Marketing-Fix: 100-Words-On

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?

“I don’t believe in yesterday.”

-John Lennon

but then again…

“The future ain’t what it used to be.”

-Yogi Berra

Exceptional therapist and relationship expert Maya Kollman has wise thoughts about the past, present and future.  Pundits often suggest we focus on only one.

Kollman proposes that  to succeed, we all need to live in all three places.  Her reasoning:

• Living in the past keeps us from changing and growing.

• Living in the present prevents us from preparing for what’s coming next.

• Living in the future inhibits us from experiencing the present and adding to our knowledge.

Our thoughts:

• Mine the past. It’s full of lessons and examples.

• Stay attentive to the present. Observe what’s happening.  Use that to shape decisions.

• Dream big about the future. There’s no better way get where you want to go – in life or business – than stretching.

Here’s to a successful 2011.

“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.

Seen on a large billboard on I-76:

“We guarantee you top results for every search engine…

Call us at…”

Our first reaction was—huh?

Outdoor advertising has its place for many campaigns.  But to sell expertise in Search Engine Optimization, it seems dubious.

Three thoughts struck us:

• If we were looking for an SEO expert, we’d contact a pro, like Michael Stalbaum @ createtraffic.com—if not we’d be online googling various search terms.

• We’d want a strategic marketer. Using billboards to sell search doesn’t feel smart.  Billboards are broad-based and consumer-focused.

• We’d want a partner that optimizes our spend and ROI. Outdoor on a major highway can’t do that—it’s expensive and hard to measure.

Our take away:

Think smart.  Act smart.  Look smart. Accentuate and amplify what you’re great at before jumping into the unknown.

The scene: a local gourmet grocery.

“I guess that $3.99 is a lot for one small tomato.”
–Barista turned checkout guy.

The conversation continued: “would it be okay if I charged $3.99 a pound?”

Proactive, customer-focused and empowered I thought. And related the tale far and wide.

Not everyone agreed:

Weren’t the tomatoes priced? No.
Wasn’t the price right in the computer? Don’t know.
How could the kid ‘steal’ from the store? Whoa!

We’re wondering—again: should employees be revenue-centers or cost-centers?

Treating them all as assets makes sense to us.

Front-line or not, employees from dishwashers to neuro-surgeons are the most important—and often only—contact that your enterprise has with customers.

Two thoughts:

• Encourage employees to be the customer—maybe bending a rule or two.

• Empower employees to be the company—not ‘giving away the store’.

If in doubt that employees are the face of your just Google your company and read the comments.

“Whatever.”

Colleague and wise art director Nick Mitchell suggested the phrase ‘emotional retirement’ describes those in business who’ve checked out long before official retirement age.

Symptoms of emotional retirement include:

• Dismissing possible success before investigating the facts—“our customers would never go for that.”

• Focusing on the downside before trying to succeed—“what if too many people respond and overwhelm the call centers?”

• Giving exactly what’s required or just a little less—“my work week is 38 hours. That’s it.”

There’s probably no simple cure, but we’d ask:

• Does criticism come from a constructive place? Or from approaching emotional retirement?

• Do others around sense this?

And most importantly:

• Everyone has enthusiasms how can we get them to bring those to work?

“Whoever is winning
at that moment
will always seem invincible”
-George Orwell

Business coach and sage, Roy Friedman re-introduced us to Appreciative Inquiry.  This encourages success by looking at strengths and maximizing them, instead of ‘fixing’ problems. This reminded us to:

Look inward: Nordstrom leveraged their great service tradition and now offers customers real-time access to inventory across all channels.

Look outward: Apple surveyed the failed tablet computer landscape and believed in the potential.  Applying their unmatched skill at intuitive user-interfaces—voila, the i-Pad!

Look out: while Google stumbled with the Google phone, by making the Android operating system available to all, they’ve surpassed both Apple and RIM/Blackberry in ‘smart phone’ market share—in six months.

There’s never time rest on your laurels.

When the going gets tough—innovate.  But why wait?

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.