Timing Is Everything. Or Is It?
Recency is a media term that speaks to reaching the audience at the right time. Selling someone a car loan when they are actually car shopping is a home run. Selling pest control in the dead of winter is not.
Last year, Shell Oil increased their marketing efforts during the BP oil spill. The speed in which they got their message out was impressive, though some could criticize them for taking advantage of something out of their control.
In a much more recent example, this week I started seeing banner ads promoting Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. Given the news this week regarding Bin Laden’s demise, President Obama stands to receive a substantial boost at the polls. Is he doing what Shell did, leveraging current events to help advance his reelection efforts?
The ads might have been running for a while. It might be coincidence. It might be brilliant marketing. It might be too much.
Party affiliations aside, what are your thoughts from a marketing standpoint?
Nudge Nudge. Wink. Wink.
Every day we are nudged to make certain decisions. The U.S. Army and school cafeterias have started putting healthier foods at the front of the food line. Grocery stores design their stores to move you toward certain purchases. Company 401(k) plans are moving to opt-out (vs. opt-in) to encourage people to save for retirement. Even advertising agencies present their recommended concept last so it stands out as the strongest of the options.
When I was exploring upgrading my LinkedIn account, I was reminded of the book Nudge, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, – an interesting study in how to push people towards certain actions based on how information is presented. And that sometimes the nudge is better than others.
That’s why I was impressed by LinkedIn and how they nudge you to select a specific upgrade.
Take a look at the upgrade page. Based on how it looks, you would assume that only the Business option is available since the other “upgrade” buttons are grayed out. In fact, they were available; LinkedIn is just trying to nudge me past the Personal Plus.
A few years ago, Bank of America launched their Keep the Change program, where they rounded up every debit purchase and transferred the difference into savings. By doing so, it nudged people to put money into savings when they wouldn’t have done it otherwise, and resulted in thousands of new checking and savings accounts at the bank.
How are you positioning information, products and services to encourage your desired outcome?
Sometimes The Best Research Requires No Questions At All
Have you seen the ads for Hefty’s new kitchen garbage bag? It’s black instead of white.
Not a big deal you say?
A black kitchen bag may seem odd (most are white), but it is amazing in its simplicity because it solves a consumer need – it hides the mess.
In their research efforts, Hefty likely had people document their kitchens and observed what frustrated them most.
I’m sure the list included breaking bags, handles that break as you pull the bag out of the trash can, and bags that smell. And there are many bags that solve those problems on the market today, thanks to required R&D, time and money.
But even with all these innovations, one problem persisted – the trash mess seen on a white bag. Creating a black bag for kitchen use to hide the mess was almost too easy to answer.
All too often we spend time probing and asking questions when sometimes the best solution is to sit back, watch and listen. Doing so may provide you with a big idea that is simple to execute.
Why Your Business Should Be More Like Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen is everywhere right now, and your business can learn something from him.
You’re wondering: what on earth can he teach me about how to run my business when I find his actions, lifestyle and everything else about him deplorable?
Simply put, he is focused on one thing (himself) and driving that point home time and time again. And his stance never wavers.
Too many businesses try to be everything to everyone when, instead, they should find the one thing at which they are superior and leverage that position. The results are often a more loyal customer base and greater profitability.
For example:
- Starbucks was once all about coffee. They got too far afield and their business suffered. Now they are back to focusing on coffee.
- Southwest Airlines has always been about no-frills flying and remained profitable while most airlines suffered.
Take the time to understand your singular point of distinction and refocus your business around it. In the long run, it will make you a healthier, more memorable company.
This Is Only A Test
The March issue of the Harvard Business Review discusses using a testing strategy prior to rolling out a new program to help you measure the impact of the change.
Direct response marketers have been deploying testing for as long as direct response has been around, and so can you. The following breaks down the process into digestible parts that can be performed by almost every organization.
Start with what you want to learn
What is your improvement metric? Do you want to increase average spend per customer, increase closure rate, improve cross-selling? Decide this first, as it determines how you implement your test.
Know where you are now
Establish a baseline for your key metrics – especially around what you want to test -so you know where you are starting from. This is called your control position and defines what you want to improve upon with your test. Sample key metrics include:
- Average customer spend
- Number and spend amount for add-on services
- Closure rate
- Average cost per acquisition
- Email open rates
- Paid search click through rates
Develop a test
The key to developing a test is to make it easy to measure. Some easy tests are:
- Email marketing subject lines – test open rates
- Email marketing offers – test click-through rates all the way to sales
- Paid search copy – test different messages
- In-store offers made by the sales people at a specific location
- Call center tests – dedicate one line for test or every fourth call
- On location tests – especially opportune in service industries where employees go to customers’ homes – probably the toughest to conduct but start with isolating a specific service area
Account for variability
Conduct your test for a period of time to account for variability. For example: If most of your emails are open on Monday mornings, plan to test for 2-3 Mondays to ensure your results are consistent. Things like weather and holidays can inadvertently impact results.
Test
If you have the infrastructure to do so, conduct a head-to-head test by sending out your standard email against your new email and see how each performs. If you can’t do this, isolate a period of time to test and compare to prior results. During both test scenarios, ask for constant feedback from employees, to work out any kinks in the program or reaction by customers.
Measure
See how the test performed versus your control (baseline results). If it performs better than the control, do the benefits offset the costs for rolling out the plan company-wide?
If so, test again in a larger area or for a longer time to confirm your results are solid. If they are, develop a plan for a company-wide initiative.
