Marketing-Fix: 100-Words-On

Do not expect an immediate call back

Do not expect free advice

Do not expect the answer you wanted

—Consulting Firm Landing Page

Ouch—but, thought-provoking.

Is this firm:

* So ballsy that you’ve got to know more?

* So honest that you might get great insights?

* So self-involved that you should avoid it at all costs?

We applaud ‘being true to yourself’—but at what price?

Three wise-men came to mind:

* Danny Meyer suggests hiring only empathetic people—for every position in the company.  Technical skills can be taught, being welcoming and caring not.

* Seth Godin suggests giving things away—after qualifying the ‘lead.’  A little ‘free advice’ might be worth it, if there may substantial benefits down the road.

* The Dalai Lama suggests that when you want something—give it away.  Period.

We’re there: Why not put it out there and see what comes back—before telling us what you won’t do?

First, New Coke

Then, New Tropicana

Now, the New O, The Oprah Magazine

Business people tire of our products and marketing campaigns long before the consumer does. It’s natural—we live with them everyday.

There’s an urge to shake things up—or start over—at the slightest hint of staleness.

We’d suggest: proceed with caution. And, ask a few pointed questions:

• What do we represent to our customers? Have we really ‘drifted’ from delivering what we do best for them—or not?

• Do our product offerings remain relevant? There’s no need to ‘retire’ things before their time.  Remember, many people resist change.

• Does our marketing reinforce our brand image? To us, BMW delivering ‘the ultimate driving machine’ will always trump BMW ‘delivering joy.’

• Do our changes make sense—or just make work? Years later KFC is still just Kentucky Fried Chicken with a shorter name.

“We really need to email less often.”

“Of course, they need to be more effective.”

Clients have been suggesting communicating less frequently to reduce ‘clutter’ and ‘email fatigue’ while expecting better results.
Wholesale reductions in frequency rarely make sense. For optimum results, we consider:

• Relevance. If you’re a promotional retailer—say Bluefly, Gilt or Wine Express, daily communication keeps customers engaged.  Hearing daily from your accountant wouldn’t be relevant.

• Realness. Recently, applying the discount offered in a Hertz email promotion doubled the cost of renting.  We needed a car, but the bogus promotion quashed the sale.

• Ready-to-go. Don’t be creepy, but ‘know me’ and make it easy to engage.  There’s only seconds to spare between clicking-through and abandoning your email.

Finally, be inventive. Subject lines and creative treatments still dramatically affect results.  Who wouldn’t be intrigued by FTD’s subject line encouraging you to: ‘Tell your boss how you really feel about him’?

“No one reads, their mail.  Everyone knows that.”

–Anonymous

Not so fast…

Clearly, we love email and we admire web sites and apps that deliver value (think of Yelp or Groupon).  Yet, our increasingly empty USPS mailbox makes us wonder if print isn’t being overlooked unfairly.

A new consumer survey found that:
•    Two of three preferred print catalogs to viewing catalogs online.
•    Six of ten preferred receiving printed bills, invoices and financial statements.
•    Eight of ten dollars raised for charity are from mail solicitations.

Direct mail is rarely the most cost-effective way to acquire customers today and the incremental value of multi-channel buyers is declining.  Still, we believe that print should be part of the mix.

To make it effective, we wonder how many have:
•    Abolished silos and integrated systems to accurately measure the value—and incremental value—of every interaction.
•    Created a integrated contact strategy vs. direct mail, web and email strategies.
•    Segmented customers accurately, based upon their transaction and product preferences.

It’s tempting to jump on the latest marketing trend.

For example, trendwatching.com recently suggested creating ‘brand butlers’ to improve the customer experience—and allocating marketing dollars there.

Brand butlers, wow!  Another nicety that—sounds great.

But, perhaps being first with the latest only makes sense when all aspects of customer service work flawlessly.

And how often is this true?

• Consider recent experiences with Fortune 100 companies:

• “Real-time” inventory systems that are repeatedly incorrect.

• “Customer Service Facilitators”—formerly known as tellers—who’ve mastered greeting, but not doing deposits accurately.

“Live Flight Status” that’s hours off.

Before embracing the new and novel, why not:

• Audit how well basics are executed.

• Augment what works to improve service.

• Evolve to the next level when it’s appropriate.

Let’s all clean house before hiring the butlers.

