Fishing For Customers

Category: Uncategorized

  • It’s Not The Weather

    “Twenty years ago this used to be so easy,” he said. “When sales were slow we’d put up the big tent, put a bunch of boats in the tent, set up a prize registration box, grill some hotdogs, and invite a radio station. We’d sell half a dozen boats easily.

    “Ten years ago it didn’t work so well. Today it doesn’t work at all. I don’t know what to do. Our sales are way off this year. I’m hoping it’s the weather.”

    I might not have even remembered that conversation if I hadn’t had the same one with a swimming pool dealer on the other side of the country later the same week. The conversation was nearly word-for-word identical.

    When the swimming pool guy said “Our sales are way off this year, I’m hoping it’s the weather” I realized what was happening.

    It’s not the weather.

    It’s the message.

    Let’s recap something I’ve already told you. There are only two shopping modes.

    Transactional shoppers believe that they already know everything necessary to make an informed decision. Transactional shoppers are only interested in price.

    Relational shoppers, on the other hand, are well aware that they don’t know enough to make an informed decision. They are shopping for an advisor they can trust not to take advantage of them.

    Three critical points:

    1. First, we all shop in both modes, depending on what we’re buying. And whatever you’re selling, your customers are about half and half. Roughly fifty percent are shopping price, and roughly fifty percent just want someone they can trust to offer advice on what’s best for them.

    2. Second point: transactional shoppers will cheerfully play one supplier against another in an endless game of “can you top this?” Transactional shoppers consistently provide lower closing ratios, smaller gross sales, and thinner profit margins.

    3. And finally, the right thing to say to one is exactly the wrong thing to say to the other. Doesn’t this make sense? Why would a relational shopper, who fears not knowing enough to make the right decision, react positively to “Save $1,000 if you buy today?”

    I was reminded of those two conversations earlier today when I heard an ad for a swimming pool manufacturer.

    “The perfect day to buy the pool and spa of your dreams is this Saturday. Speak to the experts at our one day sale event, see our custom 3-D pool design system, and save up to six thousand dollars on the purchase of a new pool. Come celebrate with free hot dogs and soft drinks, prize giveaways, and face painting for the kids.”

    Which shopping mode do you predict will react positively to the implied pressure of this ad? Save six thousand dollars if you buy this Saturday? This one is definitely a transactional appeal.

    But, will this ad pull in ANY qualified buyers, regardless of their preferred shopping mode?

    Let me predict what’s going to happen at this big one-day sales event. The radio station broadcasting the event will be pressured to produce a crowd. They’ll pull out the stops, pour on the hype, and pump up the giveaways.

    The pool company is advertising free hot dogs and prizes – oh, and free face painting. They’re going to attract people who want free hotdogs and free prizes. How many of them will be qualified to purchase a $60,000 pool?

    Come Monday, the pool company is going to count the number of pools sold on Saturday. If they are at all disappointed (and aren’t they always?) they’ll turn to the radio station and say “You brought in the wrong people.”

    No kidding.

    Advertising seeks its own audience. Every ad will appeal to some shoppers and not appeal to others. When, like all of your competitors, you’re screaming “We will not be undersold,” all of the transactional shoppers will come see you, then take your price to your competitor to “grind him down.”

    It’s not the weather causing your lackluster sales. It’s your message.

    As a business owner your first decision should be to which shoppers you want your ads to appeal.

    Suppose that instead of a big one-day sale, our pool builder had run a different ad?

    “As hot as it’s been, you’ve probably been thinking it would be nice to have a pool in your own backyard. We know that a pool is a major investment for a homeowner like you, and there are a lot of things to consider. That’s why we’ve brought in the experts to answer your questions in a casual, no pressure setting. Bring the measurements of your backyard, and we’ll show you on our custom 3D design system just what to expect, the range of costs for the amenities important to you, and we’ll even explain your financing options What we won’t do is pressure you to buy.”

    Of course, it’s going to take guts for Mr. Pool Builder to try to attract perhaps only four qualified buyers and making them comfortable buying, instead of attracting a couple hundred non-buyers who are there for the hot dogs, and hoping for the best.

    Oh, and hoping for good weather.

    It’s not the weather.

    It’s that you, and all of your competitors, are screaming the same message: “Get excited. Make an impulsive buy. We’ll save you money.”

