Is Time Right for WWE Channel?

Word that World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is considering a launch of its own cable television channel seems a risky idea at first glance. A weak economy plus the struggles of several smaller cable networks suggests a new net at this time would be an uphill battle. But, the WWE may possess the brand strength to overcome any challenges in the marketplace. First, it is a proven TV brand. Its programs consistently rank among the highest rated cable shows. Second, WWE has demonstrated significant clout and fan interest with its pay per view programs. Third, abundant content is available. A dedicated channel would not only carry current WWE events, but years of past events plus in-depth features on the personalities and history of the WWE would likely appeal to a broad audience of wrestling fans.

Despite the popularity of the WWE, there is no guarantee a WWE-branded cable channel would succeed. However, the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB have all entered the cable broadcasting business, a trend the WWE could follow. It has the brand strength and program content to seriously consider such a move. A key to success would be whether cable operators would add a WWE channel to their programming packages. Without adequate distribution, this venture will not succeed. But, I would not count out WWE by any means; if it wants the cable channel I expect we will be watching WWE TV in the not to distant future.

Media Buyer Planner – “WWE Mulls Own Cable Channel”

Senior Executives’ Use of Social Media Suggests Room to Grow

We know that many people have no reservations about using social networking media at work (if their employers have not blocked their access), but top managers may be another story. A study done by Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law revealed that many managers are concerned about potentially negative effects of their employees using social networking web sites. Approximately 50% believed that employee productivity would suffer as a result of accessing social networking sites. A similar percentage of managers surveyed feared that a careless employee could tarnish the reputation or image of the company with inappropriate postings.

While there is some validity to the concerns when employees use social networking web sites, the real concern could be in who is not using social media: the executives themselves. In the same study, 70% of the managers surveyed said they visit a social networking web site at least weekly. What is is troubling is that only 52% of executives using social media said they log on to read what customers and other people are saying about their company. They are almost as likely to use it to monitor what is being said about competition (47%) as they are monitoring what is being said about their own brand.

Findings from this study reveal a missed opportunity for top management. A channel is being cultivated that gives an unprecedented amount of feedback from customers and the front lines. Yet, almost half of the managers who otherwise use social media do not take advantage of the opportunity to read what people are saying about them. Why? Are they afraid of what they will read? Do they feel that reading customer feedback is the job of others in the organization? I am at a loss on this one. It is time for these managers to tap into the conversation about their brands. Better yet, it is time for those managers sitting on the social media sidelines to get into the game!

Center for Media Research – “Corporate Use of Social Networking Still an Executive Concern”

SEC Social Media Clamp Down: Good Move, Handled Poorly

The Southeastern Conference was the latest entity to issue a formal policy on social media content. The conference’s edict initially appeared to prohibit social media production of any type at events. That interpretation meant that a fan sitting in the stands at a University of Alabama football game could not upload photos or write game descriptions and post to his or her Twitter or Facebook page, for example. Needless to say, the response to news of the policy was outrage among users of social media. The SEC was skewered by bloggers and sports fans alike. A quick clarification from the SEC ensued, noting that the policy was not directed to individual fans but content producers such as bloggers or other persons that seek to capture video and post online.

The revised policy is easier for the passionate followers of SEC sports to accept. The conference is in the first year of a lucrative media contract with ESPN. The SEC is doing what any business (yes, it is a business)would do to protect the interests of a valuable partner. Given the investment ESPN has made in SEC sports, it is imperative that the SEC implement policies that spell out what is and is not permissible in the social media realm. The stakes are too high to allow parties that do not have media rights to do an end-around and capture video or audio for distribution.

Social media tools can allow SEC sports fans to share their passion, commune with fellow fans, and deepen their connection with SEC partners like ESPN. It is unfortunate that the SEC lost sight of this fact; its initial announcement of the social media ban came across as very heavy-handed. To its credit, the conference got it right and can now let social media connect fans with the sports and teams they so dearly love.

The New York Times – “Leagues See Bloggers in the Bleachers as a Threat”

Cause Marketing Grows Despite Weak Economy

Cause marketing continues to be a tactic used to create emotionally-grounded connection points with consumers. According to the International Events Group (IEG), spending on cause marketing in North America will reach $1.55 billion in 2009, a 2% increase over 2008. While a 2% rise does not seem significant, any increase in marketing spending is noteworthy as companies navigate the recession. The 2009 projection continues a trend of several years of growth in cause marketing expenditures.

What is the appeal of cause marketing compared to other types of sponsorship? Cause marketing can be effective when targeting specific audiences. The success of Yoplait’s Save Lids to Save Lives campaign resides in partnering with a cause (breast cancer awareness and research) that has great relevance to a key segment of Yoplait’s target market: women. The fit, or match between sponsor and cause as well as cause and sponsor’s target market are crucial to the success of cause campaigns. When consumers perceive a fit between sponsor, cause, and their own interests, the potential exists for strengthening the connection between a consumer and the company via their shared interest in the cause.

