Cable TV Marketing - Big Picture :
Big picture - The Cable industry is faced with unprecedented competition, and in order to respond effectively, operators not only must improve their marketing, but they need to ensure their whole organization is positioned to capture and retain customers. Starting with their approach to marketing, operators could benefit by becoming more innovative and aggressive, says Bruce Leichtman of Leichtman Research Inc. “I think one of the reasons DBS providers always score better in satisfaction studies is the fact that consumers feel they had a choice in picking that service,” Leichtman explains. “They don't feel they have a choice with cable, and cable operators don't stress that enough. They've spent all the money to upgrade their networks and have all these services to offer. They should talk about that proudly and repeatedly.”

Marketing budgets - The total amount MSOs are spending on marketing is up because revenue is up. But most operators say they're not spending any more percentage-wise (most spend between 2% and 4% of total revenue on marketing) than they did ten years ago. The big difference today is scale and reach. But operators are marketing more smartly. New product launches going forward may have smaller audiences and so operators will need to use more finesse and make necessary shifts in marketing budgets. Some industry watchers believe marketing budgets for cable operators remain lower than they should be, especially considering the level of competition the industry faces today. “The amount of money operators spend on marketing today is one of the industry's biggest challenges,” Leichtman says. “The industry has always been on the low end of the spending pendulum when it comes to selling their services. In the early days, all they had to sell was one product. Today they have several and they have competitors that are selling much the same thing and spending more to sell them.” That said, many operators are hiring ad agencies to handle their marketing efforts, making the ads more slick and professional looking.

Competitive Marketing - Several insiders believe Cable companies need to continue investing more in marketing if they want to compete effectively against DBS and the RBOCs [Regional Bell Operating Companies].” Michael Goodman, an analyst with Boston-based Yankee Group, concurs. “Competition from DBS opened a lot of operators' eyes when it comes to spending time, money and energy on marketing,” he says. “But they're going to have to become even more sophisticated marketers if they want to go up against the RBOCs. That means spending more money and concentrating on their image today rather than waiting for the telephone companies to do the same thing the DBS companies did to cable — create the perception, leaving the cable operators on the defensive.” With DirecTV, Echostar and the RBOCs continuing their aggressive march into Cable's territory, it will be imperative for Cable marketing to not only be savvy and innovative, but it must meet the competition on every level.

Organizational approach - But successful marketing is more than just a bunch of shiny new toys and a repeated message. “It's providing a good product at a reasonable price point,” Goodman says. “It's a presence in the community. It's good customer service.” Indeed, marketing can't stand on its own, asserts Leichtman. “If you're promising good service or you're attacking your competitor's service, you better be delivering on your promises and do what you say you're going to do or it's all going to backfire.” Cable's reputation problems — mostly service related — can't be solved with an advertising campaign. They have to be solved by providing better service and delivering on their promises.” Aside from having the right product mix, packaging and pricing, this includes better training, CSR/installer focus and orientation, retention programs, CRM capabilities and a corporate culture that represents its dedication to the customer.

Fundamentals:
The basics - In general, the keys to good marketing include targeting, frequency, consistency and tracking. These principles apply to the Cable industry. It's the cable marketer's job to define what the technologies mean to the consumer's everyday life, to weed through the clutter of technology, to eliminate the fear and to build the excitement for new products enabled by technology. How is this done? For starters, their marketing and advertising efforts have to communicate the benefits of each individual product as well as the benefit of one-stop shopping through the cable operator. This has to be done before they can convince subscribers that they have the best product and the best value proposition. Marketers should always be thinking about how the attributes of their products benefit the consumer and communicate that through compelling creative work.

Targeting and consistency - Then, Cable marketing should be targeting and selling the right products to the right segments through the most efficient channels. Marketers should ask themselves what is the return on investment on this campaign? Which promotional offers deliver high response rates and solid retention rates? What is the probable lifetime value of customer X versus customer Y? In essence, they should be looking for insight into profitability at the customer level to ensure they sell the right combination of products with the right offers to maximize their efforts. Next, Cable marketers need to stay focused on communicating cable's value and consistently reinforce the benefits of all this new technology through all forms of messaging. Over time, Cablers can create awareness and understanding, which will help drive customers to try these new features and products. Then, they can promote repeat usage, which ultimately leads to more loyal customers.

