Welcome to the wonderful world of behavioural placement, where actions speak louder than words. Product placement has been in vogue in various incarnations and degrees of crassness for aeons now but its kid brother is really still in its infancy. The phrase behavioural placement has been coined by US channel NBC Universal, which is the first of the major networks there to admit openly using it to attract marketing money from companies who want to be associated with right-on TV shows.

The idea is that a fast-food giant, for example, may just want to associate itself with a stick-thin actor who happens to like the odd burger or three. The message is “burgers are ok in moderation” in a world worried about the seemingly inexorable rise in obesity. And by the way, we have also added salads and other healthier options to our menu options.

And in case you haven’t realised green is the new black, doing your bit to help save the planet is considered the best corporate message with which to be associated. Even big bad oil companies whose main income derives from er, oil, want consumers to know they’re leading the recyclables charge when it comes to saving the world’s scarce resources.

Mind you, the oil companies have a lot of hard yards to catch up when it comes to overhauling their image. Those of you who remember the long-running TV series Dallas will recall the first thing JR Ewing did when he got home to the plush hacienda after a hard day at the office was break open the decanter. Back in the day the message was clear: liquid black gold meant a life of good booze, fast cars and even faster women. This is probably not the kind of message any big business would now be comfortable with – better the lovely Kathryn.

The difference with behavioural placement compared with product placement is its relative subtlety. The whole idea is that it should be practically subliminal – nobody likes being preached at, particularly when they are sitting down to enjoy their favourite shows.

“People don’t want to be hit over the head with it,” said NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Zucker. “Putting it in programming is what makes it resonate with viewers.”

But is behavioural placement really that new or merely an extension of techniques that pre-date Mad Men? After all, before it was legislated out of existence, actors had been swanning around for decades with cigarettes hanging from the corner of their mouths. The viewer couldn’t see the brand in most cases but that hardly mattered – the tobacco barons can only have been all too delighted with role models who portrayed their products in such a positive light.

Will it catch on here? I don’t believe so.

The worry for marketing departments in Ireland will be that the actual message might be so subtle it will soar over the heads of the vast majority of the intended audience. Short of sporting Toyota livery on her car, an ESB logo at the Juice Point and letting viewers know her coffee is Fair Trade, her cup is made by Royal Doulton and her solar panels are courtesy of Kingspan, viewers may simply not notice the feel-good branding effort. This may make the advertisers feel better but would it increase sales?

When it comes to using behavioural placement in Ireland, I wouldn’t bet on any level of enthusiasm from marketing executives who now operate in a world where measurability is increasingly key. Also, marketing in Ireland is hardly known for its subtlety: given a choice between crude and likely effective or subtle and here’s hoping, the former would win out ever time.   

And, of course, there’s always the possibility that at least half the audience will look no further than Kathryn’s wholesome charm and disregard the rest – there would be a real danger the only outcome would be zero emissions from viewers’ pockets.

(originally appeared as Strong Language column, Irish Marketing Journal)

Margaret E. Ward is a journalist and managing director of Clear Ink, the clear English specialists. www.clearink.ie

Miley Cyrus’ (of Hannah Montana fame) kid sister and her parents allegedly signalled clear clothing line intent at a Halloween party last year when Noah appeared decked out in a black lace-up mini dress with matching PVC knee-high boots. Some heavy make-up and bright red lipstick complemented the outfit, leading to some commentators to coin the word ‘prostitot’ to describe her look. Remember, the kid is nine-years-old.

Far from being lauded as an entrepreneurial prodigy, Noah and her parents have become the latest lightning rods for those who blame marketing for the premature sexualisation of children, particularly young girls.

It would be all too easy to dismiss these pre-pubescent beauty queens as some sort of irrelevant Americana freak shows but that would belittle the considerable influence celebrities (manufactured or otherwise) have in marketing products. Time magazine last year named big sis Miley Cyrus among its 100 most influential people on the planet.

Targeting the tween influencers
Tweens have traditionally been classified as pre-teens from eight years up. These young ones have left Dora the Explorer behind and are starting to identify more with, gulp, Lindsay Lohan. No longer small children, tweens are starting to develop their own sense of identity and there is a lot of money to be made by tapping into their search for identity.

Children – particularly young girls – as young as six now seem to be fair game for marketing techniques focused on beauty, sexuality, relationships, and consumerism. Unlike many of their parents, tweens have never had to learn about computers and the Internet has always been here. Social networking is a natural part of their lives and a popular way for advertisers to reach them.

