I have to give it to the spammers out there. They are starting to get a little more clever. I receive BUCKETS of spam every day. Everything from “Male Enhancement” solutions to “The BEST BUSINESS INVESTMENT SOLUTION IN THE WORLD.” sure… don’t we all
Lately, though, I’ve been receiving an email from someone that has actually done a little homework. Or at least they “seem” to have done their homework… Check out the email below:
Immediately, the subject line, “Are you a chef?” caught my eye. Thinking to myself, “Hey, I call myself ‘The Brand Chef,’ so maybe they have some relevance to me. Maybe I should read on.”
Then, I get into the body of the email and it says they may have “job leads for chefs.” Of course, this is where I start thinking to myself, “But I don’t need a job as a chef; I want marketing communications leads.”
But wait… They said “after checking out {my} website…” Well, that gives me hope that they truly know who I am and what I need… so I read on. Only to be disappointed.
Now, let’s see what they might have done wrong…
First off, they didn’t actually address it to me… I would have accepted “Andrew, Mr. Clark, Chef Clark” or anything that might have signaled that they actually KNEW who they were talking to. That information is easy to find, even for spam bots. OH, and let’s not forget the fact that I’M NOT AN ACTUAL CHEF! I only play one on the interwebs…
So, Why Not Delete The SPAM And Go On With Life?
The real reason I write this is that YES, spammers are getting more sophisticated. Instead of blasting emails to anyone and everyone, they have research and demographic focus and they’re starting (scratching the surface) to use it quite well.
I post this because I actually had a client that received the SAME email (of course addressed to THEIR online brand), and they forwarded it on to me asking if they should respond because, “it sounds like a pretty legit offer…”
Sorry, client. By clicking through and even looking at their site, the spammers won. It may have been a very small victory, but they received a “click-through;” a measurable sign that what they are doing is working.
Sure there is the obvious spam that you just delete before finishing the subject line, but as I mentioned above, they’re getting pretty clever.
So, my warning to my client (and to all of you) : “Please read thoroughly, ALL emails that come across your monitor, phone, whatever, for signs that it’s spam BEFORE you click through to their site – or to some executable virus or worse…”
Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef*
*DISCLAIMER:
Although he LOVES to cook, Andrew B. Clark can in no way legally or otherwise officially consider himself a chef of the culinary arts. This name is for personal branding purposes only and by no means is intended to imply or misdirect people or persons into believing otherwise. Now, Andrew DOES cook and does so quite well (so his family tells him) so if you ARE looking for a “Culinary Chef” he may be able to “Pose” as one. But please do not assume that glazing salmon or tenderizing a chicken breast makes him “Chef-Worthy.”
Salon.com, that ubiquitous source of blogging love that we all have grown just a little bored with recently, spouted a surprisingly great post today.
image credit: Salon.com / Timothy Goodman
Timothy Goodman, new Salon author, reflects on how social media has changed the direction in which branding professionals like me and others aim when it comes to effectively communicating to a client’s target audience. It’s no longer the Don Draper“Tell ‘em and they’ll believe it – ’cause it’s F*&n’ TV, damn-it…” generation. Social media has provided an open source sensibility to marketing and communications and Goodman brings that point to clarity very eloquently in, “How do we brand our evolving selves?” Goodman describes the Jungian classification of “Archetypal Character Traits” that they could then classify brands into and beautifully ties it into one of my favorite movies:
It makes me think about “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” when Mr. Edward Rooney’s secretary, Grace, speaks about Ferris: “Oh, he’s very popular, Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads — they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.” And this is exactly the role social media outlets are playing. These brands don’t have to be archetypal anymore, they just have to gainfully house all archetypes.
Integrating Carl Jung into my chosen career certainly gives it a little “Cerebral Credibility”
It (social media) has turned the tables on the “brand warriors” (not you Mark) out there. We, as advertisers and communications specialists, have a responsibility to develop a brand for, in and around an ever-evolving target audience. It’s no longer a push marketing model. It CAN’T be a react marketing model either.
Unfortunately, I left my clairvoyance license in a bar somewhere in 1992. I wonder if that would be doing me (or anyone else) any good today?
Thanks to Cathy J. Prince (site coming soon) for pointing out the post, and thanks to Timothy Goodman for reminding us all what the task at hand is. Keep the needle moving and we’ll all be headed in the right direction… until they change their minds.
In a conversation with a good friend, we were mulling over the unique challenges we both have with clients, agencies and production houses when it comes to being effective marketers. He made a very valid point that
“…if everyone worked as quickly as his brain, the work would be TEN TIMES as valuable.”
