Web-Programming: An Alternative To Unproductive Advertising

As of this writing the television writers in Hollywood are on strike. The
significance of this strike will be felt far beyond the current television
season and impact what and where people will get their entertainment in the
future. People are now not only embracing the Web for their information needs
but are also increasingly turning to it for their entertainment needs as well.


The Web will soon be 'the place' that fills the programming vacuum that network
broadcasters have been unwilling and/or unable to fulfill. People were prepared
to tolerate constant reruns, dreadful programming, and incessant repetitive ads
as long as there was no alternative, but that is no loner the case. Viewers now
have an option to bad television and it's the Web, but why should you care and
more importantly how can you take advantage of the opportunity it creates?

Why Should You Care?

Information and entertainment have melded in recent years creating what has been
dubbed 'infotainment.' It can be argued that the evening news has become more
entertainment than hard news and let's not even get into venues like the History
Channel where fact and fiction seem to be presented in equal and
indistinguishable doses. So what does all this have to do with you and how you
deliver your marketing message?

The time is coming, if it is not here already, that companies will not be able
to get away with merely uploading online brochures and catalogues, or even
extensive screeds singing the praises of every feature and benefit associated
with their offering. People demand more, they insist your website be
interesting, informative, and entertaining; and it is this aspect of
entertainment that potentially makes your marketing presentation memorable.

What Is Web-Programming?

Web-programming takes the creative Web-video campaign concept and pushes it one
step further up the evolutionary marketing scale by integrating the message into
a programming environment.

This concept is not an entirely new idea, in fact one of the most noted
television commercial campaigns of 1991 was the Taster's Choice soap opera-like
series of spots that wove the marketing message into a courtship relationship
between two apartment neighbors. In an environment where information and
entertainment blur, it seems like an ideal solution to capturing an audience's
attention and interest, and creating a viral buzz that few products or services
can generate by presenting a bulleted list of features.

Build Brand Relationships

James E. Aisner, in his article 'More Than A Name: The Role of Brands in
People's Lives' (HBS Working Knowledge For Business Leaders) references the
research of Harvard Business School Professor, Susan M. Fournier, "Fournier has
created a typology of fifteen different types of relationships between consumers
and their brands." These brand relationships include the secret affair, the best
friend, kinship, the fling, courtship, the marriage-of-convenience, casual
friendship, childhood friendship, mother and child, and master-slave.

What kind of relationship does your brand have with your audience? Is it a
short-term fling that starts with a lot of heat and passion and then quickly
cools-off, or is it a long-term marriage that will last a lifetime? Finding, and
promoting the most appropriate and beneficial brand relationship is the
marketing goal of your Web-programming marketing initiative.

Part of the problem many smaller organizations have in developing successful
marketing campaigns is that they think in terms of products and services rather
than brands; features and benefits rather than relationships. Almost every
product or service on the market can be replaced with a competitive substitute,
but brands are much harder to replace; brands create a competitive barrier
through the development of relationships based on prototypical psychological and
emotional factors, the same kinds of factors that govern your personal
relationships.

Generate Trust, Confidence, Loyalty and Passion

In his article, "A Brand New You," (Psychology Today), W. Eric Martin tells us
that brands came into vogue in the post Civil War era as a response to an
increasing mobile population that began to lose touch with local merchants and
shopkeepers. Brands became a substitute for the personal relationships that
people had with their suppliers. This seemingly minor historic fact helps us
understand the significance of brands in today's Web-centric marketplace.

Today's consumer-client, whether retail or business-to-business is more remote,
more isolated from the supplier than ever before. The Web allows us to market
our products and services anywhere in the world, but in order to actually make a
sale, we must establish a relationship that generates a sufficient level of
trust, confidence, loyalty and passion. Sneer if you will at the passion and
loyalty most Macintosh users have for their computers, but what other computer
company can claim such brand allegiance?

