Decent Marketing

What is a Decent Online Marketing Degree?

Online degrees have seen a massive rise in the last decade, with marketing degrees in particular becoming more and more appealing as new types of marketing techniques come to the surface alongside the growth of the Internet. Proving fruitful for the aspiring businessperson, more and more accredited universities are offering online degree opportunities to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for these degrees, providing an experience that – despite common belief – is just as time-intensive and laborious as a traditional “wake up and bolt to class” college education.

Let’s take a look at just a few of the benefits to obtaining your marketing degree online:

• The option to work at your own pace. Realistically, many of today’s students are juggling various responsibilities – jobs, home life, academics, and more. With an online degree, self-starters are able to better balance their tasks at hand, and in the process learn valuable time management skills that are especially crucial in the marketing world where multi-tasking is a golden skill to have. Additionally, the online route will allow you more time to handle the courses you may otherwise find intimidating to take in a traditional classroom, offering you a more fulfilling platter of course options that may come to your benefit in the long-term as you begin to understand your study habits and eventually find a plethora of networking opportunities opened up to you.
• A first look at the marketing techniques of the future. To say that marketing has evolved over the last few years would be a gross understatement – online literacy is imperative to making yourself a more desirable candidate in the job market, and earning a degree online can only help with that. These are skills that can be applied to your new place of employment almost immediately, giving you an edge that your co-workers may find themselves unprepared to compete with.
• Unique online learning opportunities. One-on-one time with your teachers, interaction with classmates through forums, open enrollment – these seemingly simple advantages add up, as you come to discover that your online degree provides you with a more personal learning experience that caters to your needs. Interaction is highly encouraged in online programs, as every student is given an opportunity to speak during lectures, and crucial readings and learning tools are provided on the Web for students to take advantage of. Some online programs also provide specialized marketing programs less likely to be explored in a standard setting, particularly programs pertaining to online marketing.
• A cost-effective way to earn your degree. Though many accredited universities will charge a comparable amount to online degree earners as their traditional counterparts, there are innate advantages to earning a degree online, between avoiding costs of food and transportation to simply having more time to dedicate to your work in place of the hour you may otherwise spend in-transit to your classroom. Better yet, your degree will ultimately translate to alluring sums of money in terms of earnings potential, which can be increased by as much as 60% upon earning your degree. In fact, those with an MBA in marketing and a broad knowledge within the field are estimated to earn more than $70,000 yearly.

Whether you're evaluating online mba programs or online bachelor degrees, your proven ability to be self-motivated while earning your degree often translates well to employers seeking individuals in the marketing realm who do not need great amounts of oversight or supervision. And with more and more universities offering these degrees, now just might be the perfect time to hop on board and join the growing, forward-thinking population of students seeking their degree online.

 

Revamping the Decent Marketing Blog

We're relaunching the decent marketing blog to really kick it into gear. We have marketing tests, case studies, & other information to share, so please stay tuned for some more great things to come.

 

We've been reevaluating some email marketing services like AWeber, Constant Contact, & MailChimp as well as looking into what is really making an impact in marketing today. With changes in regulations, changes in Google, changes is privacy & more, there's so much to talk about that we had to revive & start posting.

 

We welcome any topics to cover along the lines of email marketing, direct marketing, consumer behavior, search engine impacts, and any other items that are pertinent to the marketing industry. Welcome back aboard and we're looking forward to some great times to come.

A Museum for Condiment Packages

For those of you interested in design and packaging, I learned about the Condiment Packet Museum in the current issue of Saveur magazine.  The online museum includes exhibits on ketchup packets, soy sauce, mayo, relish, honey, salad dressings and more, with the exception of sugar because it would seem some other museum lays claim to that.  You can click on each packet to see the artwork in detail. 

Who knew there was such a thing as Nemo Hot Sauce?

