Every once in a while I realize that not everybody has had the opportunity to experience the many marketing situations I have been fortunate enough to encounter and in this case I have a relevant story to complement my last two blogs.
In the mid 80’s I was Senior Marketing Specialist for Consumer Distributing (some of you may remember it fondly – or not) and I had the occasion to be involved in the process of selecting an advertising firm to represent us in our national advertising campaign. Back then, we had one of the largest seasonal television advertising campaigns in Canada after companies like Ford or McDonalds’s. We produced over 5 million catalogues each year with more than 5,000 SKUs. The reason I am relating this story is to illustrate that measurement and demographics have a place in guiding the advertising decisions but often final decisions are made based on an emotional reaction to a clever creative concept.
Creativity in advertising is largely under-appreciated and misunderstood. Companies and business owners often design their own advertising using designers & graphic artists, etc. but the process of developing unique powerful advertising that can change a person’s buying habits is complex and emotional at its heart. Never mind, the idea that you might be producing an advertising campaign for and audience that you do not relate to through age or preferences.
The competing advertising firms as I recall were Foster Advertising and Prizm Advertising and two others. The contract was worth millions to the eventual winner so the stakes were high. The process took several weeks and each firm had more than one meeting to present its creative concepts and supporting research. In fact the process was so onerous that the advertising firms were allowed to charge for the development of their campaigns. Each firm brought in its research in a printed tomb of several hundred pages chronicling the buying habits of Consumer Distributing customers.
The winning concept, You Work Hard For Your Money, based on a song and a concept that had resonance with Consumer’s customers had more going for it than a good creative concept. The concept of psychographic research was introduced by the winning advertising firm while the other firms used demographic research to support their creative concepts. The difference between the two was that psychographic research contained an additional dimension of research into the emotional profile of consumers.
The point of all this is that a good creative concept was well supported by unique research on the emotional profile of Consumer Distributing customers. The creative idea was good because it was based on an in-depth understanding of its customers.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Failure To Launch: Part Two
I have expanded on the four rules guiding the decisions around the advertising process. If you work your way through this process using these basic principles you will have a much better idea on which medium(s) to use and the kind of message that will resonate with your audience.
Understand The People Who Buy Your Products or Services: To help you make the right decisions you need to understand people who buy your products, note that I used the term “people” … not clients, customers or consumers…but people! Understanding what people want, how they will use your product, what is motivating their buying decisions, how external market forces are affecting them, can help frame your advertising decisions.
Develop Clever Product Incentives: Look at the features and benefits in your products and match those against why your clients are buying your products and how they use them to develop some sales incentives. These can take the form of cost reductions on volume, additional features added at the regular price, packaging the product with another to create value. Using a unique and surprising message to deliver the news about your incentives can enhance the response of people who buy your products.
Recognize Strengths and Weaknesses: this process is often called a SWAT analysis but a simplified version is to simply recognize what the level of help you need and what you can contribute effectively. Delegating advertising decisions, allows companies to improve the quality of decision making as it relates to advertising. Leaders can sometimes be too close to a process and rely on statistics rather than a deeper understanding of the buying decision - as an emotionally driven process.
Multi-Channel Advertising program: Using a variety of mediums to reach the people who buy your products or services is important. While there may be a core advertising strategy; say like using web based marketing through e-mails, banners, social networks etc.; this should be complemented by a broader initiative that includes some of the more traditional methods of advertising. Repetition creates greater awareness and results in better sales.
The effectiveness of advertising is often defined by its emotional impact on audiences. The steps I have outlined, offer a means by which you can set a frame work for developing an effective advertising campaign but keep in mind that an advertising campaign’s success is most often defined by the budget you allocate to a campaign.
Understand The People Who Buy Your Products or Services: To help you make the right decisions you need to understand people who buy your products, note that I used the term “people” … not clients, customers or consumers…but people! Understanding what people want, how they will use your product, what is motivating their buying decisions, how external market forces are affecting them, can help frame your advertising decisions.
