Marketing Archives - Page 44 of 67 - McLellan Marketing Group

Harry Beckwith’s genius x 40 (part 2)

September 14, 2007

A couple days ago, I shared with you the first installment of Harry Beckwith’s 40 conclusions about what motivates people. I said, if you liked it I would share more. Well, you sure liked it (I knew you were smart!) so here’s a few more.

Remember, to sign up for Beckwith’s newsletter Invisible Ink (subscribe here) so you don’t miss any more of his observations.

Never take seriously what people say they think, because people are never sure. Trust only action.
The more similar two things appear, the more important their tiny differences. Accentuate the trivial.
Your most valuable salesperson is the person who answers your phones.
You must improve constantly, because people’s expectations rise constantly.
People don’t care how good you are. They care how good you can make them.
The best companies don’t make the fewest mistakes; they make the best corrections.
You cannot convince someone you have a superior product at a low price. Make up your mind.
We call them "premium prices" because a higher price represents insurance that your product will perform.
Despite all the warnings, all people judge books by their covers.
People hear what they see; you must communicate visually.
The more complex our society becomes, the more valuable your brand becomes.

So what do you think? Ring true for you? Had you forgotten some of these truths?

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Harry Beckwith’s genius x 40 (part 1)

September 11, 2007

If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know I believe Harry Beckwith to be a modern day prophet. Or at the very least, quite brilliant.

Beckwith has mastered what I stumble with every day. He tells stories that illuminate.

He does it in plain language that everyone can grasp and apply to their business.

In his most recent newsletter, Harry Beckwith's Invisible Ink (subscribe here) Harry talks about his fascination with what motivates people.

He goes on to say that he's come to 40 conclusions surround this question. I thought I'd share some of them with you. And maybe if you like them, I'll share a few more tomorrow.

Your biggest competitor is not a competitor; it's your prospect's indifference.
Your second-biggest competitor is not a competitor; it's your prospect's distrust.
Your biggest obstacle is whatever stereotype your prospect has formed about you and your industry.
Prospects decide in the first five seconds.
Prospects don't try to make the best choice. They try to make the most comfortable choice.
At heart, every prospect is risk-averse, and risks are always more vivid than rewards.
Beware of what you think you know or have experienced; memories fail people constantly.
For the same reason, beware of what others say they know or have experienced.

So what do you think? Ring true for you? Had you forgotten some of these truths?

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Do blogs make e-newsletters obsolete?

September 7, 2007

Here's the question. Now that we have blogs, should we still have e-newsletters?

My friend Dawud Miracle raised the question and paints a picture that suggests that e-newsletters are really thinly veiled tricks to capture e-mail addresses and sell products. Blogs on the other hand, according to his initial post, are less intrusive and give the reader more control. He's generated quite an interesting collection of responses.

Here's mine.

With all due respect, who died and made us King? That is so 1980’s. We are not in charge anymore. The consumer is.

My agency has had a e-newsletter since 1999 and we have thousands of subscribers. They seem to like it.

I have had a blog for less than a year. Have a good number of subscribers but certainly not the thousands that the e-newsletter has. The blog subscribers seem to like it.

Some of the e-newsletter subscribers have opted to also sign up for the blog and visa versa. (I try not to use the same content).

If we have learned anything in this era of citizen marketing — we don’t get to decide. We offer up value in a variety of media and let the consumer choose which option works for them.

And if we think that e-newsletters are more sales driven — we are crazy. I have seen blatant blog posts that practically begged for work. I’m not saying that is bad…but I saying we are deluding ourselves to think of one as a sales tool and the other as an educational vehicle. Both…can be both.

As long as we have subscribers to either vehicle, I will keep writing them.

So what do you think? Are they mutually exclusive tools? Does one replace the other? Is one medium more geared towards a sales pitch?

Do we or should we choose for our readers/prospects/customers?

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Don’t leave THIS out of your media releases!

September 7, 2007

In today's age of the digital media release, I find this statistic from BusinessWire amazing.

Less than 1% of press releases submitted contain hyperlinks.

Adding a hyperlink does several things for you:

It adds valuable links back to your website or blog
The links are SEO juice
You shift your media release to a useful, connective tool for consumers
It allows you to enhance the story with background or related information
It opens the opportunity to communicate with your audience

Make a rule for yourself right now. You will not send out a media release without at least 2 outbound links. But don't overdue. Anything more than 1 link per 100 words runs the risk of being labeled as link spam.

