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
We grew up with the belief that the best idea always wins. The best person always wins. If you build a better mousetrap people will beat a path to your door. That might have been true when the world wasn’t inundated with one sales and marketing message after another. But the fact is, today the best idea does not win. The best idea does not get credit and the best product does not win if nobody pays attention in the first place. (Take 5 more seconds and reread that last sentence and let it wash over you.)
It doesn’t matter how great your blog is if nobody reads it. It doesn’t matter how creative your ad is if you don’t have money to run it. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best food manufacturer, if nobody buys your products. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best hospital if people in need go elsewhere. It’s not about being the best. It’s about finding a way that you can take who you are, what you make, and what you offer and create a relationship with prospects and current customers that is instantly captivating.
Think of it like this. Imagine that on the other side of the door from where you are is where relationships happen, loyalty happens, sales happen, profits happen. On the other side of the door, success awaits. But to get there, we have to get through the door. And before we do that, we have to knock. And if we can knock in a compelling, persuasive and interesting way and introduce ourselves, and if we provide people/customers with messaging and content that is instantly captivating, and if we knock in the right way, then the door opens and we get to go through to the side where all the good stuff lives. But to ignore the door that you have to go through is setting yourself up for failure.
The reason is that we live in a world with ADD due in large part to the addictive nature of the Internet. The average attention span used to be 5, 10, 15 minutes, but now, the average attention span today is roughly 9 seconds. Nine seconds! Your brand might only get 9 seconds to communicate a message, earn a little bit of loyalty, build a little bit of trust so you can continue the conversation before your customer starts getting distracted! Nine seconds isn’t a lot of time, so what could you possibly say in that time or less to get someone’s attention? I think it starts with presenting your message in a way that’s captivating in clever and unexpected ways. It grabs people’s attention and has them focusing on the message and not thinking about the other stuff that could come into their mind. They’re engaged…captivated. In doing so, you start connecting with them, which allow you to persuade them. Get them to trust you. Get them to believe you. Get them to want to connect with you. So when your competitor tries to pull them away, they stay loyal.
Having been in the advertising/marketing business for quite a number of years, working on Fortune 100 accounts and mom-and-pops, and everything in between, I’ve seen and learned a few things I want to pass along: As a company, you have a choice. You must either have an enormous budget to make sure no one in your category can compete with you OR you have to captivate people’s attention. With a big budget you can drive awareness through exposure over and over again to make sure you get your message out in front of your customer – even if you have a boring message. The other choice is if you don’t have the biggest budget (raise of hands please), in which case you have to have a captivating message so customers will pay attention, listen, remember and act upon it. What you can’t do is NOT have the biggest budget and NOT have a compelling, fascinating, attention-getting message at the same time. Then you fail and go out of business. That’s just the fact! My guess is that you could name a few companies in your business category that are no longer around because they were ho-hum..right?
Forgettable and boring marketing materials, tiresome page-turning ads or lackluster customer service will not get it done. People forget stuff in under 9 seconds if it’s anything less than captivating, enamoring or entrancing. Ask yourself why it is that you remember some ads or marketing messages. It’s not because they look or sound like every other company or ad or they use business babble that says nothing. Not a chance. You remember them because they had a strong, unexpected point of view and a distinctive message. They were captivating.
So, as you begin planning for 2013 and thinking about how to make it the best year yet, I’d ask that you reread the title of this blog and use it as the mantra for your future marketing initiatives. It’s that significant.
by Rolf Gutknecht, Agent of Change (c) 2012
The GPS is a wonderful invention for anyone who’s had to get somewhere they’ve not been before. Whether you get directions from your SmartPhone, Mapquest, Google Maps, dedicated GPS device or even the old paper map, there are only two pieces of data to plot your route: where you are now and where you want to go. Sounds pretty simple, right? Yet how many companies, maybe even yours, have launched into a marketing campaign without really considering these things! Unfortunately, not having a clear picture of where you are now and where you want to go leads to not getting anywhere because one critical factor is missing: a overall marketing strategy.
Time and time again in speaking with CMO/VP/Directors of Marketing for companies large and small, they tell me that they need to execute marketing programs, but then tell me they “don’t have time to develop a full strategy.” I’m not kidding. It’s actually easy to understand, given all the exciting marketing tools available today, including social media, email marketing, location-based apps, etc. It’s easy to confuse these tactics with strategies. Too often I see people focused on the newest and sexiest marketing tactic du jour without any appreciation for how it fits in an overall marketing strategy. I’ve also seen entire marketing plans that consist of nothing but a series of tactics strung together one after the next without an over-arching marketing strategy.
So, what’s the difference between strategy and tactic? A strategy is the broad roadmap that defines where you are now, where you want to go and how you’ll get there – taking into account your product or service, what the competition is doing, which direction the market is heading, and what you’ll need to do and say that gives your company the competitive edge. It’s the big picture. Tactics, by contrast, are the specific tools you use to do this: Write a blog. Send out a newsletter. Develop an app. Run an ad. Be more visible at tradeshows. Etc.
It’s easy to start with the “how” but if you haven’t identified the “what”, you may find yourself spending a lot of time executing tactics that don’t take you where you want to go and in so doing, you’ll be wasting time, resources and losing out on sales-producing opportunities.
The confusion compounds when I hear some marketing folks talk about their organization’s “online marketing strategies” given all the attention to social media, online and mobile tools. You shouldn’t have an “online” or internet marketing strategy any more than an you should have an “offline” strategy. What you do need is one, single integrated strategy that looks across all delivery platforms whether online or offline, print, broadcast, or mobile. Your customers don’t have an online self and offline self and neither should you. Think holistically about all your marketing initiatives. Otherwise you’ll drive your customers and your own team crazy.
So at the end of the day, executing marketing tactics without having a well-developed integrated strategy is like leaving your roadmap tools at home and taking off on the drive without concerning if you’ve chosen the right road, highway or turnoff. You wouldn’t haphazardly set off on an important trip in your personal life so why let it happen with regard to your company’s marketing activities. You’ll never make it to the right place taking the wrong roads.