When it comes to viral marketing, some of the techniques employed by marketing experts to target tweens are nothing short of insidious. A Los Angeles firm GIA – short for Girls Intelligence Agency (www.girlgames.com) has registered up to 50,000 eight-year-old “secret agents” to influence their friends to buy certain products, such as mobile phones, clothes and beauty products. The girls who receive the products from GIA client companies are chosen for their persuasive personalities – alpha females or tween queens – whom their friends will want to be like.

“Her peers trust her opinion … We have to approve them. You know, important strategic business decisions are being made off of this eight-year-old and her friends, so we have to make sure she’s the right one,” said GIA CEO Laura Groppe, who estimates the global tween market is worth $335 billion.

The whole idea, Groppe says, is “seeding the market with these girls and their close crew of friends, and getting that information (about their preferences) back to the client and, at the same time, these girls are feeling it’s a privilege … to share this among their peers.”

This is a long way from a product endorsement by girl next door Hannah Montana, replete with baggy jeans and checked shirts.

Parent power vs. pester power
Marketing to tweens is a minefield and some executives seem hell-bent on self-destruction by ignoring the salient point that parent power will always triumph over pester power.

Wholesome Hannah is one thing, slutty Noah quite another. Regardless of who tweens want to emulate, parents of this age group will still have the final say when it comes to purchase. It is highly unlikely that little would-be Noahs’ will be strutting their stuff across Ireland. Even if they could afford the gear, tweens, unlike their elder teen siblings, cannot change in the car on the way to the party.

Parental concern for their children’s welfare will win every time. Marketing to tweens means keeping parents onside. Even Miley Cyrus is having trouble developing her post-Hannah career.

Look at the hordes of mostly early teen and tween girls who dragged their mothers to the sold-out Miley Cyrus concerts at the 02 last year.  Miley traded on her Hannah Montana persona to sell tickets but served up a raunchy set that had jaws dropping and media phone lines hopping as irate mothers vented their anger at the inappropriate nature of the performance.

As Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus may have made the Time magazine list but it is the nature of Disney’s Hannah Montana character that is influential, not Miley herself.

Marketers should remember that tweens don’t hold the purse-strings. If they want to tap a lucrative tween audience, they will have to keep responsible adults happy too.

Margaret E. Ward is a journalist and managing director of Clear Ink, the clear English specialists. Her daughter is a tween.
www.clearink.ie

But this is exactly the kind of humorous initiative we should be welcoming. In fact, the more of its ilk we foster, the better chance our economy will recover and we and our children will be able to earn a living in Ireland. The cognoscenti may hate it but we should embrace it.

Living up to the promises
Now that the ashes of the Celtic Tiger lie strewn beneath empty housing developments across the land, it’s time we examined every bit of the €155m marketing budget we as taxpayers have made available to Tourism Ireland this year and make sure we do our part to live up to the billing.

Considerable wads of dosh were spent ‘greening’ The London Eye, The Empire State Building and other iconic landmarks for St Patrick’s Day but what exactly is the image of Ireland most likely to attract overseas visitors? Personally, give me a theme park over a technology park any day.

I would love to visit a country replete with blue-eyed, dark-haired men with mischievous twinkles in their eyes, comely maidens dancing at the crossroads, freckle-faced children with mops of red hair and auld wans sinking foaming pints of the black stuff as they play traditional music and sing of days gone by.

In fact, I wouldn’t mind living there either! A bit of paddywhackery wouldn’t do us any harm – imagine an Ireland minus drugs (other than alcohol and tobacco of course), street crime, daily gang shootings and filthy cities and beaches? But I digress.

Greening of the economy
I am not getting all maudlin about the so-called good old days with pigs in the parlour but if we want to make sure mass emigration remains firmly rooted in the past, attracting tourists here is fundamental. Tourism was worth an estimated €5.2 billion to the economy last year, despite a 17% fall on the 2008 figure. That translates to a lot of jobs.

That’s why it is absolutely crucial we get this country right as a product – we can’t afford to get it wrong. I challenge those who rise their eyes to heaven when they read about the National Leprechaun Museum to think again. So what if Darby O’Gill and the Little People and Finian’s Rainbow are a lot of tosh – they sell Ireland just as apple pie, white picket fences and Sex in the City sell America. And when many Americans visit here they find a little of what the heritage they are seeking in the fairy forts dotted around the country, in the Celtic crosses, in the folklore and in the friendliness they encounter from time to time. It’s just nostalgia for a simpler time.

Ireland is an original place, known around the world for its people. So, get those tourists in here – even if they only see a glimmer of what they are looking for we can sort it out afterwards. We won’t do it by trying to sell something that everyone else has. The prospect of the magical and mystical has sustained generations of tourists – it’s time to park the cultural cringe in favour of boosting the numbers.

