Tesco say they will not bid for competitor brand keywords on Google

Last week I blogged about Google's new trademark policy that allows bidding for competitor brand keywords. Yesterday, Marketing magazine reported that Tesco 'signalled its intention to take the moral high ground; stating that it will not attempt to bid on search terms relating to its competitors.'

Tesco currently spend over £2m a year on online advertising and are concerned that Google's new trademark policy might lead to significant price increases with competitors bidding for each others brand keywords.

Will Tesco's competitors follow their lead?  Knowing how fiercely competitive UK supermarkets are, it will be extremely tempting for their competitors to do the opposite and start bidding for 'Tesco' related keywords, knowing Tesco have said that they wouldn't. 

What do you think?

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.

Is irritating existing customers a smart marketing strategy?

Thanks to Jeff Fuge from Trowbridge design agency Objective Ingenuity, for sending me this example of poor marketing from Creative Review magazine.  Jeff is a designer I have worked with on a number of projects for my clients.

Jeff received an A4 letter from Creative Review magazine with a big headline saying 'Free £15 iTunes or Magma voucher when you extend your subscription.' So far, so good.

The copy went on to say 'Nobody likes being bombarded with business mail, which is why we are making our very best offer to you now, 6 months into your subscription to CR. If you take us up on it, you'll avoid receiving any more letters reminding you your subscription is running out!'

It included some other copy but by this stage Jeff had (understandably) 'switched off'.

Was this campaign a good idea?

The principle of incentivising a customer to renew (and pay) early is a good one and can improve renewal rates as well as collect extra revenue earlier. The downside is that you may just be unnecessarily paying people who would have renewed anyway. Having worked previously with the AA & RAC, they both have tested many retention strategies over the years and achieve very high retention rates that increase customer lifetime value.

In this case, it may be doing this half way through a 12 month subscription was a little early in the retention cycle.

Was it well executed?

For me, the execution was awful. The implication that Jeff (and I) took out from the letter was 'sign up now or we will bombard you with direct mail'. It would appear that the desired response from most people would be to:-

• at best - not renew
• at worst - cancel the subscription

I would find it hard to believe that it was their intention to 'threaten' their customers, but this was our 'take-out' from the copy.

I hope it is not the first of a series of irritating letters but I can already imagine a direct mail pack in the form of a brick with a message 'Renew now or next time we will throw a real brick through your window!'

With so much creative clutter, advertisers often struggle to stand out and use humour, wit & intrigue to achieve cut-through. However, it's important to also recognise the possibility of significant numbers of consumers (or valuable customers) unintentionally not understanding your humour or getting the wrong message.

Irritating existing valuable customers is never a smart marketing strategy.

What do you think?

Have you got any examples of great or bad web marketing?

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.

UK 2007 Internet Advertising Spend Up 38%

The UK Internet Advertising Bureau announced that internet advertising grew 38% year on year to reach £2.8 billion in 2007. This is significantly higher than the 4% growth across all advertising. Internet advertising now represents a 15% share of all advertising.

Within internet advertising:-

• paid for search (pay per click) spend was £1.6 billion (up 39%) 
• display advertising was £0.6 billion (up 31%)
  
• classified advertising was £0.6 billion (up 54%)

The IAB forecasts that internet advertising spend will overtake TV next year (which was £3.4 billion in 2007). However, some of Britain's biggest brands have relatively low internet spends. e.g. Britain's biggest advertiser P&G which owns brands like Pampers, Olay, Pantene, Crest & Gillette invests just £2.4 million online compared with £40 million on TV.

A significant factor in the growth in internet advertising especially Pay Per Click has been the result of web marketing investment from SMEs. Many SMEs have taken to Pay Per Click internet advertising because they cannot afford to advertise on TV and more importantly, because of its accountability. Over the last 5 years, my clients have seen a high Marketing Return On Investment from their Google AdWord campaigns.

  

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.

How will Google's New Trademark Policy Impact Your Web Marketing

Google have announced that they will no longer disable keywords as a result of trademark investigations in the UK from 5th May, 2008.

Previously, brands were not allowed to use a competitors trademark as a keyword. e.g. Audi could not use BMW or Mercedes as keywords in their Google Adword campaigns. If they did, BMW or Mercedes could complain to Google who would disable the offending keyword trademark from Audi's campaign.

From 5th May this will no longer apply, meaning that your competitors are likely to consider using your brand name or trademark as a keyword. Using the example above, Audi could now choose to show their ad when prospects type in 'BMW' or 'Mercedes'. This is likely to lead to an increase in bidding against trademark keywords which may result in higher pay per click costs.

However, you will still not be allowed to use the competitors trademark in the actual ad text - just the keyword. 

