I’m so excited to kick-off this weekend, because it’s the start to my Spring Break! I’m hoping to enjoy some nice weather, time with my husband, and “re-charging” in general, as I’m starting to approach burn-out. Here’s a few great reads to prepare for the weekend:
I’m probably a terrible marketer, because my brand loyalty is pretty terrible. Case in point: I’ve bought vouchers from Groupon, TravelZoo, and LivingSocial, and if Amazon puts one out that piques my interest, I’ll happily buy one from them too. The thing is, my loyalties seem to lie with one product in particular: Brazilian Steakhouses. Man, I love Brazilian Steakhouses, and I’ve now purchased 3 vouchers to Brazilian Steakhouses.
The thing is, in a first-world country, everything is so well-made that selling something on “quality” is going to be a pretty hard sell. Especially for people like my husband and I, who read a lot of frugality, personal finance, early retirement blogs (see many of the link recommendations in the Friday posts!). I’ve found that most of the generic products work just as well as the branded products. What’s funny, though, is that many of the generic products have started their own branding! Take Archer Farms, Target’s “generic” brand. They have nice packaging, and bill themselves as a premium product, even though, in theory they are “the other guy”. When generics first became popular, you saved money because items had no packaging, no advertising, no logo, nothing. You could buy a plain white bag labeled “chips” in plain black font, or “shampoo” in a plain black bottle with plain white lettering. But now, the generics have appealing pictures, catchy product names, and they occupy prime shelf space, often infringing on the SKU territory of their branded rivals.
All this to say, my loyalties are starting to lie with a type of product, not a logo. I still want the logo on some things, like Band-Aids. The generics literally don’t stick, at all, for more than 2 minutes! And, I do recognize differences in quality for clothes and make-up, but I guess I’ve found that most clothing in my price range is pretty much the same quality. Most make-up in my price range is all but equal. But canned vegetables? Give me the generics every time! And vouchers to Brazilian Steakhouses…. you don’t see any discrimination from me!
Social media connects our society in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. You can literally stay connected to friends, family, and perfect strangers around the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It’s incredible that we live in a time when people have so much access to information at such a low cost. But, with great power comes great responsibility, and I’ve been thinking about some of the unfortunate side effects of this connectivity.
Social media has a lot of positive aspects for marketers and society at large. We can use it to improve our bottom line via data mining, “engaging in conversation”, and monitoring and measuring the buzz about our brand in the market place. Facebook marketers are working to use information on your profile to display ads tailored specifically for you. The informal days of Gallup Polls are becoming obsolete, since we can just check out the hashtags on Twitter for a quick read on the pulse of politics. You’ve got several social media platforms influencing human rights around the world. In short, we’re connected, informed, and using the vast network to our advantage, and I believe that’s largely a good thing.
However, what happens when our lives online pose risks to our lives in real life? How bad can it get when our most private selves are “outed” online, and our deepest fears realized after “help” from social media? For example, this woman’s attacker showed up on her doorstep… several times. The author questions whether he found her via a profile on Spokeo, a site that aggregates all your online data into an easily accessible profile (note that she states this information is not available online, but the premise of the site is that it uses information from the internet). What happens when governments punish those who criticize them on social media platforms? At what point do we question whether everyone knowing our every move is healthy? What about cyber bullying (the many cases of teen suicide reported as a result of Facebook posts), streaming illicit content to thousands of people (the case of suicide and reputations ruined after being unknowingly taped during a compromising situation), or tweeting unfounded complaints to a million followers (threatening business to give in to your demands or suffer the consequences of a blow to their brand).
Then there’s the ugly, literally. This Forbes article talks about girls posting videos on YouTube to ask if they are fat, ugly, or pretty. Have we really turned into a society that forces us to seek validation from perfect strangers? Do our youth have such low self-esteem that they must take to social media to connect with their “friends”? Is a high Klout score really all there is to achieve in life? There are real concerns that people becoming so obsessed with connecting online, that they’re forgoing or harming connections in real life.
