Here is an excellent exercise for your sales and marketing team. Sit down together and list every positive and negative payoff you can imagine that might occur for someone purchasing your product or service.
For example: If someone buys your toaster, one positive is they might not burn their toast as often (because of the built-in heat sensor). Another is that people may admire how good it looks (because of its sleek European styling). A negative payoff might be that their spouse may yell at them (because of the high cost). Or that it might not fit on their counter (because of its bulky European styling) Get the idea?
This exercise is based on the EXPECTANCY THEORY of Victor Vroom (don’t you love that name?), which suggests that purchasing decisions are made based on the net of what we expect the positive and negative payoffs to be from purchasing that product or service. In other words, for each possible decision, we have an expectation of the pros and cons, which we then consciously and subconsciously weigh against each other in arriving at a decision.
At the end of your exercise, you’ll have a list of possible payoffs. Rank them by the likelihood that your target consumers will expect them to occur.
Then figure out how to minimize the likelihood and perception of the negative payoffs. For example if you have a high cost, you might want to stress how that cost is amortized over an extended period. This is a great way to identify and deal with problems you may not have been considering.
Finally, you’ll want to consistently include the top-ranked positive payoffs (which you’ve identified) in your advertising and collateral so that your prospects can visualize these outcomes. The idea is to allow viewers to “see” each outcome in a context that will ensure it is remembered at the appropriate moment in the purchasing process.
That’s why commercials often feature new car drivers being admired by beautiful women or handsome men, and why beer ads show people having a good time out with their friends instead of drinking alone in front of the television. It wouldn’t be surprising to find this exercise has identified a couple of payoffs that you’ve been slighting in your advertising or sales presentations.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Walking the advertising tightrope
How often should you update your advertising?
Advertising is expensive and time consuming to produce, and so there’s a natural reluctance to change it too often. But there is a risk to leaving the same creative out there for an extended period.
Our brains are hardwired to ignore the familiar. This allows us to pay more attention to the new and different, which in the early days of evolution might help you (“What if it’s something good to eat?”) or hurt you (“What if it’s something interested in eating me?”).
The old advertising model was “say it over and over again until it takes root in your audience’s minds.” But if your audience is ignoring the familiar, then every repetition is marginally less effective, and it won’t be long until you’re just wasting your money.
If you want to keep your audience’s attention, you need to constantly update your advertising. But watch out! Changing management and advertising creative teams tend to introduce variability. “Our advertising will be even better if we just [fill in the blank].” Every update runs the risk of straying from your brand’s core message (how many ways can you say the same thing?). And when consumers get two different messages about a brand, it creates cognitive dissonance that erodes the effectiveness of your advertising.
What’s the answer? You need to take a three-fold approach.
1) Come up with a rock-solid brand USP (see What's Your Unique Buying Proposition, September 2009 in this blog) and make sure all your advertising reflects it.
2) Changes in your advertising need to be evolutionary, not revolutionary. This is hard to enforce. Everyone wants to make their creative mark on the brand, for the sake of their personal portfolios. So they tend to develop creative that is as different as possible from “the old stuff.” The problem is, you have brand awareness equity bound up in “the old stuff.” There is real value in having your audience connect your old advertising with the new, so that you’re building on that equity and not starting a new “silo” of awareness.
3) Plan to change your advertising as frequently as your budget allows. Don’t sink every cent into advertising that you are then forced to run over and over because you cannot afford anything new. Make new creative an integral part of your schedule. New advertising can be inexpensive if you shoot or record additional material during the initial production session, and then edit and release new versions over time. This also helps you stay true to your USP.
Your CMO can show you how to keep your advertising focused and effective. Call me if you’d like to talk about helping your advertising “evolve.”
Advertising is expensive and time consuming to produce, and so there’s a natural reluctance to change it too often. But there is a risk to leaving the same creative out there for an extended period.
Our brains are hardwired to ignore the familiar. This allows us to pay more attention to the new and different, which in the early days of evolution might help you (“What if it’s something good to eat?”) or hurt you (“What if it’s something interested in eating me?”).
The old advertising model was “say it over and over again until it takes root in your audience’s minds.” But if your audience is ignoring the familiar, then every repetition is marginally less effective, and it won’t be long until you’re just wasting your money.
If you want to keep your audience’s attention, you need to constantly update your advertising. But watch out! Changing management and advertising creative teams tend to introduce variability. “Our advertising will be even better if we just [fill in the blank].” Every update runs the risk of straying from your brand’s core message (how many ways can you say the same thing?). And when consumers get two different messages about a brand, it creates cognitive dissonance that erodes the effectiveness of your advertising.
