After a year on the blog, I’ve noticed that there’s many things in business that I would love to discuss. Unfortunately, they are not all directly related to Marketing, and I’ve felt a little constrained by the limited scope of my blog. Therefore, I’ve decided to broaden the scope to include all things business, from education, to etiquette, trends, and of course, marketing. Marketing is my expertise and passion in the business arena, but I’m constantly noticing and considering all things corporate. I hope you’ll enjoy the expansion of the discussion, and when business is your life, you can check out Conscioulsy Corporate!
Feature Fail?
I’m working on a media plan for another country, and found the following claims in their media kit to be pretty humorous:
1) “7,000 copies are distributed to retail shops by Junk Mail Distribution”… I’m sorry, did you just use a company named JUNK MAIL DISTRIBUTION as a selling point for choosing your publication? Junk Mail means it’s JUNK, as in, not valuable. I don’t know that I would really go about naming my company “Not Valuable Distribution”, even as a tongue-in-cheek phrase.
2) “Employs the services of an experience proof reader, therefore blatant grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and the use of slang is correctly managed”… do your competitors forgo services of a proof reader? Are errors standard in publications, so this sets you apart? I would assume you’d have your publication proof-read before sending it out.
Neither of these seem like selling points to me, but I’m still learning about the market. Maybe most other publications do have errors, and maybe that market sees more humor in an ironic company name. Either way, I’m thoroughly enjoying the international media kits I receive!
Lessons from the Bahama Mama
My husband and I enjoyed a vacation to the Bahamas recently, and we were both struck by the people on this island. I’ve posted before about how to sell to Americans, based on my experience in the Dominican Republic. I would say the Bahamians have mastered this art far superior to their Dominican counterparts. The biggest difference?
Education. This was by far the biggest difference I found when thinking about why the Bahamian residents did so well selling to Americans. First, the cab drivers were extremely knowledgeable. They’d make “idle” chatter with their fares about the history of the island, American pop stars, commerce and economics, and entertainment recommendations based on the length of stay on the island. Our driver from the airport pointed out an excellent place to get chicken wings for a snack, and told us all about the New Year’s Eve festivities. Another cab driver told us that the government created a program to educate everyone in the tourism industry about how to make sure tourists had a great experience. They made everyone take the same state-approved course, from the hotel owner, to the waiters and cab drivers. Even the residents of the island, who were seemingly uninvolved with tourists, learned that tourism is a major contribution to the Bahamian economy, and they would regularly welcome us to the island as we passed on the street. The Bahamians understood that good news travels fast, but bad news travels faster, so taking preemptive action to ensure satisfied customers was in their best interest.
The soft sell. As I mentioned in my post about the Dominican Republic, hard-selling became a huge nuisance on the trip. Conversely, the Bahamian people have perfected the art of the soft sell. For example, the cab drivers use their education and knowledge of the history of the island to soft sell a guided tour later in the week. This is genius! They can collect not only an additional fare, but a premium for the “guided tour”, using their conversation to show that they have interesting information that you might want to pay for. Further, all of the “recommendations” from each of the service providers are soft sells. We ended up getting chicken wings from the stand recommended by the cab driver twice during our stay, without feeling like we were “sold” to. This particular driver also got another fare from us by offering to set an appointment to pick us up on our return trip to the airport. He offered us the convenience of the guaranteed fare with on-time, curbside pick-up. We didn’t feel that he “sold” us on choosing to ride with him, but rather that he had provided a valuable service to us. No one badgered us, and they were willing to leave us alone with a simple, “No thank you.” We weren’t afraid to roam around the market, wondering how many people would hound us about a purchase.
Presentation is everything. We noticed that the cab drivers and waiters were really well-dressed, and one cab driver mentioned that this was part of the requirements in the industry. Waiters wore, at minimum, khakis and a polo shirt, maids in several hotels wore dress uniforms, and cab drivers wore neckties. The city in general was very clean and well-lit, making us feel safe enough to make a 2 mile exploration walk from downtown to Paradise Island. And, these people know how to celebrate the New Year! Their fireworks display on the water was AMAZING, rivaling any display I’ve seen stateside on July 4th, and the entire city erupted with horns and music at midnight. They put on an elaborate parade called Junkanoo, with intricate costumes and floats. Aside from the extravagant nature of the parade participants, it goes on for a staggering 9 hours! They put up bleachers and block off the entire downtown main street to accommodate spectators, and there are plenty of cops for crowd control. When you visit the island, you feel relaxed, catered to, and safe, because they have made a concerted effort to create a flawless presentation.