I think all of the benefits and concerns about social media need to be addressed, and I think it’s fascinating how quickly and completely social media has altered our relationships, both professional and personal. How do we go about making laws, relationships, and business plans with all the complex issues that connectivity brings to light? How do we continue to ensure that our progress is doing more good than harm?
The invitation I made for a going away party for a friend!
The inside of the invitation.
I spent the weekend making invitations for a going away party for a friend. My mom is an awesome card-maker, and she had a gorgeous card sitting on the shelf last time I was there, so I decided that I wanted to use the design for my friend’s invitations. My mom and I have a habit of taking apart pretty cards or invitations we receive in the mail, always trying to figure out how the design works. So, true to myself (and my mom, I get it honestly!), I studied the design and came up with my own modification. Turns out, my modification took about 10x longer to complete than the original design. There were two tricks that I couldn’t figure out, and unfortunately, my mom wasn’t in town to show them to me. When she returned, I showed her my Saturday’s worth of work, and explained how I’d made my invitations. My solution was pretty clever, but her knowledge would’ve made the work much faster. So, what does this tale of design failure have to do with the office?
First, working backwards doesn’t always work! Sometimes you need to understand the steps at the beginning, and the logic behind them, in order to come up with an elegant solution. This is particularly true in branding. A lot of companies want to come up with some cool logo or concept, and then force the brand to fit that concept. But, it doesn’t work this way! You have to start at the beginning, take a look at the market and customer’s needs, then formulate the product and concept, then design the branding message and visuals that best represent your solution.
Second, use an expert, and use all the tools available to you. A professional designer taught my mom how to make the card I saw on the shelf, and had my mom been in town, she would’ve taught me. But even when she started showing me how to make the design, I wanted to forgo one of the tools, because I thought I could do it better all by myself. Turns out, using the tools made the assembly of the design much faster. Don’t assume that the experts don’t know what they’re doing, and don’t assume that the tools are actually a time suck. Sometimes, the process has already been optimized, and trying to re-invent the wheel is silly. This has been particularly applicable in my company’s attempts to customize an open-source CRM system “for free”. There’s companies with products that are fine-tuned, yet we keep trying to tweak a whole new solution! We’re not willing to use the tools available, so while it’s been a valuable learning experience, it has taken much longer to see results.
Last, you have to keep an open mind when trying to figure out the next best solution. My design style is somewhat haphazard when I first start formulating a concept. I need to see everything to start coming up with an action plan, and it’s pretty hilarious to watch. I walk in, pull out every piece of paper, ribbon, ink, and die cut that I think could possible work, and throw them all over the floor. I then walk around and start pairing the items that will work together, and tossing all the unwanted items into another pile. After several “random” culling sessions, the pile that’s left is what I will use to make the design. Though that process is haphazard and frenzied, I’m a machine once I’ve made the choices. I am laser-focused, and I don’t get sidetracked by other fun design rabbit holes (the time for tangents was during the pull and sort phase!) My mom, on the other hand, is very calculated in her initial design specs, and she only pulls the items that specifically match the specs. But, once she starts assembling the parts, she gets distracted by the modifications that she could make to her design. Our process is different, but when we work together, we try to keep an open mind. Our combined design styles generally turn out to be beautiful, and between the two of us, our experience usually helps us figure out a way to do it better, faster, and less wastefully. The same is true in business! You need to keep an open mind, and mesh decision-making processes to come up with the next best solution. Does one department throw everything on the wall and see what sticks? Does another hunker down the analyze the numbers? Can you combine the knowledge gained from both approaches to create a “whole is greater than the sum of the parts” effect?
My design fail reminded me of the importance of using all the tools, knowledge and experience available to me, both in the scrapbooking room and in the office!
