May 11, 2021 | Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales
The old cliché that a picture is worth 1,000 words is disproved again and again, by all the pretty websites and dumb marketing collateral material out there, that is useless.
While pictures have a valuable role in grabbing attention, the real commercial value is delivered by the words that express the value proposition and call to action to the potential customers who turn up.
We are in a competition to gain and keep attention, then to move the reader to a decision. That decision may be that your product deserves a place on the ‘maybe’ list, or to the next point in the sales process. A successful sales process is always moving the potential customer towards the transaction.
Human beings scan their environment, instinctively leveraging their mental frameworks to filter out the stuff that does not matter. Our subconscious organises and filters information, leaving cognitive capacity to deal with the threats and opportunities that emerge. We do not see anything that does not have to do with survival, love, relationships, doing better, some sort of challenge, danger, unless for some reason, it is specifically relevant to us at that moment.
When someone sees our website or collateral material, their brain on autopilot filters out the stuff that is not directly relevant. Somehow, we need to cut through those automatic barriers that exist.
Story is the best way of doing so.
They are the evolved format that can deliver the information that reflects ambition, challenges, a plan to conquer the challenges, unexpected hurdles, and last-minute success. This is the standard format of every story, if you do not use it, or some derivation, the reader will skim over your site and not take in anything at all, effectively not ‘seeing’ it.
Formulas are the assembly of best practise; we use them because they work.
That is why stories work, it is the formula that feeds into the cognitive patterns used by our brains.
The key to a story is clarity. Who is the hero, what he/she must do to win, what happens if he/she does not win, what happens when they do?
What problem do they have, what does the outcome look like when the problem is solved?
Noise kills, the noise from inside and outside our business.
From inside, the clutter we spray around, the ambiguity of what we are saying confuses what others hear.
We need to clarify the message.
How many potential customers go elsewhere because they do not understand how you can help them?
When you need someone to help cut through your clutter, give me a call. It will be a worthwhile investment in clarity.
Mar 22, 2021 | Communication, Marketing
Several of the advertisers who bought large packages of advertising in association with the recent Australian Open did themselves a massive disservice.
The ‘Exposure Effect’ is a double-edged sword.
We are more likely to be positively impacted by things with which we are familiar and comfortable. That is how advertising works. However, the flip side is that we also become bored and potentially contemptuous of those things with which we are extremely familiar and dismiss them.
Colloquially, we refer to this as ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’.
The marketing wallies at ANZ ignored, or perhaps more likely did not understand, this flip side of the ‘exposure effect’. They were persuaded to spend up big on ad spots by channel 9 sales executives in the mistaken understanding that ‘more is better’.
Those who watched the Open were probably at least sports fans if not specifically tennis fans, and they probably watched a lot of the tennis.
The negative impact of the exposure effect can come into play as early as after 5-7 exposures to an advertisement. Most of the viewers would have got that in the first hour or so of watching, after which, the familiarity desired by the advertiser, risked becoming something else entirely.
Diminishing returns from the advertising investment.
The ANZ advertising was grossly overexposed. The use of Dylan Alcott being introduced by the hosts ‘mucking around’ with his phone, seemed to be in almost every ad break.
Clearly the ANZ made a significant investment. It would have been much better used if some of that investment had been directed towards a variety of creative executions of their brand, rather than being all the same quickly boring, becoming really annoying, execution.
Personally, I became so annoyed, had I an account with the ANZ, I might have run down to the branch and closed it, as doing business with a bank that wasted so much money does not seem to be a good idea.
Not the impact I assume their naive marketing people were hoping for.
Mar 16, 2021 | Branding, Communication, Marketing
Is it wider distribution, provocative headline on a Facebook ad, play with price, or find a celebrity to endorse it for free???
It is not any of these, or many other options that probably sprang to mind.
The answer is both simpler, and way harder than any of these, and very few do it well
It is defining the problem you are solving in a way that adds value for a customer.
Unless you define the problem, how can you propose/define a solution that someone is prepared to pay for?
People buy solutions to the problems they see and feel, but often go unrecognised before they are pointed out. Those solutions to unrecognised consumer problems are always the outcome of deep research, creativity, and usually experimentation by the marketer.
Who knew we needed a better MP3 player before Apple produced one?
Often the challenges we face as marketers are hidden deep in our psychology
There are the functional problems we solve, which is where most of us stop.
Then there are the deeper psychological needs that are met in some way by the stuff we buy, that do not receive the same consideration, but they are the real drivers.
It is in that intersection of the functional and psychological that the gold lies hidden.
Who really needs a Rolls Royce to get from point A to point B?
Nobody.
Functionally we do not need the Roller, a battered up Hyundai will do the job. However, arriving in a Roller says something about us, it sets a frame by which many others will judge us, which fulfils deep psychological needs.
Food, shelter, community, reproduction, safety, status, these things all play a role in the things we surround ourselves with.
You go out and buy a Harley Davidson, you are making a statement, not buying a bike for transport.
Does the person who joins Weight watchers join just to lose weight, to fit into last year’s dress, or to feel better about themselves, to attract a mate, impress their friends and peers with the great new bod?
Untangling this can lead you to your value proposition, but it is a tough road, and not often travelled well.
How do you define the hidden problem that has your product as the only solution?
Combine the ideal customer profiling, the typical ‘who, what, where, and why’ analysis, with a ‘Pains, Gains, Jobs to be done’ analysis.
