What’s The Deal With Rebates? (And How Can Your Business Use ‘Em?)

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director of Atomic Tango LLC

"Let's talk about a sensitive subject: breakage..."

So you finally found that gadget you’ve been dreaming about — you know, the one with the 60″ screen, built-in WiFi, and ability to make a perfect crème brulee at the touch of a button. Better yet, you found it advertised at just the right price… but you didn’t notice the fine print. Only after getting to the store do you notice the word that causes blistering steam to blast out of your ears and nostrils…

“Stay!”: How to Create Loyalty — or at Least Laziness

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

Hunger-inducing visual courtesy of PhotoXpress.com

Maybe it’s the bacon.

Every week, I shoot pool in the same joint. Is it the cheapest pool hall in town? Nah. It’s actually pricey. Is it the service? Not really. The people are friendly, but service isn’t a big factor when renting a pool table. Is it the ambience? I do love pure pool halls like this — not some bar with a coin-op table, but a dedicated pool hall with 8-foot Brunswicks and a jukebox playing Soundgarden. What about the location? The House of Billiards is one of the few remaining pure pool halls on L.A.’s west side, and although L.A. is a car culture, we Los Angelenos generally hate to drive, so it wins there. And then there are the BLT’s…

How to Win a Price War (Hint: Don’t)

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

"Hmmm... should I move a piece or just eat it?"

“War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, y’all…”
– Edwin Starr, “War”

Imagine you’re minding your own business, selling lemonade from your friendly neighborhood stand, when — BAM! — you’re torpedoed by a rival who cuts his lemonade price in half. That bastard! Here you two had settled upon a comfy price point — legally, of course, with no collusion whatsoever — and he had to upset the balance…

You Can Lead a Horse to Water But… The Limitations of SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is that magical science of making Google and other search engines fall madly in lust with your website. The more your site is optimized, the higher it appears on search rankings. The challenge?

Self-Marketing 101: Ten Tips for Creating a Killer Resume

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

Last month in Ohio, 700 people applied for a job as a janitor.  But that shouldn’t really surprise us these days: the janitorial gig paid $16/hour and came with — get this — benefits. Plus, janitorial work beats the hell out of coaching for the Oakland Raiders…

Want Tail? Watch Your Head: Secrets of Long-Tail Marketing

Customer: Do you have “I Just Called To Say I Love You”?
Barry: Yes.
Customer: Can I have it?
Barry: No.
Customer: Why not?
Barry: Because it’s tacky sentimental crap that’s why. Do we look like a store that would sell that song? Do you even know your daughter, there’s no way she likes that song. Oh I’m sorry, is she in a coma?
– from “High Fidelity,” the movie

A buddy and I were reminiscing about small independent record stores. Remember them? No? Damn youngsters…

Writing a Newsletter? Heed the Beer Dudes and Pour It On!

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

One of my more rewarding discoveries in college was Samuel Adams beer. At the time, Sam was primarily a Boston phenomenon, so upon moving to L.A. after graduation, I found myself bereft and bewildered. For all its creative profligacy, Los Angeles was still dominated by the usual beer suspects: Budweiser, Miller and Coors (the bland leading the bland).

Naturally, I was thrilled when Sam started appearing in L.A. bars as an “import.” (I knew about the Lakers-Celtics rivalry, but describing Boston’s greatest export since Aerosmith as “foreign” was taking it a bit far.) Ironically, the Boston Beer Company (the maker of Sam Adams) is now the largest purely American brewer left. (Bud is owned by the Belgians, Coors is half-Canadian, and Miller is South African. But I’m sure you all already knew that.)

I was so stoked to see Boston Beer Co. expanding that I bought shares in the company, which has proven to be one of my few good stock investments. (SAM has also been battered by the current economy, but not as badly as my radio investments.) Not only do I dig a cold Sammy now and then, there’s a lot to be admired about the company:

• CEO Jim Koch inherited three generations of brewing expertise
• he’s a former Boston Consulting Group exec who doesn’t believe in long-term debt
• and he treats his employees well.

