The question isn’t whether you should be using social media. Of course you should. The question is: do you have an engagement strategy and the resources to implement it. If you don’t have either of the latter then, congratulations on setting up your social media account

Verasoni’s CEO, Abe Kasbo was recently featured on the popular podcast, Ear on Careers. Take a listen by clicking here.

Brands are on the decline in this economy. Even with the recent bounce in stock market, People are choosing value over brand loyalty and where they can get both, they will buy it.  According to the recent results of a comScore study on brand loyalty among consumer goods products, showing a significant decline in consumers’ allegiance to their favorite brands during the past two years, the percentage of shoppers who typically buy the brands they want most has steadily declined across the categories examined. In March 2010, less than 50% of shoppers reported purchasing the brand they want most.

Value is the name of the game in this “New Normal.” “The New Normal” was coined by legendary bond investor Bill Gross, in his June, 2009 outlook, referring to the new economic order in the aftermath of the most recent global economic collapse.

According to McKinsey Quarterly, “We are experiencing not merely another turn of the business cycle, but a restructuring of the economic order.” If you believe that, if indeed there’s a fundamental change in the people shop, then it would prudent for business to at least reflect on the new realities and at best, adjust their marketing plans accordingly.  For the record, I’m in the New Normal camp.

From web 2.0 and Social media, to advertising, public relations…but, let’s snap on the breaks here because I don’t want to drag myself on this post into promotional tools, but stay focused on on the what businesses are facing…

Everyone is doing it…

From Wallmart to Home Depot, retailers are slashing prices. They are doing it and saying in their marcom campaigns. Wachovia, Bank of America have changed their fee structures. Applebees, Red Lobster are pushing value dining options. Wall Street money managers like Edward Jones are working against the grain as well by touting long term approach to the market. So business is getting it right? Right?

Not sure about that, but based on my observations larger enterprises seem to understand the market, and more importantly the culture and psychology of the post crash market.  Yes, there is a post market consumer psychology, and it’s manifested by how they behave.  I am not sure that middle market business got the memo. Far too many businesses are still operating as if it was 2007.  Their prices and service have remained at 2007, but more importantly their expectations are unreasonably set for pre-crash markets. At the same time, their marketing strategies have somehow adjusted themselves to post market crash expectations. The scenario is we’re not going to adjust to market expectations, at the same time we expect spend less to grow our business…catch 22, ain’t it?

In the mid-90s the internet heated up. Every Wall Street Analyst became an instant expert on e-commerce, touting stocks that were trading at multiples of 50 and over. CNBC, acting mostly as a cheerleader, celebrated the American entrepreneurial spirit on an almost minute by minute basis, the rest of the media did the same. When the late 90s came around, web business fundamentals became exposed. We now know that these Wall Street experts, while perhaps foreseeing the potential of the net, did not really understand the business fundamentals of the effects of the web on business. An untold amount of web businesses went bust, people lost lots of money.

The survivors of that era are now the dominant brands that we all recognize, Amazon, Yahoo, Ebay, etc. For every one of these survivors there are untold casualties. At the time, I had a brief stint on Wall Street, and I remember some people trying to present the case for more careful examination of investment in many of the now defunct companies, but with herd mentality rolling like the wilder beast crossing the Mara River, perfectly reasoned arguments went no where, it was like spitting in the wind. And instead of the alligators getting a few wilder beasts, in this scenario the alligators got most of them.

Herd mentality is a powerful thing, in business and elsewhere. Think the Salem Witch Trials, Enron, or sub-prime mortgages. Think of the people who warned us against sub-prime mortgages, but hell, no one wanted to stop the good times! Good times (oh, don’t look now, but was that CNBC with the pom poms on this one too?). The people who spoke out against the Salem Trials were ignored (CNBC wasn’t around for this one, but I am guessing, FOX would have loved it), and as far back as 2006 we had warnings by serious, credible economist and business people about the sub-prime mess, but as you may have guessed by now, these folks too, were spitting in the wind.