Relationships Are Based On Psychological Needs

At the heart of any relationship is the emotional or psychological need that
that relationship fulfills. If you haven't found that connection in what you do
then you are at a definite competitive disadvantage; and you are competing on
the most fickle and transient of factors: price and features. In business, there
will always be someone who is prepared to sell a substitute product or service
for less, or with more bells and whistles. So why would you ever want to compete
on that basis?

It really doesn't matter what business you're in, there is always some emotional
or psychological component to what you do. The iPod is the market leader in its
category despite numerous competitors; it holds that position not because it's
the cheapest, which it definitely isn't, or the product with the most features,
which it probably is, but because it's an iPod - not a tool but a status symbol,
a badge of intelligence and taste, a brand relationship akin to being a member
of the coolest club in town.

Web-programming Development

In short, Web-programming is a marketing campaign based on a series of episodic
Web-videos tied together by plotline and character development; an ongoing
initiative that weaves into its storyline the marketing pitch. The integration
of the marketing pitch can be done subtly using product placement techniques or
overtly making the pitch part of the story arc.

This marketing technique is not for everyone; it is certainly not for the
unsophisticated or for the marketer who is afraid to experiment or to take a
chance.

If you are looking for an instant direct financial return like a big sale sign
in your storefront window then you are not looking for marketing, you're looking
for promotions. Marketing is all about building a brand relationship with your
audience. The more time and effort you invest in marketing, the more solid your
brand relationship will be, and the more appropriate the clients you'll attract
and keep.

Web-programming - Where To Begin

There are four minimal requirements needed to create an episodic Web-video
marketing campaign: need identification, point-of-view, attitude, and
transformation. These are the same elements defined by Syd Field, the
well-respected author, producer, screenwriter, and lecturer, in his book, "The
Screenwriter's Workbook;" and they are the same elements that all top-notch
salesmen use to build client-relationships - ask yourself - have you ever met a
top salesman who wasn't a great storyteller?

Need Identification

Like all episodic series yours will need a hero or protagonist; this is the
person your audience will identify with and who will act as their surrogate.

Your protagonist must be searching for something that relates to the emotional
or psychological need fulfilled by your product or service. Anyone who has ever
had to deal with an insurance company certainly understands the Geico caveman's
need for respect. His frustration is the perfect foil for the company's
marketing message, 'it's so easy a caveman can do it.' We are all cavemen at
heart, seeking respect from big business bureaucracies that make us jump through
hoops just to place an order.

Point-of-View

You must present your material from a particular point-of-view. Is your
presentation told from the protagonist's point-of-view or is it told from an
objective observer's, perhaps through voice-over. It can even be
counter-intuitive and be told from an antagonist's point-of-view.

If your scenario is more procedural based, you can even present it from
different points-of-view each delivering alternative perspectives, each
highlighting different aspects of the emotional fulfillment.

Attitude

Attitude is especially important for Web-based presentations, but it is also one
of the scariest aspects of marketing for the faint-of-heart. All too often
businesses shy away from bold statements, or extreme displays for fear of
alienating some segment of the audience, but it's attitude that grabs people's
attention, makes the presentation memorable, and qualifies leads and inquiries.


Transformation

One of the hardest things a commercial-based episodic series has to deal with is
story arc. What change takes place over the life of the series and is the
campaign concept strong enough to sustain itself? What transformation takes
place? Does your protagonist find fulfillment or does he fail to find the
emotional or psychological answer he's looking for. If you're not sure what
deep-seated need your product or service satisfies, find the conflict.

All stories are based on conflict, frustration, and desire, whether it's the
search for 'whiter whites' or better insurance. If your concept is without
conflict, you are not illustrating the need for your solution.

You can show successful transformation based on the adoption of your solution or
you can show failure whichever works best for what you're marketing and the
audience you are trying to attract.
Conclusion
The Web has from its infancy provided business with enormous marketing
opportunities. As the Web's capabilities increase over time, these opportunities
increase as well. As much as other media tries to adapt to the competitive
pressures created by the Web, old methods and attitudes die-hard; the writer's
strike being just one example of a group trying to maintain dominance in an
environment they cannot control. The opportunities are there to make your
marketing mark if you have the courage to act.

