Tag Archives: Response

I had a phone call with a previous client last week and during our talk she told me more than once how she felt like the role of her marketing department was being marginalized. Apparently, over the course of the last few years, various internal departments who relied on the marketing team to support their activities are now more or less telling them what they want said and how they wanted it represented in the various forms and channels. They’re playing Copywriter and Art Director. The reason why this has happened was summed up by what more and more people in organizations think: “Anyone can do Marketing.”

Unfortunately, there are people in C-suites around this country, self appointed ‘marketing experts’ on the web (who are generally selling something), etc., who believe that to be the case.  In fact, the marketing department is also occasionally to blame. How’s that? Well, have you noticed any of the job postings for marketing people? Some of the position descriptions are impressive and ask for proficiency in a number of specialties like SEO, CRM, social media, Photoshop, along with more traditional marketing areas.  And then comes the kicker: 2-4 years experience required. What??? Obviously, marketing management who wrote the job spec doesn’t view its role as that complicated or requiring suitable experience to do the job correctly. No wonder respect is hard to come by.

As we know, businesses depend on professional attorneys to oversee their legal affairs and experienced accountants to manage their finances. But some executive level business people don’t think twice about turning over their revenue-producing marketing efforts to someone who doesn’t have a clue what the 5 P’s of Marketing are. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say “Troy, I know you’re a engineer by training but you took a class in junior college about law, didn’t you? Hey, would you mind doing some international patent registration for us?” Yet a very similar conversation happens with marketing.

Misguided companies everywhere assign the marketing role to anyone who they think is “creative” or can write. And people in your company know people outside of your organization who fit that bill. So why should they think that you’re different? What’s been done to offset that perception?

In the organization I mentioned, the marketing department first let some things go that they shouldn’t have and ultimately as a result they’ve abdicated their role as experts and brand stewards.  They’re now seen as mere fulfillers.  In their zeal to make people happy, they took the thoughts offered up by the internal stakeholders as the easy way out in order to get through the work in their queue.  Having overseen a creative services team for a large financial services company, I know how this can happen and how tempting it can be when it “just needs to get done ASAP!”  But you’re just opening up Pandora’s box when you go down that road.  So what are a few ways for people to better understand the value that marketing offers? Here goes:

1. Don’t accept work without setting up a meeting to discuss. If it’s important to get the work done, then it’s important for the time to be spent up front getting it right.
2. Come to the meeting prepared with questions that need to be answered…thoughtfully, like, for starters, “Why does this need to be done?  What should be the outcome?” Show the value of why these questions are being asked.
3. Bring research that can help in addressing the issue but also ask for research as well (this stops a lot of opinion-giving). Talk about ways that the work could be repurposed.
4. Set clear expectations on a timeline because some of these people think it can done in a day or so (remember, this is the group that believes “anyone can do marketing”).
5. Bring insights into the equation…not just facts. Facts are “on the surface” while insights are “beneath the surface” and give birth to the type of emotional messaging that connects with your audience.
6. When the time comes to present your ideas/creative, make sure they’re really good. Not sort of good but really good. Anyone can rely on clichés (“For all your ______ needs.”) or rip offs (“Got ____?”) or poorly executed puns.
7. Should things not go splendidly when the work is presented, do not let yourself be pushed around in order to accept the ideas initially offered up by the internal stakeholder. If you do, you’re really not accomplishing anything and in fact, you’re seen as a roadblock to getting work done quicker.
8. Make the process standard operating procedure and non-negotiable and stick to it.
9. Distribute finished work to various internal departments for awareness purposes

At the end of day, the value of your department or specifically, your job, is more at stake than you might imagine. A so-so marketing plan, a mediocre tradeshow booth or ad or collateral piece, a ho-hum status quo “integrated” campaign…they all make you look more like a fulfiller of marketing needs and less like the marketing professional that the company is counting on to drive revenue, awareness, brand preference, etc.  In fact, not showing value is the quickest way to have the work you do be discounted as nothing special.

So if your organization believes that “Anyone can do Marketing,” consider whether or not you have a role to play in that notion.

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.

It happened to us again.  We were working with a client, taking them five steps forward when without warning, they took six steps back.  They went fleeing from the banks of the Promised Land back to where their advertising wasn’t producing  maximum results, but at least it was “safe” and nobody in management would complain.

