not so distant) future.

I 'Like' Usability

Thursday, April 1, 2010 by Kelly Mason

While the quest to enhance usability seems so simple, it's probably the most intimidating undertaking for a product. It's not concrete - there really isn't a right answer. You tweak and tweak and hope that each one gets you a little closer to a user-friendly, easy to understand local marketing software tool.

So when I saw the article that Facebook announced the changing of one single word, I became even more intimidated - and slightly comforted that all sites deal with the same issues. Instead of Facebook user's becoming a 'Fan' of a brand's page, they will - wait for it... - 'Like' a brand's page! On this seemingly minor change, Facebook did a PR push, this article was written, and dozens of people commented.

When Facebook is agonizing and getting both good and bad feedback over a word change, it just kind of puts things in perspective with our ad builder software. When it comes to usability, there is no scientific answer, and EVERY change counts. Thanks for the reminder Facebook.

Starting Up: Tough times are the right time for an Integrated Marketing Plan

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

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.