You can go anywhere for sandy beaches and blue waters, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find people like the Bahamians. The people of this island made our trip memorable and enjoyable, and I think the top-down education plays a huge part in creating their successful tourist haven.
The Great Debate: Coke vs. All Other Soft Drinks
Did I mention the open bias in these posts? You were warned in the first post of this category! Today’s Great Debate focuses on soft drinks, and as the title indicates, my favorite is Coke. Most people would pit Coke and Pepsi against each other, but being from the South, I feel that Dr. Pepper has a huge following as well. Then there’s the diet drink fans, who often separate themselves into a whole different category than their full-calorie counterparts. Thus, to avoid an extensively long title, I just lumped all the lesser soft drinks into one category 🙂
Coca-Cola Classic
I love Coke, and I’ve always loved Coke… and I assume I always will. There really is something about that first sip that makes you say, “Ahh”. It’s a completely refreshing moment, just like the commercials show! It’s not too sweet, and the flavors blend wonderfully, without overwhelming your palate like some of the competitors’ offerings. What’s their marketing secret? They’ve made themselves a classic, a staple of the all-American way. The taste of Coke classic hasn’t changed, and the brand remains a consistent, tried-and true experience. I know that a Coke in Spain will taste the same as a Coke in China, and that both of these experiences with the product will be just as good as my experience here in the States. (Yes, I have had Coke in all 3 countries mentioned).
Pepsi
Alright, it’s my responsibility as a marketer to perpetuate the Coke vs. Pepsi war, so I’ll include it. One notable marketing endeavor was the taste challenge a few years ago. Pepsi set up taste tests to see which drink consumers preferred. Pepsi won their own taste challenge, and promptly plastered this win all over their marketing campaign. However, I found some interesting information related to this win. Pepsi is much sweeter than Coke, and the first sip of Pepsi triggers the pleasure center in the brain due to the sugar rush, thus producing a “preference” by consumers. The problem is, after the first few sips, the pleasure center of the brain is no longer stimulated, and actually starts to be over-loaded. So, for people who want to drink a whole can of Pepsi, it’s often too sweet for the brain to handle. Thus, if Pepsi really wanted a true representation of preference, they should have had taste testers consume a whole can of each beverage.
Dr. Pepper
This is a favorite here in Texas, as this beverage started out in Waco. It has a very distinct flavor, which I find to be a bit biting and over-powering. I will give them props for their marketing efforts, though. There’s a Dr. Pepper museum in Waco that features the stories, packaging, and serving of the product, and they’ve created a culture among fans that view Dr. Pepper as a Texas loyalty. With Texas’ intense state pride, branding yourself as a “beverage for real Texans” is a surefire way to garner a strong fan base.
Sprite
I’ll also include Sprite in this list, as there’s nothing like a Sprite when you’re stuck at home, sick. My mom always gave me Sprite and Saltine crackers when I wasn’t feeling well, and to this day, I’ll still grab those same remedies for a sick day. Sprite is also the one soft drink allowed backstage in my theater circles, as it’s clear coloring won’t mess up costumes if it spills! Sprite has also done a great job with their marketing, taking a young, fresh approach. They usually come at you with some kind of in-your-face music, animation, and colors to keep their image updated. And, I don’t feel too bad promoting Sprite, as they are owned by Coke 🙂
Care to weigh in on the Great Debate: Soft Drinks? I love Coke, and this topic has spurred many a fight among marketing undergrads, so I have no problem contending that this is a serious topic for debate among marketers!
Part 2: Forecasting “Needs” and creating “Solutions”
In Part 1, I talked about the “evil” marketers who create frivolous problems in order to sell unnecessary solutions, as highlighted by a Forbes article focused on the fitness industry. However, there is a difference between “creating” a problem and “forecasting” a need. Marketers should be able to identify needs that people don’t know they have YET, thus informing people of the need and the solution before people identify the need on their own. As long as the product or service adds value to a person’s life, I wouldn’t consider this to be “evil” marketing, as discussed in Part 1.