What’s the answer? You need to take a three-fold approach.
1) Come up with a rock-solid brand USP (see What's Your Unique Buying Proposition, September 2009 in this blog) and make sure all your advertising reflects it.
2) Changes in your advertising need to be evolutionary, not revolutionary. This is hard to enforce. Everyone wants to make their creative mark on the brand, for the sake of their personal portfolios. So they tend to develop creative that is as different as possible from “the old stuff.” The problem is, you have brand awareness equity bound up in “the old stuff.” There is real value in having your audience connect your old advertising with the new, so that you’re building on that equity and not starting a new “silo” of awareness.
3) Plan to change your advertising as frequently as your budget allows. Don’t sink every cent into advertising that you are then forced to run over and over because you cannot afford anything new. Make new creative an integral part of your schedule. New advertising can be inexpensive if you shoot or record additional material during the initial production session, and then edit and release new versions over time. This also helps you stay true to your USP.
Your CMO can show you how to keep your advertising focused and effective. Call me if you’d like to talk about helping your advertising “evolve.”
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The devil is in the details
It doesn’t take much to change an average experience into an exceptional experience that generates a competitive advantage. But employees, who have taken on increasing responsibilities in the past few years, are hard put to find the time to maintain even an average experience. They are happy to utilize technology to provide customer touches like “personalized” thank-you emails and newsletters.
The problem is, customers know just how much effort these technology-enabled touches cost, and they value them accordingly [low].
Increasing reliance on technology has conditioned us to avoid anything that requires customized effort. That opens up a huge opportunity for those who are able to think outside the “automated” box.
Here’s an example that impressed me over the past two years. I joined the American Marketing Association’s Cincinnati Chapter, and quickly discovered why it is one of the highest rated chapters in the country (with over 600 members). Rather than letting a new member “drift” into the organization, they invited me to an orientation where the chapter’s opportunities were described in detail and I was invited to sign up for activities I was interested in. They also worked to engage me through a variety of media--snail mail, email, Twitter, and Facebook. I was even offered the opportunity to schedule a one-on-one with the Chapter President.
I became a volunteer, and have enjoyed public recognition for my contributions through a special nametag (everyone wears nametags at events to facilitate networking) and invitations to volunteer thank-you events that include both special educational seminars and “fun” events like minor league baseball games. I’ve also been impressed with the yearly brainstorming sessions aimed at improving these already effective procedures.
The AMA doesn’t have to do all this-- the officers and volunteers are unpaid, and all have regular jobs. But because they make a special effort, they have a very successful organization.
If you said none of these things are particularly innovative, you’re right. But they’re doing them, and that’s the competitive difference versus organizations that do not do them. When the time came to write the check for another year’s membership, I didn’t think twice.
If you’d like some help in customizing your customer and prospect touches, give me a call. I’d be happy to help!
The problem is, customers know just how much effort these technology-enabled touches cost, and they value them accordingly [low].
Increasing reliance on technology has conditioned us to avoid anything that requires customized effort. That opens up a huge opportunity for those who are able to think outside the “automated” box.
Here’s an example that impressed me over the past two years. I joined the American Marketing Association’s Cincinnati Chapter, and quickly discovered why it is one of the highest rated chapters in the country (with over 600 members). Rather than letting a new member “drift” into the organization, they invited me to an orientation where the chapter’s opportunities were described in detail and I was invited to sign up for activities I was interested in. They also worked to engage me through a variety of media--snail mail, email, Twitter, and Facebook. I was even offered the opportunity to schedule a one-on-one with the Chapter President.
I became a volunteer, and have enjoyed public recognition for my contributions through a special nametag (everyone wears nametags at events to facilitate networking) and invitations to volunteer thank-you events that include both special educational seminars and “fun” events like minor league baseball games. I’ve also been impressed with the yearly brainstorming sessions aimed at improving these already effective procedures.
The AMA doesn’t have to do all this-- the officers and volunteers are unpaid, and all have regular jobs. But because they make a special effort, they have a very successful organization.
If you said none of these things are particularly innovative, you’re right. But they’re doing them, and that’s the competitive difference versus organizations that do not do them. When the time came to write the check for another year’s membership, I didn’t think twice.
If you’d like some help in customizing your customer and prospect touches, give me a call. I’d be happy to help!
The Lone Ranger has left the building
The premise behind the Lone Ranger was that he’d ride into town uninvited, clean up your problem, and ride away, leaving a silver bullet behind. Alternatively, silver bullets are reputedly the only effective weapon for dealing with werewolves, witches, monsters, and other troublesome entities.