“Don Not Ever Offer Great Service”
–Melissa Data Newsletter

This subject line caught our attention—but, for the wrong reason.  If they don’t care about correcting subject lines, how good can their data products—or service—be?

Yes, everyone’s doing more with fewer resources.  But, the willingness to cut corners, ignore details and rush-to-market is alarming—from lazy emails to massive oil spills.

Doesn’t this short-term approach diminish credibility, demolish loyalty and even dilute profits longer-term?

Customers are savvier than ever, don’t underestimate them.

We’d suggesting engaging and cultivating them by:

• Being thorough—‘little’ mistakes can have big impact.

• Being honest—Domino’s “We Stink” campaign promoting improved quality pizzas delivered amazing results.

• Being direct—BP is spending big communicating their response to the spill, but platitudes don’t sound credible.

“They overlooked it”

“The delivery service sent it”

“The policy is to charge extra”

Hospitality genius Danny Meyer recently suggested in the Times that success requires putting the employees first.

His ideas are basic, but worth re-visiting:

Hire right. Ritz Carlton: not our fault that reservations “overlooked” special requests for an anniversary.

Skills can be taught, loving interaction with people can’t.  Analysts don’t need people skills—front-line staff and managers do.

Make the team feel great. Manhattan Fruit Company: not our job to track lost packages, even if you’re “understaffed and really busy”.

Employees who like each other and their jobs transfer that enthusiasm to customers and co-workers.

Empower employees. Restaurant Associates: not acceptable that, “it’ll be $3″ for a second slice of bacon with our $19 bacon and eggs.

People can’t excel when constrained by rule books or micro-managing bosses.

From accountants to airlines:  being customers’ favorite keeps them coming back—so, please, put employees first.

“Not even our friends wanted to come and watch us dance.”
–Rasta Thomas,
classically trained dancer

In under three years Rasta Thomas has done ‘the impossible’: creating an internationally-acclaimed, self-supporting dance company revered by 18-34 year olds.

Yes fellow marketers, 18-34 year olds into dance theater.  How?

Mozart—out                U2—in
Tights—out                 Tee-shirts—in
Scenery—out               Multimedia—in

Most importantly:

Willowy girls—out       Humpy boys—in

As Rasta explains: women love dance.  They want to see guys.  They’ll drag their boyfriends.

So, does this apply to the ‘real world’?

Absolutely:

Identify your customers and what they want—before writing that 16 page product description.

Create differences that benefit target customers—give ‘em what they want and when they want it.

Deliver in ways that delight and exceed expectations—who wouldn’t want to see: The Bad Boys of Dance?

“Can’t you just bang it out?  I mean, it’s just copy?”
-anonymous client

People’s indifference to the importance of words surprises us—particularly today.

Paraphrasing irrepressible PR maven Peter Shankman: if you only have 140 characters you’d better know how to write—and make sense.

When writing why not:

• Be concise—there’s no time for long, turgid prose today.

• Be specific—readers respond to solid facts and benefits.

• Be creative—clichés don’t cut through the clutter.

Compare:

“Between the talk and the walk, opportunity is found”

“Meet America’s first family of precision”

with

“At-cost investing—that’s Vanguarding”

These are all financial services headlines.  Whether or not “vanguarding” should ever be a verb, only Vanguard conveys their business, services and benefits.

If you can’t write, then as Shankman suggests: take a course or hire a writer to help.

P.S. You can also check out Jonathan Graspa’s “I’ve got copy on my mind” blog post for 7 great tips!

“Wow–customer ratings in real-time.”

“Whoa–it’s $20 cheaper at Amazon.com”

Integrating physical stores–and places like hotels and museums–with web-based information via smart phones is being presented as a “revolution” for retailers as diverse as Target and Norma Kamali.

We see the appeal.  Customers can access information, locate products or purchase instantly.  Retailers get deep analytics and improved customer-service relationships, cost-effectively.

Does this change everything–or is it just a new “cool tool”?

The best retailers–from Anthropologie to Zara–work overtime creating unique, multi-dimensional experiences that customers love, identify with and return to repeatedly.

Beyond obvious downsides–including privacy issues, and electronic glitches, remember: the same technology also lets us point, click and possibly find the same product at a better price elsewhere (check out RedLaser.com).  Then, we’re outta there.

We suggest: differentiating, differentiating and then differentiating some more.