Mediaboss Marketing

When I look at the shape, I see a heart. Maybe a heart with a lopsided smile.

Aman Bhutani sees something different: A young girl whos a little bit of a banditwith a ponytail and a patch over her eyewho wants to grow up and be somebody.

The Rorschach test were studying together is GoDaddys new logomark, the Go. Bhutani is CEO of the web-services company, so his interpretation matters. Still, he clearly means it more as a playful possibility than the definitive word on the subject.

GoDaddys customers and potential customers are unlikely to spend much time trying to suss out the deeper meaning of the Go, which, on the most straightforward level, consists of an overlapping, angled, oval-shaped G and O. It sits squarely in the territory of recent streamlined, curvy expressions of corporate values such as Airbnbs Blo, which itself evokes an (upside-down) heart. But GoDaddy has a strong sense of the emotion its trying to evoke with the shape, which is a joint effort between its own design team and two outside branding firms, Lippincott and Koto.

Aman Bhutani [Photo: GoDaddy]It represents the entrepreneurial spirit, explains GoDaddy chief brand officer Cameron Scott. All of our customers have an idea, and they all have initiative. We are there to say, Were here with you for your first step. Were here with you for your next step. And weve got your back every step of the way.'

The introduction of the Go is less the dawn of a new era for GoDaddy than a finishing touch on a brand evolution its been going through for years. The company, which was founded in 1997, grew huge by mass-marketing domain names, web hosting, and related services. (It currently has 77 million domains under registrationmore than 20% of the worlds total.) Along the way, it established an exuberantly wacky personality and became best known for manufacturing controversy through raunchy Super Bowl ads.

After being acquired by a trio of private-equity firms in 2011and then going publica new, more button-downed GoDaddy shed the excess of its old brandas it launched more sophisticated services and increasingly expanded internationally. But it didnt consistently replace it with anything else. At best, it came off as trying to to be mildly quirky without offending anyone; at worst, it was just plain anodyne.

By 2018, the last remnant of GoDaddys legacy brand was its aggressively zany original logomark, a head with a grin, green shades, a yellow star over one ear, and orange waves sprouting, Mohawk-like, from the top. It was highly recognizable, says Scott, but there wasnt nearly as much emotional attachment to the head as I wouldve liked, for how long that wed had it. That year, GoDaddy removed the head from its home page, which wasnt exactly a vote of confidence in its future.

More significantly, GoDaddy got serious about communicating what it was in a way that would help it stand out in a crowded field. (The company competes with small-business web-hosting sites such as Wix and Squarespace, and, increasingly, with other providers of online services such as Shopify and Mailchimp.) It began doing so by emphasizing people: Both the 19 million customers who use its services and the 6,000 customer-service reps who help them do so.

By not conveying anything at all in explicit fashion, the new Go logo steps out of the way. A mark is only as powerful as the brand itself, says CMO Fara Howard. The messages that we communicate, that our community communicates for us, that our products deliver, that our [reperesentatives] communicate on the phone. And so it really gets filled with who we are. This feels like a mark that is ripe to be filled.

To say that GoDaddy has always catered to small businesses doesnt narrow things down that much, since everybody has a different definition of what small business means. In this case, its as small as it gets. Bhutani, who joined GoDaddy in September 2019 after close to a decade at Expedia, says he was drawn to the company because it had cracked the code on something thats been pretty hard to do for large companies, which is to work with a group of customers that can best be described as solopreneurs or microbusinesses.

Many of these companies involve only one or two people; ones that have 10 employees are sizable by GoDaddy standards. They do things such as crafting jewelry, brewing beer, arranging flowers, building furniture, sewing bags, and silkscreening T-shirts.

Once jammed with sales pitches, GoDaddys home page has adopted a clean, modern look more in line with that of competitors such as Squarespace. [Image: Courtesy of GoDaddy]GoDaddy came up with a name for such people: Everyday Entrepreneurs. Then it started spotlighting real customers in its marketing300 of them in 2019 alone. Diverse, engaging, and passionate, theyre the stars of videos and other messaging that is as much about inspiration as hawking web services. The best known among GoDaddys spokespeople is Ayesha Curry, the TV host, restauranteur, and wife of NBA star Stephen Curry, whose Homemade site is hosted on GoDaddy; Scott emphasizes that even she started her company in her kitchen.