So the latest thing that’s kicking up wind, much of it hot air from where I sit, is social networking and the social networking expert. Yes, there are plenty of people who do excellent work in the field, but in my career to date, I’ve never seen so many experts on one subject in the history of history. I wonder if there were “railroad” experts at the infancy of that industry. Yes, this is probably about the only industry that has self-designated experts at its very infancy, which may be appropriate, because the exponential nature of the growth of the net. The medium itself lends itself to this. Can you feel the wind blowing here? Whoooshhhh, whoooshhh.

I’ve read enough articles, attended enough conferences by now, spoken at several, mostly listened to mavens tout the power of social networking. For the most part, what I am seeing is lots of tactics, sans strategy, flailing in the wind. We know that most businesses, from the corporate giants, to middle market and small businesses, to educational institutions and hospitals, need to harness the power of integration of their mar/com strategies in order to deliver the desired results. Integration, done right, is largely driven by strategy.  We also know that silos are useless and that budgets and resources are critical. For those of you who follow this blog, you know our approach is integration – whenever, and where ever we can get it!

What businesses need to grasp is the difference between the social networking folks who talk tactics, and the ones promoting strategy and integration. Listen to the strategists and integrators. The folks on the rise are speaking about integration, the folks falling off their chair – but still speak with the absolute certainty of a recent college grad – are kicking up the wind.

These tactics guys simply riding the wind.

Look, social media is simply a tool, how you use it is critical. I have yet to see a repeatable, credible case where social media, alone, drove a business. Yes, the Haiti example is a wonderful use of mobile technology, a fantastic response to a tragedy. But, when it comes to business complexities, social media alone ought to be a tactic within a global mar/com strategy, and not a singular approach. Take a look at Volkswagon who use their TV commercials to drive customers / viewers directly to their Facebook page, rather than their website. Why? Because VW has a strategy for customer engagement on Facebook, and deliver other engagement programs once customers get to that space. So the television buy, messaging, social media and other elements of that strategy were developed at the same time to drive efficacy.

So here 10 areas of what to look for in rising star on the social media scene:

1. Their ability to integrate social media into your long term business objectives, whatever they may be – the strategy
2. They understand that the medium is in its infancy and that “they” are still learning about it
3. Their abilities to understand your entire business model, all customer touches, and characteristics of your market
4. Their abilities to deliver data based on their proposed program
5. Their understanding of market engagement programs
6. Their understanding of integration strategies, advertising, PR, word of mouth, corporate communications, and so on…
7. Their understanding of budget / resource allocation of your overall campaign as it relates to social media
8. Their understanding of the behavior of your customers online (in the aggregate, which includes email, blogs, CRM, etc)
9. Their knowledge / experience in delivering online programs that engage
10. What are their strategies to get you from “networking” to “commerce?”

Social media is real, it does have business implications that can work for or against you. So it’s important to get it right, and it’s important to integrate. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people doing excellent work in this area. But I would just hate to see your business spitting in the social networking winds, because it will come right back at you.

Once again, Bank of America is reaching our to “helping us save money” through their keep the change campaign.  They want to move your money from your checking account to your savings account each time your use your debit card. Whether this marketing ploy is successful in getting more customers remains to be seen, but what is clear is that Bank of America clearly has not learned the lessons of our historic economic collapse.  You know, the one that nearly wiped out most of our savings last year, and cost some people their.  But let’s not dwell on that.

Bank of America wants you to know that every time you use your Bank of America credit card, it will move the remaining balance of that to the nearest dollar to your savings account.  Essentially moving your own money from your checking to your savings.  So let me get this straight, it’s my money, and whether its sitting in a savings account or checking account, the money is technically still there, it’s still mine, and Bank of America is moving it from one account to another and giving it a name. You could argue that savings accounts may be earning more interest, but hardly, just check out what banks are paying.

The point is, this is marketing at it’s worst.  Bank of America isn’t rounding up to the next dollar and adding to your savings

To see this article on NorthJersey.com, click here.

In the brave new world of retailing, stores are going to be less concerned about what’s in shoppers’ wallets and more interested in what’s on their mobile phones.

Retailers and a wave of start-up companies are rushing to create smart-phone and iPhone applications that let shoppers compare prices, redeem coupons, lend a friend $25, buy movie tickets and make dinner reservations, and even find the nearest bathroom in the mall. Right now, most of what’s happening in mobile retail is marketing and promotion, rather than sales and revenue-producing activities. But Web developers and retailers say the day is coming when consumers will be able to wave their cellphones to pay at the grocery checkout line, department stores, and restaurants and movie theaters.

