The most dangerous place to be in your marketing is in the middle of the road.
We had a client call last week telling us that she had received a letter from someone stating how much they were put off by an ad we were running. She was wondering if we should hold off running that ad and instead run another one we had produced. My response was “Heck no. I’m thrilled that someone felt that way. I hope we get a few more letters.” Why would I say that, right?
You see, your company, like 99.9% (there’s always that oddball out there) wants to be loved. You want adoring customers, enthusiastic vendors, committed partners, etc. Yet in reality, few companies are really appreciated. In fact, most companies and marketing messages are tolerated at best, and at worst, ignored. And do you know why? It’s because most company messaging is too forgettable and too dull to spark any type of reaction.
If you want your company to have passionate customers, dedicated partners, etc., you must first inspire strong responses. Only then can you convince people to love your company and become raving fans of your brand. But here’s the kicker: as you attract fans, you’re also bound to get the critics, or “Haters.” As we learned in physics: Every action creates an equal and opposite reaction. These Haters are the ones that write nasty letters or post negative comments on sites like Yelp or Angie’s list. That said, here’s something which might also cause you to recoil a bit. Experience has taught me that it’s OK to have some not like your brand (not a lot, of course). Yup, you heard me right. In fact, having a few critics is essential. The undeniable reality is that if you’re not eliciting a negative response from someone somewhere, then you’re probably not that fascinating to anyone. No one remembers lukewarm!
Fresh, imaginative, and original ideas come across as unfamiliar, even uncomfortable, which means that not everyone will like it. But unfortunately, most companies spend too much time worrying over damage control for the Haters that they never get up the nerve to be exceptional in the first place. In short, Haters are the price one pays for being special. Apple has Haters. Starbucks has Haters. Accept their presence but do not let them stop you from moving forward.
On the other hand you have the advocates, evangelists, loyalist…the Lovers. They don’t just buy your product or service, they also accept price increases and forgive occasional “issues.” When your product is sold out in one store, they’ll drive to another store to find it. When the competition tries to appeal to them with an incentive, they stay loyal. Lovers also do your marketing work for you — for free. They write nice things in online reviews, and even occasionally re-post your content online. In every aspect of your company, Lovers will reward you with new business and higher sales. They’re not just buying your products for price or utility.
So you now have the Lovers on the left and the Haters on the right and between them you have a set of customers who give you little loyalty or value. Let’s call this group the “Lukewarmers”. Maybe a good way of describing this group is like that friend of yours that would come over to watch a game but as soon as the beer ran out…so would he. Kind of like a friend…but not really. In the same way, these indifferent customers make a purchase here and there but don’t add much of anything else.
The Lukewarmers also have a really bad habit of not caring. They won’t buy your product unless it’s the cheapest or most convenient option which means they’re only buying you until a cheaper or more convenient alternative comes around. So in addition to not being loyal, they’re also expensive to maintain because you’re spending money to get them as customers and they never really pay out over multiple purchases.
In today’s marketplace, this middle ground is death!! Not caring is not buying. Not caring is inaction. The Lukewarmers leave for just the smallest of reasons. So how do you get people to quit being Lukewarmers and start actively choosing you and your brand?
Simply put, if your company wants to influence purchase decisions, you need to provoke strong and immediate emotional reactions so that people bond with your brand or company. The goal isn’t to create, or even stay away from controversy, but to avoid creating legions of people who simply don’t care.
The world is not changed by people who sort of care or don’t care at all. Stop focusing on the Lukewarmer. And don’t let the Haters keep you from your goals. Start accumulating the Lovers. And it all starts by having your marketing and advertising being original and captivating. There’s no middle ground here.
As businesspeople, we want to be acknowledged for the work we do, for the value we provide. Can you image doing your work year after year and rarely being told “Great Job! We need a lot more people like you!”? We all want to be recognized for how we go about our business but also that we have worth as individuals. It’s just a part of how we’re hard-wired as human beings.
