Unique Domino’s Field Marketing Solution
Pizza delivery business Domino’s has teamed up with US firefighters in an inventive and original field marketing exercise. People who ordered Domino’s pizza were surprised to find their meals delivered by volunteer firefighting personnel and arriving on a fire engine.
After arriving on the premises, the firefighting delivery team proceeded to check pizza recipients’ homes for working smoke detectors. Those whose homes sported fully-functional alarms were given their pizzas for free, whilst those who did not were offered advice and vouchers for free pizzas in the future – provided they passed another fire inspection.
By teaming up with firefighting forces, Domino’s created a unique and memorable experience for its customers which is sure to reinforce their purchasing habits and inspire brand loyalty. At the same time, the pizza delivery business managed to promote an important safety issue, raising awareness of the dangers created by ignoring fire safety regulations and generating positive press exposure for the company.
This is an excellent example of how experiential marketing campaigns can combine innovative strategies with memorable events to create the greatest possible impact on customers of a brand. Field marketing and brand experience initiatives are well placed to provide the kind of marketing experience that can increase customer satisfaction, instill brand loyalty, encourage brand advocacy and have a lasting impact on the purchasing habits of the consumers concerned.
Although the Domino’s firefighting experience was only available to customers who had already purchased a product from Domino’s, a similar approach can be used to promote products to potential customers. Leading field marketing agencies regularly harness the power of experiential marketing to improve public perceptions of a brand.
Every experiential marketing initiative is (or should be) unique – for this reason it is impossible to come up with a list of rules for creating such a campaign. In the Domino’s example, Stephanie Siegwald, Field Marketing Coordinator for Domino’s in the New Orleans area where the event took place, and her team identified a social issue that could be harnessed for both social and commercial benefit. This is not always possible, but the key issue here is that the Domino’s field marketing team identified a unique and creative way to make ordering pizza a memorable experience for its consumers.
Field sales solutions are often at their best when coupled with an experiential element, even if this is as simple as an impressive in-store product demonstration – although more creative solutions tend to have a greater impact on consumers.
Christmas Tree Tax Could Lead to Field Marketing Jobs
Barack Obama’s administration took some commentators by surprise when it announced that it will impose an additional tax on sales of Christmas trees. Funds raised by the new tax will be spent on the creation and funding of a new Christmas Tree Promotion Board, with the remit to conduct a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expand existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n))
Although specific details regarding the implementation of the new tax have yet to emerge, it has been announced that the tax will consist of a 15 cent charge on all sales of fresh Christmas trees by sellers of more than 500 trees each year. The American right wing press has already launched a vitriolic backlash against the measure, which it perceives as tantamount to a tax on Christmas traditions themselves since many retailers are likely to pass costs on to their consumers. Other critics have questioned the wisdom of taxing Christmas trees in order to promote the ailing industry.
It is possible that some of the functions performed by the new board will be similar to those already carried out by existing projects such as New Hampshire’s REAL TREES 4 Kids! initiative. The REAL TREES 4 Kids! initiative takes an indirect approach to Christmas tree marketing by teaching New Hampshire children about the process of Christmas tree production. Whether such promotional campaigns would be carried out by dedicated field marketing agencies or handled in-house by the Christmas Tree Promotion Board remains to be seen.
Field sales solutions are often at their most effective when they are linked to seasonal products, so perhaps the U.S. Government will consider investing some of the tax revenues in promoting real Christmas trees in stores with a high volume of footfall during the holiday season. This might help to position ‘genuine’ trees to claim an expanded market share at the expense of ‘fake’ plastic alternatives. The Christmas Tree Promotion Board will create a yet-to-be-confirmed number of jobs for marketing professionals and supporting staff, and these may well include a number of field marketing jobs – although these are amongst the most likely to be outsourced to existing businesses.