Were putting our customer at the center of our advertising, says Howard. And you can see lots of examples if you follow us on Instagram or Facebook, that were really working to tell their stories because were incredibly proud of the work that theyve achieved. Other web-service companies share real-people successes in their marketing, tooespecially Squarespace, whose long-standing design aesthetic resembles the one GoDaddy has more recently adopted. But GoDaddy seems most heavily invested in highlighting real small businesses; by contrast, Squarespaces current ad campaign stars featured customer Oscar the Grouch.

Scott calls Everyday Entrepreneurs very smart and often very educated but emphasizes that they are not smitten with technology for technologys sake. Its not what theyre going after, he says. Sofia wants to cut hair. She doesnt want to get really, really good at email marketing or social marketing. (Sofia is GoDaddy customer Sofia Car, aHollywoood-based hairstylist, one of at least three hairstylists who have been featured in the companys marketing.)

Enter those 6,000 customer-service representatives (counting both staffers and those employed by outside firms), who are located in 22 centers from Scottsdale, Arizona, to Belfast, Ireland, to Hyderabad, India. When customers call with questions about GoDaddys products, according to Bhutani, they become happier, more loyal clients who are more likely to pay for even more services. The data is super clear, he says. Customers that engage with us more not only give us more value, they get more value from us. This may be why the company shares its phone number liberally on its websitea refreshing change from most big-company sites, which typically try to placate customers with questions by shunting them off to canned answers and community forums.

Just as GoDaddy branded customers as Everyday Entrepreneurs, it began calling the reps GoDaddy Guides and raising their profile. The Help link on the home page (which had already replaced the more typical and mundane Support) became a Help by GoDaddy Guides link. Clicking it leads to the help center, which is embellished with photos of real, smiling reps identified by first name and last initial. Guides also host how-to videos with titles such as What is an SSL certificate and why do you need one? and Podcasting tips for beginners.

For all of GoDaddys new emphasis on the inspirational side of entrepreneurship, its customers are still paying it for web services. When the company was busy getting big, it was an accomplishment for a small business to have any sort of online presence at all. Today, however, even the tiniest of companies want more than a domain name and a home page. They want something with big-company slickness that potential customers will actually find. They might want to sell goods, on or off their own site. And theyd certainly like to establish themselves on social networks.

In 2015, when I wrote about GoDaddy in a previous story, it was working on modernizing its portfolio of offeringssome of which had grown as creaky as its original wild-and-crazy persona. Today, says Bhutani, Id say we now have a very competitive offering across all of our customer segments. But the journey is never done, because the needs of the customers keep evolving, and we want to keep pressing against that opportunity.

Bhutani points to the success of GoDaddys Websites + Marketing (formerly known as GoCentral) as a sign that the company is keeping up with the current needs and expectations of small businesses. The package includes a website builder with 100 templates as well as tools for SEO, social-media management, selling products on sites such as Amazon and Etsy, and more; GoDaddy says that a million customers have signed up for it, and that users see an average 18% revenue increase in the first year.

The last chunk of my time at GoDaddys Silicon Valley office is devoted a walk-through of Websites + Marketing by senior director of product management Heidi Gibson. Templated tools that speed non-techies through the process of building a site in just a few clicks predate even GoDaddys founding, but Gibson emphasizes that the service is trying to give small businesses something more holistic and valuable. We try to meet them with where theyre at and lead them through the process of building not just a websitewhich might not even be necessarybut their whole online presence, coaching them through the process of effectively driving traffic to where they need it to meet their goals, she says.

By this point, Im not shocked when part of her demo involves a real GoDaddy customer Im already familiar with: The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen, a San Francisco restaurant up the street from my office. But it is startling when Gibson explains that its her own business, which she cofounded in 2009 and has operated in parallel with her career in the tech industry.

When Gibson interviewed at GoDaddy in 2016, she was concerned the company would frown on her eatery as a conflict of interest. Instead, she says, the response was Thats awesome! Can you cater lunch? We like cheese! The company looks at side hustles as a powerful way for staffers to understand the challenges of GoDaddy customers. And so it has a formal program, Entrepreneurs in Tech, which encourages them to operate their own businesses by offering everything from workshops to discounts on GoDaddy services.

