It's loud in my head

I can't help but share this article from Boing Boing. Now, if you read the article and the comments you can easily dismiss this as an invalid marketing expereiment. Or as some contributors put it- as scam.

But can't a well crafted offer appear like a scam?

I think what we can take away from all of this is that 1800 people walked by and only 28 asked for a note. 28!
I can hear the marketing person already "well we got good response, 1800 people saw our sign." True, but only 28 reacted.

Keep this in mind for your next campaign. Just because they "clicked" or read it, doesn't mean they reacted. The noise that everyone contends with on a daily basis is loud and only getting louder.

Technorati Tags: Creativity Positioning Target Marketing

What's in a name?

Not to long ago I posted about Mr. Movies and their customer service. Today I received a second postcard in the mail with more coupons.

But why does it says 'Resident' in the address line?

The coupons are a good idea don't get me wrong. But if you have my information and are going to send me a direct mail piece, you need to include a name. A missing name could be considered tolerable if this was the first mailing to me or they had just purchased a list for my area.
But its not and I used a couple of the coupons from their previous mailing.
Didn't you track those Mr. Movies?

The Selling Point:
In my last post I picked on the customer service aspect of Mr. Movies and the next time I go back I guess we will see if its improved. Now I am a bit disappointed in their direct mail program.

Is there any pleasing me?

Yes, If your going to spend the money to print a direct mail piece and have coupons included, put your customer's name on it. This will increase participation and your response rates. In this case it would have been particularly helpful since I used the coupons from their previous campaign.

Names always increase participation!

Technorati Tags: Advertising Retail Target Marketing Mr.Movies Direct Mail Mistakes

Impromptu Marketing

Quick- answer this question: You have 2,000 wanna-be college students walking around a campus low on energy do you want to sell to them?

YES!

And that is exactly what Monster Energy Drink did!





Here is the story, about eight blocks away from a college that was holding an open house Monster Energy Drink had one of those fiercely modified vehicles booming out music and giving away energy drinks to help promo a concert with a radio station. Not getting the traffic they wanted and hearing that a college not to far away was having an open house, they packed up, drove over and set-up the truck along a tour route. To say the least they immediately attracted a crowd. I witnessed this first hand yesterday while visiting the college, and like a bug to a glowing blue light I had to go over. I got the story from one of the guys handing out the cans. It did its job, and now I might be more inclined to buy Monster whenever I need an energy drink.

It was the perfect storm for a marketer. Captive audience- young & impressionable- free product. This is a great example of thinking on your feet. Kudos to Monster Energy Drink, your clearly not the brand leader but your not willing to sit back and be a complacent No. 2.

tags technorati : Creativity Lead Generation Target Marketing Monster Energy Drink

The dreaded fishbowl

This weeks sales tool is not what you should add. But what you should take away. And smash!

I call it the "Trade show Fishbowl." You know exactly what I am talking about. It's that bowl you put out when you are at a trade show with the promise that everyone who enters could receive a free iPod or a gift card. You know you are guilty of doing it, I know I am. I will admit to it.

STOP PUTTING THE FISHBOWL OUT!!!

I am not sure when CEO's decided that the measure of success at a trade show was based on the number of inquiries you had received. But it happened and to respond to that added pressure we all started to put out fish bowls to garner more inquiries. What we find out is that we receive a whole bunch of names of people interested in winning an iPod. Perfect! If your in the iPod give-away business. Of which I am not.

Sure it's great to get inquiries while your at a trade show, but that shouldn't be the measure of success. Trade shows offer the chance to interact with your clients on a neutral playing field. They also give you a chance to scope out your competition and most importantly gauge the pulse of your industry. I could go on, but you get the point.

The Selling Point: Determine your goal of a trade show early on in the planning process. Make sure that you have at least one person from your sales team there to work the booth and qualify the inquiries on the spot. And most importantly, gather quality information for your sales team.

And the fish bowl...well I am sure that your secretary would love a goldfish.

Winning the renting wars again!

