Marketing - The Bold Approach Method

The battle for your mind is in the toilet

A new invention, the WIZMARK is starting to show up in urinals everywhere. The device which looks similar to the big white mint holder actually plays guitar rifts, has flashing lights and an electronic message. It is imprinted with the logo of the company whose message it splashes out.

A recent article in the New York Times (free account required) demonstrated how and where this new marketing tool is being used.

All too often we’ve heard that the minds of the creative people who develop ads are in the gutter, but their messages are now ending up in the toilet.

With the WIZMARK and liquid activated urinal mats, I guess the days of needing a book for the bathroom are almost over. Oh, and WIZMARK promises there is one coming for the toilet too, so the ladies won't feel left out, which is where the real market is, think of all the time WIZMARK will save them in reminding us to put down the seat!

Good Business Books Part II

A few weeks back I posted a little bit of a rant on there not being any good new business books and I heard from more than a few of you about it and I loved it. Many of you agreed and many of you didn’t.

So let me try and clarify.

I’m not going to stop reading, quite the opposite, I’m going to redouble my efforts and try and read even more than I already do, just faster. My frustration really came out of buying the same book three times in the same month. No, not the same title, but in essence the same book because each publisher saw that one was successful and so published a knock off as quick as they could with promise that it was significantly different. That is my real issue, I don’t like buying the same book three times and I would like to see more original thinking, but I understand and accept that they same idea can have many applications.

I do believe that the closer you look at things the more things change. So, I’ll keep looking and I’ll keep writing. In the meantime, check out this book, it is very good.

The Essential CIO edited by Richard Pastore and Edward Prewitt. It is a group of targeted essays from CIO magazine. While the essays are directed at the CIO, they are really great and tightly written leadership lessons that can and should be applied by growing companies. This short tome is only 179 pages, but you’ll enjoy every word, I know I did.

Wasted Advertising Dollars

For literally years, we’ve been talking about how many ad dollars are wasted. The old saying “Fifty percent of my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which fifty percent” just got a little clarity.

Research done by the Advertising Research Foundation believe that it is actually a little closer to 20% and the leading causes are wrong message ($20-30 Billion) and wrong timing ($10 - $20 Billion).

While I’d suggest these numbers are still low (They don’t really account successfully for the lack of relevancy and resultant lack of action or even brand adherence to my knowledge), I believe they are particularly low when it comes to small business.

Small businesses rely far to heavily on the efforts of media reps and sales people to make their buying decisions and to determine what kind of an offer to make, which all too often gravitates to the lowest common denominator, price and discounts.

Small businesses have to focus on the right message and the right time, but they must be finitely focused on being relevant to the viewers, listeners and readers of their message. It must move them to action and get the bar to move up, not just stay level.

I can’t say with 100% confidence that these studies didn’t take into account the actual impact that the ads they considered effective had on buying behavior because I haven’t read the whole study yet, but there are really only two things that good ads should do and that is cause people to buy or build keen awareness of one particular brand over another when the customer will buy.

I fear that many small businesses still waste 50% or more of their ad dollars because they are doing NO or minimal backend analysis and very little front end planning to be sure that their dollars are working harder for them. The answer of course is to spend more time focused on what you are going to say to which audience and how, then and only then effectively buying media, running ads and analyzing results carefully to know which media to use again and which messages had particular impact.

I discuss this a great deal in my new audio book called Making Marketing Work. If you are interested in the Audio Book, just send me an email and I’ll tell you about how you can get a copy. It will be available on Amazon in about 30 days.

Is DVR the end of television advertising? And, how to make bad advertising good again

DVR or Digital Video Recorders (think TIVO) are starting to have an impact on how well ads fare. Though the penetration of DVRs is still very low, only about five percent of households currently have them, it is anticipated that 41% of households will have a DVR in the next five years.

Forrester research just did a very comprehensive study on what DVR is doing to advertising and though much you might guess, some is unexpected.

Real time viewing drops by 60%, but sporting events and news maintain high real time viewing.

Respondents reported watching only 8% of advertising though not all ads were viewed the same. Upcoming attractions and movie trailers were viewed at a much higher rate than credit cards, car dealers, long distance carriers and banks.

You can read more about the report yourself here.

A little deeper analysis of the report shows some interesting ideas about advertising. It begins to show not that people don’t want credit cards, long distance carriers or banks, but that those industries (and many more) have done a horrible job of being relevant to their potential consumers and have given them no real reason to believe (or care).

It also shows that radio has a dramatic opportunity to use the power of its intrusiveness to deliver messages to people who are otherwise avoiding them in another medium (the idea of marketing mix takes a blow). But, if they are not relevant, well done and provide a message to the listener or viewer that is compelling, then it won’t matter.

Ad agencies in their race to the next award have forgotten about relevancy, they’ve forgotten how to tell a story about the product they are selling and they focus on an arguably effective version of image or brand advertising.

Let me say this loud and clear. Consumers want to be educated about products and services to the point that they can make the very best decision possible about whatever it is that they are considering. Going back nearly 100 years, Albert Lasker called advertising “Salesmanship in print.” Substitute print with any other media today and that statement remains truer than ever. I challenge any big advertiser today to arm their salespeople with their broadcast messages and have them deliver them unchanged to the end user and see what happens to their sales . . . they’ll go down.

So, does DVR spell the end of television advertising? Of course not, at least not until the DVR penetration rate is upwards of the 70 – 80% range AND then only if advertisers haven’t taken control of their message and started talking about what consumers want to hear.

Radio, targeted direct mail and print media will gain influence opportunity with the growth of DVRs, but only if advertisers go back to focusing on what is important to me, the consumer, not what paid focus groups or award winning ad agencies think is important.