Civic Sloganeering

A while back I wrote about the lame new tagline created for the city of Atlanta: "Every Day Is An Opening Day" (more about this in a minute).  Tim Nudd at the AdFreak blog is also keeping the world up to date on the slew of other cities and states reaching for the holy grail - a slogan that will draw millions of tourists to their hotels, restaurants and attractions (Indiana, Long Island, Utah, New Jersey, Baltimore).  Here's a quick roundup:

Having wisely decided that “Enjoy Indiana” really ain’t that good after all, the state’s tourism wizards are asking for some help. They’ve set up a section of their Web site to solicit ideas from the public ... [these include] “Indiana. Number 1 in 50.” “Water is to fish as Indiana is to vacations.” “Visit Indiana and enter a state of euphoria.” “Visit Indiana: The state of four seasons.” “Indulge in Indiana.” “Join the IN crowd.” “Indiana. We’ll jump through hoops for you!” And our personal favorite: “Indiana!?”

Newsday columnist Ellis Henican recently challenged his readers to come up with a slogan for Long Island. As far as we know, Long Island doesn’t have an official motto. Nor is its tourism office looking for one. But that hasn’t stopped Henican’s readers from offering a few ... “Long Island: What’s it to you?" “Long Island: Yeah, we’re better than you!” And “Long Island: Do it here and your mother will know.”

Utah is looking for a new state slogan and thought it had found one—but ditched the idea when it realized it was too similar to Colorado’s “Enter a higher state.” ... “‘Enter a higher state’ was something like where we wanted to go, but that won’t be it,” says an official ... Over the years the state has used lines like “The friendly state,” “Land of color,” “Utah the unique,” “A pretty, great state” and “The greatest snow on Earth.” In recent ads it’s been using, simply, “Utah!”

New Jersey has selected its new advertising slogan ... “New Jersey. Come see for yourself.” The winner was chosen after a public vote. Among our readers’ inspired contributions: “New Jersey. What smells like feet?” “New Jersey. Oooh, livin’ on a prayer.” And one from Rob Mortimer that could be used as a follow-up to the one chosen: “New Jersey: Now d’ya see?”

It’s Baltimore’s turn to flail wildly in search of new positioning ... Landor Associates is on board for a repositioning, now that taglines like “Baltimore is better” and “Baltimore. Believe” have fallen on deaf ears ... A former mayor once painted “The city that reads” on park benches, but vandals, referring to the high rate of unwanted pregnancy in town, changed it to “The city that breeds" ...

By the way, in case you were wondering, I thought I'd check out what's opening today, February 2nd, in Atlanta, where every day is an opening day.  I went to the Brand Atlanta website and there's a box on the top left headed "Opening Today" in bright red, bold letters-- the first three items listed are a "Rainforest Adventures" performance at the Center for Puppetry Arts (although according to Atlanta.net, it actually opened on January 5th), a performance of the play "Charley's Aunt" at Marietta's Theatre in the Square (it opened on January 18th), and there is a mixed media showing of Alejandro Aguilera's "Yards of Drawings" at the Ty Stokes Gallery (it would seem, according to Atlanta.net, that it opened on January 27th). 

Tags: marketing, tourism, taglines

Citizen Advertising

I love football (to my readers around the world, I'm referring to the American version FYI). College and NFL alike. I'm somewhat enjoying the little "stick-it-to-you" campaign that LSU fans are putting together for USC. Yes, I was born in Louisiana. Yes, my dad went to LSU. So I have a bias. But I'm not a meanie. I just found it extremely annoying that ESPN and all the hypemasters decided to market this year's college championship as a potential threepeat, when it simply wouldn't have been even if USC had won this year (which they didn't).

USC was and is a great team. Lots of Heisman Trophy winners and all that. They deserve accolades. But LSU won the BCS last year, my friends, fair and square. That accomplishment shouldn't be ignored. Perhaps the frustration of LSU's fans should be aimed at the sportscasters instead of USC fans, but that's not what's happening ... check out the billboard ad they'll be putting up in the next couple weeks in California: adfreak: LSU ‘Onepeat’ taunt aims for a real dynasty.

