wine: what to buy

There are thousands and thousands of wines on the market.

No wonder it’s so hard to know what to buy.

 

Shouldn't wine be easier to understand? Not really, thanks to a wealth of options.

Catch up with this story from Vox: How to learn more about wine.

 

the mood machine

The tech industry is in the business of quantifying our emotions.

Mining emotional states to give A.I. projects something to go on is big business. Measuring human emotion has given rise to new facial recognition programs. The list goes on to include "emotion AI" to measure human emotion.  

Put this technology in a platform like Spotify to manipulate human emotion and we see a powerful tool for mining data given to advertisers. Apparently Spotify touts itself as a mood-boosting platform. 

Spotify also touts that it is a platform for brands. This means that it is good for business, or we are at least being told that. Spotify tells us that it is a place to feel good. 

So if you need a lift in the morning, you know where to go. Personalization is key. Personalization is how Spotify sells users its product. This is how Spotify gets listening data to sell to corporations. Your listening data. 

As we move forward with newer and newer technologies to track people's habits and predict what they'll do next, we must remain aware of what;s really going on.

This post from The Baffler was the source for this post

dylan's nashville skyline

Bob Dylan's 9th studio album Nashville Skyline has turned 50 years old.

No one was anticipating a traditional country music album from Dylan.

"These are the types of songs that I always felt like writing when I've been alone to do so." 

The album was a different vocal style for Dylan. He created a new vocal persona to match his style of music. 

Nashville Skyline was recorded in 4 days

Here is the link to the Rolling Stone story about the album.

Nashville Skyline was a vocal change for Bob Dylan. https://t.co/nsuuN90SUo via @RollingStone The album turns 50. It opened up country rock. #savingcountrymusic #BobDylan #musichistory

— Mike Bertelsen (@mikebertelsen) April 12, 2019

music ownership: what gives?

The CD business continues to plummet.

CD sales have fallen a whopping 80 percent in the last decade. Sales are about 89 million copies, compared with 450 million 10 years ago. 

What about downloads?

Well, they've gone down by 58 million since peaking in 2012. Bruce Springsteen releases his current boxed set exclusively on vinyl. We're looking at two formats: streaming and vinyl. CD sales are still robust in the country music format. 

Chris Stapleton

Older customers are driving the CD format. Will they still? Well, to a point. As older music enthusiasts build their libraries, will they keep adding to their collections? Artists, labels, and record stores have been preparing for the CD's demise for years. That's may be difficult for you to comprehend. It is for me.

Tech is driving music distribution. It has for years. What are we to do? I suppose we should start procuring the "stuff" to get up to date...… like a turntable.

End of Owning Music was the source for this post.

elvis costello's rise to fame

In 1977, the year I graduated from high school, Elvis Costello hit the music scene in a big way.

"My Aim is True" was originally released on July 22, 1977 in the United Kingdom. New York based Columbia Records were planning a major release of the album in the U.S. later that fall. Costello was looked at as being a highly marketable artist. One item to be overcome was popularity. How to make an artist popular. This is not an easy obstacle to take on. It still isn't. 

Columbia Records executives knew they had an amazing product. They actually had two products: the album and Costello.

Columbia went to work. The various departments (radio promotion, sales and publicity) went to a truly combined effort. On November 11th, just a few days after the album's release, the record label received some great news. Rolling Stone Magazine had selected "My Aim is True" as its major album review. 

Costello was signed to Columbia after he had performed at a senior management conference in London. What struck the record label's interest was that Elvis Costello was a very serious artist. He had a flamboyant and exciting stage presence which he transformed into a magnetic force where he became one with the audience. The record label though, did not want to promote Costello as a punk-rock artist. So much so, that a memo was distributed among the label's leadership stating he was not a punk rock artist.

Costello, at 23, was a publicity department’s dream. He was a strong songwriter and artist. The music press, major newspapers, and mainstream magazines were all doing major features on him. One item that helped was that his first name was Elvis. Elvis Presley had died on August 16th of the year. That name "Elvis" was staunchly in the minds of the American public. I can't help but have the attitude that this helped. Costello and his new band, the Attractions, were booked for a national club tour, with most tickets reserved by the label for radio, press and retailers.

Costello on the map, and the album—with such favorites as “Watching the Detectives,” “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” and “Welcome to the Working Week”—would peak at just #32 on the sales chart. Elvis was nominated for Best New Artist at the 1978 Grammy Awards.

