The Chicken or The Egg?

Quick question...

Is it smarter to register the domain name and create the on-demand business around the name? Or, create the on-demand business and hope you find a domain name to match?

Not a difficult question, but one that has some interesting consequences. Let me know what you think.

Found a Pretty Good Online Marketing Blog

There's an online daily email I get from CityBizList (www.citybizlist.com). It highlights all the local business news in different cities across the country. They offer a few Blogs. One in particular that blends well this Blog's topic, Marketing on Demand, is by Hollis Thomases. Hollis is a nine-year industry veteran and President & CEO of WebAdvantage.net. Her Blog, Business Perspectives on Online Marketing, talks about the different types of online marketing and how they impact the overall marketing mix.

Take a look...there's alot to be learned.

Marketing on Demand versus Marketing Automation

I've been hearing these two terms thrown around quite a bit lately. Is MoD an end user facing term and MA a producer, back-end administrative term? Does MA help the end user or the producer? Is MA a sub-category of MoD? I'm sure their related...but how? I'd appreciate your thoughts...

Pick a Vertical...Like Raffle Tickets!

OK...I googled "raffle tickets" and got 928,000 hits. Then, I googled "raffle tickets on demand" and I got 432,000 hits. Decided to go crazy...I googled "Raffleticketsondemand" (one word) and I got zero hits (no surprise there). Did a switcheroo with a space "ondemand Raffletickets" and got 21 hits (who would think to type it in that way?). What does this little experiment show us? I'm curious to know your thoughts...

A couple of interesting on demand raffle ticket sites are:
www.rafflesondemand.com
www.AdmitOneProducts.com
www.ticketmastercustomtickets.com

MoD and HVAC Units

I went to Home Depot this afternoon to buy an air filter for my HVAC unit. I bought a True Blue Basic air filter. Nothing fancy, but it does the job. I noticed on the packaging that it had a "replacement reminder". It said the following, "Use this easy reminder sticker on your calendar to mark the date of your nest filter change, or register at www.trueblue.com and we'll notify you by email when it's time to replace your filter."

OK, first of all, there was no sticker to put on my calendar. No big deal. I went to the web site and their corporate site was being upgraded. They apologized, of course. However, I was able to click on a link that took me to the form fields to register. It asked for my name, address, email size of the filter I bought and how many weeks/months before I'd like to be reminded. Not a bad idea...sort of like the Jiffy Lube sticker they put on your top, lefthand corner of your windshield.

I'm curious to see what happens in three months time. Will I really get an email reminding me to go buy another filter? Will they be sending out a direct mail postcard reminding me to go buy another filter. Will that postcard have a coupon if I upgrade my next filter purchase? Will it mention the size of the filter I bought to remind me? Will I receive a follow up email in 30 days asking me how the filter is working? You get the point...

These questions can be answered in the affimative if The True Blue Company is using an automated, marketing on demand engine. Let's see what happens over the next 30 to 90 days. I'll let you know at a future date should the on demand wheels start turning.

I'd like to hear your experiences with this type of post-sale MoD program with any other consumer-type product on the market. Let me know what you've seen out there...

The Big Boys Seem to be Waking Up to MoD

I saw two postings this week that raised an eyebrow. The first was an April Fools Day joke, http://printceoblog.com/2008/04/microsoft-enters-printing-business; Microsoft enters the print on demand business. This shouldn't surprise anyone if it actually happened. In fact...give Microsoft time, they'll figure out how to make it work...at least in theory.

The second one was real, http://printceoblog.com/2008/03/monopoly-its-not-a-game; Amazon wants book publishers to use their own on-demand printing facility. Smells a bit like the Adobe - FedEx/Kinko fiasco last year. We'll have to see how Amazon handles it.

Outside of delivering MoD exposure, what are the ramifications of the "Big Boys" getting into MoD? What do you think?

Back to Basics - Definition of On Demand

I was reading today about the definition of "on demand" as it relates to the printing world. It seems about 60-70% of current print jobs are considered to be “on-demand”; requiring less than a standard turnaround (I believe that used to be called a Rush Job)...and an estimated 75% of short runs of 4-color work already average fewer than 2,500 pieces. I need a concensus of the numbers to "ratify" the definition...please.

Question one: What is the timeframe for "standard turnaround" time?
Question two: What is the turnaround timeframe to be considered "on demand"?
Question three: What is the average number of pieces in an order to be considered "on demand"?

Looking forward to hearing what you think!

Can a paper napkin become MoD?

I recently saw a print ad appearing in Sweden’s Metro newspaper that applied the creative concept of using a napkin... just a napkin...to make a BIG statement about a juicy hamburger. When a marketer decides to utilize an object, such as a napkin, in their print ad, they offer another sensory tool besides just sight...that being touch. How does that medium play into the MoD concept? How are we able to mimic that physical "object" in other MoD mediums? It's a fairly simple question. I'm looking for a thought-provoking answer...Let's hear one please.

What Does True MoD Look Like?

Does MoD mean allowing a marketer to launch;
a.) a one-off marketing media (direct mail only) campaign or;
b.) a campaign combination of integrated marketing media (direct mail+email+print ads)?

I recently read a study by Bigresearch. They are a consumer intelligence firm providing analysis of behavior in areas of retail, financial services, automotive, and media. They have this service called the SIMM (Simultaneous Media Survey) that monitors more than 15,000 consumers twice each year. They also conduct the Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey (CIA) which monitors the pulse of more than 7,000 consumers each month. That plug being given, they recently released a study called, "BIGresearch’s SIMM 11: New Media Continues to Grow in Influence to Purchase". It's full of interesting statistics about New Media and it's impact on purchasing across different ethnic groups.

The study seems to show the first example of MoD. It doesn't show how the results would increase (or decrease) if a campaign of integrated marketing media was used. Does it matter? You tell me...

MoD and Sunday Paper Ad Inserts

OK... here's a different twist.

I took the Sunday ads section, you know, the one with all the consumer electronics and food advertisements, and counted how many of those ads had any type of cross-media marketing.

Here's what I found:
Out of the 16 advertisement inserts, eight (50%) had their web site address on the front page of the ad insert, five (31%) had their web site address on an inside page of the ad insert BUT NOT on the front page, one had a toll-free number to call (along with the web site address) to find out where the closest store was to be found and three (19%) had absolutely no cross-media marketing.

Perhaps if there was an easier way for the advertiser to access other MoD applications they could impact their response rate in a positive fashion and tie it to revenue generated. These ads weren't just brand building, they were trying to get the consumer to buy something specific. Why didn't they utilize other on-demand applications?

Do you think making it easier for the advertiser to access and launch other MoD applications is the responsibility of the advertiser or the newspaper that delivered the ad? Tell me what you think...