Well, the same thing holds true in having your company being praised by clients and customers. We all know how good it feels to be called out as a team or as a member of the team for making someone feel good about their association with your organization or department. Aside from personally feeling good about it, and depending on who is giving the “atta boy/girl”, people start walking around with a bounce in their step and overall team morale starts to increase. I know because last week our own firm received a couple of unanticipated and very flattering “great job” kudos from some clients that made us feel pretty darn good. Which got me to thinking, how might we want to let others know that our clients think we’re the “cat’s meow?” Because, probably like you, while we know it would be a good thing to do, we’re either sometimes to modest or we just don’t put the time into thinking how we could showcase these wonderful endorsements for the betterment of the firm.
In today’s world, the majority of prospective customers, both B2B and B2C, spend time researching online or through social media before they buy. They depend more than ever on word-of-mouth references from people who have used those brands or products – whether those references are in the form of anonymous reviews or client testimonials. (Think Angie’s List, Buzzillions or Yelp.) In fact, according to a the marketing group, ODM, about 90% of consumers trust the word of people they know and 70% of consumers trust the word of people they don’t know. Just look at how we shop online. We find what we’re looking for and one of the first things we do is check the customer rating number on the product. The second thing we typically do is read the actual customer reviews to see why someone gave that product 1 star and why others gave the same product 5. The point is, it wouldn’t hurt, regardless how large or small your organization, to make sure that people come across testimonials about your business to help establish trust and prove your credibility.
Ok, so if you’re running low on client testimonials, how do you get more? Well, here are a few thought starters:
Now, what to do with the client testimonials that you receive? Again, just some thoughts to get your marketing juices flowing:
If you have done your job well and earned satisfied customers, don’t let it end there. Let them speak up for you. Their words are worth their weight in gold. I know it. You know it. And your competitors know it. Oh, and before I forget “You’re doing a great job. We could use a lot more people like you.”
I saw a video over the holidays and it got the better of me so much so that I have to say something because these types of videos just need to stop being created by “marketers.”
I’m talking about poorly conceived and produced online videos that we find on countless company websites and social media channels which are completely ineffectual. You know the kind of video I’m talking about: it starts off looking like it was homemade and it never gets better; the on-camera ‘talent’ has none; it doesn’t know when to end; there’s an information overload going on which leads to boredom; no clear understanding of who the audience is; and most importantly, the “WOW factor” is completely hidden or missing.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what some companies have haphazardly slapped together in the name of “meaningful content video.”
As we all know, online video content has just exploded over the past couple of years and it’s going to keep getting bigger in the foreseeable future. For example, did you know….
Yet we still have too many companies that create and post videos which are visual train-wrecks that unfortunately their customers and prospective customers will see. With that in mind, and so that the next video you develop has a chance to be all that it can be, let’s talk about what good videos have in common:
So whether you’re creating a testimonial, promotional, “how-to” or other type of video, the idea is to make sure that people find it interesting, worth spending the time to watch and that it leads to the desired next step. Repeated viewings of your video generally indicates a positive overall experience. Repeatedly having your video, or future videos, being ignored means, well, you know what that means.
“Be interesting, be enthusiastic…and don’t talk too much.” – Norman Vincent Peale
Like you, I’ve given companies, associations, causes, etc., permission to send me information on topics, product information and promotional offers. I knew going into this that some of these companies would be smart enough to know how to market online to their permission-based group and others wouldn’t have a clue. And I’ve been right on both counts.
Permission-based marketing is now at the heart of relationships between companies and their customers and prospects. People opt-in to receive your emails, “Like” your company on Facebook, subscribe to your website’s RSS feed or your You Tube channel, or follow you on Twitter or LinkedIn. But having permission to market to someone isn’t a license to bombard them with marketing messages.
