In 2011 I worked at Credit Suisse and I loved my team and my job. One could think that doing marketing in a bank is not very creative, but I can prove otherwise. I organized great marketing events all over the world with speakers like Parag Khanna and Jimmy Wales, I was a community manager and I build a social networking site. It was great fun. Moreover was I able to travel to Israel and get to know the Swiss culture a little better.
2011 was also the year of a big decision. I was asked to come work for a Swiss Internet company and help setting up their digital marketing department. A huge challenge. I was torn between a great team at an international bank, but with rather modest career choices and the big opportunity at a rather small company with great expansion plans. In the end there was not really a choice, challenges are what keeps me running. So from now on I work at netvision_ag, which is part of Centralway. I will be involved in the marketing of both companies.
So 2012 will be my year of pushing the envelope. I know I put a lot of things on my table, but I will do my best. I will also try to give you more regular updates here, but from now on the Germans amongst you will also be able to read some posts by me on blog.ch
Happy 2012 everyone! What are you up to?
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Christmas time is the time for the non-profit organizations to reach out to the public for support. People are in the mood for giving back and more open to social issues, so amongst the many flyer from several charity organizations this one actually got my attention:
The translation of the text is:
(in handwriting) “Store this cardboard carefully. It is the only bed. For you and your little sister”
(subtext) “No bed, no home, no protection from violence and exploitation – that’s the sad reality for millions of victims of child trafficking. We can bring those children to safety. Together with you.”
Logo of Terre des hommes and their slogan “The children need us”
Link: tdh.ch
First, when you remove this cardboard from the postbox it already feels different in your hand than all the other flyer and post you have in your hand. That triggers the initial interest. When you read the text on it afterwards you actually can put yourself in the situation described.
The back of the cardboard has a paper glued to it with more information and a payment slip.
The orange headline reads: “Together we stop the relentless exploitation of children.”
The white text in the orange box says: “With 50 CHF you help us bring exploited children to safety.”
It may only be my opinion, but I think this campaign might just be more successful than the others.
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I finally found some time updating my little dusted internet presence. It really was time to do so, felt really outdated already. So let´s see my list and what progress I made
- My website, which involved:
- shorten my motivation statement – Who wants to read a long text really?
- update my résumé
- update my links – which ones do I still read, new ones I began to read
- Google Reader: cancel subscriptions of dead blogs and organize my folders (That took some time, I can tell you)
- Professional Networks: LinkedIn and Xing – it´s up-to-date alright, but I am still reflecting on the right contents
- Personal Networks: Facebook and Google+ – since I use fb for most of my private communication, it´s always up to date, but I sure need to work on my Google+ profile
- Twitter: Yeah, yeah I am still working on that.
In case you seek to update your web presence and need some advice on it, here is a list of useful articles I put together:
I will resume to updating my internet presence later and will go out enjoying the sun now, but please let me know if you can add something to the list!
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Since I am now a little over one year in Switzerland it’s time for some reminiscing.
When I got to know that Credit Suisse wanted me as their employee I was very excited. An international marketing department, global marketing projects and a diverse team, made out of Swiss, Indian, Russian, Italien and other culturally interesting people awaited me and I was in heaven. Zurich being a cosmopolitan and beautiful city located close to ski slopes and Italy at a lake was just the cherry on my cake.
Traveling the world I had bumbed into quite my share of Swiss people, if it was at 4.30 am at a hot spring on the tiny Green Island in Taiwan or the fanciest club in Shanghai. They not only knew were the great places are, they also were great company. How they felt about Germans coming to their country I did not quite grasp when a Swiss friend of an old friend said: “You are going to feel just like home in Zurich, there are as many Germans as it Germany”
Not being oblivious to his hostile tone and an interculturally trained person I asked another Swiss friend from university if she could recommend any books on swiss culture and so I started reading “Gebrauchsanweisung für die Schweiz” (Manual for Switzerland) by Thomas Küng (born in Zurich). It sure was fascinating: you should not use the Swiss hello “Gruetzi” until a Swiss person signed off on it and understanding the Swiss German with its many terms which originate in the French language were things to be learned.
