Don’t throw that at me! part 2

Based on some of the responses I received about my previous post, It appears I didn’t quite explain myself well enough in my last post. So here’s trying to clarify :)

When I say that I am against traditional advertising, I am referring more to the use of traditional advertising as the first option. What I mean by using traditional ads as a first option is, given a companies product, traditional advertising shouldn’t be sought after as the first way to reach customers, but the last. This is the notion of using a more ‘connection’ oriented marketing method. This method, if done correctly, also often results in coverage from larger media outlets (effective building more advertising). Still, the way you promote your product is going to be based on the product itself, and much of the marketing should already be build into the product itself.

My reasoning behind this is two fold:

1) You should be able to come up with ways to reach out to your customers and get to know them and what they think. Some may say that’s not for every product or company, I say any marketer should want to know what their customer is thinking. It’s how you know where they’ll go next (among other things).

2) Depending on what your competition is doing, not using traditional advertising can set you apart from your competition. It also helps to define your companies brand. Do you want to be known as the company that is distant and runs ads or do you want to be known as the company that has its corporate wall mostly down and really reaches out to its customers? Not sure? You can take a look at how Nikon is doing (there is a lot more buzz about it than just that post by Jaffe).

To re-iterate. The way you promote a product will be based on the product itself (which should have marketing built in) and I am against the use of traditional advertising as the first option as opposed to the last. Also, I am not as against very contextual advertising (for example: Google ads).

Don’t throw that at me!

To state it outright, I am for the most part against traditional advertising. I think, in many cases, dropping an obscene amount of money on a 30 second spot or similar is pretty much a waste of time and money. I am very thankful that the company I work for totally agrees.
The thing is, I don’t like ads because there are better methods. I like to call one such method a connecting method (actually, I lied. I don’t really call them connecting methods, so much as when talking about them I emphasize the fact that connection rocks).

The connecting method is all about, you guessed it, sharing in experience, commonality, and thus connecting. What might this look like?

Say you’re a marketing firm and the fans you’re wanting to connect with/create are 20 somethings that are kind of ‘hip’ and ‘cool’, which generally translates to clubbing (Note: I am not a hip and cool 20 something, but both my girlfriend and my mom say I’m cool).

Now, you have 2 options.

1. Put up an ad or ads somewhere. (I realize this is simplified)
2. Throw a kickass party that your employees are at. (Note: Giving away free stuff makes your party more kickass.)

When it comes to being the audience, which would you prefer? An ad in your face or a company coming to your turf, throwing you a party, and getting to know you. The best part is if you throw a few of these parties, you get people who’ve come to a number of them. Even better, they tend to tell you about their favorite experiences at the last one. Here you’ve started a conversation. You’ve created a fan.

A late aside, you could also consider this as “Don’t throw something at them, throw something they want to be at.”
(P.S. I’m sorry, I lied again. My girlfriend doesn’t actually think I’m cool.)

Read Don’t throw that at me! part 2.

Make your community interaction count

When it comes to moving your current product/service from one community into another community, it pays to take a little time to ensure your interaction in the new community counts. Do your research. What are the main differences between the communities? How does the user interaction between sites differ? What do they use it for, and how can what you’re doing blend in a new and meaningful way with this new community?

A great example of the above in action is Photobucket’s Facebook Application (may require you to be logged into Facebook).

Photobucket comes to the Facebook platform not with their continued image hosting stuff but with the ability to send e-postcards using your pictures on Photobucket or stock ones. A fantastic combination of the essence of their service (images) and creating something of value to the Facebook users.

Consider the community and their playground. It will pay off.

Business SOS: How to track buzz for your biz

For a while now any business owner I’d spoken with about blogging, social networking, and the general idea of a community of fans online I also told about buzz. That is, people are talking about your product or service online and best of all, you not only can know exactly what they’re saying (unlike verbal word of mouth) but you can talk to them about it!

When asked how to find out about this buzz, I usually prescribed a number of various tools, search engines, etc that they could use to track their companies buzz.

Thanks to Mike, I’ve found a better way. I don’t know if he realized it, but he created the acronym SOS- Search Once and Subscribe. Well, I’m going to take Mike’s post and tweak the ‘O’, if he doesn’t mind.
This tweak is Search, Observe, Subscribe. Business SOS.

Mike has already outlined the benefits and process, so I just thought I’d try to solidify the idea

1. Search: Find the buzz about your company
2. Observe: Now that you’re aware of the buzz, read it, remember it, log it, make it matter.
3. Subscribe: Subscribing to these searches so you’ll be notified if any new buzz comes up about your company, then observe the new buzz.

Then repeat. I’d say every few weeks, tweak your searches, see if there is anything new buzz about your company to observe, then subscribe to that new line.

Awesome bit of info, Mike!

Do you want one or two?

There is a neat little boutique coffee shop called Java Dog right below the office at my new job.

I purchased a bagel there the other day for $1.39. When they brought the bagel to me I asked if I could have cream cheese with it (I wanted to make sure I got my cream cheese). The woman ringing me up stated emphatically “Of course!” with a nice smile and then asked me if I’d like one or two packets of cream cheese. I kindly asked for two.

When I was rung up, I noticed all I was charged for was the bagel, not the cream cheese. A small but great way to show kindness and a focus on your customers. None of the shops on the college campus here do that. They all charge you. Wendy’s charges you for even just one packet of barbeque sauce. Am I the only person who thinks this is awesome?