Then work, test, research, iterate, and with patience, you may end up with the profile of a customer that when they hear your pitch immediately thinks: ‘they are talking to me’.
2 examples from my personal experience.
Meadow Lea margarine. Meadow Lea was one of many margarine brands launched after the regulations dictating what could and could not be added to vegetable oils to make a spread, and production quotas, were finally removed in 1975. Initially the brands concentrated on the obvious benefits of margarine: spread-ability, price, and a healthy low cholesterol alternative to butter, and the market expanded rapidly. Meadow Lea marketing management spent a lot of time and effort really understanding the drivers of the choice of brand, while competing with everyone else. In the mid 70’s, women were entering the workforce in large numbers for the first time, combining the paid work with the traditional roles of housewife, cook, cleaner and mother. The result was an exhausted and frustrated cohort of younger women wanting their effort to be recognised. ‘You ought to be congratulated’ expressed that psychological need exactly. It resulted in Meadow Lea rapidly going to market leadership by a very wide margin at premium prices.
Local bookkeeper. An acquaintance who ran a local bookkeeping service for small businesses was having real trouble gaining clients. He tried all sorts of tactics from local advertising, networking at every opportunity, to bashing the shoe leather door to door. Nothing worked. Over a coffee one day reflecting on this, we arrived at the conclusion that his service was not about book-keeping, but about saving the owners of small businesses the time and frustration they were expending on their books, that could be better used elsewhere. To him, this seemed like a revelation. The next time I saw him was at a local networking event, at which, when his turn came to spend 30 seconds spruiking his business, his opening line was ‘My job as a book keeper is to help my clients get more sex’. Once the laughter died down, he explained that owners of SME’s had much better things to do with their time than book-keeping, so why not let him do that for them while they spent their time in other ways. He remains successful, although, sensibly, there is no reference to sex on his website.
When you need assistance digging down to the real motivators of activity, call someone who has done it before, successfully.
Feb 11, 2021 | Change, Communication
Pretty obviously, ‘Free’ is the most powerful word in marketing. It is the best way to get people to trial a product, make the trial free, no risk, no commitment, no money. However, it is hard to make ‘free’ commercially sustainable.
The second most powerful word is ‘because’
‘Because’ gives people permission to do something they would not normally do, it provides the reason to change behaviour, it removes the discomfort of the change, we can always revert, we just did it this once ‘because…’
Next time you want to go to the front of the line in a supermarket, try asking politely, and using ‘because’ when you ask. The addition of some emotive reason after the because will increase the likelihood of an ‘OK’ even more.
E.g. ‘would you mind if I go in front of you‘ success rate about 20%
‘Would you mind if I go in front of you because I only have a few things” success rate about 40%
‘Would you mind if I went in front of you, because I only have a few things and my sick mother is waiting in the car‘ success rate about 80%.
Try it the next time you want someone to do something for you.
Header cartoon courtesy of Scott Adams, and Dilbert.
Nov 4, 2020 | Communication, Management
There is a lot of useful, standard advice about how to ensure meetings are productive. Have an agenda, a time limit, ensure only those who can contribute to the discussion attend, ensure there is agreement about what next, ensure everyone has the opportunity to speak, and so on. There is one more structural item not usually noted, that I have found to work well.
1/3, 1/3, 1/3.
The agenda is structured into thirds, as is the time allocated.
The first third is addressing the past. You cannot change it, but you must understand it, and absorb any lessons. This part of most discussions is often where the time is consumed, leaving inadequate time for the more important discussions about what next.
The second third is discussion about what is immediately in front of you. Depending on the meeting, this may be a day, week, month, and so on. There are decisions to be taken that impact the immediate future, take them.
The third is a discussion on the longer term items that will impact the group in the meeting. Depending again on the level of the meeting, this can be anything from how to fill a hole in the production team when Jim takes long service leave, to discussion of the potential risks of a long term threat to the enterprise.
The format works at all levels, offering a framework within which to manage the meetings, from a 10 minute stand-up at the beginning of the shift, to board meetings, and the three day strategy session held annually.
It is the responsibility of the meeting chairperson to manage the time and agenda coverage, but the general recognition that the 1/3 structure will be used, just makes that job a bit smoother.
Once again, with thanks to Scott Adams, I have called on the wisdom of Dilbert for the header.
Oct 21, 2020 | Branding, Communication
Almost every ‘About us’ dropdown on websites is, as expected, about the owner of the website.
Who started the company, where they went to school, how they came to be in Sydney, Seattle, or Bullamakanka, how great you are, and some soppy stuff about your story. How you pulled yourself out of adversity, and became successful, all meant to build empathy.
Well, mostly it fails badly.
Why?
People are not really interested in your story. They may listen, may even feel for you, but what they are really interested in is what you can do for them, what useful information you can provide, what problem you solve, and the impact of that solution on their lives.
Why else would they be on your website?
When they arrive for a look, you have only a few seconds to engage them, wasting those precious seconds by talking about yourself does not seem to me to be too smart!
So, make your ‘About Us’ page really about them
How you can solve the problem they have, how and why working with you and your product will deliver them success.
Go through the bio’s of employees you may have on the page and do the same thing. What is it that each person brings to the table that solves the problem the potential customer.
Focussing on yourself might create a little empathy, but that is well short of genuine interest and a willingness to give you money to solve a problem they have.
Call me assistance thinking about this stuff.