“Consumers love their cellphone,” said Conrad Sheehan, founder and chief executive officer of Chicago-based mPayy, which is developing a mobile payment system that shoppers can use instead of credit and debit cards. “They’ll walk out naked, but they’ll have their cellphones.”  This past Christmas, Wayne-based Toys “R” Us Inc. let shoppers shrink the company’s 80-page holiday toy “wish book” down to cellphone size, through an iPhone app. Toys “R” Us also introduced mobile shopping in November, allowing customers to make purchases from their phones, as well as read customer product ratings and check if items sold out at one store were available elsewhere.

Pizza Hut Inc. and Chipotle Mexican Grill are selling thousands of takeout orders that were placed via mobile phone. Verasoni Marketing in Little Falls is helping Rod’s Steak and Seafood Grille in Morris Township create a phone app that will allow diners to access the restaurant’s reservation system, check if a table is available and make a reservation. Aetrex Worldwide, a footwear company based in Teaneck, has developed software that lets stores scan impressions of a customer’s feet and send the images to a cellphone, along with the store name, address, phone number and information about the customer’s shoe size.

“The app world right now is where the Internet was 15 years ago,” said Abe Kasbo, CEO of Verasoni. “It’s still young.” He has no doubt that apps are the future. Having a Web site now without apps, Kasbo said, is like having a typewriter instead of a computer.  The National Retail Federation, at the beginning of this month, held a daylong “mobile boot camp” conference in San Francisco attended by 160 retail executives from around the country. “Retailers are at various stages with mobile,” said NRF Vice President Ellen Davis, whose organization represents 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments. “Most of them can understand and see the power of cellphones and smartphones with today’s shoppers, but they are trying to figure out how to leverage it,” she said. “Where to start seems to be the biggest hurdle.”

The NRF is preparing to introduce a mobile-retail initiative within the next month that would combine representatives from the federation’s various divisions to study issues related to mobile shopping and applications.

The NRF doesn’t have statistics on how many retailers have launched mobile applications, and speakers at the mobile boot camp conference cautioned against the rush to mobile retail.  Research firm Parks Associates estimated recently that the number of smartphone users is expected to reach more than 1 billion by 2014, four times as many as in 2009. And those users love their apps. The iPhone App Store has more than 25,000 apps, most of them free downloads, and users performed more than 2 billion app downloads in the first year that online store was open.

“We’ve seen the major retailers – Target, Macy’s, Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon – launch great iPhone apps, but the theme of the boot camp seemed to be ‘start slow,’ ” Davis said. Retailers need to examine if their proposed app “makes the shopping experience easier, or are you doing an app for the sake of having an app?” she said.

Right now, Davis said, consumers seem to be wary of making purchases via cellphone, or transmitting their credit card information over a phone, the same way many initially were wary of using their computers for online purchases. “People use their phones to find the nearest Banana Republic or to figure out what’s on sale at the grocery store before they go,” she said. But many consumers are reluctant to use their phones to make a purchase, she said.

The most successful mobile apps, experts say, link to the retailer or restaurant’s Web site, where the credit card and other personal information is stored. The mobile app recognizes the shopper’s log-in, and the shopper doesn’t have to transmit any information over the phone.  Sheehan, founder of mPayy, was a senior vice president at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and head of its consumer-payments business before he founded the mobile payment service. The mPayy app uses a person’s mobile phone number as an identifier, because mobile phone numbers are “globally unique – there’s no two the same,” Sheehan said. “If I want to make a payment online, I simply enter my mobile number and password. If I want to send a friend some money from my cellphone, I type in their cellphone number as the address.”  Users of mPayy can link the service to their bank accounts, or set up a stored value account with mPayy, by sending money to mPayy. The advantage for retailers, Sheehan said, is mPayy fees are about half the price of a debit-card transaction. Companies that have lots of “micro payments” – for example publishers that charge 50 cents for online newspapers – find mPayy’s model attractive, he said. “We can move 50 cents profitably for you,” Sheehan said. “The key is not using the legacy credit-card networks, because those are very expensive.”

