Strategy

WowOwow! And I really mean it.

March 9, 2008

Look at this list of women.  Do your best not to say WOW at least once.

Lesley Stahl, Peggy Noonan, Liz Smith, Joni Evans, Mary Wells, Sheila Nevins, Joan Juliet Buck, Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Reed, Joan Ganz Cooney, Judith Martin, Candice Bergen, Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner, and Marlo Thomas.

I know…can’t be done.  Go ahead.  Give yourself permission.  Wow.

That is a power-packed list.  Women who have incredible influence in many different fields.  Apparently, they’ve been friends for some time and as they say:

"And for years we have been talking to each other about everything under the sun – our families, our work, our worlds. No matter what was happening in our lives, we made the time. We’ve shared what we think, observe and experience each day.

And now we want to share it with you."

The call it a conversation on the internet.  I call it a blog.  But….in very short order, we’re going to call it a force.  Their question of the day for yesterday was….which 4 women would you like to see on Mt. Rushmore.  70+ comments.

Umm, that was on the day of their launch, International Women’s Day.  Imagine how popular they’ll be in a week!

Hats off to these ladies, their fascinating conversations and their wisdom in inviting us to join in.

So here’s what I am wondering.  How will this site and these women influence the blogosphere, the media, advertisers or public perception?

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Nothing matters more than selling

March 9, 2008

Or so says Michael Masterson.  In his new book, Ready, Fire, Aim: From Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat" he says:

"Nothing matters more than selling. Many first-time entrepreneurs have the impression that they are doing things in a logical order when they look for the perfect office space, have logos designed, and order a lot of inventory. The reality is they are wasting valuable resources on secondary and tertiary endeavors. If no one is going to buy what you want to sell, you’ve just wasted a bunch of money on a business that will never be."

Masterson’s book identifies four stages of a business (infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood) and points out the unique characteristics of each – with its own unique problems, challenges and opportunities. He asserts that with the information in Ready, Fire, Aim, any investor, business owner, or employee can recognize these stages and see how to move their business to the next level.

The book includes the three-step process that entrepreneurs should (but often don’t) follow in order to build a successful business.
Step one: Get the product ready enough to sell, but don’t worry about perfecting it.   (Ready)
Step two: Sell it.  (Fire)
Step three: If it sells, make it better. (Aim)

Masterson also takes on some of the biggest myths about starting and growing businesses, providing in-depth insights and expert advice based on his real-life experience growing dozens of multi-million dollar businesses over the past two decades.

The author introduction makes a bold promise:

"If you don’t have your own business but are thinking of starting one, this book is for you. If you have a new business but can’t get it to grow, you’ll know how after you read this. If your business is already pretty large but has hit a plateau, don’t worry. There are answers here for you. If your business is great but you are working too much, you can breathe easy. You are reading the right book. The answers are here."

While it may not be quite that cut and dried…I found the book to be very thought-provoking and practical.  As you know, I don’t enjoy business books that don’t help me actually apply what I am reading and learning.  I found myself asking some tough questions about my own business as I was reading.  I spotted some definite areas that could use some tweaking and will start to do a few things differently as a result.

My own valuation of a book is….did I learn something I can apply that will improve my business in a tangible and significant way?  If so, the book was well worth the 2 hours I invested.

This book was well worth the two hours.  I think you’ll agree.

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Need to raise your prices? Here’s how.

March 6, 2008

I know, it’s crazy talk.  Or is it?

Raise your prices when we might be facing a recession?  But for some  organizations, it’s just smart business.  Or maybe it is necessary business.  Cost of goods may be on the rise, or labor might be costing you more.

Or you might know/believe that consumers respond differently to higher end pricing than they do to lower priced items. 

Whatever the reason, there’s a right way and a wrong way to raise your prices.  The truth of the matter is in the life cycle of most businesses, prices need to be raised. 

Whether you are a law firm that charges by the hour or a manufacturer who sells widgets – your cost of goods is likely to rise.  So, your prices need to as well.

Raising prices can also raise the ire of your clients. Depending on the maturity of your business, your customer base, the percentage of increase you’d like to make – there are several ways to accomplish your goal without losing or upsetting clientele. 

