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I have a stomach ache…I think I had a bad brand for dinner

July 15, 2008

Picture_3We have a new minor league hockey team (Anaheim’s farm team) moving to Des Moines.  I am embarrassed to tell you that the new team’s name is….The Iowa Chops.

I know…and from a branding perspective, it gets even worse.  They have given their team name even though someone else owns the name!  Read about who owns the rights on the name and why that makes this an even bigger branding mess.

Check out my post at IowaBiz.com (which is back in business, thanks to it being acquired by the Business Record!)

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Don’t pitch if it isn’t news

July 14, 2008

30349663 Everyone wants media coverage and gets frustrated when they don’t get it.  Reporters and editors aren’t ignoring your news releases – they’re just doing their job. 

If you help them do their job, they will help you do yours.

The media (of all kinds) gets bombarded with releases every day.  Think about some of the recent releases you’ve written.  Your business celebrates 25 years.  You won an industry award. Important to you?  You bet.

But remember, a journalist’s job is to report news that matters to their audience.

When you write a release, ask yourself a simple question.  "So what?" And be honest. Why would this matter to someone outside our organization?  If the answer is that it doesn’t, you need to find a way to make it relevant to them.

For example, let’s say you own an art store and are offering a pottery class.  By itself, it’s not all that newsworthy, except perhaps in the community listings.

What if you did some research and found that 43% of all American adults claim that one of their hobbies is some form of art.  You dig a little deeper and find some statistics about art therapy and stress reduction.  Now you have something to offer.  Your class listings can be a part of a bigger story about reducing stress through art therapy or how art is the nation’s fastest growing hobby.

One of the basic rules of writing marketing pieces is remember your audience.  In the case of an effective news release you need to double that effort.  Not only do you need to remember the reporter but you also need to think about the reporter’s audience and what matters to them. 

Check out this post on Do’s and Don’t written by a reporter.  Words to the wise for sure!

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Wear your support for Iowa

July 12, 2008

Picture_1 If you’ve been looking for a way to help Iowa and show your support, here’s an option.  A recent college grad and blogger Andy Drish and some friends have created t-shirts and all the proceeds (about $9 per shirt) will be given to the Red Cross’ flood relief efforts.

You can check out and order the t-shirts here.  (Note…the shirts are white, not blue like they are shown in the pix to the right and on the site.)

I know the Iowans who have lost their homes and businesses are grateful for everyone’s prayers, support and kindness.  On behalf of all of them, thanks.

Note:  I am sure there are many efforts like this one.  I’m comfortable sharing this one with you because I know Andy and his integrity.  I know every penny will get to the Red Cross.

If you’d like to forgo the t-shirt and just make a donation, please give to the Embrace Iowa fund.

On a related note…want to see some incredible citizen journalism?  Check out IowaFloods.com.  This site was launched by Des Moine’s Andy Brudtkuhl.  He’s been getting lots of kudos on the site and rightly so.

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The case for frequency (Jay Ehret)

July 11, 2008

19121744 Drew’s Note:  As I try to do every Friday, I’m pleased to bring you a guest post from yet another interesting thought leader who shares his insights via the blogosphere. So without further ado…Jay Ehret.  Enjoy!

It was the spring 1988, in my early days as a radio advertising sales representative.  "Account Executive" is what they called me. I sat across the table from the owner of a small, local sandwich shop in Waco, Texas, and took out a piece of paper. 

"The elements of a successful advertising campaign," I began "are message, reach, and frequency." As I listed each element, I would draw a circle on the paper, and label it. Then I put plus signs between the circles, and capped it off with an equals sign pointing to "success."

What a simple time it was in the days of old media. Can you imagine that pitch in today’s new media? It wouldn’t work. Message, reach and frequency have been replaced by volume, spam, and hyperbole.

In today’s internet-driven marketing, the goal seems to be to make the most boastful claim in a highly forceful manner and then force feed it to as many email addresses and internet browsers as possible.  So does that mean the rules of old media no longer apply?

To answer that question, we need to look at the brain. Because I’m not a neuroscientist, I’ll let John Medina look at the brain instead. Plus he’s already done the dirty work with a book called Brain Rules. You can find much of the book’s basic information on Medina’s nifty Brain Rules website.

What You Remember
You don’t remember things accurately. That’s not a knock on you. Humans don’t remember things accurately. It’s just the way the brain works. In fact, it’s highly likely that my introduction story didn’t actually happen the way I remember it. The sandwich store owner, who is still a friend today, probably remembers that meeting differently or not at all.

The problem is that you forget most of what you learn within hours of contact. Why? Scientists don’t really know, it’s just the way the brain works.  The typical human brain can only hold about seven pieces of information for less than 30 seconds. Rarely are memories fixed at the moment of learning, even if you engage in loud exaggeration.