Also, unrelated to the topic of this post (well, not in a marketing sense), I really wish Java Dog had a nice fragrance of fresh coffee grounds.

Use CRM Right

To benefit the customer.

I wish I could say that the Great Clips here in Wilmington used CRM correctly (my beautician back home did! She was fantastic!). They almost do. They have my phone number logged if I am not in their store when it’s my turn, they have the information on my last haircut logged so I don’t have to remember exactly what the length was, they log when my last haircut was. They’ve got a lot of good things, but they’re missing something important.

They’re not staying in front of me. It’s so simple to do.

I keep track of how long it’s been since my last haircut, which is generally an important step in knowing when to get one. I usually just go based on when my girlfriend starts to comment that my hair is getting longer. If the average time between haircuts is 4-6 weeks, then why not ask to contact me after 5 weeks to let me know? Almost guarantee I’d head in within a few days of the call. For even better response, offer to schedule a time right then and there. If they did this, their cash flow in would be shortened so they’d be getting more within an annual (years) time.

So simple. So what say you, Great Clips? I just got my haircut today. Give me a call in 5 weeks and I’ll head in. (Now… I suppose if they read these sorts of things they may not be having this lacking in the first place.

Harness the power of WOM

The other day I was returning the video A Beautiful Mind to the library. As I handed it to the librarian (whom I’ve never met before), she asked me how the movie was and what it was about. The conversation was something like:

“Great movie, though a bit sad toward the end,” (plus explanation of movie, which i’ll spare you all from).
“I don’t have a lot of time to watch movies, so I am pretty select in the ones I watch. Would you recommend it?” she asked.
“Yes.” I replied. “It’s definitely one to see.”
“Awesome, I’ll have to see it, then! Thanks!”

A similar instance occurred with a friend of mine. I noticed he liked a TV series, Samurai Champloo. Knowing a bit of this genre, I suggested he check out another series. He said he already had it, but if I had any more in mind, to let him know. I mentioned another one. Five minutes later he messaged me letting me know he’s in the process of purchasing it. I didn’t even tell him what it was about.

That’s the power of word of mouth.

Remarkable Products vs. Transforming Products

Blogs transformed the way people think about life and everyday activities. If you wrote an entertainment blog, suddenly if you saw something while you were walking around you immediately thought “I need to remember to blog that!” For those whose thought it further transformed. they pulled out their notebook and wrote it down. This is the case whether the blog you write is marketing, entertainment, philosophy, writing, etc.

Google transformed the way people think about information. Suddenly if people needed to know something or had a question, the immediate response was “Just Google it.”

Cameras transformed the way people look at the world. Suddenly the world became a number of still visions. Every step someone took became a glimpse into what could be a beautifully captured scene. DigitalCamera’s then took it a step further to reduce the turn around time of the satisfaction.

All of the above products are not just ones that transform the way people look at blogs, search, life etc, but are also ones that are remarkable. It seems apparent that products that transform the way people look and think about things stick.

The question I wonder, does a product have to be remarkable to be one that transforms?

Frictionless is the way to go

At the local Taco Bell they have fixed stools around their tables. You see everyone there sitting on the very edge of the stools and looking generally uncomfortable. It’s obvious they feel too far away.

The cafeteria on campus here has been using the same take out box for their food for a while. It’s inconvenient in its shape and annoying to throw away because it doesn’t compact well.

A local deli here called McAllister has a wide selection of items. Their font, however, is too small. I’ve noticed I’m not the only one who thinks so.

If Taco Bell moved their stools closer, people would enjoy their eating experience more. By making the take out boxes fit food correctly and compact nicely, the cafeteria could increase the number of people who buy food there. It costs you almost nothing to make your menu font bigger.

All small things, all big differences, all add up.

Reducing the friction for the people who encounter your business or product enhances their experience. Less friction means less frustration, less time spent thinking, less anxiety, and more time spent enjoying your business or product.

Friction is a concept that’s employed by 37Signals, Flickr, Google, and others. Yet I find it surprising how often it seems to be overlooked in business.

Beautiful

Marketing always makes me smile.

I happen to think that Organic, while healthy and all that, is more or less clever marketing. With that, my girlfriend and I were at Port City Java the other day (whose menu’s need to grow by about 10 points in font) which serves some organics. This is known because of the giant organic symbol blaring in your face from the counter. She decided to set a question on me.

“So…” (that’s how I knew it was a setup)
“If organic cost the same as regular, which one would you buy?” she asked me.

“I would buy the organic.” I saw where this was going.

“Why?” she probed.

I smiled. “Because it’s healthier.”

“So, if you’d buy the organic because it’s healthier, then how can you say it’s a scam?”

I paused for a moment before answering. “Because it’s not just the fact alone that it’s healthier that makes me buy, it’s because the marketing is stronger, matching what people, and myself, think more.”

“Buy you’d still buy it because it’s healthy.” she said.

“Not necessarily. If both products had been commoditized to the same price level, then it would be simply a matter of whose message (marketing) matches the best wins. Likewise if you had two organic products of the same type. The one you’d choose would be the ones whose message appeals to your identity and personality the best, or the one that told the best story (both marketing).”

Marketing is fascinating.