I think fire is a great example of forecasting a need. The ancient man who discovered fire probably stumbled upon this need accidentally, but he helped his fellow cave-dwellers solve problems that they didn’t even know existed. For example, the heat from fire can be used to cook food, which kills harmful bacteria, which decreases the likelihood of food-borne illness and the undesirable effects of food-borne illness. Early humans did not know they needed to cook their food to achieve more desirable results when eating, but the person who showed them the benefits of fire helped illuminate a need, and solve a real problem. He wasn’t trying to dupe his peers into giving him something in exchange for fire they didn’t need, he was trying to give them a “product” that would provide benefits like warmth, sterilization, power, etc. At the time, humans knew they needed some of these benefits, like warmth, but they didn’t know about the “product” of fire to provide these benefits. Before “forecasting” became popular, I think a lot of these product benefits were discovered by accident, but then disseminated with purpose. Now, marketers make a habit of trying to forecast the next big need, and then create a solution to meet this need before the market realizes the need themselves. Today, this is usually called “innovating”, and falls under the “research and development” category after the initial discovery.
The problem is that now that our society has evolved beyond meeting the basic needs of survival, forecasting the next big need becomes much more complex. Instead of finding solutions to feed people to make their bodies function, we must now find a way to make them enjoy the feeding process. But, it’s not just about the taste of the food anymore, it’s about the other sensory experiences, and the emotions that those sensory experiences invoke. Thus, marketers are trying to find the next emotional need that is related to food. This is where it gets dicey, because it’s hard to define valuable needs at an emotional level. Part 1 of these posts suggests that solutions are not valuable if they don’t meet a need, but in our current world, “needs” are subjective. People “need” to have a high self-esteem, which is often tied to how the world views their appearance. Thus, the fitness industry has come up with “solutions” to meet the “needs” associated with high self-esteem as defined by the world’s view of a person’s appearance. The lines start to blur between offering knowledge of valuable solutions and “selling” through shady “marketing” activities.
These types of discussions provide a glimpse into why the cynics think marketing is “evil” or “hype”. It’s become extremely difficult to decipher and define true needs and problems for which actual solutions are needed. While the Forbes article focuses on the fitness industry and its’ shortcomings, these issues can be seen across all industries and marketing activities. While these issues are difficult to navigate, I feel that we as marketers must do our best to forecast needs and provide solutions to our customers, rather than creating problems and selling “solutions” that exist solely to make money. I believe we’ll improve our bottom line and our world by adhering to the more noble ideals of marketing.
Part 1: Creating “Problems” to Sell “Solutions”
This is also known as “Evil Marketing Hype” by the cynical types, who think that marketers are just trying to dupe them into buying things they don’t need. As mentioned in my “About” paragraph on this site, I don’t believe that it’s a marketer’s job to “sell” things to people, but rather to make them aware of the best solutions to problems they actually have. This article on Forbes struck me as a perfect example of the “evil” marketing: creating “problems” to sell “solutions”. The article discusses how words like “diet”, “firming”, “optimal”, “healthy”, etc. are used to convince people to adhere to certain fads that include high-end food, supplements, gym memberships, and other generally unnecessary products and services you must pay for.
First, “problems” are created when industries use words in a way other than their intending meaning. For example, the Forbes article talks about the words “health”, “diet”, and “optimal”. Essentially, each of these words should mean the actions people take to make their body function at its’ highest potential. However, the fitness industry has turned these words into verbs with very little substance. For example, “diet” should mean the food you put into your body, but the fitness industry tells us that a “diet” is something you do to lose weight. When you start using words without respect to their original definition, you start to plant the idea that there is something inherently wrong with a person who is following a regiment based on the original definition of the word. This progresses into a “problem” that must be “solved”… therefore, the problem of “diet” becomes solved by adding unnecessary supplements or expensive food programs to create “optimal” results. But what is “optimal”? Well, I want to improve my “health”. But what is “health”? A person needs a measurable goal of “health” in order to reach “optimal” results. For example, one could define health as running faster or decreasing body fat by a certain percentage, and then take the necessary actions to achieve this goal.
