Marketing Data Granularity.

This week Nike launched its FuelBand accelerometer. It’s the latest extension of their Nike+ ecosystem and is predicated on the conclusion (derived no doubt from all the data Nike+ has allowed them to collect) that goal-setting is the key to successful exercise campaigns.

The FuelBand represents this through a single number that users can use as a measure of their progress. Its simple and elegant, but I was struck by their suggestion that people don’t need extreme granularity.

I can see why they might conclude this. Most people are looking for an easy life and tend to characterise extra detail as complexity and when I first started hearing the term (a couple of years ago) I had no idea what it meant. But the time I’ve spent around “self-quantifiers” has shown me that “amateurs” will go to extraordinary lengths to acquire granularity once they know what it is.

This and the time I’ve spent with the VRM movement convinces me there's a big group of people who would be thrilled with extreme granularity if there were third party intermediaries to interpret it for them. To interpret it in a way that stretches beyond a single number.

Now, FuelBand does seem to offer some degree of extra parameters but it's not clear that they won't also be similarly condensed. Maybe true user access to all their data will be the next stage. It needs to be because further engagement of already engaged people has to come from intrinsic motivation, rather than extrinsic gamification. It’s not just about how much they improved, but how they improved. That way lies even greater branded utility.

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Google Drops The Ball

Today's reactions to earnings reports are pretty mixed, with Google being the big loser so far. I think expectations were running pretty high for GOOG to report a good quarter. So when they missed estimates by a $1, investors hit the sell button in a hurry. GOOG is down -8% so far today on a big jump in volume. We will have to see if it can recoup any of its early losses into the close.

Another stock that is taking it on the chin is ISRG, which actually beat estimates by a nice amount. GE and AXP are also lower this morning. On the plus side are IBM, MSFT, and INTC.

In economic news, existing home sales in December rose to a rate of 4.61 million units (vs. 4.55 consensus).

Asian markets were higher overnight. China rose 1.0% despite a PMI reading of 48.8 which marks the 3rd straight month the index was below the 50 level which marks the line between expansion and contraction.

The euro is lower this morning. Although there is talk of an agreement on the Greek debt issue, a colleague just told me CDS spreads are widening on Portugal to new highs, and Portugal is a much bigger issue than Greece.

The 10-year yield is finally moving above the 2.0% level to 2.01% currently. That is just above the 50-day moving average. As for the VIX, it closed below the 20 level yesterday and is currently a bit lower to 19.65 despite the market being down a bit.

Trading comment: The market could have been down a lot more following the GOOG miss and the reactions to GE, AXP, etc. So I think it is a slight positive that the market is only down slightly so far (although it is still early). I think most investors remain in dip buying mode, as many came into the year under-invested and holding too much cash. I want to focus on those companies that continue to beat estimates and lead the market. Unfortunately right now I cannot put GOOG in that category.

KAM Advisors was long GOOG and IBM

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Channel Marketing from a Sales and Marketing Perspective

Complexity and Diversity at Scale

Channel marketing in large high tech companies is one of the most complex and diverse operational activities in all of marketing. Complexity and diversity are pervasive across: market, product, program, even organizational structure. Channel Management groups typically report to either marketing or sales. The trend today favors the sales reporting approach, especially for regions outside of the US. The in-country channel manager will either be or report to the regional head of Sales. Channel Marketing typically sits within channel management or corporate marketing. In many companies the main function of the channel marketing team is to act as a conduit between business units/product management and worldwide channels. This creates an inherently complex organizational structure from which a wide range of additional sources of complexity and diversity must be managed.

The Sales Perspective

From a sales perspective, channel management is all about recruiting and performance – identifying key opportunities and the partners best suited to capitalize on them, and investing in their success. This typically involves working with key partners to develop business plans, including staffing, investment planning, and performance goals. However, it is rare that these business development plans include specific marketing plans developed in conjunction with the vendor's channel marketing team.

This is a critical point of failure for many channel programs. Most partners do not have the marketing expertise needed to manage full scale, long term strategic branding and lead generation campaigns. Many do not even have marketing staff. As a result, much of the marketing effort focuses on discrete expenditures such as events – it is not managed as a coordinated set of campaigns optimized for a multi-channel, multi-touch, long sales cycle lead generation process.