Once a business has created an image for itself, it can be hard to shake. (When I told my wife I was going to visit GoDaddy, she immediately asked if Id get to meet Danica Patrick, the NASCAR and IndyCar driver and one-time star of racy GoDaddy TV ads who made a toned-down comeback in 2018 but is not currently a spokesperson.) Still, GoDaddy seems committed to its new, more humane branding. And unlike the companys original attention-grabbing tactics, its not a gimmick that will inevitably run its course.

When you have 19 million customers, theres a limitless amount of people whose stories you can tell, says Howard.

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GoDaddy unveils the Go, a new logo that shows its human side - Fast Company

KARACHI: Shazina Masud has taken over the charge of Chief Executive Officer of the Aman Foundation recently. She will also continue to serve as CEO of Aman Health through this transition.

While heading Aman Health since March 2018, Shazina's new role will further the foundation's goal and mission to streamline its initiatives into the fabric of civic society.

The Aman Foundation is a social enterprise focused on catalyzing impactful solutions in Health and Education in Pakistan through direct interventions, convening powerful partnerships and advocating on behalf of the underserved people of Pakistan. It is an honor to be entrusted with the responsibility of spearheading this effort and leading it into the next phase of scaling our impact," expressed Ms. Masud.

Masud brings over 30 years of experience in private sector marketing and sales, including experience in social marketing and franchising. She has been working in the development sector for the last fifteen years and has extensive experience of leading national programs in different countries in Africa and Asia.

Masud has a Masters in Business Administration from the Institute of Business Administration, University of Karachi, Pakistan. She is in the process of completing an MS in Creativity in Change and Leadership Studies from Buffalo College, New York.

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Shazina Masud takes over as CEO of the Aman Foundation - Business Recorder

Adjudged marketing innovator by Time magazine and business innovator by BusinessWeek, Rishad Tobaccowala, chief growth officer at Publicis Groupe, has written his first book, Restoring The Soul Of Business: Staying Human In The Age Of Data. Published by Harper Collins, it will be released in the US on 28 January. In New Delhi for its India launch, the Chicago-based advertising veteran spoke about the inspiration behind the book, the importance of balance between creativity and data, and the decline in advertising. Edited excerpts from an interview:

What inspired you to write this book?

There were two reasons. One was external demand, and the other was the internal belief that there was a right time to write it. As I went around the world either helping clients or speaking at various events, people were surprised that I had never written a book. I was told I had an interesting perspective on various topics. They wanted me to share it more broadly. Also, whether it was in the US, Europe, India or China, people were asking me the same 12 questions such as how do you extract meaning from data? How do you upgrade your mental operating system? Or, how do you manage change?

That was the external reason. The internal reason was, because of the rise of technology and data, a great amount of wealth was being created by companies like Facebook, Amazon and Apple, among others. But more companies were focusing on the left brain part of work, on math. The focus was on what I call the spreadsheet (profit, losses, productivity), and not enough on the story of the company which is the culture, emotion and its people. Because of this, the business was getting hurt. The society was getting hurt. Today, social media companies are highly profitable. From a consumer perspective they are giving great products for free. But for a citizen, there is a negative impact.

Their platforms are feeding polarization and hate. Also, when you start focusing on the numbers, you become very short-term oriented. A consulting firm got into trouble as people said they represented drug companies and were helping them sell addictive drugs. So people asked, where are the ethics and the values of a company? So I said that the soul of the business is the story and not just the spreadsheet. A successful company has to combine data, technology and emotion.

Would you say that data has helped build companies like Amazon and Facebook?

The success of many of these companies has been built on three big factors: First, they were innovators and pioneers. These were ideas-driven companies and not data-driven companies. The iPod was an idea. iPhone was an idea. Social network in Facebook was an idea. Second, their business models were built on a combination of data and networks. So they use data and, once they have a certain amount of scale, its very hard to beat them. If you go for search and you keep going to Google, Google has more information, and it can search better. If all your friends are on Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram, what are you going to do anywhere else? Thats called the network effect. Third, not Apple, but all the other companies are giving really amazing value for money. Google is free. Facebook is free. Amazon gives low prices and a lot of bundling. Consumers want things fast, good and cheap. These are innovative companies with ideas, that is, the right brain. Then they have data and networks, that is, the left. So they are not just data-driven companies. That is what I am trying to remind people.