A wink and a nod
Despite perceptions to the contrary, Americans in particular are not the naive creatures many of us believe them to be. Really…they don’t actually believe that they will encounter leprechauns when they visit Ireland. They do believe though they will experience a unique brand of history and culture complemented by friendliness, gorgeous scenery and all the mod cons. They expect to have a good time – after all, they are paying top dollar for it.

The problem is, of course, that the tourist is about as likely to find a pot of gold as he is to find the kind of country promoted by Tourism Ireland. At best we are currently pushing a mirage and it’s time we sorted it out – and quickly.

Overpriced restaurants, poor service, litter, ribbon development, ubiquitous begging and lack of public transport are all part of the reality of visiting modern Ireland. Marketing will always put the best foot forward when it comes to selling a product but it cannot operate in a vacuum. 

Cyclists, for example, attracted here by Tourism Ireland’s push to encourage activity holidays will certainly be very active trying to stay upright on crumbling roads replete with speeding motorists seemingly intent on making sure they gain a first-hand Irish experience with the old country. Irish drivers seem to regard those on two wheels as fair game and when I see cyclists abroad towing their kids behind in trailers I ask myself ‘would I feel safe doing the same at home?’ The answer is of course: not on my children’s lives!

We have to sort it out – marrying the mythological with the present shouldn’t be so hard.  Personally, I hope the National Leprechaun Museum applies for a pub licence with a bar exemption for next year – I would look forward to bringing visitors there on Good Friday for a great night’s craic.

“Do you have an iPhone?” and “Have you seen this cool new app?” are phrases that have the relentless pester power of the childhood mantra “Are we there yet?” That kind of ongoing consumer validation is a marketer’s dream, but it comes at a price. A product that has as much power for a love-in, also has that same opportunity to become a target of downright hatred.

Many iPhone users are positively evangelical in their praise of the phone. Haven’t you heard through the grapevine and news reports that this brand of mobile phone can save your life, help when you’re lost, make you laugh and communicate all of life’s most important events?

When a happy slappy iPhone user takes out their iPhone to show their latest app I roll my eyes, sigh and watch the parental glee in their eyes. I feel like screaming but I’m also tempted to go buy one because apparently, iPhone-a-phobes like me are really bad people.

Saving lives one app at a time
American filmmaker Dan Woolley claims that an iPhone medical app saved his life after the Haitian earthquake disaster. He was in the country shooting a documentary about Haitian poverty. When the quake struck, he was buried in rubble. Luckily, the iPhone first-aid app he’d downloaded showed him how to make a tourniquet for this leg and stop the bleeding from his head. It also led him to a safe place and allowed rescuers find him.

For some, it’s love at first sight. There’s a guy on twitter who uses the @iphone moniker and says he’s just “a dude with an iPhone who likes stuff from Apple”. What have they put into this phone that makes people become slaves to its charms?

Some people can’t stand touchscreen functionality. My non-touchscreen business phone and I are really quite happy together. It’s easy to use for phone calls, email and internet access. It doesn’t demand that I caress its screen or zoom in to view photos of other people’s babies. I never use the music or camera functions and I’m quite happy with my uncomplicated relationship.

But now that iPhone app save lives my stance is a bit like despising Lassie and Florence Nightingale. In word of mouth marketing though there’s always a place for the haters and, on the flipside, you can read Twitter postings from @ihateiphone.

This seminal phone from Apple has also been targeted for satire. American comedy site landlinetv.com has a spoof ad claiming Google released a new f*** you iPhone app that drives iPhone users crazy.

No matter where you fall in this debate, the recently-released Vitrue Social Media Index 2009, the iPhone was the most talked-about brand on the social web last year.

The internet has revolutionised word of mouth. Not only can brands benefit from positive buzz online – Daft.ie became one of the most visited sites in Ireland despite spending almost nothing on advertising and marketing – but they can also produce viral media, such as videos or Flash games, that is specifically designed to get people talking on email, Facebook, Twitter and so on.

But it can take a brave brand to push word-of-mouth marketing. Viral campaigns and customer-generated reviews can work wonders for a brand, but they’re risky. Recent research by information management firm Convergys found that a negative review or comment on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube can lose companies as many as 30 other customers.

And that could be an under-estimate. When Sacha Baron Cohen’s film Bruno opened in July 2009, it made $14.2m on its first night, but ticket sales fell drastically the following day, leaving overall sales for its first weekend as much as $20m down on expectations. What happened? Negative word of mouth. Time magazine said the following week, “Bruno could be the first movie defeated by the Twitter effect”.

Be credible, not clumsy
So you want to use social media to generate word-of-mouth marketing? Use social media first. Understand it. Do your research. It’s not enough to jump in, pushing a company’s product or services. That’s just annoying and intrusive to other users.

