Hmmmmmm. Great list … BUT, there’s no mention of making a strong emotional connection with the customer. Isn’t that the point?
Archive for September, 2006
What’s Missing From This Picture
September 25th, 2006 by Chief Nut
Scary Moves
September 24th, 2006 by Chief Nut
Let’s say your company recently merged with another company. Clearly, a rebrand may be in order. BUT, what if you’re a generations old power brand like McDonald’s, or UPS and are not faced with this immediate need? Does a complete rebrand then make sense? Probably not. But, an overly cautious person may see any type of change in a successful brand as “fixin’ something that ain’t broke” and would stick with the same ol’. What to do?!
Visionaries aren’t paralyzed this way. They know that brands are living, breathing, evolving entities that need to be grown over time.
When UPS decided to update its logo for the fourth time in 97 years (March 2003), they thoughtfully implemented a redesign that most people didn’t even really notice. Why? … the essence of the logo was retained. It’s kind of like seeing a Hollywood starlet get plastic surgery. It’s obviously still her …€” she just looks younger, and most people don’t even notice.
Similarly, take a look at the new face of McDonalds. When seeing this change for the first time, Saturn’s new tagline comes to mind … it’s “Like Always, Like Never Before”. The architecture certainly qualifies as bold in the redesign of, arguably, one of the world’s strongest brands, but it doesn’t stretch to the point of losing brand equity. Bravo!!
NOT Just Another One Night Stand
September 23rd, 2006 by Chief NutConsider the world-wide singles scene today …€” compared to the sixties. Are most people today looking for the beginning of a relationship … or are they looking for a one night stand? Marketing and Advertising are the same, and John Jantsch with Duct Tape Marketing agrees.
A Thousand Small Gestures
September 23rd, 2006 by Chief NutA quote from Disney’s CEO, Michael Eisner …
“A brand is a living entity - and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures”
Let’s start a list:
- Are you smiling when you answer the phone?
- If you say you’ll call back in 2 hours, which happens more often … a 90 minute callback or a 3 hour callback?
- Do you use “www” in your URL like everbody else or are you “geek cool“?
- Did you actually put thought into the difference between the fonts that you use in headlines vs. body text?
- Do you reinforce your own brand by giving your employees computer wallpaper?
- etc.
Keep going until your list contains a thousand (or ten thousand, or a hundred thousand) small gestures. When you get to the end, you’ll have a living, breathing (and powerful) entity …. your brand.
Rocks in My Shoe
September 23rd, 2006 by Chief NutMarketing Sherpa recounts a challenge faced by Ariad Custom Communications. In a focus group consisting of their longest term marketing clients, they were asked why they so strongly suggest the use of custom email newsletters when they don’t use one themselves. Hmmmmm …. good question. Wisely, they agreed with the implication of the question and decided to create a newsletter for their clientele. Instead of jumping into the blindly, they thoroughly researched their competition and clearly defined the needs of their target audience.
A key point in their assessment:
“In the battle for reader eyeballs, every [marketing piece] should realize
they’re competing against every possible information source in every
media… Competition isn’t about your format or
business model; it’s about [the consumer's] time and attention.”
We would even take this observation a step further. The consumer’s time and attention is focused on the small, and sometimes fleeting, “needs” in their lives … and these needs may actually be temporary, passionate “wants”. For convertible sportscar salespeople: Today, the consumer will VERY likely not need custom alloy wheels, but they may feel they “need” to have the wind whipping through their hair.
For all six billion people on the planet, these ephemeral needs come and go through our daily lives like getting small rocks in your shoe during a hike. They wear on you to the point where you feel compelled to stop for a short break to take the rock out.
As business owners, it’s our job to figure out what is the proverbial “rock in the shoe” of our clients. The task is not to sell them a better pair of rock-resistant shoes or a new skin padding system! If you do THAT, you’re clearly not understanding the needs of the clients. Find a way to remove that rock and you’ll have a lifetime customer.
Uh One, Uh Two, Uh Thrrrreeeee
September 22nd, 2006 by Chief Nut
Here’s an age test. Raise your hand if you remember the animated Tootsie Roll Pop Commercial where the little boy goes up to the wise owl and asks “how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?”. The owl says “let’s see” and counts out as he licks …. “uh one, uh two, uh thrrrreeee” CRUNCH “Three”. Admit it, if you remember the commercial you’re smiling right now, yes?!
I saw this commercial on cable television YESTERDAY!!! This really threw me and begs several questions … Does a great brand always have to reinvent itself? Can a generations old company like Tootsie Roll Industries effectively use an old standby commercial from the 1960s and have it be just as effective with today’s market? My vote is YES! The beauty of that commercial is that it’s tight, it’s simple, it’s memorable and it oozes well implemented humor.
