Vol. 4 , No. 42     October 18, 2005

In this Newsletter:

Get our MarketingProfs RSS Feed here

Premium Content

Elizabeth G. Miller and Barbara Kahn
What Color Is Fuzzy-Wuzzy Brown? How Color and Flavor Names Affect Consumer Choice

Close examination of the colors in a Crayola crayon box reveals an interesting marketing phenomenon. While the original Crayola box contained six colors, Crayola now offers 120 different colors, and the most recent of these (purple heart, razzmatazz, tropical rain forest, fuzzy wuzzy brown) are increasingly ambiguously named.

Such ambiguous color (and flavor) names have been proliferating and are appearing in all sorts of product categories—from ice cream (Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby) to juice drinks (Gatorade's Glacier Freeze) to nail polish (Hard Candy's Trailer Trash).

How do such names impact consumers? Can they influence how consumers perceive products and their likelihood of purchasing them? The authors look at such questions and have a theory to explain how such names impact consumers' choices.

Get the full story.

Please note: This article is available to paid subscribers only. Get more information or sign up here.

Nathan Kaiser
Q&A With Joe Kraus: From Excite.com to Wikis

Excite co-founder Joe Kraus has a new venture, and he likens the technology driving his new business to the Internet in the mid-1990s, when it was still "trapped in the land of the nerds." His new venture is the collaborative publishing tool known as Wikis.

Just what is a Wiki, anyway? And why should you care?

Get the full story.

Matthew Syrett
Do You Really Understand the 80/20 Rule?

Few rules are more widely quoted in marketing today than the 80/20 Rule, which states that 80 percent of your sales come from just 20 percent of your customer base.

Intuitively, it makes sense. But this marketing interpretation of the 80/20 rule is actually flawed.

Get the full story.

A Note to Readers

From Red to Trailer Park Trash

What color is Mother's Love? Old World Romance? Cambridge Heights? Would you be more or less intrigued by them if they were known by their more common name—yellow? Which color would consumers be more inclined to splash on their kitchen walls—Popcorn Kernel or Apricot Poodle?

These questions are central to this week's Premium article by researchers Elizabeth Miller and Barbara Kahn, "What Color is Fuzzy-Wuzzy Brown? How Color and Flavor Names Affect Consumer Choice."

The authors talk about the proliferation of such ambiguously named products across many categories—from ice cream to nail polish—and how wacky color and flavor names affect consumers. If you've ever wondered whatever happened to good-ol' red, this is a fascinating read!

Also this week, don't miss Thursday's 90-minute virtual seminar on Web metrics led by the always knowledgeable (and often entertaining!) Jim Sterne: "Web Analytics All Over Again: What's Old, New, Tried and True."

Jim's a practical and clear thinker, so you can count on him to deliver when he promises to give you (among other things) today's top 10 Web analytics problems, and teach you such things as how to align the Web function with the business strategy and how to select and implement Web analytics tools. And you'll probably have a good time, to boot.

Get seminar details here or email my colleague Roy Young (roy@marketingprofs.com) for more information.

Thanks for stopping by. As always, don't be shy—tell me what you think. Your feedback is both welcome and appreciated.

Until next week,

Ann Handley
ann@marketingprofs.com
Chief Content Officer
MarketingProfs

Last Issue's Top 5

Recent Know-How Exchange Questions/Answers

Jay Bower
Ten Ways Marketing Can Lower Cost per Lead

Management wants more leads, but you can't get an increase in your budget. To meet their demands, you have to lower your cost per lead. You have to either increase response rates or cut your cost per contact.

There are literally dozens of ways to accomplish those goals. Here are 10.

Get the full story.

Kathryn Roy
How to Brand a Midsize B2B Company

Branding is more complicated than it first appears. It is also much more than finding a clever name for something.

Here are the key branding points to remember as demonstrated by marketing's branding of a hypothetical company called MidSize.

Get the full story.

David Meerman Scott
How Web Content Can Shorten a Complex Sale

Savvy marketing professionals understand that sales and marketing must work together to move prospects through the sales pipeline. This is especially important in the complex sale with long decision making cycles and multiple buyers that need to be influenced.

The good news is that Web content drives people through and shortens the sales cycle for any product or service—especially complex ones, that have many steps and take months or even years to complete.

Get the full story.

Sean D'Souza
Barriers to Entry: Do They Improve Customer Qualification?

You wouldn't go on a date with the next person that walked through your door, and yet, you have no qualms in accepting any client that comes your way.

The result? Your customers will push you around; not pay the invoices on time; and end up being the most pedantic, irritating pests on the planet.

The way out is to create barriers. Create a system that filters out customers, before they become headache clients. Here's how.

Get the full story.

Contact

Publisher:Allen Weiss
amw@MarketingProfs.com

Content: Ann Handley
ann@MarketingProfs.com

Strategy and Development:
Roy Young
roy@MarketingProfs.com

Director of Premium Services
Val Frazee
val@MarketingProfs.com


Ad/Sponsor Information:
go here or contact jim@MarketingProfs.com

Subscribe to our Future Newsletters

Not a subscriber? Get the latest web and off-line marketing know-how delivered weekly. Solid ideas backed by theory, experience and understanding. We give it to you without the hype and self-promotion found elsewhere.

Advertising Info

Helping marketers from all industries succeed online through highly effective email technology and professional services.

You received this newsletter at this address (%%email%%) as part of your membership to MarketingProfs.com, or because you subscribed to our newsletter. You can easily change the newsletter format to text or html, change your email address by going here.

To leave our mailing list, simply send us a blank e-mail here.

Copyright © 2005 MarketingProfs.com. All rights reserved.
MarketingProfs, LLC  | 419 N. Larchmont  |  #42 |  Los Angeles, California  |  90004
We protect your privacy
All logos and names are the copyrights of the respective owners