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Write for real people

September 5, 2007

Whether you are writing a brochure, a radio spot or a blog post – you are writing to a specific audience. And in reality, in most cases, multiple audiences. The more clear you can be on who you're talking to, the more clear you can be in your language, examples and tone.

Here's one of my favorite "tricks of the trade" when it comes to writing. I create my audience from a composite from bits and pieces of the real people who engage with the product or service. From those seemingly random facts, I concoct a 3-D, multi-faceted person.

I literally can picture them in my head. I know enough about their job and their lives to be able to relate to them.

Think of this as the poor man's persona.

Here's how you do it. Let's take this blog as the example. When I sit down to write every day, who am I writing for?

I know that I have several sub audiences here and have detailed personas (too long for this post) for each. But, let me introduce you to them.

CMO/Director of Marketing at a medium sized company: Ian is either on his own or has a small staff. He's inside a B-to-B company and is pretty savvy in terms of basic marketing. But he needs help creating solid strategy, staying on course and executing the marketing plan.

Odds are, branding is less familiar territory for him. He gets it but has no idea how to create it in a meaningful way that has depth, meaning and sticking power with his internal and external audiences. He needs a partner here who can walk them through the process and execution.

He also needs to be inspired some days. He has to champion everything inside his company and sometimes the CFO can be a real prig. Because Ian is so immersed in the day-to-day world of his job, he also looks to me to keep him current on trends and fresh creative.

Blogging is a some day for Ian. He knows he needs to get his company there but he doesn't feel as though he can sell it yet. It's too fringe still. He checks out my feed a couple times a week and then reads what's of interest to him. His typical comment is a question or clarification, which I love.

Small Business Owner: Poor Erin has to do it all. Her business is successful but she views marketing and advertising as a necessary evil. She's pretty savvy but still gets "sold" by a slick media sales person now and then. Everything sounds like a good idea, so how does she choose the best ones? It's not that she resents investing the time or money, but she wants to do it wisely.

She's the one that branding could actually make the most difference to, if she got it. With her limited budget and knowledge, differentiating herself from her competitors in a real, user (both internal and external) experience sort of way would generate incredible word of mouth, which will not only stretch her budget but also deepen the love Erin's customers have for her entity.

She is stretched so thin she could scream. She doesn't have time to read all the magazines, business books and keep up on the trends. So she's looking for quick reads that will teach her all the nuances she doesn't know and remind her of the ones she does.

She also needs to be reminded now and then that despite the long hours and frustrations, she worked hard to be able to have this life and there's a lot right with it.

She isn't quite brave enough to comment yet. But she shows up almost every day.

Branding/marketing Pros: Blogging or not, Patrick either works in an agency, consultancy, or at a high-level client side job. He loves marketing and branding. Loves to talk about it, loves to create it, loves to read about it and loves to surround himself with other people who share his passion.

He comes to my blog not so much to learn something new but instead, to share common experiences, poke and pull on fresh ideas and to tell war stories. He views us as kindred spirits and nods his head a fair amount as he reads what I've written. He's a frequent commenter and always adds value to the conversation.

What he hopes to find when he shows up at the blog is a topic to discuss or share ideas around. Patrick likes to talk about the industry and where it's going. He finds the blogosphere a way he can keep very current, so he can guide his clients better.

So now that I know who I am writing for – how does that influence my prose?

Whenever I have an idea for a post, I think about Ian, Erin and Patrick. I wonder if it will interest them. And I keep a mental tally. If I've written a couple pieces that week that I know are more up Patrick's alley, then I go out of my way to make sure I offer up something that Ian and Erin will particularly value.

I try to position my questions to entice them all to comment, even though I know Erin's a long shot. I figure even if she doesn't answer me on the blog, hopefully she's answering the question in her own head and that's helping her clarify her thoughts around the topic. I use my experiences with MMG clients to explore what might really be a hot button for Ian.

When I want to write something but it doesn't seem to really be something any of them would care that much about, I re-think writing it.