    You’re all fighting for the same low profit, highly fickle transactional buyers. Any relational shoppers in your show room are there because they wanted what you offer so badly that they’re prepared to endure what they perceive to be your high-pressure sales tactics to get it.

    What would happen if you made it easy for them? What if you wrote ads that targeted the highly-profitable and intensely loyal relational shoppers?

    Your ads would automatically shine like a beacon in the darkness. Your ads would capture the attention of every qualified buyer who doesn’t trust your slick, fast talking, high-pressure competitors.

    You’d get the attention of those shoppers who, frankly, don’t trust you the way you are.

    It’s not the weather that’s keeping people from buying, it’s your strategy.

    Who do your ads target?

    Are those the customers you really want?

    • Share This Article With A Friend.

  • Ask About the Failures

    Marketing consultants love to tell you their success stories. Listen to them long enough and you’ll believe they never make mistakes.

    Ask them about their failures.

    Oh, we all have them. They’re universally embarrassing. The good consultants have fallen on their collective butts often. The great consultants have spectacular failures hidden deep in their client files.

    Ask them about their failures. Nobody really learns anything by succeeding. Its failure that makes the cost of experience so great. It’s failure that makes experience so valuable.

    In the spirit of disclosure, I shall now share one of mine.

    It was 1971. I was a college freshman who worked for a man named Howard in his electronics shop after class.

    FM radio had replaced AM as the band most people listened to.

    Stereo had replaced “Hi Fi” as the operative word for quality sound. Quad had been available for about three years, but no one was sure whether SQ was really better than QS. Descrete quadraphonic sound? We only dreamed about it.

    Howard had started his own television and CB radio repair business half a dozen years earlier. Over the years he added a second technician, then a third. He started selling a few television sets. Picked up the Sylvania line. The Sylvania wholesaler sent him a dozen television sets and half a dozen stereo systems.

    My job? Keep the place clean. Make deliveries. Run to the parts house. Take care of customers when there was no one else to deal with them.

    One day a man in a suit swaggered into the shop. This was an oddity in itself, since no one wore suits into our place. We didn’t even wear suits into our place.

    But the other oddity was his lack of necktie. After all, if a man was going to dress for business, wouldn’t he wear a tie with his suit? Instead of a tie, this guy left the top three buttons on his shirt unfastened.

    As I said, he swaggered in with the attitude that he was indeed Sum Buddy.

    “Young fella,” he said, “where’s the boss?”

    Howard came out of the shop at just that time to ask Mr. Buddy if he needed help.

    Mr. Buddy explained his incredible offer: 8-track cartridges, in their own theft-proof space-age plastic bubble display case. Pick a hundred from the wide selection he had in his car. Buy ‘em outright for only two bucks each. Sell ‘em for six bucks each. Make a fortune.

    Howard didn’t appear particularly interested. “Ehhh,” he said. “What do I know about music?”

    Sum Buddy turned to me. “Hey, young fella. You know popular music?”

    “Sure,” I told ‘em. I then watched as I became one of the selling points as Mr. Buddy continued his pitch.

    “You’ve got a man here who knows music. I’ve got the product. Pick out a hundred titles, and I’ll sell you the display at half price. You’ve got the stereo record players with 8-track decks. How can you be a real stereo store if people can’t buy music here, too?”

    Twenty minutes of serious negotiation later and I, the “man here who knows music” was selecting 30 titles, which we put in the free theft-proof space-age plastic bubble display case. Howard counted out $50 from the till. Mr. Buddy was off to offer his tapes to another entrepreneur down another road.

    I had chosen Elton John, ABBA, America, Blue Oyster Cult, the Georgie Baker Selection, Black Sabbath, and several that are simply too painful to remember.

    Howard looked at me, the “man here who knows music,” and asked “How are we going to sell these?”

    “Well,” I said, thoughtfully, “I think we should advertise in the college newspaper.”

    I put together an ad, negotiated with the student paper’s student sales staff, and scheduled it to run in their second December issue – the one closest to Christmas. An 8-track of a great album would make a great last-minute Christmas gift was my reasoning. The paper was published every other week. There would be an issue on roughly December 7th, and another roughly the 21st. Our ad came out in the December 21st issue.

    We waited for the last-minute gift rush.

    We waited.

    We waited more.

    Howard was fairly patient, until January rolled around and he noted that we hadn’t sold a single tape. At that point he wondered aloud if a campus beer party might have fried too many of my limited brain cells.