The next big picture question would be “can a great commercial or a great marketing idea really become timeless?” The world may never know.
A Standard For Success
September 21st, 2006 by Chief NutYears ago I read a bit by Tom Peters where he talked about giving employees “standards” instead of job titles or even descriptions of tasks. If you give a person a standard by which to work, they can invent the process on their own AND will be more apt to succeed at achieving the goal. At Acorn Creative’s most recent Monday morning meeting, I set the standard that project managers are NOT immediately responsible for creative design, web development or brand strategy development … their first and foremost duty is to “make sure the customer is happy“. Now THAT’S a standard! Will they succeed in achieving this? Let’s knock on wood. If they do (and they already do a great job), then we have few, if any, problems in the near future.
Similarly, Seth Godin asks “How much do you care?” with a revealing snapshot of two bathrooms in New York. Clearly one attendant is working with a higher standard than the other. They’re probably both being paid roughly the same and they both likely think they’re doing their job. Big difference in results, don’t you think?
Sooo, what standards are YOUR people using to measure their success.
One of These Days Alice
September 19th, 2006 by Chief NutThis morning’s post by Seth Godin (Where are the tweakers) asks an interesting question of why there are no companies or services that take existing websites and “tweak” them to make them a little better. After personally building over 350 websites in the past 15 years, I can very comfortably say why I don’t take on this task. The art of fiddling with a site is hard enough when the code is what you developed on your own. When faced with fiddling with other people’s (mostly garbage) code, the task becomes daunting. It’s usually easier to chuck the whole mess and rebuild from scratch … even if the look and feel of the site remains the same.
However, there is hope on the horizon. Lead by pioneers like Jeffrey Zeldman, there has been a movement for quite a while to move website design to a “Standards Based” (W3C Complient) system of completely separating aesthetics and form with content. To see how miraculous this can be, visit www.CSSZenGarden.com. In the right had column of the default page, there’s a list of other designs, click on them to see what happens to the look and feel of the site. Understand that ALL of these designs are using the same content … in fact, the exact same HTML page! The only thing that’s required to modify the look and feel is to point to a different style sheet.
So, how would this help in Seth’s quest to have control over tweaking and A-B testing?? I’m thinking the results would go …. sorry about this folks …. TO THE MOON! (groan)
Surefire Path to Doom
September 17th, 2006 by Chief NutWant to watch your organization (company, product, service, self) find the quickest way to obsolescence and failure? All you have to do is ignore the masses.
For a great example, read Seth Godin’s commentary on Ford.
Another example; You could be like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and try to stifle P2P file sharing and individual downloads with lawsuits and bully tactics OR you could be like Apple’s iTunes and embrace the new way young people want to experience and share music. iTunes, by the way, is passing its 1.5 Billionth download. Get a clue RIAA!! … times, they are a changin’.
Let’s be fair here. Delivering a bug riddled, poorly designed product doesn’t help you find the path to success either. Apple’s latest version of iTunes is getting A LOT of bad press. Google News “iTunes” to see what I mean.
Trade Show Woes
September 17th, 2006 by Chief NutIf you attend expos and tradeshows as part of your marketing strategy, are you creating an “end user experience”??? And, NO, handing out business cards with a squish ball doesn’t count. If not, you’re not optimizing your opportunity for success at the event!
At the fall VON convention, we witnessed HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of vendors from all over the world come to Boston to pitch their wares. Just the space rental on a 10×10 booth alone was $6500 … no small price tag! At the event we saw (no exageration):
- Dozens of booths with a single person sitting in a chair waiting for people to come up to them and ask questions.
- Booth graphics with literally dozens of bulleted, acronym riddled services in 8 point font.
- Booths with no visual graphic support … just text.
- Tchotchke HELL. There were fewer than 10 booths that had something other than: pens, blinking doo dads, squishy balls or candy.
This was MILLIONS of dollars of lost opportunity. If you’re going to spend that much money on an event, plan to take FULL benefit of the audience. Folks, these are warmed up, ready to buy, prospective customers walking within feet of you. Your booth should grab them and drag them across the room - metaphorically.
Here’s a test for your next trade show. Watch people as they walk down the aisle coming towards you. They’ll glance up at the booths (avoiding eye contact with the people) and will casually walk slowly enough to “absorb” information. They’re searching … searching for services and products that interest them. As they walk by your booth, do they continue this slow scanning walk? OR, do they behave as if they’ve encountered something different? …. something worthy of a few seconds more. Better yet, do they actually stop at your booth after they’ve passed others by? Is your booth always filled with people? If not, you need to work on your “end user experience.”
Feeeed Meee
