For those who are tired of hidden restrictions and charges of wireless contracts, T-Mobile has a new pre-paid wireless brand: GoSmart. “We wanted to create a completely new offering from the ground up for a new segment for customers, which the bigger brand may not be able to serve,” Shailendra Gujarati, marketing director for GoSmart Mobile, tells Marketing Daily. “It’s the fastest-growing space in the wireless market right now. We believe there’s a segment of customers whose needs are not being met because of what’s going on in the wireless industry. We don’t want customers to be left behind because they don’t need or can’t afford 4G plans.” The GoSmart will be targeted toward younger, less affluent and/or multicultural consumers who don’t need or want to be in a contract plan or higher-fee prepaid plan, he says. The brand will be built on three pillars: price, simplicity and network quality. To differentiate itself from the parent brand, GoSmart will shy away from using its T-Mobile’s imagery (including its Carly spokescharacter) and signature magenta coloring. With a smaller marketing budget, much of GoSmart’s marketing communications will be through retail and social media channels, Gujarati says. “We will be much more grassroots and scrappy,” he says. Much of the communications will employ the word “DUM,” which he notes is not an acronym: “It’s simply a playful spin on the word dumb.” “It’s a bit edgy and mischievous,” he says. “There’s a lot of dumb things that happen in the wireless space in terms of nickel-and-diming and [contract] shackles.” Though launching a brand that is owned by, though separate from, another larger company is challenging, it’s not entirely unheard of in the telecommunications (or other industries). Sprint, for instance, has its flagship Sprint brand, as well as prepaid brand Boost, Virgin Mobile and Paylo brands. “The notion of creating multiple brands for multiple segments may be a bit new for wireless in the U.S., but it happens in other industries,” Gujarati says, noting Gap Inc.’s model of having Banana Republic, Gap and Old Navy stores to reach different segments. “In our case, we are doing this organically, and creating it from the ground up.” The GoSmart brand isn’t intended to replace T-Mobile’s contract or pre-paid plans, but instead is to go after an entirely different segment, Gujarati says. He also expects the brand to continue should T-Mobile’s proposed merger with MetroPCS go through. “We truly believe the brands T-Mobile has today and may be having in the future will be complementary,” Gujarati says.
A new analysis of women’s earnings over the last three recessions shows that recessions don’t just cause women to earn a greater share of household finances in crunch times. They seem to permanently alter the balance of family paychecks. “This past recession caused women’s share of earnings to rise even more significantly, with the largest single year increase,” Kristin Smith, a family demographer at the Carsey Institute and a research assistant professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire, tells Marketing Daily. But even after recessions end and men are less buffeted by unemployment, “there doesn’t seem to be a return to previous levels.” Her analysis, based on the latest earnings data from the U.S. Census Bureau, finds that in 2007, before the Great Recession, employed wives contributed 44% of total family earnings. From 2008 to 2009, it rose two percentage points, the largest single-year gain in a 23-year period. The following year, it climbed to 47%, where it stayed in 2010 and 2011. From 1988 to 2011, a window she selected to include three past recessions, that share rose 9 percentage points. Husbands’ portion of earnings in that period fell from 62% to 53%. The trend is strongest among couples where the husband has a lower level of education. Women married to men with a high school degree or less contributed 51% of total family earnings in 2011; those married to men with a college degree contributed 42%. While her research looked strictly at earnings, and didn't address women’s fears and concerns about finances, she points out this most recent recession was especially bruising. “It was so broad and hard-hitting, it wouldn’t surprise me if concerns about future unemployment are motivating women to remain in the work place at these levels.” From December 2007 to January 2010, America lost 8.7 million jobs, with male-dominated industries, such as construction and manufacturing, suffering the most. Unemployment peaked in October 2009, at 10%, with men’s unemployment at 11.2% and women’s at 8.7%. “If history is a good guide,” her report concludes, “it is likely that wives’ share of total family earnings will not return to pre-recession levels, but rather, the Great Recession will serve to propel wives’ contributions higher. It is likely that wives will remain in the labor force even after their husbands return to work, as many families have lost ground due to diminished savings, housing values, and retirement accounts.”
