Balihoo’s Director of Media Buying Katie Bergerud just wrote an article for the Idaho Statesman’s ‘Starting Up’ series which hit the press today. 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

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.

I just returned from the International Franchise Association annual conference, which was a tremendous show on all fronts. First off the show was run exceptionally well, which is always helpful to participating companies. However, beyond the logistics of the event and the content that was offered I was particularly struck by how upbeat the attendees were. The attendees were almost all VP level and above and most were franchis”ors” or “zors” as they refer to themselves. Some were Franchises or “zees”, but by in large the conference was focused on the “zors”.

The general sentiment was fairly consistent and can be summed up as “these are challenging times for our company, but we are confident in the platform and are focused on making our franchisees successful - that is the competitive advantage we bring over independents”. I was motivated and inspired by the confidence that these CEO’s and VP’s were bringing to every conversation. They were at the show to find ways to help their franchisees succeed despite the rough economic climate. I think that was one of the reasons that Balihoo had such a GREAT show. We are solving a real problem in the national/local marketing environment and delivering an exceptional solution to businesses that need help today. The companies we spoke with were thrilled to have finally found a single platform that would solve all (or most anyway) of their marketing challenges.

We are very excited about the relationships that we created at the show and are motivated to follow the lead of the “zors” and help the local business owners to gain market share in a down economy.

Great! you say - Where can I sign up to rent a Twitter list to send out my offer?  Unfortunately its not that easy.

Yesterday, Abrams Research released their 2009 Social Media Survey results carried out during February 2009.  Social media should be on every business radar, even if you are just starting to think about it, this is a good quick read and will get you thinking.

Amazingly 40% of the responders in the survey picked Twitter as the number one social media service for businesses.  However not in the traditional ways that a marketer might think…which is partially why this tool and others under the heading of New Marketing cause confusion and frustration among marketers more familiar with traditional one-way techniques.  A comment I heard from someone a couple weeks ago pretty much sums up the confusion felt by many…  “I need to get myself a Space Book account:)”

So why did survey respondents pick Twitter as tops for business?  Here are a few of the comments made:

• Twitter is the easiest way to communicate, connect, and drive a call to action
• Twitter is very hot right now for brands
• Twitter offers instantaneous feedback from and interaction with customers/users
• Twitter give the ability to broadcast and give a voice to the business
• Twitter is the quickest way to spread information virally to a wide scope of people attached in lots of random ways
• Twitter is the best way to bridge the personal-professional gap - once people care about you the person they care about you the brand

You will notice in these comments a common theme that is very different than traditional forms of marketing.  Its about building a relationship with your customers, not marketing to them.  Its a strategy that helps build loyalty, awareness and thought leadership.  The key to this is that you need to have something interesting to say.  This pretty much sums up the basis of all new new marketing techniques.

This probably isn’t news to some.  Blogs also support many of the same objectives, and in fact Twitter is often referred to as a micro-blogging tool.  I read recently read (via a tweet) about how Twitter is shifting away from being about ‘what you are doing’, and more about ‘what has my attention’ now, which shows the maturing and evolution of the platform.

Blogs + twitter now become a powerful marketing combination.  To me, if used effectively Twitter can be a ‘feeder system’ to other forms of marketing.  Its an easy no risk way for a customer to ‘try you out’.  This feeder system - could bring them into your blog, promotional offers to your customers etc.  Just be careful to not turn it into another push medium for a one-way message.  Many made this mistake with blogs when they first started to permeate the business space.

A second interesting tidbit I picked up from the survey results is that while traditional online advertising (eg Banner ads) ranked dead last in opinions of the best way to monetize social media, targeted ads ranked second.  The key to this is smart contextual ads.  I recently read about a new tool called Twitterhawk that supports an interesting targeted marketing offer especially for local marketers.  It will scan localized twitter traffic and based on keyword matches you can 1. have the system send an auto response, 2. have the system find matches and you confirm before sending, 3. queue up possible matches allow you to respond directly.  With targeted marketing, there is always a fine line between true targeted marketing and spam, however consumer feedback will likely keep these services honest.

Last point I want to raise about the survey: There was a question related to companies that are doing a good job with social media, so for those looking to better understand best practices and how it might be applied to their situation the experts pointed to: Zappos, Dell, CNN and Wine Library.  There are many others as well but remember every organization is different.  One of the key things to remember with new marketing: don’t think of it as a new set of tools to apply old techniques.  Your business really needs to think about how these new options might allow the business model to be changed and transformed to take advantage.  Much harder to do but the only way to be successful.

The public has been heard – corporate executives who jet around in private aircraft, particularly those who lead dismally performing companies, will not be tolerated.  In today’s Wall Street Journal, Cessna Aircraft Co. ran a bold ad intended to counter this negative stigma.

I’m a big fan of bold advertising - especially in down markets where boldness is required in all facets of business management.  But some may argue this one might be a little over the top due to the economy and public perception.

The ad urges corporate CEOs to be bold and resolute instead of timid and cow-towing to public perception with the message: keep your corporate jets, or at least ensure you are considering all the positive reasons for corporate aircraft before just cutting due to image.

