Original Thoughts - Communications

So you want to enter the world of Public Relations? Figuring out how to get there is the first step.

noreply@zionandzion.com (Ashley) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 04:26:00 -0700

In our backyard is one of the nation's top journalism schools, the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State, filled with hungry students trying to get their feet in the door of this competitive industry. Nevertheless, a top notch educational background is not the only thing that marketing and public relations firms, when looking to hire, will demand from candidates–especially these days.
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Guest lecturing at the ASU Walter Cronkite School

noreply@zionandzion.com (Aric) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:01:17 -0700

This past Thursday I guest lectured to a public relations class at ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. I thought that I'd share an interesting question that came from one of the students who currently has an internship with one of the very large PR firms in town. Her question was about how to measure the results of Social Media and PR campaigns.
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Spreading the pain is no way to grow a business

noreply@zionandzion.com (Aric) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:42:06 -0700

Have you ever wondered why it seems harder, not easier, to get good service in the current down economy? It seems strange doesn't it? People are out of work, resources for hire are abundant, and revenue is scarcer for many companies. So, why isn't service better in general, instead of worse?
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Leveraging B2B PR for B2C purposes

noreply@zionandzion.com (Aric) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:46:00 -0700

When people think of PR, they often think of consumer media attention, however, we encourage broader thinking. It is often the case that trade (or B2B) media attention can be leveraged to advantage with our clients' consumers.
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Balancing online and traditional marketing in a down economy

noreply@zionandzion.com (Aric) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 08:15:00 -0700

We're often asked what the right balance of online and traditional marketing is. Not unexpectedly, the answer is it depends. It depends on the product. It depends on the time of year. And, of particular importance right now, it depends on the economy.
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Use of DVR and unsophisticated TV advertising don't mix

noreply@zionandzion.com (Aric) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 07:51:00 -0700

A recent study by Magna projects the use of DVRs will reach nearly 50% of US Households over the next few years. According to Zion & Zion's research, this presents particular problems for unsophisticated TV advertisers.
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Social Media -- Don't be fooled by agency hype

noreply@zionandzion.com (DuGue) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:16:00 -0700

Everyone's talking about social media, and many large companies are using is effectively, but many agencies try to pull a bait and switch when it comes to how social media can help a small or medium sized local business or a business that does not have an incredibly strong brand.
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Attractive websites and SEO do mix

noreply@zionandzion.com (Savelle) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:24:00 -0700

Google has announced that Adobe has given them a new indexing algorithm that can crawl and index the text content on flash designed websites. All web designers up until now have been discouraged with respect to using embedded flash files because their content could not be searched using Google's search engine.
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Email marketing -- Beyond the hype

noreply@zionandzion.com (Aric) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:55:29 -0700

Email marketing seems cool, doesn't it? But when it comes right down to it, if you aren't an online retailer that can track sales back to an email campaign in a disciplined way, then how do you justify email marketing if you're not seeing the phone ring the moment you hit send?
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McDonald's -- Small oversight, big impact

noreply@zionandzion.com (Aric) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:47:57 -0700

Drive up to a McDonald's today and you're likely to be asked "What can I make for you?" Somewhere along the way, McDonald's marketing department and market researchers obviously told them that their food would seem fresher if their drive-through personnel said this, instead of "What can I get for you?".

Sounds reasonable right? But here's what we found to be the case...
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Benchmarking lead costs in a volatile economy

noreply@zionandzion.com (Aric) — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:32:00 -0700

Cost per lead is important, but in an economic downturn, it's important to reevaluate cost per lead by reexamining relative cost per lead.
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The superiority of the mid-sized marketing firm

noreply@zionandzion.com (Aric) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:52:09 -0700

As an organization increases in size, it typically begins to create silos that house functional areas of expertise, but the price of this size is often paid by the firm's clients.
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High pressure sales and low, low pricing shouldn't necessarily go together

noreply@zionandzion.com (Aric) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:53:31 -0700

Many high pressure sales environments also rely on offering very low pricing as a way to close the deal even faster, but is this always the most effective approach?
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Digesting value propositions under pressure

noreply@zionandzion.com (Aric) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 12:01:00 -0700

If you have an opportunity to present your product or service value proposition to a potential customer, would you prefer that the customer not be under any perceived time pressure during the presentation or would it somehow be better if the customer did perceive some time pressure?
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Annoying advertising and the consideration set

noreply@zionandzion.com (Aric) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:38:10 -0700

Does annoying advertising actually work? Well it depends upon what your definition of working is. We recently conducted a secondary market research project on the topic. The focal point of which was Vonage, the internet phone company.
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