The day when shoppers can wave their cellphones at cash registers and walk out with their groceries won’t arrive, Sheehan believes, until the cellphone wireless carriers form partnerships with retailers to create payment devices that work with the phones. “The wireless carrier plays a big role because the device would need to have a chip inside of it for it to work really well,” he said. “And that’s what people expect. You have to give them a reason to do that versus pulling out their credit card.”

Another application that retailers are eager to add to their mobile marketing arsenal is the ability to send targeted coupons or discount offers to shoppers when they are in the retailer’s stores. Most mobile coupons are delivered through coupon collection sites, such as Coupon Sherpa or Cellfire, that let mobile users search among hundreds of online coupons for ones they can use.

Mindsmack, a Web-development company with offices in North Brunswick and New York, has created an app, FastMall, that hopes to eventually be able to deliver targeted coupons to shoppers who use their phones to let retailers know when they have arrived at particular malls or stores.

Fast Mall currently is an application that provides detailed maps and store-locating directions for malls around the country. A popular feature of FastMall is the bathroom finder – users can shake their phone to see all of the nearest mall bathrooms pop up on the map.  Eventually, Mindsmack Chief Executive Officer Sam Feuer would like to line up deals for advertising, sponsorship, and revenue sharing tie-ins. “We can work with Fandango [an online movie-ticket sales Web site] and sell movie tickets in the app, and every movie ticket that’s sold we make a percentage off it, the mall owner makes a percentage, Fandango makes a percentage,” he said. “That could be the same for anything that’s sold at the mall.”

E-mail: verdon@northjersey.com

Little Falls, NJ – March 17, 2010 – Verasoni Worldwide C.E.O., Abe Kasbo is scheduled to be a featured speaker at two New Jersey area events next week. On Tuesday, March 23rd, Kasbo will be speaking at InBiz’s “Social Media and What It Can Do For Your Small Business” event in West Orange, NJ; and on Thursday, March 25th, at NECC’s “Business To Business Sales” event in Fairfield, NJ.

“In every market we serve, including healthcare, financial services, hospitality, government, social media has become a valuable tool to help businesses reach current customers and connect with new ones, but it’s important to recognize that it is only a tool. The key is to making it meaningful for your business and your enterprise. So the challenge and the opportunity is when businesses effectively integrate social media into their global marketing and public relations strategies to meet their business goals, and to move businesses from social networking to social commerce,” said Abe Kasbo, Verasoni’s CEO.

Kasbo is poised to discuss this concept in depth at the InBiz “Social Media and What It Can Do For Your Small Business” event at The Manor, located in West Orange, NJ. The event is to be held on Friday, March 23, and is scheduled to begin at 6:00PM. The event is free for InBiz members and $55 for non-members. For more information or to register please call 973-276-1688.

In addition, Kasbo will discuss the “new normal” on Thursday, March 25, at the NECC’s “Business To Business Sales” event at Hampton Inn & Suites of Fairfield, NJ. The event is being organized by the North Essex Chamber of Commerce and will be held from 6:00PM – 8:00PM. Admission is $15 for NECC members and $25 for non-members. For registration information please visit
http://www.northessexchamber.com or call 973-226-5500.

“The current struggle businesses seem to be having is recognizing the ‘new normal’ of the business environment, as coined by legendary bond investor Bill Gross. The economy, social interaction, and media have all changed drastically – seemingly overnight,” said Kasbo. “So businesses have to respond appropriately to this “New Normal,” strategically, and yet without hesitation. The challenge is for businesses is to redefine their value to the marketplace in order to grow and maintain both “business to business” and “business to consumer” relationships,” continued Kasbo.

Abe Kasbo is the CEO and founder of Verasoni Worldwide. Kasbo has over 15 years of experience in both buying and selling marketing and public relations services. Kasbo is a thought leader on integrated marketing communications strategies, speaking at numerous events throughout the nation. He blogs at http://www.verasoni.com/vblog.

Later this spring Kasbo will embark on a limited engagement speaking tour throughout the Northeast.  To book Kasbo for your speaking engagement please call 800-975-6131.