SodaStream and Applebee’s head Fast Company’s 2013 rankings of “The World’s 10 Most Innovative Companies in Food.” The food-company ranking is among 24 industry/market-sector rankings this year, in addition to Fast Company’s overall “World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” ranking. According to the magazine, its editorial team spends months each year gathering and analyzing corporate data to produce the rankings. Here are the companies that made the food-company rankings and highlights of Fast Company’s reasons for selecting them: 1. SodaStream: For “making DIY carbonation sexy.” This Israeli company’s seltzer- and soda-makers are carried by 60,000 retailers in 45 countries, and it sold 3.5 billion cans of its flavorings in the past year, reports FC. And while it’s in only about 1% of U.S. homes, it’s on the move -- partnering with familiar companies/brands like Kraft (for Crystal Light flavors), producing single-serve capsules, offering a sleek machine redesign, and securing distribution in retailers ranging from Walmart to Williams-Sonoma. 2. Applebee’s: For using a sense of humor to drive two years of same-store growth (its 2012 “See You Tomorrow” campaign starring “Saturday Night Live”’s Jason Sudeikis). Applebee’s brand revitalization strategy also included selling off most of its company-owned stores, in favor of a 99%-franchisee model, points out FC. 3. Stonyfield Farm: For making its supply chain more sustainable, and more profitable. FC lauds Stonyfield for introducing eco-friendly innovations in transportation, lightweight packaging and waste reduction –- and then helping its suppliers do the same. 4. BrightFarms: For slashing the distance from farm to market by building farms on grocers’ rooftops. A new rooftop farm in Brooklyn, set to open this spring, will be the world’s largest (producing 1 million pounds of produce annually), reports FC. 5. KindSnacks: For showing that “performance foods” don’t have to be “processed and weird,” and in doing so, doubling 2012 revenue to more than $125 million. Last year, sales of its fruit-and-nut bars line (in Starbucks since 2009) jumped more than 100%, two new lines “took off,” and it launched an innovative “Do The Kind Thing” charitable program, notes FC. 6. Lyfe Kitchen: For employing fast-food industry “secrets” to sell healthy food on a mass-market scale. Lyfe’s team of former McDonald’s execs, along with executive chef Art Smith, have employed their supply-chain know-how and “street cred” to prove that foods like brussels sprouts and “unfried” chicken can be a formula for fast-casual success, FC declares. 7. BluePrint Cleanse: For leading the way in packaging and branding of the cold-pressed juice trend. After the juices succeeded in Whole Foods, and revenues grew by 100% (to $20 million), the company was acquired by Hain Celestial Group. 8. Bon Appetit Management Co.: For creating tools that give nutrition information about the catering company’s from-scratch meals. “Today, the 135 million meals it serves each year at colleges and corporations (including Google, Twitter, Starbucks, and Target) serve cage-free eggs, antibiotic-free meats, sustainable-only seafood -- and bring in about $700 million annually,” FC reports. 9. Copilot Labs: For letting restaurants measure the success of their social media strategies with software that helps them “draw a direct line between a new marketing strategy and its results and hold marketing companies to account,” according to the magazine. 10. ScanAvert: For putting allergy information into a simple barcode scan, helping millions of Americans to avoid dangerous reactions.