After one year here I could add few things to the list of what I had to learn living in Switzerland:
- When calling someone and you say your name, wait until the person at the other line could say something like “Hallo Frau Rogge” before explaining your matter
- If you don’t have a German dialect at all (Bavarian or such) like me and speak a very clear German, it’s hard for Swiss people to speak in Swiss German to you, they tend to switch to high German
- Swiss soccer is just as serious as German soccer
- When coming back from Germany I realized that I had missed Swiss German
- It’s hard to make Swiss friends, patience is needed
Sure I could list a few more, but let’s stop here. I am convinced that every foreigner in Switzerland has a different list and only a few things may be the same. Truth is, that I never felt as much as a foreigner as in Switzerland. Maybe it’s the differences in the similarities of Germany and Switzerland, maybe it’s the Germans I meet on the street who are of the kind I also would not like to have in my country (I guess every country has countrymen they would rather not know of.) It’s hard to say.
What I can say is: I made friends, even if the percentage of Swiss amongst them is still small, but I am working on it. I also learn a lot at work being responsible for online marketing and Switzerland’s stunning nature is what I enjoy every day. That being said, it’s not so bad when a colleague is trying to make a joke pointing at a political poster with the slogan “Stop mass immigration” and then points at me saying “See.. mind that!”.
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How much we all most be longing for those. With my full empathy with the people of Japan.
iButterfly
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Some time ago I already came across some creative political campaigning, see my post on the German social party reaching out to students.
Now, at a rather private place, I was approached by the Swiss social party (since I am living in Zurich now). See what I encountered using the restroom at a bar and movie theater for independent films:
As you can see, this is a post-it on which the party printed “Do not forget: Elect on April 3rd” and “Yes” next to their party’s logo (SP). I translated this leaving out some Swiss specifics, because it would take some time to explain the election system here. So sorry for that. Alongside this call for action, they included to website addresses of their party for further information.
I thought this to be a quite clever (not to mention cost saving) tool, which can be chosen for a lot of different marketing strategies. Two things are certain, it is not possible to use it for premium products. An example: I do not think Chanel could convince their clients to buy more bags by putting post-its in certain places. Even if they would stick post-its to a bathroom door at the Hilton Hotel in Monaco (Although printing some notes with “Would you not prefer French chick? Yours truly Chanel” and stick them inside Changing Rooms at Tommy Hilfiger… might be fun to do!).
To sum it up, I thing this post-it idea is pretty genius. In my opinion best suitable for a young target group (18-37 years old), a product that is in a low price segment and the communication message should be short. By choosing specific locations, where the post-its are put up, the target audience can be adjusted. For example in my case they put up the notes in locations where people in their 20ies and early 30ies would hang out. People who are of the middle class and most likely not conservative (the neighborhood was rather alternative). Let’s think of another example: If you wanted to sell your new hair product, let’s say for body shop, you could print pink post-its with “Wanna smell like spring? – get 10% off at Body Shop” and put them up in the female restrooms at big shopping malls, cosmetic studios, ladies-only fitness centers and more.
Are you inspired for your new company’s campaign? Got some ideas here? Perfect. See what others did here:
Source: technabob.com
Source: technabob.com
Source: guerillamarketing.it
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Today it was all business as usual: work, lunch, starbucks, work etc. – But Starbucks kept on haunting me after lunch.
First thing I noticed when standing in line at Starbucks was the little boy in front of me fascinated with something on display “Cake Pops”, which practically look like 2000 calories on a little stick aka two thirds of your daily calorie requirement. Sure he got one, but I was just awed and continued to the other end of the bar to pick up my coffee (No, I am not telling you which kind.. it would just take too many words..). First thing I see is the new logo prominently placed on the cup as well as the coffee cup sleeve, which is now totally green. I thought to myself “Good Job”.. I was seriously doubting the concept of the new branding.