Using Email Marketing to Stay in Contact With Prospects

Once a contact has been made with a prospect or a customer, a salesperson
must remember not to simply stop there. People can forget about a business or
forget why that business was so important to them if they are not reminded of it
often. This does not mean that a business should inundate a customer or prospect
with information, as this can seem overbearing and annoying. However, making
sure that a business stays in the mind of a prospect or customer is something
that should be important to salespeople, business owners, and others that work
in the business of providing goods and services to individuals.

One of the best ways to stay in touch with prospects and customers is through
the use of email marketing. This obviously only works if the prospect or
customer has provided the salesperson with his or her email address, but most
people will provide that information to a business if they are actually
interested in the product or service. Once a business has a customers or
prospects email address, that business can use email marketing to stay in
contact with these individuals. By sending out reminders of upcoming sales,
holiday announcements, and perhaps even a company newsletter, customers and
prospects are reminded of the business without feeling as though they are being
nagged to make a purchase.

Nagging at customers rarely endears a business to them, but reminding them of
important things that they do not want to miss can make them appreciate a
business that much more. Sending a happy holiday greeting can liven the spirits
of a prospect or customer that may need a little boost, and telling customers
about sales that can save them money will also make them want to come back. If
they are already customers, they will continue to be customers, and if they are
only prospects, they may decide to become customers. This will not only give
them good deals, but it will affect the business bottom line and increase its
profits.

Using Email Marketing to Stay in Contact With Prospects

Once a contact has been made with a prospect or a customer, a salesperson
must remember not to simply stop there. People can forget about a business or
forget why that business was so important to them if they are not reminded of it
often. This does not mean that a business should inundate a customer or prospect
with information, as this can seem overbearing and annoying. However, making
sure that a business stays in the mind of a prospect or customer is something
that should be important to salespeople, business owners, and others that work
in the business of providing goods and services to individuals.

One of the best ways to stay in touch with prospects and customers is through
the use of email marketing. This obviously only works if the prospect or
customer has provided the salesperson with his or her email address, but most
people will provide that information to a business if they are actually
interested in the product or service. Once a business has a customers or
prospects email address, that business can use email marketing to stay in
contact with these individuals. By sending out reminders of upcoming sales,
holiday announcements, and perhaps even a company newsletter, customers and
prospects are reminded of the business without feeling as though they are being
nagged to make a purchase.

Nagging at customers rarely endears a business to them, but reminding them of
important things that they do not want to miss can make them appreciate a
business that much more. Sending a happy holiday greeting can liven the spirits
of a prospect or customer that may need a little boost, and telling customers
about sales that can save them money will also make them want to come back. If
they are already customers, they will continue to be customers, and if they are
only prospects, they may decide to become customers. This will not only give
them good deals, but it will affect the business bottom line and increase its
profits.

A Small Business Owners Guide to Using the Internet

For a small business owner, using the Internet can be daunting and scary.
Most of the reason for this is that a lot of small business owners have not
spent much time working with the Internet. They do not really often understand
how the Internet works from a business and selling standpoint, and they also are
uncertain what they should do when it comes to designing a Web site, using
email, and other facets of Internet use. There are many companies that can help
these individuals learn how to use the Internet the right way to market and
operate their small business, but for business owners that do not want to do
things that way, there are some tips to be followed.

The most important thing a small business owner should be aware of when using
the Internet is that there are many predators of all different types on the Web.
Because of this, customers are sometimes uncertain about using a Web site or
providing credit card or other sensitive information. This is an unfortunate
aspect of doing business on the Internet today, and businesses must adapt to it.
There are ways to make the shopping experience more secure for customers, and
businesses should take the necessary measures to do that. This can help stop
identity theft and make customers more secure in doing business with a
particular company.