Verasoni Worldwide is a fiercely independent marketing and public relations firm serving clients across various sectors such as healthcare, financial services, government, and hospitality, throughout the United States. For more information please visit: http://www.verasoni.com <http://www.verasoni.com/> .

Wayne, New Jersey. Luke Klele, DMD a leading dentist, with an office in Wayne, NJ is proud to announce the launch of his new website.

The website allows patients to learn more about the services Dr. Klele offers, find answers to commonly asked questions regarding dental health, and meet the staff, and get special offers and discounts.

“We wanted a simple site, and one that reflects our brand of dentistry,” said Dr. Klele. “We selected Verasoni for web strategies and they really made the process simple and delivered a first class site for our practice,” continued Dr. Klele. “Our goal was to ensure that we built a world-class site that speaks to search engines on a platform designed to keep Dr. Klele’s cost of maintenance down,” said Verasoni CEO, Abe Kasbo.

Dr. Klele is recognized by his peers and patients as a dedicated dentist who delivers high quality dental care to everyone he treats. His dedicated staff in his Wayne, NJ office will ensure that your experience is exceptional while in the office and beyond.  Dr. Klele’s commitment to continuing education means that his patients always receive state of the art care.

Dr. Klele’s Wayne, NJ Dentist office provides exceptional dental care including: Family Dentistry, Porcelain Veneers, Porcelain Inlays and Onlays, 1 Visit Root Canals, Implant Supported Dentures, All Porcelain Crowns, Metal Free Fillings, Juvéderm™, Botox® ,1 Hour Whitening, Invisalign, Dental Implants and 24 Hour Emergency Dentistry.

Visit Dr. Klele in his Wayne, NJ office at 931 Hamburg Turnpike, Wayne, NJ. Or call 973•553•2512 or visit the new website at http://www.waynenjdentist.com.

Cambridge MedCom to Shoot Free 30-Second Video for Dentists’ Websites at The Greater NY Dental Meeting * Come to Health Compliance Team Booth # 826

New York, New York – Cambridge MedCom, the nation’s leading boutique internet, marketing, and public relations firm serving dentists, and the larger healthcare community, will be shooting free videos for dentists at the Greater NY Dental Meeting at Jacob Javitz from November 29, 2009 to December 2, 2009. “The internet represents a tremendous opportunity for dentists to expand their business and acquire new patients, but only if it’s done right,” said Abe Kasbo Chairman of Verasoni Worldwide, the parent company of Cambridge MedCom.

Cambridge MedCom will provide participating dentists with a complimentary 30-second “webisode” to use on their website, Youtube channel, facebook, Linkedin, twitter and blogs. The videos will be professionally taped, edited on the spot, uploaded to the dentist’s email account, and placed on Cambridge’s Branded Youtube Channel for additional exposure. “Having a website without an integrated marketing plan is akin to flying a plane without a pilot, so it’s critical that dentists implement a content distribution strategy to ensure their site stays ahead of the competition,” continued Mr. Kasbo. “Additionally, various active organic and non-organic strategies must be incorporated in order to effectively optimize a websites’ position, and that takes fresh thinking along with work.”

Dentists will be asked to dress for the on-camera interview. The interview will be brief, focused on one area of interest to each dentist, and specifically designed for online viewing. The video’s positioning on Youtube, which happens to be the second largest search engine in the world, ought to contribute positively to the participating dentist’s website search engine relevance.

How To Get Your Free Interview:

Interview spots are limited to 32 per day and, dentists must reserve their spot. This offer is on first-come, first-serve basis. Dentists will be able to reserve an interview spots by sending an email to nydentalmeeting@verasoni.com and MUST include the following:

• Dentist full name
• Practice Name
• Practice address
• Practice phone number
• Practice fax number
• Practice email address
• Name of practice manager

• Dentists must choose from the following time categories:

  • Early
  • Mid-morning
  • Noon – early afternoon
  • Late afternoon

  Once the time category is chosen, Cambridge MedCom will provide an exact time based on the category chosen by the dentist. Dentists will forfeit their interview spot if unable to make the time reserved.

  To learn more about Verasoni Worldwide and Cambridge MedCom, visit www.verasoni.com.

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