The Oscars is one of those tentpole events in which one can be sure that automakers will participate. For Hyundai, that's particularly important as it aligns with its "Big Voices, Big Places" media strategy. The automaker, in its fifth consecutive year as the exclusive automotive sponsor of the Oscars broadcast, will run nine ads comprising seven 30-second spots touting as many models during the ceremony, and two 30-second ads during pre-show coverage. Among the in-show ads are three new ones with a Tinseltown theme: "Equus the Trailer," "Paparazzi," and "Elevator Pitch" feature Equus, Genesis and Elantra, respectively, and are voiced by Oscar winner Jeff Bridges. "Equus the Trailer" mimics an action-movie trailer, featuring Equus as the main character and the film's hero, even using that ubiquitous action-movie voiceover guy who uses superlatives like "colossal," "epic" and "astoundingly powerful" to tout the car. Another ad plays on the Genesis model as a star being frantically photographed by a phalanx of paparazzi as the car drives down a road. An ad for the Elantra sedan has Bridges touting the vehicle with a how-to on doing a proper elevator pitch for a new film. The other ads to air during the Oscars ceremony spotlight the Sonata Hybrid, Sonata Turbo, Santa Fe and Azera. Two of the spots debuted during the Super Bowl: "Epic Playdate“ features Santa Fe and "Stuck" the Sonata Turbo. Then there's a spot called "One Less Battery" touting the Sonata Hybrid battery warranty, and an ad for Azera called "Thanks." Steve Shannon, VP marketing at the Fountain Valley, Calif.-based company, tells Marketing Daily that its status as official-automaker of the Oscars presents a situation that is diametrically opposed to its involvement in the Super Bowl. "It's almost like the mirror image," he says. "In the Super Bowl, we had incredible competition, fewer spots and bigger numbers. Here, we have no auto competition but lots of stories to tell [and somewhat smaller numbers, with about 40 million viewers]. Three-quarters of our lineup by volume is represented." Finally, there is a pair of ads to air during the Oscar Red Carpet Live. One shows Elantra, sedan, GT and coupe, and another ad that first aired during the Super Bowl, "Team" featuring Hyundai's new Santa Fe. The automaker says the multi-screen program includes a mobile play with soundtracks and connected television, and an extension across cable networks like AMC, FX and Sundance Channel, and sponsorship of ABC's Oscars Web site. Shannon says that for the first time the automaker has bought a brace of tickets to the Oscars for its President's Award-winning dealers. He says the reward paradigm is also new, as it veers from a traditional sales-volume based recognition: This year, he says, it's all about dealers with top CSI (customer service index) numbers. "We think it's a great use of some terrific assets to offer these dealers tickets to events like the Super Bowl, the Grammy Awards, and Oscars."
SPDR Gold Shares has launched a new campaign created in partnership with the World Gold Council and State Street Global Advisors. The campaign, created by The Gate, New York, features print and digital ads, with images and content taken on-site at an active gold foundry. Digital includes a mini-documentary video that takes viewers behind the scenes in the foundry and provides insight into the precision-driven process of making gold bars. As part of the campaign, digital ads will incorporate gamification aspects that provide information, up-to-the minute information on gold and its market value. "SPDR Gold Shares let you invest in actual bars of gold. So we thought it would be interesting to peek behind the curtain and see them being made," said David Bernstein, executive creative director at The Gate New York. "It's an insider’s view of one of the most sought-after objects on earth." The print ads personify gold and include color photo images straight from the foundry with interesting facts on gold. One print ad shows gold bars, a foundry worker helmet and tools. The copy reads: “Gold isn't just different from other assets. It's usually indifferent to them.” Another ad reads: “It doesn't take a red hot furnace to keep us in a liquid state,” and shows liquid gold being poured into molds. A third print ad shows liquid gold being poured into a cast iron cauldron and the copy reads: “Looking for diversification? Gold refiners are standing by.” Each print ad features copy on the importance of gold in portfolio diversification and the precision of SPDR Gold Shares, as well as an interesting fact about gold, such its melting point temperature or the weight of a bar of gold. The campaign, part of The Gate’s ongoing “Precise in a World that isn’t” campaign for State Street, will appear in major financial and business publications and Web sites such as Barron's, Seeking Alpha, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Nike stuck with Lance Armstrong to the bitter end and has backed through thick and thin golf demigod Tiger Woods, the keystone of its golf program. But the brand moved with remarkable expedience (for Nike) to suspend its relationship with Olympian and Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, on trial for allegedly murdering his girlfriend. No need to rehash the news, since the star -- really needing no introduction the world over, as ring announcers used to say to introduce Mike Tyson -- has been all over the news. It's not the final straw for Nike ... yet, per a company statement, which is as terse as can be expected for a situation like this: "Nike has suspended its contract with Oscar Pistorius. We believe Oscar Pistorius should be afforded due process and we will continue to monitor the situation closely." But it can't help that Pistorius has admitted to having shot his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp, ostensibly mistaking her for an intruder. Is Nike taking a more balanced "innocent until proven guilty" position, or acting quickly to distance itself? Is there a moral imperative for brands to assume a sponsored athlete is innocent until proven guilty? No, say marketers and analysts. David Steinberg, founder and CEO of Manhattan-based marketing firm XL Marketing, says Nike has probably stuck by athletes too long in the past, and is now acting expediently to back away from Pistorius. "Yes, it's a knee-jerk reaction, because in the past they have stood by athletes and it has come back to burn them," he says. Nike has been a long-term sponsor of Tiger Woods, as he is a massive part of their golf strategy. The obvious difference between Woods and Pistorius: unless Florida law asserts that marital cheating is a crime, he didn't break the law. "And they couldn't really terminate him without essentially shutting down their golf division." And like buying more shares of a stock at a low point, it has paid off long-term as he has renovated his reputation. On the other hand, Nike was chastened by having stuck by Armstrong for over a decade, keeping him in the spokesperson/sponsorship stable all the way up until he severed his relationship with LiveStrong last October because of “seemingly insurmountable evidence” that he had been doping, and by not admitting that had misled the company. Nike wasn't alone. RadioShack and Budweiser also dropped him around the same time. At the time, analysts were unanimous in asserting that the Armstrong brand had suffered a fatal keelhauling.
