The Big Fat Marketing Blog

Boy, did ForeSee Results leave us with a doozy of a cliffhanger in the 2010 holiday edition of its E-Retail Satisfaction Index.

If it’s findings are right, social media, as a selling tool, is deal. The fail whale is beached. Ecommerce is antisocial. Etc. and so on: more

I can’t really claim these are anticipated, but here they are, my 2011 predictions advertising/marketing/communication specific to the New Year. For the record, my last few years’ predictions have been accurate. Use or dismiss this prose at your discretion.

Prediction #1: Video will play a keener role in website conversions, and marketing as a whole. It’s already happening and with YouTube the second most popular search engine (that’s right, only Google is bigger), it just makes sense. Zappos and other sites already know this, so test video on your site(s) and watch conversions skyrocket. As such, SEO/SEM will play a critical role in marketing effectiveness next year.

Prediction #2: Consumer and Business purchasing decision-makers are changing their buying patterns because of advances in technology and the ubiquity of information that can be had on Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Bing, Rock Melt and the like. Thus, those who understand data – specifically how that data relates to transactional occurrences by each KEY target market segment – will rule the day. This applies to both customer and prospect segments. We have trained buyers to this fact: know intuitively who I am, what I am seeking and make it as easy as possible for me to do/continue to do business with you. Those companies that don’t understand this will be watching their bottom lines evaporate.

Prediction #3: Larger companies will hire more reputation mangers to make more

I don’t know if there’s am acronym for Married Couple, Single Debit Card yet, but if I’m going to shop online for my wife’s Christmas gift, I’m going to need to use Bill Me Later or PayPal so she doesn’t know. My wife isn’t sneaky, looking in closets for gifts, but she does keep an eye on our bank account to make sure we’re in good standing. And if there’s some suspicious activity, she’s going to notice.

After we received a gift of See’s Candies in the office, and it was parked in my cube, and I told my wife about it, and my wife reminded me how my mother rations the box she gets for Christmas like it’s the last See’s ever, I decided I should buy her a pound for Christmas.

Only problem was, See’s doesn’t accept Bill Me Later or PayPal. My cover would certainly be blown, unless my wife is too busy this week to check out our checking account and see I made a purchase at Sees.com. more

It’s three days before Christmas and I wanted to share an email exchange I had with Karolyn Grimes, who played Jimmy Stewart’s daughter, Zuzu, in the inimitable 1946 holiday classic, “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

Born on the 4th of July, Grimes is now 70 and has spent the past 30 years spreading the timeless, inspirational message of “It’s A Wonderful Life”. Now I know this has nothing to do with marketing, but at this time of year I wanted to spread a bit of that message with followers of this blog. Grimes has her own website and makes appearances all over the country.

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I was at a Christmas gift exchange party with friends and the most sought-after, most fought over and biggest gift of the collection was, you guessed it, a Snuggie. It was more popular than the odor-eliminating, fan-powered toilet seat I brought to gift to a lucky friend, but that’s a whole different story.

From its roots in direct response marketing — infomercials — to today, it seems that one in every 12 US households own one. The company now has 15 variations and sales don’t seem to be slowing. Over 25,000,000 have been sold!

Here’s an article from the NY Times on this cultural, must-have success.

So do you own a Snuggie? Are you getting one from Santa? Or, are you in the spirit of the season and giving as gifts Snuggies? In any case, it will make for a warmer holiday season.

My wife returned to work last week after using up her maternity leave and personal/vacation days. It also meant I got to be Mr. Dad and a honey-do list completer for the week.

Two of my tasks were to complete transactions with retailers Best Buy and Dollar Tree. One task was simpler than the other, but made me shake my head. The other one kind of defied common sense, and may have been a little over-protective. more