Courtesy of Flickr
One mistake I often identify when visiting with a small business owner, or inexperienced marketer is the desire to be everything to everyone. If you try to advertise in a generic way and you haven’t taken the time to really figure out what it is you do best, then you will be very disappointed with the results of your campaign.
I received training from the Center for Sales Strategy who teaches a 5 step model as well as studied other principles by Al Ries and Jack Trout. I will summarize how I use their teachings in order to help you make better decisions and get better results from your advertising. The first step is finding your niche.
Successful marketing comes from a focus on your strengths over your weaknesses. An example from a coffee shop would be that if 80% of your profits come from your famous danish sales instead of java, then you’re really a pastry shop. Another thing to consider when figuring out your identity is whether or not anyone else already owns the label of being the leader in that category. Where do you fall compared to your competition? What ever you do, don’t try to be the same thing as everyone else. That’s the opposite of finding a niche, but people do it every day! Really dig down to figure out a narrow point to focus in on. When it comes time to advertise, if you can’t say what you want to be to your clients on a billboard, t-shirt, or in a slogan, you haven’t figured it out yet. Don’t invest any money until you have your identity down pat.
Questions I often ask when trying to figure out a client’s specialty are:
- What product or service accounts for 80% or more of your business?
- What do you sell that makes you the most money? Is that also the most profitable?
- Even if people don’t realize it, your company is really good at (blank).
- Are you altering any of your product lines or increasing your services to be more competitve?
Before you can go on to identifying your target or position or are ready to advertise, you really need to know what it is that you should be known for. What is it that your clients or customers really need from you? The problem is that many business owners think that everyone should buy from them. Which would be fantastic, but isn’t realistic.
So, once you have a specialty or category figured out you can move on to the next steps which involve identifying who to target, how you’ll position yourself and then finally what media you want use with a creative message in an advertising campaign or promotion. The advertising and promotion is often the sexy part that people get excited about, but if you don’t stick to these marketing strategy fundamentals when planning your campaign, you run the risk of wasting your money!
Can you think of any examples of companies who serve niches really well?
These were the most watched programs or events during the week of 12/7-12/13 on local cable networks in Kansas City:
1. ESPN – MNF: Baltimore @ Green Bay, Monday, December 7th
2. ESPN – College Basketball: Kansas @ La Salle, Saturday, December 12th
3. TNT – The Closer, Monday, December 7th
4. USA – WWE Entertainment, Monday, December 7th
5. ESPN – Heisman Trophy, Saturday, December 12th 7-8p
6. USA – WWE Entertainment, Monday, December 7th 8p-9p
7. ESPN – College Football: Appalachian State vs. Montana, Saturday, December 12th
8. BRAVO – Top Chef, Wednesday, December 9th 9-10p
Since sporting events and specials are so popular, these are some of the things that will be coming up that viewers will be watching:
· Big 12 Basketball (Current-Mar)
· SAG Awards (Jan. 23rd)
· NBA All-Star Weekend (Feb. 12th-14th)
· Winter Olympics (Feb. 12th-28th)
· NASCAR (Feb-Nov)
· LFRC Academy Awards (Mar. 7th)
· Royals (Mar-Sept)
· Kid’s Choice Awards (Mar) – 1-sheet coming soon
Other program news of note:
· Season 2 of Leverage continues January 13th on TNT.
· Southland premieres on TNT January 12th.
· The 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards air simultaneously on TBS and TNT January 23rd.
· TBS’s Lopez Tonight will air new episodes beginning January 11th.
· Season 3 of Bravo’s hit series Millionaire Matchmaker premieres January 19th.
· USA’s new drama White Collar has been picked up for a 2nd season. Season one continues Jan. 20th.
It didn’t take long for AT&T to fight back against the Verizon campaign labeling the iPhone as a “broken toy” because it’s 3G network coverage is poor. You can read more about it here. I think it was smart to immediately strike back, but is the rebuttal strong enough to overcome the damage that has been done?
It’s no secret that AT&T had been winning the battle for customers because they had the most popular smartphone and while there are some very good alternatives to the iPhone now like the Droid , BlackBerry Storm, T-Mobile G1, and Palm Pre just to name a few, none of them will out ”cool” the iPhone. I do however love the fact that Verizon took their strength and ran with it! They turned the argument back around to the claim that they have the best 3G network in the country.
My problem with AT&T’s come back is that while they are trying to argue that they have a strong nationwide coverage area, they say they have the best 3G “experience”. To me, it’s almost giving Verizon affirmation of their claims by playing around with the label. Verizon claims AT&T’s 3G coverage isn’t very good and they respond with, “well ours is faster!” At least they do it with some humor. Directly going after your competitor by name and punching them in the mouth doesn’t come without the risk of getting a return blow. You’d better be ready for it.
