While consumers are looking for deals and discounts, they are still engaging with brands who can speak to them in a genuine fashion. If your brand is still stuck in the ” you need this flashy gizmo now” mode, it may be time to dig into your brand’s heritage and legacy and become more genuine in your consumer discussions. Emotional engagement is at an all time high and if your brand can effectively and sincerely communicate that, consumers will be more open to your messaging and offerings. Keep in mind, that re-inventing for your brand without an emphasis on genuineness could be a costly and destructive exercise.

With dollars being held more closely to the chest, consumers are purchasing at a longer cycle then in past periods . This doesn’t mean you should wait for the economy to recover in order to address this fact. Conversely, this is the time for marketers to ramp up their communication efforts, develop conversations and elicit feedback on their products, brand and marketing approaches. This energy spent on cementing relationships may not benefit your company today or  in 6 months, or 12 months, however that consumer will respond favorably to those who paid attention to their needs even if they could not purchase during these sessions. This does not mean that marketers should throw out their ROI models when it comes to developing and initiating their marketing programs. In fact, marketers need to be even more in tune with their ROI on these engagements and focus on vehicles such as referrals, social media and direct response to smartly engage.

Transactionally, whether it is a B2B or B2C environment, marketers needs to take a hard look at their channel, product mix and marketing programs. Retailers are increasingly moving towards stocking less brands and less choices of established brands in their stores. Enterprise and corporate purchasers are buying less, cutting costs and making it very difficult for new and prospecting vendors to engage them.

So as a marketer how do you address these challenges?

In the retail sector it becomes very important to showcase how your brand and particular product(s) can benefit the retailer. Utilizing shopper insight data, their metrics ( GMROI, GMROS) and green lighting an investment plan into their marketing activities ( advertising, events, premium placements) can keep your foot in the door. Furthermore, addressing private label opportunities is also key since they are focusing heavily on expanding this option in their stores. Follow that up with your own investment plan into overall brand and consumer activities and you should be able to retain your standing. However, the challenge on the marketing side is how to address these options with a tight budget and make sure that selling within this retailer is profitable for you as well. It may be that you have to walk away from some retailers, if the opportunity does not make financial sense.

On the B2B side, it is even a more challenging affair. In the past, you could gain access to corporate buyers just by the brand name on your card or being a vendor of record. This has changed. Companies need to see an implicit ROI and benefit elements to each product they are purchasing. If you are not marketing to these elements in a concise and impactful manner , your chances of spreading your product or service enterprise-wide is very limited. However, if you can be innovative in presenting your product and service as a true benefit and back that up with a free trial period so that they can experience it, you will separate yourself from the pack and gain additional exposure and opportunities within the organization.

If your traditional channels are not exactly robust, it might be time to consider investing in a direct approach. The days of cutting off your retail or B2B business by establishing a direct channel are gone( see P&G’s approach). As long as you take the time and manage the direct channel effectively. Pricing, promotion and products offered need to be unique ( at first) from your other channels. You do not want to totally disturb the apple cart right out fo the gates( unless you want to go 100% direct). Also, keep in mind that your direct store has global implications as well and you need to have a strategy that goes beyond the US shopper.

Brand partnerships can also greatly assist your marketing efforts to the consumer during these times. As I have mentioned in a previous post ” Illogical Brand Partnerships”, aligning with another manufacturer when presenting to a retailer or enterprise customer can benefit all parties.  A bundle program that presents a savings ( and benefit) to the consumer  will go along way with your retail customer and/or buyer since you are presenting a unique and beneficial element to the relationship. The challenge is to develop a partnership product or program that a consumer is interested in and can be easily managed and funded by both parties. If you can work through those challenges the benefits could be rewarding.

While this a global recession, the time to invest in developing or further solidifying your international presence is now. Marketers have the opportunity to engage new customers in new markets where their products and services could be well received. Perhaps diverting some of the US marketing budget towards an emerging market in APAC, South America or even Canada could strengthen your brand in the short and long-term and buffer the adverse US consumer conditions. Furthermore, your international presence benefits your US standing as consumers search for strong brands that they can trust and engage with on multiple levels.

Overall, how you are marketing to the consumer during these tough times will define how your brand will be supported now and in the future. Genuine conversations with consumers,producing products with true benefits, presenting and supporting creative and unique marketing programs to retailer and corporate buyers ,and hard financial management of your selling channels ( both US and international) will go a long way to strengthening your brand equity.