Second, solving “problems” doesn’t actually add any value. In the article, the author mentions the immeasurable goals of “firming” or “toning”. In fact, muscles can only get larger or smaller, so there’s no value in saying that you want to “tone” a muscle. Are you looking to increase or decrease the size of the muscle? That’s the valuable question. For a solution to truly be a solution, it must add value. To use an example related to the Forbes article, let’s look at the Zone food program. This program aims to deliver “healthy” meals to your home to help you lose weight. In reality, a person can go to the super market and pick up these items and make the food themselves. Thus, the true value of this program is not that the healthy food will help you lose weight, it’s that the home delivery will help you save time and stress. If your goal is to save time and stress when making meal choices, the Zone program adds value. If your goal is to lose weight by changing your diet, the Zone program does not add value to your goal. I also touch on this theme in The Underlying Need post.
The Forbes article and my blog post are not to suggest that people don’t need help obtaining their fitness goals, but rather to highlight the practices of some marketers in the fitness industry. Instead of focusing on real problems with measurable progress toward a specific goal, many marketers create “problems”. These “problems” are followed by “solutions” that add no value to customers’ lives, but exist solely to make money for the company. There is, however, a difference between “creating” problems and “forecasting” needs, as discussed in Part 2.
The Great Debate: Fast-food Chicken
Today’s lunch debate spawned not one post, but a whole new category of posts! It was one of those ideas that started small and grew, and I must say, I’m pretty excited to get this little series going! As this is the first post in this category, I’ll preface it by saying that all of these posts are going to be openly biased. There’s no real way to be objective when you’re debating your personal favorites versus the lesser competitors in the world. Now that you’ve been warned, I bring you the first Great Debate: fast-food chicken. Now that I’m back in the South, I have a plethora of delicious chicken places that were sorely missed on the West Coast. What are they? I’m so glad you asked…
I would generally load up on Chick-Fil-A every time I visited, and now that I live here, it remains a staple for quick chicken. I always get the #5, 8-pack nuggets, Coke, and polynesian sauce. So tasty! They use high-quality ingredients that result in crispy, white-meat chicken nuggets and golden waffle fries. I also like their Chicken Ceasar wrap if I’m looking for a healthier option. What’s their marketing secret? The cows, of course! All of their marketing features less-than-educated cows urging customers to “Eat Mor Chikin”. It’s a cute campaign to preserve the welfare of the cows by suggesting that when hunger strikes, you should choose chicken. A shout out to The Richards Group on this creative campaign.
If you don’t live in the Dallas metroplex, you’ve probably never heard of Raising Cane’s chicken. This franchise favorite takes on the history of it’s location, sporting photos, timelines, and decor that reflects the local flavor. I usually get the combo with 3 chicken fingers, fries, Texas toast, Coke, and the signature Cane’s sauce. What’s their marketing secret? One Love and Cane’s Sauce. “One Love” is their tagline, re-iterating the fact that their chicken fingers tastes so good because that’s all they do… chicken fingers. Literally, their menu consists of combos that offer 3 to 6 chicken fingers, fries, a drink, Texas toast, and Cane’s Sauce. If you need catering, you can order 25-100 chicken fingers. There’s no need to mess around with other products, so they’ve perfected their recipe and delivery of chicken fingers. The Cane’s Signature sauce is a tasty, slightly spicy sauce that comes with all their chicken finger offerings. It’s not quite like anything you’ve ever tasted, and you can’t get it anywhere else.
This is another Dallas favorite, which offers wood-fire rotisserie and grilled chicken. I always get the grilled chicken platter, with green beans and twice-baked mashed potatoes. The all-white chicken breast features a nice smoky flavor, fresh off the grill. And the twice-baked potatoes? AMAZING… and featured in several Dallas food magazines for their deliciousness! They put their rotisserie chicken in everything from salad to enchiladas, with equally flavorful side dish offerings. What’s their marketing secret? The wood-fire rotisserie display entices multiple senses. It’s a sight to behold, the smell fills the whole restaurant, and the radiating heat warms you on a cold winter day. When you walk in and see them pulling chickens out of the rotisserie to serve, you’re reassured that the chicken is fresh and flavorful. You can’t get that smoky flavor artificially, and seeing it first-hand makes your mouth water!
