Q&As

Some people view dining at McDonald’s as a way to quickly satisfy hunger. But for others, at least for a few weeks out of the year, it’s a money making opportunity. We’re talking, of course, about the fast food titan’s popular Monopoly game. The Marketing Store has worked with McDonald’s on the game for the past six years, instituting an online component and a successful partnership with Best Buy. We chatted with Chris Hess, account director, and Reed Roussel, vice president of interactive marketing of the Chicago-based agency recently about the challenges of keeping Monopoly hot and fresh.

Laptop Design USA was looking for a few good computer geeks to create a unique design for the cover of a lap top computer.

If it were necessary to cut marketing spending by 10%, would you be able to forecast the impact on sales? Marketers answering yes are part of a small-but-growing crowd.

Marketing has taken the first steps toward accountability, but the journey is long, and most of it lies ahead, not behind. That’s the overarching message from the Association of National Advertisers.

Measurement is a hot topic for marketers today. Everyone is under pressure to demonstrate results, deliver value to their firms and justify budgets.

To summarize campaign effectiveness, marketers need some kind of conclusive metric, such as return on investment. But in B-to-B, when a campaign’s revenue often is sizable compared with its expenses, ROI is problematic.

How this for return on investment? Direct marketers plan to spend an average of $250,000 on database upgrades this year, and four out of five expect the expenditures to pay for themselves, according to Direct magazine’s 2006 database practices survey.

Targeted marketing to customers will drive increased sales and profits, but most companies are overwhelmed by the idea of marketing one to one.

You go to the restaurant. You eat the food. You like the food. You tell your friends. You go back to the restaurant. And if they know your name when you return, well, cheers, right?

Why then, do only seven of the top restaurant chains in the United States bother to have loyalty programs?

So how do you choose where you go out to dinner? Maybe you look for a cozy little bistro with a nice wine list? Or you ponder whether to nosh on upscale Italian or sushi?

If you’re dining with a small child, chance are your criteria runs more along the lines of “What toys do they have this week? Does Burger King still have ‘Superman Returns’ stuff? Which ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ thing does McDonald’s have? Is it the sword? He really wants the sword. Wendy’s has what? Six Flags toys? What the heck are they, action figures of the bald dancing guy?”