Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

In this earlier post, I referred to a New Yorker article about creativity by about  Jonah Lehrer. Turns out it’s part of the campaign supporting his new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works.” Here’s a New York Times review of the book and here it is at Amazon.com.

Many years ago a stand up comedian (Robert Klein? George Carlin?) had a comedy sketch in which he advised us how to ruin somebody: Buy his daughter a Barbie doll. With that $5 investment, your opponent would go broke buying clothes and accessories for the doll.

Razors are a little like that: Buy the handle and there’s only one set of blades that fit. For many years I used a Gillette Mach 3 man’s razor. Why? Because I got the handle free, tried the blades and liked them. Then, one day, I bought a package of Rite Aid blades, whose label suggested that they would fit in the Gillette handle. They didn’t, so I bought a Rite Aid handle to go with the blades. Gillette lost my repeat business while Rite Aid made certain that I had to come to their store whenever I needed blades, at which time I would also buy … whatever: Greeting cards, candy, sunscreen, lip balm.

The other day I went to Rite Aid to buy more blades. The package didn’t say what handle they’d fit, but they seemed OK. Nope. The alternative blades didn’t fit, either. Well, heck. If I’m going to buy a new handle, I’m going to buy a national brand, so I won’t be restricted to Rite Aid.

With that failure, Rite Aid potentially lost hundreds of dollars of my business.

It gets better. I started comparing devices and costs and discovered that the unit cost of a single, triple-bladed cartridge can go as high as $2.60, while a package of twin-bladed disposable razors have a unit cost of 38 cents each. Note that those were men’s razors. Those for women – pink instead of green but otherwise apparently identical – were 41 cents each. Are my legs more sensitive or complicated than my husband’s face? I think not. (The women’s razors with the Susan Komen brand logo were even more but I wasn’t going there!)

The lesson here is about preserving customer loyalty. You can never, ever let up. Of course you have to continue to provide value, but a satisfied customer will pay a premium to avoid having to shop around for a replacement. Remember, too, the adage that a satisfied customers tells three people while an unsatisfied customer tells seven. Look at me: I’ve just told 850 people about my dissatisfaction and how to find a decent shave for less than 38 cents a day.

There are trends in Internet design, and those trends are not driven by the fashion world; they’re driven by data. Web creators are all about what works. They are constantly testing and refining and they have discovered that readers are tired of visual noise. They don’t want flash, animation and intro pages. They want to get the information and get on with their business.

Website Magazine effectively made this case in this article. It says websites are getting quieter. It argues for clearer calls to action, simpler color schemes, better mobile compatibility, larger images, simpler typography, more video, more prominent social icons and shorter registration forms. Simply put, websites should be simpler. (Thanks to Kim Adams of Professional Pours for this tip.)

For an imminent issue of the Small Business Association of Michigan’ magazine, I wrote an article about creating effective promotional literature. I’ve covered this topic before on the blog. In both instances, I made a strong case for hiring and trusting a graphic designer.

Think of your company’s graphic designer as your barber or hair dresser. You need somebody who cares about how you look and has a track record of making other people look good. You need someone who listens and cares. You need a relationship. That’s why I recommend a request for qualifications (RFQ) process to choose a designer. Certainly ask about their billing rates, but base your decision on whether you like their work, whether their other clients like them and, most important, whether you like them.

Entrepreneur Patrick McKenzie wrote “Don’t Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice” for software engineers, but there’s much in it that applies to everyone. My favorite highlights:

•  Modesty is not a career-enhancing character trait
• All business decisions are ultimately made by one or a handful of multi-cellular organisms closely related to chimpanzees, not by rules or by algorithms
• “Read ad. Send in resume. Go to job interview. Receive offer.” is the exception, not the typical case, for getting employment.
• Actual grooming is at least moderately important, too, because people are hilariously easy to hack by expedients such as dressing appropriately for the situation, maintaining a professional appearance, speaking in a confident tone of voice, etc.

If I had a nickel for every client and prospective client who went into sticker shock over the cost of graphic design, I’d retire and just spend my time writing this blog.

In a free market economy, things that are rare are expensive. Good designers have innate artistic talent, professional training and experience plus the ability to understand their clients and give them not just what they think they need but what they didn’t even realize was possible and brilliantly appropriate.

Adagio Graphics is a frequent partner for us at Douglas Communications Group. They’ve written this excellent guide to using a graphic designer. Note these important tips:

• Know yourself
• Let us be free
• Twice is not nice. Revisions that seem simple to you may be time-consuming (= expensive) to change in the graphic design software, thus the following:
• Organization = money

Here’s yet another strong article from American Express’s Open Forum, this one reminding us that prospective customers have to experience your message between three and seven times for it to register. Ideally they should experience it in several different ways: They get three direct mailings from you, read an article about your product in the newspaper, meet you at a networking event and see your donation mentioned by an influential charity.

The author also riffs a little on branding:

“We recently asked 51 CEOs in one industry whether ‘customer service’ was the reason they were a better choice than their competitors. And 51 out of 51 said yes.

“At the risk of sounding obvious: Nobody will believe it if everyone is saying it. In that industry, the customer-service pigeonhole is already full—and no doubt it’s full in yours, too.”

I, too, meet many business owners who say that their customer service distinguishes them from the competitors. Uh uh. Bad service will drive them away, but good service just keeps you even. Unless you’re committed to legendary levels – think Nordstrom and Ritz Carlton hotels – you should look at other qualities of your product or company for the characteristics that define your brand.

“What would you do with an employee in your sales, public relations, marketing or advertising department who, on a daily basis, damages your company’s image by misrepresenting its goals and mission through misguided communication?” asks Mike Brian, partner at Salt Lake City-based Penna Power Brian Haynes.  Brian’s white paper suggests that you create a job description for your website and conduct a regular performance evaluation.

 I recently judged marketing materials – print and digital — in a Michigan Economic Developers Association competition.  They encouraged the panel of judges to provide constructive comments.  Following are my most frequent suggestions for print publications:

•  Spend money on a good graphic designer
• Focus; be strategic.  A document that strives to be all things to all people is frequently nothing to anyone.
• Have a professional edit your copy.  (There are rules about capitalization.  Obey them.)
• Use testimonials
• Use a couple of strong photos instead of a lot of little ones and use pictures of people.
• Show your character.  Don’t be afraid to be colorful or quirky.

Two economic development websites caught my eye.  The top-level navigation on the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation’s site is designed to speak to their likeliest or most desirable customers.  On each of those main pages, the right-hand navigation is customized to that subject.

I know that the Eastpointe DDA didn’t go through an extensive or expensive branding process, yet its website looks like what Eastpointe IS.  The site is rich in social media, even Foursquare and Gowalla, and makes clever use of free web technologies, like a customized Google map.