Archive for October 28th, 2011

The good news: housing is more affordable now … if you have a job, that is.

October 28, 2011

According to the WSJ ;

“While the fall in home prices has been painful for current owners, it has also made housing far more affordable for new buyers.”

In fact, the ratio of homes prices to annual income is at its lowest point in 30 years.

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Tidbits

Five years into the housing bust, the U.S. still has 10.9 million “underwater” borrowers, whose homes are worth less than the original purchase price.

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If Pres. Obama’s  homeowners refinance gets traction, investors who hold mortgage-backed securities will take a hit when those securities fall in value as borrowers prepay their old loans.  In fact, the MBS market fell out of bed after the White House announcement on Monday.

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The Congressional Budget Office tested an economic model of the President’s refinancing plan and estimated that:

  • Government enterprises like Fannie and Freddie would save $3.9 billion from refinancing, but they’d also lose $4.5 billion from the reduced value of their mortgage-backed securities.
  • Pension funds, banks and others would lose as much as $15 billion.

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Maybe marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department …

October 28, 2011

History has it that David Packard (of Hewlett-Packard fame) was the first to say that “marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department”.

Hmmm.

Seth Godin – of “All Marketers are Liars” notoriety — has been echoing the Packard theme for years.

Recently, the McKinsey Quarterly published an article “We’re All Marketers Now”.  The thinly veiled message: “marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.”

Ouch.

Since marketing was the central hub of business activities at the companies where I worked, I just shrugged off the critiques.

But, some data has come to light that supports the Packard theme.

IBM’s interviewed 1,734 CMOs in 19 industries and 64 countries to better understand their goals and the challenges they confront.

According to the report, the respondents came from a wide variety of organizations, including 48 of the top 100 brands listed in the latest Interbrand rankings.

Here’s the finding that hit me hard:

If CMOs are to be held responsible for the marketing returns they deliver, they must also have significant influence over all four Ps: promotion, products, place and price.

Surprisingly, this is often not the case.

CMOs told us they exert a strong influence over promotional activities such as advertising, external communications and social media initiatives.

But, in general, they play a smaller role in shaping the other three Ps.

Less than half of all respondents have much sway over key parts of the pricing process, for example.

Similarly, less than half have much impact on product development cycles or channel selection.

Apparently many companies have, in fact, concluded that marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.

Bummer.image

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I hate it when that happens …

October 28, 2011

Punch line: Hate when your chips get stuck in the vending machine? You are not alone … Kettle brand launches its first, dialogue-free, national tv campaign, inspired by consumers’ passion for Kettle’s all-natural potato chips.

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Excerpted from mediapost.com, “Kettle Brand In First National TV Campaign”

After 30 years of heavy reliance on word-of-mouth advocacy, Diamond Foods, Kettle Brand Potato Chips are getting star treatment with a major new campaign that includes the brand’s first national television advertising.

The campaign, themed “Nobody Likes Kettle Chips. They Love Them,” kicked off this week with national TV spots, print ads, public relations, in-store marketing, digital display ads, online video and social media ….

The humorous, dialogue-free TV spots portray fans of the batch-cooked, all natural potato chips in everyday moments in which they are eagerly anticipating satisfying their craving for the chips, only to have their hopes dashed by various glitches.

One spot shows a boy’s crushed expression as his teacher confiscates his secret bag of Kettle Chips (and proceeds to eat them herself). In another, a man at work desperately scrounges up enough change to buy a bag of the chips; his facial expression shifts from excited to gravely disappointed as the bag gets stuck in the vending machine …

The campaign’s creative was inspired by real consumers describing their passion for the chips and “the extraordinary lengths they go to during ordinary moments to get, save and enjoy their favorite Kettle Brand chips.”

Diamond Foods reports that Kettle Brand’s U.S. sales in mass retail channels increased by 6.9% during the 12-week period ending Oct. 1, per Nielsen FDMx data …

Edit by KJM

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