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done a link round-up, but I’ve been so busy in real life, I haven’t had much time to lurk in the blogosphere! However, I’ve read some great articles this week, so here’s a few links to kick off your weekend:
For those intending to cook at home more often, via How Sweet It Is: New Recipes (fair warning: DO NOT look at this blog while you’re hungry, you’ll just be torturing yourself!)
Like the links? Follow me on Twitter for links and blog posts every day!
Readers, if you haven’t been to grocery store or a gas station lately, heads up! The Cadbury cream eggs are back! For a limited time only! No, but seriously, they really are here for a limited time only, hence the title, “Scarcity Revisited”. I wrote a post about the Starbucks seasonal offerings a few months ago, and seeing the Cadbury egg put scarcity right in the front of my mind.
The scarcity effect makes people radically alter their behavior. My husband is in a body building phase, so he’s on a strict diet and exercise regimen to craft the optimal physique. And, he’s hardcore… counting calories, graphs, intermittent fasting, the works. Guess what got to him? That’s right, the Cadbury cream egg. And, it wasn’t just one bite… no, he had to buy three, because they were on sale, buy 2-get 1 free. So, now we’ve got scarcity AND “deal” syndrome kicking his calorie-counting, well-sculpted butt! (Sorry, but the guy has been doing a ridiculous amount of squats, if I’m going to mention him in the article, I should make note of the effects of his training. That and the phrasing just works for that sentence, so it’s a win all around. Just sayin’!). Humans are hard-wired to see “deal” and “limited time” and automatically start into purchase mode. Sure, we know that the cream eggs will be around again next year, and at most places, they cost less than a dollar, so the savings isn’t a huge sum. But, it’s not necessarily about the money or the timing, it’s about the overwhelming need to make sure we don’t miss out on an opportunity.
Scarcity is a great tool for marketers, and in this case, it worked as intended: they picked up new customers who wouldn’t otherwise have made a purchase from the brand. What “limited time” offer broke your New Year’s resolution?
Today’s post is a bit of a marketing rabbit hole on branding, and I’m going to throw around some academic jargon. It’ll be a fun walk down memory lane undergraduate classes! In all seriousness, though, I wonder about the differences between clothing makers that put their label all over their products vs. retailers that let the product stand on its own. So, let’s go for a dive, shall we?
Awareness for the masses vs. “the club”. In theory, all publicity is good publicity, right? So, plastering a recognizable logo on every available surface of your product should raise awareness, resulting in more sales. The problem is, some brands sell exclusivity. If you want to be part of the super secret club, you buy this brand. So, what happens when you see tons of other people walking around advertising the super secret club? It makes it less secret, and therefore, less appealing to join, since apparently, it’s open to the masses. When people buy access to “the club”, they don’t want to be reminded that someone who’s not just like them can also buy access to “the club”. This is particularly true for high-end brands, like one-of-a-kind clothing and accessories. It can’t be one-of-a-kind if you see someone else walking around with the same thing! Thus, making your product particularly recognizable by the masses may actually be harmful to your brand. If you’re selling exclusivity, you don’t want the masses to know about your brand (the first rule of Fight Club is that you don’t talk about Fight Club!). Only those with the highest salaries, most refined taste, or most trendy wardrobes belong in your target market, and if they’re truly “in”, they’ll know your product without the visible logo.
Aspirational brand devaluation. This is closely tied with the decision to sell exclusivity. An aspirational product is something that symbolizes the group you want to join, and when you finally obtain the product, you’ve “arrived” (like all the facial bruises that identify other Fight Club members!). High-end clothing and accessories are often marks of career success, so many young people see purchasing their first Armani suit or Blahnik heels as a signal that they’ve now joined the successful peer group. But again, no one aspires to be just like everyone else. This may seem counter-intuitive, since this product purchase means that you’re now a member of the most desirable group, so the other members will accept you. But, if you have to run around screaming to everyone that you’re one of the cool kids, you’re probably not that cool in reality. Label junkies tend to seem like they’re just posing as a member of the group, which means the product becomes associated with “fake” members. Soon, the product falls from aspirational status to cheap imitation status in the eyes of customers who dictate which products are aspirational.