As the conversation went on, I started assimilating marketing to a constantly moving force in search of it’s next meal…
“If a marketing department or even a basic marketing campaign is to have value or any spec of success, it needs to be constantly moving. Like a shark, if it stops, it suffocates under its own pressure and drowns – suddenly, another corpse for other sharks in the ocean to feed on…”
One thing lead to another and the phrase “Sharketing” was coined.
The conversation came to an abrupt stop. Our eyes grew to the size of the plates that sat below us, and we both started laughing.
“Sharketing… Are YOU Sharketing?” I yelled. (to some pretty strange looks at Palmer’s Deli, mind you)
“Ha… what a cool idea.” He added.
So I immediately went back to the CreateWOW office and registered the domain, AreYouSharketing.com and the seed was planted.
Jump ahead a few months and we come to Sunday, February 20, 2011. A day that Sharketing was given breath and the ability to swim in the ocean of marketing phraseology for ever.
Sharketing defines the action that ALL MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS professionals should be taking. Ever moving, ever searching, hunting, tracking and focused on the next meal. Sharketing allows the campaign to run, unfettered by politics, red tape and the lack of return.
AreYouSharketing.com is a portal for all marketing communications professionals to gain the speed they need to become TRUE marketers. It’s a resource for learning. It’s a resource to extend your brand equity. It’s a resource for additional outposts for your marketing messages.
Some of the best ideas come quickly and simply. And it should always work that way.
I invite you to go on over the AreYouSharketing.com to see what’s in store. So far we have a handful of collaborators, but we’re always looking for more. If interested, please contact me!
What do YOU do on a Snow Day in central Iowa? Well, if you’re at all involved in social media, you get online and jump into the conversation (ANY conversation). There’s always a chat, a dialogue, a debate or simply silly talk going on within Twitter.
As an experiment, I decided to create ascreencast of the conversations that took place with and around me (@TheBrandChef) this morning.
Featured in this little conversation are friends and associates (and some people I’ve NEVER met, but I consider friends anyway):
Have you ever seen a great NFL quarterback run to the sidelines and look into the playbook? Neither have I… So why is it that so many marketers out there are generating rote, boring plans for their clients based on “plays” they learned back in the bush leagues?
The traditional approach to marketing is too linear for today’s world. Today’s target audience is constantly moving, growing and learning new technologies. But much of the marketing we see today is still formulaic and trite, as if someone in 1976 created “The Playbook For Successful Marketing” and it’s been dogmatically followed ever since? Cold. Unfeeling. Corporate.
How ’bout I let you in on a secret…
Dogmatic playbook-marketing isn’t viable any longer. The game has changed. Sure, marketing can follow a plan / structure. Marketing can (should) have strategy. But if you think the formulaic mindset you (they) used in 1976 (or earlier for you MadMen fans) will work, you’re going to fail abjectly!
The playbooks are outdated. The systems set forth by or mentors, while still brilliant, are tired. And they (dare I say it?) are singular-minded, focusing on agency award hardware… not the client nor its community. The days of super-star agency quarterbacks in the big, Manhattan corner office are over!
Stop and look around your office (if you have one). There’s value there, you just have to see it. The biggest asset you’ll find are the actual human beings that work WITH you!
Here’s a note for our “Super-Star” marketing quarterbacks:
Marketing Has Taken A More Emotional, Community-Focused Approach
That’s what I like about social media. Adding social media to marketing has taken the ritualistic, dogma of “old school” and turned it on its ear. It allows fresh minds, the “rebels” of the community to work organically on the sidelines, changing the plays and calling options as they see the defense set up. Sure, the goal is the same – get the client’s product or service noticed and to generate actions or a purchase.
I’ll say it again. Our job is to, “… get the client’s product or service noticed and to generate actions or a purchase.”
That’s IT. No more. No less.
GOAL!
When a client brings their product or service to you, the first thing that happens to you and your team is you form an EMOTIONAL response or “Feeling” about it. Immediately, that elicits a LOGICAL action plan on how to deal with it.
STOP THERE!
Don’t pick up the “1976 Playbook For Successful Marketing.” Because I guarantee, if the client hasn’t heard the rhetoric yet, the marketplace has and you’re going to get sacked. You need to out-think the defense! Create marketing that makes people say “WOW!!” (Or something similar).
Be quicker. Be original. Be passionate. Call the option. Use a flea-flicker or the hail-Mary pass from time-to-time. It may be unexpected, but THAT’s what people respond to.
Have you seen marketing that’s disregarded all the traditional plays and succeeded? I have.
Do you have a client that needs a passionate, community-driven plan instead of the same old rhetoric? Create even a little “WOW” and they’ll see the end-zone.
Until the next huddle…
Keep Cooking (silly sports metaphors for everything),
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef
The real reason I write this is that YES, spammers are getting more sophisticated. Instead of blasting emails to anyone and everyone, they have research and demographic focus and they’re starting (scratching the surface) to use it quite well.