    Howard suggested that I personally find 30 friends who would give him $1.67 each for these tapes so he could at least break even on this venture.

    I discovered that I didn’t have thirty friends.

    I did have six friends who collectively purchased seven tapes. The other 23 tapes hung around that store until summer when Howard sold ‘em for $0.50 each that during a sidewalk sale. We kept the theft-proof space-age plastic bubble display case in the storeroom for a while, but it was hard to stack things on it because of that big plastic bubble. We finally tossed it out.

    My first experience as a marketing authority was a total failure. But, as I said, we don’t learn much from our successes. It’s failure that makes experience so valuable.

    This particular episode of Chuck history has delivered four valuable lessons.

    Point Number One: a single ad in isolation isn’t going to accomplish much of anything. Ads work best when their message gets repeated, again and again, until people know that message by heart.

    Lesson Number One: Never bet the farm on a single ad.

    Point Number Two: some markets are seasonal. Some are ridiculously seasonal. In the case of a college student body, they tend to start leaving for home about eight days before Christmas, which would be the 17th. By the 21st (when our ad was published) the campus was empty.

    Lesson Number Two: Learn the seasonality of your market.

    Point Number Three: not all of the students left town for Christmas break. 30% of them lived in town. They bought gifts between the 21st and the 24th. Many of them bought music as gifts. None of them bought that music at a television repair shop.

    And why would they?

    It takes a lot of time, effort, and resources to establish any image in the minds of your prospective customers. If you should be successful at planting an image, any image, advertising a different image is worse than starting over. You have to try to first kill the old image before you can establish a new one.

    Lesson Number Three: don’t change your name unless you also change your products. Don’t radically change your products without changing your name. Don’t do either unless you’re forced to by rapidly declining sales.

    Point Number Four: my tastes in music are not, nor will they ever be, anything close to “normal.” Yours aren’t either. In fact, any personal opinion you have, when applied to the preferences of your market, is worthless. Don’t ever make a decision because your tastes, those of your friends, or your wife’s tastes are consulted. (And NEVER listen to anyone who says “I’m in the demo. My opinion is the only one that counts.”

    Lesson Number Four: Survey your market. Stop guessing. Learn what they want to buy.

    One incident. Four valuable lessons.

    Everyone benefits from this story except Howard.

    Your marketing consultant didn’t become an authority by always being right. The good consultants have fallen on their collective butts often. The great consultants have spectacular failures hidden deep in their client files.

    Ask them about their failures.

    And learn from them.

    • Share This Article With A Friend.

  • Marketing as a School of Art

    A good art instructor takes her students through a number of different “schools” of painting in the course of their education. Does she do this to give them a broader appreciation of art? No. That’s a side benefit.

    She does it so that they can learn specific techniques developed by the masters of the various schools.

    They’ll study Rubens for his use of grand dramatic figures; Rembrandt’s attention to shadow; Cézanne’s use of small repeated brushstrokes; Picasso’s study of geometric shapes.

    The students will attempt to duplicate the masters in order to learn the underlying techniques. Some of those techniques will feel “natural” to the budding artist, who will add them to his own art techniques “toolbox.”

    Over a period of time the savvy student takes a bit of Raphael, a smidge of Vermeer, a touch of Monet, until he’s recognized as having developed his own style. This will be the beginning of commercial success for our artist.

    Marketers should study successful marketers the way painters study influential artists.

    Some markets respond better to direct response techniques while others respond better to branding. Some markets react to a free gift with purchase, while others tend to identify with a particular image.

    Successful marketers must be ready to change tactics as dictated by the market.

    I once witnessed an argument between a sales representative and the sales manager of a North Florida radio station.

    The rep said: “Are you under the impression that I work for you? I work for Buck Bay Marine. I work for Menarro’s Restaurant. And if I didn’t have your radio station to deliver their messages I’d use outdoor, or wear sandwich boards or pass out Rubik’s Cubes with their names on ‘em.”

    I applaud his attitude.

    Unfortunately it’s easier to find a good art instructor than an experienced marketer well versed in all of the ways to communicate with customers. Successful marketers, much like successful artists, specialize in one particular school of marketing philosophy.

    My suggestion? Study them all. Attempt to duplicate the masters. Learn the underlying techniques. Some of them will feel “natural” to you. Add them to your own marketing techniques toolbox.