The Marketing Perspective

From a marketing perspective, channel management is all about programs. Programs for recruitment, training, and of course, performance. Given the immense diversity in the channel it is impossible to offer a one-size-fits-all approach to channel marketing programs. But it is equally impossible to individually serve the needs of every partner.

The Partner Perspective

From a partner perspective, channel management is about of all things, consistency. It takes on average about a year for new partner programs to be fully adopted and implemented so changes must be highly rationalized and carefully rolled out by vendors.

Standardization and Specialization

Thus the need to find a balance between standardization and specialization. To find the right balance, specialization decisions have to be made first and the first specialization decisions that have to be made are about standards. The question is: what can we offer to every partner in each category and what opportunities/requirements are there for custom programs? This should be asked across a defined set of categories:

y Partner class: (Platinum, Gold, Silver, etc.): this one is obvious and universally addressed.

y Partner type: (Dev, VAR, ISV, SI, etc.) This one is also obvious but there is a lot of room for creativity. For example, do VARs get a special "turnkey" product offering that is not available to others?

y Region: This is an especially challenging area for channel marketers as there are real market differences in terms of culture, technology adoption/maturation, regulation, as well as language that make regional marketing more decentralized.

y Technical/Product focus: The need for specialization here is largely determined by the breadth of your offering portfolio. But companies with hundreds of solutions need to be especially careful not to overwhelm the partner community.

y Strategic alignment: Making changes to your market direction or product mix requires a huge commitment from the channel and they will require not only special programs but also special monitoring and guidance to ensure effective changes are made. Data is particularly important and additional incentives for feedback may be necessary.

y Partner potential: This is a two-fold problem - identifying the high potential partners and understanding the specific drivers of their business with your brand. Getting these research issues right is critical to moving the most valuable growth opportunities up the performance curve.

Standard marketing programs, campaign models, events, collateral and other go to market assets can be designed for each of these categories. Then specialized programs can be overlaid to facilitate coverage of partner capabilities relative to market opportunities.

It is important to understand that marketing programs for high tech sales must be highly leveraged over a wide range of media and market segments. They must be managed with a long term perspective. Most MDF, JDF, co-marketing approval processes focus on short term, discrete activities such as an event and are measured on 30 day or 60 day timelines. However, this is not an effective way to market complex solutions that require great education and deliberation on the part of the buyer.

IDC Recommends

To address this, IDC recommends that companies better coordinate their sales and marketing teams with respect to channels. Channel marketing should develop marketing plans as a normal part of the business planning and market development process. In addition, the partner community should be researched and assessed with the same depth and regularity applied to the markets they serve so any changes in business drivers can be quickly identified and incorporated into channel programs in the most appropriate way.

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Earnings Reports Continue To Recieve Positive Reaction

The market is higher again in early trading, as earnings reports continue to roll in and garner positive reactions for the most part. Bank of America (BAC) actually reported an earnings miss but the stock is trading 5% higher as investors shrug it off and look forward.

Other stocks reacting positively to earnings reports include: FFIV, EBAY, and MS to name a few. Tonight we hear from big daddy Google (GOOG) and IBM, as well as ISRG and MSFT.

In economic news, the weekly jobless claims fell by 50,000 to 352k. This is the lowest initial claims level since 2008. Hopefully this will translate into improving monthly jobs figures and a decreasing unemployment rate. The market got a boost from this data.

Asian markets were higher overnight, and Europe is up slightly this morning. The euro is also higher again, which is helping most commodities. Gold prices are slightly lower near $1656, but silver and copper prices are higher. Oil prices are also higher again to $101.35.

The 10-year yield is finally getting a boost on some of this economic data. This morning it is up 8 bps to 1.97%, but still below that stubborn 2.0% level. I think at some point the 10-yr yield could have a big spike higher. As for the VIX, it is down -4% this morning right at the 20.0 level. A close below this level would be another sign of confidence for the bulls.