Develop Clever Product Incentives: Look at the features and benefits in your products and match those against why your clients are buying your products and how they use them to develop some sales incentives. These can take the form of cost reductions on volume, additional features added at the regular price, packaging the product with another to create value. Using a unique and surprising message to deliver the news about your incentives can enhance the response of people who buy your products.
Recognize Strengths and Weaknesses: this process is often called a SWAT analysis but a simplified version is to simply recognize what the level of help you need and what you can contribute effectively. Delegating advertising decisions, allows companies to improve the quality of decision making as it relates to advertising. Leaders can sometimes be too close to a process and rely on statistics rather than a deeper understanding of the buying decision - as an emotionally driven process.
Multi-Channel Advertising program: Using a variety of mediums to reach the people who buy your products or services is important. While there may be a core advertising strategy; say like using web based marketing through e-mails, banners, social networks etc.; this should be complemented by a broader initiative that includes some of the more traditional methods of advertising. Repetition creates greater awareness and results in better sales.
The effectiveness of advertising is often defined by its emotional impact on audiences. The steps I have outlined, offer a means by which you can set a frame work for developing an effective advertising campaign but keep in mind that an advertising campaign’s success is most often defined by the budget you allocate to a campaign.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Failure To Launch: Part One
In recent years I have encountered one marketing issue that seems to be pervasive among all types and sizes of businesses and organizations. They seem to possess all the basic elements to achieve success, including passion about their product, good understanding of sales, product selection, good customer service, a professional attitude and good marketing tools to name a few; but the road ends there …the final leg; advertising is often missing in a long term strategic plan. No money has been allocated to reach out to potential customers through an organized process.
I must admit I am not sure why; smart, knowledgeable business leaders seem to drop the ball when it comes to bringing the process full circle. Marketing and advertising is costly , often equaling the total cash outlay leading up to the launch of the company or product, but any business plan must include a means of reaching out to potential customers … and for some unforeseen reason this final step is consistently undervalued, regardless of the logic in taking that step.
Options for advertising can be bewildering. Some clients misunderstand the advertising process and as a result they put in place a sales force in an attempt to reach out; others are overwhelmed by the advertising options or they feel the volume of marketing materials make up for the lack of advertising, and some just can’t seem to get past the cost. Now…I am not advocating a foray into advertising at any cost ….but I am suggesting a consistent, customized and well researched marketing and advertising initiative is paramount to your business’s success.
The scope and customized approach of a well thought out advertising program based on a reasonable budget can have a dramatic impact on your business, but it’s not a quick fix. In my opinion there are four basic rules guiding the process:
1. Understand the people who buy your products and why they buy them
2. Develop incentives to enhance the benefits of your product
3. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses in contributing to the process
4. Design and advertising program that uses a variety of mediums, both traditional and new media
When you are launching a new marketing initiative for a product, a service or a location, allocating a budget for advertising will factor into the success of your initiative. Stay tuned for part two of this article where I offer some concrete suggestions and steps you can take to effectively complement your marketing plan with sound advertising decisions.
I must admit I am not sure why; smart, knowledgeable business leaders seem to drop the ball when it comes to bringing the process full circle. Marketing and advertising is costly , often equaling the total cash outlay leading up to the launch of the company or product, but any business plan must include a means of reaching out to potential customers … and for some unforeseen reason this final step is consistently undervalued, regardless of the logic in taking that step.
Options for advertising can be bewildering. Some clients misunderstand the advertising process and as a result they put in place a sales force in an attempt to reach out; others are overwhelmed by the advertising options or they feel the volume of marketing materials make up for the lack of advertising, and some just can’t seem to get past the cost. Now…I am not advocating a foray into advertising at any cost ….but I am suggesting a consistent, customized and well researched marketing and advertising initiative is paramount to your business’s success.
