Marketing Wisdom

If anyone is watching TV lately, they see the U.S. government, specifically the President, continue to try and “sell” the Social Health Care plan.  The most powerful individual in America and 300 of his supporters (or marketing staff) and the many outside firms, companies, and individuals who also support and “market”  for the President are now trying to get the Social Health Care plan passed.

Forty speeches, hundreds of town hall meetings, and TV advertising for almost one year has yet to convince a populast to “approve” and “support” the plan.

Can you imagine that you are in charge of a new product. That you are doing the same thing that the U.S. Government is trying but, you are a private inividual that works for a company and you are responsible for marketing there new products.  Let’s run with that and see how it would work out?  First, we need a product – hmm…let’s choose a new shoe that is made out of tree bark.

You have the most visible individual in America (that is not a politician) as your spokesperson – let’s choose Oprah Winfrey.

You have 300 individuals (marketing managers) that will help you push the shoes to the public and they are extremely visible also – let’s choose the top 300 Hollywood actors and actresses.

And then, let’s choose 1,000 retail stores (Asst. Marketing Managers) (clothes, make-up, etc. with small shoe departments) like Macy’s, JC Penny, etc.

All these people, for almost a year, get on TV, place ads, write articles for the web and magazines, all talking about how important it is to buy and wear the shoes made from bark. And, after every month, you all get together, all 1,301 staff/spokespeople and say “The public doesn’t know about these bark trees and how they will save the planet – they don’t care that the shoe will only last until the first rain, they only care about not filling up the landfills any more”.

And the people still won’t buy them.

How long do you think you will keep your job? Or how long will you get approval for more money (budget) to spend to “pitch” the new shoe?

You won’t, you will stop selling it and move on to another product.

So, what’s the moral of this story? LEARN from what is going on here in the U.S. on ways to NOT market a product by comparing it to the current Social Health Care bill that they are trying to get passed.

Ever notice today that alot, A LOT, of people, especially professionals, say “I MEAN” when they talk.

“There are a lot of people who do this.  I mean, there are many people who do this”.

This started so many years ago – and personally, I believe that it replaces “Ummmm” before or during a talk.

To those who aren’t professionals, that’s fine to me. But, if you are a public person, especially in Public Relations, what the H**L do you think you are doing by saying this? It means that you are NOT thinking about what you are saying.

I mean, you must start to think about the words that will flow from your lips, I mean, you don’t have to say I mean, it is just a silence filler as you try to think of your next words.

Whatever happened to professional people speaking professionaly?

Having worked for many companies that were based overseas and also sold products in many parts of the world, we consistently encounter companies that think they know the various cultures and what is “best for them”.

One company we worked for wanted to “crack” the Middle East market and sell their goods their.  The problem was that they were Israeli – and since most (well, all) of the nations in the Middle East are Muslim, they was no way that they were going to be able to get their products sold there.

We came up with a simple solution – in fact, it required two solutions.  1) The company had to realize that ego played no part in business and they even though they had much pride in their success as a small Israeli company, they would have to forego that part of their brand (i.e. give up their ego). 2) They would need to “re-brand” and “repackage” their goods from another part of the world.  We re-branded the product so the perception was that it came from Australia. It cost very little money (compared with the millions of dollars they made from this market).

But, that is one extreme of cultural influence and how it affects the purchasing intent of customers.

Another example, one that Xbrand recently helped a law firm with, was internal to North America. The law firm, based on the East Coast of the U.S., dealt with many clients in the Mid-West as well as the North-West of the U.S.  People who were laid-back, relaxed, and totally honest with their questions and issues.  North Easterners (particularly those from New York and Boston) are used to being gruff, short, and pointed, but, in a way that is interpreted as rudeness.

After a one-week training course on the various aspects of the various regions of the U.S. and how to approach each region, the law firm was able to quickly lower the many complaints and issues that were brought up because of the personalities of their lawyers; thus, they were able to quickly get to the law cases that they were called in for and gain the perception that they were compassionate and understanding of the local area and not someone from the “East Coast who didn’t care about what happened on the West Coast”.

When you are approaching a new market, pay particular attention to the various culture and personalities of the people in that market – it cannot be ignored. 

If you are already in a market, do an internal check and see if your staff, employee’s, sales people, etc. understand the market (a perfect example is if a sales person on the East Coast calls on an account or customer on the West Coast).

A rule that we live by at Xbrand – never speak about 1) Religion, 2) Politics, and 3) current affairs in the local region. Of course, many times, this is brought up by your counterpart – answer the question(s) and move onto the more relevant subject at hand (the selling of your product).