Organizational support - Of course, a successful marketing requires more than just a strong marketing campaign. Piquing customer interest is important, but so is being able to provide the information customers need to make informed decisions. This is where training is critical. All point-of-contact personnel must be intimately familiar with the company's marketing efforts so they can effectively communicate how and why it's relevant to individual customers. Ultimately, cable marketing's success depends on understanding these principles as well as their ability to adapt to the changing environment.

Focus on retention - If there is a choice between spending on acquisition vs spending on retention, it's a no-brainer. The golden rule of retention states that the cost between converting a new customer vs. retaining an existing one is established as approximately 6 to 1. That means retention is not only critical from a customer satisfaction viewpoint, but a financial one too. Essentially, there are two types of churn: that which you can effect, and that which you cannot. Those you cannot effect result because something happens in the subscriber household's life. Those you can effect will show up in your operational data. This is where marketers should focus. What is the common link between downgrades and disconnects? Service calls, truck rolls, or is it simply the length of time they've been a subscriber? Research indicates that the highest number of downgrades occur within the first three months following digital installation. To mitigate digital churn, marketers should help CSRs provide their customers with educational opportunities to enhance their understanding of the service and reinforce their purchase decision.

Challenges for Cable TV Marketing:
New landscape; today vs yesterday - The cable industry has entered a new chapter in its history. Ten years ago, Cable marketers focused their efforts on video products such as basic, expanded basic, premium channels and pay-per-view. Occasionally, there was a new product to promote like the Sega Channel. Shortly thereafter, led by TCI, Cable operators started launching multiplexed channels on a Digital Cable platform. As they upgraded their networks for two-way capacity in the following years, they could roll out High Speed Data services. By 2000, most operators were looking at adding more product offerings like Video On Demand and Interactive TV. Today, aside from Digital Cable and High Speed Data, Cable TV companies have a plethora of products and services they are offering, including Cable-based telephony, Video On Demand, Subscription Video On Demand, High Definition TV, Digital Video Recorders and soon widespread, next generation phone services based on Voice Over Internet Protocol. Add to that the capabilities of new set-top boxes along with home networks and other new services, and you have a vastly different portfolio to market compared to year's past. But marketers are not only faced with communicating the features and benefits of more products and services while enduring the constant impact of fierce competition, they are essentially saddled with harvesting investments made in the last several years to get the maximum benefit from new products, in terms of both pure revenue and in retention benefits. It's up to the Cable marketer to turn these opportunities into businesses, investments into profits, and potential customers into loyal ones.

Today's consumer is overloaded with messaging - Today's consumers are reeling from overload, not only in terms of time constraints and too much work, but because they have too many choices and too many messages being thrown at them from all types of media. The messages with the best chance of sticking in consumers' minds are those that appeal to them personally, those that are relevant to their lives and lifestyles. People want to do business with companies that understand them, cater to them and care about them. Cable marketers should be focused on speaking to their consumers in a style and language that is relevant to them. They need to effectively communicate the benefits of the new cable services before expecting to convince them that Cable offers the best products and value proposition. It's the cable marketer's job to define what the technologies mean to the consumer's everyday life. For instance, it's not enough to just say that video-on-demand is convenient and entertaining, people need to know what it is, how it works and how it helps improve their lives. This message is critical, and its focus and clarity are important. It also needs to be simple and sensible in order for customers to grasp the concept quickly. Concentrating on these factors will help Cable marketers get their message through to the increasingly inundated consumer.

