The Myth of the Green Millennials

A widely held belief about Millennials is that they are inclined to care about environmental issues and are more likely to engage in green behaviors than other generational groups. This characteristic has not been lost on companies that see market potential in targeting Millennials with green products. This generathtion is different, or so we have been led to believe. They care about the environment and feel a sense of duty to preserve it after the years of neglect by their parents’ generation.

Research by an expert on Millennials suggests that the view of a greener generation may be a myth. Jean Twenge, a San Diego State University psychology professor, conducted a longitudinal study that found concerns about the environment among Millennials have decreased over time. Moreover, Twenge’s research found that Millennials were not as inclined to engage in green behaviors like cutting back on energy consumption and participating in environmental clean up as generational counterpart Generation X. These findings are counter to the notion that environmentalism is a priority for Millennials.

This post is not intended to debate whether Twenge is right or wrong. Her research has been criticized before because it tends to put Millennials in a less than favorable light. The takeaway here is to be willing to challenge assumptions about your customers, competitors, internal capabilities… in other words, all areas that impact your business. Just as Twenge has evidence of diminished emphasis on the environment among Millennials, other research can be produced that suggests environmentalism is indeed important to this generation. Which side do you believe? Both and neither at the same time!

Are there long-held assumptions or generalizations that influence decision making in your organization? It may be time to challenge them, testing their generalizability to today’s turbulent business environment. Marketing strategy may be grounded in outdated beliefs about customers or the external environment. Put assumptions to the test to determine their veracity. Otherwise, you may be making marketing decisions that are based on outdated or incorrect facts.

eCampus News – “Study: Young People not so ‘Green’ After All”

Your Story, Your Brand

I am a strong advocate of personal branding. As a college professor who serves students in their junior and senior years of business school, I introduce personal branding concepts in my classes. Students are encouraged to manage their professional careers using marketing principles learned in the classroom. It is a challenge for many people, especially if you are at the outset of your career, to embrace personal branding. Uncertainties about what to do or say as well as doubts of how one can add value for others are common obstacles to launching a personal brand.

One approach for simplifying the task of creating a personal brand is to build it around stories. This idea is not a suggestion to create fictional escapades but rather stories about events and people in your life that have shaped your values and purpose. Author Amber Mac gives three tips for how to base your personal brand on stories:

1. Discover Your Story – What are things that have happened to you that people would find interesting and create common ground?
2. Re-write Your Story – Craft a collection of “short stories” into your brand story. Stories do not replace credentials like education or skills, but they do add personality to your brand and can increase your brand’s appeal.
3. Share Your Story – It is communicated via your social networking pages, oral presentations, and personal interactions. Remember that the purpose is not to brag about you but to develop connections with other people.

Keep this in mind: stories are more interesting than facts, bullet point lists, and résumés. Think about brands you like and admire most- they probably have stories worth telling. The beauty of a storytelling approach to personal branding is that everyone has stories to share. Let your stories shape your brand.

Fast Company – “Mastering the Uncomfortable Art of Personal Branding”

Sell Dreams

As a professor who studies the marketing discipline as a passion and job requirement, I like to think that I am up on its fundamental tenets. However, it is always refreshing when I see marketing principles in action. A conversation with a business owner recently offered one of those moments.

I met the owner of a travel agency at a business networking meeting at which I made a presentation. As she told me about her business, she said that she owns a travel agency, but what she sells are dreams. Wow! What a powerful statement, but it is a mindset that is often lost on marketers and businesspeople in general.

We tend to define our business and careers by the industry sector or category in which we participate. I just realized I was guilty of it in my first sentence of this post! But, the value we add to the lives of customers and others does not reside in a sector or category label. Rather, the value comes from the impact we have on those people with whom we interact.

If any industry deserves sympathy for the rampant change that has taken place in the past 10-15 years, it is travel services. The transition of travel and lodging purchases to a self-service model online, 9/11 and resulting terrorism fears, and the recession have walloped virtually all businesses associated with travel. But, the travel agency owner said her business has succeeded for 20 years because she has never lost sight of what she does- selling dreams. Yes, travelers may be able to score lower prices buying directly (but not always). The agency’s expertise, network of contacts, and personal service bring comfort and assurance to the process of planning travel.

