Marketing-Fix: 100-Words-On

“So who saw Parade of the Art-imals?
None of you?  Why not?
What was missing?”

- Disney Institute Cast Member/Guide

There’s no denying the enduring legacy of Walt Disney’s creativity, Roy
Disney’s financial acumen and Michael Eisner’s “Disney Decade” of extraordinary
expansion.  They’re all visionaries.

While visiting Walt Disney World recently, the company’s devotion to execution
impressed us equally.

Three factors stood out – and seem universal to marketing success:

Perseverance – after choosing a direction, the team, or “the cast”, focuses
relentlessly on getting to market with extraordinary products.  Say, building
an amusement park in a swamp.

Evaluation – when projects launch, they review results immediately with a cool,
detached eye.  When attendance isn’t on par – they ask guests what’s missing,
like Disney characters in the Art-imals parade.

Adaption – little gets jettisoned.  Concepts get tweaked, winning ideas
re-purposed and hard assets recycled to get better results.
Why not release “The Lion King” in 3-D?

They take basic business tenets and execute superbly decade after decade.

OK Walt, we believe!

It’s a natural reaction.  We’ve all had it.  And it suggests a myopic tendency.

Before engaging an expert – who’s very possibly someone ‘just like’ you – consider two things:

Your customers probably aren’t you. How could they be?  You’re immersed in the details of telecommunications, apparel, insurance…whatever.  They’re seeking solutions not minutae.

Your customers expect you to be them. Ask questions, chat ‘em up, think like them.  Deliver what they want – concisely and fast.  They’ll be loyal customers and become fans.

With these in mind, how about finding experts at “wide-eyed innocence”? They can peer in, ask questions, focus, distill and deliver clarity.

As Roy Williams (the wizard of ads) suggests: we’re all uniquely unqualified to market ourselves.

Who’d market a product that:
“Tastes lousy! And is more filling!”?

It’s dating ourselves, but maybe Orson Wells for Paul Masson was right:  “Sell no wine before it’s time.”

What’s the obsession about rushing products to market before they’re ready?

Experts suggest: you’ve got to grab first mover advantage, defend market share or leverage an installed base.

All rationales provided for the Blackberry PlayBook – just one of many Apple iPad ‘clones.’  Universally, it’s been panned as: slower, heavier, clunkier and more limited than the iPad.

Another “Blackberry dud” many have called it.  They then lament continuing lose of share to Android devices, no new Blackberry operating system and a ‘losing management team’. OUCH!

It’s not true that all publicity is good. Recovering from a fumble is much harder than catching the leader with a better mousetrap.

Do yourself and your customers a favor – take the time to do it right!

“The best wine we’ve tasted all year”
-Moore Brothers, wine merchants

“How does your garden grow?”
-Neiman Marcus, luxury retailer.  And garden center?

Moore Brothers – a savvy little company – deserves kudos for a clear message that implies a strong consumer benefit: try this wine; we loved it you will too.

Neimans – ostensibly a savvy behemoth – gets two thumbs down.  The ‘humorous’ subject line doesn’t relate to them, or the featured product.

In contrast, M & M Mars uses humor relevantly*.  For example, a focus group of sharks prefers humans who’ve eaten Snickers Squareds to ones who haven’t.  Like Moore Brothers, they deliver a clear benefit: eat Snickers or M&Ms – you’ll feel better.

Reminded us of advertising pioneers like David Ogilvy or Peter Rogers who encouraged marketers to be:

• Smart – but accessible to all.

• Direct – stay simple and clear.

• Humorous – when it serves your brand message.

* You might not like talking sharks or amourous M&M’s but Mars domimated Q1′s most effective TV ads.

“When life hands you lemons, make lemonade and lemon pie”
-Anne White

Ugh, but then again…

I wonder: when problems hit, why not take quick, transparent action? Getting in front of challenges can change customer perceptions – dramatically.

This started with big problems – failing nuclear reactors – but crystallized with a minuscule one: upgrading Mac OS X knocked out our MAC-only database.

Had the vendor jumped on the problem, they’d have taken advantage of ‘sour lemons’ to look like heroes.  Their actions would have conveyed:

• We’re top of our game. Even without advance warning from Apple, when the problem arose, it would appear that they were monitoring and improving – on the spot.

• We care about our customers. They have customers’ emails.  Why not show they’ve ‘got our backs’ before we discover problems?

And from management’s perspective, we bet it would be cost-effective. Aren’t spikes in customer service needs disruptive and expensive?

