March 27th, 2006 by admin

Plato made a powerful observation that explains why many marketing messages fall on deaf ears, or blind eyes.

"From the Walls of the Cave" is the title of my blog.  I had hoped that this title would not only conjure up images of one of the first forms of advertising, namely, petroglyphs, but also that a few would recognize the reference to Plato’s Cave Analogy. 

First a quick (very quick) refresher on Plato’s Cave Analogy.  Imagine a group of people who have been shackled since birth and forced to only look at dark shadows on the walls of a cave.  The shadows are the only reality these people know.  Now imagine what would happen if these people were freed from their shackles.  For the first time they would be able to turn around and look at the objects directly.  However, these people eyes, being accustomed to the dark shadows, would be blinded by the bright light that cast the shadows.  Although reality was now directly in front of them they would be blind because the light adjustment was too great for their eyes to take all at once.

This is the very problem many marketers make especially with new product launches.  They forget to put themselves in the minds of the customer.  Instead, their message makes too great of a leap and the viewer is blind to the message. Marketers need to take a customer centric approach and look through the eyes of the customer.  They need to show the product in a light that the customer able to see.

In an established industry, customer’s eyes might be fairly well adjusted.  However, in a new or revolutionary industries the marketing message needs to account for the time it takes a customer’s eye’s to adjust.  Revolutionary companies are quick to get their message out, but rarely are these the companies that succeed with the general public. 
Take the PDA for example.  The Apple Computer Company paved the way with the Newton and helped people’s eyes adjust to the vision of a PDA.  However, it was the Palm Pilot that succeeded in cashing in on the opportunity.  Palm waited to enter the game until the eyes had adjusted to the light.

Could Apple have succeeded with the Newton?  I think so.  Their recent success with the Ipod bears this out.  When I first heard of the Ipod I had no idea what purpose a portable hard drive full of music would serve in my life.  Within a year of the first  Ipod release I was the proud owner of an Ipod.  Apple’s marketing message was not only crafted in a way that allowed my eyes to adjust to the vision, it also made it impossible to look away. 

By Drew Hendricks

March 7th, 2006 by admin

As an amateur photographer, I have long since known the importance of seeing things for the first time.  One of the biggest challenges I face is shooting images in my home town.  Everything seems ordinary and not really worthy of a picture.  However, the moment I go on a trip I suddenly see dozens of unique images each one better than the other.  Almost always the first few images I capture when coming onto a scene are usually the best.  This is when I am most in awe and absorbed by the totality of the scene.

For people developing new marketing and branding messages it is important to deliver the message from a new vista. 

A new vista should not be confused with being edgy.  Too often people think that edginess is key to impact.  Edginess might be the key to a new vista in a sedate industry such as lumbar or sugar.  However, an edgy message in a trendy market segment such as action sports and teen apparel will be just the key to the same-old-same-old vista.  Marketers in these segment have to be edgy because the consumers demand it.  However, edginess in itself will not make the brand stand out.

Seth Godin in his book, Purple Cow, offers a great example of how quickly a new vista becomes old.

"When my family and I were driving through France a few years ago, we were enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing on picturesque pastures right next to the highway.  For dozens of kilometers, we all gazed out he window marveling about how beautiful everything was.

Then, within twenty minutes, we all started ignoring the cows.  The new cows were just like the old cows, and what once was amazing was now common.  Worse than common.  It was boring."

For a brief time Seth and his family were enchanted by plain brown cows.  Nothing could be less edgy than a cow.  Yet, for a brief time they were as excited about the cows as they would have been watching an elephant charge across the Savannah in Africa. 

The key to Godin’s enchantment was never the cow, but the fact that he was looking at the cows from a new vista.  If you are given the task to market a product as plain as a brown cow it is your task to put the viewer in similarly new vista.

By Drew Hendricks

March 2nd, 2006 by admin

Jargon is an insidious evil. 

Jargon is especially harmful when operating within cross-functional
teams.  At its best, jargon creeps in unintentionally and creates
confusion among the team.  At its worst, jargon is a deliberate
passive-aggressive tool used to exhibit
intellectual superiority and bully others.