    Over a period of time you’ll incorporate a bit of Hopkins, a smidge of Kennedy, a touch of Ogilvy, until you know with certainty that these are all just different ways of delivering your message.

    In my opinion, these are some of the best books ever written on the topics of marketing and advertising. They are arranged alphabetically. Please don’t consider this to be any kind of ranking.

  • Call to Action – Bryan Eisenberg and Jeffery Eisenberg

  • Confessions of an Advertising Man – David Ogilvy

  • Guerilla Marketing – Jay Conrad Levinson

  • How to Advertise – Kenneth Roman and Jane Maas

  • Magical Worlds of the Wizard of Ads – Roy H. Williams

  • My Life In Advertising – Claude Hopkins

  • Ogilvy on Advertising – David Ogilvy

  • Permission Marketing – Seth Godin

  • Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind – Al Ries and Jack Trout

  • Reality in Advertising – Rosser Reeves

  • Scientific Advertising – Claude Hopkins

  • Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads – Roy H. Williams

  • Tested Advertising Methods – John Caples

  • The 33 Ruthless Rules of Local Advertising – Michael Corbett

  • The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR – Al Ries and Laura Ries

  • Waiting For Your Cat to Bark – Bryan Eisenberg and Jeffery Eisenberg with Lisa T. Davis

  • Wizard of Ads – Roy H. Williams

    • Share This Article With A Friend.

  • The Relational Mechanic

    Every business creates its own professional reputation. Sometimes we refer to it as “word of mouth.” Given enough time, a positive reputation may be all that’s necessary for a business to become successful.

    But even word of mouth reinforces either a relational or a transactional mindset. Which means you’ve got to choose which kind of customer you want to do business with.

    Often I hear operators of small businesses say “That may be true for big companies, but my company is so small that I can’t afford to pass by any customer.” They’re wrong. Very wrong. It’s likely to be even more important to small business.

    Let me give you an example of how well this can work, when done correctly.

    Meet Spiro Dendrinos, owner of Mobile Mechanical service. You can’t get any smaller than a one-man operation, which Spiro became four years ago when he started his business.

    Spiro’s business model is simple: when you have problems, he’ll come to you. He fits all of his tools and test equipment into his car, and doesn’t have to maintain the expense of owning a shop.

    His entire advertising strategy was originally to set some business cards on the counters of various coffee shops and convenience stores. By his own admission this strategy didn’t get him any business. And why would it? Transactional shoppers didn’t see any “great deal” on his card. Relational shoppers had never heard of him.

    But when he made friends at the parts counter of the local automotive parts store, the personal recommendation of the parts man, accompanied by handing the customer Spiro’s card, did slowly begin to pay off for Mobile Mechanical.

    Then Spiro implemented the strategy that has become his signature, as well as his primary source of new work: about two weeks after he finishes working on a customer’s car, or tractor, or outboard motor, he phones to ask if it’s still working well.

    It is amazing how many times he hangs up with another job for the same customer, or a phone number of the customer’s friend or neighbor who needs the services of a good all around mechanic.

    By his own admission, for the first year and a half he needed a part-time job to augment his income as a mechanic, but as Spiro’s reputation has grown so has the demand for his services. For the last two and a half years Mobile Mechanical has been booked a full month in advance, and the work shows no sign of letting up.

    And as you might expect, Spiro gets calls from people who are price shopping. He simply quotes them a rate, and refuses to negotiate. Spiro knows the difference between the price shopping, non-loyal transactional shopper, and the more loyal relational customer who isn’t going to quibble over the last few dollars.

    Not that he seems overly concerned about charging everything the market will bear. He tells the story of arriving at a customer’s home, and having to clean the garage to create enough space to work on the car. He didn’t charge for the time he was rearranging the garage.

    He’s been known to inform customers that the problem they’ve called him to repair is covered under their factory warrantee, pack up his tools, and move on to the next job.

    When Spiro finds a faulty sensor at a cost of $25, and doesn’t repair or replace the transmission, stories of his integrity spread quickly, and contribute to the word of mouth which drives his current success.

    Former customers who’ve moved out of the area are willing to pay a serious mileage charge for him to continue to come to them in their new communities. (Once you’ve earned their trust, relational customers don’t easily give up their relationships).

    Life is good for Spiro Dendrinos.

    Can we take some lessons from Mobile Mechanical’s success?

    Certainly.

    1) Spiro’s business can easily be differentiated from his competitors. He comes to his customers – a valuable service that none of his competitors offer.