In today's highly competitive environment, it's tough to acquire new customers and it's becoming even more difficult to keep existing customers happy. That's why many organizations are making a commitment to better serve their customers, investing in the organizational capabilities to consistently deliver memorable, differentiated experiences. This doesn't happen overnight -- it requires leaders to stay committed for a long-term journey. But the results are worth it: Loyal customers that recommend you to their friends. Smart companies want to deliver the best customer experience (CX) possible because they understand that good experience is the key driver of customer loyalty. But most companies are still in the early stages of their journey toward CX excellence -- only 4% of the 206 companies surveyed in a recent study received “excellent” ratings. The journey to customer experience maturity requires a six-step process of rethinking the role of the company in society and how it operates daily to enhance its customers’ lives. Stage 1: Ignore Not every company has been bitten by the CX bug. In this stage, companies don’t view CX as a strategic imperative. Key obstacle to advancement: Generating awareness and interest. Stage 2: Explore Companies typically start their journey when a senior executive decides that CX is important to their business success. This initial stage of CX activity usually starts with the establishment of an ad-hoc group to understand what the company needs to focus on. Key obstacle to advancement: Gaining alignment of key executives across the organization. Stage 3: Mobilize Once companies make a commitment to CX, they typically appoint a senior executive to run their CX efforts and to build a full-time CX staff. In this stage of maturity, companies often invest in customer journey maps and build voice of the customer programs. Key obstacle to advancement: Making trade-offs against other competing priorities. Stage 4: Operationalize With a CX organization and cross-functional governance in place, companies begin to redesign their operating processes and make widespread changes to how the business runs. In this stage, firms actively use CX metrics and focus on engaging the entire workforce. Key obstacle to advancement: Overcoming inertia of middle managers. Stage 5: Align As a company takes on customer-centric behaviors, it needs to put in place structures to reinforce and sustain them. In this advanced stage of CX maturity, companies develop strong measurements and HR practices that reinforce the good CX behaviors. Key obstacle to advancement: Staying focused on customers as other priorities and issues arise. Stage 6: Embed In the final stage of CX maturity, companies don't focus on CX as an independent activity. Great CX is a byproduct of the company delivering on its strong brand mission. Key obstacle to advancement: Maintaining and renewing the brand identity as the company evolves.Assessing your customer experience competency A recent survey shows that very few firms have reached high levels of maturity, but many are beginning to make progress. An assessment can aid in benchmarking your capabilities and in charting a course for an improved CX journey. Here are a number of ways that it can be used: Self-assessments. These will determine the strengths and weaknesses of your organization. Group discussions. Use a self-test in a group exercise and discuss the strengths and weaknesses identified, as well as the areas of agreement and disagreement in the results. Benchmarking. Compare the results to the data provided by customer experience measurement rankings. Action planning. Develop plans for making progress toward being a Customer-Centric Organization. Progress tracking. Repeat the self-test every six months to track your progress. As companies make progress, customers will quickly get used to the better treatment and become even less forgiving of those organizations that fall behind. So it's time to chart your customer experience journey. While it will take several years to reach the higher levels of maturity, you don't want to fall behind.