The American Christmas tree industry has suffered greatly in the last few years, largely as a result of the commonly held view that buying a plastic tress will create fewer headaches for householders and businesses that do not want to spend time removing pine needles from carpets. Perhaps the greatest challenge for the Christmas Tree Promotion Board will be to convince consumers that their concerns about mess, hassle and cost are unfounded.
Small Businesses Save On Landline Charges
Small and medium-sized businesses can benefit from a new set of packages from Vodafone to help curb the cost of phone usage. Among the available services are flexible data, voice and text schemes as well as access to Microsoft Office’s 365 and BT’s OpenZone UK.
Office 365 can provide a small business with email via a browser-based version of Outlook. This is an online sharing site for documents, and also includes instant messaging, online meetings and video calls. Using the provided services can provide small and medium sized businesses with cost-effective ways of communication.
“Small businesses are the lifeblood of the country and for these customers our sole focus is to help them thrive and grow,” says Tim Stone, small business sales director for Vodafone UK. “Everyday, our small business customers tell us they must be armed with the right tools so they can run their business from wherever they are.”
By using Vodafone’s new One Net Express service, small business owners can obtain a virtual landline number which will forward calls to a their company’s mobile devices. There are no call diversion charges and the deal includes 3,000 call minutes and voicemail. This can be set up for £10 a month as an extra on an existing deal.
At the moment, with businesses and individuals suffering rising costs for their company and home phone lines, Vodafone’s new packages aim to help conserve outlay from phone usage.
“[Businesses] need to be able to adapt quickly and find new ways of working in order to remain competitive in the current economic climate. That’s why we’ve combined our existing tariffs with our innovative One Net Express service into one, simple, value-for-money plan,” added Tim Stone.
Orange are also offering their business customers the chance to save money with a half-price 30-day Sim-only deal for mobile phones. Offering 200 minutes, free phone line calls to UK homes, unlimited Orange-to-Orange calls, email and unlimited Wi-fi, the deal aims to contribute to the SME market by helping businesses save money on calls. The deal will run until the end of the year.
For small businesses, instant responses are vital to survival. One missed phone call can have a huge impact on business. The new packages offered by Vodafone and Orange aim to combat this, with landline diversions offered with no extra charges. Business owners can also share minutes and texts between up to 110 employees with Vodafone’s One Net Express service.
Kingpin-SEO adjusts to Facebook’s UK growth
While the majority of web marketing efforts from top UK search engine optimisation firm Kingpin-SEO continue to focus on web site optimisation for Google, the company has recently devoted more time and staff energy to promotional opportunities for clients via social networks. Meaning in particular Facebook. The United Kingdom leads the world in percentile of Facebook popularity with the average household spending two and one half hours daily visiting the social network. Capitalising on Facebook popularity to the betterment of client sites has been accomplished in several ways.
Kingpin-SEO sets up Facebook pages in coordination with the client’s main site. This in itself is currently a very basic web marketing staple. Where Kingpin differs in this regard is that all client Facebook pages are carefully linked to the client site via expertly created relevant content. As more pages are added to both the client site and the somewhat matching Facebook site, both are raised in value by search engines. The nature of social networks such as Facebook is to place emphasis on personal interaction between members. This is accomplished by member choice preferences. On Facebook they are referred to as “likes.”
As a general rule, any time a client website or brand-able product is mentioned on any indexed page on the web it is a positive thing. And when that mention contains a link back to the site, it then gains major importance. Quality content as created for clients by Kingpin-SEO creates interest. On Facebook that interest is weighed and scored. Google now includes their own evaluation of that exposure as part of their own ranking algorithm. Both Google and Bing have not released any specifics as to how they value social network popularity in regards to mainstream websites. But even if a shared interest in a subject or product is merely mentioned on scattered pages of the social network it will likely return a “link-like” result. For this reason Kingpin link building efforts now include a healthy percentage of social media promotion.
Kingpin-SEO technical advisers have worked long and hard to develop a proprietary system of web marketing that merges the strengths of both social networking and conventional search engine optimisation. Results thus far have been extremely promising. Kingpin-SEO executives feel the firm is one of the most prepared SEO agencies in the United Kingdom when it comes to making planning adjustments that factor in the fast pace of SEO progression.