The Best Classic Bands post: Elvis Costello's 1977 US Launch: The Inside Story was the source and inspiration for this post.

be visible to engage

Engagement via Social Media requires patience and commitment. The combination of social media, social business, and sales networking can help drive visibility and engagement.

Create and curate content that appeals to your audience. Promote your content.

Custom, created content is where you'll get good mileage for your brand. Make content personal to add value. Give your audience and followers a reason to tune in. The reason to tune in is you.

Need help with content? I can help.

the lens of transformation

Advertising agencies are changing the scope of their business. They are seeking solutions across commerce, digital content, and media distribution. This shift has been slow. Quite frankly, they've been wrapped too tight in their own traditions. However, to their credit, they've moved with much precision.

The shift has changed the face of marketing. TV marketing is waning, giving way to social media, digital media, user experience or open source. A new wave of innovators is poised to bring their expertise to this new ecosystem.

Accenture, IBM, PwC, and Deloitte are engaged in the acquisition of agencies that have capabilities in user experiences, digital marketing, design, Web, and mobile. These organizations have services traditional agencies can't match.

Digital marketing must fit into the overall business strategy.

Jon Hamm as Don Draper in Mad Men

Client-agency relationships will be revolutionized. A new breed of ad agency will be born. This means that agencies will create websites, app, and video games. Digital initiatives for brands will be created. A variety of platforms will be created for content and production.

Newsrooms will bring a bigger power to brands. The customer experience will be transformed to deliver goods and services with the customer's journey in mind.

The customer will be a major part of a brand, acting as the salesman for the product they buy.

Creation and distribution are key. Many elements will be transformed that will give the entire spectrum of media a new meaning, a new way of doing things.

Source: forbes.com (November 2016) My 'Next-Big-Thing' List: Who Will Transform The Post-TV Ad World In 2017

Related topic: B2B and Social Media

twitter content

Social media content marketing is becoming more powerful.

Digital marketing is an ever-expanding field that is constantly becoming more and more rich with traffic and consumer mileage. Because social media is so powerful in this day and age, it’s becoming more and more important to stay extremely relevant on social media.

This means keeping your content current based on feature stories and industry news relevant at the time. When you respond to a trending topic with a source, you increase your chances of being found via Twitter searches. 

This kind of thinking should be applied to all your strategies in marketing, but especially those that deal with Twitter.

 

Twitter moves like lightning. As soon as someone finds out new information, they’ve got to comment on it. This kind of relevance is hard to achieve, but doable as long as you implement a strategy that keeps you on your Twitter toes. 

Look to your content. The content you post and share on Twitter should be focused on topics both relevant to you and your chosen audience. When you find your audience niche, it’s easy to post quality content that they care about.

blogging and influence

Blogging influences customers. Here's how:

• They buy from blogs
• They are inspired by blogs
• They get assurance from buying from blogs
• They discover new products and services
• They get support and answers from blogs
• They refine their choices from blogs

Every time you publish a blog post you get the opportunity to influence your readers.
Blogging is a good benefit.

blogging

Blogging allows you to connect with your audience, the people who want to follow you. You’ll be able to convert readers of your blog into followers.

Continue to engage them via your blog.

A blog will attract the search engines and will be featured highly in the search results. 

Blog regularly, ideally three or more times per week. Consider blogging as online marketing. Once you start to use a blog and make it part of your marketing campaign, you'll find that you won't need some of the other expensive advertising mediums. By being a regular blogger you’ll become an authority figure that others look to for advice within your niche.

You can tailor your blogging activities to meet the needs of your audience. 

task of data

We are entering an age of disruption. Disruptors win big using data and analytics to create winning business strategies. This business strategy needs to come in four forms:

1. A Unified Company Approach
2. Customer Experience
3. Connected Digital Ecosystem
4. New Business Models

To excel at any one of these, a data-centric viewpoint is needed.

Intuition or experienced-based decisions aren't enough. This leads to more failures. In the data-driven era, company leaders need:

1. Trustworthy data
2. Timely data
3. Contextually relevant data

These three items help find a strategic window.

This allows the unthinkable.

Marvin Ellison, new CEO of JC Penney, has taken on the "task of data". He is proving the primacy of customer experience, and more importantly, the primacy of data in driving great customer experience.

Ellison said, "Pure intuition without any data gets you in trouble." 

