Getting Rich – Growth

Good basic discussion from clickz.com – edited
How to Do Social Marketing in Heavily Regulated Industries By Augustine Fou, ClickZ, Oct 22, 2009

Conventional wisdom would probably say that social marketing is impossible in industries like financial services, pharmaceutical, and healthcare due to heavy regulations and requirements for disclosure….At first glance, this single regulation could render most forms of online marketing — which are based on two-way communications — to be out of bounds; especially social media, where people talk online.

We’ll argue that this conventional wisdom isn’t wise at all. There are many other examples where traditional advertising thinking no longer even applies. For example, “Go where the people are,” (today, they’re on social networks). The thinking of reach and frequency “tonnage” is diametrically opposed to the greater opportunity of extremely fine-tuned targeting that is possible using self-declared and observed parameters available on social networks.

Traditional Regulations Apply to ‘Push’ Advertising Techniques

Regulations that are especially heavy in the pharmaceutical and financial industries are primarily concerned with sufficient and proper disclosure of risks. …Financial services ranging from insurance to brokerages to mutual funds are required to provide reams of paper that spell out investment risks and warnings (not that consumers read or understand most of it anyway). When advertisers “push” a message out at consumers and make claims about how great their products or services are, regulations step in to protect consumers from exaggerated, misrepresented, inaccurate, or downright false claims.

However, most regulations don’t apply to scenarios where the consumer pulls for the information themselves — by asking a friend about a mutual fund or going online to research a medication. Consumers are in the habit of doing their own search and research, online and through communicating in blogs, forums, social networks, etc. Consumers are looking out for their own interests and don’t rely as much on regulations to do this for them. And when thousands of people cry foul about a product online, that has a far more dramatic impact on sales than any regulation ever could.

Social Marketing Is a ‘Pull’ Technique

So how do advertisers and marketers in heavily regulated industries leverage social media and do social marketing? They have to change their thinking — in fact, they have to think exactly the opposite of the way they’ve been thinking.

Social marketing isn’t about pushing ads at target consumers (and advisors!- R&C), even if you know where to find them. It’s about listening to what they’re saying. Think of it as free research, to know what consumers care about and are concerned about. Then you can change your marketing messages to address these concerns and play up what they think is valuable.

Social marketing isn’t about shouting a made-up claim that your product is great. It’s about respectfully asking their opinion and observing how they tell their friends and peers about why they love or hate your product. Then you can continue to innovate and improve your product to better serve their needs and wants.

Social marketing isn’t about getting your message to a ton of people (reach). In fact, it’s better if only those people who wanted the information could find it, when they wanted it. It may be a tiny number compared to the mass channels of traditional advertising, but it could be larger than the number of people who saw a broadcast ad, remembered it, and took action.

Social marketing isn’t about how often you beat people with your ads (frequency). It’s about allowing them to find your information in the words they choose to use when they search. It’s about being a reliable source of information that others have vetted and agree is a trustworthy and accurate source.

So, is Social Marketing an Option in Heavily Regulated Industries?

It’s the only option. As additional regulations begin to force traditional push advertising techniques out of existence, social marketing becomes more important. It may even be the only option. But this requires advertisers to think of social marketing not as a push technique, but a way to do research and to respond to users’ pull for information with the right answer and the most valuable information.

This are the core services we directly deliver or coach our clients on. This approach also works with plan sponsors and HNW clients and referrals from their advisors. Our comments are in italics.

Three Best Ways to Win a Corporate Client
By RAYMUND FLANDEZ SMALL BUSINESS OCTOBER 8, 2009, 1:16 P.M. ET

In this challenging economy, Corporate America is hunkering down and limiting spending on products or services that don’t address critical needs. That’s made it more difficult than ever for businesses to attract and land corporate accounts. They’ve had to do even more prospecting – more calls, more networking, and more seeking of referrals, says Rich Isaac, president of a Sandler Training franchise in Hauppauge, N.Y., a business-development training firm for small- to medium-size businesses.

But any business can get a leg up on the competition – with a little effort. Here are three best ways to land a corporate client.