In fact, not knowing when to “zip it” is a classic marketing mistake that too many marketing people make. If marketing is about building relationships with customers, over-marketing is the best way to kill the relationship and send the customer or prospect heading for the door. Just recently, yesterday to be exact, I came across a really interesting study entitled “The Social Breakup” prepared by ExactTarget, a company that provides clear evidence of what happens to customer relationships when the marketer comes on too strong:
Guess the biggest reason people break up with companies? (Drum roll)…Too much marketing. The study showed that:
On that note, let me tell you a quick story about an industry association I did some freelance consulting for. Within their business specialty, they were the largest association in the country but people were increasingly not renewing their membership. After talking to the marketing department and executive management, two recommendations were made: 1) Cut in third the number of emails and direct mail pieces that were being sent out; 2) Find out why people were not renewing. Well, they didn’t like the first recommendation but did ‘humor’ me by taking my advice about doing the research. When the member survey report was finalized it said that the #1 reason for members not renewing was a direct result of their being really bothered by the sheer number of emails they were receiving. Guess what the association did? They disregarded the research and went back to doing what they were doing…no lie!
So, how do you know when you’re over-marketing and about to kill a customer or prospective relationship? It can be a fine line, but here are some principles to guide your marketing planning to avoid this costly error.
At the end of the day, people opt in because they want to hear from you. But if you disrespect the relationship by coming on too strong, customers and prospects will flee. Treating your customers and prospects well is common courtesy; treating their permission to market to them as a gift is even better…it’s a smart marketing strategy. Have a wonderful holiday season.
by Rolf Gutknecht, Agent of Change (c) 2012
A friend of mine sent me a video by email last week that, as a marketer, I loved. It was one of those ‘old school’ videos featuring “America’s best salesman”…Elmer Wheeler, who’s message is as relevant and meaningful today as it was when he delivered in the 60’s. After watching it a number of times, and because of the subject matter, it made me think of an interesting way to look at what the brand experience is all about.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW6HmQ1QVMw]
So here goes:
Imagine that you and your significant other decide to go to a well-known, fancy-schmancy steakhouse for a special night out dinner. Have that in your mind? Good. Now, picture another steakhouse of similar reputation. Both of the steakhouses prepare the same quality of steak but with one difference….. whereas the first restaurant makes a steak the way it’s supposed to be made (a thick clean cut, placed on the center of the plate) and presented with some tasty vegetables nicely positioned on the side and professionally put on the table, the second restaurant has a similar plate presentation but with no steak on it. Their steak gets delivered just a minute later on a hot stone tablet to your table…simmering and sizzling. The waitress presents the steak with elegance, and sprinkles some salt and pepper on top. While the aroma of the steak makes your mouth start to water and the sizzle gets your full attention, she begins to tell the story of the family who own the vineyard of the wine you selected. What a different brand experience that is! Same item, same quality, different way to engage the consumer. The difference isn’t about the steak but rather about the sizzle.
So why does the “sizzle” matter?
1. Anyone can make good steak
As we know, product or service quality is a fragile thing. No matter how many patents you have, how well you have integrated your supply chain and perfected your quality standards, no matter how much money you spend on R&D, anyone who really, really wants to go after you will eventually copy what you do or make and perhaps even perfect the product you so passionately protected.
2. The sizzle is a difficult thing to copy
Branding, brand equity and brand engagement are difficult to copy. They are strongly linked to your brand, and your brand alone. The depth of everything “surrounding” the product is complex, deep and interwoven with stories, emotions, associations, you name it…all those good things that make a brand unique!
3. The sizzle adds the emotional layer
Back to the restaurant example: Guess what? People will come back for more. Not just for the steak, but for the feeling they get when they are IN that experience. Human beings thrive on emotions, and seek repeat of pleasure.
Now, I’m not suggesting for one minute to only focus on the sizzle. Without that good, juicy, perfectly cut and excellently cooked filet mignon steak there is no reason to add sizzle in the first place! The sizzle is the icing on the cake; without cake there is no need for the icing.