But Medina also points out that while we forget a great deal within the first hour of our exposure, "this loss could be lessened by deliberate repetitions." Further, Medina explains that "repeated exposure to information in specifically timed intervals provides the most powerful way to fix memory into the brain."

Marketers struggle to get consumers to remember their message in an over-marketed world. Yet we consistently ignore one of the most potent ingredients of memory: frequency! Creativity and innovation are celebrated in ad agencies and books, but frequency rarely is. Please introduce me to your Frequency Director or Frequency Evangelist.

Brain Rules
Every marketer should read chapters 5 and 6 of Brain Rules by John Medina. It may be the most important 51 pages you ever read. Marketers have created a lot of their own rules in this age of new marketing. But we shouldn’t forget the rules of the brain.

Your differentiating message, your advertising campaign, your brand promise requires a lot of repetition before it can be retrieved. It turns out that the brain has made the strongest case yet for frequency.

Jay Ehret  is founder and chief steward of The Marketing Spot, a small business marketing coaching and consulting firm in Waco, Texas. He blogs at The Marketing Spot and is a contributor to the upcoming book Age of Conversation: Why Don’t They Get It.   

Every Friday is "grab the mic" day.  Want to grab the mic and be a guest blogger on Drew’s Marketing Minute?  Shoot me an e-mail.

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Podcast: Social Media and Small Business

July 10, 2008

Zane Safrit was kind enough to invite me to be a guest on his BlogTalk radio show yesterday.  We talked a lot about what social media is and isn’t and how small businesses could begin to explore it.

I totally understand (as you will hear) why businesses are afraid or confused by social media.  But honestly, I think we make it more difficult than it needs to be.  As you’ll hear….I’m a big advocate of just dipping your toe into the water a little bit.

Take a listen.  I’d love to hear what you think.

Thanks again to Zane for being such an engaging host.  You’ll want to check out all his podcasts….they’re excellent and thought provoking.

Update:  Zane just added his notes on our conversation at his blog.

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Do you want an * by your company’s name?

July 9, 2008

Picture_2 As a baseball fan, I watched with great dread as Barry Bonds approached Hank Aaron’s home run record.  For me, the two men couldn’t be more different.  Bonds surpassing Aaron’s record was sort of like when the villain gets one up on Batman.  They usually do it through deceit and trickery.

In my opinion, Barry got his spot in the record books the same way.

The historic baseball that was #756 was delivered to the Baseball Hall of Fame last week.  But it arrived with an asterisk.

As most of you know, fashion designer Marc Ecko purchased the ball in an online auction for $752,467 and then held an on-line poll to ask what should be done with it.  The choices were:

  • Bestow it (Just give it to the Hall of Fame)
  • Brand it (Give it to the Hall but first put an asterisk on it to signify the doubts about Bond’s steroid use)
  • Banish it (Launch it into outer space)

Almost 10 million people voted and almost half of all the votes went for brand it.  And so it was done.

The truth is, we’ll never know the truth.  But Bonds conducted himself in a way that we doubt his character.  Most of us don’t give him the benefit of the doubt and he will probably never be able to behave his way back to being respected and trusted.

Think about that sentence.  Probably never be able to behave his way back to being respected and trusted.  Yikes.

Why?  Because through his words and actions, he had built a brand that told us he was rude, conceited and didn’t care about the game as much as he did about his own creature comforts and fame.  And now, that brand is part of the reason behind the lion’s share of the country thinking that he lied when he said he hadn’t taken steroids.

Is it fair?  Probably not.  But life and branding aren’t fair.  As I said in a post from last year, once you don the black hat, it’s pretty tough to take it off.

I don’t think Barry built his brand consciously or with one fell swoop.  It was a million tiny choices and interactions.  Do I think today he wishes he had been a bit nicer to reporters?  Do I think he wishes he stuck around a little more often to sign autographs after a game?  Do I think he wishes he had handled himself better when things got heated up?

You bet.  But he can’t.  He’s already wearing the black hat.

So why am I waxing on about this, you ask?  Because we could just as easily and just as accidentally create the same sort of brand trouble.

What small decisions, policies and behaviors are going on in your company that might add up to a brand you can’t behave out of?  Don’t be too quick or too smug to think there’s nothing you can’t improve on.  I’ll bet with a little thought (and input from your co-workers and clients) you could come up with 5-10 small things that aren’t giving off exactly the brand message you want to create.

You have time to fix it.  Before your marketplace puts an asterisk by your company’s name.

For more on marketing and asterisks, check out Patrick’s post over at Responsible Marketing.  I borrowed the above photo from him as well.

 

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Are you tough enough to take it?

July 7, 2008

39180083 Most businesses have a heavy focus on acquiring new clients. Especially as we consider that we might be rolling into a recession. Everyone is sensitive to the importance of keeping new prospects flowing. 

