When Will Fries King See the Errors of Its Ways?

October 6, 2013 by Pamela 2 Comments

It’s not April 1st, and it’s not even funny, yet Burger King continues to confuse and irritate people with its “Fries King” gimmick. You’d think the company would get the message: “Enough is enough.”

Earlier this month Burger King rolled out its marketing plan to promote Satisfries, which are supposed to be healthier and yummier. The only problem is, half the internet knows it’s a joke, half doesn’t, and the majority of people who aren’t into social media also think it’s totally real. Many websites are chiming in, some calling the “gullible” outright stupid. But, really, who can blame the believers?

The “Fries King” home page looks real enough to plenty of viewers, especially those not active on social media.

Even my husband, who is quite intelligent and often pokes at me for believing the mundane, thought Fries King was real. So did his mother. My husband, who is blind, merely heard the dozen-plus commercials that aired during Football games, and his mother doesn’t even use a computer. The commercial is short, to-the-point, and ends with the line, “New Satisfries from Fries King, formerly known as Burger King”. There’s no chuckle, and nothing visual to hint that it’s fake.

The “rebrand” campaign came from the ad agency Mother New York. And while fellow ad execs also find the campaign silly and misguided, it did help Burger King trend across Twitter and related sites. Unfortunately, many consumers are so irritated the restaurant chain just might have lost some customers.

The fact is, Burger King, like many other chains, is having trouble targeting consumers and connecting with them. As a result, too much attention is placed on the negative—like failed product launches and price increases. This latest tactic seems like a desperate attempt to get people talking about a product without thinking about how people actually react to having felt dumb for believing it was real. I should also note that trending topics don’t necessarily result in a flurry of new customers. I certainly haven’t seen any increase in the number of vehicles parked at my local BKs.

With that, I’ll point out one other mistake by Burger King’s marketing department. The latest post on the company’s Facebook page says that Fries King and Burger King should co-exist, then includes a photo of the two signs and a burger and fries. Those fries, though? They aren’t Satisfries…

This entire campaign was designed to promote Satisfries, but the picture shows Burger King’s regular, less-healthy french fries.

Go figure.

What do you think? Is Burger King’s latest ploy spot-on? Or just a waste of time?

[UPDATE: My husband heard the above commercial only once during Sunday's night game, and it did not include the "formerly" line at the end.]

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: branding, marketing, marketing fails, social media

Information Wants for Nothing: Free Content is a Killer

May 19, 2011 by Pamela Leave a Comment

Imagine this…

You started your dream job twenty years ago. Over the years you’ve been responsible for key changes and advancements in the company. Management sees you as truly dedicated and you’ve worked your way up to a six figure salary.

You’ve tucked away some money for your kids’ college, but also didn’t pass on the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of your labor. So, this past year, you had that in-ground pool installed, upgraded to a nice, but not too pricey, sports car and picked up annual passes to Disney to put smiles on your childrens’ faces.

You’re living comfortably, even though the bulk of the money you’ve saved is earmarked toward college tuition.

This morning, you wake up, hop in your new car, hitting the local cafe before heading into work. You pull into the company lot, and head for the front door.

But… it’s locked.

There are no lights on, and few cars parked. You and a handful of your coworkers stand outside, wondering what’s going on. Then, your boss pulls up, and gives you the bad news. The company is now closed. Not due to the economy or failing product line, but rather, because he was so intrigued by what the Internet had to offer he decided to take all that hard work you and everyone else has done and offer up the product plans online… for free. After all, information wants to be free, no?

Sound absurd? Perhaps, but those downloading illegal music, movies, books and software are creating a very similar impact. You know who else is? The rest of us.

When did we become a society that thinks others should be offering up their hard work for free outside of charitable contributions? When did it become okay for someone to give up their dream job to put food on the table when that dream job, within all legal limits, would pay the bills?

More importantly, when did we become so expectant and accepting of others’ notion of getting things for free that we made “freemium” a primary focus of our own business models?

It doesn’t matter how (or exactly when) this all started. What matters is what we do with the information we’ve amassed, often at great costs.

How much money does someone who provides a wealth of free content really make selling premium goods? The answer: Not nearly as much as he could.

We’ve taken the traditional “sample taste” and “try before you buy” and turned it into “sample how easy it is to tie all the pieces together and learn my entire business model.” Think that’s an overstatement? For some, maybe, but for most, there’s so much time spent giving “tidbits” away that it’s difficult to keep track of what you actually gave. And if you are holding back (likely not nearly enough), someone else is there to fill the void.