The scope and customized approach of a well thought out advertising program based on a reasonable budget can have a dramatic impact on your business, but it’s not a quick fix. In my opinion there are four basic rules guiding the process:
1. Understand the people who buy your products and why they buy them
2. Develop incentives to enhance the benefits of your product
3. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses in contributing to the process
4. Design and advertising program that uses a variety of mediums, both traditional and new media
When you are launching a new marketing initiative for a product, a service or a location, allocating a budget for advertising will factor into the success of your initiative. Stay tuned for part two of this article where I offer some concrete suggestions and steps you can take to effectively complement your marketing plan with sound advertising decisions.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Your Image – What Is It Saying About You?
Six seconds. It takes approximately six seconds to tie a shoelace, six seconds to open one letter, butter one slice of bread and it takes six short seconds to make a first impression.
All things considered, this is not a lot of time within which to convey a lot of information about yourself, your company or your services. Yet people will make assumptions about credibility and ability within these few short seconds. What do your first six seconds say about you?
You need to ensure that you are capable of selling yourself and your company positively, if you are going to be given the opportunity to sell or promote your products and services. Dr. Albert Mehrabian of UCLA found that there are three key elements that combine to create your first impression…
Verbal – what you say 7%
Vocal – how you say it 38%
Visual – how you look and act 55%
You will notice that the content of what we say is not nearly as important as how we say it, or even how we look as we say it. Yet, most sales professionals focus more of their time preparing their verbal communications rather than the other two elements. They are inadvertently overlooking the power of the non-verbal elements in creating their image and risk not being as successful.
Creating a strong first impression requires you to strategically refine the image you portray by aligning the vocal and visual elements with the message that you want to deliver. The consistency of the message is the key.
For the vocal elements - listen to yourself on tape. How does your voice sound? Is it too nasal or too high? Do you speak too fast or too slow? Do you speak too loud or too soft? In general, you convey confidence by speaking at a moderate pace with a slightly lower tone range. Deepening your voice slightly will often lend you a credibility and authority you might have lacked. You should try to speak loud enough to be heard clearly by your audience.
Choose carefully the visual elements, considering the tales they tell about you. Are you dressed too casually or are you over-dressed? Does the colour convey confidence or a lack of? Are you clean, well-groomed and professional? Do your own marketing self-survey by asking for others’ opinions about the messages that your current dress imparts. Does it fit with the impression you wish to make?
Your image is either going to contribute to or detract from your business success. Imagine for a moment that you are creating your own retail store at a major intersection. The store will have no name above the door; all that will be on display in the front window is you. What kind of customers will you attract?
All things considered, this is not a lot of time within which to convey a lot of information about yourself, your company or your services. Yet people will make assumptions about credibility and ability within these few short seconds. What do your first six seconds say about you?
You need to ensure that you are capable of selling yourself and your company positively, if you are going to be given the opportunity to sell or promote your products and services. Dr. Albert Mehrabian of UCLA found that there are three key elements that combine to create your first impression…
Verbal – what you say 7%
Vocal – how you say it 38%
Visual – how you look and act 55%
You will notice that the content of what we say is not nearly as important as how we say it, or even how we look as we say it. Yet, most sales professionals focus more of their time preparing their verbal communications rather than the other two elements. They are inadvertently overlooking the power of the non-verbal elements in creating their image and risk not being as successful.
Creating a strong first impression requires you to strategically refine the image you portray by aligning the vocal and visual elements with the message that you want to deliver. The consistency of the message is the key.
For the vocal elements - listen to yourself on tape. How does your voice sound? Is it too nasal or too high? Do you speak too fast or too slow? Do you speak too loud or too soft? In general, you convey confidence by speaking at a moderate pace with a slightly lower tone range. Deepening your voice slightly will often lend you a credibility and authority you might have lacked. You should try to speak loud enough to be heard clearly by your audience.
Choose carefully the visual elements, considering the tales they tell about you. Are you dressed too casually or are you over-dressed? Does the colour convey confidence or a lack of? Are you clean, well-groomed and professional? Do your own marketing self-survey by asking for others’ opinions about the messages that your current dress imparts. Does it fit with the impression you wish to make?