This place has some of the best fried chicken in the South, and I would say that the rest of the country should take a page out of their recipe book! Babe’s serves fried chicken and chicken fried steak on family-style platters, with unlimited family-style bread, mashed potatoes, and corn. I noticed that they’ve recently added some additional dinner entrees, and increased the price from $10 to $11.99, and I’ve yet to try their new offerings. I will say that their old offerings are perfect for large group gatherings. Make sure you wear your loose-fitting pants… you’ll need them at this meal! What’s their marketing secret? A down-home, family-style restaurant. The entire atmosphere makes you feel like you’re gathering with good friends, eating some good food, and having a good time. This sense of family is furthered by the picnic-style tables, rustic decor, and BYOB policy.
Now that you all think I’m a complete glutton with no sense of health, I challenge you to make a visit to each of these restaurants, and see if you don’t become a glutton yourself. So who wins The Great Debate: Fast-food Chicken? Since I can’t pick just one, I’ll just say the South wins this debate!
Gillete is Genius!
I came across an article on Forbes about the latest men’s razor from Proctor and Gamble’s Gillete brand. The Gillete Guard goes back to the basics to offer the closest shave. Gillete has been a leader in the razor category for years, and they’re always looking to out-innovate themselves and their competition. So, why is THIS razor so genius?
They went straight to their target market. Gillete decided to move into the Indian market with the Guard, and they spent hours researching the habits, preferences, and conditions in which men in India shave. This is a different approach than they previously used, which involved surveying young Indian students at MIT. Going straight to the source helped them glean powerful information that was missed in their first attempt to take a razor to the Indian market. Their research showed that men in India tend to shave less, making the hair longer at each shave. Also, they don’t have as much warm water as their US counterparts, making it difficult to properly rinse the smaller blades in Gillete’s traditional razor. Finally, they usually hold a hand mirror instead of using a wall-mounted mirror, which significantly alters how they hold and manipulate the razor. These key insights changed the design of the razor, bringing it back to a single blade razor with a handle that was more suitable to their target market. Had they refused to go straight to the source for their information, the design flaws in the concept would have crippled the product in their target market in India.
KISS. We’ve all heard, “Keep It Simple Stupid”, but Gillete took this mantra to heart to achieve market success. Sometimes as marketers, we feel the need to make some grand alteration, or have some enlightening plan for success. But sometimes a good, solid, old-fashioned marketing plan is what is needed. When Gillete decided to “innovate”, they took their insights to meet their customers’ needs. And, in this case, their customers needed an older, simpler design. THAT is the real innovation: finding new ways to meet your customers’ needs, better, faster, and cheaper than the competition. Gillete’s simple, single blade razor sells cheaper and works better than their competition’s offering, thus making their KISS strategy successful.
Adjusted their distribution model. Proctor and Gamble realized that they might need change their distribution to make their product successful. They’ve decided to manufacture and distribute the product in India, versus manufacturing elsewhere and importing the product. Sometimes companies are unwilling to adjust their standard distribution model, and great products fail to go to market with success because of this. P & G realized the market success depends not only on the product itself, but maximizing the manufacturing and logistical opportunities associated with getting the product into consumers’ hands.
Proctor and Gamble showcased their genius with the Gillete Guard. The simple design, inexpensive cost, and new distribution model helped make the Guard a success. So, what innovations are you working on? What possibilities exist for your “innovation” to really be a simple solution?
It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas…
To be fair, this statement was true about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving! Now, we’re just over-run with Christmas spirit in all the stores. I guess I’m just wondering: Whatever happened to Thanksgiving? I know retailers have been trending toward Christmas earlier and earlier, but this year seemed exceptionally early. I saw signs of the holidays in fast food restaurant displays in early November, and retail stores began the hype well before Thanksgiving. Maybe it’s the economy… this slump has caused the retailers to feel the need to remind customers to spend their dollars at Christmas time this year.
One new trend that I like is that stores extended their Black Friday deals prior to and beyond Black Friday. I saw several stores advertising items at 50%-70% on the Monday before Thanksgiving, and pointing out that customers didn’t need to fight the crowds on Black Friday. I also learned about Cyber Monday, which took the Black Friday deals online. I know a lot of shoppers were excited for the thrill of the hunt and the joy of purchasing a treasure at a discount from the comfort of their own homes, instead of freezing at 4 am in a line outside a brick and mortar store.