The most common way to raise prices is to just do it across the board and then send a sincere letter to your customers like "over the past 10 years, ABC Plumbing has worked hard to hold our prices steady.  We’re proud of the fact that we’ll be able to contain our price increase to a very modest 2%…"  Common, but not without some potential for push back.

 

Sometimes it is the most common way because it’s the only way.  But, how else might you get the increase you want without incurring the wrath of existing customers?

How about charging extra for special privileges?  Access to a customer hot-line that skips the on hold queue or upgrades in shipping or turnaround time. Today, one of the most valuable assets for most people is time.  If you can save them time, they often will gladly pay extra.

Another way of looking at your pricing is market segments. A business traveler who needs to be in Pittsburgh on Wednesday and back on Thursday will pay more for a plane ticket than a Grandma planning a visit to her family.  You probably have similar segments within your customer base.

No matter how you handle a price increase, one element is critical.  Be upfront and demonstrate value.  Your clients don’t begrudge you making a profit.  They just want to get a value for their dollar.  Price increases can be a win/win if you think them through and handle them correctly.

Here’s some heartening news.  Some research suggests that people like you better if you’re more expensive!

Related posts:
Should you lower your prices during a recession?
What does this pricing strategy say to you?
How much is a house?

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The buying continuum

March 3, 2008

Like all human behaviors, there are stages that lead up to someone actually buying something.  We call it the Buying Continuum.  This is a critical tool for understanding how to best communicate with your target audience.

The five stages of the Buying Continuum are:  Unaware, Aware, Trial, Repeat and Recommend.

Unaware:  This is the stage where your potential buyer has no idea that you even exist.  They’ve never heard of you.  Your goal is to get on their radar screen. Editorial coverage and blogging are great marketing tools to use with these buyers.

Aware:  Now your potential buyer has an inkling of your company. You goal is to get them intrigued enough to care. Then, they’ll listen. Ads in targeted publications, your website and contests are effective at this stage.

Trial:  Now, they’re on the cusp. They’re willing to give your service or product a try.  You just need to give them that nudge. Direct mail, testimonials, and advertising will help get them to cross the line.

Repeat:  They’ve tried you. You want them to do it again. At this stage, you want to let them know you won’t forget them and just chase new clients. This is a great stage to launch customer perks/clubs and specialized newsletters.

Referral: This is the Holy Grail for marketers. This is when your customers are out doing your job – selling your product or service. They are creating buzz, word of mouth marketing for you. You want to talk to them regularly. Make them feel like an insider.

Knowing where potential buyers are at in the Buying Continuum can help you decide which marketing tactics to use. Since you probably (hopefully) have potential buyers in all stages of the continuum – be sure you have the right media mix to reach them all.

Download your own, full-sized buying continuum chart, courtesy of MMG!

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Perfection Paralysis

February 25, 2008

I would guess we’ve all witnessed it.  A business owner or marketing decision maker who can’t pull the trigger when it comes to marketing tactics. 

Something about the piece (be it a website, brochure or direct mail piece, etc.) is off for them.  Often, they can’t even tell you what’s off, just that something is.  "it’s just not quite right," they’ll say with a rueful smile. And so the team tries again — revision after revision.

What was that sound?  It was the window of opportunity slamming shut.  In many cases, the piece never gets completed and marketing dollars slowly swirl down the drain.

And your prospects and customers wonder why you’re ignoring them.

Pretty darn good trumps perfect every time, if it means you get to market faster (or at all) with your message.

Next time you feel your team (or yourself) begin to stall a project because perfection paralysis is taking hold, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does it clearly communicate our key message?  (no more than 2-3)
2. Does it offer some response opportunity? (website, e-mail, phone number, etc.)
3. Does it protect and respect our brand promise and look/feel?
4. Is it error-free?  (typos, grammar etc.)

If you can answer yes to all 4 — give yourself 24 hours to futz with it if you want and then get it out the door.

Perfect or not.

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Marketing, recessions and budgets….oh my!

February 18, 2008

Boy, there’s a lot of talk about the R word, isn’t there?  And I think business owners/leaders are beginning to get a little jittery.  That’s what prompted me to remind all of you that there is significant danger in being reactionary and lowering your prices.

