Marketing-Fix: 100-Words-On

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.

“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!

“I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars;
I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.”
–Warren Buffet

Reviewing direct response results recently reminded us that: timing is everything—in marketing as in life.

We see a tendency to fall into two camps:

“If it’s not broken, why fix it?” laggards and “Why not change it now?” anticipators.

A middle ground may be better, albeit less dramatic.  We’d propose:

Analysis—very few efforts hit a wall, most wither slowly away.  Monitoring results closely signals when it’s time to change.

Patience—we tire of campaigns long before customers do. When something works, keep at it.  If it’s new give it time to sink in.

Testing—when it’s time to move on, move carefully. If possible, hedge your bets by trying several options.  None of us “know” what works without trial balloons.

See you at the 1-foot bar!

“It’s Sony.  No, no, I can show you.”

“I have no what it’s called.”

“Just a regular old phone.  A Verizon?”

Okay, we’ve all heard it hundreds of times: surviving rapidly changing times with overwhelming choice and message bombardment requires pushing the envelope with compelling product offerings and distinctive marketing.

It’s become cliché, but how many succeed?

Trendwatching.com’s video: Blanding vs. Branding stopped us in our tracks. Watching dozens unable to identify their cell phone brand suggests less than we’d hoped.
A few thoughts:

Listen to outliers. The ‘offbeat’ or ‘weird’ might make sense.  Twitter, who knew?

Move way outside your comfort zone. Coach’s colorful, next-generation Poppy collection may be successful because it’s so “not Coach.”

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid. Group-think kills great ideas and carries many dubious projects too far.  Did anyone need a Lincoln pick-up truck?

Happy Valentine’s

Embrace love with Mauboussin from February 9th thorough February 14th

Mauboussin offers you 15% savings on all its collections*

and invites you, for any purchase**, to dinner for two at the Lowell Hotel on February 14th

–New York Times, February 9, 2010 p. A7

It’s a mouthful, but a tempting proposition from Mauboussin the tony French jeweler.

Our first thought: that’s a bold, arresting way to build business.

Seeing asterisks, we read the fine print. Restrictions included:

• Six complete collections of jewelry are excluded.

• Eligibility requires a “minimum $1,100 purchase.”

• Mauboussin only “covers the first $150 per couple.

Our second thought: never hire the legal department–or Ebenezer Scrooge–as your marketing guru or copywriter.

Our third thought: begin with the end in mind.  Strategy matters.

This effort misses on many counts:

• Misleading language creates suspicion, alienating customers.

• Over-promising and under-delivering dilutes brand credibility.

• Using out-dated, expensive mass media to deliver a very targeted message/offer is costly and sub-optimal.

We love challenges and know that many of us could have made this idea work.

Happy Valentine’s, restrictions apply.

100 words on:
Targeting, targeting, targeting

“A personal offer for…

Mr. Smith or
Current Resident”

As 2010 approached, “special” year-end offers and charitable solicitations
increased dramatically—as expected.

Less expected was how many communications overlooked  proven, effective
direct-response tactics.

- Segment: tailoring whom to communicate with is as important as the
message.  Is a “beg letter” from a foundation I’ve barely heard of asking
for five figures in cash or appreciated stock (cheeky) wise?  Ask
appropriately—or not at all—until there’s a relationship.

- Quantify: specifics matter, particularly as the economy hinders
spending—or donating.  Am I going to buy pricey headphones “significantly
quieter” than earlier models?  Not unless you prove it.

- Personalize: addressing the recipient directly improves results.  Does a
generic brochure to lease a Jaguar motivate me?  Nope.  We want to feel
special—personal notes, relevant facts or customized offers convey that
you know me.

More products

More media choices

More places to purchase

Fewer customers???

Author Joe Jaffe* suggests that as electronic marketing options proliferate, companies may run out of customers.

Media continues fragmenting.  Products risk becoming commodities from over-exposure.  Both contribute to increased new-customer acquisition costs.

Conversely, electronic media makes connecting with current customers easier, cheaper and more effective.

We’ve worked in retention for years, and couldn’t agree more.

Re-evaluating the importance of current customers must be front and center. Consider:

What’s the value of repeat customers? As acquisition costs increase from 10X the cost of re-marketing, possibly priceless.

What’s the optimal, efficient allocation of marketing dollars? We all want to fill the hopper, so many favor customer acquisition.

Actually, marketing to current customers builds a profitable revenue stream that helps insulate companies from unexpected changes.

Naturally, you’ll keep hearing from us.

* P. S.  Jaffe, Chief Interrupter at Powered, Inc. just wrote Flip the Funnel, check out an excerpt at MarketingSherpa, it’s worth registering.

A recent billboard packed road trip provoked heated discussions about:
“What did that one mean?”

This reminded us: in every channel, execution is everything.

Consider:

Is the strategy channel-appropriate?
Explaining everything you represent at a glance seems impossible.  Why try?  Mixing “Home Cooking,” “Italian Specialties,” “Indian Buffet,” “Gluten-free” and “Sushi Bar” doesn’t make sense, especially not on a billboard or in a banner ad (no joke, we passed it in New Haven).

Is the concept conveyed clearly?
While amusing, no one could decipher what a giant pot of wan-looking cheese fondue, “Holiday Savings” and three illegible logos meant.

Are the image and message readable instantly?
Concise, compelling benefits are perfect.  “Unprecedented Year-end Savings!  Act Now!” Great, but executed tone-on-tone, probably not so successful.

One clear favorite:  McHappiness 24/7 Exit 37.

Happy motoring,