1. Make Sure You’re Reaching Out Personally. Glad-handing is the name of the game these days. It’s more important than ever not to leave it to subordinates to secure a corporate client. Face time is how Bob Harkins, managing partner and director of sales for Cold River Vodka of Maine Distilleries LLC in Freeport, Maine, landed an agreement for his vodka product with the Four Seasons hotel in Boston. In the summer of 2008, his sales team proposed a deal but was denied. Another opportunity came up a few months later, but this time, Mr. Harkins made sure he met with the buyer himself to close the negotiation. The personal touch worked: Cold River won the Four Seasons account that same day. “There are not a lot of owners that are actively selling their own goods,” Mr. Harkins says. “I definitely think that that’s an important piece of it. It adds value. It adds sincerity. It shows commitment.”

Fortunately, we also have new tech tools for building a personal relationship. Rich and Co. has proprietary tools and approaches to make this happen.

2. Partner with Complementary Businesses. Four small businesses in Chicago got together in September 2007 to form Store in a Box Associates Inc., aiming to be a one-stop shop for corporate clients looking to build out retail shops. So far, the group has had about 25 clients, from Jenny Craig and Old Navy to T-Mobile and Ann Taylor. Bruce Olans, president of Total Resource Group Inc., which provides the materials to build a retail store, made sure he partnered with firms that he could trust and could provide a crucial contribution, such as architectural drawing, general contracting and custom millwork. Each firm drew up lists of prized clients and shared them with each other, he says. As a group, they present a united front to corporate clients, who are typically used to dealing with 20 or so different vendors, and seek to undercut competitors by about 10% to 20%, Mr. Olans says.

We help you identify, research, contact, meet with, follow-up with and build as active proprietary database of the best partners for you and your business. Our network of relationships helps you outsource these basic development tasks quickly and cheaply.

3. Hire Well-Connected Talent. As a result of downsizing, some small businesses are able to hire former employees of competitors who were leading and managing valuable vendor accounts, says Bernhard Schroeder, director of the Entrepreneurial Management Center at San Diego State University. “Whenever the ecosystem is disrupted, there’s always an opportunity for the companies that are smarter, nimbler and more opportunistic.”

Because of our experience across markets and offerings and our decades of work building and cultivating a network of relationships as a trusted advisor, you can take advantage of our reputation, credibility and proprietary tools and data to quickly and efficiently boost sales.

Dan Khabie, chief executive of Digitaria Interactive Inc., says he has snatched more than 10 key employees from competitors. These valuable workers had solid relationships with corporate accounts that the San Diego-based digital-marketing agency wanted. “The recession has allowed us to be smarter with the types of people that we bring in,” says Mr. Khabie, who cites the Atlanta Falcons football franchise as one of the company’s coups. “It gives you instant credibility with the account.”

Write to Raymund Flandez at raymund.flandez@wsj.com

Investment consultants have become the gatekeepers for asset managers hoping to distribute through a 401(k) platform, especially as plan sponsors demand best-of-breed managers and custom target-date funds, according to the third quarter issue of The Cerulli Edge-Retirement Edition.
This trend toward investment consultants cannot be ignored, the report said, since they now control as 41% of DC assets, with the majority of these assets in large plans over $500 million in assets.
Over three-quarters of consultants said they want asset managers to demonstrate consistent investment performance track record without “surprises.”

“Consultants want stable investment organizations that have a repeatable process, and equally importantly, they want to know when something goes awry,” notes Scott Smith, senior analyst at Cerulli Associates.
Asset managers should develop the role of the portfolio specialist, he added. A good portfolio specialist takes relationship management burdens off of portfolio managers while using their investment knowledge to strengthen the relationship management team. Only 57% of consultants feel direct access to a portfolio manager is very important.
As the DC market increases in size and complexity, asset managers should be prepared for an institutional sale through investment consultants. By understanding how investment consultants operate and effectively meeting their demands, managers can be best poised to take part in custom target-date funds and open-architecture DC platforms.
Other findings from this issue of The Cerulli Edge-Retirement Edition include:
As plan sponsors try to meet to higher fiduciary standards, they will increasingly turn to investment consultants.
The best way for asset managers to reach the investment decision makers in a consulting firm is to understand the firm’s business structure and organization.
The shift of client assets into alternatives and long-duration fixed income will create opportunities for managers with proven track records in these asset classes.

……with 88% playing a high-to-moderate role in management of family assets, according to a survey. The Wilmington Trust and Campden Research research found that just under half of the participants inherited their wealth, while the remaining half are almost evenly split between those who created their wealth and those whose husbands are the source of their wealth.

“More than anything, the women in our study view their wealth as a source of empowerment to achieve their goals and independence,” said Cynthia Conway, marketing manager for Wilmington Trust’s Wealth Advisory Services business.