Remember the first time you fell in love- the nervousness-sick-to-your-stomach feeling about the newness and possibilities? It is the same feeling when a customer engages with your brand for the first time and comes away with a awe-inspiring experience. Whether it was your product or services performance, the creative marketing campaign, or excellent customer service received, it made an impact and that customer now has puppy eyes for your brand. It’s at this point where you either maintain or lose that customer.

Similar to a summer fling, both parties ( your brand and the customer) have engaged in a love fest that can manifest in that customer telling their friends and family how great your brand is. If you fail to keep the interest level and positive experience flowing through this consumer contact, the fling will quickly turn into that customer writing a dear john letter. Worse, they may spread ill will about the lack of follow-up and support to those same friends whom they raved about you only recently.

Say your brand has put the effort into maintaining the relationship with the customer beyond the initial “courting stages” and now you are in a full disclosure dance. They respond to your emails and twitter communications, become Facebook fans and enter all of your contest and promotional campaigns. In return you provide top-notch customer service, meaningful information and support your brand consistency while introducing new products and or services. These are the good times and also when the most work has to be done on your part.

While relationships between people requires equal effort, the same is not necessarily true when it comes to brand-consumer pairings. In fact, the brand needs to put in the most effort continually reaching out, probing, answering questions, supporting, etc. Obviously, it’s fantastic when you have customers that will meet up with that effort, but that is not always the case and you should keep up the support even when you are not getting responses.

With all the technology out there, it can be very easy to maintain a relationship with your customer. However, you need to make sure that things do not get stale and that you spice up the connections every once in a while. Instead of constantly writing brand Tweets, and witty Facebook updates – why not stage a cool interactive event or experience and invite your customers via old school invite by mail? In the sea of junk and bills, how exciting it would be for your customer to receive a personalized invite to your brand experience.Kind of like receiving flowers for no reason from your betrothed.

Then there are the rough patches. The times when all a customer wants to do is complain and want attention. This is when you can either choose to listen ( like when a spouse complains about your lack of clothes-folding ability), or turn a deaf ear. Most brands would raise their hands and say- well of course you are going to listen and respond with helpful words. Most of the times this is right, although there are instances when you come to a crossroads with a customer, and you’ve tried everything to repair the damage and you have to let them go. It can be the hardest thing to do, but it might be the best for the health of your brand.

In essence, have your brand embrace your customer like you would a loved one and keep the electricity flowing by constantly communicating, introducing exciting elements and listening when things are rough. It’s a lot of work, but then again so are relationships.

The main obstacle for this type of movement is strictly the DNA and structure of most consumer focused businesses. Hierarchies and processes do not really support an open source development. These have to be relaxed or reset first, in order for a manufacturer to dip their toes in the water of open sourcing. While not all processes can be relaxed such as certain manufacturing, logistics and financial elements, the product development, market research and marketing communications could be reformed.

So, let’s assume that a company is willing to explore open source development of its next durable product and has reset it’s structure so that the key marketing pieces are ready to share. What are the next steps? It is essential that you piece together a development proposal for prospective partners that emphasizes the groundbreaking opportunities( re: revenues, profits, market share, buzz, etc.) that could be realized from a truly customizable durable good. Also,state clearly how participants will be compensated and recognized for their contribution to the product development (legal will be necessary here). Once you have this step formalized, the next move is to open up your idea to the rest of the durable world.

As a manufacturer, there have been times when you have sought out a complimentary partner to either embark on a joint venture or co-develop a product for commercialization. Much time,research and process was followed in order to find the right fit. Open sourcing blows this apart. And this is probably why we haven’t seen uch activity in this realm with durable goods.

Back to our situational analysis, you have an idea for a durable good, you’ve laid out all the components for how to guide and support the open source process and you’re ready to open the doors to creation. What’s next? Announce your idea, intent and recognition/reward piece to the world through every marketing vehicle you know ( traditional PR, social media, events, direct to consumer marketing, etc.). Even better, make your announcement an open sourcing engagement itself,allowing everyone a chance to distribute your idea in their own mode, or by improving upon an existing communication.

The open source process has now started and it’s time to get the product development underway. Market research needs ti be conducted and you know have an arsenal of willing contributors to help with the process. Begin with your own research model and publish the structure and results to your open source field. Have them teak the questioning and conduct additional research to further explore new dimensions, features, ans designs. It’s important to set some time parameters so that the next steps can be taken.