I wonder if we're headed toward a trend where citizen marketing includes more citizen advertising?

Tag: marketing

Does this count towards my 15 minutes of fame?

Thought I'd share with you my interview with AdPulp that appeared last week, focusing on experiential marketing. Thank you, David Burn. There were no comments to the post, so I'm not sure anyone else was interested in my thoughts but David. Should I feel sorry for myself? No. I think not. Here's the link: The AdPulp Interview: Katherine Stone - AdPulp.

Save the Blackberry!

Can anyone tell me if there's a SAVE THE BLACKBERRY campaign going on anywhere in the blogosphere or elsewhere?  I'll cry if my Blackberry service is cutoff.  I love my BlackBerry.  Really and truly I do.  If you haven't heard the news, according to MSNBC:

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from the maker of the BlackBerry in the long-running battle over patents for the wildly popular, handheld wireless e-mail device.  The high court’s refusal to hear Canada-based Research In Motion Ltd.’s appeal means that a trial judge in Richmond, Va., could impose an injunction against the company and block BlackBerry use among many of its owners in the United States.

Apparently NTP, the company that is suing for patent infringement, is simply a small patent holding firm.  According to Wikipedia, the company's only asset is a set of wireless email patents.  It's not like they actually make products, or ever planned to use the technology from what I can tell.  Can I say I don't like them?  A lot?  Didn't RIM offer to pay them something like $450 million dollars -- was that not enough?

NTP apparently couldn't give a crap less about the 3 million or so people who use a BlackBerry.  (I can't believe it's not more than 3 million.  It seems like everyone I know has one.)  Their comment says it all:

... NTP downplayed the hardship that RIM's commercial customers would suffer from a shutdown, saying "there are "a number of licensed alternatives which can fully meet their requirements."  Among the alternatives to the BlackBerry is the Treo 650 smartphone made by computer and smartphone maker Palm Inc.

My husband has a Treo.  It sucks.  I can't stand the thing.  I don't want one.  I choose BlackBerry.  Give me BlackBerry or give me death! 

Well ... maybe not death.  Maybe a sore throat.

Celebrity Marketing Overkill

Corporations of America, listen up!  Please stop giving awards and free stuff to celebs in an effort to get us to buy.  It doesn't really work. To wit, consider this post on Reveries.com's Cool News of the Day about celebrity gift bags, Bag Swag:

Lavishing gift bags on celebrities may be doing more harm than good to brands and stars alike, suggests Hilary de Vries in a New York Times essay (1/14/06)... it’s now at a point where celebrities “expect to receive thousands of dollars worth of merchandise — jewelry, perfume, sunglasses, cosmetics, vacations, electronics and other assorted bling — in exchange for even brief appearances at glamorous events.” Problem is, “the gift bag industry has become so over-saturated that it no longer works as advertised.”

... what are the chances that swag will stimulate sales? Not very good, apparently. Even if the celeb likes and uses the product, what are the chances consumers will care? Not that good, either. As Hilary observes: “You don’t need to look at the dismal state of the movie industry, the declines in ticket sales and the growing ennui among audiences to know that stardom has undergone a serious devaluation, that celebrity has become another commodity and a pretty cheap one at that.”

Amen.  The only people this kind of marketing really benefits are the stars who get lots of nice free stuff when they are in the best position of anyone to be able to afford it.  It drives me crazy to watch multimillion dollar heiress Paris Hilton poring over the gift tables and picking out opulent goodies like she's at some rich person's version of Goodwill.  Check out this video to see swagness in full swing right now at the Sundance Film Festival (click on the "Sundance Swag" video and watch Rob Lowe and Terrence Howard with armfuls of merchandise -- can you believe they're promoting this?). 