You have to be properly involved, discussing relevant issues, making special offers and helping customers. The tone must also be right. It must be honest and credible, not patronising or “sales-y”.

Notoriously, Habitat got Twitter very wrong. It began to tweet last year, but instead of using relevant hashtags (words preceded by a ‘#’ to help users track topics on Twitter) such as #furnituresale or #homefurnishings , it used popular hashtags, such as #iranelection and #iphone. Twitter users were outraged and much negative press followed, leaving the company to apologise profusely and reassess its social media use.

Using social media is a high-risk strategy. If you get it wrong, the online world can quickly turn on your brand, heaping scorn upon it and ripping it to shreds. Almost worse, it might just ignore you.

Success comes from engagement
You can encourage it and facilitate positive word of mouth. Give customers something good to talk about , listen to what they have to say and engage with them. In the US, blue-chip companies like Ford and Coca-Cola have teams that monitor what is being said about them online and, crucially, respond personally to that feedback. As Andy Sernowitz, recognised as the leading American word-of-mouth guru , says:  “People are already talking. Your only option is to join the conversation.”

Haiti survivor praises iPhone app:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/haiti-survivor-iphone/

“Google” releases new f u iPhone app: http://landlinetv.com/?p=189

It is easy to see why there is a strong desire to storm the bastions of Geekdom. Its citizens tend to be young, savvy, earn a good crust, and, vitally, are curious enough to buy ground-breaking new gizmos.

The geek was the person with the brick masquerading as a mobile phone; the one happy to splash the cash on a HD-ready TV years before there was anything to show on it.

The geek’s cupboards are littered with devices that never quite made it; the Betamax recorder, the minidisc, the Cross Convergence Pen. The geek doesn’t wait around to see how the market will react to these new products and doesn’t really care about the high price to be paid for getting in ahead of mass production. Obsolescence is collateral damage.

Rather than staring alone into their Gameboys circa 1989 while the rest of the lads were out kicking a ball around, Richard Delevan of McConnellsintegrated argues that technology had the effect of transforming geeks into attractive people to hang out with.

“These were the people who really knew what was going on and what the future held. These were the people who were ahead of the pack and everyone else wanted to be in the know,” he says.

Delevan also argues that with the ubiquity of the Internet, this has now transcended into a wider role as key influencers – to such an extent that they must become core to any marketing campaign.

“Geeks are nodes of influence in a social network and become the main attraction because of their knowledge of the latest software, for example,” he says. “These are the guys you absolutely need to have onside.”

An influential geek can now decide the success or failure of a product. Companies can throw vast amounts of marketing money at a launch but if Geekdom gives a product the thumbs down it could be game over.

American Dick Carlson, a self-confessed e-learning geek says: “Social media now lets you build a following online where you can share (and sell) the stuff that’s in your head. Through social media, you can connect directly with your audience – no agents, publishers, editors or gatekeepers – and gain immediate feedback. With low start-up costs, you can affordably create your own little knowledge factory online.”

The rise of geek chic

In the 1970s, The Fonz dismissed them as squares on Happy Days and how we laughed. Ten years on the geeks fought back when movies such as Hackers and War Games showed tech-savvy loners unafraid to battle the status quo.

Simultaneously, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were developing Microsoft and Apple while George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were playing around with science fiction sagas, special effects and animation.

Geeks were starting to make good money playing to their strengths – computer programming in the wee small hours, attention to detail and facilitating fledgling communication online.  They may have lived on Pot Noodle and quadruple espressos but boy could they take a business into a whole brave new world! Now, countless millions of geeks earn a living from jobs that didn’t exist a few years ago.

So, how to reach the geek?

Like other groups in society, geeks tend to congregate around certain interests. TV series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica and, of course, the geekiest of them all, Star Trek, all attract a cult following.

But it would be a huge mistake to pigeonhole the geek or, even worse, to patronise. It would be equally wrong to assume that because someone is willing to pay a lot of money to own a new device makes them an easy marketing touch.

Kathy Sierra, a founder of the community website javaranch.com, argues that geeks are not anti-marketing but they do hate being insulted – just like most people, really.

“Geeks hate being treated as though they’re too stupid to recognise when you’re lying, so don’t bullshit. But if you go out of your way to make something sexy, there’s no reason you should be afraid to flaunt it. It’s not hype if it’s true.”

So, in other words, marketing to geeks is not rocket science. You have to appeal to their interests but under the anorak they are just human beings like the rest of us.

The truth is out there.

Margaret E. Ward is managing director of Clear Ink and a self-confessed communications geek.