There is now a mass of information, data and consumer input into the original idea and product definition and design need to be formed. Like the market research step, communicate a refined product definition for open source design and let the creativity fly. This component of the durable good development will be the most interesting as physical transformations will continue to occur until a time defined stop.

The product design has reached its gate and it’s time to produce and commercialize. Production of this good has to be flexible enough to allow changes on the fly and will most likely ned to be initially manufactured in small just-in-time batches in order to accomodate open sourcing. Perhaps your open source contingent can help with this, if your current manufacturing set up cannot accomodate.

You’ve tested your initial manufacturing run to understand the costs and timing required taking into effect that many tooling changes will occur as subsequent open source product changes are unveiled. Product costs will probably be very high due to the multiple tooling and initial small volume being produced. However, keep in mind this is a revolution in manufacturing and product development that will in time become more cost-effective as more companies embrace this process.

How will this open sourced durable good now be commercialized? Taking stock of current trade channels, the most effective, profitable and flexible way would be to sell direct. This would allow for adjustable pricing, quick changes to the product design and features ( as the open source process continues) and direct consumer feedback and marketing. Until there is a reseller class that is also open source driven, that route is out of the question for the near future.

The product is launched and unlike traditional life cycles, this one will continue to ride a series of troughs and crests as open sourcing and consumer feedback continually tweak and improve the product elements. Features and design will morph into fresher approaches and pricing will also adjust to these modifications. Reaching greater volumes and improved manufacturing processes, the costs to produce will also adjust so that profits can actually be realized.

While there are many intrinsic obstacles, heavy initial expenses and just outright philosophical differences, open sourcing for durable product development could become  a reality. Those companies that are willing to make the necessary internal changes and embrace this process will be the forerunners of the next revolution in consumer goods and will ultimately profit handsomely from their daringness.

How to integrate social media into your marketing strategy is key. It makes sense to first and foremost have dedicated resources and structure in your marketing organization to not only learn about how to effectively utilize social media marketing but also to be the 24-7 editor, tweeter, updater, etc. Most companies fail at constructing this responsiblity and the result is an inconsistent message to their consumers. Hiring a consultant to train the dedicated resource is a smart way to fast track the entry into social media marketing, but also know that with some time and ingenuity, most intelligent marketers in your organization can train themselves about how to use social media marketing. That way you save some money for your marketing activities while engaging in the growth process of your marketing group.

Once the structure is in place, you need to then place your social media strategy within the realm of your overall marketing strategy.  Particularly when it comes to specific campaigns the most effective is to engage the consumer in multiple vehicles, so that your brand and message is repeatedly being experienced.Social media is an important part of this, but should adhere to what the overall thrust is and complement the additional marketing arms that are in your arsenal. For example, if you are running a consumer campaign that promotes your brand but also instills a call to action, your social media piece should mention retail, online or traditional media events as part of its execution. Furthermore, links to the call to action site should be scheduled actively within the social media run, so that it become a measurable and real-time access point for you and your consumers.

There are some that will argue that to not make social media a larger component is a major mistake. If you have actively used social media lately, you will know that there is a lot of noise adversely effecting how brands and companies get their message across.  Twitter has become a spam magnet in particular and many consumers are tuning out. The same can be said about Facebook as well. Thus, I would be cautious about devoting too much of your resources to a larger social media application. Email, mobile and traditional marketing are still very effective and also much more proven in terms of ROI than social media at this point. Until there are more precise ROI measurements in place, social media should be utilized only as an outlet for product updates, customer service and supporting your marketing and branding campaigns.

Consumers utilize many different forms of media, and while some are slowly downturning as sources ( i.e. newspapers, magazines), you should understand exactly what types and how much time is spent by your consumers on these avenues before blindly budgeting one over the other. Also, keep an eye out on the horizon as devices such as the proposed Apple Tablet which may give new life to periodical and newspaper advertising ( albeit via this device and in new content form). Today’s twitter could be tomorrow’s Second Life and you do not want to be over committed in one media outlet versus an assortment. Thus, make social media a part of an overall marketing strategy not the key strategy, and you will find better ROI and success in your marketing campaigns.