Selling the sizzle and not the steak is something good marketers have known since forever. Give your customers the meal that they desire…and they will come back for it time and time again.
by Rolf Gutknecht, Agent of Change (c) 2012
I’m not sure about you, but in the deluge of emails that comes my way each and every day, it’s real easy start deleting them without even thinking about whether there’s content that might make my life and that of my clients easier and better. So, I stopped doing that about 
6 months ago and now take the time to open each one and at the very least scan for interesting info. Maybe I’ll see something about trends, or research data, facts, or a tidbit about helpful hints. Without doing so, I’d miss out on stuff I should know about and, respectfully said, that’s probably the case with you as well.
Well, with your indulgence, I wanted to share with you 10 pieces of information that you may not be aware of which in turn will help you grow your business by seizing on untapped revenue-producing opportunities. So, here goes:
As I said, it’s easy to delete a bunch of good information that comes your way because of time constraints, being short staffed or being overwhelmed with email after email. But this is all good information that I received and looked over before I hit the delete key. If you’ve read this far, you’ve made the same thoughtful decision as well.
by Rolf Gutknecht, Agent of Change (c) 2012
I got another customer satisfaction survey from my bank the other day. Another request for me to take my time to tell them how they’re doing. Once again a perfectly framed poll asking closed ended questions so that someone, somewhere can report the ‘score’.
Is customer satisfaction all that they’re striving for? Really? So, if I say I’m satisfied, then the company is OK with that and all is “good to go”? Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t satisfaction come from performance as expected? On a good day, you might exceed my expectations. If you deliver as expected, I’m neutral. Fall short and I’m dissatisfied. Be it a survey like this or leaving a waiter or waitress the customary 15%, satisfaction doesn’t equate with feeling like all went well.
Therefore, asking me if I’m satisfied is the wrong question. If you really want to know how you’re doing ask me if I am happy. Watch my behavior to see if I am happy. Listen to what I say to learn if I share my happiness with others. Because if you make me happy, I’ll be back…and I’ll bring my friends.
So, how do you make your customers happy? Look at all of the touch points that they experience with your organization related to your products and services. Look beyond the functional benefits to the emotional and social benefits that you can deliver. You see, you and all of your competitors must deliver functionality…it’s required. But premium products and services (you make or sell those, right?) that truly endure into the future deliver emotional and social benefit — let’s call that happiness.
For example, it’s the reason we still have candles. We haven’t needed them to light up a room for a while and in fact, one could almost say that they’re functionally obsolete. But, they can deliver a romantic glow or a scent that can make you feel better and create a certain mood. They make us happy. So we still buy candles and will even pay a premium for fancy ones. A product benefit comparison chart between a candle and a light bulb would turn out badly for the candle. A customer satisfaction survey would likely go the same way — “On a scale of 1-10 is a candle better than, equal to, or worse than a light bulb.” But we still buy them for their emotional and social benefit.
To drive value for customers it’s necessary to look beyond product and service functionality to the emotional and social benefits that your company and its products can provide. There are companies in a variety of industries that make sure their customer experiences go beyond just being functional – in short, intentionally focusing on how customers feel about the experience of dealing with their company and its products, and themselves to elicit personal happiness.
So, what does one do to get beyond the commoditizing nature of functionality? Well, maybe you can:
• Identify the type of happiness that you provide based on what the prospect or customer is looking for. Maybe it’s being flexible when the customer really needs you to be in order to get your product where and when it needs to be there…even when the ‘rules’ say differently.
• Design your brand experience to achieve the emotional benefit that your customers want in a way that makes them happy. Look for key times when you’re dealing with customers and capitalize on them to deliver a strong emotional and social experience. A way that makes customers say “I’m really happy with how that all went.” From customer phone inquiries to tradeshows and community events to in-store experiences.
• Measure your efforts by asking your customers very consistently throughout the interaction process to see if they are happy rather than use surveys that lean towards reporting satisfaction. Look for things that make people happy as well as asking them if they’re happy.
At the end of the day, lasting products and services provide happiness…and we know them for delivering such because they’ve been around for a long time. On the other hand, commodities provide satisfaction. To avoid being seen as a dreaded commodity, focus on designing and delivering customer experiences that provide happiness, enabling your customers to feel better about themselves and their prosperity. Because while we like to think it’s about us and our products, it’s really about the customer and their needs. So as we all know customers only care about you when they see you care about them.