Imitation is easy. Congrats, you’ve built a successful brand with a recognizable logo or signature design! Now everyone knows that when they see that logo, they’re getting quality, reliability, luxury, and great customer service… except it’s easy to slap a logo on a fake. And, those fakes on the market that proudly display your hard-earned reputation via the logo are further contributing to the brand devaluation. It’s much more difficult to imitate quality stitching, luxurious fabric, real leather, or precise time-keeping, which is why many high-end brands would rather let their discerning customers “recognize” the brand through personal experience with each item. Take the case of Louboutin’s attempt to trademark the red color they use for their signature soles. Several other shoe manufacturers started using red soles in their designs of lesser quality, which Louboutin felt impacted the integrity of their brand. Since it’s widely known that red soles = Louboutin, it’s difficult for the average consumer to tell the difference between the knock-offs and the original. If customers were required to learn the differences in the brands through experience, Louboutin would not be so upset about the use of the color red. And, if you’re selling exclusivity, your customers will be happy (in fact, they’ll prefer) to spend the extra time feeling, using, and understanding what makes your products different from another brand.
So, now we’ve come to the marketer’s dilemma: to logo or not to logo? This issue is much more easily settled when you have a defined target segment (who you’re selling to), a strong brand identity (what it is you’re selling), and a thorough understanding of what your customers value (why your customers choose you over the next guy). I’m not in the super secret club in the fashion world, but I do understand the first rule of fight club 🙂 Like the outfit? Click here for more details!
I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire, and sometimes I wonder if I would be better served by just focusing on one thing, devoting my life to the pursuit of perfection of that one true passion, skill, or idea. Then I remember that I’m me, and if I’m not running in ten different directions at once, I get bored, unproductive, and restless, so a single pursuit would probably drive me mad.
I started thinking about all the great writers, inventors, composers, and innovators, and thinking that they were successful because they had a single pursuit in life. But, I think this is the wrong way to think about them, at least in the sense that “putting notes on a page” or “combining chemicals in a test tube” was their life’s work. Rather, their single pursuit was to explore all that their craft had to offer. You see composers invent new rules to write music, Edisons and Einsteins failing and failing and failing, until one day, they discover the invention of the century, or the equation that shapes modern math. These people weren’t about one small aspect of their skill set, they were about the depths of what their skills could produce.
It’s probably time for me to re-read the Medici Effect, as I’ve been hitting a mental wall lately. The book talks about allowing time to fail, and allowing people in organizations to make mistakes. Basically, just keep producing and learning from your failures until you produce something worthwhile. Everyone thinks there’s some kind of genius or magic to being great, but I think the most influential producers just took so many shots that they were bound to make one of them. I think sometimes I’m so worried about meticulously crafting the most strategic approach to a successful life, that I forget to be prolific. I forget to take time to expand my skills, I don’t allow time to fail for the purpose of learning, and I don’t open my mind to the possibilities and creativity that the world offers. I feel like I’m being prolific by constantly being busy, but production and busyness aren’t the same thing. Sometimes you have to be still in your body and your schedule to let your mind be busy.
So, here’s to being prolific with a purpose. Here’s to intentional stillness and thought, not just busyness to pretend like you’ve accomplished something that day. And, here’s to breaking through the wall!
I’ve been talking a lot lately about how marketers using intel makes me happy, but then I started thinking about who the marketers REALLY want. The information about who is buying your brand, how much they’re buying, and how to keep them buying is definitely interesting, but I’d say it’s equally interesting to see who’s not buying your brand. And, not just the hardcore brand-haters, but the wishy-washy people. The people without a pattern. They’re the swing voters that flip-flop based on price, convenience, trends, and any other fickle variable that suits their fancy that day.