Is Best Buy Paying For Loyalty? Give Them Credit For Trying.
Last week Best Buy launched its “Technology Buy Back Program” to encourage repeat buyers at their stores.
The program is borne out of the frustration consumers have when they buy the latest technology, only to have a newer version come out a few months later.
Under their new loyalty program, Best Buy will buy back your product and “instantly give you a Best Buy gift card” that you can apply to your upgrade, or anything else.
No loyalty effort could overcome a poor customer experience, but Best Buy is betting on their ability to provide a good customer experience and incenting people to return with this Buy Back program.
What are you doing to ensure customers come back to your company? How can you craft a loyalty program relevant to your customers?
- Understand your business and what type of program would make sense
- Understand your customer’s frustration with the problem you solve, and then create a program that is meaningful to them
- Develop ideas for a program and conduct a ROI analysis
- Research ideas among customers who often shop elsewhere or use someone else’s services (If you test solely among your most loyal audience, you are just rewarding behavior that they already have and thus not growing your business.)
- Test market the program to see if it is scalable and profitable
Will Best Buy’s program bring it the return it is looking for? We certainly hope so. It is an interesting idea and give Best Buy credit for trying something different.
American Express’ Project RE:Brand Is Worth A Look
I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times. A company’s brand is all important. It exists beyond a logo or color, and lives in all aspects of your organization – from your website to how someone answers the phone.
So what happens if your brand has gotten away from you?
American Express Open has launched a great web series on how different businesses rebranded themselves with the help of marketing professionals.
The stories are well done and worth checking out. Enjoy.
Bravery in Marketing
I do not like the new Tide 2X. No matter how little I use, soap remains in dense fabrics, such as towels, and I can’t get it out. My daughter and I both have noticed that our clothes feel “itchy” with the new Tide. I have used Tide all my life, but I may have to change to something else, since I can no longer get “regular” Tide. Have others noticed this also?
Judy, Salt Lake City, UT
I used this product on a shirt of my husbands that had a new stain on the front. Bottom line stain is still there, I’ve used other products that worked much better than this one did. I would not recommend this product to anyone.
Miata, Waverly, NE
Companies don’t like to hear comments like these, or worse learn such comments are being shared with other people.
But those quotes weren’t pulled from a focus group nor from blogs, they were available on Tide’s home page from actual customers providing feedback regarding Tide’s products.
To take things a step further, Tide provides a slew of product reviews for all of its products so consumers can make an educated decision about the product in which they are interested.
In a time when consumers are asking for transparency (see SC Johnson’s new campaign about their ingredients) and using the social web (ie Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, Blogs) to share their thoughts, you have three choices:
- Ignore it and hope it goes away. (It won’t)
- Listen to what people are saying and respond in a defensive manner
- Embrace it and use it to make your products better and your brand more trusted.
Let me know what companies you think are being brave in their marketing.
What’s Your Trademark Worth?
On December 8, Racebrook is having a trademark auction of some well-known brands like General Cinema and The Linen Closet to the more obscure Slenderella and Kitten Soft. These trademarks were purchased for cents on the dollar from bankrupt companies looking to sell off their assets.
It raises an interesting question: If you closed your business today, what would your brand be worth at auction?
Ask yourself these questions:
- Is your brand irreplaceable?
- Does your brand have a special connection with the consumer?
- Can you customers be satisfied by a competitor’s brand?
- Is your brand top of mind among your customers? Your competitors?
Answering these questions isn’t just a fun exercise to determine what your brand might be worth at auction. It is a key indicator of a few things:
- Your brand’s health and its role in helping you attract new customers
- Your ability to keep your current customers
- Your customer’s role in endorsing your company to their peers
- The value of your company should you decide to sell it.
To know if you are connecting with your customer, analyze how much of your business is repeat business. There isn’t a standard number since all industries are different, but you can look at a few things:
- The percentage of your business that comes from repeat customers. Has this changed over time?
- The growth among new customers compared to repeat customers. If repeat customers are on a decline that outpaces new customer growth in a heavy repeat purchase industry, this could be a sign of poor customer relationship.
- If your business is an infrequent purchase like a new roof, look at referrals as an indicator of brand health.
The system to measure repeat purchase or referral purchases can be as simple as keeping a spreadsheet.
Conducting a customer insight survey or qualitative research with lost customers are both good steps to understand what your business can be doing better to create a stronger brand connection.
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Negative Comments Equals Great Opportunity
0 CommentsThursday • March 17, 2011 • by admin
Social media can impact your company in two main ways:
It’s both fulfilling and frustrating at the same time. When you do good things, you want as many people as possible to talk about you to their friends and contacts. It’s when things aren’t going as well that you wish social media didn’t spread the word so quickly.
So what should you do about it?
The simple answer: Respond.
According to The Retail Consumer Report, 68% of consumers who posted a complaint or negative review on a social networking site received a response from the retailer.
So how does this impact your business? According to the study, after the response to the initial complaint:
And if you wonder about the impact of social media on your business, note that almost 33% researched consumer input through either social networks or online reviews before visiting the retailer.
There are free services like Google Alerts and Social Mention that can help you track the conversation about your company on a basic level. However, if you want more depth in your social media tracking, you may want to look at more robust tools like Alterian SM2 (full disclosure I have a paid subscription to this social media monitoring tool), Consumerbase, Radian6 and others.
In today’s day of exponential word of mouth, finding out what people are saying and then rectifying negative situations proves to be a great marketing tool.