Define your business and personal brand by the value you deliver. It can be a differentiator between you and competitors stuck on defining themselves by industry and product. Sell dreams!

Great Content Key to Gannett Paywalls

Newspaper publisher Gannett made news itself this week by announcing that it will implement paywalls, or subscription-based sites, for its 80 local newspapers. Gannett’s flagship brand, USA Today, will still be free online. For the local papers, website visitors will be able to access five to 15 articles monthly for free. After that, a subscription will be needed to download content.

The decision to erect paywalls by Gannett is bold. In a time when economic uncertainty remains among consumers and free information is abundant on the Internet, shifting to a pay-for-use model may seem risky. Gannett looks to success of national papers The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, which have “metered access” in place- giving away some content but restricting access to most articles to subscribers. Transitioning to a subscription-based model entails a trade-off of creating subscription revenues versus devaluing the newspapers’ online reach (and appeal to advertisers) as fewer page impressions will occur when unlimited free access ends.

Can Gannett’s subscription-based model succeed? Sure it can. But, one condition must be satisfied… and it is a biggie. The content that Gannett previously gave away must have sufficient value to justify readers paying for it. Two attributes that can be at odds with one another, depth and timeliness, will be important for Gannett’s local products to contain. Quality journalism in the form of long-form feature stories as well as content exclusive to online subscribers are two ways to enhance depth of information. At the same time, subscribers will expect a pay site to offer up-to-date news in an environment in which “developing story” and “breaking news” are reported hourly in broadcast media.

Whether migration to a subscription-based model works for Gannett will come down to a simple marketing tenet: Product value must justify the selling price. The key to success is not so much persuading readers to accept a pay model (although that will be important) as delivering great content that people will pay to have.

Digiday – “Gannett’s Paywall Gamble”

Find the Linsanity in Your Brand

The talk of the NBA, if not the American sports scene, in the past two weeks has been the play of Jeremy Lin. The New York Knicks guard is the latest overnight success (although there is no such thing), endearing himself to basketball fans and the New York market with great play and hitting clutch shots. The key to Lin’s connection with fans is his story. He is Asian-American, Harvard educated, and grounded in Christian faith. Lin has gone from unable to keep a spot on the roster at Golden State and Houston to one of the most talked about players in the NBA.

Jeremy Lin’s success on the court is one matter, but the phenomenon is fueled by his story of a rise from obscurity to stardom and the accompanying “Linsanity” that has swept New York and the sports world. Lin’s statistical performance is noteworthy- he averaged about 3 points per game last year. In his first four games as a starter for the Knicks, his average was nearly 20 points a game. But, the attraction of Jeremy Lin is his story. People want to know more about Lin and have favorable vhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifiews of him because of the story behind his meteoric rise.

Can marketers capture Linsanity and use for their benefit in their organizations? Absolutely! The power of story should not be overlooked as a connector between a brand and the audience it seeks to engage. In his book Tell to Win, Peter Guber reminds us that stories serve a functional purpose, facilitating retention of information, as well as igniting an emotional response by creating empathy between storyteller and audience. Stories have the power to establish a common ground and humanize brands that are by their nature impersonal objects.

What are the stories that you have to share? Personal triumphs of employees, making a difference in the community, customer profiles, and company heritage are examples of storylines that can captivate an audience. Stories offer a departure from the one-way “our brand is great” messaging on which marketers tend to focus. We have a longing to relate to others with whom we share common interests and challenges. Stories can bring people and brands together, deepen relationships, and even create a phenomenon, as Linsanity has reminded us.

What it Takes to be Best in Business

One of the most enjoyable aspects of my position as a business school professor is interaction with the business community. Our mission is to prepare the next generation of business professionals, and I find a great deal of inspiration in learning about successful companies and leaders in the Nashville area. For seven years, I have worked with the Nashville Business Journal as a judge for its Best in Business Awards. In that time, I have had the good fortune of meeting entrepreneurs in health care, financial services, marketing services, and many other industries. Their accomplishments and vision are nothing short of amazing.

