Marketing-Fix: 100-Words-On

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!

“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.

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.

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.

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.

You’re only as good as the last front-line associate”
-Concierge Ritz-Carlton Dallas

Systems upgrades may be easier to justify than “people upgrades.”

Improving systems seems foolproof, rigorous and eminently measurable.  Most love Amazon’s personalized recommendations.

Solving problems and improving customer experiences by upgrading personnel takes training, intuition, employer trust and employee initiative. Plus, measuring is harder.

Still, employees remain the best customer-retention tool.

We’d ask:

Who’s responsible for customer service? When it’s a back-office cost center suboptimal interactions often diminish customers’ interactions and trust in the brand.  Few love their cable company.

Has customer service been included in marketing plans? People demand answers and resolution instantly.  Not even Google can successfully launch a product-G Phone-without adequate customer service.

Have employees been empowered? Little annoys more than cloaking “No” in “it’s company policy.”  Consider Ritz-Carlton’s “anticipatory service”* where employees can spend lavishly solving problems anticipating additional revenue.

* Here’s the link to Ritz Carlton’s Leadership Center:  click here

Valet Parking Fee
vs.
Hotel Energy Surcharge

Late Payment Fee
vs.
Courtesy Reinstatement Charge

Watching fees multiply, we wonder:

Do companies really attempt to put the customer first?

Or, even try to create the perception that they care?

To us, valet parking charges feel appropriate: “I have a car, need to
park it, and he doesn’t.”

Resort usage fees, Internet charges and similar nickel-and dime tactics
over hefty room rates inflame: “I’m already paying to be here.”

Why not adjust rates marginally, and seem magnanimous?

In finance, late fees may be egregiously large, but seem quid-pro-quo for
having credit: “I was late paying, they win.”

Imposing additional “courtesy fees” on delinquent customers attempting to
get current screams: “Fat-cat bankers getting rich on our backs.”

Fees can benefit bottom lines enormously.  Why not craft and use them
artfully?

You could be a hero, not a demon in your customers’ eyes.

Just do it?

Why do it?

or

How do it, best?

Reading an excerpt from Dov Seidman’s “Why HOW We Do Anything Means
Everything” (Wiley, 2007), one central hypothesis struck home:

How now trumps who, what or why.

With ever-greater transparency, information and misinformation flows more
freely, innovations become commodities faster, and the perception of
certainty devolves.

“Just do it” doesn’t cut it.  There’s little wiggle room for mistakes.

We’re thinking about our:

- Actions—aligning what’s said and done publicly with the customer’s
values/expectations. Did it make sense for Whole Foods’ CEO to publicly
oppose health-care reform?

- Interactions—treating colleagues, associates and customers impeccably.
Did Wal-Mart believe locking workers in stores overnight could continue
unnoticed forever?

- Reactions—seizing control of the situation and messaging when
inevitable problems arise. Did Tiger Woods believe that the National
Enquirer and Fox News would let a sensational “personal matter”
go?

Integrity isn’t optional, it’s expected.

Is it push?

Pull?

Or borrowing?

Reputation Garage recently pegged Americans as more skeptical than ever:

75% don’t believe that advertising is truthful.
Only 13% trust big business.

It’s easy to think that with better advertising messages we can push customers to trust us.  Or use gifts, loyalty programs and similar to pull customers to us.

But, aligning with–and using–customers’ interests might be today’s best tool for building credibility.

Why not use charity tie-ins? Tom’s Shoes “one-for-one” program* donating a pair for each pair of shoes sold offers a great template.

Align your values with your customers? Fiji Water offsets its carbon footprint by 120%.

Use your customers as experts and advocates? Amazon and TripAdvisor employ user reviews and ratings to burnish their authority.

You’re “borrowing” their interests for yours.

We’re cutting back…

That seems too lavish

So, 2008…

Even as business stabilizes somewhat, we sense that consumers remain wary of marketing that looks expensive or frivolous.

Some examples:

Lavish invitations to charity events—are they wasting our donations?

Travel “Magazines” that aren’t and really sell tours—would booking on-line be cheaper?

Elaborate software sales demos—are they overcharging to amortize development costs?

This year, we’d consider:

1.    Keeping it simple—show us what makes you better/different clearly and concisely.
2.    Keeping it real—tell us why we need you.
3.    Keeping it regular—remind us often that you want our business.

A simple, powerful letter or email may be just the thing to cut through the clutter.