George Cohen Abandons Hope of Managing Basketball Conflict
Negotiations between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association have broken down once again, with mediator George Cohen relinquishing his short-lived role in the entrenched conflict.
Ongoing problems have come about as the result of a disagreement over the proportions in which revenues are shared between basketball players and the NBA. Neither side has been willing to compromise on their demands of a 53% share, and the resulting dispute has put the rest of the basketball season at risk of cancelation if (as seems increasingly likely) a solution agreeable to both parties cannot be found.
Despite Cohen’s apparent failure to break the stalemate between both parties in this dispute, involving independent mediators was a sensible decision for the opposing groups. In cases where both parties to a dispute harbour strong views, it is sensible to involve an expert with the appropriate mediation training to help resolve the conflict.
In cases where a compromise solution must be reached, an independent mediator can often view the problem with the necessary distance to reach a compromise that is fair. For people directly involved in the conflict, it can be difficult to determine the extent to which their demands are legitimate. This can lead to an endless cycle of rejected proposals in which it is impossible for any meaningful headway to be made. By involving an impartial mediator with experience of managing conflict, many of these catch-22s can be avoided.
Although mediation processes are often used to resolve financial disputes in the sporting world – George Cohen himself has previously been involved in resolving conflicts between Major League Soccer and its players, as well as the famous strike-inducing baseball disputes of 1995 – mediation can also help to resolve disputes in other fields. Couples considering legal help during a divorce might instead seek an independent mediator, or a worker who feels unfairly singled out for punishment by his or her employer might opt for mediation rather than a tribunal.
Unfortunately for basketball fans, successful mediation requires both parties to be ready and willing to reach a compromise. In this dispute between the NBA and the NBPA, that has simply not been the case.
Forum of Private Business Calls For Measures to Curb Energy Prices
Energy prices continue to be the main outlay for small businesses, and with recent hikes in prices, most are struggling to cope with the changes. Recent research from the Forum of Private Business has shown that the ever-rising prices are hitting small businesses hard.
Measures are being taken by small businesses across the UK to cut costs, by reducing energy usage and using electronic calculators to compare energy prices online.
The Forum works to provide support, protection and reassurance to its members, by delivering practical services to make it easier to grow a cost-effective business. Small business owners can receive help from the Forum, by using its utilities, telecommunications and other services.
As a result of the recent research, they have recognised that small businesses are bearing the brunt of rising energy prices, and are now calling for measures to lessen the impact. Among the hardest hit are manufacturers, transport firms and labour-intensive services such as catering.
“It’s no surprise that so many of our members are feeling the pinch when it comes to energy in particular. The situation doesn’t look set to change in the foreseeable future,” said Phil Orford, Chief Executive.
Several cost control measures have been called for, including a code of conduct to help protect small firms from being pushed onto more expensive deals by their energy providers at the end of their current contracts. This can happen with little or no warning, and the code would ensure that fairer practices are implemented.
Further measures include reductions in VAT and other taxes, simplified tax systems and a fuel duty escalator.
Working with Ofgem and the ERA (Energy Retailers Association), the Forum is also working to protect small businesses from the impact of back billing. Under the new guidelines, where a micro-business has taken all reasonable steps to avoid being back billed, energy companies must limit retrospective charges for both electricity and gas bills.
“67% of our members are reporting increases in their staffing costs, with mounting regulations a likely reason,” said Mr Orford. “Our latest Referendum figures show clearly that small businesses are being squeezed from all sides, so the Government must do more to help them cut costs wherever it can.”
The rising business electricity tariffs are coupled with the effects caused by reduced profitability, which affected almost half of respondents of the Referendum survey.
“The Government needs to strike the right balance between raising taxes to repay the national debt and leaving more money in the hands of small businesses to promote wider economic growth. It has not found that balance yet,” Mr Orford commented.