Holy smokes, they were almost there, with a new campaign that would cut through the clutter like a hot knife through butter.  Instead, they opted for the same direction they’ve always followed.  We don’t take it personally.  We’ve worked with this client for a number of years, and we really like the people.  But each year, we pray this time maybe they’ll take the path less traveled and finally move their brand from a me-too to a me-only!  And then the bugle blows, “Retreat, retreat!”

There’s an old saying: “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.”  I hate that saying.  I hate that is pardons marketers from being exceptional.  It only contributes to the soggy, bland mess that fills 95.6% of the available ad space.  It makes people hate advertising and love the fast-forward button on their DVRs.

I have a challenge for you if you’re the one responsible for advertising at your company.  Pick up the next five magazines you encounter, go through each one and tear out the ads that really stop you, that speak to you on some gut level, that make you salivate for the product.  I don’t care if they’re ads for panty hose, shaving cream or body bags, just as long as you love the ads. Tear out the ads and put them in a folder.  Then the next time you have an ad to create for your company, pull out those ads and see if these don’t inspire you to do better.  And the moment you feel the need to retreat, look at those ads again for inspiration to boldly stand apart and be noticed.

It may help you to remember that they’re the ones that caught your attention while you ignored the other 95.6% which lost their respective companies lots of money in production and media expense.

We say, again and again, Dare to be Different.  Maybe it would be better if we said, Dare not to be invisible.  Dare not to retreat into marketing nothingness.  Dare not to do what everybody else does and blend into the background by your own choice.

We Dare ya.

Let me ask a question regarding your marketing initiatives that might be of a sensitive nature for some:  How much of what you have planned for in the way of campaigns, media channels, tradeshow activity, collateral, etc., is a holdover from last year and the year before and the year before that?

Now, how many of those activities are part of “status-quo” thinking – it’s just what we’ve always done? How many of these things are ineffectual?  In today’s world of measurement metrics, internal analysis and ROI’s, some people would say non-producing activities would not be tolerated by upper management. Well here’s a news flash…these initiatives not only show up year after year but they’re staunchly defended by…upper management.

So why do companies keep investing in these programs and activities? Well, the thinking goes:  “We’ve spent $ XX,XXX (and maybe another X) into this. Plus we’ve already invested XXXX hours into the program. We can’t stop now or we’ll have lost everything.” All that’s being done here is engaging in the sunk-cost fallacy that describes the tendency to throw good money after bad. Psychologically, the more you spend on something, the less you’re willing to let it go.  But truth be told, once your money is spent, it’s gone. It has no relevance. What counts in terms of getting where you want to be tomorrow, is what that investment is worth to your organization today. It’s important not to consider past costs when making planning decisions, but to make decisions based on future costs and benefits.

There’s something else that marketers do that’s almost a bigger of waste of money than investing in ineffective programs and it’s really the genesis for this blog. What I’m talking about is the total lack of effort that’s put into making programs resonate as well as they could.

We all know that well-planned, well-executed strategic marketing is a lot of work. But then, so is filing for bankruptcy, selling off your assets and shuttering the business – which is the alternative to putting in the required effort. That makes me wonder why companies bother to invest in marketing activities and then put nearly zero effort into executing them. The creative is boring; the strategy is half-baked; the lackluster results are acceptable. This is just throwing good money after bad!

I stumbled onto a great example of this while clicking through the online exhibitor’s list for an upcoming industrial B2B trade show that covers a huge range of industrial services and equipment.  Reading the self-authored company descriptions posted by each exhibitor,  I was shaking my head in disbelief.  Here are just two examples, and believe me, others were even less informative:

“Manufacturer & supplier of Cable/Wire Harness Assemblies, Power Supplies  & Fans with Value-Added Capabilities.”

“Precision CNC turning and machining. Design and manufacturer of custom rubber products.”

There were literally dozens of entries like these and they were all written by the companies themselves! And they were free! The more I read, the more dumbfounded I became. Unique selling proposition? Strategic positioning?  Differentiation? Okay, let’s shoot lower. Let’s try for just a coherent company description.  How is any potential buyer supposed to even understand what value these companies could offer to them from those descriptions?

