On Branding Panama, part II

I've just returned from my fourth trip to the Azuero Peninsula of Panama and am ecstatic to report that our efforts to brand the town of Pedasí and the surrounding region have been met with incredible success. The exhaustive brand manual I generated for the consortium of landowners, developers, and hospitality businesses a year ago is now in the hands of the Republic of Panama's federal government. The promo-political machine that is José Goldner is directing the Ministry of Tourism in making our area the focus of their international marketing efforts, which, two years ago seemed a pipe-dream.

Pedasí and its virgin hillsides, farms, and Pacific beachfront are finally receiving the financial and marketing weight so richly deserved, including a new multi-million-dollar airport and massive infrastructural upgrades (roads, electricity, water treatment). All this while keeping the betterment of the native community and eco-sensitivity top-of-mind.

Our network of US expats and a few local professionals — businessmen, lawyers, landowners, commercial and residential developers, architects — living in and around Pedasí has become a genuine force for positive change. Its nucleus is Briggs Capital out of Boston and its Managing Partner Rod Robertson. Briggs has played a pivotal role in land bank investment and development permits, as well as JV arrangements in the fishing industry, and their Panamanian partners (the aforementioned José Goldner, a Briggs partner, chief among them) have become an excellent conduit for deployment of stateside equity as well as business opportunities.

At the risk of sounding like a salesman for a moment, if you're looking for incredible oceanfront and oceanview property at a fraction of what you'll find in Mexico or even Costa Rica, move on it NOW. We've cracked the egg and the world has begun to take notice, which means the Chinese, Europeans, Israelis, and of course Americans have started to inject their money into the Pedasí arena. In a year's time the maturation of the financial complexion here will have skyrocketed the value of this beautiful land and associated properties dramatically.

Look at it this way: beachfront here 10 years ago was 20 cents per square meter; today it's $20+/sq m. That 's still the deal of the century for hurricane-proof Pacific shoreland, but don't expect those prices to last.

That's why my tagline for this initiative is It's Now Forever. Oceanfront property is a finite resource, and unless you're an oil sheik who can actually build islands and beachfront, once this land is gone it's gone.

There's a reason Hollywood celebs and West Coast technology magnates are buying in this area. It's clean, private, beautiful, and less expensive than you can imagine. In other words, it's like nowhere else in our hemisphere. That's not hyperbole.

Do yourself a huge favor and visit Pedasí. My good friend and British expat Tony has an incredible deal going at his Ocean Lofts in the Azueros development. Take him up on it and go as soon as you can.

An Azueros Ocean Loft in Pedasí, Panama

I often tell my clients the value of branding isn't visible in some overnight epiphany. Rather, it's the heart-racing experience of watching your brand take its first steps, like a toddler.

Well take it from a proud parent — this kid's about to run.

Mind the Demand Gap

'Tis the season for massive discounts, the post-holiday inventory purge by retailers everywhere.

With such a glut of commercial leftovers, it stands to reason there exists a gap between perceived demand and actual demand ― or put another way, the consumer audience which thinks it will buy a product (creating the demand suppliers must meet) versus the smaller portion which has committed to purchase.

Ostensibly, this is the culprit behind over-production and overstocking, ultimately resulting in drastic markdowns after the shopping season has come and gone. These days, such missteps are magnified ten-fold for any manufacturer trying desperately to compete with low-cost production centers like China; whether it's warehoused or put on clearance, unsold merchandise is expensive.

Of course, retailers would rather order and stock more product rather than less so as not to offer bare shelves to willing buyers. The argument then moves to which is worse: customer dissatisfaction generated by lack of inventory, or the financial penalty of stocking too much product. (That's why merchandisers who season after season accurately predict the right amount of orders are worth their weight in gold to retail companies.)

It is here that marketing, intent on driving awareness and furthering consideration ― alongside its oldest catalyst, social networking ― narrows and even eradicates the distance between perceived and actual demand, propelling the consumer right across the gap and into the checkout line.

This is key for advertisers and their agencies to understand. When the tipping point for a single influential consumer is reached, the impact is ― courtesy of modern communications technology ― instant and widespread. To achieve this, you must know what your target audience values and expects, and make the message uniquitous, shareable, and on their terms.

We know that the value of a friend's purchase recommendation (or even the mere mention that a friend bought something, implying a recommendation) affects dozens, who in turn push hundreds of more prospects across the divide. For marketers who’ve done their homework and put in place the right conversation machine between brand and consumers, on and on it will go, fueling a near-untraceable fractal geometry of awareness, influence, and purchase throughout the social sphere.

You simply must arm your consumer audience with all of the tools they need to close the Demand Gap for you.

Within the framework of the four brand currencies featured in my forthcoming book Currency of the Mind: Money, Information, Loyalty, and Time, the jump from perceived demand to actual demand is accelerated when the consumer has:

• higher levels of money and/or loyalty
  
• lower levels of information and/or time
  

NOTE: These are generalizations, of course; just as in human psychology, there are very few hard-and-fast rules.

This is known by another name: impulse buying ― operative word impulse. Used as an adjective, it is rife with negative connotations. Buying something “on impulse” is synonymous to admitting one's purchase behavior was irrational, on-a-whim, irresponsible.

