Marketing-Fix: 100-Words-On

“Four bucks is dumb”
–McDonald’s on Starbucks
or
“Made with TLC” not “Made with MSG”
–Campbell’s Select Harvest on Progresso

Bashing competitors seems logical in difficult environments. Marketers use it as “the best way” to present their value proposition.

It’s reactive, tactical, and often unsuccessful. We believe, delivering benefits best seduces consumers to buy. If consumers don’t believe they need and deserve something based on what it does for them, price or selling against alone won’t do it.

McDonald’s bashing Starbucks looks hard-hitting (see above and unsnobbycoffee.com).  Long-term, so what? Bashing doesn’t differentiate McDonalds, especially when McCafe isn’t really a value.  In our mind, $3.59 for a large iced mocha isn’t too different than $4.00.

It’s no match for  “America runs on Dunkin’” which combines coffee, food and genuine unsnobby inclusiveness with great value.  Or, Campbell’s smothering Progresso with love, then a punch.  This is strategic advertising at its best.

Call
Click
Visit

Whenever we have a marginal customer experience–and it’s still often–we wonder:  Does this company truly want my business?  Is management seeing things through customers eyes?  Has anyone called, clicked or visited lately–unannounced?

Calling: Is automated routing the right way to start?  Cost-effective, but most of us hate it.  Where are better customers routed–best reps, randomly, to overflow call centers?   Do you have to give the same information multiple times?  Kudos to United for pre-empting the process with reverse look-up and Delta for bringing call centers back on shore.

Clicking: Does your navigation make intuitive sense?  Does your help or search function return meaningful results?  Do you ask customers for information you don’t really need before checkout?  Even Apple’s help for i-Life suite could use improvement.

Visiting:  How does the facility look–fresh, neat, bright?  Start with the parking lot.  You’d never enter K Mart based on exterior maintenance.  Do associates greet you–and how?  How are stock levels–from literature to merchandise?  Consider Target and Wal-Mart.  Target may win for style but to know that the product’s in stock head to Wal-Mart.

It seems basic, but executing on the front line builds loyalty, which is a good investment in bad times.

“I ordered teal, not turquoise–twice.

“Non-refundable?  No one told me.”

“These apples don’t taste organic.”

Let’s admit it: we probably don’t want 5% of our customers.

They abuse returns, contest charges, waste associates’ time and so on.

It’s tempting to focus on punishing these “bad apples” to try to improve short-term results.

Don’t do it!  You’re putting good customers last, and encouraging the 95% to look elsewhere.

Instead, why not learn from the bad and innovate to improve good customer relationships?

We’d consider using better service, low-cost perks, targeted messages and increased contacts as retention tactics.

Increasing customer retention by a few points can augment profits 25% to 95%, which helps make those bad apples less rotten.

Email

Google

SMS

Facebook

Linked-in

Twitter

With more ways to research and communicate instantly, has our decision making improved?

Speed? Yes. Quality? Maybe not.

Haven’t all of us led—been led on—an unproductive goose chase because we acted almost impulsively on partial knowledge or our 30-second reaction?

Particularly now when every dollar counts, we’re convinced that pausing, considering what you’re trying to accomplish—before hitting the send button—has never been more important.

We’ve been trying to:

• Define what needs to be achieved.
• Outline steps to get there.
• Review resources.

Pause.

Solicit feedback.
Revise.

Pause.

Send.

Nearly 70% of sales are generated by word of mouth. And, with consumers becoming expert “opt-outers” and “ignorers” of marketing messages, success now often occurs when consumers talk and influence each other in your favor.

Customers have more ways to engage in conversation than ever before. And they do–constantly and concisely.

This dynamic inspires us to begin a dialog with our peers aimed at helping each other make the most of evolving challenges and opportunities. We all can market more effectively with collaboration.

The idea: we can all learn from each other’s practical wisdom. And we need to.