At the end of the battle consumers will have to make a choice between getting the iPhone and dealing with AT&T’s “fast” but lesser than 3G network, or having the coverage they want with an almost-as-hip-as-the-iPhone mobile device. Either way, I get a kick out of watching these two giants battle it out! Don’t you?
What do you think of the campaigns? And where’s Kansas City’s own Sprint fit into this?
Source: Wikipedia
Is tomorrow Thanksgiving already? This month has flown by! I hope you’ve found yourself and your business as busy as I have. Before I go for the holiday weekend, I wanted to share with you some of the most popular rated programs from earlier in the month. Nielsen puts out these reports for us each week, but they now delay the information to include DVR viewing. If a viewer watches a program within 7 days of the original airing, it counts towards the ratings.
The most watched advertising supported cable programs in Kansas City from November 9-15th were:
- ESPN – MNF: Pittsburgh @ Denver, Monday, November 9th 7:30p-10:45p – 13.3
- USA – Monk, Friday, November 13th 8p-9p – 7.0
- COMEDY – The Daily Show, Wednesday, November 11th 10p-10:30p – 5.8
- LIFE – Project Runway, Thursday, November 12th 9p-10p – 5.7
- COMEDY – The Daily Show, Thursday, November 12th 10p-10:30p – 5.5
- COMEDY – The Daily Show, Tuesday, November 10th 10p-10:30p – 4.9
- USA – White Collar, Friday, November 13th 9p-10p – 4.8
These top rated programs rate as high as many popular shows seen on regular broadcast channels, but are often a fraction of the price! The ratings are based on the percentage of household viewers and are not based on any specific demographic. Are you taking advantage of some of these great shows to invite the viewers to do business with you?
I’m looking forward to spending time with my family this weekend and enjoying all of the great food! Have a great holiday weekend!
Lately I have found myself going back to the basics with many clients who feel like they need to either confirm that they are on the right track with their marketing and advertising or START OVER! What I find myself doing with them, especially as planning for a new year is taking place, is to go through a marketing strategy model that I’ll write more about here soon. But for now, I wanted to talk about an example of a company that was on the verge of something big, then finally nailed it!
It’s no secret that AT&T has been wildly successful in their cellular business because of their exclusive agreement to sell the iPhone. Their competitors have been struggling with a way to combat this iPhone popularity. AT&T made the gadget itself the most important selling point. Verizon has long been known for having the best network, but because the iPhone was so popular, people didn’t care so much. Then they came out with a TV and radio ad campaign that in my opinion really missed the mark. What Verizon wanted to do was show that no matter how “cool” the iPhone was, it wouldn’t have very good performance because it’s on an inferior network. Their horrible slogan…”there’s a ‘map’ for that”.
This was a blatant rip off of Apple’s very popular commercials that suggest that anything you’d ever want to do in your life has an iPhone application to go with it. The problem with Verizon’s tag line was that all it did was point out that the iPhone has a lot of really cool apps. I believe you should always point out your strengths and avoid giving your competition too much credit.
Enter the new campaign…I saw the ad below on TV the other night and found it to be a stroke of genius. Take a look for yourself:
Awwww! That sad little iPhone with all of its cool apps is on the island of misfit toys because its network sucks! That’s the point they’re trying to make anyway and I think this time it may stick. I found this to be a brilliant example of positioning a company’s strength and making the competition look darn near irrelevant.
How does this relate to your business? Every company should have a competitive advantage against their rivals. It’s something that makes you special or unique. When it comes to your advertising campaigns, this point should be burned into the mind of your core target so that your customers will know why they should be doing business with you instead of someone else. Are you taking advantage of that? If you’re not quite on the right track, maybe it’s time for a reassessment.
I’m in the process of upgrading my site to Wordpress. Look for more great content and an easier to navigate site soon!
NPR had a great story following the latest Emmy awards and I wanted to direct your attention to it. You can read it, or click their audio link here.
Mad Men won again for Outstanding Drama Series for the second year in a row! The premise of the article is about how there is more and more competition when it comes to video content either online or on TV, but for now, cable networks seem to be winning the battle and they’re doing it by creating the best content. The author recommends that the broadcast networks go back to the basics and start running better shows.
Read or listen and give me your take.
The following guest post is by Phil Brouillette from Time Warner Cable Kansas City’s monthly Newsletter June 2009:
How many times have you heard “you should continue to advertise even in a soft economy?” Chances are you have heard it more than a few times and most likely you have heard it from a media and/or advertising sales rep. Though it could be viewed as a self-serving recommendation, a recent study suggests that reduced advertising can in fact negatively impact consumer perception of your business.
The latest Ad-ology Research study finds that nearly 50% of U.S. adults “believe that a lack of advertising by a retail store, bank or auto dealership during a recession indicates the business must be struggling.” It also finds that a vast majority of the public perceives businesses that continue to advertise as being competitive or committed to doing business.