Your image is either going to contribute to or detract from your business success. Imagine for a moment that you are creating your own retail store at a major intersection. The store will have no name above the door; all that will be on display in the front window is you. What kind of customers will you attract?
Friday, September 30, 2011
A New Age of Corporate Video
There are many flavours of video today as a result of a loosening of our expectations, our viewing habits and the many mediums that we now receive video through, ranging from YouTube and Facebook to HBO and Netflix. The era of episodic television is over…wait a minute maybe not …maybe it has just morphed into such a broad ranging format we can no longer point our finger and define video so easily.
Video is no longer in neat little categories like corporate video or television shows or readily recognizable commercials – the lines between these mediums has been fudged and it should be pointed out that they have been fudged by advertisers for the most part. We have lulled ourselves into believing that we have created these new popular videos through a more diverse and creative medium; but in fact w have simply been allowed to develop mediums that will better hide the messages of advertisers.
The problem, in part, is that as individuals and companies we have bought into this process. The advent of cheap video production, basement online suites, small lower cost cameras and an army of creative types being churned out by colleges and universities has created expectations for lower cost and more creativity. A reasonable expectation I’d say …The unfortunate truth remains that while we have benefited from a less formal video production process, the hall marks of good video have remained consistent.
Great interviews still require good interviewers who are prepared and provide meaningful insight. Great imagery still needs a good cameraman, complemented by good sound and good editing. Well planned and thought out videos produce better results when a professional team is involved in production. Don’t kid yourself, all of the “reality television “ we see today that started with Survivor and followed by shows such as such as Jersey Shore, Big Brother, Hoarders, The Deadliest Catch, American Pickers, etc. all remain carefully constructed. They were the result of decreased budgets but as these shows now evolve and seek to compete for audience their budgets have also begun to expand with the expansion of their market share.
Big Budget television productions still remain the standard in television today; they have simply moved from regular broadcasting television channels to pay-per-view. Sky-rocketing budgets due to the more sophisticated, reality based demands of viewers have forced video/television production to create more on-location, dynamic productions that have the feel of feature length productions rather than episodic television.
The upshot of all this for corporate or industrial videos, is and has been, that as television becomes more sophisticated, so do the tastes of your audience, your customers, your corporate partners & suppliers. Relying on a more experienced production team and resisting the temptation to micro-manage the video will often produce good results. Good videos can inspire, inform and change behaviour if the production team is given some creative license and a budget that reflects the expectations of the video.
Video is no longer in neat little categories like corporate video or television shows or readily recognizable commercials – the lines between these mediums has been fudged and it should be pointed out that they have been fudged by advertisers for the most part. We have lulled ourselves into believing that we have created these new popular videos through a more diverse and creative medium; but in fact w have simply been allowed to develop mediums that will better hide the messages of advertisers.
The problem, in part, is that as individuals and companies we have bought into this process. The advent of cheap video production, basement online suites, small lower cost cameras and an army of creative types being churned out by colleges and universities has created expectations for lower cost and more creativity. A reasonable expectation I’d say …The unfortunate truth remains that while we have benefited from a less formal video production process, the hall marks of good video have remained consistent.
Great interviews still require good interviewers who are prepared and provide meaningful insight. Great imagery still needs a good cameraman, complemented by good sound and good editing. Well planned and thought out videos produce better results when a professional team is involved in production. Don’t kid yourself, all of the “reality television “ we see today that started with Survivor and followed by shows such as such as Jersey Shore, Big Brother, Hoarders, The Deadliest Catch, American Pickers, etc. all remain carefully constructed. They were the result of decreased budgets but as these shows now evolve and seek to compete for audience their budgets have also begun to expand with the expansion of their market share.
Big Budget television productions still remain the standard in television today; they have simply moved from regular broadcasting television channels to pay-per-view. Sky-rocketing budgets due to the more sophisticated, reality based demands of viewers have forced video/television production to create more on-location, dynamic productions that have the feel of feature length productions rather than episodic television.