Thus “silver bullet" refers to any simple, one-step solution. The expectation is that some new technology or practice will quickly and easily cure a problem. Want prospects? Companies that will provide you with lists of “guaranteed” names for pennies each. Want to lose weight? Plan “X” will let you do it without exercise while eating whatever you want. Want to increase customer loyalty? All you need to do is Tweet. And so on, ad infinitum.
There is no shortage of people and organizations promising silver bullets, and management teams beset by poor economic conditions and short on time and money are more than willing to listen. But they shouldn’t. Because while “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” there is no silver bullet.
If there was, the silver bullet salespeople would be rich and retired. Instead they’re spending large amounts of money running infomercials and big display ads to attract the suckers seeking that shiny ordinance.
“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is…”
Silver bullets are a triumph of hope over logic. People want to believe silver bullet solutions are real, because they would make our lives so much easier. The alternative is to research the problem, test possible solutions, and diligently and vigorously execute the best one. This is a lot of hard work with an uncertain outcome. Who wouldn’t rather hire the Lone Ranger?
Here’s the unpalatable fact: Cheap, easy, high-quality, instant solutions are rare to non-existent. If you want a solution, particularly one that creates a competitive advantage, it’s going to take some blood, sweat, and tears. Plus adequate funding and a reasonable amount of time.
Chasing silver bullets will cost you time and money that can be better spent on doing what you realize (deep in your heart) needs to be done. Committing the necessary resources to do the job right.
If you want a business-building marketing solution, Your CMO would be happy to provide it. Hi Ho Silver…away!
Thus “silver bullet" refers to any simple, one-step solution. The expectation is that some new technology or practice will quickly and easily cure a problem. Want prospects? Companies that will provide you with lists of “guaranteed” names for pennies each. Want to lose weight? Plan “X” will let you do it without exercise while eating whatever you want. Want to increase customer loyalty? All you need to do is Tweet. And so on, ad infinitum.
There is no shortage of people and organizations promising silver bullets, and management teams beset by poor economic conditions and short on time and money are more than willing to listen. But they shouldn’t. Because while “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” there is no silver bullet.
If there was, the silver bullet salespeople would be rich and retired. Instead they’re spending large amounts of money running infomercials and big display ads to attract the suckers seeking that shiny ordinance.
“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is…”
Silver bullets are a triumph of hope over logic. People want to believe silver bullet solutions are real, because they would make our lives so much easier. The alternative is to research the problem, test possible solutions, and diligently and vigorously execute the best one. This is a lot of hard work with an uncertain outcome. Who wouldn’t rather hire the Lone Ranger?
Here’s the unpalatable fact: Cheap, easy, high-quality, instant solutions are rare to non-existent. If you want a solution, particularly one that creates a competitive advantage, it’s going to take some blood, sweat, and tears. Plus adequate funding and a reasonable amount of time.
Chasing silver bullets will cost you time and money that can be better spent on doing what you realize (deep in your heart) needs to be done. Committing the necessary resources to do the job right.
If you want a business-building marketing solution, Your CMO would be happy to provide it. Hi Ho Silver…away!
Averting the Twin Towers disaster
No, I’m not talking about the World Trade Center, but rather about two mainstays of your organization--marketing and sales.
Marketers and salespeople have different mindsets. (see Sales or Marketing, who cares?) So it isn’t surprising that, even though they share the goal of acquiring and retaining customers, the two functions often exist in separate silos which interact poorly, if at all.
2008 research led by the CMO Council concluded that the strategic versus tactical approaches taken by the two disciplines tended to create divergent time frames, metrics, and vocabularies. “Salespeople consider up to 90% of the collateral materials created by marketing useless, and marketers deem nearly as much of the sales-created content as brand dilutive or downright inaccurate.”
In a 2008 survey of 506 sales and marketing professionals (“Closing the Gap: The Sales and Marketing Alignment Imperative”) 56% of respondents said their companies don’t have formal programs in place to unify sales and marketing functions. 30% said that their “marketing organization operates in a vacuum, crafting programs that do little to affect sales.”
Misalignment between these key parts of the organization often results in
· Misspent marketing funds
· Poorly exploited or wasted sales opportunities
· Inefficient lead generation and nurturing
· Poor customer profitability
Five ways to start creating alignment
1. Start by ensuring you have management buy-in for the effort; do not proceed without agreement from the Sales VP, Marketing VP, and CEO.
2. Obtain interdepartmental consensus on terms like ‘qualified lead,’ ‘profitable’ and ‘sale.’
3. Define each department’s responsibilities to the other. This should include Marketing’s role in lead generation, providing competitive analytics and defining points of differentiation and Sales’ commitment to identifying prospect wants and needs, accumulating prospect information, and reporting results. Some firms go as far as creating actual “contracts” to be signed by both functions.
