Posts filed under ‘Positioning’
Word of Mouth From the Inside Out
Navel Marketing helps create organizations worth talking about and then arm customers to spread the word. On the surface, this may seem like a simple enough task, but too many companies today focus the majority of their efforts on how to get the word out with little thought as to why someone would care. Whether you choose to use more traditional tactics, such as advertising, or new methods, such as social media, your target market needs to know why you matter before they invest any time or emotion in your brand.
Marketing today is about meaning. Customers buy products but evangelists buy causes. You have to mean something in the marketplace before someone will take notice of your communications and, most importantly, tell others about them. Navel Marketing helps you develop the inner tools that create meaning for your customer, such as a cause, a unique and compelling position, a culture that reflects your cause, a simple repeatable message, a viral customer experience, and more. We then implement word-of-mouth marketing tools to help arm your customers spread the word.
E-Book Readers Are For Influencers
Recently, I was struck by a statistic that was highlighted in a July New York Times article. The article pointed out the fact that Amazon.com, one of the nation’s largest booksellers, is now selling more e-books than hard covers for the first time in history as of the second quarter of 2010. In fact, it was selling almost 1 1/2 times the number of e-books to hard covers. This trend doesn’t show any sign of slowing down either. In the 4 weeks prior to the article, that ratio was approaching 2 e-books to every hard cover.
Many credit the proliferation of e-book readers such as Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Sony’s Reader, or Apple’s iPad for driving the consumption of e-books. Though Sony’s Reader has been out for several years, it was the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle in time for the Christmas shopping season in 2007 that launched this rapidly growing trend. The combination of hardware, content, and wireless access was the missing spark that lit the e-book powder keg. It is no coincidence that what started it all was a product called the “Kindle”.
As the proud owner of a Nook, I am amazed at how easy it is to buy, read, and share e-books. I have always been an avid reader (in my adult life anyway), however, I read significantly more with the device than I did before. There are always free e-books that are on promotion and many authors are even giving away the first book in a series in order to get you hooked (I can attest to the fact that it works). I have an e-wishlist with 30 books on it and add one every time I hear about a new book that interest me. Sometimes when I am just sitting around (which isn’t often) or waiting for a plane and get the hankering to read, I just surf the Barnes & Noble eStore to see what’s available.
However, there is an even bigger reason for the growth in e-book sales. In fact, it reminds me of a client I had in another industry. Roaring Springs Water Park is the largest water park in the Northwest. Their season pass program gave the deepest discount to its customers and they considered getting rid of the program. What we did was help them understand that those people who buy season passes were the influencers. They were people who were so passionate about Roaring Springs, they knew they would come to the park enough to warrant a season pass.
Instead of doing away with the season pass program, we helped them add significantly more value through added perks and offerings. One of those was Buddy Tuesdays, where season pass holders could bring a friend for $10. They also stayed open an extra hour on Mondays, just for season pass holders as well as offered a 4th of July BBQ for $1 – again, just for those who were members of “the club”. The result – increased season pass sales and a 30% jump in profit the first year from people who would not only come to the park, but stay longer and spend more money.
How does this relate to e-books? Those who purchase e-book readers are like season pass holders at Roaring Springs. These are the influencers and evangelists. These are those who read so often that they know an e-book reader will be worth the investment. As such, they are shifting their reading habits from regular books to e-books and the book sellers as seeing the shift.
How are Amazon and Barnes & Noble appealing to this crowd? By offering a package of value that goes beyond just buying books cheaper. Those who own e-book readers are part of a club. They get special deals, can lend books to friends, and (in the case of Barnes & Noble) even have dedicated content when you bring your Nook into a store.
What does this mean for the future of the industry? Books will never go away, however, as your influencers and evangelists shift their reading habits you will continue to see a shift in the balance of power. Before, the publishing and distribution process was controlled by a select few. Now e-book readers are making it much more simple to publish and distribute your intellectual property. Barnes & Noble even has a new program called Pubit! that allows to publish your e-book directly to their library. Amazon has its Digital Text Platform which accomplishes the same thing. ePublishing sites like YUDU and Scribd make self-publishing simple and social. The iPad even allows you to have all these ePublishing libraries on one device.
