Marketing Comet - Small Business Marketing Secrets

Boston - Turner Broadcasting - Guerrilla Marketing Gone Bad

If you haven't been living in a paper bag recently, you'll know that Boston was the victim of guerrilla marketing gone bad. Some marketers place some electronic devices around the city - under bridges and whatnot - that lit up to display a character fro the Cartoon Network show Aquateen Hungerforce. The devices were spotted and thought to be suspicious, which set off a number of bomb-scares across the city.

As a marketer and resident of Boston I thought I should weigh-in in the pile of opinions.

Did the City of Boston overreact?
I don't believe so. They had no idea what the devices were, just that they were electronic and placed where terrorists might stick bombs. With anything like this - better safe than sorry. If these things had been explosive devices and the city had not reacted as they did - the results could have been catastrophic.

The big issue for me is that the devices had been in place for a number of weeks and nobody noticed. Scary.

What about the culpability of the guys who placed the devices?
These guys come off as a couple of goof-balls. I do not believe that they intended to cause a bomb-scare, and I'd hate to see them do prison time.

However, putting up advertising signs on anyone's property (or public property) without permission is a big no-no. I think a fine of some kind and some community service time is in order.

What about the culpability of Turner Broadcasting?
The buck stops here. Ultimately Turner Broadcasting is responsible for overseeing all activities of the marketing company and its contractors. It's good that they are offering to compensate the city for it's expenditures, however, that's not enough.

If you ever use an external marketing agency - you must control their activities, and have final approval over every campaign.

The marketing agency shares responsibility here as well.

Real guerrilla marketing doesn't break the law
There have been a few incidents lately of so-called guerrilla marketing, where property has been defaced. This is a horrible idea. Spray-painting, attaching signs, stickers, posters, or any other activity that places an advertising message onto property you don't own can only be done with approval.

So, it remains that Turner will probably pay a couple of million dollars to Boston, and receive a PR black-eye. They are to be commended for stepping up so fast, and taking responsibility. That's smart. The faster they can put this behind them, the better

Looking Forward to $4 a Gallon Gas?

Mark my words, today's announcement about leaky oil pipes in Alaska are a precursor to US gas prices going up to $4 per gallon within the next year. Pardon me in advance for getting a bit preachy here - but I'm steamed at the state of energy in the US.

Gas prices in the US have been scalloping up for a long time. They will raise them 2 steps drop them a step, then raise them two steps. The pricing patterns are regular and even predictable. Yes - I know that Katrina knocked out some production. However, gas prices are at a record high and the oil companies are making record profits. These things are related.

The oil companies are using world events to rape American consumers who are dependent on oil to heat their homes, and drive to work. Let me repeat - they are raking in record profits. If the cost of oil and gas production was the main factor in the dramatic price increases, then profits should only rise in proportion to demand. That isn't happening, and the gas companies are lying to us. It's just that plain and simple.

The only answer is a difficult one - but not impossible. After all, we put men on the moon.

Let's drop some reality bombs:

Our reliance on foreign oil is a national security nightmare
Where did Saddam, Osama, and the boys et all their money? oh yeah - oil. Cut off the demand for oil from the Middle East, and in a single generation you will see most of the wealth dry up. Terrorists and despots will go back to throwing rocks. The US will be able to extricate itself from the tribal wars that have been raging for a thousand years.

I realize who pays our elected officials. Our fine president is in business with the Saudi Royal Family, and even some of Bin Ladin's relatives. There's nothing wrong with this - it just seems like a conflict of interest to me.

Fossil fuel is filthy
No matter what the oil industry tells the president what to order NASA to say - global warming is an extremely real and extremely dangerous effect that can seriously harm life on Earth in the next generation. Remember Katrina? Wonder why all the weather on the planet has gone all wonky? Why are all the glaciers melting?