The worst thing about “free” is it totally devalues everything we’ve done thus far. I don’t know about you, but my education was not free. The time I’ve spent researching, analyzing and strategizing came at great cost.

John Jantsch made some pretty bold statements about “information wants to be free” at the AmEx Open Forums. (Read: 5 Reasons Free is Hurting Us All)

When content is consistently given away it loses its value–not only for the producer, but also in the eyes of the content consumer.

- John Jantsch

John’s right. It’s time we step back and rethink things. If that means experiencing a slow season while we re-educate users, we can only benefit in the long run.

I’ve read many articles on this topic, along with comments by those who say we must provide valuable goods, services or knowledge for free in order to attract a bigger clientele or new customers. I’ve heard the arguments that say we need to give and give and give in order to build our lists. And I call foul.

To those who really think all this free content is necessary to bring real people through the door, I can only ask, “Whatever happened to the testimonial?”

With all the advances in technology, one element of business hasn’t changed: the power of “word of mouth” advertising. Therein lies the possibilities of real success. After all, if people aren’t talking about you, even the free content you’re offering is worth just that: zilch.

Filed Under: Ecommerce, Marketing, Mistakes That Kill, Social Media Tagged With: conversion, freemium, marketing, Mistakes That Kill, social media

10 Reasons I’m Not Retweeting You

May 7, 2011 by Pamela 4 Comments

The key to succeeding on Twitter is influencing people. Your influence can be gaged in many ways. Inspiring retweets is one.

Sounds easy, right?

Actually, garnering retweets can be a daunting task, and those who accomplish this goal have one thing in common: they tweet with retweeting in mind.

Here’s 10 reasons you’re not being retweeted:

You don’t follow the 140 character rule. Traditional retweeting (RT @username) has to follow the 140 – (username + 6) rule. Savvy users don’t use Twitter’s auto-retweet function, especially if they want to include their own comments.
You don’t read what you’re sharing. Remember, you are the last line of defense for what you post. If you don’t click others’ links to ensure you’re not retweeting a scam or virus, why should people trust you enough to retweet you?
The site you link to includes an auto-popup or overlay, begging me to take action. This appears before I’ve even read a single line of the page; in fact, it usually covers the page so I’ve no choice but to take some action. My action, of course, is to close the window and move on—without sharing your tweet with my followers.
You cuss. I’m no prude, but I find no reason to cuss in a professional, social media environment. Even when quoting someone you should substitute characters (like ***).
You are too political. Tweeting for sales, business, and influence should be void of an overly-political voice, unless your target audience warrants such discussion. In fact, I never retweet political statements on principle—I know that a portion of my followers would be offended no matter what the statement.
The page to which you link is loaded with grammatical errors. I’m a professional, and my followers trust that I’m sharing information for a good reason. Broken English, spelling errors (sure, they happen, but there’s a limit to what’s acceptable on a per-post basis), and lack of punctuation doesn’t represent “me”. If you’re retweeting sub-par content, it reflects poorly on you.
You abuse the term “Please RT!”. Unless the issue is urgent, you shouldn’t be begging. Accept the fact that people can decide on their own if your comment warrants a retweet.
The content of your tweet doesn’t interest me. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. One cannot expect everyone they follow to only tweet topics of interest. Understand this and it will be easier to accept not being retweeted.
The page to which you link requires registration. Even if it’s free, we simply don’t have the time to register at every site we visit. Find another source, or write your own post (avoiding plagiarism, of course).
You don’t use the appropriate hashtag. Even though I’m following you, I might not be interested in everything you have to say, or, I might not be on Twitter when you tweet something interesting. The chances of me seeing your tweet increase if you’ve used a hashtag on which I search.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking Twitter is just a “free-for-all” and “if you tweet it, they will come”. There’s a reason key tweeters are recognized and respected, and they didn’t build their reputations overnight. They did this, in part, by tweeting with retweeting in mind.

Have any “I won’t retweet…” stories of your own? Post a comment!

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: communication, marketing, social media, twitter

Follow Friday 5: Take a Break…

April 22, 2011 by Pamela Leave a Comment

Each week I pick 5 key folk to follow on the web (and Twitter) based on a selected topic.

