Krishna De: Insights From Ireland On Digital Marketing, Social Media And Entrepreneurship

Quick thoughts and tips about building visibility, buzz, reputation and profits - plus stuff that doesn't fit my blog

How do you communicate your differentiation?

How do you communicate to prospective clients how you differ from your competitors?

You can listen to my thoughts that I recorded on SoundCloud today.

How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors by KrishnaDe

This clearly is a fine line that we must tread.

Some organisations build their reputation on being confrontational.

This weekend I noticed a full page advert in one of our national broadsheet newspapers - The Irish Times - and the advert was placed by the national radio station Newstalk.

Their advert was aimed at making a point about their standards of journalism and how they differ from RTE our national broadcaster who operates acriss both radio and TV.

It references a Tweet that had been aired on RTE at the time of the irish Presidential elections.

On Friday The Irish Times reported:

RTÉ has formally admitted it broadcast a bogus tweet concerning presidential candidate Seán Gallagher during the crucial final television debate between candidates last year.

The State broadcaster has told the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) the provenance of the tweet read out on the show was inaccurate, according to correspondence seen by The Irish Times .

RTÉ also says it has expressed its regret over the broadcast of the tweet, though it is resisting Mr Gallagher’s claim that it failed to broadcast corrective information when it could have.

You can see the advert here:

How-do-you-differentiate-yourself

What do you think of the Ad? Would you take a similar approach for your business?

Example of a referral card

In an audio programme available on my Facebook Page for anyone who joins the page, I talk about referral cards.

Here is an example of one of the referral cards I have used in the past. Do you use referral cards?

I have taken part of the card off the example as it's no longer the branding used in my organisation. The card was laid out with copy on both sides and had a horizontal fold.

Krishna_de_referrak_card

 

Children's Commercial Communications Code Public Consultation by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland

Childrens_commercial_communications_code
As a parent and someone who is a marketer, here is an important public consultation that I will be paying attention to.

This week the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) launched a public consultation on how food and drink should be commercially promoted to children in the broadcast media.

The public consultation is part of a review by the BAI on the diet and nutrition rules contained in its Children’s Commercial Communications Code. 

On their website the BAI comment:

Under the existing rules, commercial communications which are of particular interest to children or those broadcast during children’s programmes are required to be responsible in their messaging and portrayal of food and drink to those aged under 18. Commercial communications include advertising, sponsorship and product placement.

Responses to the consultation will be accepted by email or by post to the BAI as follows: Children’s Code Consultation, Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, 2 – 5 Warrington Place, Dublin 2 or email: sowens@bai.ie.  The deadline for submitting responses is 5pm on Thursday, 6th October 2011.

As part of promoting the consultation, the BAI is undertaking a direct mail-shot to potentially interested stakeholders; a media campaign, including use of social media to promote aspects of the consultation (please note: comments on social media will not be considered as a formal response to the consultation, and those wishing to engage with the consultation are advised to submit their response in writing by post/email).

You can find the consultation referenced on the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Facebook Page here.

You can find the consultation referenced  on the safefood Facebook Page here.

You can find the consultation referenced on the Broadcasting Authority of Ireand Facebook page here. You can also find the BAI on Twitter here.

As the Irish Examiner reports cheese, breakfast cereals and butter could be hit with advertising restrictions due to fears over their effects on children’s health.

This is an important review and if you are a food manufacturer, a marketer involved in the food industry, or a parent I recommend that you take the time to review the 91 page report which you can access here (or download the PDF here) and make sure you have your voice heard in this public consultation.

Remember the deadline for responses is 6 October 2011.

UPDATE19 DECEMBER 2011

The BAI announced on their Facebook Page on the 3 November 2011 that they had has received 227 submissions in response  to its recent public consultation on how food and drink should be commercially promoted to children in the broadcast media.

Responses came from members of the public, the broadcasting sector, politicians, NGOs and other groups representing the food and drink production sector, the health sector and the diet and nutrition sector. 

In the event that the BAI decides to propose amendments to the existing rules, a second public consultation on a draft set of revised rules will be undertaken. It is expected that any such consultation would happen in the first quarter of 2012. 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCE

Read about the new campaign by the British Heart Foundation about marketing food to children - included in this series of links the BHFresearch report "The 21st century gingerbread house: How companies are marketing junk food to children online".

Branding in the Digital Age

Then: The Funnel Metaphor

For years, marketers assumed that consumers started with a large number of potential brands in mind and methodically winnowed their choices until they’d decided which one to buy. After purchase, their relationship with the brand typically focused on the use of the product or service itself.

Now: The Consumer Decision Journey

New research shows that rather than systematically narrowing their choices, consumers add and subtract brands from a group under consideration during an extended evaluation phase. After purchase, they often enter into an open-ended relationship with the brand, sharing their experience with it online.

Consider & Buy

Marketers often overemphasize the “consider” and “buy” stages of the journey, allocating more resources than they should to building awareness through advertising and encouraging purchase with retail promotions.

Evaluate & Advocate

New media make the “evaluate” and “advocate” stages increasingly relevant. Marketing investments that help consumers navigate the evaluation process and then spread positive word of mouth about the brands they choose can be as important as building awareness and driving purchase.

Bond

If consumers’ bond with a brand is strong enough, they repurchase it without cycling through the earlier decision-journey stages.

via hbr.org

Also see http://hbr.org/2010/12/branding-in-the-digital-age/ar/1

5 tools to create infographics

There was a good article on Fast Company about tools to create infographics that I came across. In summary here are the tools:

The IBM research tool Many Eyes

Google public data explorer

Create online charts with Hohli

Create word clouds with Wordle

Visual.ly - currently in beta so you will have to ask for an invite.

Infographics not only make it easier for your audience to understand your information, if well designed and with interesting content they are sure to help you get noticed online boosting your visibility and even enable you to attract lots of inbound links to your website.

What other tools do you recommend?