The main challenges facing Cable marketers - Distributors large and small face strategic and growth issues that challenge marketers. These strategic issues do not include the day-to-day operating issues that operators face in dealing with customers, employees, partners and so forth. For starters, Cable operators must continue to be more innovative and aggressive in their marketing approach. Marketers need to really listen to the customer and develop needs-based consumer choice and control, along with matching value propositions that are compelling and hit home hard. In any event, the list of challenges is long, including:

- Continuously improving Cable's price-value perceptions and conveying benefits of products
- Ensuring customer retention against aggressive direct-broadcast satellite providers
- Fierce DSL competition from Regional Bell Operating Companies
- Migrating more customers to Digital Cable platform
- Explaining the concept of Digital Video Recorders
- Increasing Video On Demand take rates
- Preparing to market telephone services
- Improving multicultural marketing strategies
- Lessening customer confusion
- Unifying branding and messaging strategies
- Ensuring marketing is savvy enough to edge competition
- Increasing segmentation and tracking techniques
- Designing new customer metrics and an understanding of how new services affect consumer behavior
- Continuing diligent training of all customer-contact employees

In addition, Cable marketers are tasked with educating consumers about how the digital environment is changing the television experience, and communicate the benefits of the digital world. Translating those benefits into valuable messages for consumers is key, just as it is to educate consumers and reduce customer confusion. Marketers need to know exactly who their customer segments are, how much are they willing to spend, and how do they want to spend it. They will also need to employ unified branding and messaging strategies to consistently convey the features and benefits of their products and how these products can help satisfy and improve consumers' lives. Marketers will also need to know which promotions to run and how often. They will need to review frequency from a cost standpoint, from a consumer perspective, i.e. what amount is tolerable, and from an effectiveness perspective, i.e. which promotions garner new customers and which ones retain current customers. In the end, working through these challenges will mean that marketing is boosting customer retention, keeping customers loyal and increasing their value to the business.

Being a smart distributor - Historically, technological constraints with bandwidth (channel capacity) have been the barriers for Cable operators and programmers. Many of the network folks had ideas and services they wanted to provide, but technology and bandwidth did not allow for that. Now that technology and capacity have assisted in overcoming that hurdle, a new challenge has presented itself; garnering marketing shelf space and distributor "mindshare." Now that programmers have multiple-channel offerings, they have created even more decisions for Cable operators, or the distributors of the content, to make regarding promotions and resources. For instance, there are a variety of ways distributors can promote programming, including cross channel, guide advertising, bill inserts and direct mail. How the resources are divided and used varies, but operators are finding they are being pushed like never before. Marketers' in-boxes are filled with promotions, their time is taxes and they have an array of new products to represent. A Cable network representative that used to take a one-hour meeting to sell-in marketing programs for one channel now uses that same hour for sell-in initiatives for multiple channels. This has forced Cable marketers to think differently. They know they must have some sense of how often they can run promotions, and which promotions will work best. In essence, as partners with an array of companies, Cable marketers are being smarter about prioritizing their time, resources and marketing efforts to ensure they maximize the return they see in terms of dollars and happy customers.

Segmentation, Profiling and CRM:
Importance of segmentation - Market segmentation refers to the way a business selects groups of people who will be most receptive to their product. Segmenting a market generally means dividing a larger market into sub-markets based upon different needs or product preferences. A key factor in competitive success is focusing on little differences that give a marketing edge and are important to customers. Market segmentation also matches consumer differences with potential or actual buying behavior. It may prove more profitable to develop smaller market segments into a target segment. In the past, the most frequent methods of segmenting included demographic variables such as age, sex, race, income, occupation, education, household status, and geographic location. As time went on, new variable were introduced such as psychographics that include life-style, activities, interests, and opinions; and behavior bases which defines product knowledge, usage patterns, attitudes, responses and product benefits. Today, much segmentation involves combinations of these methods. No matter how segments are defined, however, they are characterized by considerable change over time. IN any event, while large companies usually segment their markets by conducting extensive market research projects, the Cable industry hasn't always been at the forefront of segmentation. That has been changing. With the increasingly competitive landscape and an array of new products, Cable marketers are spending much more time on market segmentation.