You can learn a great deal about engaging your users from these food and drink related companies:

Dunkin’ Donuts (@dunkindonuts) From social media contests to interacting with customers via Q&A, Dunkin’ Donuts shows you really can boost sales via social networking. Like them on Facebook, too!
Starbucks (@starbucks) Okay, so I’ve never gotten a reply from the many tweets I’ve sent their way, but I do see them interacting with their customers throughout each day. Another example of engagement = sales.
Whole Foods Market (@wholefoods) This company has really set the bar high for competitors. Where they really succeed, though, is allowing local stores manage their own accounts. Talk about interaction! Find your local store’s Twitter account.
The Veggie Grill (@veggiegrill) This account is a great example of how local restaurants can engage their customers. Tweets are managed by co-founder Kevin Boylan, who likes to wake you up with interesting news, provide customer service and make you laugh. He calls Wednesdays Veggie Grill Virgin Night – challenging customers to bring new folks through the door. (I found this great post that explains what I’m talking about.)
Taco Bell (@tacobell) You don’t have to like the food to appreciate this company’s Twitter account. Taco Bell knows its target audience. Even in the wake of a lawsuit (dropped, by the way) they launched aggressive ad campaigns, ultimately demanding apologies (view the PDF). This rallied up more supporters, and they’re happy to have them. I especially love that when someone asked what a menu item looked like, Taco Bell promptly uploaded a Twitpic. Very cool.

Of course, there are plenty of folk worthy of mention. My picks are based on current trends and my experience. Know a foodie-type account we all need to follow around? Share your thoughts in the comments box!

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: #FF5, facebook, social media, twitter

Social Media is Just a Fad…

April 18, 2011 by Pamela 2 Comments

That’s an argument I hear often, especially from small business owners. There are few, though, who actually believe this. The bulk of them use it as an excuse for not taking the time to find ways to engage people.

There are two factors that can equate to success in the social world: luck and risk.

Luck

Don’t believe in luck? You should. It’s what makes online campaigns go viral. You could argue that it’s really the marketers and producers of content, but, you’d be wrong. Sure, they play a role in the process, but it’s luck of the draw that shoots a video – say, Rebecca Black’s Friday – through the roof.

Consider your own social media accounts. Unless you follow or friend a handful of people, chances are you’re missing more than half of the goods. Even lists and bookmarks can get overloaded with content, and, let’s be honest, you’ll never have enough time to read every article and watch every video your favorite folks share.

It’s more about luck because search results will never return “everything”, so you take the chance that when you look at your stream something important is being shared. You take the chance that you don’t miss a post that’s going to trigger an A-Ha moment.

Risk

Risks are taken by companies and professionals. They put money and time behind a campaign, taking the chance that a certain percentage of followers are going to see posts as they happen. They pray that people will share the content (via RTs and Facebook posts). This includes the media and blogs, which – usually through RSS feeds and search engines – can shine a brighter spotlight on the message.

The ultimate goal is total saturation… Let’s call it the “Charlie Sheen Effect” because his rants and #winning attempts are a perfect example of what companies want to do. Well, most companies aren’t looking for controversy, but they are seeking to become trending topics. Who wouldn’t want to gain a million followers in just over a day? Who wouldn’t want people of all walks of life sharing a specific message? Who wouldn’t want to experience this type of domino effect?

Guy Kawasaki calls “nobodies” the new “somebodies”, because it only takes a few traditional folk to get the ball rolling. The time (and money) spent by companies trying to influence those key nobodies stems from belief in a product or service. Still, the investments are a risk because there are far fewer “viral” success stories than actual attempts.

It’s Not a Fad

Social media, however, is not a fad. We’ve been using it for centuries. Word-of-mouth is a form of social media, as are forums and blog posts. People will always want to learn new things and share information, and companies will always want to influence people to buy their products. We may not always use the same tools (technology allows for new methods), but we’ll always be a social world.

If you’ve been putting off using today’s social tools to engage existing and potential customers, what’s the real reason? Is it the risk factor? Or are you so scared you won’t get lucky you’re not even willing to try?

Filed Under: Ecommerce, Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: facebook, marketing, Mistakes That Kill, social media, twitter

When content is consistently given away it loses its value–not only for the producer, but also in the eyes of the content consumer.

- John Jantsch

Luck

Risk

It’s Not a Fad

Recent Comments

Tags