Trade shows are no small financial and time investment. Consider the possible costs: exhibitor fees, booth purchase, collateral materials, promotional giveaway, travel, meals, and man-hours spent on show logistics and for staffing the booth.  So why then would any company that commits to a trade show deliberately and willfully flush that investment away with company descriptions like this:

“Extrusions – profiles large & small, tubing, rod, bar stock, co-extrusion, drilling and forming. Thermoforming. Pressure forming – deep draw, sheet thickness .030″ – .500″, high volume, long or short runs.”

This isn’t even a company description. It’s a list of processes, none of which are unique to this company! You may be thinking, “Rolf, you’re being too hard on these people. They’re doing the best they can.”  Yeah, …NO.

Here’s a company description from another exhibitor at the same show:

“Recognized as one of the largest & most reliable service bureaus in the country, [Company] offers clients high quality/low cost tooling & manufacturing. We offer full service to assist our clients from concept through production, and have nationwide locations to serve you.”

At least it’s coherent.  This probably took the company rep who (possibly, late at night in his/her hotel room) wrote it in all of about five minutes. Maybe the rep even copied it from the company brochure. The funny thing is that lazy marketers are often the first to wonder why their budgets and customers have disappeared.

Marketing is hard work. But that isn’t an excuse for not putting in your best effort.  Or calling on professionals who know how to weave words into dollars.

While the above examples were for a tradeshow, throwing good money after bad certainly applies to other types of marketing initiatives as well, from ads to email campaigns.  As a marketing firm ourselves, we don’t treat anything we do for our clients in a ho-hum fashion…because our clients deserve to get their money’s worth.  Which is a lot more than what many companies do for themselves.  Time to stop spending good money after bad.

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….

1. Each day, over 100 MILLION American watch online videos, an increase of 43% since 2010.
2. About 46% of people say they’d be more likely to seek out information about a product or service after seeing it in an online video.
3. 70% of B2B marketers use some form of online video with their overall strategies.

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:

• Good videos contain real content
  • Good content should be engaging, relevant, and appropriate for the audience. Good content takes a stand. It has a voice, a point of view. It may be informative, useful, or funny but it always leaves you wanting more. Is the storytelling or narrative coherent and does it hold your attention? Does the content stay with you long after viewing it? Is the video like that of a woman’s skirt – short enough to be interesting but long enough to cover the subject?

• Good videos are truly interesting from the viewer’s perspective
  • Internet viewing has created a world of people with ADHD.  Viewers will click the second they lose interest, so you have to hold their attention on every frame. Your scripting has to be based entirely on the viewer’s wanting to know “what’s in it for me?”  I’ve written about outside-in thinking.  Here’s where it really comes into play.

• Good videos know who their audience is
  • Determine who you’re speaking to with the video. Are these new website visitors? Are they returning customers? What’s their mindset? How much do they know about your product or service already?  What do you want them to do next? What are their demographics?

• Good videos have a purpose and know where they’ll “live”
  • Prior to the video having been developed, company/agency folks have decided how they want to share the video given their communication plan and goals. Synergies between different online social media channels (Facebook, YouTube) and other uses (emails, blog posts, landing pages, registration pages and corporate websites) have been determined…as have offline uses. Shooting and editing a video only to then decide what to do with it then creates unnecessary messaging and expense issues.

• Good videos are leveraged
  • Good videos have relevant keywords incorporated into their descriptions and postings to insure they come up when searched.  Website or landing page URLs have been imbedded in the video for users to click (remember you WANT them to do something, right?).  The video is promoted through various means ranging from PR releases to e-newsletters, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

• Good videos have high production values and a consistent look/tone/feel
  • Cheap-looking productions imply cheaply products from the company.  There is a level of production value that really good videos simply don’t dip below.  The audio and camera work for good videos is such that one can easily understand what’s being said and view the video without feeling the need to click away due to poor audio or shaky camera work. On-camera talent is professional. Users can easily spot a poorly done video, and if your video is not well produced, it suggests that you do not value your product/service.  Also, a consistency of look and branding in your video to the rest of your marketing efforts is a must.

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.