The US companies that do get it are quite unexpectedly some of the top companies in the world. They all realized early on that in order to future proof the growth of their respective companies, they needed to bridge across the oceans and learn how to do business in other countries. Whether it was via joint ventures, or wholly owned subsidiaries, they took the plunge and have profited from it many times over.

So, what if you are a small or mid-sized company who is already stretched in the domestic market?  Why would you want to risk breaking the bank just to sell a couple of more widgets in another market? Because if you don’t, another US  or foreign competitor will and they will then have effectively shut you out of a major growth vehicle for your company. Of course, they could also fail or go bankrupt trying to make it in these foreign markets,  and your company could take satisfaction in that fact or you could also learn from their mistakes in order to build a better entry strategy. However, if they do succeed, their brand and products in that market will retain a foothold that will be difficult to unearth.

Fear of entry into a foreign market is one thing, but what if your company is already established outside the US yet still fails at properly addressing marketing in those regions? This is where  US companies have the opportunity to truly flourish if they can only get past their prejudices and indifference.

The number one mistake by US companies who do not succeed at international marketing is that of attempting to sell a product designed for the US consumer into other regions. Lack of customization for those regions can derail your go-to-market plans from the beginning. Unless your offering is an iconic global consumer want, you will need to invest in market research and additional SKU and packaging differentiation to address those consumer needs.  This is only to get a product on the shelf. The next component is to generate consumer interest.

Even with the world getting smaller ( and flatter), international consumer marketing still needs to tailor their campaigns and consumer outreach programs towards the targeted region. Like the product scenario described earlier, many US companies  believe that they can take a consumer campaign and drop into other region without having to tweak it to the buyer’s needs. It might seem incredible that this still occurs with all of the real-time information out there about global consumers, but it does. What I chalk it up to is the lack of willingness for the US-based marketing department to take the time and energy to research and understand what that regional consumer is driven by. This also ties into a lack of structured communication and idea sharing between the regions and the US, leading to misaligned, silo-based programs that have no global continuity.

What is the solution then to removing the fear of international marketing for US companies?

First, company leadership has to structure their marketing organization so that global responsibility is integral to their job definition and performance measurement. This will lead the marketing department into more global development of products and programs versus a US first approach. Secondly, communication between the regions and the US must be formalized on a frequent basis ( monthly would be a good place to start), so that competitive information, marketing campaign opportunities, pricing changes, account planning,brand partnerships, etc. can be absorbed and acted upon. Finally, cross-region projects need to be developed so that everyone has the opportunity to not only work on but also experience first hand ( i.e. travel) the challenges and benefits international marketing will provide.

In order to break through the unknown you need to ask questions, break out of your comfort zone and sometime compromise. It’s the simple task of interrupting a routine to learn something new that could greatly benefit your company for the future. This is international marketing. That shouldn’t be something to be afraid of should it?

One of the reasons why this is true lies in how channel marketing is defined and utilized within the company. Are they a sales support function? Are they marketing? How should they be utilized with the customers and consumers? Should they just analyze POS data and publish reports? These are just some of the definitions that get folded into the channel marketing role and unfortunately for those companies that do not know how to utilize channel marketing, that role can end up being a hybrid of all the activities that the sales and marketing department either don’t know how or want to perform in their own roles.

So- the question is- how then do you manage the channel marketing role in an organization so that it is an integral component to your product’s sell through success? This is where the body of water analogy in the title of this blog connects( and you thought I was just trying to be an uber-slick headline copy writer!).

First, you need to define the channel marketing role . Depending on the existing structure it could be a rivulet role like specializing in the development of POS merchandisers. Or, it could be a river role like developing and managing the company’s direct sales channel. Either definition is good, as long as it is a contributing factor to the sell through of product ,and, that responsibility is continually supported by senior management on both the sales and marketing sides.

Second, use the role as a building block in the expansion of your relationships with your key customers and consumers. Too many companies place the burden of matrixing their relationships with their important customers on sales ( they have enough to do just dealing with multiple buyers!) and fail to look at channel marketing as a lever to open that gate. Even in a rivulet role such as a POS retail display test- the channel marketing role could begin a relationship with store operations, that would then extend to regional district managers and so forth opening up new opportunities to expand marketing presence in the stores and sample product or services with the associates and employees. Similarly in a river role like a major retail consumer promotion- the role could extend beyond the buyer to the category marketing individual , then extend to the online marketing manager and finally to the corporate marketing department. Sales, product management and marketing would not be able to create the same customer relationship matrixing as effectively as the channel marketing role could.