Although Sam Adams’ product-centric TV commercials won’t win any creative awards — an experiment with a costumed “Sam” character was underdeveloped and short-lived — I’ve come to enjoy one expression of their marketing…

Marketing During a Recession, Part 4: Come Together Right Now

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

"I can... almost... reach... it..."

Collaboration: The Fine Art of Hookin’ Up

Partnerships, alliances and cross-promotions date back to Eve giving Adam that “come hither” look. I once worked on a cross-promotional website between Nissan and Crayola. Apple and AT&T are now making a killing with the iPhone. You can’t buy a McDonald’s Happy Meal without some movie-related toy in the box. And Yoplait has done well — and done good — by collaborating with the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

Unfortunately, you don’t see many small businesses or startups thinking in terms of collaborations. Here’s what they’re missing out on…

Untweetable: Why Twitter Fever Isn’t For Everyone

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

It was all about that sharpener...

When I was a kid, the object of all crayon lust was the Crayola 64 box with the built-in sharpener, because a dull crayon was almost as bad as soggy Cocoa Pebbles. And yet, that Crayola 64 contained some bizarre colors like Maize, Burnt Sienna and the fun-to-say-but-rarely-used Raw Umber.* While Black was quickly worn to a stub — one could never have enough Black — Maize lasted longer than the Shredded Wheat that mom tried to get us to eat in place of Cocoa Pebbles. (Sorry, mom, miniature bales of hay are for miniature horses.)

The point of this contrived metaphor? Just because a color exists doesn’t mean you have to use it. The same holds true for new media like Twitter…

Hey There Mighty Brontosaurus: Marketing Myopia Lives On

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

"Don't worry, Bob, we're too big to fail."

Hey there mighty brontosaurus
Don’t you have a lesson for us
You thought your rule would always last
There were no lessons in your past…
– The Police, “Walking In Your Footsteps”

If you unfold the business pages and vultures start circling overhead, you know times are tough. (And if you start seeing visions of the Grim Reaper, you know you’re reading a Tribune Company newspaper.)

While it’s easy to blame the economy for business struggles, times like these also present a ripe opportunity for struggling businesses to reassess what they’re doing. Kind of like cardiac arrest makes you reassess whether chicken-fried bacon with cream gravy is the most sensible bedtime snack.

Divide and Conquer: Segment Your Market without Pissing Anyone Off

A few years ago, my wife and I strolled into Forth & Towne, a new fashion chain from Gap Inc. targeting women over age 35. It was solemn and dignified with muted lights and muted music — and muted people. While other stores in the mall percolated with excited shoppers (this was 2006), the spanking new Forth & Towne saw its handful of customers browsing quietly, as if they were preparing to pay respects to an open casket…

PWN Your Competition During Tough Times: How To Leverage The Value of Your Brand

Plus: Why “Price” isn’t Just a Number on a Sticker

Feeling plucky, punk?

Tough times like these separate the plucky from the certifiably pluckless. Plucky companies see economic turmoil as a ripe opportunity to crush weaker competitors. The pluckless see a shrinking economy and resort to shrinkage themselves: they reduce their services and their advertising till they’re but a shriveled ball of what they once were…

Friend Me: 5 Rules for Advertising on Facebook

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

Updated 26 June 2009

In its infancy, Facebook sucked for advertisers, as its mostly collegiate users ignored mass marketing en route to mass socializing. No surprise there: Facebook is a social network, so its users were using it as intended.

But the commercial disinterest of Facebook users meant that marketers were wasting their dinero. For us refugees from the full-frontal ad assault called MySpace, that was a good thing. For Facebook’s investors? Not so much.

Then a couple of transformational events occurred…

To “The” or not to “The”? That is the Question in Product Naming

As a USC Trojan, I have a twisted interest in the Ohio State University football team this season. I was thrilled when my Trojans throttled them earlier this season 35-3, but this weekend, I’ll be rooting for the Buckeyes as they play Penn State. (Penn State is ranked higher than USC, and therefore must be vanquished.) Will Ohio State win? No idea. But I can make one prediction with 100% certainty…

Facts and Go Figure: The Sneaky Art of Justifying Anything

Want proof?