Why have Google done this?

Google says that this change is consistent with their goal '...to provide our users with the most relevant information, whether it is from our search results or advertisements.'

I completely understand why a brand like Audi would want to show their ads when prospects are searching a close competitor. Whether, it is in the best interests of the searcher is open to debate.

I will monitor results but still expect to be advising my clients that Google Pay Per Click should remain an important part of any web marketing strategy and is still a great cost-effective way of attracting targeted prospects to their websites. 

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.

The last word on BA Web Marketing ....for now

I hadn't intended to comment any further on my earlier BA web marketing blogs (Is now a good time for BA to do web marketing? and More on BA's web marketing) but BA sent me another email. 

In my earlier blogs, I questioned whether BA was likely to achieve a high Marketing Return On Investment from new email marketing campaigns given the current major 'PR' problems with Heathrow Terminal 5.

In Friday's email from BA, the subject title was 'How well do you know Scandinavia?' In 2 nanoseconds, my mischievous mind responded with 'Probably not as well as my luggage!'

Which reinforces my point. Although the email is good (briefly providing information about the Scandinavian capitals with plenty of ideas for a short break), it was eclipsed by my current view of the BA brand due to the massive publicity given to their current problems. 

It did succeed in tempting me to consider what other airlines would fly to Scandinavia which probably wasn't BA's desired web marketing objective.

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.

Radisson web marketing hits the spot

This email from Radisson Edwardian Hotels achieved stand out in my email preview pane and compelled me to open the mail.

The subject title was 'weekend breaks down to  fine art' which attracted my interest. The preview pane (show here) was simple but effective. The combination of the headline 'Take tea with Van Gogh' alongside one of his pictures drew me into the copy. 

The copy, warm in tone, concisely outlined that I could enjoy a complimentary afternoon tea whilst looking at a free guidebook to the National Gallery or the Victoria & Albert Museum when taking a weekend break in one of their London hotels.

I assume that Radissons's web marketing strategy for this email was to attract target prospects to their website. It did the job. It captured my attention, compelled me to read the offer thorough the combination of copy, image and space. 

The landing page followed the theme with a headline 'Love your weekend. Love art.' I have saved the email in my list of potential things to do and Radisson are now on my shortlist of London hotels that I would consider using.

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.

More on BA's Web Marketing

In yesterday's blog 'Is now a good time for BA to do web marketing?' I said that brands going through a period of negative PR usually withdraw from advertising and start again when the 'climate' is more favourable.  Unusually BA appeared to be ignoring this 'rule' by sending me an email which I wrote about yesterday.

Shortly after publishing my blog, I discovered a Marketing blog announcing that "BA had postponed its multimillion-pound ad campaign to promote Heathrow's Terminal 5." This news eliminates the first 2 of my 7 possible reasons why they might be email marketing during a period of negative PR.

I received a question saying 'Why do companies stop advertising in a period of negative PR?' It comes down to Marketing ROI. Whether your budget is £100 or £10M your return will be lower in a period when your brand is out of favour and receiving negative PR. Some or all of the people who see the marketing communication will find it less credible and will be less likely to buy. 

The Marketing ROI will be much better when marketing after the negative PR period has died down and when the underlying problems have been solved. Depending on the scale of the problems, the message may need to change to acknowledge the previous problems and communicate that a successful solution has been implemented.

More about Marketing ROI.

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.

Is now a good time for BA to do web marketing?

Unless you are on holiday on a desert island, without access to TV or the internet, you will have heard about BA's (& BAA's) difficulty in getting passengers and luggage through the new terminal 5 at Heathrow.

Traditionally, many brands facing similar levels of negative PR would cancel marketing communications activity and start again in a more 'favourable climate'. I was interested to see that BA sent me an email this morning saying '..there's no better time to book your next holiday'. This might be true. But is it with BA? 

Why would BA send this email out now? Possibly because:-

• they believe the problem is over - unlikely
• they don't agree with the view 'don't advertise during a PR disaster' - brave if true
• email is different to conventional advertising so traditional rules don't count - this is often true but I am not sure I agree it applies this time
• email is low cost so it doesn't matter - dangerous as it ignores the effect on consumer's perception
• no one told the email team to stop advertising - possible
• email is a low cost / low risk way of testing the water - most likely for me but not without risks
• something else I haven't thought of!

Email marketing to customers or opt-in prospects can be a powerful, fast and cost effective way of web marketing.  But like all marketing communication, it is important to understand what the target audience is thinking and what you would like them to think. Right now, the 'elephant in the room' is missing baggage and cancelled flights. 

I wonder if a BA competitor sent me an email saying 'Book a flight with us to the USA and the bags come too!' what my reaction would be?

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.