Can you go wrong with data?

You can go very wrong. Although you cannot run a business without it, there are a lot of questions that data cannot answer about the culture of your company, what your talent feels about the company, or what your customers feel about the company.

So data can lead you to the wrong conclusions if it is outdated. Or, people sometimes dont behave the way data tells you that they behave. People choose with their heart and then use numbers to justify what they just did. If we did not choose with our hearts and we chose only with the numbers, then there would be no luxury brands, which are some of the most powerful companies. If only the numerics work, then there should be no Taj or Oberoi. No BMWs or Mercedes. When people tell me its all data, I say most decisions are made through the heart.

Are companies relying less on market visits for insights and more on online data?

They are doing both. The ability to listen to consumers has changed dramatically. In the past, you could carry out a few market visits, (analyse) a few focus groups. Now you have the ability to look at peoples social and search behaviour, and begin to get interesting information which you didnt have before. I have invested in an interesting company called QualSights. They do qualitative at scale. They basically tell people to put on the video on their phone while they shop. They collect thousands of videos all over the world, and then use AI and data to show patterns. Now you can do this globally, quickly, in peoples homes and other places because of technology.

How has the consumer changed in the age of social media?

On the positive side, they are connected with more people than they have ever been before. It might be a light form of connection. I remain connected to my class of 1974 because we have a Whats-App group. I can reach out to colleagues all over the world.

The semi-good part is, we start curating our lives. Sometimes we start thinking of what we do not because of what we want to do but because of how it will look on social media. For instance, in the US a lot of people are now renting clothes because they dont want to be seen in the same clothes on Instagram. So you have businesses like Rent the Runway (a subscription fashion service for women to rent designer clothes) come up.

The bad side is that you live in that world and forget the world you are currently living in. Often people around a table are all looking at their phones. The good part of social media is you get connected, the semi-good part is you curate your life, the bad part is you lose focus, connection and relationships.

How will things change for companies with data privacy becoming a big issue globally?

Privacy will be a huge issue and it will, at some stage, be settled by the government. Its very hard today to be anonymous. But different governments have different perspectives on this. The Chinese government doesnt care about privacy. They are using a lot of facial recognition and trying to track everybody. In Germany they are very privacy oriented. So the way data is controlled will differ from country to country.

You once mentioned that advertising will decline. What will replace it?

I was referring to the US market. Markets like India and others are still healthy for both print and TV. In the US, the opportunity to advertise to people will decline 20-25% in the next five years which is pretty significant. Many newspapers in America have gone out of business. Even for a big newspaper like New York Times, there are more online readers than there are for its print edition. In a newspaper format, everyone will see all your ads. In the digital format there are few opportunities to show people ads. You cant show too many ads digitally because people will get worked up. They dont click on them, they stop going to the site or use ad blockers. Also, now more and more people are spending time in an ad-free environment like Netflix, HBO and Amazon Prime. So the opportunity to show ads has declined significantly.

Besides, who are you exposing your ad to? If you are relatively wealthy you can afford all these subscription services. If you are less wealthy and cant afford these services, then you are also not in the market for some products. If you are selling a car or a travel holiday, then these are not the people who can afford that. So the people I want to advertise for are not available. India may be different now, but it is moving in that direction.

The future is not just about advertising but connecting in new ways with people. So our focus is on marketing transformation and business transformation, which is why we bought companies like Epsilon (a first-party data company) and Sapient which is about digital and technology.

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The soul of a business is the story, not the spreadsheets: Rishad Tobaccowala - Livemint

Marketers will spend $112bn (85bn) worldwide on social media advertising in 2020, despite many of them "doing it wrong", new research reveals.

Analysts at Forrester found that just under a third (31%) of chief marketing officers cannot show the impact of social media on their businesses.

This is because, the report argues, "social media stumps marketers. First, they had unrealistic expectations of social media, hoping it would be the key to unlocking massive profits in the digital age. When that didnt pan out, they shifted 180 degrees to believing that social medias only use was for advertising. Although its true that Facebooks primary business value is as an advertising platform, its a mistake to infer that advertising is social medias sole opportunity."