 The combined forces of slashed communications budgets, job cuts and a renewed focus on the competition have many firms in a panic looking for the next cost-effective tool. But, it’s like your mother always said: “Would you jump off a bridge just because John is doing it?”

Checking the top and bottom togs
Blogging is a simple, inexpensive way to share information with colleagues and employees. The author simply types up the message, posts it online and readers take a look. Blog messages can be top-down (nothing to do with convertible cars) or bottom-up (definitely not associated with after work drinks).

Internally, executives often use top-down blogs to communicate strategy, announcements or company status and to build team spirit within an organisation. Bottom-up messages are more community spirited and can be written by anyone from managers and project coordinators to new recruits. 

When done properly, blogs can actually replace the thousands of screaming “urgent” and “important” emails that employees ignore each day. Ideally, in-house blogs are a corporate collective brain housing memories of experiences, events, lessons learned, successes, failures and general information.  

Blogs have many benefits — from project management, team building and communication to idea development and knowledge sharing — but they need to be developed using realistic strategic thinking.

Hot or cold audience?
Corporate culture is a very specific thing. It trickles down from the top and is often based on leaders’ personalities: formal/ informal, jargon-happy or straight-talking, conservative or experimental, old or young, technology competent or newbie.

Leaders who are secretive, formal and unwilling to share details on the inner workings of the organisation are unsuitable candidates for a blog. Blogs should be open, honest, interactive conversations that invite comment. They’re more like a roundtable discussion than a passive lecture.

Shallow or deep purpose?
Good communications have specific objectives and blogs are no exception. They can be a short, sharp information tool. This might include a blog that reports – in an interesting way – on the progress of a short-term project or goal. Or it could be a HR blog that acts as an internal bulletin board or the “what’s on?” section of a newspaper. However, these blogs will struggle to attract repeat readers unless they are written in an entertaining way and provide information that’s important to the audience.

Deeper blogs need short, medium and long-term goals. Maybe a newly appointed CEO needs to raise her internal profile or a manager needs to bring together diverse teams?  Blogs like this must be carefully planned and constructed to ensure they get results.

Taking the plunge: top tips
1. Know the blog’s purpose. Internal corporate blogs should be linked to specific corporate strategic goals. Don’t just start a blog because it’s the new technology, someone thinks it’s a brilliant idea or because your competitor is doing it. Your blog must have a focus and a strategic communications purpose.

2. Find and maintain a voice. Blogs must have a recognisable human voice. Although some internal blogs are ghost-written by marketing staff on behalf of an executive, it’s important that they use the “real” voice of this person. Authors should think like a speechwriter: follow the person around for a day or two taking notes of their turns of phrase and speaking patterns.

3. Be open and transparent. Blogs are designed to be interactive so you should invite comments. It’s essential that the blog responds to, or manages, both positive and negative reader opinions. If it does not address the hard questions, it loses all credibility.

4. Have clear terms and conditions. Blogs are not a free for all. They’re a place for controlled but open discussions. Develop clear written policies on anonymous or defamatory postings and stick to them.

5. Be timely. You can’t expect staff to keep checking the blog hoping that something new has appeared. Announce your publication dates and stick to them.    

6. Plan, plan, plan. Although corporate blogs might seem like a few informal scribblings written when the author has a few spare minutes, they’re definitely not. A good blog is a strategic corporate communication that is planned to within an inch of its life. All good writing takes time, planning and effort.

It’s ok if you don’t have an internal blog. They’re not for everyone or every company. Some people never learn to swim and, for them, there should be no shame in being wise enough to get the towel and go home.

Margaret E. Ward is managing director of Clear Ink, the Clear English specialists, and a blogger www.stronglanguage.ie.

 Today, family-sized and snack-size packaging and health benefit claims are the cornerstones of international food marketing. Harmless, right? Well, maybe not.  A growing body of international research says that food marketing to kids may actually contribute to obesity and illness.

Expanding waistlines
It used to be fun to laugh at the tubby Americans and their kids who visited these shore on their vacations but now our waistlines – and packaging sizes – are catching up with theirs.

Why? In the last 30 years we’ve morphed from a nation raised on the limited food we (or our neighbours) grew ourselves  – vegetables, milk, eggs, meats – to convenience food reliant, supermarket-loving consumers.

Sugary treats are now a birthright for many children and their size is growing. Recently, new “family-sized” bigger packs of M&Ms, Revels and Malteasers were launched here.

It’s no surprise that one out of every five Irish kids is overweight or obese. If those 20% of kids maintain their current eating and low activity patterns they’re possibly heading for a fat adulthood, a good chance at type two diabetes and lifelong behavioural problems.