4. Collaborate on setting goals and identifying metrics which allow you to measure success.
5. Create a system that allows sales and marketing to share prospect/customer data.
Your CMO has extensive experience with creating effective sales/marketing partnerships. If you’d like to fine-tune that relationship, give me a call!
Marketers and salespeople have different mindsets. (see Sales or Marketing, who cares?) So it isn’t surprising that, even though they share the goal of acquiring and retaining customers, the two functions often exist in separate silos which interact poorly, if at all.
2008 research led by the CMO Council concluded that the strategic versus tactical approaches taken by the two disciplines tended to create divergent time frames, metrics, and vocabularies. “Salespeople consider up to 90% of the collateral materials created by marketing useless, and marketers deem nearly as much of the sales-created content as brand dilutive or downright inaccurate.”
In a 2008 survey of 506 sales and marketing professionals (“Closing the Gap: The Sales and Marketing Alignment Imperative”) 56% of respondents said their companies don’t have formal programs in place to unify sales and marketing functions. 30% said that their “marketing organization operates in a vacuum, crafting programs that do little to affect sales.”
Misalignment between these key parts of the organization often results in
· Misspent marketing funds
· Poorly exploited or wasted sales opportunities
· Inefficient lead generation and nurturing
· Poor customer profitability
Five ways to start creating alignment
1. Start by ensuring you have management buy-in for the effort; do not proceed without agreement from the Sales VP, Marketing VP, and CEO.
2. Obtain interdepartmental consensus on terms like ‘qualified lead,’ ‘profitable’ and ‘sale.’
3. Define each department’s responsibilities to the other. This should include Marketing’s role in lead generation, providing competitive analytics and defining points of differentiation and Sales’ commitment to identifying prospect wants and needs, accumulating prospect information, and reporting results. Some firms go as far as creating actual “contracts” to be signed by both functions.
4. Collaborate on setting goals and identifying metrics which allow you to measure success.
5. Create a system that allows sales and marketing to share prospect/customer data.
Your CMO has extensive experience with creating effective sales/marketing partnerships. If you’d like to fine-tune that relationship, give me a call!
Three questions define your PROMISE’s effectiveness
It goes by many different names. USP, Unique Selling Proposition, Competitive Advantage, Brand Promise, Value Proposition, and Point of Difference.
It’s the PROMISE that is made to prospective customers to influence them to choose your product over your competitor’s. Every business needs one. Lots of companies have one. Frankly, most of them aren’t very good.
Here’s three ways to measure the effectiveness of your PROMISE:
1) Is it unique? Does it set you apart from your competition?
2) Is it relevant? Do potential customers care that you’re offering it?
3) Can you deliver? Are you willing and able to fulfill your promise?
If you meet all three of these criteria, you have a successful PROMISE, and, based on the three examples below, a successful business as well:
● Melt in your mouth, not in your hand.
● Fresh hot pizza at your door in 30 minutes or it’s free.
● When your package absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
If you think about it, a successful PROMISE is an all or nothing proposition:
UNIQUE + RELEVANT but not DELIVERABLE = one-time customers and bad word-of-mouth.
UNIQUE + DELIVERABLE but not RELEVANT = Nobody cares!
RELEVANT + DELIVERABLE but not UNIQUE = Parity or commodity position
Your PROMISE should really be called a Unique Buying Proposition, because if it is done right, you won’t have to sell your product--people will be asking if they can buy it.
Want to talk about developing or refining your PROMISE? Your CMO can help!
It’s the PROMISE that is made to prospective customers to influence them to choose your product over your competitor’s. Every business needs one. Lots of companies have one. Frankly, most of them aren’t very good.
Here’s three ways to measure the effectiveness of your PROMISE:
1) Is it unique? Does it set you apart from your competition?
2) Is it relevant? Do potential customers care that you’re offering it?
3) Can you deliver? Are you willing and able to fulfill your promise?
If you meet all three of these criteria, you have a successful PROMISE, and, based on the three examples below, a successful business as well:
● Melt in your mouth, not in your hand.
● Fresh hot pizza at your door in 30 minutes or it’s free.
● When your package absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
If you think about it, a successful PROMISE is an all or nothing proposition:
UNIQUE + RELEVANT but not DELIVERABLE = one-time customers and bad word-of-mouth.
UNIQUE + DELIVERABLE but not RELEVANT = Nobody cares!
RELEVANT + DELIVERABLE but not UNIQUE = Parity or commodity position
Your PROMISE should really be called a Unique Buying Proposition, because if it is done right, you won’t have to sell your product--people will be asking if they can buy it.