I like renting from a movie store. I like going in, picking out what I want, and for the most part taking it home when I want. It's the thrill of the hunt I suppose. Recently, I began to investigate why everyone I know is renting from Netflix and I wasn't. And here is where the I found out how David is slaying Goliath with bricks and mortar...

When I looked at doing the whole online renting thing, the biggest thing that turned me off and still does is that I don't get it right away. So for me I don't mind going into the store paying more and having it now. But if money is an issue, renting online should really be the way to go. Then the obvious answer would be to rent from Netflix. Now if your Blockbuster, what are you to do? You have spent years builiding brick and mortar stores only to see that no one is coming in to them anymore. Well my friends here is the answer. You take that advantage and use it again your competitor. At Blockbuster you can sign up to rent online. Then exchange it in the store, for another FREE movie while you wait. Why wouldn't I go with Blockbuster? Netflix can't offer me that.

Product driven companies have really two choices for a delivery channel. They can put up a website or they build a brick-and-mortar store. Which do you think is cheaper? So what do you do if your an established b&m store and your faced with increasing competition from a website. Namely what if your Blockbuster and Netflix moves in to your customer base? Well you take the biggest thing you have (and they don't) and lob it at them as hard as you can.

The Selling Point:If your faced with tough competition in your market, take your competitor's disadvantage and make it your advantage. Because right now, I don't see any reason to rent online if I get exchange it in a store. Now Blockbuster gets the best of both worlds from me.

UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE!
I just saw a new Blockbuster commercial last night (sorry I haven't found it on youtube to post yet), but they directly take on Netflix with the advantage of the "exchange it in store" option. Excellent job of leveraging your advantage!

Being outside the box

To some extent today your target market is outside of normal thinking. Look at the world we inhibit. Do you really think your target market reads a billboard, or a magazine ad? Nope, they don't have the time. So what about the social networks?

The increasing trend in marketing and advertising is to create a myspace webpage or something similar on facebook. Think I am kidding? Just jump over to myspace and search for your favorite item. Sobe Adrenaline (part of the billion dollar energy drink industry) has a page, even a new show on HGTV called "Living with Ed"has a myspace page!

The Selling Point: Are you taking advantage of all the FREE sites that are out there? And more importantly are you paying attention to what your target market looks at while online. The best rule to remember is that your customers are paying more attention to your competitor's site than they are your site.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!!
Nick just pointed me to a couple of Presidential websites. Both the John Edwards Presidential site has a link to his myspace page and the Tom Vilsack Presidential site also includes a link to myspace and facebook. These are two great example of expanding your thinking and working to grab your target market.

It's not a lead, It's and inquiry!

Too often we come back from a tradeshow or a meeting with a client and the first question from our boss is "so how many leads did you get?" The smart salesman says "none", because he knows a lead isn't a lead until you qualify it. Until the qualification stage happens it's merely an inquiry.


Brian Carroll, author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, states it best when defining a lead over an inquiry. "An inquiry is an interested party who has requested information and needs some level of assistance."

The first step in defining an inquiry is to have an ideal customer profile. Yup, that means your sales department and marketing department are going to have to get together and agree on something. But it's the most important thing they will agree on. It's your ideal customer, and it's vital to your marketing department to target. And even more important for your sales department to pursue. Having a universally defined ideal customer gives you a blue-print to qualify an inquiry. Your ideal customer profile should be based on previous leads (not inquiries) that turned into successful sales. It should represent your target market for your product or service. To put it simply, it should the person that you always want walking through your door, going to your website, or calling you on the phone to buy your product.

So what is a lead anyway? Well a lead is a potential customer who inquired about your company and fits your description of an ideal customer profile. Therefore, not all inquiries are leads. A lead has a high probability of turning into a sale. Where an inquiry has a low probability of turning into a sale.

Why all the fuss? Well if you feed your salespeople too many inquiries and call them leads your going to frustrate them immediately. They will loose faith in the marketing department and have zero faith in your leadership.

The Selling Point: Stick to the basics, qualify your inquiries, and give your sales people the best leads possible. I assure you that your bottom line will thank you.