In addition, there are other issues with the creation of a Web site. Choosing a
domain name, registering it, and actually creating the Web site can be difficult
and time consuming. Often, the small business owner uses a company that designs
Web pages to handle this for them. However, learning some basic HTML code to
create a Web page is not that difficult, and individuals can also find plug-ins
that will allow them to add many things to their Web site very easily. Small
business owners also want to be careful that they do not try to put too much on
each page of their Web site. This can confuse customers and make everything too
cluttered. With a clean, crisp Web site that is easy to navigate, customers will
be much more likely to return, and they will feel as though the company is a
professional one that they can be comfortable doing business with.

Using Postcard Marketing to Keep in Touch With Prospects & Customers

There are many ways to keep the interest of a customer or prospect, and to
ensure that person is reminded of a particular business. One of the more
old-fashioned but still very effective ways to do this is through the use of
postcard marketing. This can help a business keep in touch with both prospects
and customers, and make sure that people know what they can expect to receive
from a business in both goods and services. Letting individuals know this and
keeping it in the forefront of their minds goes a long way toward building good
customers relationships that are strong and that will last for a long period of
time.

Postcard marketing is relatively inexpensive. Bulk postcards can be bought, or
more expensive ones can be purchased for a more personal touch. Either way, they
cost very little and mailing them out is also much less than the cost of a
letter or package. Because of this, they are a very economic way of staying in
touch with prospects and customers. This helps the business because it brings in
more traffic and raises profits. In turn, it helps the customers and prospects
because they are reminded of sales and other special offers that the business
might have for them. In addition, keeping a business in a customers mind these
days is not easy when there are so many businesses to choose from.

In order to keep up with the competition, individuals in the business world know
that they must advertise. They do not want to ignore their customers, because
another business will come along and snatch those people away. However, they
know if they nag, customers will quickly tire of that, as well. There is a
delicate balance that companies and their salespeople must find, and in order to
do this they analyze customer trends and work to get to know what people that
shop with them really need. Postcard marketing can be a great way to keep in
touch with customers and at the same time make sure that these customers are not
being nagged.

What CRM Software Can Do For Your Business

For the salespeople who work at a business and the individuals who own that
business, CRM software can be very helpful. However, a lot of people do not
realize the importance of CRM software so they do not use it. Other people think
that CRM software is too hard for them to use, so they choose to use a different
method of keeping track of their clients. If it is too hard to use, people will
avoid it, and they will find other ways of keeping track of customers. Other
ideas for tracking customers may not be as effective as CRM software solutions,
however. Still other individuals may be concerned that CRM software is too
costly for them, so they decide it is not cost-effective for their business.
Despite some concerns, CRM software is generally the right choice for most
businesses, because it works extremely well at keeping track of clients and
their information.

The most important thing that CRM software can do for a business is to keep it
organized. One of the most vital parts of the life of a business is clients and
the information which is collected about them. Even a small business must make
sure that these clients are kept organized. These clients can get lost in the
paperwork and other issues that a business must handle, and this causes them to
be neglected and ignored. With CRM software, though, there is much less worry
about the clients and their information. CRM software is also very good for
keeping client information protected and safe. By doing this, the company is
better protected from future problems. Also, many clients feel more comfortable
in working with the company. Any sensitive information that is provided to the
company will not be lost or compromised.

For the salesperson, CRM software is also a good tool. It helps to keep them
prepared every day for what they must do. People who work in sales spend a lot
of their day just preparing for the next day. They are also concerned about
forgetting clients or forgetting appointments. By using CRM software, they
reduce the chances of these kinds of problems taking place. Everything that the
salesperson needs to know about the client and everything that has to be
remembered can be easily stored. Having a salesperson who will not learn the
system and use it is basically the only disadvantage to CRM software. This,
however, would be the fault of the salesperson, not the fault of the software.

CRM software is one of the best ways to build business in many companies. Not
all companies will use this software, but those that do find that their business
has been improved. Those who need reassurance that they matter to the company
can receive this, and salespeople can enjoy better interaction with the clients
that they have. When they get that, they want to come back. They feel that they
are valued, and they think that their opinions, ideas, and business are
important to the company, as well.