I can see every now and then that getting products in the hands of celebs can help their cool factor.  But celebrity marketing seems to have hit the apex of silliness.  Wait, no.  There's even more silliness to attain.  The new genius is the presentation of fake awards by brands to celebs at award shows.  At the Not Billable blog, Irene Done observes:

"How was your People's Choice Awards watching party? Mine was fantastic! And in case you missed it, these were the big winners:

-- Crest Whitestrips Fans Favorite Smile: Cameron Diaz.
-- Nice 'N Easy Fans Favorite Hair: Faith Hill.
-- Olay Total Effects Fans Favorite Look: Jennifer Aniston

So seamless, so integral to the content -- it's like you couldn't even tell it's a Procter & Gamble production! And even though they have to admit that the winners are notified in advance, the whole thing was still filled with suspense and genuine excitement. Right?

Right.  "Entertainment Tonight" (yes, I'm shallow and am sheepishly willing to admit I watch Entertainment Tonight) has been doing this with the brand Pantene.  A cheesy announcer comes on the show and informs us that so-and-so won the Pantene Award for shiniest hair or whatever -- Charlize Theron was lucky enough to win for her tresses at the Golden Globes.  I wonder if she displays her Pantene Award right next to her Oscar.

Please stop the madness.  For more information on this, check out Grant McCracken's great piece on product placement as marketing malfeasance. 

Tags: marketing product placement celebrity swag

Marketing Copy for the Heat Activated Urinal Billboard

Decent marketers, the signs of the apocalypse are upon us ...

"The world of 'Interactive' Urinal Advertising is endless... HAUB (Heat Activated Urinal Billboards) has taken heat sensitive ink technology to a new level. This innovative medium combines high definition color graphics, hidden by 'disappearing ink' delivering an interactive message to a captive audience... A perfect strategy to get your message across.

Used successfully in a drink driving campaign in New Zealand, it is a perfect Billboard to deliver any message to a male audience. Strategically placed in the corner of a urinal, (yes that's correct... studies show that 8-10 males prefer the corner), it's sure to generate interest when a male enters the bathroom.

The heat in a male's urine will deliver the message and the automatic flush from the toilet will re-set it for the next unsuspecting visitor... A perfect repetitive marketing tactic.

• Because it's New
  With so much advertising being thrown at consumers these days, people tend to switch off!! HAUB will give you on average 45 seconds of undivided attention from a male, and studies also show that males will take notice when it's in the toilet. The interest generated by HAUB in New Zealand, did more for drink driving awareness than any other campaign of its type in the past.
• Guerilla marketing at its best
  HAUB will deliver your message when a male urinates on the board, it will reset to a black poster when the urinal does an automatic flush, ready for the next visitor. The perfect guerilla medium.
• Demonsratable Success
  Its novel, amusing and will definitely get people talking, we discovered by combining HAUB with traditional indoor advertising you are guaranteed to reach perfect saturation of your campaigns message. It's worked before why not for your campaign...
• The elusive Male
  HAUB is a messaging medium - an exciting and unique way of conveying any message or illustration. Males can be a particularly hard target market to penetrate, however our novel delivery gets your message across when they are most vulnerable... the toilet.
• Long life and reliable
  HAUB boards will last for 3 to six months, depending on the amount of use and cleaning chemicals used. This will give repetitive exposure of you message throughout your campaign to your targeted audience."

There's just not much more I can add.  Thank you, Innovative Solutions Oceania.

Bring a Snack For New Year's Eve

The following announcement appeared in my community paper today in the "Things To Do" section (I swear on my life this is true):

December 31 -- Come to a New Year's Eve blast with Single Baby Boomers from 9pm to 1am at 402 --------- Rd., Peachtree City.  Bring a snack.  Entrance fee is $5.

Bring a snack?  Single adults looking for love on New Year's Eve are supposed to bring a SNACK??!!!  My husband and I have been discussing what might be an appropriate snack to show up with at an event such as this.  If you show up with a package of cheese crackers, for instance, or a single-serve pudding cup, I'm guessing you're not going to be going home with anybody.