Jonathan Munk, over at Manizesto, recently interviewed Beth Goldstein, author of Ultimate Small Business Marketing Toolkit, on this very topic.  Her answers are worth your time, if nothing else…to get you thinking.

You might also glean a little insight from reading what Brent Allen’s take is on the topic.  Not enough?  How about Tony D. Baker’s extensive post on ways to safeguard your business during a recession.

And for those of you who are about to tell me we’re not heading towards a recession…remember, perception is reality.  If consumers or business owners believe that’s where we are heading, the reality doesn’t matter all that much. 

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Stopwatch Marketing should be on your nightstand

February 6, 2008

Isn’t that where we all keep the book we’re going to read next?

I think Stopwatch Marketing is the book you should read next.

Here’s my formula for the ideal business book.

• Tell me something I either don’t know or twist something I do know, so I get it in a new way
• Tell me stories with lots of detail (case studies) to make your theories come alive
• Make sure those stories cover a range of industries so I can see myself/our clients in some of them
• Teach me how to apply your theory/ideas so I can really use them

Stopwatch Marketing nails every one of my criteria and then some. 

The gist of the book is that customers all operate on their own internal stopwatch.  But each person’s stopwatch is moving at a different speed. They may all be shopping for the same product (let’s say a bottle of wine) but how they shop for that wine is based on their own motivations/situation. 

Someone grabbing a bottle of wine before a party is a very different shopper from the person who is trying to pick out the perfect bottle for a first date.

The trick is, of course, how do you recognize and capitalize on these different kinds of shoppers?

John Rosen and AnnaMaria Turano make their readers a promise on page 6 of their book.  They say:

"The promise of the book you hold in your hand is that it will show how to analyze, evaluate, and exploit the time that represents every shopper’s most important resource…to understand how to measure the length of time your customer will spend searching for your product or service…and how to make absolutely certain that your product or service is close to the front of your customer’s queue: that lineup of shopping options that gets longer for consumers every year."

The authors identify four different types of shopping personas:

• Impatient (pressed for time)
• Reluctant (only purchase when they have to)
• Painstaking (researches as long as necessary to select the best)
• Recreational (slow and leisurely)

This chart illustrates the four shopping styles and the types of products that often fall into each category.  Part of the message is that a person is not always the same kind of shopper. 

I might happily spend an hour in Barnes & Noble, browsing and enjoying the atmosphere (recreational shopper) but when I’m in Target….I want to get in and out as quickly as I can. (impatient shopper) unless of course, I am shopping for a new digital camera (painstaking).

The book goes on to illustrate how both product and service driven companies have used the insights of the shopping styles to better understand their consumers and how to target them with the right message, at the right time.

But….what most business books lack is that next step.  Teach us how to actually use this stuff.  Not Stopwatch Marketing.  The entire second half of the book is devoted to doing just that.  There are sample focus group questions, needs gap examples, customer survey samples, web analytics information, budget building suggestions and much more.

There’s lots of meat on this bone whether you’re an experienced marketer, a consultant or a business owner.  Get it on your nightstand soon.

Buy the book
Check out the authors’ blog

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Should you lower prices during a recession?

February 4, 2008

Remembering that perception is reality, we’re headed towards a recession.  Whether we are or not.  Consumers believe it’s coming…so they will behave accordingly. 

So we need to be ready to anticipate how this is going to alter their reaction/response to our marketing messages.  And, if they’re right, we need to be mindful of our own budgets as well.

Last week, The New York Times ran a story about how many retailers are pushing the "lower prices" message to capitalize on consumers’ fear.  The article documents several companies including the much written about Starbucks $1 cup of coffee.

Is this a good strategy?

Maybe.  It depends on your brand position. 

Are you the product or service that’s all about being cheap?  Are you ready to live with that new brand position far beyond the recession?

A low price strategy is one that’s easy to slip on and incredibly difficult to shrug off, once the economy turns around.  Consumers tend to really wrap their arms around a low price position and they aren’t likely to be happy about going back to paying full price.

If your brand is not about price — adopting a low price strategy is probably going to damage the work you’ve already done.  And that doesn’t only apply to luxury or high end brands.