    2) Business cards and flyers left indiscriminately around the community accomplish nothing. If you’re trying to attract transactional business make an attractive offer to sell something, now. If you wish to attract relational business, use another strategy.

    3) Spiro does no “dollars off” promotions. They would attract transactional customers, which he’s already decided are not as profitable. He sees price promotions as temporarily boosts to volume while simultaneously sacrificing profit.

    4) He prices his service not as low as possible to attract more business; not as high as the market will bear to maximize revenue; but rather to earn a fair profit based on the value of his time. He does not deviate from his pricing philosophy.

    5) He recognizes that every time he deals with a customer, he’s contributing to his own word of mouth. Therefore, he treats every customer as if they’re his most important customer.

    6) He actively solicits additional business from his current clients, and referrals for future business.

    7) And most importantly, Spiro has a clearly defined definition of his relational customer. His attention isn’t diverted by trying to work with potential transactional customers who don’t match that profile.

    Given enough time customers will become aware of a lack in their lives that can only be satisfied by owning what your business sells. Then, having heard positive word of mouth about your business, those customers will come to your business and buy. Advertising only speeds up this process.

    Are you consciously directing word of mouth about your company? Relational shoppers will only be drawn by relational word of mouth. Likewise, transactional shoppers will ignore relational word of mouth and focus instead on the transactional word on the street.

    Which type of shopper are you building your business around? Do you know exactly who your customers are? Even more importantly, do you know who they are not?

    Do you have the courage to avoid those who don’t fit your customer profile?

    Share This Article With A Friend.

  • So You Need A Survey, Do You?

    Americans are just so gosh darn optimistic.*

    Ask ‘em. Ask ‘em what they intend to buy in the next year. Then compare those results to what they did buy last year. Everyone intends to purchase major appliances, a new car, or a Caribbean vacation next year.

    But somehow they just won’t be able to come up with the money this year.

    That’s the problem with surveying intentions. Your survey is worthless. People’s intentions are not an accurate predictor of their actions. When people are faced with real choices, their decisions are quite different than when they are questioned about hypothetical choices.

    For instance, a recent AARP** poll shows 48% of workers over the age of 40 say they are “somewhat confidant” about their retirement plans. Yet 52% of those same people have not even attempted to figure out how much they’ll need to live on. 22% of them have no savings at all.

    We all see ourselves differently than we act. People can’t predict what they would do. You can’t predict it, either. You can only observe what they do.

    A good question.

    A good question asks for only one answer. “Were you satisfied with our food and service?” won’t provide information you can act on.

    If a diner answers “no” was it the food, the service, or both that were not satisfactory?

    What about confidentiality?

    Questions of a sensitive nature require a degree of trust on the part of the respondent. Either make your questionnaire anonymous with no identifying information, or clearly state your confidentiality policy.

    Better yet, do both.

    How should the questions be sequenced?

    Some researchers have reported that the order of the questions can effect the way people respond, claiming that when general questions are asked before specific questions, the answers are unlikely to be affected by each other. Specific questions about crime, for instance, could change the degree of reaction to the more general “crime prevention” questions which followed.

    Other investigators have claimed just the opposite: that putting the specific questions first keeps people more interested in the more general questions.

    On one thing everyone agrees, however. Each question should flow comfortably from the previous question. Jumping to non-related questions tend to produce low response rates.

    Get rid of those multiple choice check boxes.

    Case study: a television/newspaper campaign to sell individual units in a condominium development. Over the first ten days of the campaign foot traffic through the models went up 350%.

    Imagine my surprise when the sales manager told me the advertising wasn’t working.

    How did he come to this conclusion? He gave every person who stopped in a questionnaire. The first question: How did you hear about Chancellor’s Row?

    Nearly every one had checked the first box: “Just driving by and saw your sign.”

    “Well, of course they saw the sign,” I said. “They’ve driven by here hundreds of times. This time, however, they pulled in and took the tour.”

    I had the cards reprinted with a big empty space where all of the check boxes used to be. When people weren’t able to take the easiest answer, and had to think about the question, we got answers that made more sense.

    Do you actually need a survey?

    Is it possible that some other organization has asked the same questions, and has already found the answer?

    Perhaps the Federal Government or an institution of higher learning has already conducted a similar survey and has the results already available. Check with your public library or the local Small Business Development Centers.

