Comments on: what’s true of people is also true of products

By: Davy McDonald

Davy McDonald — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 19:11:05 +0000

Apart from the heavy, and worthy, marketing dissections going on here I thought I’d just add my tuppenceworth. I’ve been a fan of the gapingvoid site for a while now and have been following the various stories with interest, being an ex-agency creative myself (now Freelancing) and also with an interest in wines.
Unfortunatley I missed the free samples to the Irish bloggers but yesterday I bought two bottles of Stormoek on the strength of this blog, and if its good wine I’ll be a regular customer.
I live (and I use the term loosely!) in Northern Ireland and doubt I would have even heard of Stormhoek if not for this blog.
Cheers…

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 01:07:51 +0000

Marketing can aim for attitudinal adjustment; trying to get people to have a deeper relationship with the brand. In this test of blogvertising, I can see measuring the adjustment within Stormhoek, their relationship with their customers, being just as important as measuring the external impact of the brand.
I see that in my company; external (perceived) success either on their own brands or competitors, changes the atittude of internal teams and allows people to suggest different things — makes them more open to change. Resistance is futile — there will be changes..

By: the head lemur

the head lemur — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 01:06:20 +0000

‘need proven results’
tell the guy to shit in his hat
proven results?
head to head
arbor mist vs stormhoek
Google search results
Web Results 1 — 10 of about 7,690 for Stormhoek.
Results 1 — 10 of about 28,200 for arbor mist wine.
Arbor mist is on about every cable channel and is using all the traditional ad schemes.
stormhoek is on the web using Hugh.…
connect the dots.….…
ya can probably figure out the ad budgets between the two.
If ya get swamped for marketing campaigns Hugh, I will need some consideration. I don’t drink so a case of wine is out, I don’t wear suits, a bespoke suit would not be thing thing for me to show up in wrecking yards, but I’m sure we can work something out.

By: Paul Goodison

Paul Goodison — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:59:48 +0000

I have a love hate relationship with numbers. They can be manipulated to show what you want but then there is the old adage you can’t lie about the numbers.
The promo from my perspective has lead me to buy 12 bottles (several variants) from my initial sample of 1. I’ve blogged about it, told the story and may well buy more discuss more in the future.
I can measure the effect of the purchases but not the effect of the publicity, but I bet the publicity is more valuable in the long term. Prove me wrong with numbers why don’t you!

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:01:05 +0000

Agreed, Mr Wreath, Faith is not enough long-term. Eventually the numbers will have to start adding up. And I look forward to releasing them, the sooner, the better.
But in the early stages of ANYTHING worth doing, Faith is all you’ve got.

By: Mr. Wreath

Mr. Wreath — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 23:50:08 +0000

It is a clever and fresh idea… but FAITH marketing? I understand that you are trying to make blogging a religion, but you are going to need proven results to make your case. Reminds me of those ad salesmen who expect you to realize how well their product works.…
Best of luck. We will all be anxiously awaiting your case study!

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 23:38:52 +0000

Aha! Dennis, you put your finger on it:
“but I suspect there is/will be a lot of resistance where it could really matter — among the major brands.“
You see Dennis, I don’t really care what the big brands think. If they want to resist, that’s fine by me. In fact, the more they resist, the better. Leaves the territory I occupy less cluttered.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 23:19:46 +0000

Agreed Stace, the costs of this experiment are so low, that if it doesn’t work, well at least we tried. And we’ll have a much more “engaged” conversation with our customers than the average wine brand.
However if it does work, and work well, then the payoff is huge.
The thing is, the wine business is a really crowded market. If you DON’T rise above the clutter, you are in BIG trouble. The fact that so many wine brands don’t even try is beyond me.

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 23:18:30 +0000

I do realise you're 'early in the game' and yes, the conversations absolutely have value. They always have though I guess there's not been a ready way to capture those - as is the case now. But many problems remain. For example, the current model is effectively limited to those who happen to know about blogging and its value. I'm sure you'd agree that's a very small percentage of the potential market though hoopefully it will grow. I do agree with the potential impact on the internal - there's nothing better than being slapped with an "Oy...seen this that's being said about us?" but I suspect there is/will be a lot of resistance where it could really matter - among the major brands. Especially given the free-wheeling nature of blog entries, comment and so on. OK - so we have Ford etc doing their thing but it's a toe in the water, an experiment, mostly controlled in some way as I believe it should be at this stage. We'll see - good luck.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 23:08:38 +0000

http://www.bazaarz.com/archives/2005/09/stormhoek_marke.php Oh, Also, Dennis, I just read your blog on this post. Thanks for giving it some thought.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 22:55:32 +0000

Agreed, Dennis. Numbers will matter eventually. But it’s still early days in the campaign.
Also don’t forget, direct blog sales are not the only metric. What also matters is how the interaction with the blogosphere affects the actual company culture. How the external affects the internal etc.
I have a feeling that might actually matter even more, long term.

By: Bazaarz

Bazaarz — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 22:44:09 +0000

Stormhoek marketing — a fundamental flaw

I’ve been following Hugh’s pimping efforts with interest on a number of levels in an attempt to understand the fundamental characteristics of his marketing model. I’m particularly interested in understanding the measuring process to determine the succe…

By: Bazaarz

Bazaarz — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 22:44:07 +0000

Stormhoek marketing — a fundamental flaw

By: Stace

Stace — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 22:34:09 +0000

I agree with the above in that “un-measurable” media can be hard to sell to the analyst side of the marketing department, but when the cost of execution is SO low…
More importantly, and to Hugh’s point, what’s to be lost by entering an actual conversation with the consumer? The results of that, well, I’d dare say immeasurable.

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 22:33:26 +0000

I smell a rat. You don’t know what you can’t measure and you can’t talk meaingfully about campaign effectiveness without telling about the numbers. Don’t be so coy Hugh — it doesn’t suit you!