It’s not worth my time as a marketer to convince a die-hard Pepsi drinker to switch to Coke. It’s also not worth my time to keep coddling the die-hard Coke drinker, because, unless I do something completely stupid, like introduce “New Coke”, there’s no way I’m going to lose you. So, the really interesting segment to target, is the swing voter. When considering promotions, I need to seriously consider the cannibalization effect. I’m not looking to give $2 to someone that will already buy my product, I’m looking to attract a new customer that will hopefully become a loyal customer. I’m willing to take the $2 loss to get this new customer’s future full-price purchases. But, if I know this person is a swing voter that refuses to commit, do I really want them anyways? Is it worth the $2 loss to attract a customer that will drop me as soon as my competitor offers a $2 coupon?
So, we know we don’t want people who are willing to pay full price to start using our coupons, and we know that we probably don’t want to waste a coupon on a swing voter. Who do we actually want to spend money to attract? This is where the brilliance of parent companies comes in. They own a brand for every customer segment! There’s some people that always use a coupon, and others that only shop at one store. If you’ve got both the one store and the coupon, you’ve increased your market share and your bottom line. Of course, there’s always a few caveats. Are you going to be the best of the best in one thing, or average across all categories? It also goes back to the question, “Do I really want ALL customers?” Many companies think that a dollar is a dollar, but marketers know that customers come at a cost. Swing voters come with a very high cost, since you’re constantly having to wave the shiny object to keep their attention.
For all the posting happiness about what the data tells me, I’ve gotta admit that what the data DOESN’T tell me is equally fun to play with!
Every time I write a post about being uninspired, something happens that just makes my brain go crazy with ideas. I LOVE when that happens! Last night I attended my negotiation class and then headed to choir rehearsal. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why last night made my brain explode:
Exchanging ideas. The group presentation in last night’s class focused on how ethics influence negotiation, and opened up a wonderfully complex discussion about how ethics differ across cultures, ethics vs. legality, and whether retailers using discounts is actually a deceptive practice. Hearing everyone’s perspective forced me to consider the issues from several angles, formulate arguments on the fly, and reach across all the knowledge in my brain to reconcile different scenarios that were mentioned. I had a great side conversation with one of my team mates about retail marketing strategy, which spawned several blog post ideas for the retail space. It was a Medici Effect kind of class.
Flow. In The Happy Movie, they talk about the concept of flow, which is basically being “in the zone”. It’s when your whole being is focused on a task, and you’re re-charged by completing that task, even if it’s physically or mentally difficult. I had flow from 4:30 pm to 9 pm last night, with the energy of my class leading directly into my energy in choir. We’re rehearsing very technically difficult music for Easter, so I’m having to reach back into my knowledge of theory, sight-reading, and ear training. Singing is a very physical, mental, and often, emotionally taxing hobby, but when the harmonies mesh into a tight dissonance and resolve, it’s the most incredible sense of stress, relief, and accomplishment in just a few short minutes. Flow means that you’re getting satisfaction from just doing the activity for the sake of the activity. There’s no end goal, no purpose for the accomplishment, just pure food for the soul.
Additional action necessary. After a quick chat with my professor after class, I told her I’d send her some articles that related to our discussion. So, this morning, I headed out to the web to dig up the most relevant and interesting articles, which made mind go into a whole second set of connections and discussions. I also emailed our director about a few notes for the music, and it made me start thinking about two absolutely gorgeous pieces. I love when activities or events just push you to go further, instead of feeling satisfied that you’ve gleaned all you can from the experience. Last night’s class and rehearsal forced my brain to keep making connections, keep asking questions, and keep replaying the notes.
So this morning, I’m thoroughly energized and ready to kick some marketing butt! I’m also kind of jittery with anticipation for tonight’s finance exam, which is still a source of stress running in the background. My busy schedule alternates between invigorating and overwhelming, but I’d say last night re-charged me and hyped me up for a productive end to the week (and when that’s combined with the high from boot camp on Friday night? I can’t wait!). Have you had a brain explosion recently?
Consciously Corporate 