“Unlike their fathers and mothers, who tended to view wealth as a demonstration of their success in life, these women view their wealth primarily as a means to pursue a path that reflects their deepest values and their desire to serve their communities.”
Conway said while the women surveyed said they were raised in households with traditional views of a woman’s role, they emerged with a commitment to develop their professional skills and to be viewed in their families and communities as having equal opportunities and status as men.

“We are in the midst of a significant shift in the wealth paradigm,” said Mindy Rosenthal, co-author of the study and North American managing director at Campden. “This is an important trend. Women are stepping up to new levels of involvement in the management of their families’ wealth. At the same time, they want to be more open with their children about family wealth, but they fear mishandling the discussions.”

The survey polled 40 women aged 40 to 65, with a minimum net worth of $25m and at least one child.

Link to article site

“Results showed that brain regions consistent with decision-making were active in participants when making choices on their own; however, there occurred an offloading of the decision-making process in the presence of expert advice,” says Jan B. Engelmann, PhD, Emory research fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and first author of the study.
“The expert provided very conservative advice, which in our experiment did not lead to the highest earnings. But the brain activation results suggested that the offloading of decision making was driven by trust in the expert,” explains C. Monica Capra, PhD, an economist in the Department of Economics at Emory and coauthor of the study.
“This study indicates that the brain relinquishes responsibility when a trusted authority provides expertise, says Berns. “The problem with this tendency is that it can work to a person’s detriment if the trusted source turns out to be incompetent or corrupt.”

Link to item

Shedd lures contestants with text message Crain’s Chicago Business By Rita Chang Sept. 21, 2009

(Crain’s) — SMS may lack sizzle, but it can deliver the goods if provoking your audience to action is the goal, as Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium recently discovered from its summer test campaigns. To herd visitors to its new Fantasea aquatic show, Shedd Aquarium put a couple of direct-response tactics to the test to see if consumers preferred SMS or web-based calls to action.

At the end of 30-second spots that aired on Chicago’s NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox affiliates, the aquarium announced a contest with prizes that included a hotel stay and VIP seats for the Fantasea premiere. The commercials were identical across the networks except for the calls to action: All the ads directed viewers to a Web site to register for the contest, except one spot, which gave viewers an additional mobile option to enter the contest by sending a text message to a special code.

The SMS call to action generated 325% more entries than the web-based call-to-action, making up 52% of the total entries, though it ran in only 25% of the ads.

To Shedd’s assistant marketing director, Jay Geneske, the results show that the “phone is always with you, it’s nearby and immediate,” even when you’re watching TV. Shedd also ran a one-day print campaign in a local paper with a text call-to-action, yielding the highest or near highest number of responses for a single-day print piece, Mr. Geneske said.

“SMS reveals a greater sense of urgency,” said Jed Alpert, founder of Mobile Commons, the technology company that managed the campaign’s SMS piece. “It’s more actionable and convenient, and people have a more direct connection with their phones.”

Additionally, when people are watching TV, they’re more likely to have their cellphones near them than a computer.

Fresh Impressions

“The mobile phone gives the consumer the ability to respond to the advertisement in real time, while the impression is still fresh in their heads,” said Aaron Watkins, a former mobile-marketing agency executive turned independent consultant.

To get consumers to respond via the web, on the other hand, means they not only have to be interested in the ad but need to recall the website address later if they were not near a computer when the ad ran. The likelihood that they will remember the address drops “exponentially,” given the nonstop barrage of messages and media that hit people every day, Mr. Watkins said.

Mobile works best when overlaid with mass media such as TV and radio, because they radiate that much more reach, compared to, say, mobile apps or display banners, Mr. Alpert said.

More than 90% of U.S. handsets are SMS-capable, with the number of text messages starting to outpace voice calls in 2007, according to Nielsen.

For consumers to text in, however, the offer has to be compelling and valuable, whether it’s entertainment, information or access to something special. Shedd’s campaign worked well because the short code was part of the narrative and script, rather than an afterthought of just slapping a code at the end of the commercial.

Mr. Alpert said it cost Shedd less than $10,000 to trial SMS in its TV campaigns. Given the relatively low outlay, marketers may want to consider SMS trials in their out-of-home and broadcast campaigns if for nothing else than to capture users for their mobile-marketing database. Mr. Alpert said over the hundreds of mobile campaigns his agency has managed, an average 85% of those who opt into a campaign will respond to more requests for information, such as age and ZIP code.