No, not the religious kind of evangelism, but, the marketing kind!!!

Many many years ago, I heard about a CEO position at Microsoft.  Thinking to myself “CEO? Bill Gates is the CEO – why are they advertising for a CEO position?” After looking into a bit, I found that the position was Chief Evangelist Officer – the person who goes out and convinces the world that “this” product is the best, will solve all your problems, etc.

At the time, I thought it was ingenious, that every company in the world should have a C”E”O. But, as years passed and I moved from company to company, I saw that this position didn’t exist in any company (for that matter, I don’t know if Microsoft has this position any more – probably too confusing for the investors).

Why didn’t companies have an “evangelist” position? They had spokespeople, most of them being Product Managers and “C” level people, but, why not a full-time person that “evangelized their products. Their only job was to speak to others about what problem their product solves and why it is better then anything else out there.

A part of me always says that a spokesperson for a company does the same thing, but, not really.  Every spokesperson that I have ever met, also had another job, usually in marketing. They were responsible for advertising, or promotions, or event marketing, or whatever else. I have never met anyone that has the sole responsibility of speaking to the world.

First, what would be the benefit? Recently, I had the pleasure of being a spokesperson for a company. Only a spokesperson, or, in an ideal world, an evangelist.  I was hired for one year to only go out and speak about the benefits of the product and the company.  Which I did.  When I wasn’t speaking about the product, I was doing research; on the competition, on “perimeter” products (ones that don’t compete but definitely affect the market), on people who use the product and who don’t (and why they don’t), etc. Within six months, I new the complete market, from stem to stern. Yes, there are research analysts out there who study the market, but, they don’t speak publicly about it. So, no benefit.

Second, why should a company want to do this? As mentioned above, you now had an expert on the product, that was trained in the complete market, and knew how to position the product in that market.  Of course they were media trained and could speak to the media and analysts, but, they could also speak in arena’s that weren’t specifically media related. They could speak at conventions and seminars about “where” the market is going, “how” the market will get there, etc.

As a side note, a previous company I worked for allowed me to start down this path, where I was speaking about the market, where the market was going, etc. After about a year, someone from the company actually decided to attend a conference and listen to one of my presentations. Sadly, they were very upset, because I was speaking about the market five years in advance, where the company only thought I was speaking about how their product would affect the market today. So, they stopped me from speaking about the future (which an evangelist should do!). (By the way, everything that I predicted for the market has come true – I get emails from people who remembered what I said and write “You were right! Why didn’t we listen to you”, or “You were right – hope you bought stock in our company when you gave that speech.”

So, back to being an evangelist, or, more importantly, having an evangelist in your company.

Since I primarily deal with small companies and start-ups, you won’t have an evangelist, you will have a spokesperson, that doubles as a product manager or whatever. But, when you get big enough, seriously think about bringing someone on that can be your evangelist. You don’t have to be a multi-billion dollar company to have this – in fact, it should be done much sooner – because if you make that evangelist a part of your company, and that person stays around long enough to start and see their “preachings” come true, that company will only have a successful future.

How to damage your image

Had surgery the other day. Nothing serious, just a walk-in/walk-out of a few hours.

Came into the hospital, filled out all the paperwork, and was escorted to the waiting room by an administrator who was professional and enjoyable.

In the waiting room, had a great conversation with the nurse and receptionist there (this is a hospital – you go nowhere without someone from the hospital being in front of you).

Was called in to the surgery room, met a great nurse and had a great conversation with her as we went through the procedure (as well as the doctor – but, he was not part of the hospital, he was my doctor who came in to do the procedure).

My doctor left after the procedure and the nurse and I continued to talk – I had to wait about 10 minutes to make sure that I was okay after the surgery.

The nurse filled out all the paperwork for me, telling me what and what not to do, what I can and cannot eat, how much medicine I should take, etc. This was all written on a piece of paper, with the top area for signatures and the bottom with all the instructions. 

Then, the unbelievable happened, the nurse took out a pair of scissors and cut the bottom half of the paper off and handed it to me.

No, the paper wasn’t a tear sheet.  No, it wasn’t a separate piece of paper. It was the second half of paper and cut.

An experience that was nerve wracking and stressful, ending with a nurse cutting a piece of paper in half with all the instructions on it. What a reminder that hospitals are run by people who don’t care about their patients.

Terrible marketing as well as bad operations. In fact, the nurse apologized for cutting the paper in half.

