Marketing Pilgrim

At the risk of seeming hypocritical (don’t worry it’s not the first time and won’t be the last time, just ask my wife) I am going to look at some research and make a big deal out of it.

First, it comes from Gartner, which gives some measure of reassurance that there is an impartial bend to it. I say some reassurance because you can never be sure. Second, it’s about the ongoing Android v. iOS battle that promises to heat up more if Verizon does indeed get its own iPhone in 2011. Here’s the data I am referring to:

Ask.com is always an interesting subject when it comes to search engines. Every once in a while the IAC property will announce another iteration of itself, advertise it for a while then go away until we see the anemic search share numbers each month where we don’t even mention their ‘share. It’s been denounced as an arbitrage play in the past. The latest version of the ‘search’ entity is it’s Q & A approach started in July.
However you slice up Ask.com these days it appears as if search engine developer is now off the table.

Bloomberg reports

Ask.com, the Internet search engine that media mogul Barry Diller acquired for $1.85 billion to compete with Google Inc., is cutting 130 engineering jobs and conceding much of its search business to competitors.

You’re the author of a book on how to turn kitchen waste into cash and you want to spread the word. So what do you do? Why not invest in a snazzy TV commercial to play on the Food Network or during Pawn Stars. This is your audience, foodies who love to treasure hunt! But author Joel Comm says don’t waste your money because despite all the hype, TV ads are not the stuff dreams are made on.

It goes back to the early days of TV, when Ralph and Norton demonstrated the Handy Housewife Helper and Lucy proclaimed that Vitameatavegamin was so tasty, too! For years, sitcoms have taught us that a single TV commercial can result in an avalanche of sales which generally left our TV hero struggling to meet the demand with comical results.  In reality, a TV commercial is just another tool in the tool kit and not always the best tool for the job.

Marketers are constantly looking for the silver bullet, the holy grail or the big kahuna, if you will, that can truly define just how much interaction people are actually having with their brands online.

What are people looking for? Are they are truly interacting or are they just serial “Likers”? This is a question that will nag everyone in the marketing game for as long as this game is being played because in the end the only way to gauge a person’s engagement is to measure their sentiment and that’s going to always be elusive.

In efforts to define this interaction we turn to studies like the one just completed by the Cone Media and brought to our attention by the Center for Media Research. The chart below comes from the report called “2010 Cone Consumer New Media Study”. I have added to it in case you didn’t notice.

We talk a lot here at Marketing Pilgrim about how what you say or do online can impact your business or career. In fact, someone even wrote a book about that kind of thing. Since this is such a growth area in the online space you can almost sit back and wait for the next level to be reached because people are screwing up online in droves on a daily basis and of course, where there is stupidity, there are lawyers.

The New York Times reports on a landmark case that is going to the next level as the National Labor Relations Board climbs into the ring over an alleged firing of an EMT regarding Facebook posts about their supervisor

In Indonesia, volcano victims, most of which are suffering from breathing disorders, are being treated inside a tent sponsored by Sampoerna. Americans may not see the irony there, but how about if I tell you that Sampoerna is owned by Phillip Morris and is one of Indonesia’s largest tobacco companies.

It’s not unusual for corporations to pitch in during times of crisis, but what’s got people riled up is the use of corporate logos on rescue vehicles, uniforms and tents. And it’s one thing for the local telecommunications company to pitch in, but a cigarette company?

Indonesia is a country of smokers so it’s even more ironic that the Sampoerna aid station is a smoke-free zone and unlike the relief workers of WWII, they aren’t handing out cigarettes to the masses. But according to an article in Global Post, some people find their presence to be disconcerting.