Want to talk about developing or refining your PROMISE? Your CMO can help!
Ten ways to make your competition work for you
How much effort do you put into tracking your competition? For most of us, the answer is--not enough. You wouldn’t try to run your business with no regard for the law, or economic conditions, or your customers. But it is surprising how many people feel they can run their businesses with little or no regard for their competition.
There are exceptions. Pizza parlors carefully monitor competitive menus and promotions. I’m sure General Motors spends a lot of time keeping an eye on Toyota. And airlines pay close attention to competitive pricing and initiatives. But many other businesses pay only occasional and cursory attention to their competitors. That’s a mistake.
Here’s ten suggestions for gathering and (more importantly) making use of competitive information:
1) Reach corporate consensus on who your competitors currently are (this may be harder than you expect). Review this list regularly (semi-annually?)
2) Make someone responsible for tracking competition. It isn’t hard--your receptionist can do it if you tell them how.
3) Prove you think this information is important. Review competitive information regularly, and share your findings with the appropriate people.
4) Set up a grid comparing the details of your offering(s) to those of the competition. This can include anything meaningful-- prices, sizes, flavors, channels of distribution, store hours, shipping costs, return policies, etc. Look for differences and decide if they are advantages or disadvantages for you; then leverage the advantages and chip away at the disadvantages.
5) Benchmark competition by printing out all the screens on their website, then have someone look for changes on a regular (quarterly?) basis. Pay particular attention to pricing, product portfolio changes, service offerings, news releases, etc.
6) If your competitors are public companies, buy a share of stock in each so that you will receive their mailings.
7) Have your employees collect and forward sales collateral and advertising from the competition to the person you’ve made responsible for competitive tracking (another good reason to have such a person). Find a way to reward them for their efforts!
8) Don’t just watch established competitors. While start-ups may not be an immediate threat, they obviously feel they’ve found a significant chink in your armor, or they wouldn’t be entering the industry. Analyze them carefully to find out why they think you’re vulnerable.
9) Periodically (annually?) do a threat assessment that considers competition from outside the industry. It wasn’t a hard-copy carrier that crippled FedX’s overnight letter business, it was FAX machines.
10) Set up an exercise where you create combined teams of internal and external people with the assignment of putting you out of business. Then take a long look at the plans they develop. If they can think of it, so can your competition!
Having trouble finding time to watch the competition? Your CMO can set up a system for you. I’ll even monitor the competition for you, so you don’t have to. Let me know if I can help!
There are exceptions. Pizza parlors carefully monitor competitive menus and promotions. I’m sure General Motors spends a lot of time keeping an eye on Toyota. And airlines pay close attention to competitive pricing and initiatives. But many other businesses pay only occasional and cursory attention to their competitors. That’s a mistake.
Here’s ten suggestions for gathering and (more importantly) making use of competitive information:
1) Reach corporate consensus on who your competitors currently are (this may be harder than you expect). Review this list regularly (semi-annually?)
2) Make someone responsible for tracking competition. It isn’t hard--your receptionist can do it if you tell them how.
3) Prove you think this information is important. Review competitive information regularly, and share your findings with the appropriate people.
4) Set up a grid comparing the details of your offering(s) to those of the competition. This can include anything meaningful-- prices, sizes, flavors, channels of distribution, store hours, shipping costs, return policies, etc. Look for differences and decide if they are advantages or disadvantages for you; then leverage the advantages and chip away at the disadvantages.
5) Benchmark competition by printing out all the screens on their website, then have someone look for changes on a regular (quarterly?) basis. Pay particular attention to pricing, product portfolio changes, service offerings, news releases, etc.
6) If your competitors are public companies, buy a share of stock in each so that you will receive their mailings.
7) Have your employees collect and forward sales collateral and advertising from the competition to the person you’ve made responsible for competitive tracking (another good reason to have such a person). Find a way to reward them for their efforts!
8) Don’t just watch established competitors. While start-ups may not be an immediate threat, they obviously feel they’ve found a significant chink in your armor, or they wouldn’t be entering the industry. Analyze them carefully to find out why they think you’re vulnerable.
9) Periodically (annually?) do a threat assessment that considers competition from outside the industry. It wasn’t a hard-copy carrier that crippled FedX’s overnight letter business, it was FAX machines.
10) Set up an exercise where you create combined teams of internal and external people with the assignment of putting you out of business. Then take a long look at the plans they develop. If they can think of it, so can your competition!
Having trouble finding time to watch the competition? Your CMO can set up a system for you. I’ll even monitor the competition for you, so you don’t have to. Let me know if I can help!
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