While I’m glad that Christmas has arrived once again, I would still like to hang onto autumn for a little longer next year. So please, retailers, can we keep the Fa la la to a mezzo piano until after Thanksgiving? Then I’m all for caroling at the top of your lungs, and I’ll probably be the loudest of all!
Email Addresses and Your Personal Brand
With the recent announcements that Aol and Facebook are introducing a new look and new features, I’ve got email on the brain. It’s no surprise, then, that an invoice I received hit a nerve, and prompted today’s post on professional email addresses and your personal brand. In today’s economy, I know a number of PR professionals, marketers, and graphic designers are doing freelance work for bigger companies. Contractors have always been utilized in the business world, but never more than today, due to increased connectivity, better tools for a remote working arrangement, and cost effectiveness. That being said, one would think that freelancers would take more time and energy creating, presenting, and maintaining their professional brand.
Make your email address professional. My mom gave my brother and sister nicknames when they were little, including “bubba” for my brother, and “chickie” for my sister. I started calling my sister “Tootsie” years ago, and the term of endearment has stuck with her all the way to her present college days. She also played soccer in high school, and thus, her email address throughout high school was soccertootsie@aol.com. Now, this may be fine for a few harmless emails from one 15 year old girl to another… but to use that to her current professors or potential employers? NO. Similarly, my brother would never want to be known as the guy with bubba@yahoo.com as his contact information on his resume. And yet, the invoice today had an almost equally ridiculous email address attached to it. In fact, I’ve received several emails from this freelancer from another silly email address. This person has not one, but TWO unprofessional email addresses from which to do business! If you’re going to work as a professional among other professionals, pick a professional email address. Choose something like firstname.lastname@address.com, or a first initial and last name. You want people to remember your brand with confidence, not snickers over the nickname your mom or sister gave you when you were a kid.
Choose a professional provider. Ok, we all know Aol gave a lot of people their first email address. But let’s be honest, who actually uses Aol anymore? Out-of-touch people still use Aol, that’s who. Or, what about all the random providers that no one has ever heard of? I know some more remote locations use these providers, but most professional environments use a major provider. Even if your name looks professional, if the provider to the right of the @ sign looks unprofessional, you’ve canceled yourself out. You can get free email addresses from major providers, like Gmail or Hotmail, that garner much more respect for your tech savvy, hard-working, professional brand. But it’s not just the address that needs to be professional, it’s also the first connection. Which do you take more seriously, the invitation to “friend” a potential business partner on Facebook, or the invitation to “connect” with a potential business partner via LinkedIn? Do you really want your new bosses to see you in a bikini on your last vacation? Make it a policy to put your professional brand at the forefront by including a professional email address on a professional medium.
Make your signature professional. Give yourself a title, even if it’s just “Independent Contractor”, “PR Consultant”, or “Marketing Professional”. Include your professional email address, phone number, website URL, and possibly “on behalf of [company]” in the signature line, so that members of the organization know you’re a legitimate member of their team. When you just sign your emails with your name, people within an organization may question your credibility or right to have information, payment, and decision-making power on their project. Improve your professional image by being professional down to the last word of your electronic correspondence.
Back it up with other electronic information. If you plan to freelance long-term, create a website and a business name. A well-maintained, informative website lends credibility to you and your work, and allows potential employers to vet you before paying good money for your services. Set up a LinkedIn profile, and post updates about projects you’ve done, with links to the information on your website. This ensures that companies receive a professional image, rather than a personal image, when they are looking to hire a contractor. Give your business a name, and set up payment options for the business. Nothing says “suspicious” like an invoice requiring payment to an individual… especially when that individual has not established credibility elsewhere on the web. Once you have a business name and website, you can then use the domain name in your newly created, professional email address.
If you want to be taken seriously as an independent professional, you’ve got to present a professional image, starting with the address on your correspondence. Don’t be soccertoots@aol.com, be ashley@musingmarketing.com, Marketing Professional, with a proven track record of success!
Consciously Corporate 