Power of segmentation - Segmentation not only increases marketing opportunities for increased revenue and retention, but it leads to other opportunities. For instance, some household-level market segmentation also links you to other information, such as syndicated data, which provides much of the same information as internal surveys at a lower cost, and at quicker turnaround times. That's because the research is already completed and available for purchase. Companies like Simmons Market Research Bureau, Scarborough Research and MRI afford marketers detailed consumer research findings at a reasonable cost. This information includes extensive consumer behavioral data on media and Internet usage, retail shopping patterns and lifestyles. This means Cable marketers can go beyond understanding their customers just in terms of how they interact with their business. Now, they can know what Cable channels they watch, what magazines they read, if they use the high-speed Internet or are likely to be a satellite-dish owner, and more. This information helps marketers build a media strategy, develop creative copy and create strategic marketing partnerships that are relevant to their customers and prospects. And segmentation is a great way for Cable companies to differentiate themselves in today's highly competitive marketplace. This is what direct marketing is all about, marketing to the demographic and psychographic makeup of each specific household.

Segmenting the customer base - Understanding the basic segments of your current customers and their lifetime value is the necessary foundation of any customer strategy for acquiring customers, growing those relationships and keeping them longer. By understanding the customers most likely to purchase Cable products or services, marketers can focus their marketing programs to get the highest possible response and return on your marketing investment. The first step to segmenting the customer base is to define the initial, major customer value groups. What is the product or service benefit sought by the customer? What benefits are customers seeking? Quality? Low price? Convenience? Sometimes it is difficult to accurately estimate the size of the customer group. Some customers are interested in two or three benefits, not just a single one. Either way, knowing customers needs and wants is basic to successful marketing. The key is to identify the benefits customers want from Cable products and then to create marketing to address the need. Unified marketing efforts should be directed toward increasing customer awareness of those benefits. In terms of further segmentation, customer bases can be divided by customer use of products or services, such as: nonusers, partial-users, potential users, first-time users and regular users of a product. Other markets may be segmented by usage rate. Are customers light, medium or heavy users of the product or service? Heavy users may constitute a small portion of the market but a major percentage of sales volume. Each target group requires a separate marketing plan. One marketing effort will probably not cover all the bases. Potential users and regular users require different types of marketing efforts. Furthermore, at any point in time customers are in various stages of readiness for a product or service. Some are unaware of the product, some aware, some informed, some interested, some desirous and some intend to purchase. The customer's stage of readiness makes a significant difference in designing a marketing program.

Profiling the customer base - Once marketers have identified the segments of customers who use and value their products and services, the next step is to understand the important characteristics of these individuals. While Cable companies have not always had the luxury of easy customer data retrieval or intelligent CRM software, profiling customers is still too critical to be overlooked. Understanding unique customer characteristics empowers a marketing group with invaluable insight. These profiling techniques help marketers define deeper, predictive customer profiles for more precise interactions to improve program effectiveness, increase repeat business and earn the loyalty of your customers. In other words, the more marketers know about their most and least profitable customers, their purchase patterns, buying behaviors and demographic profiles, the more intimate and profitable their relationships with these customers become. Again, the key with successful profiling starts with analyzing market segments. Cable marketers need to know where do customers differ - is it geographic area, demographic characteristics, social class, stage in family life cycle, personality, self-image or benefits sought (such as convenience, time saving, independence from chores or buying behavior)? Also, they must consider frequency or regularity of purchase, amount of purchase, brand loyalty, attitudes toward the product or brand, use of cash, check or credit card, or customer's desire for personal friendship with business personnel. For instance, how many customers pay for HBO and High Speed Data but don't use VOD?

One-to-some instead of mass marketing - Most Cable companies aren't in a position to create one-to-tone marketing strategies. They are taxed for time and they don't have those kinds of budgets. Still, there are ways to effectively market their services without relying on mass-marketing techniques. The first step begins with segmentation and profiling. Ideally, the object for marketers is to know their customers and prospects well enough to present each of them with the right offer in the right language at the right time is a great concept, but it's virtually impossible to implement cost-effectively. Instead, Cable marketers should be looking at "one-to-some" market segmentation. In this scenario, the segmentation defines groups of consumers, where every member of a given group resembles other members in that group, and every member differs from members of other groups. In other words, the groups are homogeneous enough for creating specific messages, and large enough to capture cost efficiencies in printing, mailing and the typical marketing tactics. The benefits of this approach far outweighs geodemography - where neighborhoods might have been relatively homogeneous in the 1940s and 1950s, but they certainly aren't today. The key to effective one-to-some marketing is segmentation using "household-based" segments, or grouping similar household types together. Today it doesn't matter where a home is located. What drives consumer behavior is the demographic, lifestyle, attitudinal and behavioral makeup of the household. This strategy can help make the best use of segmentation and profiling efforts while maximizing the effectiveness of the marketing budget.

