Hello and happy 2010! Yes, we finally made it out of what many of us believe was the worst of the worst. I’ll spare us all the list of horrible things that happened in the marketing world in 2009 and jump right into the goodness that is already brewing in 2010.

First, it’s good see that the financial markets are responding well to upbeat manufacturing outlooks, low jobless claims, and some nice retail numbers.

The LA Times had a good piece on retail just a few days after Christmas in which they reported that retailers are saw increases in many sectors including electronics, jewelry, footwear, and men’s apparel. We are not talking about a huge spending boom, I do not think anyone was expecting there would be one, but what Kamalesh Rao, Director of Economic Research at SpendingPulse, calls “cautious spending” was obviously noticeable. Consumers did not splurge this season, but they certainly showed that they were not too afraid to spend. “The consumer traditionally has been the mechanism in driving recoveries. We have seen a bit of a rise in spending in the last six months, but not nearly as robust as in past recoveries.” says Carl Steidtmann, chief economist at Deloitte LLP. So while we are seeing an increase, the “v” recovery many bullish analysis have predicted may not actually occur. Major creditors, MasterCard and American Express did not see the spending they were hoping for, but reported an increase in consumer activity. It is believe many consumers opted to shop with cash this year instead of piling up the credit charges.

Major retailers will be releasing their December numbers later this week, so stay tuned for the news!

Now that the holidays are over, what should we be expecting to see Americans spend their money on? Well it might be worth your while to take a look at Lee Eisenberg’s new book, Shoptimism. A recent article in MediaPost echos the idea that America is “on balance” with what it buys.

Americans have four good reasons for buying products (that don’t put them into debt), Eisenberg writes and Kerry Hannon reports: Products make    them happy (e.g., ticket to a play or a trip to Paris); they transform them (e.g., a new hairdo); self-extension (e.g., Nike Air Max sneakers), and “everlastingness” (e.g., goods that in time will become an heirloom).

Maybe that is an oversimplification of the environment, nevertheless, Eisenberg makes a valid point. Consumers have identified with brands for decades, and the American consumer isn’t going to have a major paradigm shift in its brand love affair anytime soon. Building a quality brand, especially in retail, is extremely important, and that value will be made even more clear as we come out of this recession. The strong brands will be stronger, and the weak brands will go away.

It looks as though 2010 is off to a good start!

Have a safe, healthy, and prosperous 2010! We are looking forward to bringing you more ideas that build business this year!

Today an interesting survey was published by American Express that looks at consumer holiday spending and saving data.

We might have thought that the best of the holiday spending would have started and ended with Black Friday, but maybe there is still some hope for the remainder of the year. One of the best parts of this survey is how current the data is which gives a slightly different indication on market performance than other metrics.

Take a look at this article, I think you’ll find it interesting.

Search Reflects Online Demand: Where Are Your Peaks, Valleys and Holidays?

Which consumer market will show up on Black Friday in a down economy?  That is the reeling question every retail analyst wants to know before nervously waiting in the wings as an anxious observer.

Brick and Mortars Slow, but the Internet is Up to Speed

Shoppers in Millions: 195 (‘09) compared to 172 (‘08) – 13.4% increase
Avg. Spend per Shopper: $343.31 (‘09) compared to $372.57 (‘08) – 7.9% decrease
Avg. Online Order:  $170.19 (’09) compared to $126.04 (’08) – 35% increase

Preparation Is the Key

“Google reports that as consumers prepared to shop on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, they were doing their homework online first. Searches for ‘printable coupons’ were up 50%, for example.”

While analysts will always struggle to quantify the incoming waves of purchase intent, one canonical truth of marketing is yet more true year over year:  harnessing demand online is no longer the risk, failing to do so is.  Trends online represent the “immediate now.” Opportunities identified today can be dead tomorrow.  This is why consumers crave an “always on” approach  to search, display and social media from their favorite brands, as well as how brands leverage their market presence.

As with the Holidays, they are here for a minute – like the reported $5.6 million minute at 12:59 p.m. EST – and irretrievable thereafter.  The digital mobility required to capitalize on moments like these is earned day-by-day as search and other interactive marketing channels prepare their audience with broadening digital footprints.

It is the day-to-day transference and interaction with your audience in the places familiar to them, if just in the background, that train audiences, whether they are looking to find or be found by you.

Mountain biking is a hot summer activity and bike shops tend to be busy beginning late spring and into summer, but the digital season for buying and upgrading online is during the winter months while everyone is locked up inside. Often it is a counterintuitive observation that sparks a gain in market share while your competitors are slumbering through their self-imposed “off season.”

When are, and what are you doing with, your peaks and valleys of intent?
We can help you get ahead and stay ahead.