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:

• Recent stats released by Google show that 1 in 7 searches originate on a mobile device and of those, 1 in 3 are looking for a local business.  A report from IDC last spring forecasts that search traffic from mobile will surpass desktop and laptop based search in the next 2½ years.  With search and traffic trending toward mobile, what are you doing to ensure your online properties are constructed to support and look good on mobile devices? Opportunities could be lost otherwise.
• Are you having trouble finding content for your blog and newsletters? Luckily, there is a host of free tools that can make finding content for your blog or email newsletter easier, regardless of the topic. But before you start using these tools, you’ll need a list of keywords related to your hot topics. The five free content sources that can inspire ideas for your email newsletters, blog posts, articles and other marketing materials are: 1) Google Alerts 2) Scoop.it 3) Alltop 4) Digg and 5) Delicious.
•  Strategy = social media success. Research shows that organizations achieving the most success with social media are ones who select channels LAST. Instead, they formulate and follow a strategic plan, complete with objectives, target audiences, success metrics and more. Being everywhere is not the goal. Being effective at what you do is.
• YouTube delivers more than entertainment. A well-executed YouTube strategy can actually drive business to your company and boost search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. As the world’s second largest search engine, YouTube is a smart option for extending your reach through a branded channel or sponsored advertisements (the ones that precede videos).
• Email is the dominant digital communication channel of our day. According to ExactTarget’s 2012 Channel Preference Survey, email today is the channel they prefer for permission-based marketing messages. In fact, an overwhelming 77% of all consumers surveyed prefer to receive promotional messages from companies via email compared to 5% who prefer text messages and 4% who prefer Facebook. Today, if you want to drive retention and repeat usage, there isn’t a better way to do it than email.
• Although affluent Americans are spending more time online and adopting mobile devices at an exponentially increasing rate, traditional media channels still have great reach among these estimated 59 million US adults with $100,000 in annual household income, according to an Ipsos MediaCT survey released in September 2012. And when it comes to ad receptiveness, the largest proportion of affluents surveyed said they were most receptive to ads on TV, followed by magazines and newspapers.
• According to  eMarketer, tablet penetration will reach 29.1 percent of Internet users by the end of 2012. And according to another research study, tablets’ share of website traffic is on track to exceed the traffic of smartphones by early next year. Importantly for marketers, tablet consumers over-index among affluents: 60% of tablet users live in households with annual incomes of $75,000 or more.
• The rise of mobile shopping has been a bit of a double-edged sword for some marketers, especially retailers. With shoppers able to comparison-shop on their smartphones while standing in the aisles, there’s been a troubling rise in “showrooming,” the consumer practice of checking out products in store, then buying the cheapest one online. The two biggest challenges brick-and-mortar retailers face are getting traffic and then converting the traffic into a sale. Customer loyalty programs and manufacturer supported/paid-for in-store merchandising are on the rise. Due to the competitive environment, retailers are likely to lean harder on manufacturers.
• Baby Boomers make up approximately 40% of consumer demand and companies who see this audience as a big source of revenue are still relying on — and growing media budgets for — “old school” channels like newspapers, television and outdoor.  Online usage with the group is growing but “old” is still king.
• Based on the results of Exhibit Surveys, Inc. Annual Trade Show Trends report,  81% of trade show attendees in 2011 had the power to make a purchasing decision or influence the purchasing decision and 35% of attendees reported that their intent to buy was more favorable after visiting an impactful company’s exhibit.  This means that for businesses that exhibit, the value of attending trade shows lies not only in meeting decision makers or influencers in the buying process but also in building brand loyalty and brand awareness.

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.

Alright, business hasn’t turned around as quickly as you’d like – or as quickly as anyone would like.  So your customers aren’t throwing their spending money at you any more than you’re shelling out dollars to hire additional staff, add new locations or expand your advertising reach.

Instead, if you’re like most companies, you’re continuing to be as parsimonious with your spending and investing as good business judgment dictates, right?  That means you’re more focused on sales than on marketing, since marketing means spending money whereas sales means making money, right again?

Many businesses have grown their sales force while decimating their marketing departments.  They’ve turned from brand-building  to such “instant gratification” sales-based marketing strategies as direct response and SEO.  At the same time, they’re making price the deciding factor.

What could possibly be wrong with that?

So let me propose two basic flaws in that kind of approach.