We have just concluded judging for this year, and I realized that companies named as finalists for Best in Business Awards share three common characteristics:

1. Passionate – Most of the companies were started by people who had worked in a corporate environment and saw unmet needs or a better way to solve customers’ problems. Rather than maintaining status quo, they ventured out on their own to make a difference.

2. Intentional – Strategic decisions and direction are the result of careful consideration of what the companies wanted to be… and not be. For some companies, being intentional meant not chasing business that would force them to stray from their strengths. All aspects of the business including branding, products and markets, and resource acquisition were carefully planned. Yes, mistakes were made occasionally, but the best companies learned from mistakes and overcame them.

3. Caring – In addition to being good at what they do, the best companies have a culture of caring for people- customers, employees, and communities. It begins at the top of the organization with leaders who are advocates for caring, and practices such as donating a percentage of profits to charities or giving employees paid time off for volunteerism reflect a commitment to the world outside their organizations.

Awards are presented in five categories: 1-25 employees, 26-100 employees, 101-500 employees, 500+ employees, and non-profits. While the winners will not be named until April 19, it is evident to me that all companies named as finalists are winning in their respective industries. When passion, intention, and caring are prevalent in an organization, being Best in Business is an attainable destination.

Make Every Day Super Bowl Sunday

Like millions of other people, I cannot wait for the Super Bowl. The two-week break between the conference championships and the “Big Game” is excruciating- let’s play already! And as is the case most years, I do not even have a vested interest in the game as I do not have strong feelings to cheer for either the Giants or Patriots. I just want to watch the Super Bowl, enjoy the company of my son’s church youth group, and of course, watch commercials. So do many other Americans; a recent survey by CouponCabin.com found that 37% of persons surveyed watch the Super Bowl primarily for the commercials.

It’s a marketer’s dream come true: People wanting to see ad messages. Unfortunately, that sentiment is limited to Super Bowl Sunday and precious few other occasions such as the Academy Awards broadcast. Otherwise, most of us actively avoid commercial messages. Why? They can be intrusive, annoying, and irrelevant to us. What makes Super Bowl commercials different, and what can we learn from Super Bowl advertising to make us more effective communicators each day of the year?

The Super Bowl has become a cultural celebration as much as it is a championship football game. Advertisers are joining in the festivities rather interrupting our lives as is usually the case. The most popular Super Bowl commercials seem to share a characteristic that people can relate to the message. Whether it is the appearance of a popular celebrity, depiction of a humorous situation in everyday life, or a message that creatively captivates our attention, the best Super Bowl commercials resonate with the audience. In contrast, most ad messages are not as effective because the focus is more on the product and its capabilities, not how it fits with users’ lifestyles and adds value for them.

Let’s adopt the mindset of Super Bowl advertising every day of the year. Marketing messages must be conceived, designed, and executed from the customers’ viewpoint. We must constantly put ourselves in the target market’s shoes and ask the question “What’s in it for me?” Do our advertising messages provide a satisfactory answer? Our goal should be to strive to make marketing as appealing daily as it is on Super Bowl Sunday. May your team (or your brand) win this Sunday.

It’s the End of the Sale as We Know It

When attempting to navigate the rocky road that is department store retailing, maintaining status quo is not a viable strategy. The department store sector has been challenged for years by greater merchandise assortments of specialty stores and lower prices of mass merchandise discounters. One company caught in the fight for relevance has been JC Penney. Sales in 2010 were $17.8 billion, down from $19.9 billion in 2006. In addition to declining sales, the company faced a brand image problem as it was perceived as old and stale.

The response to the challenges faced by JC Penney was laid out this week by new CEO Ron Johnson, an Apple disciple. The boldest strategy change is a radical shift in pricing and promotion. The company is ditching the traditional high-low pricing model. Instead of frequent sales and discounts, a three-tier pricing strategy will be used. Products will be at an everyday low price, monthly values, and best price Fridays on first and third Fridays each month. Analysis of transactions revealed that only one in 500 items was sold at regular price, so the move to streamline the dizzying number of promotions (nearly 600 a year) to a more straightforward pricing approach is logical.