The marketing implications for supporting a cause or charity include opportunities to attract new customers, enhance loyalty among existing customers, positively impact sales, and even have the potential to sell products at a price premium. Past studies on consumer attitudes toward cause marketing have come to these conclusions. Consumers that desire for their consumption choices to go beyond satisfying their own needs and make a difference through supporting a cause or charity are the very audience that cause marketing seeks to reach. Expect to see cause marketing expenditures continue to grow in the years ahead.

Marketing Daily – “Cause Marketing Expected to Show Growth”

What Women Want from Social Networking Web Sites

What do women seek to accomplish using social networking web sites? Results of a study by the women’s social networking site Shes Connected may surprise people who think that women’s reasons for social network participation differ from men. According to the study’s findings, using social networking web sites to build a professional network was the most important reason among the women surveyed (71% said it was very important). Other reasons for using social networking web sites cited as very important by participants include keeping in touch with friends (62%) and promoting a business (56%).

Some results might seem contrary to those who hold preconceived notions of why women use social networking web sites. Only 25% said it was very important to use these sites to find product deals or discounts, and 24% said social networking web sites were very important for finding new friends. Facebook was the most popular social networking site (83% belonged), followed by LinkedIn (73%), Twitter (55%), and MySpace (41%).

Findings from this study provide evidence that women’s objectives for social networking use are not vastly different from their male counterparts. Women use social networking to advance their personal and corporate brands, leveraging social networking web sites as a tool to connect with colleagues, customers, and others relevant to their positions and their companies. Social networking’s strength as a community builder is reinforced in the study’s findings. Women use social networking sites to keep up with their friends and groups.

Marketers should take note of these findings as they develop social networking tools that target women. A one-size-fits-all approach to product development rarely works in any industry, and social networking is no exception. Understanding why women use social networking web sites is a necessary first step in effectively reaching them via this channel.

eMarketer – “What Women Work from Social Sites”

Jet Blue’s All-You-Can-Jet Promotion: Gimmick or New Trend?

Jet Blue had its brand splashed across media outlets nationwide this week when it announced a promotion that allows passengers to fly the airline unlimited times during a 30-day period for $599 (restrictions apply, of course). The promotion, which is set up for flights between September 8 through October 8, give buyers the flexibility of scheduling flights as little as 3 days in advance. Customers must take action quickly; the last day to buy the plan is August 21st.

Is Jet Blue’s promotion the marketing gimmick of the month, or does it signal the beginning of a new trend in marketing promotions? Cynics would go with the former, questioning whether Jet Blue is aiming to score publicity quickly and inexpensively. I believe (and hope) there are longer-term strategic objectives for the promotion. Sure, the promotion gives Jet Blue brand exposure via the numerous media outlets that covered the story. It also puts the Jet Blue brand name in the minds of consumers, both frequent fliers and the occasional traveler. A sales promotion that enables customers to use and evaluate the product more than once, as this promotion is structured to do, can be effective for persuading consumers to consider your brand.

Most importantly, the promotion could persuade would be travelers to book on Jet Blue. This possibility is important for attracting first time Jet Blue customers. Also, a promotion such as this one could entice ex-customers to give the airline another try. This fact cannot be overstated given the very public customer service failures Jet Blue has experienced in recent years. Ultimately, it is not the one-price promotion that will win customers for Jet Blue. It is the experience passengers have from the time they book a flight until the time they touch down at their destination. If the experience does not meet expectations, it will take more than a unique promotion to win back those customers.

NPR – “Jet Blue Offers $599 ‘All You Can Jet’ Pass”

Chevy Volt is Spark Needed by New GM

General Motors proudly unveiled the Chevrolet Volt hybrid vehicle this week, first to an audience of mainly ex-GM owners and then to a a gathering of media and analysts. The look of a proud parent was impossible to miss at these events, and why not- the Volt can tout an estimated highway MPG rating of 230. This staggering figure changes the game in hybrid vehicles. Toyota Prius, the current market leader, can get only about 1/4 of the Volt’s mileage performance. The Volt’s price tag of $35,000-40,000 makes it less than a slam dunk success when it hits the market in 2010, but its launch is critical to GM’s success going forward. The impressive mileage performance of the Volt sends a signal that GM is capable of producing innovative new products.

The coming out parties for the Chevy Volt signal intentions for change at GM. CEO Fritz Henderson says the company will put consumers first; the meeting with ex-customers before holding the media event was symbolic of the goal to focus more on consumers. Greater effort will be made to get consumer feedback, according to Henderson. Let’s not get too crazy about that statement; that is what marketing is about, after all. At least we should credit GM for adopting the right mindset.

Henderson also discussed marketing strategy. The corporate GM brand will be downplayed as most resources will be directed toward the four remaining GM brands (Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GM) and the various models that are subbrands of the four brands. This move is appropriate. There is not a great deal to be gained by promoting the GM brand today. It carries a great deal of negative baggage. Greater consumer interest will likely exist for the different GM nameplates, not the parent brand. Focusing marketing efforts on the four brands allows GM to reach customers at the level where they are evaluating choices, at the brand level.