I was once part of a team made up from experts in marketing, finance,
and science.  The finance guy was formerly a Marine drill Sargent and had no
qualms about calling people on their use of jargon.  Whereas most
people would just pretend to understand, he would yell out, "Break it
down Barney Style."  As the project went on, we all became more
comfortable at calling people on their use of jargon.  At the start of
the project we all assumed everyone was on the same page, by the mid-point we found that we all had different conceptions of the task.  It
was only during the last half of the project that we truly functioned
as a team and successfully completed the project.  I have no doubt that
our productivity skyrocketed when we all started choosing words that everyone
understood.

Jargon’s insidiousness is not limited to cross-functional teams.  In fact, jargon is even more harmful within seemingly homogeneous groups.  Take the recent debate within the marketing community that arose from a statement by  Laura Ries, "Building strong brands is the key to success, in our opinion, not better products or better people."  Hundreds of posts across many websites were wasted because each person had a different conception of the word "brand."  a few days later Laura qualified what she meant by saying that a brand an established meaning in the mind
of the consumer."  What if Laura’s original statement statement was this, "The customers conception of the product is the key to success not just better products and better people."  I doubt there would have been nearly the enthusiasm or frenzy to debate her point.

Jargon can destroy a marketing message.  Last night I reread a section from the book "Bang!" by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval that explains this point perfectly.  They write, "

The fact is that old-fashioned emotions spring from basic truths.  They don’t change with the seasons.  Say hello to someone in Botswana and you’ll be met with a blank stare.  But share pictures of your children, and you’ll make a friend for life.

The surrounding pages recount two advertising campaigns from the wireless industry.  One failed miserably and one was a huge success.  Motorola tried to tried to create their very own word, "mlife" and failed miserably.  Verizon stuck to words everyone understood with the phrase, "Can you hear me now?" and was a tremendous success.

Make a conscious effort to eliminate jargon.  Teams will run smoother, less time will be wasted, and messages will be delivered with greater impact.  In the words of a great Marine, "Break it down Barney style."

March 1st, 2006 by admin

• Are you designing a marketing program for a retailer in a highly competitive marketplace? 
• Are you a retailer looking for ways to separate yourself from the competition? 
• Are you Looking for ways to create rock-solid customer loyalty? 

Here is a free tip: Mimic REI

OK. So, you are not impressed with my tip.  Hey, you know what they say about free advice.

Seriously, let me explain why REI, Recreational Equipment, Inc, is so successful and how replicating a few of their tactics can separate you from the competition. 

Success Tactic #1 - The Year End Dividend Check

I always look foreword to the first week it March because that is when REI mails out my dividend check.  REI refunds around 10% of my purchases made throughout the year in the form of a check that I can use to make more purchases.

Why not give the discount at the register like many supermarket club cards and bookseller club cards?  First off, club cards are blas

March 1st, 2006 by admin

Jennifer Rice, in her blog "What’s you Brand Mantra?"  adds a new level to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. 

She writes, "Control is tightly linked to the notion of freedom; without freedom we
have no ability to control our environment. Control and Freedom are two
sides of the same coin… companies that ride the grassroots-economy wave and
enable customers to have more control over the brand experience will
find themselves in a much stronger place than those companies who
refuse to open up."

These words rang particularly true with me.  Especially in relation to the research I have done in marketing to generation "Y", or the millennials.  This group is loosely defined as those people who were born between the years of 1982 and 2000.  I have also heard them called "The Starbucks Generation."  They do not remember a time when there were only two types of coffee - Regular and Decaf.  They don’t remember when fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s just served hamburgers and cheeseburgers.  In fact, Burger King’s slogan, "Have it your way" was already 8 years old when the first millennial was born.

The newest generation of consumers have been brought up in this environment of customization and demand it.  Over the next 50 years, as the millennials make there way through life, marketing programs will have to adapt.  We see this today with the alcohol industry.  The first millennials are approaching legal drinking age.  The other day I was in a bar that offered a selection of over 500 different martini’s.

Companies and marketing departments that ignore the millennials need for control will not just find
themselves on weaker ground, as Jennifer suggests, but will become
extinct.

By Drew Hendricks