For a discussion on why radio works, take a look at this.

Captain Kim Weber Gets It Even Though United Airlines Doesn't

I fly United Airlines . . . a lot. In the past I flew more than 200 days a year. United has a horrible record of treating their 1K fliers poorly and I could add dozens of stories to the list.

But . . .

What has kept me coming back to United is two things. The first is that I have a ton of miles banked and it is tough to just drop your status and go to another carrier. The second is that regularly, an employee does something outstanding that they don’t have to do and it surprises me.

Today when I was flying back from Austin, TX after speaking at Joe “Mr. Fire” Vitale’s exclusive Hypnotic Writing Weekend, I dozed off and opened my eyes to a flight attendant holding a business card out to me.

I took the business card which had this note written on the back "Mr. Lakhani 3C (my seat number) Thanks again from the whole United team." It was signed Kim.

I flipped the card over and on the front was Kim’s full name, address, phone number and email. Wow, an employee who was willing to open themselves up to whatever a passenger might have to say??? Unheard of.

Even more surprising was that the card was printed on perferated business card stock, the kind you get at Officemax or someplace. Now I don't know this for sure, but I would be willing to bet a stack of those same cards that Captain Kim pays for them, not United.

Amazing! A United employee that took a small action (and used their own time and money) that made me feel good. Someone recognized that I was a valuable passenger, more valuable the most of the other people on the plane in terms of revenue to United. The captain of the plane took the time to not only get me quickly and safely from Austin, but to acknowledge me. I was important to the captain of the plane. That’s more than they do for me at the 1K desk. It was more than the gate agent who told me she was going to give me a complimentary upgrade to first class on the second leg of my flight because I volunteered to be bumped since they needed extra room (this after looking at my ticket first). Turns out, United has a really smart policy of not letting their employees serve their good customers with free upgrades because they are taking advantage of a miles ticket (earned I might add by spending thousands of dollars with United). So she told me that I actually couldn't upgrade as the end of the third boarding group was getting on. I only travel with carry on luggage so that means no overhead room for me.

So, while I remain fairly critical of United and their treatment of their top level fliers, I heartily salute Captain Kim Weber for going the extra mile and surprising me with something that anyone in any organization could do for their customers with a little thought and creativity. And, that little effort will keep me flying on United yet another day.

I’m filing Captain Weber’s card, and when my company is big enough to need a pilot, I’m calling Captain Weber; not because of what the good captain will do for me, but what the very smart employee will do for my company and my clients.

Thank you Captain Weber, you are a genius. I hope someone at United reads this and pays you a million dollars to train the rest of the United employees how to think like you.

If you want to sell more, tell a story!

We’ve spoken often about the need to have a coherent story to tell, one that is well rehearsed and delivered powerfully.

That point was recently driven home by the Republicans and George Bush in particular at their convention. Regardless of your politics, you have to admit that they moved people with their story and presentation. As I was watching it, I commented to my wife that it looked a lot like an infomercial, that the Republicans were building a story, building emotion and driving it home by showing social proof. All the pundits seemed to agree predicting a five point rise in the polls for Bush. They were close, it was actually eleven points according to Time and Newsweek.

Stories told well and with conviction move people to think, to take action. Stories stir emotion and involve the listener. We are programmed to listen to and respond to stories, much more so than we are to listening to long lists of facts and figures and features and benefits. Tell me a story about my pain and how it was relieved, make me a hero and I’ll listen.

What is the story you tell? Do you know how to develop your story? Can you present it with the aplomb and conviction of the Republicans at their convention? If not, you should reconsider and revamp your story.

Turns out I wasn’t the only one that noticed that this event had an infomercial feel to it. So did Joe Hogan of the New York Observer. He does a very nice job of laying out the whole event here.

I'd look at Joe's article as a little bit of a primer on what you can do with a good story, how will you apply it to your business?

Are There Any Great Business Books Left?

As many of you loyal readers know, I read a lot, in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Barnes and Noble and Amazon chipped in together this Christmas and bought me a fabulous vacation. Although I know it is a fantasy (because after spending several thousand dollars on books with B&N last year, they wouldn’t even give me a free discount card). But, I’m more than willing to pony up the money to save 10% on my purchases or just buy from Amazon (who actually did send me a personally inscribed book from Jeff Bezos one Christmas) and save even more.

But all of that really isn’t the point, what really is the point ,is how bad business books are getting. It seems as if the people that write them have one or two really good points that take up 10 pages or less and then use the other two hundred pages of filler to readdress old information; or worse, to make points other authors already made better and earlier.

I thought I might have been the only one who thought this way, then I read this article in The Economist and felt a little better knowing that I wasn’t the only one.

As someone who makes their living from speaking and writing, I’m often asked, what is the one resource you look at every day for new ideas to talk about and many are often surprised when I say it is Arts and Letters Daily. This is a deliciously good source of new information and ideas that everyone should read regularly.

I attribute much of my success to my mother and grandmother for instilling a keen desire to learn and to learn through reading. I just hope that authors will either get to the point or make a lot more great and relevant ones in their books in the future. Don't get me wrong, I won't stop reading, I'll just read faster.

I think Mark Twain may have just read a business book when he penned the famous line: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one instead.”

For anyone looking for the marketing message in this, think of this next time you create an ad, take as much time as you need to write an ad as long or short as it needs to be to fully convince your buyer. If you are going to make a point, make it, don’t hide it. Make your point and build on it and when you run out of steam or corollaries or examples or applications, then stop. There is a lot of power in a well formed single idea. And, in advertising, remember, only one idea or premise per ad please.