Trading comment: It's hard to chase stocks ahead of their earnings reports, which is probably one of the reasons that we are seeing nice pops in those companies that reports solid earnings. The market remains overbought, but investors are in dip buying mode and we haven't seen back-to-back down days in the market since mid-December. So far this year, the market is carving out a similar pattern to 2011. Last year the market rallied all they way to mid-February before its first correction. Growth stocks are also beginning to act better as the number of new highs on the Nasdaq is slowly rising.

KAM Advisors has long positions in: BAC, GOOG, IBM

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Is The IMF Bringing Out The Bazooka?

The euro is getting a bounce for a 2nd day today on the rumors that the IMF is looking to expand its lending capacity by $1 trillion. That's a pretty big figure, and it seems to be helping sentiment in Euroland. But I worry that folks could be getting too complacent with the sovereign debt issues.

Earnings reports are starting to come out. On the plus side this morning in reaction to their earnings are GS, which is up 5%, and APH which saw a huge gap higher at the open. On the downside are a couple banks such as STT and PNC.

In economic news, the Housing Market Index improved to 25 from 21 last month, which was a bigger jump than economists were looking for. This release helped boost the market when it hit the wires.

The lower dollar is helping most commodities. Oil prices are higher near $100.99. Most metals are higher too. Gold was lower earlier by just a little, but silver and copper prices are both higher today.

The 10-year yield does not seem to reflect any pending economic improvement as it still lingers near 1.86%.

As for the VIX, unlike yesterday when it wouldn't budge despite higher open today it is down by 2.5% in early trading to 21.65.

Trading Comment: The SPX is trying to stay above the 1300 level where it was turned away yesterday. Also, the 50-day average is quickly moving up and should soon break back above the 200-day average. This is know among technicians as a "golden cross" and would be another bullish sign for the market.

KAM Advisors had no positions in stocks mentioned

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Markets Cheer Chinese GDP Growth

Global markets were higher overnight and higher this morning after China's GDP came in slightly above expectations at +8.9% in Q4. This is one of the slower readings since 2009, but I guess folks are happy it wasn't worse. There is also chatter that Chinese officials don't want it to slow more, and will be looking to take the foot off the brake that has recently been applied to cool inflation.

In earnings news, Citi (C) is down 5% right now after disappointing earnings. Wells Fargo (WFC) was in-line, but the stock is higher. And Check Point Software (CHKP) is nicely higher after beating earnings and revenue estimates.

The euro is also higher today, despite a wave of sovereign downgrades from Standard & Poors. The biggest was to France, which got downgraded from AAA to AA+. Italy, Spain, and Portugal also got downgraded a notch. For now it looks like these downgrades were priced in and bonds are not being sold off as a reaction.

The lower dollar here is helping commodities. Gold prices are up to $1658, and silver and copper prices are higher as well. Oil prices are also higher, but not able to stay above the $100 level.

The 10-year yield is flat at the low level of 1.85%. I find this somewhat perplexing, as most other markets are rallying on good economic news, but the bond market here is pricing things as if the economy is going to slow more.

As for the VIX, I would have expected it to be down on today's rally but it is actually slightly higher to 21.0. It is still early, but the fact that the VIX hasn't budged would make me a little nervous about chasing this early market strength.

Trading comment: The market continues this stair-step higher pattern that we have seen before. I think we saw something similar in the early part of 2011. Pullbacks are brief affairs and have to be bought quickly if you want to continue to participate in the rally. The October high for the SPX was 1292. This area has been providing some resistance for the last 4 days, but today looks to be convincingly broken to the upside. A close above 1292 would be another bullish datapoint for the market. Earnings season really heats up this week, so get ready.

KAM Advisors and/or clients are long CHKP, GLD

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Is Pinterest Right for Your Business, or Should You 'Put a Pin' in It?

The phase, “let’s put a pin in this” means that something may be a good idea or suggestion, but that you are going to pin it to a bulletin board (really or symbolically) for further study. But since early adopters generally get the most ROI from being among the first to really understand and utilize new communications, you might not want to “stick a pin” in Pinterest, which landed among the top 10 social media sites with nearly as much traffic as Google+ according to dreamgrow.com.