Versioning - Coupled with one-to-some marketing techniques, versioning, or customizing marketing communications by groupings, is a necessary technique that helps marketers increase response rates and maximize customer relationships. Versioning can be an extension of of the one-to-some marketing approach, where messages, value propositions and even the offers of a marketing campaign are customized by segment. The difference between one-to-some marketing and versioning is that one-to-some can involved specific campaigns, messages and offers directed at different audiences, where versioning can be one campaign and offer that is customized by segment. In other words, a direct mail piece can be part of the same campaign with the same offer, only it has specific information that is pertinent to that group, such as channel information.

The importance of CRM - Customer relationship management (CRM) is a business strategy usually built around a corporate software application that enables a company to select and manage its customers to optimize long-term value. CRM applications can enable effective Customer Relationship Management, provided that an enterprise has the right leadership, strategy, and culture. CRM applications can be complex and often need fine tuning over time, but when used properly, they pay dividends in a big way. They can directly impact acquisition, retention, sell in, incremental revenue and ARPU. Of course to do this, CRM applications must be successfully applied to the Cable environment, and it must be effectively used by the participants. Typically, it is marketing that leads the charge of CRM efforts, focusing on customer analysis, segmentation, modeling and behavioral study. This makes sense because marketing is the organization that's often the most articulate about the business value and ROI of customer focus, the business processes that need to change to improve the customer experience, and the information required to make the company more intelligent about its customers, their behaviors, and their preferences.

Cable is new to CRM - Many of the leading Cable operators are quickly learning that the answer to combating this competition, or at least a large part of the equation, is the kind of database marketing analysis that can be found in CRM applications. The Cable industry has always been a friend of direct marketing, sending millions of pieces a year into the mail stream, but it's database marketing and the opportunity that leveraging the enabling analytical technology that is a newly evolving strategy within the industry. At the same time database strategies are evolving, Cablers are also learning that their operational systems are not good tools for database marketing, especially in light of the advanced capabilities of marketing database technology in recent years. Presently, there are just a handful of companies offering billing systems for the Cable industry, and each one does a good job at what it's been designed to do, which is be an operational system. These systems were not designed to, nor generally are they any good at, being marketing databases. Making the upgrade to technology which is designed for strategic marketing analysis is an effective competitive advantage against competition. Marketing database technology can quickly and interactively capture, update, and analyze information allowing the timely implementation of sound strategies for acquisition, retention and premium channel marketing.

What CRM can mean for Cable operators - As cable further deploys video, voice and data products of the digital, high-speed, on-demand, interactive or home-networked kind, operators must take their customer-care and field operations to the next level, with CRM as the foundation. Moreover, because Cable is a highly transactional business, it makes sense for MSO marketers to add customer relationship management to their bag of tricks. Customers reveal plenty of information about themselves during routine transactions with their cable companies, whether it's on the phone or in the home. If Cablers harnessed this information, along with past purchase and payment history, it would help them sell the most profitable bundle of services to a more satisfied customer. Moreover, as they continue targeting the messages, offers and product mixes to consumers, Cable marketers could employ database and campaign management software to track response rates, monitor churn, and enhance communications with CSRs. CRM can also help marketers know which customers to spend more money to retain, and which customers will value which products. This is critical information to know in an increasingly competitive environment. As MSOs deploy CRM solutions, they would want to create a central repository for all operator information, i.e customer records, a data warehouse, set-top box activity in the home, transactional activity, etc. Some envision a system that utilizes the data to be proactively involved in helping CSRs. For example, when a customer calls an employee, data on the person's account would enable a "recommendation engine" to flash recommended products or services the employee could try marketing the to consumer before the call ends, and telling how such an appeal could be presented. Besides displaying what operators could offer in reaction to specific situations, the engine offers information on whether DBS and other multichannel vendors can offer the same thing in their area — and recommendations on what to do in that circumstance.