The upshot of all this for corporate or industrial videos, is and has been, that as television becomes more sophisticated, so do the tastes of your audience, your customers, your corporate partners & suppliers. Relying on a more experienced production team and resisting the temptation to micro-manage the video will often produce good results. Good videos can inspire, inform and change behaviour if the production team is given some creative license and a budget that reflects the expectations of the video.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Choosing a Company Name
It is important to offer customers, staff and business partners a consistent and accurate understanding of what the company, product or service stands for. More often than not the company name and or icon are secondary to how you market that name. Having a strong name and then not promoting consistently over time will yield little awareness or recognition.
Long term effectiveness of a name or brand identity is based on the marketing strategy and not the name itself. Don’t knock yourself out coming up with a cool name - - Arnold Schwarzenegger was told he would never make it with his name! It’s about name recognition and what you do to promote it, but here are some established ways of thinking about names …
A. Often times, using a proper name associates the company with a person place or thing, thus identifying the company specifically but not creating any strong link to descriptive product or service offering, i.e., Johnson & Johnson, MacDonald’s, etc. Through the use of consistent long term branding strategies these names have come to represent a very specific product image.
B. Alternately, a company can be identified by the service or product they offer, creating a direct connection to the product or service. This is a very focused approach and offers people an immediate understanding of the product or service your company produces, i.e., First National Bank, Algoma Steel Manufacturing, etc.
C. The third and most nebulous naming convention creates an emotional attachment to the company or product but does not identify a specific product or service. This, while unfocused, it can create an immediate emotional profile for the company. The name is designed to create a state that will allow the company to attach the product or service to an emotion. Some examples would include SkyLife or Winners.
D. Finally there is a naming convention that creates or invents a company name from scratch. It can represent a product or service and a combination of any existing words to create new word. These have been very popular recently as companies seek to differentiate themselves with unique names. Some examples of this are Nautica or Enron.
Once a name has been developed, regardless of how or what it represents at the time of its creation, two basic elements can affect the perceived meaning of a name or emotional attachment to a name. These are advertising and unforeseen acts. Each of these can affect a company, both negatively and positively.
Combining a sales initiative and marketing plan is the key to the success of your name and your business.
Long term effectiveness of a name or brand identity is based on the marketing strategy and not the name itself. Don’t knock yourself out coming up with a cool name - - Arnold Schwarzenegger was told he would never make it with his name! It’s about name recognition and what you do to promote it, but here are some established ways of thinking about names …
A. Often times, using a proper name associates the company with a person place or thing, thus identifying the company specifically but not creating any strong link to descriptive product or service offering, i.e., Johnson & Johnson, MacDonald’s, etc. Through the use of consistent long term branding strategies these names have come to represent a very specific product image.
B. Alternately, a company can be identified by the service or product they offer, creating a direct connection to the product or service. This is a very focused approach and offers people an immediate understanding of the product or service your company produces, i.e., First National Bank, Algoma Steel Manufacturing, etc.
C. The third and most nebulous naming convention creates an emotional attachment to the company or product but does not identify a specific product or service. This, while unfocused, it can create an immediate emotional profile for the company. The name is designed to create a state that will allow the company to attach the product or service to an emotion. Some examples would include SkyLife or Winners.
D. Finally there is a naming convention that creates or invents a company name from scratch. It can represent a product or service and a combination of any existing words to create new word. These have been very popular recently as companies seek to differentiate themselves with unique names. Some examples of this are Nautica or Enron.
Once a name has been developed, regardless of how or what it represents at the time of its creation, two basic elements can affect the perceived meaning of a name or emotional attachment to a name. These are advertising and unforeseen acts. Each of these can affect a company, both negatively and positively.
Combining a sales initiative and marketing plan is the key to the success of your name and your business.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Electronic Newsletters Are Overused
Newsletters have always seemed to suffer from one anemic deficit or another. First it was paper versus electronic, then ineffective use of the electronic newsletter, then inconsistent use of the electronic newsletter and now overuse of the newsletter.
