“I know that Direct Mails get higher response rates than FSI’s in the newspapers but can I justify the higher costs of DM?” or “if we launch our new signature product, how do I know it will work and outperform our current  product, especially at a steep 20% discount?”

The former question is one that we hear often from our clients. The latter question was probably uttered by Jeff Moody, the CEO of Subway, before he decided to launch their foot-long sandwiches at $5 to a resounding success of $3.8 billion in sales and catapulted Subway past Wendy’s and Burger King in terms of market shares. In fact, the success of the “$5 FOOTLONGS” campaign has positioned Subway to overtake the market leader, McDonald’s restaurants, in terms of the number of stores worldwide in early 2010!

Picking the next “$5 FOOTLONGS”

How does one answer the above questions, but more importantly, how can you be sure that you have found something akin to the “$5 FOOTLONGS” and able to convince your boss to launch it before your competitors get to it. The answer to this question lies in using a data and analytics driven “Test and Learn” methodology, commonly known as Design of Experiments (DOE).

In essence, DOE has been used for a long time in scientific and medical research to establish the incremental effect caused by a particular “treatment” while eliminating the effects from any other factors. So in the case of Subway, how would Jeff Moody determine the increased traffic observed by the trial store was caused solely by the $5 price and wasn’t due to any other mitigating factors? For example, local conditions specific to Miami or the way the store owner, Stuart Frankel, managed his stores and/or the promotion?

To answer this question, one should first  address the question of whether the increase in traffic was caused by the promotion at all i.e., the question of “causality” and then isolate the effect of the price promotion from the other factors that may also impact Mr. Frankel’s Subway sales. (more…)

Aspen Marketing was chosen ExactTarget’s Embedded Partner of the Year in the 2009 Subscribers Rule Awards, which recognize the industry’s top email marketing programs. Aspen, an ExactTarget Certified Gold Partner, was chosen from among a pool of nominations by more than 7,000 clients worldwide.

ExactTarget’s Subscribers Rule philosophy stresses the importance of respecting subscribers’ preferences in regards to marketing messages. It contains three simple beliefs:

• Serve the individual
• Honor their unique preferences with regard to communication, content, frequency and channel
• Deliver them timely, relevant content that improves their lives

Awards were presented during ExactTarget’s annual user conference, Connections ’09, in Indianapolis in front of more than 1,300 attendees.

Is it just me, or have we all lost our ability to clearly describe what’s happening around us?  The old adage of Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) appears to going the way of the do-do bird.

As agencies, we are struggling lately with one of our core “reasons for being” – making things easier for consumers to understand.  Could it be that one of the key reasons organizations are abandoning agencies is that we have simply stopped making sense?

In a marketing world of fractured audiences, a virtual shutdown in spending and unprecedented levels of consumer input direct to brands, agencies should be the one cutting to the benefit quickly and succinctly.  Have we forgotten how to avoid marketing speak in what we say and write?  Case in point, isn’t it easier for consumers to know what a “sale” is versus a “savings extravaganza” or a “sales event”? 

And since when was it OK for a non-personalized direct mail piece to become an “exclusive” offer, or a promotion “reserved” for the “Current Resident?”  Let’s give people more credit folks…  (more…)

We had an amazing turn out for my Social Media 101 seminar at last week’s show at AmericasMart Atlanta. As promised, here is the slide deck and some useful links from the presentation.

For those of you that weren’t able to attend, here are a few key points and some notes to keep in mind when deciding if social media is the right thing for your business: (more…)

West Chicago, IL, August 25, 2009 – Aspen Marketing Services, one of the nation’s largest privately-held marketing services agencies, today announced the hiring of Nathaniel Lin as President of Advanced Analytics.

In his new role, Lin will be responsible for strategy and execution of all analytics initiatives deployed to drive leading-edge CRM, direct marketing, digital and web solutions.  He will also oversee the company’s Advanced Analytics team.

(more…)

Mark on AirTran was a daring campaign on all fronts, even as it was complicated by Homeland Security/TSA logistics and FBI requirements.  Nevertheless, the campaign redefined experiential marketing by taking full advantage of social media, events, digital and public relations, growing its reach and depth exponentially as Aspen Marketing guided communication streams to build upon each other.

For more information on the campaign, please visit: www.MarkonAirTran.com

Wednesday July 28, DesignChat will be live streaming video of the design and social media discussion with Pete Cashmore. The chat begins at 9pm EST at mashable.com/chat and will last approximately and hour. We will be talking about Mashable.com’s success and how the worlds of social media and design combine to create some of the most interesting interactions of the 21st century. The chat starts at 8pmCST and will last for roughly an hour.  Follow DesignChat’s founder and Aspen Art Director, Ryan McGovern (@hupajoob) and DesignChat (@designchat) on Twitter for updates about the show.

If you miss the live broadcast, the video will be posted on www.designchat.info within a week of the discussion.

You have to love U.S. Bank’s aggressive play to retain customers in danger of trading their NWA WorldPerks Visa cards for the Delta SkyMiles AMEX. It reminds us that while credit card marketing may be down – it is certainly not out.

U.S. Bank’s “FlexPerks Travel Reward Visa” is one of the clearest indications yet that there are some things card issuers will not sit idly by and let happen, rising charge-offs and unemployment be damned. In this case, U.S. Bank is not ceding free reign to AMEX to cherry pick from what was arguably U.S. Bank’s most prized card portfolio.

With U.S. Bank’s rollout of this product, Delta (with ample help from AMEX we’re certain) has been pushing their own product heavy via email and paid search (when you search “Flexperks”, look what the top two sponsored links are) and amping up their offers a bit. With this battle for customers clearly “on”, Delta and AMEX had better prepare a rich product with a strong acquisition offer to secure the WorldPerks Visa customers they want the most. (more…)

On April 17th, 2009, Oprah Winfrey spoke loud and clear in under 140 characters. Like many others, she joined Twitter. So what does it mean when the queen of all media gives Twitter its blessing? We’ve certainly seen what it has done for books.

The era of ”Twitter AO” (after Oprah) will be an interesting one. Just when we thought the little giant that could couldn’t get any bigger, it gets the most influential plug anyone could ask for. Twitter was already growing at a rapid rate, but with Oprah’s arrival, the numbers are likely to double. After her Friday “Twitter” show, traffic to the site was up 43 percent compared to the previous Friday. All this makes us wonder: When will Twitter start being too good to be true? (more…)

With client marketing departments ravaged by layoffs and unfilled openings, what really makes the difference in creating a strong Account Services/Client bond?  Here are three somewhat low-tech thoughts often forgotten in the non-stop world of marketing:

 1) Open your ears and close your mouth.

Bad response rates and tough economic times erode the most stable partnerships.  Thus, when there is even the tiniest of cracks between an account manager and his/her counterpart, it only gets exponentially worse.  Clients shake their fists at the phone.  Account staff bang their heads on their desks.  However, what they’re both saying is that the other just doesn’t “get it”. 

(more…)