Target Your Audiences: Why Men Hate Going to Church

I just finished reading this book about why men either don't pay much attention in church or don't go at all. You don't have to be a Christian to realize the conclusion of the book: Males are not well represented in churches because they do not like the feminine qualities of the church. In other words, if churches would make changes to appeal to a larger audience that includes males and then market themselves to that male audience, male attendance might rise.

Knowing your target audience and developing ways to attract that audience matters.


What have you done to target audiences? Why do you think targeting audiences is important?

Reinventing and rebranding yourself

When it's old, don't be afraid to reinvent it. Just look at Simon Cowell. As American Idol got old and boring, he left and recreated it in the form of a new brand: The X Factor. We'll see how it goes for that show. Rebranding by creating a new product has worked for plenty of other companies before FOX.

Are rebranding and creating new products successful and reasonable actions? Will X Factor succeed and American Idol fail?

One GIANT bad move by Netflix

Money is important, and cost hikes are inevitable, but a recent move by Netflix to raise prices for those who want both mailed-to-home videos and instant streaming may be losing it more customers and losing more money than gaining.

The change (see below), which was announced by email and on the Netflix Facebook page, has received over 13,000 Facebook comments on the Facebook announcement, most of them negative. Users are declaring they will drop Netflix for Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, or Redbox if Netflix does not get rid of the change.

On a move (or lack of movement) almost as bad as the announced change, Netflix has yet to respond to the negative comments.

Marketing choices are difficult to make, and may require higher prices, but without good public relations, those decisions will hurt, rather than help a company. This is why clear communication is so important, as is having a prepared response for negative reactions. It seems Netflix has failed big time here.

Will Netflix users keep good on their word and drop the service? Are there any positives to Netflix's actions?

Read the Netflix announcement I received below:

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $9.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming) for $7.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99). You don't need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

These prices will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.

You can easily change or cancel your unlimited streaming plan, unlimited DVD plan, or both, by going to the Plan Change page in Your Account.

We realize you have many choices for home entertainment, and we thank you for your business. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to call us at 1-888-357-1516.

–The Netflix Team

Lessons learned from spam emails: Writing concisely and clearly

I received a spam email at my school account the other day. You know, one of those emails asking you to help relocate money from some foreign bank account to various charity organizations. Needless to say, I didn't bother replying. But these emails do make me laugh. They're so terribly written, you'd have to be an airhead not to recognize them as spam.

Their mistakes are mistakes marketers, or any writer, should be careful to avoid. While the poor grammar and sentence structure may be obvious in a spam message, the mistakes in your own writing are much more difficult to notice.

Good writing is concise and clear. It does not contain random changes in case or structure, and it does not contain excessive wording. While your writing will probably never be bad enough to give a reader a headache the way a spam message does, it can still lose a reader's attention.

• Stay active ("She sells sea shells by the sea shore" is much better than "The sea shells were sold by her at the sea shore.")
• Cut excess words.
• Make sure your writing is clear of any jargon.
• Make sure you keep indicators like "that" or "then" when you're writing to a broad audience.
• Stick to basic punctuation, but realize it may change for different countries.

For more specifics on writing concisely, I recommend reading The Yahoo Style Guide, which you can purchase on Amazon or read on Yahoo's website.

What are some tips you have for making your writing effective?

Marketing vs. Public Relations

Two interesting opposing viewpoint posts over at HubSpot echo some thoughts and questions I've had for a while: Are public relations and marketing two completely different things? Or, do they contribute to one another? Or, are they becoming the same thing?

While many of my teachers and several of those I follow on the web seem to believe marketing and public relations are two separate things, I've come to think of them as integrated with the possibility of becoming one thing under the right circumstances, especially when it comes to social media.

Social media networks like Facebook and Twitter can be used to inform, to interact with publics, and to remind publics of a company's product. For example, at Sierra Repertory Theatre, one marketing person heads the social media efforts, posting links to interesting articles and interacting with customers about theatre, but also linking to ticketing systems, commenting on the success of shows, and reminding customers that they only have a few days left to see shows.

I worked for Sierra Repertory Theatre a little over the summer and found that the theatre company has a one-person marketing department that handles both marketing and public relations. The position basically involved maintaining positive relationships with theatre goers and with theatre reviewers at various area newspapers, but it also involves dealing with subscribers and maintaining subscriptions and donations.

In this case, it would seem that marketing and public relations overlap.

What do you think? Can public relations and marketing work together or become one? Are sales driven by public relations?