What it takes to discover your social star – iMediaConnection.com
July 28, 2010How Did Sony Miss The Boat (That Rocked)?
February 2, 2010Sony could be in the market position now dominated by iPod/iTunes. How and why did they miss the proverbial ‘boat on the rivers of gold’ that delivers music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, games and books to portable players and mobile phones the world over?
Why isn’t the much-loved Walkman the player we all use to access the plethora of digital entertainment?
First, a recent history of Sony.
- Thirty-one years ago, in 1979, Sony launched the Walkman. It revolutionised music listening habits “by allowing people to carry music with them” (quote from Wikipedia that has the full Walkman story).
- Twenty-one years ago Sony purchased Columbia Pictures in September 1989 (renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1991). The movie franchises they inherited include The Karate Kid, Spider-Man, Stuart Little, Men in Black, plus numerous TV programs.
- Nineteen years ago in 1991 Sony Music Entertainment was formed after they purchased CBS Records, giving them ownership of music by Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, Pearl Jam…the list of major acts goes on and on. Read full list).
- In the personal/home gaming industry, Sony launched the portable game machine PlayStation fifteen years ago in December 1994 (Japan) and September 1995 (North America).

By the late 90′s Sony had the world’s leading portable music player, games player, music publishing, movie and television production studios. The Walkman was even the generic name for a portable music player.
The first mass-produced MP3 player sold in the USA in 1998, then the Apple iPod and iTunes launched in 2001. Fast forward to today and the iPod is the generic device name for accessing music, games and video content, and iTunes is the number one online destination for buying music, music videos, podcasts, movies, television shows , games – and now books!
How did Sony NOT realise that the future was a digital MP3/games device linked to a Sony-owned online distribution channel? Did Sony really dismiss the iPod as a fad that could never usurp the Walkman’s market dominance (and overcome Sony’s famous brand loyalty)?
As a marketer with many years experience creating advertising campaigns for global consumer electronics brands like Compaq and Philips, I would love to hear your thoughts about Sony.
- Did they make a monumental error of judgment when iPod/iTunes came along?
- Why didn’t their legendary brand loyalty overcome these threats?
- Sony has abdicated their technology ‘crown’ to Apple – what do you like/dislike about Apple’s emergence as the new ‘king’ of consumer technology brands?
Integrated Marketing – what does it really mean?
January 19, 2010One of the buzz phrases that’s been around quite a while is “integrated marketing” (not spelt “intergrated” as too many lazy authors write it). So what does this phrase really mean in the multi-faceted media landscape we have today?
Back before the Internet became such a powerful and ubiquitous medium, this approach generally meant that your TVC/print ad/outdoor poster/point-of-sale creative all used the same core visual and copy line. This made sense so potential customers received a consistent brand message.
However, “integrated marketing” now means so much more than simply consistency in your creative execution. There is integrated media that aims to reach an audience across numerous channels, at different times and using a wide range of creative techniques. And there are integrated sales techniques that tracks the audience through the sales cycle, from initial enquiry to after-sales service.
In the past 10 years or so, the term has taken on further meaning: synergistic marketing tactics across digital channels and all other media. Even this has evolved from the early days of designing complementary banner ads and offline ads, to more focus on cohesive ‘messages’ rather than the visual creative elements.
I am interested to document and blog about successful (and even unsuccessful) “integrated marketing” campaigns. Would love to hear from anyone who can share their experiences. Pls submit your Comments below and I hope to get a few good examples to write about in a future blog post.
Permission-based Email Gone Wrong
December 21, 2009It amazes me that leading marketers still make fundamental mistakes in their email communications to customers. Recently I received an email from one of Australia’s leading financial institutions that highlights how easy it is to make simple mistakes. A copy of the email is below (self-censored as the bank’s identity is not relevant to this discussion).
This email fails to meet some basic tenets of email best practice for a number of reasons.
1. Out-dated Customer Email List
I actually don’t have an active account with this bank (or any account for that matter). An account was opened by me online many years ago, however no money was deposited into it and since I have not had any correspondence from them in years I assumed it was closed due to being inactive. They missed an opportunity to ask if I wanted to reactivate the account, maybe with an offer of a brilliant interest rate.
2. Subject Line Blooper
One of the most important elements of successful permission-based email marketing is the Subject line wording. This email says “Message from ___” and that is completely the wrong approach because it doesn’t indicate this message contains any relevant or useful information for me. At least they would have done better to personalise it, such as “Hi Tim, here is an important message from ___.”
3. Cannot View Online
Most HTML email readers will display the images and text, however it is essential to offer readers the option to ‘View Online’. Here the link leads to a web page with an error message that says
“Information Notice – Sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. ERR432970″. Now that is seriously unacceptable.
4. Missing Unsubscribe Link
A legal requirement in Australia is for all commercial emails to contain a one-click unsubscribe function. There is no “Unsubscribe” link here. Interestingly, this email was distributed by Vision 6, a company that says on it’s web site that “Each email you send has an unsubscribe link that allows recipients to remove themselves from your list [www.vision6.com.au/spam_compliance.html]. The email copy actually says “This is an automated email and you can not respond to this email address”. They also use a ‘From’ email address of “Please_do_not_reply@”. What a non-customer friendly attitude for a bank to have, especially in an email!
5. No Signatory
Organisations should always include a signature at the bottom of their emails, as it’s the best way to indicate this message is from a person representing the sender, not just a faceless company. It should include name and title details, as well the company’s physical and web address. A link to the company web site, and even to other product/service information, is a great way to measure clicks too.
6. More Paper and Postage Costs
Further to these indiscretions, this email’s core message is quite bizarre. This bank is actually telling me that an account statement will now be mailed “at least every six months” (or “every six months” as it also confusingly states). This policy change is at odds with most major service organisations that now offer their customers the choice of receiving their statement or invoice by email or post. So why in 2009 is this bank: a) not offering a choice to receive statements in the post, by email, and/or view online, and b) now sending them by post that will increase their administration costs and effort???
All in all it seems very wrong to me. I’m sure they have a highly rational explanation for this new policy. One positive I can say is that the email was sent on a Tuesday, as research has shown that Tuesday and Wednesday are the best days to send out broadcast emails in terms of response rates (pity this email didn’t include some trackable links though).
I’d be interested in your thoughts and to hear about any other strange or ridiculous emails from large service organisations that you have received.
Posted by mktgbytes 