Instead of having a "social marketing strategy", the study says, marketers should instead use social tactics and technology strategically alongside other channels to achieve broader marketing goals.

The report also details the reasons for most marketers social errors and how companies should use social skills to augment other marketing functions.

For example, user-generated content can be effective outside social features where it is gathered and displayed. Forrester said the "gold standard" of this approach is Apples integrated campaign "Shot on iPhone", which repurposes images and videos that users produce on the smartphone into TV spots, billboards and print ads.

Social media has also improved as a tool for brand sentiment, the report explains, because the platforms are taking their role in ensuring brand health more seriously. Twitter, for example, allows brands to buy customer feedback in Net Promoter Score and Customer Satisfaction Score formats.

Social media adspend is forecast by Publicis Groupe's Zenith to be the second-fastest-growing channel between 2019 and 2022 at 13.8%, behind online video (16.6%).

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Social media adspend to hit $112bn even though it 'stumps' marketers - CampaignLive

The new year is a time when we naturally assess what went well in the twelve months prior, and what wed like to do differently moving forward. Thats true for businesses, too, especially since many have annual goals for growth and profit.

Theres no better time to turn over a new leaf, after all, than a new year. As we move into 2020, there are four resolutions that all business owners should seriously consider making if they havent already.

If youre feeling hesitant, I have good news: These resolutions are relatively easy to implement, and they can all yield major payoffs.

1. Look at your PR.

Do you know how customers perceive your brand currently? This can be difficult to track because customers wont always share their thoughts with you.

Investing in PR tools and services can be a great choice for businesses, especially if youre trying to scale and struggling to do so. Plenty of PR agencies, for example, offer suggestions on how to promote brand awareness and improve the customer perception of your brand.

As you look at your current PR efforts, consider writing and distributing press releases, appearing as an expert source in written and televised appearances, and monitoring your brands reputation online.

2. Invest in marketing.

You cant grow your business without marketing. No one will hire you or buy from you if they dont know that you exist.

Quality marketing campaigns are necessary to scale your business. This can include any combination of platforms and channels, including search engine optimization, content marketing, PPC campaigns, social marketing, email marketing and more.

If youre on a tight budget, start with free and low-cost channels. Brush up on your SEO basics. Set up email marketing to keep current leads and customers engaged. Use social to create more touch points and nurture relationships. These marketing channels do require a consistent time investment, but they wont break the bank.

3. Carefully monitor cash flow.

Cash flow is a huge issue for businesses. In fact, its one reason many small businesses have to close up shop. Making a diligent effort to monitor and manage your cash flow should be a resolution for 2020.

While small business profitability can be wildly unpredictable, there are steps you can take to better monitor your cash flow. Use invoice and expense tracking software such as FreshBooks or QuickBooks to monitor all upcoming expenses and current profitability.

Use reports to look at your businesss past performance, identifying what will likely be high-earning months and low-earning months so that you can prepare and ensure that all of your costs are covered.

Knowing what expenses are coming can be an enormous asset in financial planning, making your life much easier in the process.

4. Improve customer service.

Customers will jump ship if they feel the customer service is lacking, and 96% of all customers believe that customer service is an important factor when it comes to choosing a brand.You cant afford not to have great customer service.

Customer service is one of the biggest drivers in business right now, largely because its a consumers market. There are so many competitors out there, and customer service is what sets businesses apart. You can actually earn new customers simply because theyve heard that customer service is a priority.

Invest in strong customer service. Make sure that any client-facing team members have adequate training in service, even if theyre account managers or other types of specialized workers. You should also consider looking into a quality answering service if youre experiencing a high volume of calls and youre struggling to keep up, ensuring all customers are receiving the care they need.

The new year is here, and its time to get your business resolutions in order. Take a look at where you struggled most last year, identifying pain points that you can mitigate moving into 2020. Nothing will change unless you put measures in place to shake things up, and these four resolutions are a strong place to start.

Theres never any harm in better PR, strong marketing, increased cash flow and a boost in customer service, so even if youre happy with where you stood in 2019, look for room for improvement for 2020.

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Four Ways To Help Your Business Stand Out From The Competition This Year - Forbes