The next frontier for CRM - There are developments in CRM which are particularly noteworthy. One of the newest frontiers is Real Time Marketing. While there have been a number of CRM tools available to help companies make offers and suggest products to customers on the fly in the past, new "real time" marketing tools have arrived which allow marketers to combine your knowledge of the customer's past behavior and profitability with current information (concurrently with the call or Web session), allowing the CSR to adapt and make offers that would perhaps trigger a purchase or result in another desired response (e.g. avoid closure of an account). Another development is the creation of Marketing Data Marts. These are data warehouses that enable next generation marketing. Marketing Data Marts typically have three major applications. The first is to provide customer intelligence "on the fly." This application is typically accomplished through a business intelligence tool, usually an OLAP (on line analytical processing) or a reporting tool, such as Microstrategy, Cognos, Business Objects or Brio. The customer intelligence component permits a marketing analyst or manager, without programming skills, to query the database to understand patterns of behavior, determine customer segments, perform exploratory analyses, and derive customer insights. The second application involves more detailed analytics, and is often referred to as data mining. This function is typically performed by highly skilled statistical analysts. They use applications like cluster analysis to segment customers or regression models to predict the likely future behavior of individual customers (based on their past history). The third application of marketing data marts are campaign management systems. Having become very popular over the past three years, they permit a user (after some training) to automate the selection of customers for various offers and messages. The collection results are based on simple or complex decision rules. They can be used to create control groups to estimate true incremental effectiveness. Additionally, they can measure the response of each customer or segment to each offer. Campaign Management applications can either be purchased as stand alone software (Unica, Protagona, SAS) or as part of integrated CRM Suites (Siebel, PeopleSoft, SAP, E.piphany). All said, industry watchers don't foresee MSOs fully engaged with CRM until 2006 at the earliest, when VOD and ITV reach critical mass and operators can pull lots of subscriber information from set-top converters.

Branding and Messaging:
Importance of Branding - The importance of branding has grown significantly in the past 10 years. As markets become ever more competitive, companies must fight harder to ensure their products stand out from the crowd. Effective exploitation, management, and protection of the intellectual property associated with brands are key to achieving this. The significance of branding has become so accepted that increasingly it is recognized as a tangible, rather than an intangible, asset. Proper branding creates loyalty, and loyalty ensures the long term health of the business. Likewise, proper branding ensures consistent delivery across organizational units, so all parts of the company are aware of the brand strategy and understand why adherence is important. Brands are valuable to companies because they function as a powerful decision-making tool for customers. If people get what they expect from a brand, the brand is reinforced and the successful decision-making behavior is likely to be repeated. As Sergio Zyman, The Coca-Cola Co.'s former chief marketing officer, said: "A brand is a company's most valuable asset." A product is simply a commodity; a brand attracts loyalty, differentiates itself from competition, and commands a higher price.

Branding in the Cable industry - In the past, Cable operators have rarely spent the time or money necessary to really brand their companies' names and images. There have been attempts, but no company has been successful provided a constant theme or message. This has allowed consumers to build their own perceptions of the industry and their local cable company rather than the cable operator actively shaping those opinions. It's put the cable operator on the defensive, which is never a good place for a marketer to be. That said, in the past few years, some MSOs have made great strides. Comcast and Cox are among the best when it comes to corporate branding initiatives. For the most part, Cable companies know they not only have to make sure our customers know what products we have to offer, but after years of faltering in an increasingly competitive environment, they also need to enhance the image of their brand to build trust and loyalty with our customers. Cablers are starting to understand that strategies need to be unified. The see that every single communication, whether it's a newspaper ad, promotion or a bill stuffer, must drive home the overall branding strategy. They realize they need to build their brand over time. In a sea of choices, Cable operators know they must stand for something in the mind of their viewer, advertiser and affiliate, just as surely as Volvo stands for safety or Dove soap stands for moisturizing. The only way to do that is through a clear branding strategy that employs consistency and repetition.