    * I could just as easily said “Russians are optimistic” or “Austrailians are optimistic.” This is a clearly human trait.

    ** AARP Bulletin / June 2006

    Share This Article With A Friend.

  • Four Media Predictions, part 3 of 3

    In the last two posts I’ve made some observations of My Network TV, the new News Corporation television network, and of MySpace.com, the News Corporation internet portal.

    News Corporation, as you know, is the Rupert Murdoch media conglomerate. That conglomerate exists because Murdoch has a history of recognizing opportunities. While the other networks are slugging it out in a zero sum game for the same viewers, for instance, he’s established sports programming distribution into China.

    Marketing consultants shouldn’t make predictions of what’s to come. If we’re wrong it blows our credibility.

    Then again, when we’re right, it tends to show that we do know what we’re talking about.

    Hummm.

    Let’s tie my observations in parts one and two of this series into some projections, shall we?

    First, younger viewers are spending more time online. And thanks to broadband (which gets faster and cheaper every year), it won’t be long before they turn to the web for longer form programming. I predict that News Corporation will develop programming content that will easily transfer from My Network to MySpace to multiple other new-media platforms.

    Second, as MySpace continues to develop, among members of the emerging generation it will become more influential than MTV.

    Third, I predict that as MySpace grows in influence among younger web users, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN will be negatively impacted.

    And finally, earlier this year Fox used MySpace to promote the Fox TV comedy Free Ride. Without buying ads, they managed to work viral marketing to launch the show.

    Watch for more. I predict this will become a textbook example of integrating content and using new media to recruit viewers for traditional media.

    One last observation:

    As of mid May, My Network TV already had 141 affiliates. Their combined reach is 89.9 million households, which equates to 81.6% of the U.S.

    Its still waaaaay to early to recommend My Network TV and it’s programming.

    But shouldn’t we all be watching closely on September 5 to see what happens after they launch?

    Share This Article With A Friend.

  • From the Department of Redundancy Department – part 2 of 3

    Anyone who has been the parent of a third, fourth, or fifth grader already knows the truth: it takes a lot of repetition for long-term memory to be affected.

    In most school districts students start learning the multiplication tables in the 3rd grade. How much is three times four? Right, twelve. And three times four? Good. How much is three times four? And three times four is…..?

    In the fourth grade? Again, how much is three times four?

    And in the fifth grade? Yep. Multiplication tables again.

    Why? Because it takes a lot of repetition to affect long-term memory.

    Of course, marketers know this too. Winning marketers know that it costs the same amount to reach 100% of the people 10% of the time, as it does to reach 10% of the people 100% of the time. The first strategy will fail. The second will succeed, provided, of course, that the message is salient.

    McKay’s advice: when forced to choose between reach (total circulation) and frequency, always choose frequency. Frequency sells.

    Why? Because it takes a lot of repetition . . .

    My favorite frequency media include outdoor, radio, and direct mail.

    It’s tough to get frequency in television. Or at least it has been.

    People listen to radio stations, but they watch tv programs. Viewers have no loyalty to a particular television station. In the minds of viewers, television stations are similar to their electric service or their telephones. They’re only aware of the provider when the service is interrupted. When this show is over, the viewers will choose another show. Maybe on this station. Maybe not.

    Historically, in television the only way to insure that a particular audience is exposed to an ad an average of three times is to buy three ads within the same program.

    But My Network TV is about to change the rules. Their first season will exclusively be made up of two telenovelas – drama which is scheduled daily.

    So, you don’t like much of what’s on tv these days? Too much reality programming? You like a solid tv drama but the networks have taken away The West Wing, there’s only one episode left of Commander In Chief, and they’ve killed off your favorite characters on ER?

    Hummm. Maybe you’ll be curious about My Network TV’s Desire or Secret Obsessions. And if you like either, you’ll be tuning in night after night after night… Monday through Friday, with a weekly summary show on Saturday (in case you missed an episode this week).

    I’m thinking that three or four weeks into either show, we’ll all know who’s watching. We can also predict that they’ll be around until the end of the show’s 13-week run. And, I see this as an opportunity to build frequency on television.

    Don’t misunderstand, I’m not endorsing My Network TV. It’s too new a concept, and way too many great ideas were stillborn in the marketplace. Plus, we have no idea yet how many people will be watching either program.

    But I will be watching closely September 5 when the new network launches.

    Will you?

    Share This Article With A Friend.