As money gets tighter, consumers will want to be confident in the companies they do business with.  Brand trust will become even more important, the tighter people are with their cash.

A recession is the time to be even more diligent about protecting your brand by staying consistent.  If you weren’t a bargain basement brand a year ago, you should think long and hard before becoming one today.

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What’s your competition’s hook?

January 24, 2008

I really hate strongly dislike my dry cleaners.  I’ve written about them before, but in a nutshell…

• They don’t acknowledge that they have any idea who I am, despite having seen me at least weekly for a couple years
• When I walk in, rather than asking if they can help me, they act as though I am interrupting them
• They have lost 4 of my shirts and never apologized (they’re sure they are in my closet)
• They break a button on one of my shirts about every 3 weeks

So by now, you are saying "Geez Drew. I have a solution for you.  Go to a different dry cleaners."

Ahhh, there’s the rub and the marketing discussion.  You see, I have said the same thing to myself many times.  But I don’t.  Why not?

This dry cleaners is 3 minutes from my house.  It is in my traffic pattern.  They even have a drive thru window.  The commodity I value most is time.  So, I endure them.

So here’s the marketing question in all of this — do you understand what hooks your competitors have set into your prospects?  By all impressions — I should be an easy win for another dry cleaners. 

• I am very dissatisfied with my current provider
• What they sell is a commodity
• There is a low cost of entry — doesn’t cost me a lot to switch

Yet, I (so far) am staying put.  A coupon or sale isn’t going to lure me away.  Telling me about the latest and greatest equipment — no such luck. 

This is one of the sticky wickets we don’t talk about very much in marketing.  You can do all the right things, aimed at the right people…and still not win their business.  Unless you understand the hooks.

What are the common hooks in your industry?  If you know — what are you doing to remove those hooks?  If you don’t know — how could you find out? 

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Viral video — are you trying to educate?

January 21, 2008

In our on-going discussion about the value of (or lack thereof) using viral video, we’ve talked about how the statistics clearly indicate that video viewing is on the rise (with double and triple digit growth) and some of the reasons why viral video might make sense for your organization.

In my last post, we explored (there were some superb comments — be sure you dig deep enough to read them!) using viral video if what you’re looking for is widespread exposure.  Those are the videos we’re all the most familiar with. The Mentos and Diet Coke, the RayBans, or the Small Office HP videos that I shared in that post.

Characteristically, they have a higher production value, tend to be funny and short.  Really, they’re the Super Bowl ads of viral video.  Their goal is to be talk worthy and sharing worthy.

But what if that’s not what you need.  Let’s say you’re the Marketing Director for a regional B-to-B company.  Viral video shouldn’t be on your radar screen — right?

Not so fast, my friend. 

If "I want lots of eyes" viral video is the Super Bowl of the medium, then the "I want to educate you" may be the high school social studies class film equivalent.  You remember those grainy black and white films that were short on entertainment value but long on content.  These are characteristically lower budget/quality production, a bit longer in length and usually not going for the funny bone.  Their purpose is very utilitarian — to teach.

Long time reader/commenter to this blog, Scott Townsend is the Marketing Director for United Linen and Uniforms in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.  They service the tri-state area of Kansas, Arkansas and of course, Oklahoma.  So why would they use video?

Watch.

Again, this is not going to win an Oscar.  I think lots of people shy away from some of this new fangled media (podcasts, video etc.) because they compare their budget and abilities to the high end variations and dismiss an opportunity that they could seize.

Assuming you have a certain level of production quality — using video this way is an effective way to do a couple things.

• Educate your consumer.  Some things are easier to understand if you can see them.
• Convey a product truth.  In this case, that it’s easy to re-load the dispenser and odds are if she can do it — so can your employees.

What do you think?  Can you see how using video like this might serve your customers?  Or are you in the "high end, big budget or no go" camp?

 

Other posts in this series:
Do you viral video?
Viral video – are you looking for a lot of eyes?
Viral video — are you trying to educate?
Viral video – are you trying to be heard over the noise?
Viral video — are you establishing yourself as an expert?

Photo courtesy of www.viewimages.com

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