So there’s this common symbol that’s being used to justify everything from industrial pollution to obscene spending. No, I’m not talking about the letter “W” — that’s become a punchline. I’m referring to the once humble and inoffensive % sign, now exploited as a tool of self-righteous justification. I stumbled across two flagrant examples of % abuse in the past few days alone…

“Viral” Does Not Mean “Free”: The Reality Behind The Buzz

Where's that buzz coming from?

I recently had lunch with an entrepreneur to discuss her marketing problems. She had launched her company with a PR campaign, and the initial results were spectacular, with major media coverage and a torrent of traffic to her site… But that torrent dried to a trickle as the press and consumers lost interest. In just a couple of years her company had become “old news.” Since her operations were now sucking up all of her available cash, she wanted a low-cost marketing option, and she called me to discuss this viral marketing thing…

Public Relations vs. Advertising: No Contest

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

Mmm, tasty...

So I’ve got this serious weakness for ice cream. I mean, GOOD ice cream. As in 200% butter-fat-full-sugar-with-no-artificial-ingredients ice cream that makes me break into R-rated facial expressions and one-man gospel choruses. (Yeah, you don’t want to witness that.)

Notes on Naming: Don’t Make It Personal

So I’m reading this book that recommends naming your company after yourself to make your brand “authentic.” Hmm… Freddy Nager Productions? Uh, no — sounds like a nightmare on Elm Street.

My personal name issues aside, here’s my advice to all other entrepreneurs: If you plan to remain a small operation (like a law practice), you might consider naming your company after yourself — just might — otherwise, I recommend crafting a name that’s original and creative. Sure, naming a company after yourself is easy, but you’ll get more mileage from an imaginative name — and avoid a few headaches down the road…

Cows and Dogs in a Bear Market: Applying the BCG Matrix to Marketing

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

Mmm, head cheese.

The stock market these days is looking about as appetizing as a plate of warmed-over head cheese. At the same time, the real estate market is making the head cheese look good. So as a result, many businesses are cutting their expenses, particularly in marketing.

Yes, as a devoted reader of this blog, you know they’re making a mistake…

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear: Why Listening to Your Customers can be Hazardous to Your Health

Last week I hit the Digital Media Summit in the coolly atmospheric Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. There I enjoyed several speakers providing intelligent and informed insights into the industry, including Zango’s York Baur, Quarterlife’s Mashall Herskovitz, and my MBA classmate Jake Zim of Safran Digital Group.

But many of the other speakers were so intently spinning facts and sidestepping questions, I thought I was watching a Bush administration press conference…

Marketing During a Recession, Part 3: Time To Pump Up the Volume

When the economy slows to the speed of a three-toed sloth after one too many hash brownies, the knee-jerk reaction by most marketers is to reduce ad expenditures. For some brands, however, a recession presents sweet juicy opportunities that call for increased spending. Really. And no, I’m not hitting on those brownies myself…

Public Relations 101: How (Not) To Write A Press Release

It’s amazing the difference between what you learn in school and actual business practices. I once took a class in public relations where we learned how to write a press release. The basic rule: write an actual news story about your company using standard journalistic practices to make it as objective as possible. That way, the news editor can make a few adjustments and print it as is.

Then I ventured into the real business world and discovered that everyone ignored that rule…

Freeze: “Paralysis by Analysis” and other Joys of Marketing Research

“There are many methods for predicting the future. For example, you can read horoscopes, tea leaves, tarot cards, or crystal balls. Collectively, these methods are known as ‘nutty methods.’ Or you can put well-researched facts into sophisticated computer models, more commonly referred to as ‘a complete waste of time.’” — Scott Adams, The Dilbert Future

I recently attended a meeting at one of the world’s largest PR agencies. In the midst of a luxurious high-tech conference room featuring an HDTV and a tower of high-quality donuts, the agency told its client — an Internet start-up — that it needed to conduct more research. The client was visibly shocked…

Marketing During a Recession, Part 2: Honor the Fallen

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

One company’s tumble is another company’s primo opportunity — if that opportunity is approached creatively. Here’s a brilliant example from this week’s business pages…

Marketing During a Recession, Part 1: Pricing

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

When the economy is singing the hardcore blues — kind of like now — many businesses are tempted to lower their prices. My advice? Don’t…