  • Television and the Short Novel – part 1 of 3

    Normally, I don’t get excited about the announcement of new programming, or of new programming sources. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not excited now, either.

    But I am intrigued with Fox’s new My Network TV, which will launch September 5 of this year.

    When UPN (owned by CBS) and the WB (owned by Time Warner) announced they would merge to form the CW this fall, it left all ten of Rupert Murdock’s News Corporation stations in major markets facing a future with no programming.

    News Corporation also owns the Fox network, who quickly announced the formation of My Network TV.

    A year ago News Corporation purchased MySpace dot com, a web destination that reportedly has eighty-five million users. So far, MySpace is known as a young people’s social networking site as well as a good vehicle for selling new music.

    So, it’s really no surprise that My Network TV is going to be targeted to the eighteen-to-thirty-four crowd. However, it appears to me that My Network TV is targeted to an even narrower (and faster growing) demographic: the eighteen-to-thirty-four Hispanic market.

    Across the US Hispanics represent just over 10% of all households. But in the cities that make up My Network’s initial affiliates Hispanics account for over a third of all homes.

    In markets like Southern California, nearly half of the Hispanic residents are under 25. And all across America the vast majority of younger Hispanics are bilingual.

    In many of those markets, the local Spanish language TV stations lead the market in ratings, and identify themselves as “Nuestro Canal” or “Tu Canal” (Our Channel or Your Channel).

    The new network is called My Network. Hummm. You be the judge.

    Let’s look at the programming.

    My Network will broadcast only twelve hours per week. There will be two serialized hour-long dramas for the first season called “Desire” and “Secret Obsessions.” New episodes will air every weeknight, with a weekly recap on Saturday.

    Each story will run for 13 weeks, and be replaced with another telenovela (Spanish for Short Novel). Univision and other Spanish language broadcasters have found this format to be a hit with their viewers. With the popularity of such television drama as Lost, Gray’s Anatomy, and Desperate Housewives, don’t be surprised if the English speaking market warms up to the telenovela format as well.

    Other shows in the works include a fake psychologist who falls in love with a patient; a reality show searching for top models; a contest show with prizes for trivia knowledge; the story of a pilot and an heiress who survive a plane crash; and a Fox-developed investigative crime series.

    Yup. I’m intrigued by My Network TV, because it appears to target young English-speaking Hispanics.

    And, just as Spanish words have become part of mainstream America, just as Mexican dishes have become regular American fare, the telenovela will become a staple of younger Americans, too.

    Share This Article With A Friend.

  • Waiting For Your Cat

    I was first exposed to Persuasion Architecture TM in a Wizard Academy class taught by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg. From my hotel that evening I phoned my son, the retailer.

    “Think about it, Chad,” I said, “you identify the personalities of your customers, and then you anticipate what they’ll want to know, or to do, in order to do business with you.

    “How much more money could you make if you could be planning ahead to give your customers exactly the shopping experience they want? What would happen to your word of mouth if they all left knowing with certainty that you understood them?”

    We brainstormed the possibilities for well over the next hour.

    You, Dear Reader, now have the advantage.

    You don’t have to travel all the way to Wizard Academy, near Austin, Texas on those rare occasions that the Eisenbergs have been available to teach that class. (Although if you ever get the chance, believe me, you won’t want to pass it up).

    No, you can simply pick up a copy of their new book, Waiting For Your Cat To Bark: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing, for only $19.99 (or $14.39 if you’re a member at BN.com; $12.99 at Amazon.com).

    As Jeffrey says in his introduction, “We explain the principles and framework … for tying all the communications your company makes into a coherent persuasive system.”

    He goes on to explain that chapters one through six explain how and why marketing has permanently changed. Why customers respond differently than they used to (chapters seven through thirteen). That chapters fourteen through twenty-two address anticipating what your customers require, and how Persuasion Architecture TM bridges the marketer / customer gap in chapters twenty-three through twenty eight. And finally, how you can start implementing Persuasion Architecture TM in your business.

    Bryan Eisenberg and Jeffrey Eisenberg, with Lisa Davis have written one of the best business books of this decade in Waiting For Your Cat To Bark.

    If you deal with customers, and you’ve noticed that they don’t react as they used to, you need to understand Persuasion Architecture TM.

    If you haven’t yet noticed, you definitely need to understand Persuasion Architecture TM.


    Share This Article With A Friend.