Web-Programming: An Alternative To Unproductive Advertising

As of this writing the television writers in Hollywood are on strike. The
significance of this strike will be felt far beyond the current television
season and impact what and where people will get their entertainment in the
future. People are now not only embracing the Web for their information needs
but are also increasingly turning to it for their entertainment needs as well.

The Web will soon be 'the place' that fills the programming vacuum that network
broadcasters have been unwilling and/or unable to fulfill. People were prepared
to tolerate constant reruns, dreadful programming, and incessant repetitive ads
as long as there was no alternative, but that is no loner the case. Viewers now
have an option to bad television and it's the Web, but why should you care and
more importantly how can you take advantage of the opportunity it creates?

Why Should You Care?

Information and entertainment have melded in recent years creating what has been
dubbed 'infotainment.' It can be argued that the evening news has become more
entertainment than hard news and let's not even get into venues like the History
Channel where fact and fiction seem to be presented in equal and
indistinguishable doses. So what does all this have to do with you and how you
deliver your marketing message?

The time is coming, if it is not here already, that companies will not be able
to get away with merely uploading online brochures and catalogues, or even
extensive screeds singing the praises of every feature and benefit associated
with their offering. People demand more, they insist your website be
interesting, informative, and entertaining; and it is this aspect of
entertainment that potentially makes your marketing presentation memorable.

What Is Web-Programming?

Web-programming takes the creative Web-video campaign concept and pushes it one
step further up the evolutionary marketing scale by integrating the message into
a programming environment.

This concept is not an entirely new idea, in fact one of the most noted
television commercial campaigns of 1991 was the Taster's Choice soap opera-like
series of spots that wove the marketing message into a courtship relationship
between two apartment neighbors. In an environment where information and
entertainment blur, it seems like an ideal solution to capturing an audience's
attention and interest, and creating a viral buzz that few products or services
can generate by presenting a bulleted list of features.

Build Brand Relationships

James E. Aisner, in his article 'More Than A Name: The Role of Brands in
People's Lives' (HBS Working Knowledge For Business Leaders) references the
research of Harvard Business School Professor, Susan M. Fournier, "Fournier has
created a typology of fifteen different types of relationships between consumers
and their brands." These brand relationships include the secret affair, the best
friend, kinship, the fling, courtship, the marriage-of-convenience, casual
friendship, childhood friendship, mother and child, and master-slave.

What kind of relationship does your brand have with your audience? Is it a
short-term fling that starts with a lot of heat and passion and then quickly
cools-off, or is it a long-term marriage that will last a lifetime? Finding, and
promoting the most appropriate and beneficial brand relationship is the
marketing goal of your Web-programming marketing initiative.

Part of the problem many smaller organizations have in developing successful
marketing campaigns is that they think in terms of products and services rather
than brands; features and benefits rather than relationships. Almost every
product or service on the market can be replaced with a competitive substitute,
but brands are much harder to replace; brands create a competitive barrier
through the development of relationships based on prototypical psychological and
emotional factors, the same kinds of factors that govern your personal
relationships.

Generate Trust, Confidence, Loyalty and Passion

In his article, "A Brand New You," (Psychology Today), W. Eric Martin tells us
that brands came into vogue in the post Civil War era as a response to an
increasing mobile population that began to lose touch with local merchants and
shopkeepers. Brands became a substitute for the personal relationships that
people had with their suppliers. This seemingly minor historic fact helps us
understand the significance of brands in today's Web-centric marketplace.

Today's consumer-client, whether retail or business-to-business is more remote,
more isolated from the supplier than ever before. The Web allows us to market
our products and services anywhere in the world, but in order to actually make a
sale, we must establish a relationship that generates a sufficient level of
trust, confidence, loyalty and passion. Sneer if you will at the passion and
loyalty most Macintosh users have for their computers, but what other computer
company can claim such brand allegiance?

Relationships Are Based On Psychological Needs

At the heart of any relationship is the emotional or psychological need that
that relationship fulfills. If you haven't found that connection in what you do
then you are at a definite competitive disadvantage; and you are competing on
the most fickle and transient of factors: price and features. In business, there
will always be someone who is prepared to sell a substitute product or service
for less, or with more bells and whistles. So why would you ever want to compete
on that basis?