It is without a doubt a unique environment for most of us in business today. But there are opportunities out there. I recently went back through the book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout. I landed on law #15: The Law of Candor. Simply stated this law says that when a business starts a message by admitting a problem, consumer minds almost instinctively open up. Once the mind is open, you as a current advertiser, have the opportunity to insert a positive. The positive should be your selling message on how the current environment can benefit them.
If you plan on stayng in business, please don’t sit this one out until things get better. As C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research states, “it is critical to advertise in the current economic climate to maintain long-term positive consumer perception of your brand.” As their study found- “advertising appears to play a key role in consumers’ view of how a business is doing. By not advertising, business may be be sending a warning signal to current and potential consumers.” Be wise with your budget, but make sure you are still inviting people to do business with you.
Phil Brouillette is a Local Sales Manager with Time Warner Cable Media Sales.
Normally I focus my attention on this blog to TV and how local Kansas City area companies can use television to invite more people to visit their store, use their services, try a new product, etc. When talking to my clients I often discuss their website and what they are doing to drive traffic to that site, or in general how the site helps them get more business.
At the end of the day, all marketing and advertising is about telling your story. Why should people buy from you? What makes your business unique? Why should I buy something from you now? The reason I want to take a moment to talk about social media is because during my experience in advertising sales I have noticed a shift in the sales cycle. When I started my career in radio, we primarily used location and phone numbers as the way for the audience to take the next step in the sales process. Visit a showroom. Call to schedule an appointment. You wanted a good phone number that was easy to remember and repeat it several times in a commercial. That’s old school. Now, it’s all about a your url. Once someone sees your commercial and realizes that their life isn’t complete without your product or service they’ll go online to find out how to take the next step. Is your website easy to remember? If not, can someone easily find you with a search engine? Maybe you’re buying keywords, maybe not depending on how competitive your industry is. Companies will continue to use television to get people to want to buy something, or to continue to establish their brand. Today there is an extra step in the sales cycle that happens online. It’s critical to have a website that is easy to find and simple to navigate.
What do people mean by social media? Why is it important to me, a local business in Kansas City? Why should I invest time, energy, and possibly money into it?
I’m so glad you asked! 
My definition of social media is an online way to communicate or network with your customers, colleagues and potential clients in order to build a support system or community on the Internet. The basic tools available to build this relationship electronically consists of your own website, a blog, e-mail newsletters, a Twitter account, and MySpace and/or Facebook pages. There are other tools people use like FriendFeed, url shorteners for Twitter like bit.ly or Tinyurl, but to keep it simple let’s focus on having a blog tied to your website, a fan page on Facebook and/or MySpace, and a Twitter account.
Blogging
A blog is important because it is an easy way for you to be an expert and be able to post helpful information that your customers may be looking for. Is it time consuming? A little. You need to continue to keep some fresh content available so that your readers will keep coming back. But is it worth it? You bet! One of the best reasons to have a blog is so that search engines will find you easier. You can use keywords that are important to your industry in the blog and then when someone Googles those keywords, your blog will show up in the results! The more specific to your industry you write about, the better! Also, the more links you have from other websites to your site, the higher you will rank in search results. Go to other blogs that relate to your industry and leave comments. This will immediately give you free links back to your site or blog and make the search engines take notice. You might also gain more readers to your own blog in the process! If your content is valuable people will leave comments and now an online conversation has been started. Don’t forget, you’re the expert on whatever it is you do. Don’t be afraid to write about it. You can get free software loaded into your own website like Word Press or you can create a free blog at http://www.blogger.com/ to get started.
Twitter
So you’ve started this online conversation with your blog. Other than search engines, how are people going to know to read your blog? Twitter is a social media community where people are able to post messages called “tweets” that may not exceed 140 characters. You can include weblinks in your tweet, or attach pictures. Start finding people who talk about things that are related to your industry. I’ll use myself as an example. I started following people who write about advertising. I follow Tom Martin and Phil Johnson who write for Ad Age. I follow local advertising agencies in Kansas City or people who work at local agencies. I also follow people who write about blogging or social media like Chris Brogan. If you know me very well, you also know that I’m into technology like iPhones and computer software, so I follow Chris Pirillo who talks about all things Geeky. I follow most of these people on Twitter and I read many of their blogs because they write about things I’m into. This is the online community I’m talking about. When they post something on their blogs, they broadcast it in a tweet on Twitter and all of their followers or “friends” know to go take a look. People also just kind of chat back and forth about different topics that relate to their industries. Sometimes people write about silly things like the weather, their pets, what they’re going to do on the weekend, or their favorite restaurants, but isn’t that what we do in real life with our business relationships? I often talk about my family with clients, or activities I do with friends. That’s how we build relationships with one another. That’s how we build credibility with our clients as well because they get to know us! The real us.
