Do you remember the original Looney Tunes cartoons? The characters were memorable. Bugs Bunny was always the smart aleck. Daffy Duck was the self-interested wannabe. The Coyote and Roadrunner were just two guys doing their jobs. And, while Coyote's tactics may have varied they were always to predictable results.

One aspect of the Coyote versus Roadrunner series that piqued my curiosity was the odd sequence when Roadrunner's legs would spin seemingly in vain until he would run away. It wasn't until later that I thought perhaps he was building momentum (and maybe showing off) until his feet would get traction and he could speed away the victor. There was never really any doubt that he would zip down the highway to better pastures. I've since learned that a lot of moments in life and business are like these sequences. We recognize being in peril, get the wheels turning, and keep them moving until we eventually catch traction and make the getaway. I believe that we can apply this to marketing efforts in an economic downturn.

If "Marketing" is the spinning legs of the Roadrunner and "Sales" his feet then how do you keep the legs moving in anticipation of the ground rising and Sales getting traction? In the Internet age there are several methods. They include optimizing your web site for Search Engines and extend to moving ad dollars to the less expensive and precisely measurable paid search solutions (i.e. Google and Yahoo Search, Facebook, and YouTube). It involves enabling audience preference for how and when to communicate with you by enabling them to export content to their preferred venues or moving some of your own message or content to the venues where new clients roam. It includes finding ways to improve the integration of your offline and online efforts (the left and right legs of Marketing) to improve synergies and build that all important pipeline of momentum for Sales.

For aging brands, this might be the season to explore how you want to be positioned when your feet catch ground again. Explore your brand, its message, and relevance in order to improve alignment with a new age of buyers, sellers, members, and partners. In the end, we're all just a couple of guys and gals going to work. The question is, "are we Coyote or Roadrunner?" Will we work the same old angles from Acme company toward the predictably (poor) results? Or, build momentum in anticipation of getting positive traction and speeding away to victory? Here's your first clue:

Beep. Beep. I'm tim@gobigfishgo.com

First, what an historic event we've witnessed as America elected its first black President. Regardless of party affiliation this is one moment to reflect on the idea that anything is possible here. I'm also reminded of our founding. Our form of government was established on the idea its people would be citizens not subjects. Not subjects under rule with limited prospects but rather citizens with unlimited potential. I digress. Let's get to business.

There will be a multitude of lessons that businesses and organizations alike look to take from the recent presidential campaign. Let's consider one here: the customer (voter) and the brand.

President-Elect Obama's campaign made the leap from CRM (customer relationship management) to CMR (customer-managed relationship) better than almost any commercial marketer. Especially, with younger voters.

Part of connecting with the under 30 audience was the campaign's realization that young people want to be in control of their relationship with a brand. They want to customize and personalize it as they can their television viewing with a DVR, their music and video experience via iTunes, their facebook page with their preferred content and connections, and yes their politics.

The campaign enabled personalization of the experience via its web site with its use of tagging, discussion boards, blogs, photo uploads, RSS feeds, video posts, and other interactive elements. The campaign went further with innovations like iPhone applications (created for free by Obama voters), and the user/voter option to communicate via email or text message.

Many of you serve the same demographic as the Obama campaign's audience. You wonder about disconnect and wrestle with the challenges of retention through the collegiate years. Of course any organization must be able to demonstrate relevance. The content of the member or customer experience with the organization matters. Yet, without trivializing the candidate or his ideas, the Obama experience was considerably about the brand and brand management. The brand: visual, spoken, and actionable - carefully managed by the campaign but customer/voter preference enabled experience.

How does your audience interact with your brand? Is it yours or theirs? Let's talk about it. I'm tim@gobigfishgo.com.

When something previously deemed emerging has managed to completely invade the mainstream, you know it's time to cast aside remaining doubts and fears and start claiming your share of the market.

I'm referring to the triumph of the online revolution with over 1.4 billion people now online. It's resulted in a total beat down of the offline world for product development and innovation. It leaves the 'offline world' merely getting the budget and ingenuity scraps for everything from merchandising to entertainment to communications to politics.
Offline is now so intertwined with online that new products, services, and ideas are just waiting to be dreamed up by ...you!

A recent Trend Watchers report defines it this way, "More and more, the offline world (aka the real world) is adjusting to and mirroring the increasingly dominant online world, from tone of voice to product development to business processes to customer relationships."

Consider Audio Video maker JVC. Their most recent nod to our new reality is found in their Everio camcorder. The miniature system limits the length of your video masterpiece to 10 minutes (YouTube file length limit) and then uploads it to YouTube with just the touch of one button.

You may not be a product manufacturer. But, it's not especially difficult to apply OFF=ON and ON=OFF with any brand. Consider the following things that you could begin doing today:

1. Incorporate online symbols into one of your next designs.
2. Enable your customers to design something from scratch online for you to bring into the real world.
3. Add any kind of online functionality or access feature to existing physical products.
4. Study and then incorporate winning characteristics of living and doing business online into your offline processes.
5.Infuse your campaigns with the language of the online-versed.
6.Give your online brand an offline presence.
7. Hop on the mobile-meets-web bandwagon (i.e. introduce an iPhone app)

Join our network and let's discuss this online. Or, call me at the number at the bottom of this web page. I can work off line, too :)

Washington and the Wall Street types are pointing fingers at one another inside the current economic storm. Talking-Heads are hyping the "R" word. Maybe it's time to think about your web site and how it will survive an economic down turn. Or, at the very least it's time to consider a few improvements that might buffer your site and possibly by extension your business from the waves of hysteria.

Let's jump right in.

1. Improve site navigation. It's a "right there in plain view" sort of consideration that works best when you objectively evaluate your site navigation from the audience point-of-view. Think "find ordering information", or "find make a donation", or "find the solution to my problem".

2. Streamline the buying process. I used to laugh at the "you're always next in line" sign at Wal-Mart cash registers. Who wants to be next in line? I want to be loading my car and getting out of the parking lot. Count the clicks it takes to get from your Main Page to the Order Confirmation page and then decide which steps you can eliminate on the way to your client ordering your highest margin product.

3. Speed site load time. See number two. I won't wait.

4. Improve Search Engine Optimization. If your organization is the type that looks to manage sales and advertising expenses during the lean times consider how you might move your advertising and promotion to a measurable medium; search engines. Invest in an SEO review. Implement the suggestions. And, move flexible dollars to search marketing.

5. Focus and simplify content. Many of the folks I meet with are trying to do too much on their web sites. For most of our clients a boutique like approach is better than the busy department store. Consider a lean approach to design and content making sure that your value proposition is clearly communicated and that your most strategic products and services are on display.

6. YouTube. It's often said that bandwidth and disk space are inexpensive. But, they are not free. Consider how rich content on your web site might be delivered by YouTube. This will move new traffic to your site even as the embedded functionality extends the length of visit on your web pages. And, at the time of this writing there are no fees to host your content on YouTube.

7. Social Networking. Even the greenest marketing student understands the power of referral marketing and when combined with the low cost of participation, social networks like MySpace and Facebook can enable you to stretch your marketing dollars.

I'll stop at 7. For some of you that may prove to be a lucky number. For others it may represent the whole and complete number. In either case, free ideas are good any time. Just keep Bigfish in mind as the consultancy with the know-how to do them. Reach me tim@gobigfishgo.com.