When your influencers are on the move, so goes your industry. The publishing industry is seeing a seismic shift similar to digital music, television programming, and movies on demand. Some might say these earlier movements paved the way. However, one thing is for sure – the book industry is changing forever. Who will lead and who will follow? Who will be caught saying, “it’s just a passing fad”? How will the democratization of publishing affect the quality of the content? All these questions and more have yet to be answered.
Where do you think the growing demand for e-books will take the industry?
Marketing is About What You Are NOT
I have been lucky enough to work with companies large and small. Each does have unique challenges depending on market size, industry, and business life cycle. However, no matter the size of the company, it seems everyone struggles with many of the same problems. For instance, every company has to develop something worth talking about before prospects and customers will tell others about it.
One principle which is true no matter the size is that marketing is as much about what you are NOT as it is about what you ARE. No matter the size of the company, it seems everyone struggles with focus. This became apparent again during a recent workshop I conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for senior marketing executives at Pfizer, Abbott, and Phillip Morris. No matter what industry you in, the natural inclination is to cast a wide net. The prevailing thought is that if you focus your efforts, you risk alienating a portion of the market. In fact, the opposite is true in marketing. The more you narrow your focus, the more you broaden your appeal – because you mean something.
This means there is more power in being the company that specializes in software for the education market rather than the general market. There is more power in being the legal firm that specializes in IRS tax issues than the firm that does everything. There is more power in being a marketing firm that specializes in digital marketing rather than being a “full service” agency. It gives your employees a direction and your passionate customers something to tell their friends.
When you sit down as a team (or possibly a team of one) to create your marketing plan, don’t just determine what you are, decide what you are not. This takes discipline, self-awareness, and the slaughtering of a few sacred cows. However, especially when you are introducing a new product, division, or company, focus becomes critical to staking your claim and establishing a brand.
What DON’T you do?
Marketing From The Navel
I often get asked about our strange name. Many times I even get blank stares when I explain the term “navel-gazing”. However, I chose the name of my company and my book very carefully, and it wasn’t just because I wanted to make people giggle (OK, it was partly that).
For those who know me, they know I have worked with dozens of companies all over the world. Through my experiences, I have seen both amazing successes and giant failures (and been involved in both). Throughout these experiences, I identified a pattern. For a while, I couldn’t put it into words. I tried “Honest Marketing” or “Transparent Marketing”, but none of those really fit.
I finally realized that each of the companies who were successful marketed from the inside out, where the ones who failed miserably were the ones who marketed from the outside in. In other words, the companies who succeeded developed their internal tools, processes, and culture and used marketing tactics to simply communicate what they had already become. THe companies that failed wanted their communications to reflect an image of what they wish they were or what the customer wanted them to be – they wanted to put lipstick on the pig.
There are many who come to Navel Marketing for our social media marketing services. Without fail, however, they have missed many of the steps it takes to create a company worth talking about. So we start at the beginning. We start by creating a cause, identifying what truly makes them unique, and creating a culture that reflects their vision (for a complete list of steps to create a “buzz-worthy” company, see the Navel Model). Once these steps are completed, the tactics are the easy part.
I have seen a lot written lately about what constitutes a true “social media marketer”. I even wrote about this fact a month or so ago myself. Many base it on their knowledge of the tools or their proprensity to approach marketing as a conversation. However, it is my belief that they are all still lacking core component – what are you going to converse about? What about you is worth talking about?
Whether you use social media, advertising, public relations, direct response, or any other form of marketing, it all starts with strategy. It all starts with creating a company worth talking about. Once you’ve done that, the rest falls into place.
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Idavation – How do you Market a State?
I had the chance to attend a local event yesterday called Idavation. This event is in its 4th year (formerly Kickstart) and was created by the local entrepreneur support organization, Kickstand, in which I have been heavily involved over the last 5 years.
