One of the tools that marketers have in their arsenal to try to engage their targets is music. Hey, everybody likes music, right? As consumers, we listen to music as entertainment, a way to enhance experiences and make life more enjoyable. And ever since Nike used The Beatles’ “Revolution” to sell us shoes back in the late 80s, we have grown accustomed to hearing songs we love, songs we hold dear to our hearts, in association with the marketing efforts of brands that want to relate to our lives, whether we like it or not.

But the problem for marketers, needing to be relevant to and in touch with the consumers they need to attract, is how to choose the right songs for that group of consumers. This problem exists because nobody listens to the same music anymore. Mp3 players, free downloads, and ear buds have fragmented our musical listening experiences down to the personal level, which is the way each of us wants it. We listen to what we want, when we want it. We don’t listen to the radio anymore. If we do, it’s a satellite station of our choosing, designed around a niche. Each of us is a niche, with our own play lists from our own devices playing the soundtrack to our own lives into our ears, for no one else to hear. Or share.

There is undoubtedly a lot of great new music out there. But which new track from which artist will appeal to a large group of consumers in the same way? It’s anybody’s guess. There is no safety for marketers when there is no common ground.

But everyone is familiar with old songs. Just look at this list from 1969. If there are more than 20 songs from that list you haven’t heard, you probably are under the age of 25 and are the only child of strict, non-musical parents. Because that music came from a time when we all watched the same TV shows at the same time every night and heard the same songs on the same radio stations, then went out and bought those songs on vinyl discs that we all played on our home stereos.

As music to market by, old music is arguably more relevant to a large audience than newer songs, simply because we HAVE all heard it, and shared it. It will elicit an emotional response that maybe we as marketers can better predict.

At least not young children. That is the sense that I am getting from the new movie being released on October 16, 2009. An adaptation of the classic children’s book, the movie has a darker, more sinister feel than many of the book’s core audience may be ready for. Especially since readers of the book start at about age four.

Let me start by saying that I view this book as one of the most formative of my youth. But what a book leaves up to the imagination of the reader, the movie fills in. And while my imagination when reading this book at age four may have only been able to take me so far, the movie takes the viewer where Spike Jonze, the director, wants you to go. Regardless of your age. So it begs the question, to whom is this movie marketed to? Children, teenagers or maybe adults who grew up with the book? I’m guessing it is more of the latter two. The kind of movie that a parent would take a 14-year-old to, not a 4 year old. Which is definitely not a typical target for movies.

I do however, acknowledge that anything that is truly different and unknown makes people apprehensive. When the book first came out there was a negative reaction. Librarians would not order it and parents were concerned about its dark imagery. But children loved it. Sendak claims that is because it respects kids. It doesn’t talk down to them. So I hope that I stand corrected and that children, young included, actually like this film. That is if parents allow their children to see it.

And since this film has been in talks for many years now and only Spike Jonze has gotten Sendak’s approval to bring it to the big screen, let’s hope that their vision will have the same impact on many of today’s children that the book once had on me. And that all this controversy will just make more people go and see it.

Here is an interview with Sendak and Jonze.

According to Facebook, I desperately need to diet and check my IQ. I am also a proud new mother of a baby, though last I checked, I haven’t birthed any children.

Facebook has been hard at work generating more robust, customized ad platforms for their highly popular social network, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing even more advertising options after they roll out their new home page design. Unfortunately, like most other Facebook users I know, I barely noticed these ads—that is, until I started getting a disturbing onslaught of ads parading babies in my face. The worst so far have been these ads with extremely creepy, multiple-eyed babies saying I should take an IQ test. These are usually presented with other ads telling me to check out a new fruit cleanse diet (Oprah tried it, and it worked miracles). I’m starting to think Facebook has characterized me as an overweight new mother with time on hand to take quizzes rating my intellect. We’re all aware that Facebook taps into our profile information for advertisers to target certain audiences. What befuddles me is that nowhere in my information does it say anything about babies.