If you are in business today….you generally get several newsletters a week of one sort or another: some we have signed up for and others …not so much. The issue, (if I can use that pun) is that most newsletters are uninformative, unimaginative and they remain a relic of the print age. Today, with information on demand, the newsletter’s effectiveness has been eroded by competing noise in the marketplace …everybody has a newsletter. Most newsletters are simply marketing speak and do not offer true insight. They are usually an assemblage of new product launches, product support, broadly available statistics, product fixes and self promotion.
Other factors that have dramatically impacted the newsletter are the advent of the blog, forum, twitter, texting, chat functions, FAQs, press releases, social networking sites etc. Subject matter experts are now more accessible and user groups of high profile products offer unique opportunities to gain non-bias information on a product or service.
The print newsletter and initially the electronic newsletter were considered a push medium, in other words the newsletter was pushed out to clients as a marketing and information piece. With the advent of privacy laws, greater interactive design, instant access to subject matter expertise and more graphic design, newsletters have increasingly become “pull” medium where the user signs up or registers for information they want.
Marketers are now resorting to incentives to encourage subscribers by offering VIP treatment, discounts and giveaways. The idea is that if you are offered something of value you will accept regular updates about a product or service in the form of a newsletter. The basic problem with this approach is that the value of newsletter subscriptions is overweighed on quantity rather than quality. The same formula that defines spamming is being used to define the benefits of the business or corporate newsletter. The more subscribers you have the more” impressions” you get for your product, ultimately resulting in greater sales and product awareness.
The basic problem with this formula is just that …it’s a formula. As in spamming, it is a passionless medium, where the information is unimaginative, uninformative and it lacks the basic incentive for buying … emotion. Apple is an example of a product that has created a cult-like status around its products. Generally they are far more expensive and perform similarly to many other products. They main emotional appeal is that through their products you have gained membership into a select group. Apple has successfully tapped into our need to belong.
If you want to engage your audience, you have to invest the time and energy in making the information wanted, needed and even demanded by your customers with the use of in-depth content - delivered in a memorable way.
If you are in business today….you generally get several newsletters a week of one sort or another: some we have signed up for and others …not so much. The issue, (if I can use that pun) is that most newsletters are uninformative, unimaginative and they remain a relic of the print age. Today, with information on demand, the newsletter’s effectiveness has been eroded by competing noise in the marketplace …everybody has a newsletter. Most newsletters are simply marketing speak and do not offer true insight. They are usually an assemblage of new product launches, product support, broadly available statistics, product fixes and self promotion.
Other factors that have dramatically impacted the newsletter are the advent of the blog, forum, twitter, texting, chat functions, FAQs, press releases, social networking sites etc. Subject matter experts are now more accessible and user groups of high profile products offer unique opportunities to gain non-bias information on a product or service.
The print newsletter and initially the electronic newsletter were considered a push medium, in other words the newsletter was pushed out to clients as a marketing and information piece. With the advent of privacy laws, greater interactive design, instant access to subject matter expertise and more graphic design, newsletters have increasingly become “pull” medium where the user signs up or registers for information they want.
Marketers are now resorting to incentives to encourage subscribers by offering VIP treatment, discounts and giveaways. The idea is that if you are offered something of value you will accept regular updates about a product or service in the form of a newsletter. The basic problem with this approach is that the value of newsletter subscriptions is overweighed on quantity rather than quality. The same formula that defines spamming is being used to define the benefits of the business or corporate newsletter. The more subscribers you have the more” impressions” you get for your product, ultimately resulting in greater sales and product awareness.
The basic problem with this formula is just that …it’s a formula. As in spamming, it is a passionless medium, where the information is unimaginative, uninformative and it lacks the basic incentive for buying … emotion. Apple is an example of a product that has created a cult-like status around its products. Generally they are far more expensive and perform similarly to many other products. They main emotional appeal is that through their products you have gained membership into a select group. Apple has successfully tapped into our need to belong.
If you want to engage your audience, you have to invest the time and energy in making the information wanted, needed and even demanded by your customers with the use of in-depth content - delivered in a memorable way.
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