Does your business do something like this? Have you gone down the lowest level of your business and seen how it interacts with the customer?

I was so embarrassed for them - especially for the nurse having to apologize.

How many of you are a spokesperson for your company? Or, at times, represent your company to the press or media? I’m not talking about having your name in a press release, but, being interviewed by some type of media?

Were you media trained? Were you informed of what to say, how to act, what to DO in front of the media?

If not, then, you shouldn’t be speaking to the media.

Time and time again, especially in todays world of Reality TV, I see “stars” being interviewed, or on camera, saying things and doing things that are embarassing, if not wrong.  They go to a party and get drunk.  They get in a fight with another individual (showing that they can’t control their emotions). They say something that is ignorant or sounds ignorant (i.e. not informed). Have you ever seen this? Have you experienced it – where when you see yourself on TV or hear yourself on the radio, or read what you said (or was perceived to be said), you were embarrassed? Or did you not even care?

Media training is not expensive, usually a few hours costs less then a thousand dollars.  The benefit is that you can now represent the company (and yourself) in their (or your) best interest. It may be perceived as a “waste of time”, as we have experienced so many times in training individuals or groups of individuals, but, afterwards, when they have finished an interview, a tough interview, they call and thank us for the work we did with them.

Being able to answer a question, or, avoid an answer, can provide the difference between being perceived as a knowledgeable person or one that is just a “talking head” for the company.

Wouldn’t you prefer to be considered a “good” interview, to be invited to speak again, or to be interviewed again, because you were perceived as an expert?

Get media trained – it’s worth the investment.

Was at a company recently; walked into the reception area, and heard the receptionist answer a question on the company, “Yes, we make the product XXX and that is our specialty; can I connect you to one of our salespeople?”.

I then went to meet with the company’s VP of Sales.  She sat down in front of me (we were now in a conference room), and said (after all the formal introductions, etc.), “We are specialists in providing back-end software to the enterprise market; even though the world knows us for the few hardware products we provide.  Our target is the enterprise market, bringing state-of-the-art software to their internal systems and integrating some of our unique hardware. How can we get the market to see what our company offers and get the market to understand what we do?”

Of course, I had to mention what I heard in the front lobby.  “You know,” I said, “I heard your receptionist state that your company is a specialist in hardware solutions, product XXX.  When you just came in, you said that your company were specialists in a different product. Which one is it?  You called Xbrand because you didn’t think that the market understood what you did.  I think the issue covers more then just the general market. I think your employee’s also don’t know what your company does and provides, and aren’t coordinated with the messaging that you want to project out to the market.”

Over the next few weeks, we put together a training and messaging program for the company, from the receptionist to the CEO. We came to understand, through the discovery process of what employee’s understood to be the companies mission, that each division had their own idea of what that message is.  Within a month, the company was all communicating the same message to the outside world.

Don’t ignore inside the company when you are trying to put out a consistent message. Many times, the trouble starts at home.

Was speaking with an analyst the other day about a new product for a company that I am consulting with. When my client and I got in the car to drive back to their place of business, I heard the usual & typical statement “We really don’t need analysts, they don’t sell our product or even influence the sales of our product. This is a waste of money.”

I have heard this statement from various clients and bosses for 20 years now countless times.

Why DO we need an analyst? What value can they bring a company?

Here are just some of the many points that an analyst can bring you and your company – remember something, ALWAYS step back and look at the big picture – i.e. the world in which we live and do business.

1) Does your company want recognition in the market? Many CEO’s and CMO’s have said “We already have it; we have customers who know that are products are the best and that’s why they buy from us”.  How many times do we read in the weekly and monthly business journals about the huge amount of information that is out there and how companies can’t even begin to sort through all the information that is relevant to them? Yes, almost weekly we see a story on knowledge management of one sort or the other. But, companies do read analyst reports and often find out about a new product, a new company, OR a new use for an existing product.

At one company, I fought and fought to do an analyst tour, and of course the CMO saying that we didn’t need to do it (see above). I was able to do the analyst tour, and because my company was now being mentioned by analysts, customers that my company hadn’t even thought about or KNEW about started calling on them for business.

2) Many companies want to build their brand and get brand recognition. Analyst’s, by placing your company name or product name in their reports, give instant credibility to your company and product. Remember, this is FREE (besides the cost of the hotel and flight to meet with them). You cannot get a bigger bang for the buck then having an analyst talk about you.

