Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

Did your Mom ever call after you to “Take a Risk”?

Monday, April 18th, 2011

Jerry Gillies was a popular financial guru in the 1970’s, most known for his book and tapes, MoneyLove.  I remember a story on risk-taking that has stayed with me for many decades.  He talks about how we are conditioned as youngsters to always “play it safe.”  When we were young and leaving the house to go play, Mom would call out, “Be careful.  Stay safe.”  Gillies suggests how different our lives might be if our parents had given us a different message, “Take a risk.  Try something new!  Get out of your comfort zone!”

Wow, what a difference!

Recently, I was watching a reality television show where a group of well-known chefs audition different restaurateurs for possible funding of their new dining concepts.  One was a former football player who was in the midst of “making the cut.”  While he was passionate about his concept, he was missing some of the critical details to make it a success.  Bobby Flay, who headed the chef’s group, reminded him that when he played ball, he didn’t succeed in every play.  The important point is that he was in the game and in play.  He was taking risks to realize his dream.

So when was the last time you took a risk for your business?  Hired a new employee?  Utilized new talent?  Tried a new program or process to improve the business?  Too often, we stay with the tried and true ways, expecting phenomenal new results from practices that previously provided mediocre outcomes.

It may be time to take some new risks.  We have in our business.  A new staff member has business development experience honed from decades of one-on-one encounters with business and marketing professionals.  He brings an added dimension to the agency with new services to sell that are beyond our previous scope of work.  It’s pushing our comfort zone, but promises a new profit center if he succeeds.

And taking risks isn’t limited to your business.  What new thing have you tried in your personal life?  I recently took up hand-bell ringing, after little involvement with music in the past 30 years.  It’s challenging and definitely out of my comfort zone, but rewarding when we “get it right.”  In a recent concert, I estimated we got three out of four pieces “right.”  As Bobby Flay noted, you don’t succeed in every play, but you don’t quit the game either when you make a bad play.

As marketers, we’re always trying new things.  New tools, like social marketing and virtual conferencing, offer new ways to reach traditional target markets.  Some may wonder how long Twitter will last.  One commentator mused that after two years, many will wake up and say, “Why did I waste so much time with Twitter?”  But in the meantime, it’s a force to reckon with.

Fads and trends come and go.  Successful people capitalize on them.  Mediocre folks ignore them.  Playing to them can be risky.  But the occasional “win” makes it all worthwhile.

The next time you are contemplating a change to your business, or an opportunity pops up to try some new skill or visit a new spot, turn your head to one side, recall your mother’s voice, and hear her say, “Take a risk.  Try something new.”

 

–Ralph Yearick is CEO of Yearick-Millea.   Contact him at ryearick@yearick-millea.com

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2 of the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

More from Al Ries and Jack Trout….

In 1994, they wrote The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!. If you haven’t read them, they still hold up well after 16 years.

Rule Number 1 is the Law of Leadership.  It is better to be first than it is to be better.

They assert that many people believe that the basic issue in marketing is to convince prospects that you have a better product or service.  In reality they conclude, the basic issue in marketing is creating a category you can be first in.

Examples include Xerox, Coke, Band-Aid, Krazy Glue, Saran Wrap and FedEx, among others.  Brands tend to remain leaders because their names became generic.

So what do you do if you can’t be “first”?  Go to Rule Number 2:  The Law of Category.  If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.

Ries and Trout point out that this is counter to classis marketing thinking, which is brand-oriented.  “Forget the brand,” they admonish.  “Think categories.”  Prospects are on the defensive when it comes to brands.  Everyone talks about how their brand is better.  But prospects have an open mind when it comes to categories.  Everyone’s interested in what is new.  Few are interested in what’s better.

They point out that after World War II, Heineken was the first beer to make a name for itself in America.  Four decades later, it was the No. 1 imported beer.  Competitor Anheuser-Busch could have said, “We should bring in an imported beer, too.”  Instead, they said, “If there’s a market for a high-priced imported beer, there must be a market for a high-priced domestic beer, too.”  Anheuser introduced Michelob, the first high-priced domestic beer, which soon outsold Heineken two-to-one.

We have an industrial client who already has significant market share for their products because they innovated many of the market standards.  Studies show they are often first-in-mind with prospective specifiers.  But they aren’t content to just rest on being “first.”  They are establishing new categories for their products, positioning them as “green” solutions and leaders in the solar market.

Few can be first to market, but many can lead a category.  How might you reposition your product or service by finding a new category you can be first in?

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Checked Your Research Lately?

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

I’ve had clients who wouldn’t spend money on basic customer research. That’s like trying to plan a driving trip from Denver to New York and being too cheap to buy a road map. You wouldn’t even know in which direction to start off.

My first introduction to market research was shortly after college when I joined the marketing department of a member-supported research foundation, whose purpose was to help companies in the printing industry do their jobs better.

I worked for a crusty old marketing boss who would dictate what programs and services the foundation offered to its members.  Being a brash young upstart, I asked him one day, “How do we know this is what our members want and need.”  He looked at me, pointed his index finger to his temple, tapped it several times, and said, “Intuitive marketing.”  To which I replied, “So we’re just guessing.”

Needless to say, I didn’t work there much longer.