A great advertising campaign can be a wonderful thing for a company. The best ones get people talking, get them in stores, and get them in the purchase funnel. Yes, a well thought out, carefully executed campaign can be a great thing. There’s another piece of marketing that many advertisers overlook: customer service. Customer service can reinforce an already great campaign, or it can make all your hard work worth nothing.

Here’s a question: What will have more of an impact on your customers? Motivating, memorable, and creative ads or negative consumer feedback? Chances are your consumers will remember your ads and they may even remember them in a positive way, but if negative consumer feedback is polluting the air, your targets will be less likely to respond to your advertising. This may seem obvious and elementary, but even the largest of companies have over looked this.

The cellphone industry is full of these scenarios right now. Many companies are producing some great ads, but their customer service is so bad that the great ads are almost having a negative affect. These ads lead consumers to believe something about the company and have an expectation of the type of service they will be receiving if they join a cell plan. If their expectations aren’t met, there might be a painful backlash of negativity, one that might even spread to existing customers, causing them to pick-up and leave for another provider. Today, one carrier known for “can you hear me now?” announced that it is doubling its cancellation fee, now up to $350! This will cause new customers to think twice before inking a contract. Other providers are closing stores left and right only to have third party retailers that occupy small kiosks at malls take over the sale of their hardware. A national survey was taken over the spring showing that only 40% of users are satisfied with their cell service, while 80% said they would change providers today if they did not have to pay a penalty. It does not appear that these clever “more bars, it’s the network” type of ads are delivering on their promises.

The opposite can be said for OfficeMax, who has received the SQM Highest Customer Satisfaction Award this month. This award is given to companies with the highest overall customer service satisfaction rating. Still the office supply chain has been facing serious financial trouble. Partly due to the economy, it appears that OfficeMax is in trouble of not turning a profit in the next 12 months. OfficeMax has also not done any heavy advertising and has been beat out by the clever Easy Button ads of Staples.

When looking at how to best build your business, it’s important to realize that advertising is only a piece of the pie. By taking a close look at everything from price structure, to online efforts, to traditional media, to brand positioning, to customer interaction, you must understand that even the best ad is not the only thing that will keep your current customers around. A great strategy must come first, one that encompasses all aspects of your business and how consumers perceive your brand.

Is your brand fun? Do your consumers love being associated with your brand? Do they have a sense of pride when they talk about your product or service? If so, congratulations! If not, this post is for you.

I recently had a conversation with a friend who works for Apple Inc. I inquired to why he likes to talk about his job so frequently, to which he had an obvious answer, “Everyone knows about the iPod, and if you have one, you are cool, but if you can say you work for the company who invented the iPod, that’s a whole new level of cool.” Our conversation took an interesting turn as he continued, “No one really likes to say they work for a brand no one likes, and people certainly don’t go around telling their friends about a less than amazing product they’ve just bought. It’s like you’re not cool if you openly associate with those brands.” I realized that what he was saying was incredibly simple, but entirely true.

It’s true what they say, high school never ends. When I was in high school, the most important thing a person could do to be cool was associate with cool people. Brands aren’t much different. If you are seen with the latest custom Nike’s - you’re cool. If your Facebook profile proclaims to the world that you are a fan of USC, George Clooney, Kashi, iPods, and SmartWater, you just gained cool points. If you associate with top financial companies and have an account with one of Wall Street’s best brokers, people will notice that. Within the social media landscape, others will judge you in the same way that they did in high school, by who you choose to associate with.

Niche brands won’t have a hard time accomplishing this, but what about more generic brands? While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, comprehensive cross-media content and integrated delivery platforms are a good place to start. In the past, it was possible to build an effective TV or print campaign that could stand on its own. But that’s not the case anymore. While TV, radio, print, and direct pieces still hold an important role, these efforts can be optimized if they are full integrated into interactive mediums. It’s not just about getting a magazine reader to go visit your website either, it’s about getting web users to seek out your TV spot, or find the ad in the newspaper. The more interactive and connected all the pieces are, the more interesting the campaign and the more captivated your targets will become.

Maybe you don’t make iPods, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be part of the cool culture that people right now are talking about. Try investigating the recent campaign done by the California Milk Processor Board. It’s milk, not iPods, but the cool factor is there - one that I am tempted to become a fan of on Facebook.

So you’re tweeting, blogging, talking, laughing, and sharing, but are you researching? An often overlooked part of this wonderful social world is the ability to collect information, learn about the consumer, and make your brand better.

Sure, you can talk and talk until no end and you can be very successful at that, but why not use social platforms to start learning something more about your consumer. GM has recently implemented several programs that revolve around social media and are designed to get instant feedback from consumers on everything from concept models, to accessories, to the automobile lifestyle. The idea is that consumers can connect with the GM products and give input into the development of these products over time.

