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Latest Government Marketing Best Practices Audio Available Articles from Marketing Experts
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The Amtower B2G Market Report Volume 3, #03, January 19, 2004 (Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.FederalDirect.net and if you like this, please pass this along to your colleagues. To unsubscribe, email me at amtower@erols.com). Past issues available at http://www.federaldirect.net/newsletterarchives.html) Amtower Off-Center Observations: The Myth of Sisyphus For those not of a classical bent, Sisyphus was a mortal the Greek gods punished for a variety of reasons. Each day, Sisyphus pushed a boulder up a long hill, and each night the boulder slipped back down. Each morning, no progress could be detected. If this sounds like your job, you are probably in marketing. Each year (or quarter) you are fighting for marketing dollars, demonstrating the results from the previous quarter or year. You still find yourself in a position where someone upstairs (usually and MBA, lawyer, bean-counter or worse, all of the above) is saying: "I think you should spend our marketing money this way, because my CEO/bean-counter peers are all doing it (something totally frivolous), and not only is it shiny, but they will put my name in it!" It could be a coffee-table "study" produced by some nebulous publisher with less than peripheral connections to the government, much less any connection with reality. It could be a trade event, put on by a national research firm that visits Washington only when they think there is serious money to be liberated (liberated from you, not necessarily the government). Amtower, you are getting weird. First, the Latin references from last fall, now the Greek mythology allusions kicking off 2004? If you do not know, my degrees are in literature. If I had degrees in business before I went into business, I truly believe I would have fewer insights and zero epiphanies. When I started in business 30 years ago I had no preconceptions on what worked in marketing. Everything I know is predicated on empirical knowledge - trial and error, living in the trenches, going through Federal mailrooms, reading the Market Connection studies, and reading the trade press. It is also the result of reading tens of thousands of pages of marketing and business publications and books each year and fusing it to what I see and do. I amuse myself by seeing Classical and popular allusions in action daily. Sometimes they come out here. Please indulge my analogies, as they are meant to be amusing. 2004 will be no different for the Amtower B2G Market Report. When I see things that waste money, I will tell you about them. If I see things that work, I will tell you about them. If you have questions about offers or anything concerning the government market, give me a call and I will offer my honest opinion. Pass the Report along to your management. Who knows, maybe some of it will get through. Not that I have an opinion. Jan 12 Government Computer News, page 2: Computer Associates has a "Goodbye Hackers - Hello Customers" security advertisement obviously written for the commercial trade press, as it refers to "help your business grow" with no mention of government. Otherwise a good advertisement, but not for the government trade press. CA has the contractual bandwidth to at least mention a few of the vehicles where they are available, but that might be asking too much of an ad agency outside the beltway. Page 4, same issue: A full page ad for GSA Advantage - "Reduced stress. Online Acquisition success." The last time I spoke with Federal buyers (GovSec, November), Advantage was still not easy to use, as is witnessed by their FY 2003 IT sales (posted at www.CapitalReps.com) of $24.1 million. The $24.1 is only IT, but should be representative of the total, as IT sales topped $14 billion in FY 2003, and that $24.1 represents less than one-tenth of one percent. Online acquisition success is predicated on a site that is used by buyers. GSA should concentrate on messages that reflect reality. Just saying it is so, which they have done with Advantage for a long time, does not make it so. Pages 22-23, same issue: Dell takes a full page on 22 and the bottom half of page 23, leaving a half-page of editorial. Sort of an intriguing way to dominate, which Dell does in so many ways. I have seen them use the half-page format (not often) in other publications, but not often in conjunction with a facing full-page ad. Pages 37, 39: IBM continues to run the "Can you see it?" series, someone standing in public, kind of a smug smile on their face(s), waiting for someone to mug them. Can YOU see it? My favorite? Inside front cover of the January 12, 2004 Washington Technology, a security advertisement for Westcon. The first line of the ad is "The GSA Schedule is the only game in town for government sales - and only Westcon has it for Check Point." There are several things about this I find amusing. First, thinking GSA is "the only game" anywhere is, at best, myopic. Second, Westcon owns Comstor, which has a fairly strong name in government circles, but it is mentioned nowhere in the ad. Comstor did $120 million on Schedule, so the confusion of Westcon exhibits by telling integrators (the main audience of Washington Technology) how they feel about the Schedule. This voluntary ignorance, or worse, arrogance, shows those they are seeking to influence how little they (Westcon) really know. Save $1,495 on the Federal marketing Audit! Until January 30, 2004, we are running a special on Federal Marketing Audits. This does not mean the Audit has to occur in January, but you have to reserve a date by 1/30/04 to get the discount. This is the BEST WAY to benchmark your 2004 Federal marketing program to ensure maximum ROI. Details at http://www.federaldirect.net/audit.html There are also openings in our 2004 Government Marketing Group. This is a group of companies I work closely with during the year to ensure ongoing growth in this market. Details at http://www.federaldirect.net/govmarketgroup.html. There is tiered pricing here, so it is affordable for just about any company. My calendar for 2004 will fill up soon, so if you want book some of my time, DO IT NOW! If you are interested in an inexpensive hardcopy (book form, and it will be inexpensive, $10-15) of the "Best of the B2G Market Report", drop me an email. There have been some inquiries and I need to validate. Check out our new site, www.GovFacility.com ONE-MINUTE MARKETING CLINIC: WHAT ADS NEED Government workers feel their needs are different from their business counterparts. Regardless of the validity of this notion, it should be addressed as fact. Do not try to change their minds. If this is the case, what do your advertisements (space, web, email, direct mail, or other) really need? First, use government-speak (jargon of the market) when necessary. Reference your contracts (especially the GWACs), and the specific government communities you serve. Second, if you are dealing with products, give prices. Third - contact information: email, web site, 800 number. Product, price, source and contact information. Do not bury these for the sake of a flashy advertisement from an agency that wins creative advertising awards at the expense of product sales. As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome. Thanks The Amtower B2G Market Report is published and copyrighted by Amtower & Company. It combines our former newsletters into a single, bi-weekly newsletter for companies targeting the government marketplace. Contact us at Amtower & Company, PO Box 339, Ashton, MD 20861-0339 (301-924-0058). This material is copyrighted and may not be duplicated, reprinted or otherwise replicated without written permission of the publisher. EMAIL subscriptions are free by request: sign up at www.FederalDirect.net. |
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