The former vice president achieved some level of Hollywood stardom a few years back for his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” As narrator, Mr. Gore spoke about the harm we are doing to the environment – the inconvenient truths we would just as soon ignore, but at our peril.
There are some inconvenient truths as well about marketing, facts and realities we would prefer were not the case, but we continue to go on marketing as if they weren’t so. Let’s be honest, every marketer would love to think that their adoring public is anxiously awaiting each next word from the company, ready to gulp it down like a house pet awaiting its supper.
Like the song says, “It ain’t necessarily so!”
So here’s Inconvenient Truth #1: “Good” numbers aren’t always good numbers. While media plans are always based on the number of eyeballs delivered, not everything can be measured on a spreadsheet. For example, given a dollar amount, you can reach ten thousand people between midnight and 6 am on local cable. Or with four times that amount, you can reach a thousand people between 6 am and 10 am. Numbers alone would dictate the former choice. But if you consider that your overnight spots are running alongside ads for weight-loss pills, video retrospectives of Liberace, sex-enhancement products, and the two-for-one mattress special at Benny’s Bedding, all targeting people who can’t sleep at night, the context isn’t that appealing. Also, too much exposure (thanks to cheap media) can kill an ad, just like having your favorite uncle overstay his welcome. Media buying is both a science and an art. It’s just not as simple as 1+1=2. Having the right media selection leveraged with strategic messaging and surprising creative, the math can be 1+1=5.
Inconvenient Truth #2: More companies save themselves into bankruptcy than spend themselves there. The way to assure your remaining invisible to your public is to market at a level that is below the general noise level. If you want to compete for attention and win at marketing, you have to commit to being in the game. Yes, appearing on page two in the paper with a half page ad costs money, and so does a cable schedule on premium channels at prime time. But as Woody Allen wisely observed, 80% of success is just “showing up.” You don’t show up with a fractional space ad hiding in the corner of the page. And you don’t show up with free creative from the cable company or an inexpensive catalog ad that people expect and thus ignore. Marketing is a self-fulfilling prophesy: if you believe in it , and spend to win, it will work. And the opposite is true as well.
Inconvenient Truth #3: Results are not an overnight occurrence. In marketing, it’s a process of erosion. One has to continually chip away at the indifference, the avoidance, the skepticism and the cynicism. It may take a year or longer before results take hold. Familiar brands like Apple, Wells Fargo Bank, New Balance athletic shoes, HoneyBaked Ham and Western Bagel did not start out as overnight sensations; why should your business be any different? These hugely successful companies got that way because they consistently invested in their marketing. No “start-stop-start-stop” approach but one of showing up unceasingly. It starts with the understanding that marketing is indeed an investment and not an expense. Plus it requires this additional essential ingredient: patience.
So let’s be real, let’s be honest, and let’s accept these inconvenient truths as a wake-up call to create significant change for your business. There’s nothing more convenient than new customers buying your products and company revenues rising.
(c) 2012 LA ads – A Marketing Agency
One of the hottest new marketing technologies trending right now is QR codes – you know, those little square bar codes you’re seeing more frequently on packages, on signs, in the corner of ads, even on the back of people’s business cards. QR stands for Quick Response and the idea is that you can scan these little suckers with your smart phone and almost instantly get to a specific website or application. They are fun…sometimes. But as often as not, they just take you to the same homepage you could just as easily type in, delivering little added value.
Advertising Age has reported that, for a number of reasons, consumers are far less excited about QR codes compared to marketers. In fact, they cite, only 5% of mobile phone owners have ever used QR codes. (Ad Age, January 2, 2012)
Rather than focus on all the reasons why this is so, the real take-away has to do with marketers paying more attention to techniques, technologies and tactics compared with the smart development of strategies and key messaging. Thinking about what one can do with a QR code, or Facebook page, or other medium de jure is letting the tail wag the dog. Being “cool” for its own sake has low residual value compared to having a message or perspective that consumers find fresh, meaningful, relevant, surprising and memorable.