Years later, I was sitting around a conference table in Atlanta with a bunch of association executives from the hardwood industry, who were looking for ways to get builders of custom homes to specify more North American hardwoods.  I asked them what builders needed to specify the product.  They collectively answered that builders needed glossy pictures of hardwood installations to show to prospective homebuyers.  I asked them how they knew that.

Suddenly I had a déjà vu experience when one of the old-timers starting tapping his temple and saying, “We’ve been in this industry a long time.  We know what they need.”

So I asked if we might conduct a research project “just to confirm” their position.

After interviewing 400 builders across the country, we learned that the single-most deterrent to specifying North American hardwoods was the high cost of scrap.  If a worker miss-cut a piece of hardwood, or a finisher botched the paint or stain job, they were left with mighty expensive scrap.  Hence they tended to specify less costly soft woods, like pine.

What we also learned was that builders wanted technical information on installing hardwoods and finishing them on site.

That one piece of information directed the hardwood marketing program for several years through a series of technical publications called Tips & Techniques:  For builders and architects working with North American hardwood millwork, flooring and cabinetry.

The value of good market research may be that it confirms what you already know about how your customers or potential customers relate to your products or services.  Or, it just might turn up that one unexpected idea that can reshape your whole marketing approach.  Either way, it tells you if you’re on track or not.

Expensive research projects still have their place.  But inexpensive research can easily be conducted today through internet software such as Survey Monkey or Constant Contact.

Successful marketing is when you know what your customers want and need, and then develop or tailor products and services to meet those customer needs.  Market research provides the road map.

Add to the blog and share some unexpected insight you learned from your market research.

–Ralph Yearick

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Find a Horse to Ride

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Two of my favorite marketers are Al Ries and Jack Trout, authors of Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind and Marketing Warfare.

One concept they espoused was “find a horse to ride.” Basically, it involves tying your product or service into another product or service that can broaden your reach.

There are many great marketing examples of this. Dairy Queen promotes popular candy bars and cookies in their Blizzard product. XM radio teams with automakers to have their radios installed in new automobiles, virtually assuring them a new customer after the 90-day free trial period expires. The movie production houses promote their new releases through tie-ins with fast food companies such as McDonald’s or Burger King.

I once advised a small business owner who sold bookkeeping services to team up with other vendors who provided similar businesses, such as payroll or temporary staffing. He enjoyed good success.

I also knew an industrial water meter salesman who teamed up with an industrial piping salesman. Each covered the same territories, so during sales pitches, they casually mentioned the other’s product and promoted it as superior to other brands. When the other salesman made his next call, he already had a favorable reference and usually wrote up an order on the spot.

While the concept is well proven, the trick is finding the right horse to ride. In the early 1990’s, McDonald’s did a tie-in with Warner Bros. in promoting their new movie, “Batman Returns.” During the promotion, customers purchasing a McDonald’s Happy Meal received one of several premiums, such as Batman in the Batmobile vehicle, along with figurines of archvillains Catwoman and Penguin. Unfortunately for McDonald’s, “Batman Returns” had been assigned the PG-13 rating, which encourages parental guidance for children more than 13 years of age. The film merited a PG-13 rating code as a result of its graphic scenes of electrocution, kidnapping and random gunfire.

The figurines were packed in Happy Meals and advertised as safe for children 1 year old and up. But they were designed to promote a movie created for viewers 13 years of age and over. The target age group was incongruent with the product tie-in. Teens weren’t eating Happy Meals, and toddlers weren’t viewing PG-13 movies.

McDonald’s took some flak from a Christian organization and had to issue an apology.

The promotion deal likely was made even before the movie was completed. And how would a marketing rep ever see a cartoon character, like Batman, as something less than wholesome.

Moral of the story: Like in any race, choose your horse carefully.

–Ralph Yearick

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Re-read a Tale of Two Cities

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in 1859. With 200 million copies sold, it is among the most famous works of fiction. You probably had to read it in junior high or high school. You don’t really even need to re-read it if you remember the famous opening line: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….”

When we started our agency in 1993, the economy then, like now, wasn’t very strong. The first half of 1993 saw growth in the Gross Domestic Product of just 1.3 percent.

If I had ten dollars from every person who told me it was a terrible time to start a business, I wouldn’t have had to invest my life savings and still borrow money. But I always countered with “Have you read A Tale of Two Cities?” Then followed with the infamous line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….”

When it comes to marketing, the truth is that it is always the best and worst of times. Even if you have a mature product, there are people out there who need and want your products and services. If not, you would already be out of business.

What has dramatically changed is the way we reach our target audiences. The Internet has spawned the Information Age. Lengthy printed product catalogs are a thing of the past. Up-to-the-minute product information can be posted on corporate websites, where potential customers have easy access to getting the information they need to evaluate and specify your product or service.

Think of a website as a 24-7 salesperson who can answer almost every question about your products and services, as well as refute mis-information.

Social networking is also changing the way we feel about major brands like Coca-Cola and ABC News. It can influence your B2B marketing, too.

Networks liked LinkedIn can tell you exactly how many connections stand between you and the top prospect you have identified as a good match for your product or service. It may take a little work to get the introduction, but as the old saying goes, “If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.”

Today’s databases make niche marketing effective to subsets as small as 25 or 30 prospects. In some ways, it’s never been easier to reach a target audience.

So when you’re moaning about how your sales are the worst in recent times, remember that it’s also the best time to embrace new marketing strategies and tools. The marketplace has changed. Marketers must do the same.

–Ralph Yearick

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