Keith Quesenberry

US Census: Bad Ads But Great Information

~ K. Quesenberry ~ Leave a comment

The US Census campaign was bad marketing, but their website is a goldmine of marketing information. If you’ve never done research there, give it a try. After a little searching I found the 2008 Statistical Abstract from the National Data Book for “Construction & Housing: Housing and Neighborhood Quality.” This report contains two very useful charts “966 – Home Remodeling–Work Done and Amount Spent: 2006” and “Expenditures by Residential Property Owners for Improvements and Maintenance and Repairs by Type of Payment and Year Structure Built: 1995 to 2006.” The data in these charts could be very useful for a store like Home Depot trying to estimate potential sales and marketing expenditures.

In table 967. “Expenditures by Residential Property Owners for Improvements and Maintenance and Repairs by Type of Payment and Year Structure Built: 2006” there is more valuable data for the Home Depot marketing department. This data breaks down the amount of money spent on improvements, maintenance and repairs by the year the homes were built. So let’s say Home Depot wanted to do a direct mail campaign. With this information they could segment the campaign for the most effectiveness. According to the chart homes built from 1980 to 2003 represent $70,336,000,000, homes built form 1960 to 1979 $30,790,000,000 and $34,950.000,000 for houses built before 1960. Home Depot could save production and postage expenses by sending the mailing only to the households most likely to perform improvements, maintenance or repairs.

Another useful table in this report is Table 966. “Home Remodeling–Work Done and Amount Spent: 2006.” This chart helps us narrow down the types of remodeling jobs people are performing. For our Home Depot direct mail campaign this could help them decide on the most relevant promotional message. By comparing the remodeling project categories by number of households amount of money spent we can isolate the projects with the most profit potential. The top remodeling projects by type are: 1 – remodel bathroom, 2  – carpeting, 3 – remodel bathroom, and 4 – roofing. The highest spending per remodeling project is 1 – roofing, 2 – remodel kitchen, 3 – remodel bathroom, and 4 – add deck/porch/patio. By combining these numbers we end up with remodeling a kitchen or bathroom as an attractive promotional message for the campaign. This information could further be combined with additional secondary data about the seasonality of remodeling projects to further pinpoint Home Depot’s marketing campaign.

We all pay for this data to be collected we might at well start using it. What can you find for your business or research project?

Cause Marketing Or Crisis Response?

~ K. Quesenberry ~ Leave a comment

Right now there is a company that is working with the government to help natural wildlife areas and minimize the environmental impact of pollution. They have engaged more than 2,500 people in this effort by working with emergency preparedness and environmental protection staff from five states and utilizing their employees labor and technical expertise.

They have organized major protection efforts with a significant community outreach plan with leaders from fishing associations, local businesses, parks, wildlife and environmental organizations, educational institutions, medical/emergency establishments and news media. This company is coordinating, training and deploying thousands of volunteers who are offering their help. This sounds like an enormous cause marketing effort except that it is in fact describing BP’s response to the environmental crisis they created.

Cause marketing is defined as aligning the power of a company’s brand, marketing and people with a cause’s brand and assets to create shareholder and social value by publicly communicating values. BP’s cleanup efforts certainly meet these requirements as they seek to minimize the environmental impact of the oil spill. Except in this case they are trying to minimize shareholder loss. If this was a more “natural disaster” their efforts may be applauded by the community and lauded by the business community.

What is the line between crisis and cause? Could responding well to a crisis (even one you’ve caused) ever be viewed as positive and actually help a brand’s image? Is doing the right thing always a planned marketing effort?