So by its very nature, a purchase is made on-impulse only when one has too little information and/or not enough time; conversely, if a consumer has a lot of money or is loyal to a brand, the purchase can't be considered “on-impulse.” (In fact, in classical mechanics, an impulse is defined as the integral of force with respect to time. Here, that translates to forcing a rigid body — the uncommitted consumer — into changing its momentum, or converting a prospect into a purchaser.)

This last point is based on my long-time assertion that a marketer can only directly change a consumer's loyalty and information, and can only indirectly affect the consumer's amount of time or money.

Want proof that the impact of social made a difference in jettisoning customers across the Demand Gap this year? According to a comScore study, social media has played a significant role in driving sales, with 28% of consumers surveyed stating that social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) influenced their decision to buy. (In fact, Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday 2009 saw double-digit percentage growth over 2008.)

“In the comScore weekly holiday survey, comScore asked respondents about the influence of social media on their holiday shopping behavior. According to the most recent survey, conducted on Dec. 4-7, 2009, 28 percent of those who have begun their holiday shopping this season indicated that social media has influenced their purchases.”

The types of social media and their efficacies among comScore’s respondents:

• 13% of respondents read a consumer-generated product review
  
• 11% read an expert product review
  
• 7% followed a Facebook fan page for special offers and deals
  
• 6% were influenced by a friend’s Facebook update about a product
  
• 5% followed a company on Twitter for special offers and deals
  
• 3% were influenced by a friend’s “tweet” about a product
  

Please advertise responsibly

In the most recent Guinness spot "Slide," currently running here in the U.S., we follow a freshly poured pint of the rich Irish stout on a fantastical, Bugs-Bunny-fortuitously-sleepwalking-through-perilous-obstacles journey from the local bar to the window of a high-rise office building. Just before we know where it's headed, we cut to a new guy begging his boss for a raise for his team. He hasn't even been there a week, he admits with a snarky grin.

Next, he grabs the magical sliding pint glass off the ledge and toasts his manager as the title “Fortune Favors the Bold” keys in — above the "Drink Responsibly" legalese.


The creative is just so dumb and bottom-barrel — and of course nothing near "edgy" or "irreverant," just dumb — my medulla oblongata hurts. And couldja please rip off Honda or a dozen other domino-inspired spots? That'd be great. But don't take a fraction of the time they took to set up something clever when you do.

There's just something about major advertisers defining "responsible drinking" like boozin' on the job your first week at your crotchety boss's desk. (That'll show him.) The juxtaposition of the disclaimer and the headline is just icing on the dumb-cake. Not sure if I should direct my derision at the client or BBDO. (And I love how the YouTube version doesn't bother to include the legal disclaimer, which is evidence they know it's a contradiction to anyone with a somewhat-developed cranium.) Please enjoy responsibly, but irresponsibly. Thank you.

By the way, Guinness, what ever happened to “Good Things Come to Those Who Wait”?

What did we learn in 2009?

Maybe it's just because Tiger Woods's woes remain in full surround sound at the moment, but I believe 2009 will talked about as the Year of Online Reputation Management (ORM). How many pro athletes (and even coaches) were traded or otherwise publicly maligned for less-than-professional tweeting — or on the flip side, immediately fired up their Twitter accounts to apologize or explain themselves after an indiscretion? Twitter was even banned by the South Eastern Conference's media policy in an attempt to avoid rapid-fire surprises or untoward messaging. And the above-mentioned were only examples from the world of sport.

With the forthcoming launch of Google's next-generation search infrastructure Caffeine, which promises to integrate social network activity in its real-time search results, you'd better believe we've only seen the highest tip of the iceberg. And as we all know, the immense power of the search algorithm will propel right to the top your worst nightmare if the digital public latches onto it. Then try and get that new job (or explain to your spouse why that off-color joke you tweeted about your mother-in-law two years ago was just a Google search away {:B ).

The author of The Book on ORM – Radically Transparent and founder of the social media monitoring service Trackur, Andy Beal, takes a moment to speak to TopRank's Lee Odden on the subject of ORM and its importance in the coming year and beyond:

Britney Spears vs. The Moon

If you think you've got a good grasp on the web and its population, I have a question for ya: Which of these two topics generates more online activity — the moon or, say, Britney Spears?

Now take a look at their respective Google search results numbers (as of Dec 7, 2009), understanding the fractal geometry of search algorithms and their ability to associate pretty much anything with everything:

• Keywords: "Britney Spears" = 21,300,000
• Keyword: "moon" = 78,900,000

NOTE: For those of you who question my use of the keyword "moon" versus "the moon," there are considerably more results for "the moon" — 54,700,000 as a matter of fact — so for the sake of argument I went with the lower number to prove a point.

And that point is, as marketers it's easy for us to overlook even the most obvious elements in our audience's world in lieu of what's "new" or "hot” or “sexy.”

When was the last time you talked, texted or tweeted about the moon? You probably can't remember. With the exception of cloud cover and the occasional solar eclipse, the moon is visible Every. Single. Rotation. Of. The. Earth. Yet it's so much a part of our lives, we're guilty of paying it little-to-no mind.

There's no way the moon's been featured in the news or enjoyed as much global chatter as often as Ms. Spears has since the dawn of the mass internet in the mid-'90s. Yet this dead ball of pumice located roughly 400,000 km away from earth (depending on the time of year), which doesn't even make hit singles or find itself mired in sex scandals, is approaching four times her search results. Just something to keep in mind next time perspective is in order.