Big business
Food marketing to children and youth is big business. International spending estimates range from $1.2 to $2 billion a year. In 2007, Kellogg’s spent a staggering $32.8 million on marketing Cheezits, a mini cheese cracker, according to the author of Food Politics, Professor of Nutrition and Food Policy at New York University, Marion Nestle.

In Ireland, around €130 million is spent on food and drink advertising. The vast majority of these products – 88 percent – are high in fat, sugar, salt, or all of the above. Obviously, food producers are not spending their cash on marketing fruit and vegetables but that may be changing as more ethical marketing practices are being forced upon them.

Health claims
Consumers are confused by nutritional labelling but strongly influenced by health claims. In 2004, sales of probiotic yoghurts and drinks alone were worth about €46 million in the Republic. Figures have risen steadily since then.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has doubts about some foods claims and is now clamping down on unproven health benefit claims by marketers. The body is targeting nutritionals, or “better for you products” whose supposed benefits are determined by the company itself and not independent researchers. For example, Sugar Puffs are promoted as a source of fibre, vitamins and iron but contain 35% sugar.

The EFSA recently studied almost 50 of the most common nutritionals – from cranberry juice and black tea to fish oil supplements and probiotic drinks – and rejected most of the claimed health benefits. For example, fish oil supplements were not found to improve brain growth and probiotic yogurt drinks did not help gut health.

Parents want to do right by their kids and many look for health claims on packaging – rather than the nutritional labels – before placing it in the trolley.  Even the most health conscious parent may be disappointed to find what’s really in their child’s lunchbox. SafeFood Ireland research found that smoothies are worth only one fruit a day, not the two claimed by the company.  Cheese Strings, clearly marketed at kids, have 24g of fat per 100g and far more salt than recommended for children. Bord Bia’s nutrition literature does not recommend the sweetened fruit drinks popular with kids but milk or water.

Ethical marketing
Do we have a responsibility to children when we market to them? Currently, food marketing to children relies on three basic rules – get them young, rely on pester power and differentiate kids’ food from adult food says Professor Marion Nestle. 

The Institute of Medicine (IOM), in the US, says children are targeted too young and they believe its “worth considering restrictions or bans on the use of cartoon characters, celebrity endorsements, health claims on food packages, stealth marketing, and marketing in schools, along with federal actions that promote media literacy, better school meals, and consumption of fruits and vegetables.”

 That message seems unlikely to filter through here any time soon. Over one-fifth of the population in Ireland is under 14 and their buying power is significant.  According to Shelflife, the retail industry website: “A 2008 report by Mintel states that the increasing influence these children and teenagers have over home mealtimes makes them a demographic worth pursuing. At the same time, due to the alarming increase in obesity among young people in recent years, pressures from the government and other groups has made many food and snack manufacturers wary of how they market their products. In spite of this, new products aimed at teens and kids abound in the snack and food aisles, and all evidence shows that this will continue to be the case.”

 Margaret E. Ward is a journalist and managing director, Clear Ink.

The inbox was jammered and it was a hectic day but something immediately caught my eye. “Welcome Home, Edward”.

I’m not Edward – and never have been as far as I know – but curiosity meant I had to open the email. I was greeted by a cheerful postcard-style illustration with a white cartoon plane cruising through a blue sky dotted with puffy clouds. A big “Thank you for flying Southwest Airlines” was written underneath. I was not Edward but I felt good.

This was positive consumer marketing at its best – a simple, feel good message delivered in a personal and interesting way. Even though I’ve never flown with them, or even seen one of their planes, my association is now a positive one. Before this, I’d only thought of them in relation to Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary. Apparently, he modelled the early Ryanair on Southwest and his cowboy fashion sense is based on their big boss’ southern style.

Southwest is suffering as much as any other airline. The carrier’s share price fell off a cliff from $16.77 in September 2008 to $4.95 in May but they’ve recovered a bit to $6.25. The company continues to invest in service and innovation. BusinessWeek ranked them 17 in its Customer Service Champs rankings and 49 in the World’s Most Innovative Companies last year.

Throughout the ups and downs they’ve kept their marketing message upbeat and focused on potential customers, not losses. Their ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange, LUV, speaks volumes about their branding strategy.

Wear a red raincoat

Positive marketing has massive impact when things are gloomy. Think of a bright red raincoat on a grey, rainy day. It just cheers you up, doesn’t it?

The National Lottery was June’s red raincoat story. Their feel good tale involves an honest shop owner who not only kept a lottery ticket safe for its owner but tracked him down to tell him he’d won.

A 35-year-old unemployed DJ from Drogheda, Dermot Finglas, learned he had scooped a €350,000 Lotto prize after Centra shop worker Tom Heavey identified the man as the winner on the CCTV footage.