Importance of effective messaging strategies - As an extension of their branding strategy, companies should have a messaging strategy which offers a properly systemized, top-down, entirely consistent, detailed documentation of the messages that completely defines a company in its market places. The messaging strategy should employ a hierarchy of messages, beginning with a single corporate mission statement at the top, working through a suite of supporting, evangelical marketing messages, then making its way down to product specific supporting messages. And for each of these messages in this hierarchy, there should be a couple of paragraphs of well crafted, fact-filled supporting copy to truly empower marketing professionals both within the organization and without. Such message guidelines are every bit as crucial to successful corporate marketing and corporate branding as design guidelines. In effect, the message guidelines should be the foundation - and discipline - for every relevant above and below the line marketing activity. Multiple agencies, for example, can be given the message guidelines and instructed to ensure that every piece of business communication articulates these messages to the target audiences. Similarly, internal marketing professionals, even internationally, can be directed to 'sing from the same hymn sheet' - precisely because the hymn sheet now exists. The whole point of creating message guidelines is to ensure that strong, consistent visual brand identities are matched by equally powerful, consistent marketing messages.

Messaging in the Cable industry - In the past, Cable companies have not had unified branding and messaging strategies. With the advent of advanced products and fierce competition, this is slowly starting to change. Cablers are realizing that the focus and clarity of messages are exceedingly important. They know the messages must cut through the clutter of every day stimuli bombardment that consumers are facing today. Moreover, Cable marketers are ensuring that messages make sense to customers and tap into a consumer need. For instance, they know it's not enough to just say that video-on-demand is convenient and entertaining, people need to know what it is, how it works and how it helps improve their lives. This message is critical, and its ability to deliver this information is critical. Likewise, the message also needs to be simple and sensible in order for customers to grasp the concept quickly. Testing and evaluating creative becomes vital at this point. But it doesn't stop there. In terms of the bigger picture, there is much more at stake. Cable operators know that with the aggressive tactics of satellite providers like DirecTV as well as the savvy of RBOCs like Verizon, they need to have comprehensive strategies in place that integrates all their marketing efforts as well as their promotional communications to convey a consistent, unified message and image. Such unified strategies have never been more important. For one, Cable operators have the lowest satisfaction ratings of major telecom services, meaning they have to make up for lost ground in a competitive marketplace. Likewise, with an array of new products in their portfolio, an integrated approach to branding and messaging is essential.

MESSAGING FRAMEWORK:
A marketing message framework includes the establishment of top level positioning messages and the development key messages and supporting information.

Develop the message hierarchy:
· Develop just a few (typically 4-6) corporate marketing messages, which define the most effective 'below the line' identity for your company addressing these communities of interest.
· Develop supporting marketing messages which reflect and reinforce your 'above the line' brand identity.
· Develop product marketing messages which, again, reflect and reinforce your corporate marketing messages. When this work has been done, various implementations can be chosen. In each case the final deliverable is designed to meet specific marketing objectives for specific communities of interest.

Writing the messages:
· Capture attention. What’s the most compelling aspect of your message? Put it first.
· Hold interest. Reward your readers with meaningful, need-to-know information.
· Answer questions. Figure out the questions readers are asking. Answer them!
· Overcome objections. Be persuasive. Provide details. Reassure. You know the objections to whatever it is you’re promoting, selling, explaining. Don’t avoid addressing them.
· Compel action. What do you want your readers to do? Tell them.