First, the further away from image and brand marketing you move, the less the customer is predisposed to buy from you regardless of price, since your brand is no longer the top-of-mind preferred choice.  That means A) you have to wait until the customer is ready to buy and not a second before, and B) you are now set up for trading exclusively on price since your value proposition has taken a distant back seat…and there’s always a competitor who will come along with a cheaper product or service.

The second strategic flaw is that you’re now doing exactly what your competition is doing, hunkering down and playing the DR/sales/price game at precisely the time advertising rates are the most affordable they’ve ever been.  Today, you can negotiate the most advantageous ad programs and one-up your competition with strong visibility while they’re still virtually invisible.

The opposing argument might be that in this sucky economy consumers are more price-focused than brand focused. And yet…

Why is it that sales of Apple’s iPad, an absolutely non-necessary (but really great) product, are booming?  With each new iteration of the iPad, a $600 – $800 purchase, there are lines of anxious shoppers waiting outside the Apple Store.  Simply, Apple presents a fantastic value proposition in its advertising that has nothing to do with price.  The Apple brand and the iPad experience are king. Their strategy is so successful that in 2011, Apple sold more iPads in its last quarter than HP sold desktop computers all year!

The true job of advertising and marketing is to establish a consumer’s desire in advance of asking for the order. Without this first stage, building desire and brand equity, the selling process is exponentially more difficult. Any wonder why the sales cycle for most businesses has doubled or even tripled over the past few years as marketing budgets have been cut?

This is nothing new.  In fact, the business publisher McGraw Hill addressed this very issue in a brilliant ad that ran in the early 1960s.  In essence, the ad demonstrated that without marketing laying the foundation of understanding and desire prior to the sale, the barrier is significant.

So you’ve been given a gift, as it were, in the form of a recession.  From a marketing perspective, your competitors are asleep at the wheel, and you can afford marketing visibility as you never have before.  Here’s your chance to let them suffer the recession while you profit from it.  How will you handle the opportunity?

You spend thousands, perhaps tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on your advertising and yet you’re still completely invisible to most of your audience.  What’s going on?  Why after all this time and all those dollars are you still the best-kept-secret in town?

Well, think about it from another perspective.

Do you need a plumber right at this moment?  (If you do, let’s pretend you don’t for the sake of this illustration.)  People who don’t need plumbers probably don’t see all those plumber ads in the papers, or on bus benches, or hear them on the radio.  Oh, they’re there all right, lots of them, but to you, they’re completely invisible…Unless.  The “unless” is if the ad happens to be really creative or interesting in some way that grabs you regardless.  But most plumber ads are pretty much what you expect, and are therefore completely unnoticeable to the 98% of the audience who is not at-need.  (You see where I’m going with this…)

In this case, the best that the plumber/advertiser can hope for is an equal shot along with all his competition at the time the faucet starts dripping, and not a moment before.  But let’s take the plumber whose advertising is really fresh and interesting, that makes people take notice even when everything is fine.  Then he’s going to be the first name on people’s minds when the sink backs up.

Human beings only pay attention to the things that interest them, and block out all the rest.  It’s a natural defense mechanism that helps the brain cope with too much information.  And only those things that are of immediate interest have a way of showing up as if by magic – such as when you are shopping for a particular car and suddenly, every car on the highway is that car!

For fun, try this wonderful YouTube demonstration:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ahg6qcgoay4]

It’s easy to be visible to your audience when there’s an immediate need or urgent desire.  But imagine how completely invisible you are to them prior to that need – which is precisely when you most want to reach them!  The more “expected” your advertising, the more invisible you become. You’re just another plumber advertising to people whose toilet’s are flushing just fine.

If you want to be noticed, you have to be noticeable.  You need to rise above the general noise level with advertising and marketing that is different, fresh, unconventional and unexpected.  You have to be willing to step out on a limb and surprise the audience and perhaps yourself.

I realize that only a tiny percentage of marketers will actually take this to heart and do anything amazing.  That’s why 95% of ads in any medium – print, TV, billboards, direct mail – or for any industry – beer, office supplies, funeral homes, or financial services – are doomed before they leave the production house.  But for those who take the risk, the reward is top-of-mind awareness before, during, and after the need.

That’s an ROI I’d take any day.

–  By Dan Katz, Agent of Change  © 2012 LA ads – A Marketing Agency