Twitter also gets me back to the whole search engine optimization thing or SEO as people refer to it. Again, the more links from external sites you have back to your site, the better. Twitter is also being used as a customer service tool. If you want to know what people are saying about you, Twitter is searchable! You can set up a search for keywords, or your business name and whenever anyone tweets about you, you can read it. It feels a little like spying in a high tech kind of way! Why wouldn’t you want to know? I booked a reservation last night for a Hyatt hotel near Chicago. I’m going to be in a friend’s wedding and they have a block of rooms reserved there. If I need anything from Hyatt regarding my stay, guess what? I can tweet about it. Hyatt has an online concierge on Twitter! I bet you that they are searching Twitter for anything related to the Hyatt brand, so if I tweet that I’m unhappy about the quality of my room, don’t like the food, or just wanted to brag about how awesome my hotel is, they’ll see it and be able to respond directly to me accordingly. It’s amazing and it’s the future of customer service! Since I tweet from my iPhone, I’ll be able to have a conversation with them via Twitter while I’m staying at their hotel in Chicago.
Are you starting to get it? Have I recommended anything that costs much money yet? Well, not if you do it mostly yourself. There are agencies that specialize in social media and if you want to pay people to set this up and manage it for you, they can. BUT, wouldn’t you want to be engaged with your customers using these great tools? Of course you would!
E-mail Newsletters
Many of you are already using e-mail newsletters to promote your business or services. Great job! Keep it up. Once you have a blog, you pretty much have most of the content that you’d need for your newsletter. Maybe you could put a little more insider information in it though. You should be using your e-letter to offer highly sought information, or the newest product launches to your subscribers before the general public hears about it, or for special discounts available only to those that read your message. Make your newsletter something people look forward to getting, not just more junk to delete from their inbox. Chris Brogan does a great job of making his e-mail newsletters more personal and a deeper look inside what he’s doing to build his army of social media colleagues. The content in his e-mails is different than his blogs, so I look forward to reading it. I subscribe to all kinds of e-letters and I actually read most of them. I begin deleting them when they start looking and sounding like spam. I’m talking about you Harrah’s, Caesar’s Palace, and yes, even you Venetian!
Social Networking
Finally, MySpace and Facebook are not just dating sites! I see more music industry people still using MySpace becuase people can listen to their products there. Facebook seems to be dominating with overall members and businesses by recent trends. The other day I became a fan of The Grass Pad. It’s a local outdoor lawn and garden company… “The Grass Pad’s High On Grass”! Why would I be a fan? Because now I get alerts when they’re having a sale, or when I should be buying a certain type of fertilizer for my lawn. They have information that I want. Are you catching on? I’m into have a good looking lawn and they’re experts on teaching me how to do this. I’m a loyal customer, a fan. I don’t buy cheap grass seed or lawn chemicals at Home Depot because they are not my local expert, The Grass Pad is.
That’s how you do it! (There’s so much more, but these are the fundamentals.) Social networking isn’t just for bloggers and it’s not just for big national companies. Quite the opposite actually. It’s for niches. It’s for extending your local community and brand online. Success doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve been blogging and tweeting for less than a year. I rarely have comments on my blog, (and rarely any readers! ) but if you Google my name, I’m starting to show up. Quite amazing given that my name is very common and Raymartin.com/net is a company that specializes in near nude pictures of female body builders. (How could I make that up! This is why I chose MyAdGuy.com. It was easy to remember, available, and said something about what I do.) That being said, people are starting to have an interest in what I say on my blog, or tweet on Twitter. And why shouldn’t they? I’m an advertising expert. So, what are you waiting for? Come join the online conversation!
I welcome your questions and comments! After reading this, you should know how to find me!
I ran across this success letter from one of my clients today and thought it was a great testimony of not only the products that I often recommend to others, but also of the fact that it was well written. It reminded me that I should be using these letters more often!
With Dinosaurs – The Live Experience’
to Kansas City in early June, the marketing
campaign included a cross-promotional
schedule with TWC Media Sales
that utilized spot advertising, Video on
Demand and an enter-to-win web contest.
‘Our 30-second commercials did a great
job of teasing the event, but I think
guests didn’t quite understand the enormity
of the show. With our three-minute
clip airing on Video on Demand, viewers
were able to watch additional behind-the
scenes footage about the show and learn
how the dinosaurs actually worked. My
follow-up report showed over 300 VOD
viewings. In addition, we interwove a
dinosaur trivia web contest into the campaign.
Nearly 200 participated in the
contest to win ticket packs to the show.
Cable was a great value to maximize our
advertising dollars. It allowed us to target
by location a diverse group of potential
guests with more disposable income.
Thanks to this multi-faceted campaign
using cable networks, VOD and Internet,
Time Warner Cable put us over the top of
reaching our sales goal!’
Manager, Communications & Marketing
AEG Sprint Center”