So that could have been the end of the story, but it turns out, that it was not. That’s what I encountered checking Facebook this evening:
Wow that is just good…Introducing the new logo with such a funny new product like “Cake Pop”. (Sure I can’t say if that was the strategy behind, but at least it seems so for Switzerland.) I am not sure if the Cake Pop will become an essential product, but it is extraordinary and therefore has viral potential.
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Sure recently it has been very quiet on my blog, but for a good reason: I got a new job. I work in Marketing at a Swiss bank for global marketing programs and I am loving it. So obviously my self-marketing wasn’t so bad.
The thing that comes with it is not having much time on the side to write nice and interesting blog posts, but soon I will try to keep up again. Like I just saw the move “The Joneses” and it really got me thinking. I really like movies, which do that.
So it’s about a family that moves to a new neighbourhood, but they are fake and they are only there to make people want the stuff they have and through that make them by it. But have a look at the Trailer yourself:
Trailer \”The Joneses\” on YouTube
In one scene the big boss (Lauren Hutton) gives Steve Jones (David Duchovny) a pep talk:
Steve: “Do the clients know how this works?”
Boss: “Of course not, that’s why it’s called self-marketing. If people want you, they’ll want what you’ve got.”
So from my perspective the term self-marketing is applied totally wrong, since it should be about you selling yourself (your expertise and skills) and not the stuff you have. Although she has a point. When you are so interesting that other people like you, they could want what you have. Although I always admired strong women in politics, I would never buy what Angela Merkel wears. So how much influence can a person have on what you buy? I say a lot. Everyday magazines create new needs for consumption in us and we know that, but what happens when marketing becomes personal and when your friend could have ulterior motives showing you their new watch, bag or whatnot?
Does this go too far?
It may not be happening just as intense as in “The Joneses” just yet, but there are blog authors who serve as affiliates of other companies, shopping platforms pay you for soliciting new costumers.. so when a friend conceals his motive the next time he makes a recommendation, it already happened. But that is not self-marketing.
I posted my first experiences with Twitter quite a while ago in May 2009. Since then it was difficult for me to actually participate in an effective way. Reading all the posts I was interested in and posting useful information myself. I still kept spending so much time on the platform, forgetting about all those other things I needed to do. Twitter became one of the tools, I loved to use for input, but I got overwhelmed by all the information, just like my google reader, which was stuffed with subscribtions of so many interesting blogs, that the “1000+” – sign is something I got used to an eternity ago.
Collective intelligence on the other hand was a term I stumbled upon in the beginning of this year, so while I was already using twitter. That there might be a connection between those two didn’t occur to me until month later. But how did I get to know collective intelligence? If I remember correctly did I watch a video from a German professor (Prof. Dr. Peter Kruse), who is engaged in research about collective intelligence.
In this video he explains what the term means (Wikipedia tells us: Collective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals.) and why it will be very important in the future, when information is free for everyone in the internet and only how good a person is able to sort and evaluate this mass of information will determine how high someone climbs in a company’s hierarchy.
So when you think about it, social media, the internet and all of it finally offers tools to nurture the formation of collective intelligence. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) even has a center of collective intelligence. They mention Google, Wikipedia and Innocentive as the most important examples of collective intelligence on the internet.
A good article about the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo mentioning collective intelligence is from Heather Havenstein at Computerworld. She wrote: “While Web 2.0 technologies may have struggled in the past against criticism that they are self-indulgent time-wasters, Web 2.0 is now being touted as a collection of ground-breaking applications that can harness the collective intelligence of a multitude of users.”
So how exactly can Twitter help us sort / evaluate information?
Twitter is a way to spread information, which is useful to oneself to friends, colleagues or business partners. If the information is crap you either get called on it or nothing happens. But if the information is actually considered good in any way it will be shared = retweeted. Each person who shares this information read it and evaluated it before sharing, so you can say that a post, which got shared a certain amount of times contains valuable information.