Finally, it is imperative that channel marketing is included in both key sales and marketing strategic plans. The reason for this is that the channel role is by nature exposed to not only internal projects within marketing, but also externally to the reseller and consumer. Again, if the role is a rivulet or a river, they are privy to both internal and external environments much more so than anyone else in the organization. To exclude that dimension in any significant sales and marketing planning session is to lose key insights that might not have been absorbed and communicated by the other contributors.

Thus, whether you employ the channel marketing function as rivulet or river role in your organization, understand that in either form the contribution that this position can deliver might surprise. Ultimately, the company has to ensure that the definition and focus of channel marketing is utilized to  benefit the strategic expansion of sales growth and brand awareness. If it sanctions it as a strictly supportive role, future opportunities for sales and market share growth will be limited.

Selling music with beverages is a natural fit as most consumers who purchase soft drinks, beer,water,etc. enjoy listening to and buying music. When you offer a free download off of  iTunes, Amazon, eMusic or any other music site with a beverage selection , a majority of the time that consumer will redeem that download since it is an easy process or an immediate reward. Does this increase sales lift of the beverage? Initially, I would say yes. Now that it is a tired program it probably does marginal at best. Does the music service gain additional download sales/subscribers because of this partnership? Maybe- but is it worth the investment in time and money to continue this partnership? How could each brand approach the consumer in a fresh, illogical way?

Let’s take  the beverage company. The highly regarded ( or disregarded) marketing department spends half a day in a conference room ( because there is no budget for an off-site full day of team bonding) throwing around partnership idea that make safe sense- (ex. Beverage + Snacks; Beverage + Video Games; Beverage + Autos; Beverage + Electronics; etc.). They do not even have to pull data to support these ideas because we can all understand the logical connection. If you are trying to use your partnerships to not only elevate both brands, but also to significantly increase sales and ROI to support future campaigns- wouldn’t you want to try something illogical?

Illogical Idea : This company’s beverage consumer who purchases snacks, video games, autos, and electronics would most likely also purchase shoes, clothes,haircuts, shower gel,hair gel,lawnmowers, among other seemingly unrelated items. So why not explore partnerships with the brands behind these unlike items? The beverage company could team up with the shower gel,hair gel and haircut brands and develop an innovative multi-level marketing campaign that would reach the consumer not only in different aisles of the grocery, mass or drug store aisle but also in the salons and franchised hair cut locations where the beverage company may not have ever had exposure. This is only detailing the retail component of the campaign, never mind the social media outreach, etail , product inserts and traditional media outlets that the could be folded in.

Ok, fantastic, the beverage company came up with a truly unique partnership and maybe the relationship will prove compelling or perhaps it will fall flat. At least they are attempting something new and if worse comes to worse they can always fall back on a trusted free bag of chips with every beverage purchase partnership.

Earlier, I had mentioned that elusive “increase ROI” component regarding illogical partnerships. Besides the increase in profit versus investment calculation( from retail sales) that would be standard in this situation, there is another element to consider from this relationship – Bounty reinvestment.

Most partnership programs provide a bounty to one or both parties when a service or product is redeemed via a defined vehicle ( i.e. product insert, email blast, etc.). These can range from $5 to $100 dollars depending on the item and or brand. If this is a lengthy partnership that bounty is usually calculated at the end of the month and a check is cut and sent to the AR department for distribution to the bottom line. That is all fine and good, however wouldn’t you rather recycle the fruits ( bounties) of your marketing labor into the funding of additional campaigns with that illogical partner? If your initial campaign is successful enough you could fund with the accrued bounties a follow-up targeted database marketing campaign that might have never materialized within your annual budget.

Now, you could read this last paragraph and say- hey that’s a cool idea but why do I have to partner with an illogical brand , when I could define the bounty reallocation program with my  standard snack partner? Chances are you could- but you also would be reinvesting in the same tired programs and potentially missing out an a larger per item bounty with an illogical partner that would fund more innovative campaigns.

As Albert Einstein famously said- ” Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” The same can be said for brand partnerships and the vanilla approach to the consumer that these companies follow. Why not reach out to a seemingly unrelated brand and test the marketing seas? You just might find an innovative relationship that noy only separates you from the rest of the ilk, but could also reward your company with a significant bounty to reinvest for future campaigns.