  • Differentiate Or Die*

    As the American continent was settled, pioneers took with them the things they couldn’t do without. Those things they could do without, they did without. This provided an opportunity for the first peddlers.

    A peddler would load up a Conestoga wagon with anvils and thimbles; frying pans and print fabrics; hammers and saws; gunpowder and fishhooks and filleting knives; coffee and sugar and salt. He’d then pull his rig up in the center of the new community and start banging a drum to get the attention of the pioneers. (This is the origin of the nearly obsolite term “drummer” to mean traveling salesman).

    Since there was an existing demand for nearly everything the pioneers had left behind, these early peddlers could sell nearly everything in their wagons, quickly, at a profit.

    As distribution improved, the general store became the more permanent variant of the Yankee peddler, the drummer, the traveling salesman. The outgrowth of the general store was the department store.

    The one constant was demand. Demand for nearly everything. Until distribution became cheap and easy, goods would continue to be in short supply. When a manufacturer could find a peddler, or a store, or a department store to stock his goods, the market would find, and purchase, those goods.

    But that hasn’t been the case in quite some time, has it?

    Distribution is no longer an issue. Now, we have choices. Limitless choices. With the maturation of the Internet, shoppers literally have the world available at their fingertips.

    This amazing proliferation of choices is a result of, well, choice. Choice forces more choice through the process of division.

    Take a single item, or service, say dining. Originally there were inns or roadhouses. Places where a traveler could buy a meal, a libation, or a night’s lodging. Then the process of division set in to create categories.

    Roadhouses divided into hotels and restaurants. Hotels divided into hotels, motels, campgrounds, and RV parks. Restaurants divided into fine dining, family restaurants, and fast food.

    Fast food became Mexican, Italian, Chinese, and burgers.

    The marketing of burgers has split into restaurants appealing to children (McDonalds Happy Meal and playgrounds), to adults (Have it your way at Burger King), to people with big appetites (Hardees and the Monster Thickburger), to people looking for value (The $6 burger for only $3.95 at Carl’s Jr.).

    The burger wars have even spilled out of fast food and over to TGI Fridays and their Meyer Natural Angus (TM) Hamburger – targeted at people willing to pay extra for quality.

    How long can this division process go on? As long as more suppliers want to get into the game.

    In fact, it must go on.

    Each division in turn becomes a separate category, which invites more division. Each division offers the consumer more choices. If we’re to convince shoppers to choose our products (or services) when they could choose literally anybody’s, we must differentiate our products (or services) from all of the others.

    This is contrary to what most people consider common sense. It appears logical that if McDonalds has the biggest percentage of hamburger sales, that taking a couple of percentage points from McDonalds could make a small company rich. We’ll just do what McDonalds does. Unfortunately, without differentiation, those percentage points simply aren’t available.

    As a consumer in the mood for a burger, would you choose a quarter pounder with cheese from McDonalds, or a comparable sandwich from the new ABC Burgers – a company you’ve never heard of?

    For that matter, would you choose ABC Burgers, or Burger King? Hardees? Carl’s Jr? Rally/Checkers? Business nearly always goes to the better known company.

    That is, unless we can come up with an excellent reason for you to choose ABC Burgers.

    I promise that reason won’t be “We’re just like McDonalds.”

    It helps to get inside the consumers’ minds and understand that every decision carries the risk of being the wrong decision. Consumers minimize that risk by trusting that their previous experiences will be repeated. Indeed, companies like McDonalds, and Burger King, and Hardees go to great lengths to insure that the burger they purchase in Bismarck will taste exactly like the burger they purchase in London.

    A consumer might buy an ABC Burger instead of McDonalds quarter pounder if it were bigger, or less expensive, or was grilled over mesquite, or used three different cheeses, or was garnished with ABC’s proprietary barbecue sauce, or if they offered a money back guarantee that you’d love their burger.

    All of these reasons are examples of differences.

    In order to persuade anyone to purchase an ABC Burger, we’ll have to come up with an excellent reason to buy one. And choosing among multiple options always comes down to differentiation.

    I presume you want to persuade people to buy from you. Does your company exist among multiple competitors? Then, we’ll have to come up with an excellent reason to persuade those people.

    Choosing among multiple options always comes down to differentiation.

    What makes your company different?

    *Differentiate or Die, Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition is an excellent book on this topic by Jack Trout. I recommend it highly.

    Share This Article With A Friend.