Methodology:
· Write in the first or second person - You know this. But it never hurts to restate it. Speak directly to your readers
· Find an authentic voice - Your company has a personality. Does your Web site? Capture the essence of your organization in your copy. Use an authentic voice that connects with your readers. It can be persuasive, humorous, warm, reassuring, sassy, informed, explanatory
· Use an inverted-pyramid style - Put the most important information first, as in a newspaper article. Then progressively disclose detail
· Write in self-contained, clearly labeled blocks - Put important information in headlines, subheads and short bulleted or numbered lists. Then assume this is the only content your readers will read
· Write so readers can scan - Write short paragraphs without sacrificing depth of content. (Aim for 30-50 words each.)
· Be consistent with wording, messages - Consistency helps readers navigate. Don’t use unnecessary synonyms because you’re worried about repeating yourself.
· Remove doubt - Other obstacles in the sales process that you need to overcome early on include skepticism, mistrust, and pessimism. The ideal marketing message would remove any doubt in the customer's mind about quality, competitive prices, ongoing customer support, and the customer's ability to get a refund if they're dissatisfied.

Implementation channels for marketing messages:
· Customer communication channels including web/online, media, print, direct mail, spec sheets and other collateral
· Competitive analyses, including competitive positioning PR pack, press backgrounders, sound bytes, etc
· Corporate and product sales presentations
· Internal communiations, newsletters
· Thought leadership 'spins' for different vertical markets, including synopses of controversial opinion articles
· Marketing guidelines document, including content templates for all collateral
· Internal positioning documents to communicate the positioning to all employees

Testing marketing messages
1. Start with a set message, a set group of consumers to address or telephone, and create a method of response
2. Work out a normal response rate to use as a benchmark
3. Develop alternative messaging through various forms of research
4. Test the new message or creative with a small group
5. If the results are positive, a larger group can be tested
6. If the results turn out to be a lot better than what the standard is, then the message/creative can be extended across the whole group
7. The challenge: time and resources. Each turn at the process can take weeks or months. Moreover, at each point, new material may have to be designed, more mailing sent, etc. Then there is the wait for results, entering the results, analyzing what can be changed, running surveys or focus groups asking people about the new and old designs, and then do more mailings. Telephone calls are more flexible, but they can cost more per person reached.

Road Ahead: Ways for Marketers to Succeed:
Develop a unified approach - For instance: Is there harmony between top level branding, messaging and product ads? Strategic marketing should be helping to build the brands, but is every single communication driving home the overall strategy? Is the strategy being employed with consistency and repetition? What does your brand stand for in the mind of your customer?

Identify the best offers through segmentation, testing and tracking - For instance: Which customers are willing to pay for what products? What's the return on a free month of high-speed data? Does a longer-term discount at a lower rate yield a higher overall cash flow per customer? Is there a diminishing point of return to keep sending offers (in many cases the same offers) to the same households? In one case study, however, it was proven that activation increased after the third campaign to the same household. Are you tracking this?

Fine-tune the creative - For instance: Comb through marketing messages. Streamline the structure where possible. Eliminate words. Ensure the creative does it's job. For example, do cable ads capture the attention of the consumer? Does the creative increase their understanding of the product, and does it increase their intent to purchase?

Form long-term relationships with viewers - For instance: What are your customer segments? Why? What motivates them? Also, are you learning how to connect with those "occasionally committeds" who come once or twice a month? The goal here is to convert as many subscribers as possible into loyal viewers who will be advocates for your network.
Make things simple - For instance: Can the customer understand the product feature, benefit or concept in one brief line? How quick can customers assimilate the information? How well are the concepts of new products such as VOD and DVRs being translated into benefits that will satisfy or help customers in their daily lives?

Innovate - For instance: Are your creative tactics effectively cutting through a mass of media messages in order to have an impact? What can be done differently? What about product influencers? Can guerilla tactics help? Are there any partnerships that can create awareness and possible produce new business? Can you coupling the traditional direct mail and cross channel methods with e-mail and unusual telephone campaigns, such “Customer Care” call campaign where a company called customers and walked them through the steps needed to order on-demand movies, in order to stimulate awareness and sales?

Create better measurement for ROI - For instance: Can efforts be evaluated for return on investment, just like every single other aspect of your business? Can the company employ some kind of marketing performance management (MPM) program? What can be done to improve the ability to take accurate measurements? How can marketers help themselves benchmark their marketing performance against competitors? Many companies don't measure performance for marketing activities surrounding branding or sales and marketing collateral, or even market research programs. What can be done to change this?

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