It really doesn't matter what business you're in, there is always some emotional
or psychological component to what you do. The iPod is the market leader in its
category despite numerous competitors; it holds that position not because it's
the cheapest, which it definitely isn't, or the product with the most features,
which it probably is, but because it's an iPod - not a tool but a status symbol,
a badge of intelligence and taste, a brand relationship akin to being a member
of the coolest club in town.

Web-programming Development

In short, Web-programming is a marketing campaign based on a series of episodic
Web-videos tied together by plotline and character development; an ongoing
initiative that weaves into its storyline the marketing pitch. The integration
of the marketing pitch can be done subtly using product placement techniques or
overtly making the pitch part of the story arc.

This marketing technique is not for everyone; it is certainly not for the
unsophisticated or for the marketer who is afraid to experiment or to take a
chance.

If you are looking for an instant direct financial return like a big sale sign
in your storefront window then you are not looking for marketing, you're looking
for promotions. Marketing is all about building a brand relationship with your
audience. The more time and effort you invest in marketing, the more solid your
brand relationship will be, and the more appropriate the clients you'll attract
and keep.

Web-programming - Where To Begin

There are four minimal requirements needed to create an episodic Web-video
marketing campaign: need identification, point-of-view, attitude, and
transformation. These are the same elements defined by Syd Field, the
well-respected author, producer, screenwriter, and lecturer, in his book, "The
Screenwriter's Workbook;" and they are the same elements that all top-notch
salesmen use to build client-relationships - ask yourself - have you ever met a
top salesman who wasn't a great storyteller?

Need Identification

Like all episodic series yours will need a hero or protagonist; this is the
person your audience will identify with and who will act as their surrogate.

Your protagonist must be searching for something that relates to the emotional
or psychological need fulfilled by your product or service. Anyone who has ever
had to deal with an insurance company certainly understands the Geico caveman's
need for respect. His frustration is the perfect foil for the company's
marketing message, 'it's so easy a caveman can do it.' We are all cavemen at
heart, seeking respect from big business bureaucracies that make us jump through
hoops just to place an order.

Point-of-View

You must present your material from a particular point-of-view. Is your
presentation told from the protagonist's point-of-view or is it told from an
objective observer's, perhaps through voice-over. It can even be
counter-intuitive and be told from an antagonist's point-of-view.

If your scenario is more procedural based, you can even present it from
different points-of-view each delivering alternative perspectives, each
highlighting different aspects of the emotional fulfillment.

Attitude

Attitude is especially important for Web-based presentations, but it is also one
of the scariest aspects of marketing for the faint-of-heart. All too often
businesses shy away from bold statements, or extreme displays for fear of
alienating some segment of the audience, but it's attitude that grabs people's
attention, makes the presentation memorable, and qualifies leads and inquiries.


Transformation

One of the hardest things a commercial-based episodic series has to deal with is
story arc. What change takes place over the life of the series and is the
campaign concept strong enough to sustain itself? What transformation takes
place? Does your protagonist find fulfillment or does he fail to find the
emotional or psychological answer he's looking for. If you're not sure what
deep-seated need your product or service satisfies, find the conflict.

All stories are based on conflict, frustration, and desire, whether it's the
search for 'whiter whites' or better insurance. If your concept is without
conflict, you are not illustrating the need for your solution.

You can show successful transformation based on the adoption of your solution or
you can show failure whichever works best for what you're marketing and the
audience you are trying to attract.

Conclusion

The Web has from its infancy provided business with enormous marketing
opportunities. As the Web's capabilities increase over time, these opportunities
increase as well. As much as other media tries to adapt to the competitive
pressures created by the Web, old methods and attitudes die-hard; the writer's
strike being just one example of a group trying to maintain dominance in an
environment they cannot control. The opportunities are there to make your
marketing mark if you have the courage to act.