With data, Ellison was able to change JC Penney's chances of surviving and increase sales by 3.9% during the 2015 holidays. This data-driven influence helped with customer loyalty. Data helped place clothing in the stores' floor plans. He learned women do 80% of the buying in the stores, so clothing was arranged so women could easily shop for men's' apparel. There was also data for appliance shopping.

These decisions were made from data.

be engaging

Tell a story. Paint a verbal picture. This brings your audience into the story. Marketers have created engaging ways to "talk" to potential customers. Infographics, videos, and even webinars allow curators to break down relevant statistics. Creative visuals encourage audience engagement.

Audiences embrace content that is the most relevant to them. This establishes a community of like-minded followers.

A good marketer will use content to tell engaging stories. 

 

the open network

The OPEN mindset is how we grow our personal networks.

OPEN 

(Ordinary Person | Extraordinary Network)

 

Today quality content is in focus. This means quality contributions and quality connections. Those successful in Social Media have developed OPEN Circles.

How do you do that?

ASK:

• What do I have in common with that person?
• Will this person see value in what I am sharing?
• Will I learn anything from them?
• Is this person a potential partner, collaborator or friend?
• Do they have the capacity to refer me to others in their network?
• Can I do the same for them? 

Grow your personal brand. Be OPEN.

music and the internet

The music industry's use of the Internet has come a long way. Let's face it, the Internet was killing music. Digital rights were a problem. Device compatibility was too. Streaming services came next. Big Data and analytics have played a big part in the positive evolution.

What's been moving the evolution?

Recommendation engines designed to make the perfect playlist is redefining the dynamics of the music industry. The relationship is creative between listeners and music. This relationship has built a new horizon for the music and the listener.

In the past, the record industry had limited ways to learn who was buying LPs, cassettes, or CDs. Downloading allowed record labels to begin tracking listening habits and making recommendations like Amazon does for books.

The current streaming model opened the floodgates.

All the listening is up for grabs. The industry wants to gain a deeper understanding of its customers and the music.

Raw music is unstructured data because it is easily digitized. It can be quantified and analyzed. Since 1999, the Musical Genome Project has been structurng music data by manual classification as well as automated algorithms. Up to 450 data points are used. 30 million songs are in the database.

The Musical Genome Project was developed by Pandora.

The Internet of Things could be finding its place in music. The streaming model is popular. Look for crowdfunding platforms to spring up. Live streams translate into revenue streams.

Data Analytics is the driving force.

data for growth

Data grows up to 60% a year. 90% of the world's data was created in the last two years.

6 billion people have cell phones. The world population is 7 billion.

Business analysts spend 80% of their time looking for information, and only 20% using it. Data analysis is crucial for companies that want to grow.

An analytical specialist collects chaotic data, structurises it and delivers it.

There are 3 types of data analysis:

1. Prescriptive Analytics
2. Predictive Analytics
3. Descriptive Analytics

Analytics does not remove the need for human insights. There is a compelling need for people to understand data, think from the business point of view, and to come up with insights.

There is a need for professionals with analytic skills that look to harness the power of big data. The ocean of big data is vital to the organization.

To grow visuals come into play. 66% of social media posts are visual according to inc.com. The brain processes visuals better and faster.

Imagery grabs attention
Visuals are easily shareable  



                             

brand reality

Plenty of brands have been built without image ads.
 Reader's Digest comes to mind.

Brand Reality - Brand Presentation - Brand Building

Direct marketing is a better brand building tool than conventional brand image ads.
Focus on brand reality, because there is no substitute! Brand has power. Brand has status.
Make a brand to increase sales. A brand personality needs worked out!

Therefore, think of brands as people. Opinions are formed with information. Interaction creates more information. This creates more reality - brand reality.

This information creates a conversation for your brand. There is a message in the conversation and this conversation gets passed around. This word-of-mouth approach takes more time and is best in the long run. Your story, created by your customers, needs advertised.

Direct marketing by definition involves a company interacting with its customers. Direct marketing is a powerful brand building tool. Brands built this way really deliver.

Following a strategy which interacts with customers drives sales increases.

A marketer's concentration should focus on the reality of their brand and ways to communicate that attribute to the widest possible audience.

Direct marketing and brand reality are "peas and carrots" that create brand value.

Increase your sales (or following, friends, etc.) and boost your brand value with direct marketing.

Contact me at SwordFlameMedia to discuss a direct marketing strategy that develops a conversation, builds your brand, and increases your sales.