Marketing Daily – “General Motors Addresses Consumers First”

Managing Price by Motivating Salespeople

In difficult economic times, managing expenses takes on greater importance in the face of softer revenues. One expense in particular that rises to the top of the list of concerns is employee compensation. An article in the August issue of Inc. Magazine shares some ideas on how businesses can deal with this challenge. One of the issues featured in the article is managing the dilemma between product pricing and salesforce commissions. The story of Passageways, an Indiana-based technology firm that serves the banking industry, is shared as an example of one way to give motivate salespeople to protect price in negotiations with customers.

As Passageways’ clients felt the sting of the recession, they demanded greater price cuts from the company. To combat this problem, Passageways VP Paroon Chadha modified the sales commission structure, changing from a straight percentage of sales to a tiered system. Why was it needed? Salespeople who willingly reduced price up to 10% in negotiations were hurting their commissions only slightly but were costing the company much more in foregone revenues. The tiered system rewards salespeople that are more tenacious in price negotiations, paying a higher rate the closer the selling price is to a product’s list price. Conversely, the deeper a product is discounted, the lower the commission rate.

A tiered commission system like the one adopted by Passageways provides two key benefits. First, salespeople have a motivation for sticking closer to a product’s asking price. Giving ground on price is easy, too easy perhaps. Creating rewards for managing price (or inducing some pain for not managing price) is a great way to increase the salesforce’s commitment to the firm’s pricing strategy. Second, when price is not liberally discounted, you are protecting brand integrity. What does it say for a brand when its list price is regularly discounted several percentage points? It says the brand is not really worth the asking price. That calls into question the true value a brand possesses. Why put your brand at risk to have quality called into question.

Kudos to Paroon Chadha and Passageways. It is not easy to take a stand on pricing, but the fallout for not doing so can eclipse any benefits coming from an approach to pricing that is too flexible.

Inc. Magazine – “Special Financial Report: Employee Compensation”

Transistioning to E-Readers: Old Habits Die Hard

Sales of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader are projected to reach 1 million units this year. Does this signal a trend toward widespread adoption of e-readers by book lovers? Not so fast, according to research from NPD Group. Approximately 40% of persons surveyed in the study indicated they were only somewhat interested or not interested at all in e-readers. Given Kindle’s initial price of $359 (recently lowered to $299), the cost of e-readers would seem to be the primary obstacle to gaining wider adoption. In fact, 70% of those who were not interested in e-readers cited the desire to experience sing a book in its physical form as the main reason they were not interested in e-readers.

Do findings from this study imply doom for e-readers from Amazon, Sony, and Plastic Logic? Will they become business school case studies of new product failures? The answer to these questions is probably “no.” What the marketers of e-readers do face is the challenges of creating user-friendly products that replicate the look, if not the feel, of reading a paper book. Advantages of e-readers should be touted, including their positive impact on the environment (saving paper on book production and reducing need for storage space).

The transition from books to e-readers is a much greater leap for consumers than moving from CDs to digital music players. It is because book reading is much more of a sensory experience: seeing, touching, and even smelling a physical book. A market for e-readers exists, but in the near future it appears to be focused on a segment of customers that are willing to adopt the technology for the convenience of downloading books quickly and storing hundreds of titles in a tiny space. Despite Kindle’s success to this point, the market for e-reader supremacy is still wide open.

Online Media Daily – “Consumers not Convinced They Need E-Reader”

ESPN’s Twitter Dilemma

ESPN has experienced multiple facets of the impact of the microblogging web site Twitter. One facet of Twitter is that it provides a channel for ESPN personalities to communicate with followers. The result is the “talking heads” became more personable to people who watch ESPN programs on TV and follow the personalities who have a presence on Twitter. Another facet of Twitter ESPN experienced is a rapid outcry from users when word came out about a new ESPN policy that apparently restricted the freedoms of ESPN employees on social networking web sites like Twitter. Criticism was swift and harsh for ESPN.

The situation at ESPN is one that is indicative of challenges arising from the emergence of new media. Social networking sites are a new channel of communication, one in which the level of interactivity is vastly different from ESPN’s customary one-way broadcasting to its audiences. The potential benefits to ESPN of fans and ESPN personalities engaging in two-way exchanges of information cannot be overlooked. Creating associations with ESPN as the source for sports entertainment information and content is a very lucrative incentive for ESPN and its employees to have a strong presence in social media.

But, one must not lose sight of the fact that ESPN is a brand, one with a great deal of equity in the marketplace. It is incumbent on protectors of a brand as strong as ESPN to take steps to safeguard it. While the guidelines the company has established for social networking use sound very “corporate,” they are probably a necessary step to make explicit the role of social networking for the company. ESPN and its personalities will continue to have a presence on social networks, the change going forward is that the company has established guidelines for employees’ use of social media and connecting it to overarching concerns of protecting brand equity.

Mashable – “ESPN Responds to Criticism and Publishes Social Media Policy”