I have been involved in the creative economy here in Boise, for a while now and it finally feels like there is a ground swell beginning to happen. Despite its myriad of national rankings in publications ranging from Fortune to Inc, at times it seems the success the Treasure Valley has seen is nothing more than a happy accident.
To begin with, while there is support from local government, the state government has gone beyond apathy to sheer negligence of the technology and creative industries here in Idaho. Our rankings in research, monetary support for technology, and tax incentives are abysmal. In one of our rankings we are even behind Puerto Rico. Not only does the state government, and Governor Otter specifically, show a complete lack of support for the industry that drives the majority of the state’s growth, at times it seems as if they actively campaign against it.
However, what I see now is a voice that refuses to be silenced. I witnessed entrepreneurs, service providers, and public officials come together together at the Idavation event to discuss how we can continue to grow these industries in Idaho. With a keynote from Gary Hoover (founder of Hoover’s Online) to kick things off, discussion centered around business creation, technology transfer, and how to overcome the negative side effects of doing business from Idaho.
Kickstand has been a fixture in the community for the last 7 years or so, however, now there are other pieces of the ecosystem falling into place. The Watercooler, which I mentioned in a previous post, gives this movement a gathering place. After hearing a couple of speeches from Mayor Dave Bieter of Boise, I firmly believe the City is not only behind the efforts, but donating funds and resources to the cause.
Kickstand has recently launched the Entrepreneur Resource Network (ERN) which is an online directory of service providers for entrepreneurs. A group of technology executives have banded together to create the Idaho Software Employers Alliance in order to encourage computer science education among other support for the technology industry. Funding alliances like the Boise Angel Alliance and Fund and the Keiretsu Forum have active groups in the area and are starting to fund new ventures. Groups have popped up to support and document the tech industry in Boise like TechBoise. Even the local university, Boise State, has changed its mission to become a “Metropolitan Research University of Distinction”.
Putting my marketing hat on, if I were to take Governor Otter through a strategy session, it would go something like this. First, can Idaho be number one in agriculture? It can hold its own, but it is definitely not number one. Heck, Idaho is almost not even number one in potatoes anymore since Washington keeps stealing its market share. The reality is that agriculture is the past. You still want to maintain a strong agricultural base, but if Idaho were to focus its efforts on raw goods, it would experience declining terms of trade. As the picture below shows, except for a blip during World War II, generally raw goods decrease in price over time. (By the way, I stole this from Professor Roy Nelson’s PowerPoint at Thunderbird School of Global Management)
However, what Idaho does have going for it are some of the biggest rankings and PR of any state for technology and business creation. Idaho and Boise regularly receive accolades from Forbes, Fortune, and Inc for being a technology hotbed, being a great place to start a business, and for being a great place to work and play. Boise has two key anchor employers in HP and Micron and now with the addition of Microsoft, has several of the biggest names in technology right here. It has all of the previously mentioned efforts working in conjunction with each other to create a ripe technology environment. It appears that technology and entrepreneurism are the future of Idaho.
How do you market a state? You pick what it is that you do best and you focus. It is the same principles that apply to any business venture. If politicians thought more like business people, then states would be better at positioning themselves to grow. If you try to mean everything to everyone, you end up meaning nothing to nobody. It is amazing what a unique vision can do to rally the resources of an entire state around a core cause.
Take a Lesson From the King
Bruger King, that is. As many of you know, I posted a blog about Burger King’s Whopper Freakout campaign. I thought it was a great example of a successful and well thought out campaign.
I happened to be reading in the Wall Street Journal this morning and came across an interview with Burger King Holdings, Inc. CEO, John Chidsey. It verified my initial thoughts by confirming that Burger King has indeed experienced a turn-around under Chidsey’s leadership. They got back to their roots (“Have it Your Way”), focused on their strengths (fire grilled food), and launched new menu items.