The media couldn’t get enough of the good news. Who could ask for better publicity than national newspaper headlines like “Local shopkeeper’s honesty was just the ticket, says lucky €350,000 Lotto winner”? The saga generated reams of copy inches in newspapers, airtime on radio and TV – and lots of goodwill for the National Lottery.

Pull out the finger

When things are tough, it’s easy for marketers and business owner to become negative. Some even blame their sombre mood on the media.

Bad news is bad for you. That’s the premise of the “No News is Good News” campaign highlighted on the Rebuilding Ireland Inc. LinkedIn Group recently.

The writer suggested that Irish businesses boycott the media with a national news free week during which they stop listening to, and reading, all forms of media. “Bad news has the potential to effect your mood. If it effects your mood, it has the potential to effect your productivity.”

Boycotting the media is the equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears, humming and saying “I can’t hear you!”

Back to America

Negative debates and naysayers simply sideline us from doing real business. The Yanks have a great expression – when you get lemons make lemonade.

The recession is an opportunity. Many successful businesses have gotten big breaks during a downturn. The players refused to listen to those who told them it was a foolish dream and ignored bankers who slammed doors in their faces.

Marketers should look at the economic situation as chance to do something positive and different. No money in the budget? Think about how your customers view your brand. Then try a new angle, call a few friends to spread the message or learn about social networking.

A study on changing children’s behaviour by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution, the Power of Positive Marketing, found that social marketing campaigns that promote positive behaviour could be a powerful agent for changes in lifestyle. “In general, these studies show that social marketing has successfully changed health behaviour such as smoking, physical activity, and condom use, as well as behavioural mediators such as knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs related to these behaviours.”

If positive marketing messages can change a grumpy teenager’s mind then you can certainly influence buying behaviours using the same concept.  So, stay positive even if you have to wear a red raincoat while making lemonade.

Margaret E. Ward is a journalist and managing director of Clear Ink.

The men stand around wear ill-fitting hairpieces and dresses. The women do, too. Then a burly fellow pounds the ground with a big stick like Moses parting the Red Sea. The crowds in the hallway move aside to make way for… the judge.

The tipstaff and criers who lead judges of the Supreme, High and Circuit courts from their chambers to the courtroom create an impressive spectacle. They represent a tradition dating back to the founding of the Four Courts in 1796.

Back then, they had a more practical purpose.Tipstaffs carry a wooden or metal staff with a crown on the top. In the past, the crown was removed to reveal arrest warrants stored within the hollow shaft. It’s a quaint and fairly harmless tradition. However, another old-fashioned legal practice isn’t quite so charming or practical.

Legalese is causing great harm to our ability to communicate with one another.

Pomp and circumstance

Irish solicitors seem stuck in the 18th century, even when communicating with clients. It’s all pomp and circumstance. Legal letters, terms of engagement contracts, websites, marketing materials and even emails are sprinkled with Latin phrases, heretofores and thereins.

What legal practitioners don’t seem to notice is the way it makes clients feel and the barrier it creates between them. If a client does not understand a document they may feel stupid, ashamed or angry. This is not a great way to build client relationships.

The Lisbon Treaty is a classic example of legalese gone mad and we all know how the public felt about it the first time around. Here’s a sample: “Under the principle of subsidiarity, in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Union shall act only if and insofar as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at central level or at regional and local level, but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level. The institutions of the Union shall apply the principle of subsidiarity as laid down in the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. National Parliaments ensure compliance with the principle of subsidiarity in accordance with the procedure set out in that Protocol.” Lisbon Treaty, Article 3b, Paragraph 3

Last month, Secretary-General of the European Commission, Catherine Day, said legal language was necessary for the Lisbon Treaty. “It needs to be actionable later on in court” she told the Pat Kenny radio programme.

While it’s true that laws are written more for legislators than for members of the public, Plain English legislation is becoming the international norm. That makes good sense. Laws are written to help govern the people. If you can’t understand a proposed law how can you be expected to obey it or to debate for, or against, it before it is passed?

Misunderstandings and misinformation

During the first Lisbon treaty campaign the government did little to explain the document’s significance or counteract the emotive posters of the No campaign.  Maybe they didn’t know how?

The civil service has its own legalese dialect and our Taoiseach Brian Cowen is undoubtedly one of its native speakers. He’s from a political family so the poor guy probably grew up with civil-service-speak in his house.

Can you image the scene? His parents, when instructing the nanny to get the child some fresh air, may have said: “Going forward, the perambulations of the offspring will heretofore be undertaken with a childcare advocate in attendance. Said advocate will ensure the client obtains a measure of the appropriate levels of the two hydrogen-one oxygen combination as prescribed by parental recommendations.”