Understanding my audience helps me keep this blog (or a brochure, website, ad etc.) on the straight and narrow. It forces me to justify any detour that I'm thinking about taking. And, I think in the end it means I deliver my message in a way that keeps Ian, Erin and Patrick coming back for more.

Which is sort of the point.

Related posts:

Ease into the conversation – be a drip

No one is a demographic

Effective or stupid?

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The next generation of social media specialists

September 3, 2007

…are already in training. Sure, there’s MySpace and Facebook, but look out because here comes SugarLoot.com.

This teen-driven site hosts contests that encourage the kids to:

Upload videos
Upload photos
Participate on their blog
Create relationships that support mutual votes and “fan” rankings

The traffic numbers are staggering. Not only is this site attracting kids by the boatload, but it is also attracting advertisers. Prizes for the contests come from companies like Petco (cutest pets), Apple, Westin, M&Ms, American Express, JVC, Dell and others.

It’s also being used to hype upcoming movies. The Clique is a book series aimed at teen-aged girls. Through SugarLoot, they are running a contest where the grand prize winners will get to audition for a role in the movie adaptation of the books.

One of the contestants has over 18,000 views of her audition.

We McLellans were late to the party, but in just a couple days, my daughter’s audition has over 100 views. And we hadn’t even e-mailed the grandparents yet!

My point? If you think your business doesn’t need to pay attention to social media – think again. Tomorrow’s customers are learning it today. You’d better do the same.

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What goes around…

September 3, 2007

I've always believed that if you give first, without worrying about what you will receive — you always get more than you expected.

I explore this notion in a guest post over at Emerging Customer. The two authors of that blog, Michelle Lamar and Christine Wright have given me the perfect example of this theory.

They heard about Age of Conversation and our goal to raise money for Variety, The Children's Charity as well as creating exposure to the ideas of 103 authors. They came up with an amazingly generous offer. Any (or all) 103 Age of Conversation authors have been invited to be a guest author on their blog.

Michelle and Christine made the offer, asking for nothing in return. But according to my theory…very good things will happen to them. The first being that the readers of this blog will check out Emerging Customer and enjoy its content enough to subscribe.

Thanks again to Michelle and Christine for helping tell the world about Age of Conversation and giving all 103 authors an opportunity to introduce themselves to EC's readers!

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I’ll give you a toaster….

September 1, 2007

Remember when we were kids and banks would offer toasters, clock radios and stadium blankets in exchange for opening a checking account?

Well baby, we have NOT come a long way.

All too often, when a company tries to bribe potential customers with incentives, they fail to really understand the math that's going on in the prospect's head.

The key to developing a good incentive offer is understanding the value of what you are offering versus the cost of what you want in return. Check out my post at IowaBiz.com as we explore the good and bad of incentives.

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Product packaging — is it part of your brand or disposable?

August 30, 2007

A recent article in the New York Times focused on how product packaging trends have changed over the last 10-20 years. The trend, as late as the 90's was that companies would retain a packaging design for 7+ years. Today, the trend is less than 2 years. (To the left, Kleenex is now available in oval shaped boxes.)

The article lists many reasons why a company might shift packaging more often today.

Shorter attention spans of the buying population
The movement from container to a 3-D on-shelf ad for the product
Harder to expose audiences to mass media messaging, so have to grab them at the venue
Turning the mundane (tissue boxes, cleaning bottles) into decor
Trying to reduce package size/cost
Functionality (Coors label turns blue when it is just the right temperature)

An extreme example — Mountain Dew is changing its packaging 12 times from May-October. Wow. (see examples to the right)

So what do you think? Are they messing with their brand? Is this sort of revolving door packaging a good thing? Does it matter what the product is?

Related posts:

In the pink or just ick?

More packaging brain candy

Have you committed a Cardinal Zin?

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How brands help us decipher features

August 25, 2007

Picture_4

A good brand sets up expectations. The more definitive the brand, the better we can anticipate the experience. We can almost sense what would be a "right or wrong fit" based on the brand values or behaviors.

For example…see how many of these you get right:

What shape is Disney Cruise line's most popular pool?
What rating would Disney's 7 pm live entertainment show earn?
How about their 9 pm show?
How late is the casino open?
The food that is consumed in the largest quantity on the ship is…
How many times a day do the cruise activities team have "age specific" kid activities planned?
What is the decor of the most popular on-board restaurant?

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