Instead, you might want to start pinning on Pinterest on behalf of your business sooner, rather than later. Now that I’ve spent a few weeks sleuthing through the site pinning interests of my own at http://www.pinterest.com/beinpulse; here are my current suggestions for Pinterest as far as business use goes:

Is Pinterest even for business?

Strictly speaking, no. No one who has set up an account and taken time to check the site out for any length of time would think that Pinterest is a social media site meant for business. And since it is still in Beta mode, and open to users by invitation only (to get an invitation, check with your friends or contacts on Facebook, it’s likely that someone will be able to send you an invitation), it will be interesting to see where its developers take the site.

That said, you can use it to build brand awareness and even to feature products and services, but my advice would be to use it sparingly and judiciously for those purposes, and participate on it as an individual if it is something that interests you, first and foremost.

To know whether Pinterest is right for you or your business, you need to know what it’s being used for and who is using it. 

Who is using Pinterest?

Again, a short foray into Pinterest itself will quickly reveal to you that it’s users are mainly (overwhelmingly) female. The site is used by individuals who share their own or other people’s handcrafted decorations and décor, home decorating styles, personal fashion styles, wedding ideas, party ideas, recipes and food presentation, kids crafts and rooms, quotes, graphics, DIY (do-it-yourself) how-to and other inspirations.

If you don’t see your business’s target markets or your own interests represented in those categories, then it’s unlikely that Pinterest is right for you, at least not right now.

If you do find members of your ideal client types represented by those types of interests, though, here are some guidelines to help you get started with this social media site: 

1. Get your own account (as a person) first. Put in at least 10-12 hours of personal research (believe me, this will happen more quickly than you might think). Learn how to find and follow other users. See if you can identify some of the influential ‘pinners’ relative to your business type.
   
2. Begin using your account to highlight a few aspects of your business that you believe would be of greatest interest to other individuals on Pinterest. Don’t post pictures of products or copies of your advertisements. Do post how-to tutorials for achieving looks, style, fashion, décor or decorating that would interest the individuals participating most on Pinterest.
   
3. Revisit Pinterest at least three times per week. Make your activity a combination of pinning your own interests, your own how-to or tutorials and re-pinning things others have pinned that you also appreciate.
   
4. Create one or two boards committed to your business. These might be boards which feature your work, how-to, tutorials, etc., blogs or books which inspire you (personally as well as professionally), a board which features quality head shots of your key staff along with interesting personal information or quotes about each – in other words; go light on business content and heavy on human interest content.
   
5. Pinterest allows you to cross-post pins simultaneously to Facebook and Twitter; do so, but be aware that every time you cross post you are putting another post from your Facebook page onto the stream of your friends and fans. One, they will see what you are posting so the same rules that govern your Facebook posting should apply (no profanity, no religious or political controversy, etc.) as well as frequency of posting. If you pin or repin 20+ items to Facebook, you could quickly lose followers there, so be judicious and cross post only those items which would be of interest or inspiration to your Facebook or Twitter fans and followers. 
6. To use Pinterest for business, you need original content and images by way of your own website, blog, or multimedia sites. Particularly when it comes to featuring your own work or how-to tutorials in pictures, utilize your own blog or website to post your text and images, then 'pin' to Pinterest. Sorry -- Pinterest doesn't allow you to post from Facebook (another reminder that Facebook is not a replacement for having your own website or blog!)
   
7. Watch as this social media site evolves for more opportunities. 

Want more? Likeable.com's article on how to curate your brand on Pinterest [here] suggests that you 'pin' contests and giveaways (great idea!), create an online catalog by way of its pin boards and pin relevant how-to and special interest content. 

***

Elizabeth Kraus, author of 365 Days of Marketing and the 2012 Small Business Marketing Calendar: Little White Marketing Lies.

Dispel all the little white marketing lies that might be holding your business back - check out the 2012 Small Business Marketing Calendar: Little White Marketing Lies on amazon.com.  With hundreds of marketing ideas laid out for 2012, you'll get into a marketing groove and build a bigger role for your business in the lives of your clients!

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