Very realistic alternatives
It is possible to set up farms of windmills in just 4 states in the US and provide the entire country with cheap, renewable, non-polluting energy. Why don't we do it? Well, the US government gives very little money to set up wind-farm technology and frequently cuts off their funding altogether. Meanwhile, the highly profitable oil industry receives tens of billions of dollars in US government subsidies every year, and has never ever lost funding.

Remember who really pays our politicians.

We could power almost all of our vehicles with cleaner, renewable ethanol. Yes I know that the US doesn't produce enough ethanol to power all our cars. Brazil does however, because they can make it from sugarcane. So why don't we import Brazilian ethanol? Well the US government has imposed a 100% tariff on ethanol - effectively pricing it out of the market.

Guess what the tariff is on oil. That's right 0%.

Remember who pays our politicians.

We face a very real and imminent national crisis. While our politicians play partisan games and reap huge paychecks from very shady people - we and our children get to pay the price.

What we must do
We must approach the current energy crisis like we approached the space program in the 60s. We should be pouring national resources, and gathering the best minds in the world to solve the energy problem. We must vote out anybody who doesn't approach energy as a national security issue - and that's pretty much every single person in national office today.

The US congress has an 85% encumbency rate - that's simply disgusting.

Fuel cells, biodiesel - all seem within our grasp. Australia an China are building solar power facilities that will power 100,000 homes each. Why aren't we doing that? Our government, because of greed and only greed, is tricking very few resources into these planet-saving technologies.

Think $4 a gallon gas will be tough - wait till it gets to $5 or $6. Oh yeah and all the prices of everything we buy that gets shipped are going up. Oh yeah - you will be paying nearly double what you have been to heat your house.

I know I've bashed the president a lot here, but this is an issue that crosses party lines. The US two party system has failed us. It's devolved into partisanship that has sunk below the rhetoric usually reserved for rival high schools.

You empower yourself by getting educated and becoming active. Remember that politicians are not our leaders - they are our servants.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Bush Gets Caught Saying "Shit" on Open Mike at G8 Summit

President Bush today uttered a colorful expletive while referring to Hezbollah in what he thought was  a private conversation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The two were attending a lunch at a G8 summit and speaking candidly about the current situation in Israel, unaware there was an open mike in front of them.

Bush said something to the effect of, "someone needs to tell Hezbollah to stop that shit". The video is available currently on CNN.com. This is not the first time Bush has gaffed with a hot mike he thought was off. Once while speaking to Cheney, he referred to a reporter as "an asshole".

While this certainly will not end his political career or send the stock market into a plunge, it points to a very important concept. What you do in public can reflect on you and your business even if you think nobody is listening.

A business owner I know was sitting in a restaurant one time badmouthing a recent issue of a magazine. As it turns out - the publisher was right next to her. He stood up and confronted her. It goes without saying she'll never get any good publicity from him.

Do you have a corporate vehicle with your business name on it? Be careful how you drive. Be careful how you park.

Did you hand out jackets with your business name to your employees? How are they behaving while wearing your logo out in public?

My attorney related the email test to me. If you ever question whether you should send out an email, just imagine it blown up poster size in front of a jury. If you're still comfortable, push send.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Upcoming Speaking Engagement: Brand Yourself For Business Success

Learn how to build a personal brand that positions you for success. Learn how your values, personality, and unique way they do things can be a bankable asset.

I've been asked to guest speaker at an upcoming business owners meetup. I will be speaking on the topic of personal branding. If you're in the Boston area and are interested in attending, you should get in touch with the organizer - Jason Lin through the meetup web site.

Time: Jan 25th Wednesday from 6:30pm - 8:30pm

Location: Global HQ Workplace
60 State Street 7th floor
Boston, MA 02109

Presentation: "Brand Yourself for Success"

Participants will learn:
- What is a brand / and what is branding?
- How communicating intentionally and congruently leads to business success
- The three scientific predictors of business success and how branding helps with all three
- How to develop a compelling personal positioning statement
- How to use the personal brand to leave the competition in the dust