Some excerpts from the WSJ:

• “Pity the poor executive who blinks, and gets rid of the company jet.”… “One thing is certain: true visionaries will continue to fly.”
• “Timidity didn’t get you this far. Why put it in your business plan now?” Instead of retreating, the company argues, companies should adjust and make sure they are flying the right type of aircraft.

Cessna, who has made the news recently with big layoffs and poor performance itself, is obviously taking a big risk with the ad, especially considering it committed more than half its ad budget to the campaign.  Public perception toward corporate greed and excess has probably never been more disapproving.  There was a censorious outcry from both politicians and the public over the “Big 3” auto CEOs’ use of private jets last fall, as well as toward the big banks’ use of corporate jets to visit Washington this week.

As far as public opinion goes, the ad probably won’t win a lot of fans.  But the real question is: will the ad win over the minds of executive decision makers who are considering their corporate travel options, either now or in the near future.  If nothing else, Cessna is taking its own counsel to heart and being as bold as it suggests CEOs should be.

You vote - good ad or bad?

If you follow Balihoo, you’ll know that one of most important customers is Carpet One Floor & Home.  Our marketer product enables their corporate marketing group to distribute all of their creative assets to the local markets and gives those local members the ability to customize all of those materials and place them in their local media and marketing. 

One of the services we offer the Carpet One dealers is media planning and buying -as a result we are heavily involved and engaged in their local marketing efforts across the country.  I’m consistently surprised at the level of thought, strategy and inguinity these local business owners demonstrate in their efforts. 

Last week I interacted with Kerns Carpet One and it was the very first time one of the dealers mentioned that they were using Faceboook to promote their business.  You can find them on Facebook here.  You can see on their profile that they’re not only using it to keep customers up-to-date on promotions and activities within their business, but they’re also posting pictures of jobs and before/after comparisons.  I think it’s a fantastic use of the medium and of Facebook to engage with their customers this way. 

The economy is no doubt tough right now, but it’s the retail folks that stay engaged with their customers and continue to push the envelope that will be successful.  Coincidentally, our local newspaper recently did a big write-up on local businesses here using Facebook and Twitter to market themselves that you’ll find interesting.  Kudos to those businesses that continue to push the envelope! 

One of the greatest things about working at Balihoo is undoubtedly the company culture.  When I first joined the Balihoo team, I was continually awe-struck by how great all of the Balihoo’ers I met were - both at their professions and at their lives outside of the office. Balihoo employees - for lack of a better word, are livers (no, not the organ) - they are a group of people with passion, spirit and drive.

As with all jobs, there are undeniably ups and down but the one component that consistently keeps Balihoo “up” is the optimism that Balihoo employees emanate.  It was with this in mind that I decided to put together a new series for our blog.  This Work-Life Passion series will feature individual Balihoo’ers - through which I hope to give you a glimpse of what it is like to work (and play) at Balihoo.

 With that, it is with great pleasure that I introduce you to Balihoo Creative’s Creative Director Mel Mansfield.  Mel is one of those people who can manage fifty    items and make it look completely effortless. With a demanding job (contrary to popular belief - working in the creative department is HARD work), three kids at home, a passion for interior design, a charity that she is passionately involved with (Idaho Epilepsy Foundation) and a love for “all board sports” Mel is always on the go!  Whenever there is an out-of-office event, party or sports team I just assume that Mel will be taking part because, well, that is Mel. She is a do-er.

Having grown up in Burley, Mel is an Idahoan through and through. Loving all things outdoors - Mel spends as much time outside (ideally with a board strapped to her feet) as possible.  With three boys aged 8, 12 and 14 and a long-time sports-lover who professes that she “lives for football” - Mel spends a lot of time either playing in or watching games.

Creative at her desk, in her home and with her charity work, Mel is a fantastic example of the kind of person Balihoo recruits.

As many of you know, this year’s Special Olympic World Games are being held in Idaho! Athletes from all over the world are currently escorting the Flame of Hope through the Gem State.  The flame was lit in Athens, Greece last November and has traveled over 37,000 miles and through five continents! The torch will arrive in Boise for the Opening Ceremonies on Feb 6th, 2009. This is a tremendous honor for the entire state.  But as the torch makes it way closer and closer to Boise, there is still an incredible amount of work to be done.

“The global Special Olympics movement is bigger and stronger than ever,” said Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver. “But there is still a lot of work to be done. A generation of young people is looking for something to inspire them, to engage them, something they can take ownership of and pride in. Our athletes provide that inspiration every day, and we invite the world to experience it firsthand.”

As Shriver noted, this fantastic event still needs help to raise money to support the games and these phenomenal athletes.  With that in mind, the Balihoo team developed the idea to build and offer a Winter Games Commemorative Shadow Box to businesses that donate $500 or more to the games. Each limited edition shadow box contains one of the original hand-knitted blue and white famous scarves as well as an example letter from one of the volunteer knitters and a personalized ‘Thank You’ letter. 

These great boxes are perfect to hang in one’s office as a long-term reminder to you and your company’s support of this amazing event.  Pledges must be made by next Friday, February 13th, so get yours today!

To learn more and/or to make a pledge to the upcoming games please visit:  http://www.soiscarf.com/