Remember something, a Press Tour will get a mention of your company or product in a story (either paper, magazine, or webzine), but, they are writing about now and won’t write about it again until something new comes from your company. An analyst, if your company or product is affecting the world, will continuously write about the company and product. Even if you don’t meet with them again for another year.

NOTE: Of course, you must keep up a dialogue with the analyst during that year. Let them know what your product is doing and how the company is going to affect its customers. An email or phone call will suffice.

There are many other reasons to meet with analysts and do the tours. These are just two of them, and I’m sure that some of you think that there are more important ones out there (which there are), but, think, sit back, and always look at the big picture.

In parting words, I met with a Gartner analyst one time, who said, sounds great, but, come back to me when you have sales. The next week, I called her and told her how we had just locked in a three year deal with a major supplier. The analyst put out a report on our product and how it is going to affect sales in the market sector that we were trying to penetrate. You CANNOT BUY that kind of coverage. (And because of this report, we locked in two more multi-million dollar accounts.)

I spoke before about the need for media training. So, nothing new about it, but, just want to bring it up again and discuss why and what the value is of media training.

You and your employee’s need to make sure that they understand that they are always in the publics eye. That whatever they do, they reflect on the company.

You may not or cannot afford to “train” everyone in your organization, but, there are always the people who are the “face” of your company. Like your CEO, CMO, CFO, and pretty much anyone in your marketing, public relations, and communications divisions. It doesn’t have to be a formal training session with professional media trainers, but, if you know how to speak with the media, and have done it for many years, then, you pretty much know the in’s and out’s of what is needed to reflect your company in a positive way.

Sit down, write down everything that you have learned over the years in dealing with the media, and think of how you can teach others what you learned. If you are a good manager, then, you already know how to teach; so, just write down 10 points, and try and teach your people those 10 items. Do this once a quarter, and soon enough, your people will start to handle themselves appropriately when in public.

People LOVE to talk about themselves or let others believe that they “know” everything. You usually have no alternative if someone speaks with the media, and they aren’t authorized, then by firing them.

So, what I am trying to say, is that, instead of firing them, teach them what to say, how to say it, and then, when they speak to the media – even if they aren’t supposed to – you may not have to fire them, but, reprimand them; why the reprimand? Because they didn’t hurt your company, they just spoke when they shouldn’t have.

Hope this makes some sense. Everyone wants to talk about themselves. Try and contain it with proper training.

Wiki’s – How important are they?

I have been, as I am sure you have been, reading and seeing all this controversy, discussion, and issues with having and doing a Wiki – either inside your company or one outside your company.

As usual, I have a comment on this.

Wiki’s are great!!! Internally. Let your workers and employee’s educate each other with a Wiki.

One company I recently worked with would have monthly training classes for non-division employee’s. Meaning – divisions would attend a meeting, put on by another division, to learn about the product that that division was working on/in. Two to four hours a month in these meetings may have helped morale or understanding, but, loss of work was also high (to many of the meetings were attended by people who didn’t want to do their existing work and this was an easy approved out of doing it).

In hi-tech, this is very common, where one division does not know what the other division does or has with its similar product and cross education/training is done.

My point is is a Wiki can do that same education in “real time” and everyone can contribute and add details and info, so the whole picture is understood by all.

But, a Wiki outside? To the general public? I can see it happening if you want to do it as “fun” or as a “joke” – which Wikipedia is quickly becoming. When Wikipedia begins to turn political (more then it is now), it will quickly lose it’s luster as a “general” information base – it will fall into a label, where it will be difficult, if not impossible to get out (i.e. if it is labeled a “right wing conspiracy site”, then, only those that believe they are part of the right wing conspiracy will go there).

I appreciate the value of a wiki and what it means for free speech and free collaboration. But, without safeguards in place (i.e. review of content in some way), then, they will quickly become the way of the street corner preacher (you don’t see them as much anymore do you? They realized it is easier to preach to captured audiences then to people who don’t care).

Think this through, if you are going to do a Wiki - understand that the content that may be posted may not be what you want. That the content may hurt your company – and be prepared for it.

Don’t get me wrong – a Wiki can also bring someone or something “back from the dead”, like Wikipedia did with Sinbad - BRILLIANT move by his agent to bring an actor that has dissappeared back into the limelight.

Make sure that you, the leader of your marketing, are part of the decision making process AND that all of your concerns are brought up AND understood by all parties who will be administering it.

Just because having/doing a Wiki today is the “hot” thing to do doesn’t mean it is the RIGHT thing to do.