This communication style is highly infectious and trickles down to the government’s communications with Joe Public, their client. Even government bodies that are designed to represent and defend the people’s rights find themselves using phrases like “fettering their responsibility” without knowing why. They’ve been brainwashed with the jargon since they took their civil service exams.

What a feeling

When government officials, solicitors and business people use gobbledegook to communicate with their customers they are not doing their job. Professional jargon is often convoluted, elitist and weakens the writer’s intended message.

Client communications say something about the writer and the organisation. A jargon filled letter can provoke strong emotions in the reader. If the language is inappropriate to its audience, the reader may think the company is dishonest, incompetent or hiding something. Reputation is everything and clear communications ensure a lasting, and lucrative, customer relationship.

Legalese fits modern society about as well as those wigs fit barristers. It’s time to cast this tradition aside.

Margaret E. Ward is managing director of Clear Ink and a writing skills trainer for the legal profession. Blog: margaretward.ie

Creators take control

It was 1986; more than halfway through the decade that taste forgot. Young Janet Jackson was swivelling her hips, slapping her knees and crooning about control.

“This is a story about control. My control. Control of what I say and control of what I do and this time I’m gonna do it my way…” she wrote.

Control was Jackson’s coming of age: the first album on which she obtained co-writing credits and, in turn, intellectual property rights over both the songs and their performance.  

Little did she know that her catchy, danceable sentiments would become the central question for artists, musicians, writers and other content providers more than 20 years later.

Creative chains

Before the 1990s, artists were largely reliant on marketing, sales and production teams to get their recorded music out to the public. The creative chain connecting artists to their fans linked from the agent and publisher to the distributor and retailer with many minor links in between. Along the way, everyone took a cut of the profits.

Artists were generally happy to spend their time creating new content rather than focusing on the business of selling it.

Fast forward a few years and digital technologies, especially the Internet, have changed the way artists create, distribute and promote their work.

In 2003, the University of Southern California dedicated an entire conference to the subject called Artists, technology and the ownership of creative content, creative control in the digital age.

The introductory conference material said: “Creators in virtually all fields are finding that new digital technologies provide new tools for creativity as well as new ways to sell their works directly to the audience, bypassing intermediaries. This is fuelling new struggles between creators and major media corporations over the control of creative expression – and the economic rewards and market power that such control entails.”

The money and the power

The recent Pirate Bay case and Eircom’s new role as copyright policeman show just how desperate the big media companies have become in trying to control, and make money from, their artists’ content copyright.
Although their actions make financial sense, they reflect a complete lack of understanding of how the new digital information world operates.

Colin Hetherington from Zoo Digital in Dublin believes that those who understand that the new technologies are about sharing content, not controlling it, are the ones who will prosper. “The people who are embracing the technologies, using them on a day to day basis and integrating it into their communications that are smart enough to understand the channel and extract value from it.”

British comedy troupe Monty Python recently posted much of their best video content on YouTube – for free. The video also included an ad for their DVDs on Amazon.com. The results? A 23,000% increase in their online sales through Amazon.

The bands Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails also discovered that giving some content away for free actually increases audience and sales numbers. Two years ago, Radiohead allowed people to decide how much they wanted to pay – from £0 to £5 – for the new album online. Nine Inch Nails also put the first volume of their album Ghosts up online under a creative commons license. If listeners wanted the whole 36 track multi-volume album they were invited to go to the band’s official site to download it for $5.

Image management

Hetherington thinks the new technologies are a double-edged sword for artists. “On the one hand, it provides them with a distribution channel for their work to a greater audience and on the other hand once it is unleashed/ posted onto the web they are handing over control to communities of fans and people.”

Britney Spears’ management tried to exercise some control over the star’s image by attempting to shut down fan sites that were using copyrighted photos. Online communities were outraged and her own fan base felt persecuted and alienated.

It’s not uncommon to see films, television shows, music and art creatively remixed or dubbed on the Internet. In most cases, the original artist has no control over the final hybrid content. For example, it’s unlikely that a YouTube video of Star Wars dubbed with the voice of an East London film gangster was passed to George Lucas for approval.

Even so, it may have gained the film a wider audience and spread goodwill for the latest Star Wars franchise, the Clone Wars.

Digital technologies have done more than just democratised creativity, they have sparked a renaissance in the way creative people communicate with the outside world.

In this new age, content creators must think about which need is greater – total control over passive listeners or an engaged, enthusiastic audience?

Margaret E. Ward is an Irish Times business columnist, blogger margaretward.ie and managing director of Clear Ink. 

POQ

Monty Python recently posted much of their best video content on YouTube – for free. The video also included an ad for their DVDs on Amazon.com. The results? A 23,000% increase in their online sales