BUT it is hard to say if 2 times is good or 10 times is already enough. I believe that information, which gets retweeted by a rather small group of people is likely to just be useful to them. For example the information, that you should add salt to water only when it is boiling and not in the beginning or the water will take more time to boil, might only be useful to hobby chefs, but not too a vast majority of internet users. As a consequence, information, which gets shared a really high number of times is information, useful to the majority of users. Objections?
So to see if an article is good. I could post it and count the clicks on my tiny URL or the RT (Bit.ly shows you both). Or I read a tweet form a person then copy the link or information and search it using Twitter Search. A problem is that people sometimes change the text of the message they want to retweet, even the link, so they can monitor it themselves. That makes it more difficult to know how often information got shared.
Some Applications can help you organize twitter, among others there are Twitturly (ranks most tweeted URLs), Tweettronics (monitoring tool, e.g. for brands), Tweetvolume and many more. But still leaves a lot to be desired.
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I identified two categories of strategies in Online Self-Marketing. They are characterized in this table:
| Long-term strategy |
Short – term strategy |
| Content marketing strategy |
Guerilla strategy (viral marketing) |
| Continously created content, which is important to the target group |
Create unique, unconvenional content which transports the product |
The Content Marketing Strategy is a long-term strategy, because the Self-Marketer needs to continuously create interesting content. By that he will build reputation and establish himself as an expert in the internet. The strategy aims at target group who need to trust a person. The Self-Marketer does not necessarily need to have a own website, they can start a blog via blogger or wordpress or they use Twitter, Viemo or Youtube. All web services, which make it possible to continuously upload content, which then is connected to the same source / profile, can be used.
The target groups I defined in my last Bachelor Thesis Issue can both be attracted by this strategy. The HR Type A, will be attracted because the web 2.0 industry uses the internet actively to find new personnel. HR Type B is attracted as well, because you can direct them to your website via your resume and by that differenciate yourself from the mass of applicants who want to work for that company. The target group can see that this person wrote a lot of articles about a topic and they can judge by the comments if these articles are well received by the internet audience. I am personally using this strategy, although I must say that I really need to improve. For example will I have to write more articles and those periodically.
So how to decide if that strategy is the right one? I think that this strategy is good if you want to establish yourself in the long run, but not if you are looking for fast results. But both strategies can be combines as well. I will get to that later.
The Guerilla Strategy is the one you can achieve those fast results with, but it is more difficult to execute. In the center of each guerilla campaign is a unique, unexpected and unconventional idea. To invent such an idea is the difficulty, e.g. could you use a facebook ad to find a job. The Guerilla Strategy often comes in the form of a Viral Marketing Strategy. When you had the unique idea you create the content which triggers people to share it with their contacts and by that it spreads like a virus. A viral marketing campaign could be an interesting video resume you upload on the internet and which is so good that it eventually reaches your target group. An unique idea was the one of Daniel Seddiqui, who set out to do 50 jobs in 50 states and got famous doing it. So besides the special idea you also need to use a tool that facilitate people to share that idea, e.g. twitter, youtube, vimeo, facebook.
The target group, which can be reached by this strategy is rather HR Type A, because they are more active in the internet, but when you do a good job and your campaign reaches the masses it’s possible that almost everybody will know about it. For example did Daniel become so famous, that he gave several interviews on national television and even German TV reported about him!
A third strategy which combines the Content Marketing Strategy with the Guerilla Strategy has the advantages of both. It can be used to build reputation on the long run and raise attention of a huge audience. The Self-Marketer simply posts articles or interesting content alongside with unique content (with high viral potential) on this website or profile. For example does James Alliban write articles on his blog and became “internet famous” with his vimeo video about his business card with augmented reality.
Until proven otherwise, I believe that every online self-marketing strategy can be classified as one of these two (three) types of strategies.
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