The good thing about these ads, though, is that there is a function to give it a thumbs up, thumbs down, or refresh to a next ad. After the 12th time seeing the same mommy-and-baby photography services ad, I did the responsible thing and responded to the ad. I gave it a thumbs down and selected “irrelevant” as the reason why (other options include misleading, offensive, uninteresting, repetitive, or other). It felt good to help Facebook and its paying advertisers better target their efforts—I do it for a living, after all. One or two months pass, and I continue to thumbs-down the baby ads day after day. Oddly even more baby ads pop up, and this time creepy ones with four, six eyes. I start marking them all as outright “offensive.” The ads become even more unrelenting, this time even bringing in puppies and other innocent faces with multiple lifeless eyes. It’s gotten to a point where I feel like Facebook is just taunting me. I’m losing a battle being attacked by photoshopped nightmares of things once cute and cuddly, armed with only a two-click courtesy survey.

This whole ordeal ends up being good and bad for Facebook. Good because I started to actually notice their ads. Bad because I only started noticing these ads out of sheer insult. Even worse because I now question Facebook’s ability to really handle ad customization. Maybe as a coping mechanism I can join one of the various Facebook groups created against Facebook ads.

The Twittersphere is abuzz this morning!

Everyone is talking about what J.R. Cohen, Operations Manager for CoffeeGroundz (@coffeegroundz) Cafe in Houston, TX has done. He’s doubled the clientele to his store. How, you ask? By starting to take drink orders via direct message from Twitter users.

A coffee shop (that also doubles as a lounge at night by serving beer and wine), is the perfect type of business to take advantage of this new medium of communication. The store has free WiFi which makes it convenient for people to linger. WiFi also means that people will have their internet enabled devices there, making it easy for them to simply message the guy at the counter for a drink!

This is a powerful example about how businesses can use new media and social networking to reach with their customers on a different level. They’re not marketing towards them. They’re connecting with customers and creating a relationship, which we all knows leads to brand loyalty.

How are other companies using Twitter to connect with their customers?

• @SouthwestAir – Southwest Airlines offers deals and promotions to Twitter followers.
• @BofA_help – Bank of America is using Twitter to respond and actually solve customer complaints.
• @zappos – Zapos CEO Tony Hsieh uses Twitter to offer coupon codes (that expire quickly so you have to follow him to get the deals) and to stay connected with customers that want to be actively engaged with his brand.

Using new social media platforms to connect with your customers is the wave of the future.

[read more]

Previously:  What is all the Twitter hype about?

I wasn’t at work on New Year’s Day. I thoroughly enjoyed my day off lounging around the house and watching television, but I couldn’t help but notice a trend in the TV advertisements flashing up on my HDTV 3-4 times every half hour. You may have noticed it too.

Between the Mythbusters/Bones/Monk-athons there was an inordinate amount of weight loss commercials. And what timing, too! I’m sure there are millions of people around the world that made resolutions and what better time to get them interested in a new product or service.

Most of these commercials were for meal delivery services. They’ve got their target demographic: people who made resolutions but are still sitting on the couch—they want their weight loss delivered to them!

Bravo wasn’t so subtle. They just ran 14 hours of The Biggest Loser.

Welcome to the inaugural Trone blog post.  We’re glad you’re here.  This is a place where your voice can be heard.  This blog is about Insights – specifically, insights about the wide world of marketing.

A few years ago, several enterprising lads in the UK sought to identify the funniest joke in the world.  The joke that came in second can help us understand a little something about insights:*

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were going camping. They pitched their tent under the stars and went to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night Holmes woke Watson up and said: “Watson, look up at the stars and tell me, what do you see?”

Watson replied: “I see millions and millions of stars.”

Holmes said: “And what do you deduce from that?”

Watson replied: “Well, if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it’s quite likely there are some planets like earth out there. And if there are a few planets like earth out there, there might also be life.”

And Holmes said: “Watson, you idiot, it means that somebody stole our tent.”