But we should remember that the way to get new prospects is to be smarter about how we treat current customers and even how we treated those customers we’ve lost.  Getting smarter is a much better strategy than blindly lowering our prices to combat tougher times.

Losing a customer is inevitable.  It happens to every business. But losing them for good is not inevitable.  You can get a good percentage of them back.

One of the most powerful pieces of research you can do is a lost customer survey.  This isn’t for the meek.  It’s a little like being hit with a toxic gas.  It can knock the wind out of you!

You need to be ready to hear some painful truths.  They left for a reason.  And the reason is rarely price.  So something in your product, service or interactions pushed them into your competitor’s arms.

This is not something you can do effectively by yourself.  Here’s a human truth that works both for and against us.  People are basically nice.  They don’t want to offend you or hurt your feelings.   But you will be amazed at how candid (and sometimes brutally honest) they will be with an objective third-party.  So, get professional help.

Once you hear the truth, there will be elements within your business that you will clearly want to change. Change them or put plans in place to change them.  Then, craft a letter to your lost customers thanking them for their participation and sharing the results with them.  Yes, air your dirty laundry.   Then tell them about your plans to change the problems.  Finally, ask them to come back.  Give them an incentive to do so.

You won’t get them all.  But you’ll get many of them back.  Best of all, you have made changes that will keep more of your current clients right where they belong – with you.

One of the services we provide MMG clients is a customer satisfaction assessment.  Every one of our clients who embarks on the research ends up changing the way they do business for the better.  Hard to argue with results like that.

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How do you drive traffic to your website or blog?

July 4, 2008

19100374 We all want readers.

Bottom line, that’s why businesses and professionals blog or put up a website.  We want to connect.  We want to share.  We want to sell.  And none of that happens without readers.

So I am curious and want to steal your good ideas. 

How do you generate traffic at your blog or site?  Do you have a written plan?  A plan in your head?  Do you have any techniques that make your numbers jump (hits in a day, new subscribers) and how permanent is the leap?

Do you have a few tried and true methods?  Are you always experimenting or do you just chug along, creating good content and letting readers find you over time?

Let’s say creating good content is a given.  What beyond that do you do?

If everyone shares a couple of their methods — we could compile quite a list and really help each other.  So what say you?

Here’s interesting post from Ian at Conversation Marketing about StumbleUpon and how he uses it to earn new readers.  Is that one of your tricks too?

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No….I do not want to be President!

July 3, 2008

Seriously, this is getting out of hand.  You all have to stop this!

I mean it.  I’m way to busy to run the country too!  But thank you, I’m flattered.  Really.

Update:  Happy 4th of July to my stateside readers.  It’s quite a country when literally anyone can be President.  From a marketing perspective — this is the election version of being Elfed. 

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Strategy comes first in the formula

July 3, 2008

19179086 I’m the first to advocate great creative.  If your marketing materials are boring or just like everyone else’s, you’re going to get lost in the shuffle.  Strong, memorable creative can make your ad pop off the page or your brochure be the first one they reach for.  But, way too many marketers leap right to the creative execution.  Who can blame them – it’s fun.

But, you have to lay your foundation first. The foundation of any marketing piece is the strategy.  Do you understand your audience and why they would want your product/service?  Do you know what your key message is?   

When it comes to crafting your message, there’s an easy formula to make sure you’re helping your potential buyer understand why they should buy. 

Problem/Want:  This is how you get their attention.  Show them that you understand their problem or their want.   Use vivid language to remind them of how troublesome the problem can be.  Or how cool they’d feel if they got their want.  You want them to recognize themselves and their pain in your ad.  If they don’t know they have a problem — they are not going to be in the market for a solution.

Solution: Once they know that you understand their concerns, they’re ready to hear how you can help them solve their problem or satisfy that itch they have.  Explain how they will benefit from your solution.  What will it change for them?  How will life be easier, better, cheaper, smarter, etc.?  Paint a picture with your words.

Here’s where you really have to understand how you are different from the competition.  Don’t use the same old tired arguments and language.  If you can’t differentiate yourself…don’t waste the money on the ad or brochure or website or whatever!

Call to action:  Don’t make it hard for them to buy. Make your communication compelling.  Give them both a reason and a method to act immediately.  A number to call.  A URL to visit.  A special bonus if they buy within a certain amount of time.

Pretty simple, right?  But look through the paper or listen to the radio.  Most of the advertisers out there are missing the boat.  Hopefully your competition is among them! 

Now, you obviously can communicate the problem and solution in many creative ways.  You don’t have to be blatant with the formula itself.  But…if they don’t know they’ve got a problem or you don’t make them a little hungrier for that want, you’re sunk.

Follow this easy formula and you’ll already be ahead of the pack.

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