We’ve said in the past that to be successful in social media, you’ll need to begin to hand over some control to the members of your social communities. This can mean allowing them to share honest views and opinions of the company, creating their own ad parodies, making home videos using your product in unconventional ways, or even allowing them to help develop product ideas.

Vans, Fox, Apple, CNN, along with many others have reached out to their consumers via social media for feedback and suggestions on how to make their products better, more useful, and to meet needs more effectively. Vans has even created contests on the web that allow consumers to make their own commercial and the winner’s work would be presented on national television. Frito-Lay has carried out similar strategies as well, allowing consumers to truly become part of the brand.

By handing over some control to the consumer, you’re letting them know that you trust them and that you want them to be involved. This is a great way to build brand loyalty and to create a lasting connection with social communities as a company that is so interested in their consumer that they are actively allowing them to make the brand into what they want.

We are a species made up of storytellers. Each one of us are storytellers. We tell stories to our friends, family, co-workers, strangers, pets, and ourselves. At the end of the work day a question I often ask my friends is, “What did you do today?” I am asking them to tell me a story.

Storytelling might be the most important characteristic that sets us apart from all other beings, which is why we take storytelling so seriously here at HEILBrice.

Think about the stories you tell that are the most enjoyable. We all love to tell stories that include exotic locations, interesting characters, and unique circumstances. We don’t like to tell stories or listen to ones about the normal and mundane. We like stories that have an element to them that is different than the expected.

Before we begin work on a new campaign or positioning a brand, we often spend a serious amount of time talking about the story. What’s the story to be told? We look closely at the company, the brand, the products, the targets, and the marketplace to identify the most compelling story.

Each brand has a story to tell. It might be a story that takes place long ago, one that is comical, exciting, dramatic, or heartwarming. A story that is captivating will generate long-term interest with your target and will give you the opportunity to speak more frequently and more effectively to them. A flashy campaign without a good story might work for the short-term, but without substance, your brand is going to get lost in the mix of all the other short-lived flashy campaigns.

Think for a minute about some of the most well known brands: Disney, Gatorade, Levi’s, Coca-Cola, Ford - All have a great story to tell and while they may not all be actively telling that story daily, it does not take much digging to find it.

What is your story? What do you personally say when others ask you what your company does? Do you simple reply that you sell things? Maybe you haven’t thought about this before, but if you’re interested in bulding brand equity, a story is a great place to start. A good story with lend itself to all sorts of marketing tactics and will inspire creative executions that will reflect well on your company. Focus the plot around what makes your brand different from others. Don’t forget that conflict always helps. Identify the hero, and introduce the villian. Now you have the beginnings of a story - Who knows, maybe it will be the next one to be told over and over, generation after generation.

Everyone, businesses and consumers alike, are looking to save money. Here are some free (that means no cost) tactics to add to your arsenal of marketing solutions. You can roll these ideas out on the web to help build your brand today!

#1 Be the expert. The truth is, you’ve spent some serious time researching your industry, developing strategies, and building a quality product, but if you aren’t trying to establish yourself as the expert in your field, consumers aren’t going to listen. Show people you know what you’re doing and that you are ready to meet their need better than anyone else.

#2 Give your target something to laugh about. Arguably some of the most memorable advertisements have an element of humor. People love to laugh and they’ll be more likely to talk about something that is funny around the water-cooler than something that just says “buy my product”. Put together some short videos for YouTube or work on some witty pieces for your website - this is how viral begins!

#3 Personalize your email efforts. When was the last time you opened an email from sales@mycompany.com? Never. Anything that’s this generic or has something about getting us to spend money in the address doesn’t take long to make its way to the trash. Don’t stop your email campaign, but try to be smart about it. Send a message from a personal address that includes a full name. Don’t send these emails out everyday either. Would you open an email everyday from one of your favorite companies? Limit these emails to no more than one a week. Keep them casual, simple, and to the point.

#4 Network with the people that matter. Using one of the many social networks to get your brand out there can be one of the most cost effective tactics - but only if you’re reaching out to the people who matter (industry experts, industry journalist, associations, and core targets). If you are in the paint business, you probably shouldn’t spend too much time reaching out to high school cheerleaders and their thousands of friends. The world of social networks is vast, so focus your efforts. This will also show your customers that you’re not interested in trying to be all things to all people and that your goal is to meet their needs and desires.

These are four simple steps that aren’t going to cost you any money and you can start them today. Do these and you’ll be laying the ground work to do something bigger and more extensive in getting your brand noticed.

Read the ful article from Forbes.com