Sigh. Gotta love that lemon pie!

P.S. Kudos to the service wizards at Philadelphia’s Springboard Media who fixed the ‘glitch’ in a flash.

Make it clean.

Make it clear.

Make it crisp.

It works for directions…and marketing

A friend asked us to help find some new vendors.  We were struck by how easily important basics can be overlooked.

A few examples – names omitted to protect the ‘innocent’:

• A firm ‘leading the one-to-one personalized marketing revolution’ has a website without contact options: no contact link, no phone number, and no email address.  Complicated – and doesn’t inspire trust.

• A ‘cutting-edge, multi-media design company’ presents crisp, clear landing page.  On subsequent pages navigation moves from top to side – to top to side.  Confusing – and suggests challenges delivering clarity for clients.

• An ‘integrated communication specialist’ opens with a novel-length, jargon-laden mission statement.  Verbose – and ignores today’s communication by tweet.

One closing thought: Be curious and critical.  Apply the same rigor to your own work as you apply to others efforts.

-Cassandra Clare

“…or seen!”
-Kirk K.

It’s true.  E-mail usage continues to plummet.  And, alternatives from Facebook to Twitter encourage faster communication and more interaction.*

This makes it easier – or at least faster – to build business and personal brands than before.

But – do most of us think through the consequences of instant, multi-channel broadcast communications?

The warp-speed communication helping your business can also cause undermine it just as quickly.

Two examples we’ve gotten recently:

• A ‘personal’ business update to customers that didn’t mask recipients’ email addresses.  Don’t a few thousand of us trust the vendor a little less?

• A frisky photo of partying ‘co-workers gone wild’ that’s been shared and shared and shared.  What happens when it’s in personnel files – or on Tosh.0?

Everyone and everything are everywhere – forever.  Let’s pause before we send.

* Here’s a terrific article about social networking – and its consequences.

We’ve quoted it often:

“Give them what they want and when they want it.  That’s how you keep them satisfied.”
—Waller and Schell

Facebook, Twitter and similar social sites focus on community and connecting. So, many worry that selling here risks violating a social contract that says: we’re just ‘friends.’

Still, many of us ponder how to make direct marketing work in these environments.

Quidsi’s – soap.com / diapers.com – Facebook app offers a brilliantly simple solution:

Current customers can purchase directly from their ‘My List’ without leaving Facebook. And wouldn’t many soap.com purchases be ‘re-fills?’

Seems real simple and widely applicable. Why not start with:

• What do you most want from your customers?

• What do they most want and expect from you?

• What do you do to deliver on their expectations – simply, quickly and cost-effectively?

There’s no need to make things complicated – or grab every sale.  Why build a jet fighter if a kite will do the job?

“Great. For the price of good.”
-Volkswagen Passat billboard

We loved this headline for the new VW Passat. Hall-of-Fame worthy in our book – but why you might ask?

• It celebrates the product as better and different. Sometimes what we’re selling might not be objectively the best.  But a marketer’s job is buffing and polishing product benefits until there’s a reason to buy.

• It ignores the competition. Just up I-95 from the Passat billboard we saw this: “Mazda 323. What a Corolla wants to be.”  Ugh.  If the Mazda’s better – tell me; don’t even suggest I drive by a Toyota showroom and compare.

• It’s bold. The headline is catchy and concise.  And, it says the Passat is unequivocally fantastic and suggests that if I’m a savvy shopper – regardless of price point – I should consider a Passat..

Bottom line: The ad is Great… for the price of good.

“Kirk, we read these 100 words, but what do you do – exactly?”

OK, that smarted.

Then we wondered: How can businesses avoid being inward-focused self-referential when marketing themselves?

• Be Clear – be concise. We read by scanning, think in sound bites and write with tweets.  Marketing ‘targeted solutions’ with a dense 6-panel brochure or a
  website with 12 options isn’t targeted.

• Be Clear – avoid jargon. Explain what you mean.  DRIPs can be dividend or direct-mail programs.  VPVH – ‘viewers-per-viewing-household’ confused even our CMO friends.  And, they’re chief marketing officers – not chief merchandising officers.

• Be Clear – deliver specific benefits. Generalities tempt, but ‘easy and
  elegant’ could apply to an algebra proof, a casserole or – yes, a hotel.  Does
  ‘providing intelligent cost solutions’ mean anything?  Or just sound good?  Why not say: ‘We deliver cost savings. Guaranteed.’

Back to me, I’m a ‘marketing troubleshooter with a creative bent.’  Hope that’s clear.