That being said, QR codes do indeed have their place in a marketing arsenal, and they can open up new levels of consumer involvement if handled thoughtfully.
Let’s start with the environment: QR codes are designed to interact with smart phones (largely iPhone and Android platforms). So if you’re asking someone to take the time to open up their QR reader app and scan your bar code, they should expect some media that is designed exclusively for their phone, or what’s the point? Trying to read a standard website on a cell phone is awkward and shows an incomplete execution. Sadly, that’s the standard for most businesses currently using QR codes in their marketing.
While we’re on the subject, keep in mind those who make up the bulk of consumers with full-function smart phones. Numerically, most are under 50. So if you’re primarily speaking to an older population, QR codes and mobile-optimized sites are of lesser value. But if you’re targeting a young or middle-aged audience, then you’re well-aimed.
As for what one can do with a QR code that adds value to the user, and doesn’t simply bring them to your landing page, here are some ideas:
No matter how you use QR codes, there are two things to keep in mind. The first is that you must have a basic reason for someone to desire to have this information on their mobile phones compared to a PC. Two, these ideas are still only tactics. It’s the strategy that must remain foremost in your thinking.
Only when you are clear in your strategy, and you can articulate in 30-seconds or less what unique competitive value you bring to your customer, should you start thinking about where and how to deploy your messaging. QR codes should always be an expression of your strategy, not the strategy itself.
In other words, make sure that you let your dog was his tail. It doesn’t work well the other way around.
by Rolf Gutknecht, Agent of Change (c) 2012
I had a phone conversation with a prospective new client (I’ll name her Amelia) last week and during our talk, I mentioned having seen a cable TV ad that her company had run recently and was wondering if it had produced growth in sales inquiries or better yet, generated more sales. Her response is something that I’ve heard more times than “Doan’s has pills.”
Amelia reported less-than-stellar performance, which didn’t really surprise me. But she fingered the blame on the media type…and not the marketing process or the message. The spot was flat-out boring and crammed with too many feature points. The message itself had no spark; the ad employed uninspiring, overused stock images that everyone has seen on other companies’ commercials; and while it had a lot of words attached to it, it said nothing. I know you know the kind of ad. You see them every day in trade publications, direct mail, online and yes, even on TV.
When I politely asked her if maybe it wasn’t the media but the message, my suggestion was immediately dismissed as “no, no. that’s not it. Cable just doesn’t work.” In this case it was TV but I’ve heard it for most every B2B and B2C media type there is. So I quoted to her legendary adman Bill Bernbach’s “golden rule”: “The truth isn’t the truth until people believe you, and they can’t believe you if they don’t know what you’re saying, and they can’t know what you’re saying if they don’t listen to you, and they won’t listen to you if you’re not interesting, and you won’t be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.”
Now before I move on, please take another 15 seconds and read the above quote again and let it wash over you…it’s that important.
You see, what this timeless observation says applies to everything a marketing executive does in communicating a brand’s promise or a product’s sales message, and then needs to shine through like a huge Klieg light within your ads, your sales support material, your promotional initiatives, your tradeshow booth, your collateral and your website.
Taking the uninspired or predictable way out leads to self-inflicted mediocrity which we all know is like a communicable disease. It starts with a so-so idea and coupled with a lack of interestingness and imagination, it infects every aspect of your marketing to the point that regardless of how and where you present the message, your current and prospective customers will not give it two seconds of thought as it passes by, only to become part of the background noise and clutter.
I’m not sure about you but one of the main reasons I decided that advertising and marketing was what I wanted to pursue as a profession was because I loved coming up with marketing ideas that would make people sit up and take notice in a sea of indifference.
If you want your marketing to actually change the trajectory of sales, if you want yourself to be seen as an idea person rather than a “fulfiller” of marketing stuff, then the status quo is not an option. You need to create new truths for your company that people believe in because you say things “imaginatively, originally, freshly.” To do otherwise, especially in today’s economy, is unacceptable.