Let’s jump to the most important question: Will this strategy work for JC Penney? The key to its success will be convincing shoppers that the value-based pricing approach is better for them than sales featuring hot prices and coupon offers for additional discounts. A rational analysis of the pricing approaches would point to value pricing as a better deal for buyers. However, we do not always make rational buying decisions. The psychology of a sale suggests to shoppers that a bargain may be realized when a product’s price is temporarily reduced. Add an incentive like a coupon on top of the sale price, and buyers have been trained to expect value delivered in this way from retailers.

JC Penney desperately seeks to carve out a distinctive brand position. If it cannot position through products, service, or brand image, perhaps price is the final frontier. If this strategy succeeds, JC Penney can re-establish its relevance. JCP (as it is branded via its new logo) must deliver a great shopping experience to go along with its simplified pricing. If it succeeds, JCP shoppers may just be singing “It’s the end of the sale as we know it, and I feel fine.”

AdAge – “JC Penney Reinvents Department-Store Retailing”

Textbook Industry: Game Over or Game On?

Apple made its expected announcement that it is venturing into the textbook market. A combination of factors makes the situation ripe for Apple. First, Apple has demonstrated capability in simplifying the user experience to consume music and entertainment via iPods, iPhones, and iPads. Customer expectations would be that Apple will deliver a similar experience through the planned iBooks 2 platform. Second, customer dissatisfaction abounds in the textbook industry. While iBooks 2 will target K through 12 textbooks it seems inevitable that solutions for the higher education market will follow.

Should the textbook industry be hiding under a rock? Some cynics would say that publishers are already there, and that is why Apple is rising with a challenge. Years of maintaining status quo by publishers along with advances in technology have attracted Apple and other firms to explore how to innovate in the textbook industry. It would be unfair to suggest that traditional publishers have not attempted to innovate in response to changes in technology and students’ book consumption preferences, for they have made strides in responding to students’ needs. But, there is a great deal of work that remains if publishers want to be competitive in an environment in which new entrants are intent on changing how students buy and read textbooks.

Firms have two response options when disruptive innovations make their way into an industry: 1) Game Over or 2) Game On. The Game Over response may not be an immediate surrender. Rather, it can be a gradual decline in a prolonged battle to maintain relevance (see Kodak). In this case, textbook publishers are too heavily invested to cede control to Apple or anyone else. The response has to be Game On.

As a college professor and textbook author, I have great concerns about the costs students must bear to gain access to important learning resources, costs that are in addition to constantly increasing tuition. We cannot price students out of the opportunity to prepare to compete in the job marketplace. The innovation gauntlet has been thrown down for textbook publishers- Game On!

Caring as a Brand Differentiator

Positioning a brand is one of the most important strategies a marketer must devise. Communicating a brand’s real, relevant difference compared to competition can be the difference between being a “me too” brand and a category leader. This point is touched on in the book Brand Against The Machine by John Morgan. One particular differentiation strategy is recommended that is so simple yet often not practiced: Demonstrate that you care.

Can caring really be utilized as a positioning strategy? Of course businesses care about their customers, or they will not be in business for long! But, as you and I know there are often breakdowns in execution of customer-focused marketing plans and strategies. Great customer service programs are little more than empty promises to customers who experience poor service quality.

A few months ago, we replaced a heater/air conditioner in our home. The company we called, Hiller Plumbing, has a great reputation for customer service. In fact, it won recognition from the Nashville Business Journal as a Best in Business firm in 2011. My wife talked with the manager about the company winning the award. His response was that for a company in that industry to be recognized for its performance is significant because the reputation of the category as a whole is not very positive. Winning recognition in a competition with businesses from a wide range of product and service categories was an even greater testament to Hiller’s differentiation as customer oriented. The key to Hiller’s success is that employees from top management to front-line service personnel show genuine concern for customers.

Many aspects of marketing are hard, but caring should not be one of them! One of the most frequent comments I hear from students who have been in my classes is that they appreciate that I show concern for them. It is surprising to me that they do not experience caring from all faculty members, but like customer service in general, knowing to do the right thing does not translate into actually doing things right.

Be different- care. Reflect on what you can do to demonstrate more concern for customers; then empower employees to deliver. They will be heroes, and your brand will stand out.