However, the thing that most impressed me what the number one thing he attributed to the turn around. According to the article, the first thing he said was “figuring out who our target customer was, figuring out who was the ‘superfan’ and not wasting our time trying to be all things to all people”. Sound familiar?
Why I liked the Whopper Freakout so much was that it showcases the ‘superfan’ (a.k.a. customer evangelist). However, Chidsey also made another very important point. Focus on the evangelists and don’t try to be all things to all people. In other words, the more you narrow your focus, the more you broaden your appeal.
Finally, I will leave you with the ’5 Tips From John Chidsey to Revive a Striggling Firm’ that were quoted in the article:
- Focus on two or three major drivers that will make the biggest impact on the business.
- Create and maintain a sense of urgency and risk-taking.
- Know your customers.
- Put the right employees in the right places. (Sounds like Jim Collins’ ‘Right People on th Bus’ concept)
- Know your operators and regain their trust. Great relationships are key in this business.
Sounds like Chidsey has helped Burger King finally figure out the formula. I think we can all take a lesson from the King.
When Advertising Can Make You a Mockery
Those of you who live outside of Idaho may not quite understand the college football environment in the state, so let me give you a quick recap.
Boise State hates the University of Idaho (long story). The University of Idaho hates Boise State with the passion of hell fire. Boise State has had one of the winningest football programs in the country since about the year 2000. Idaho has had one of the worst football programs in the country since the same time.
Let me also preface this opinion with the fact that I am a Boise State alum, although I would really like to see 2 great football teams in the State of Idaho. However, we have here a great case study on how not to use advertising.
The Idaho Vandals recently put out a poster of their football team that is… interesting, to say the least. It features the entire football team with their shirts off, oiled up muscles, and the word “Toughness” above them.
However, the case study lies in what the intention was behind the poster. As you know, most teams try to come up with some slogan every year. Boise State has run through a few like “Leave no Doubt”, “Amp it Up”, and one that I created that they stole – “Keep it Rollin’”. It gets the team and the fan base motivated.
However, creating a poster that says “Toughness” above a team that has gone 10-37 in the last 4 seasons is simply an oxymoron. At the very least, the goal of motivating the team and the fan base has had the opposite effect. They are getting plenty of buzz, but for all of the wrong reasons. They have been scoffed at on talk radio, in blogs (and here and here), and even some coverage on GayWired.com.
A lot of companies take this same approach. They think by simply creating a catchy new tagline, consumers will forget all of the horrible experiences they have had in the past (i.e. Qwest’s Spirit of Service). This is what you call putting lipstick on the pig. Sorry my oily friends, but the burger has to look like the picture.
The reality is that the University of Idaho Vandals need to earn the word “Toughness” by giving their fans a great experience (a single winning season would be a start). In the meantime, maybe a tagline like “We’re not Going to Take it Anymore” or “One Step at a Time” would be more appropriate.
And for heaven’s sake, put your shirts on!
Marketing a City
I attended a candidate forum last night for the city council elections in the city where I live – good old Kuna, ID (population 15,000). As listened to the speakers and talked with people afterward, it became glaringly apparent – cities need marketing just as any product or service does. The cities that surround Kuna (Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Eagle) all have identities. These identities have been created through a proactive effort to create and execute a vision. At the heart of hearts – it’s positioning. It was something that became apparent that none of the candidates understood.
Boise is the capital city with all of the amenities and fanfare that come along with that. Meridian is the suburban middle class with a smaller town feel than Boise and a booming commercial economy. Eagle is the small town for rich people, with strict planning and zoning requirements, unique restaurants and coffee shops, and – of course – The Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival (a.k.a. the nut feed). Nampa is the new frontier, where the growth wave is now cresting and residential homes are still affordable.
Where does that leave Kuna? It lacks a compelling identity. There is nothing that is uniquly Kuna that anybody outside of the town cares about – at least nothing that has been presented as an actual identity. However, Kuna has been the fastest growing city in Idaho, by percentage of population, since 2000. It obviously has something to offer.
Asking anyone in town, it comes down to that small town feel. Kuna is not right off the freeway like most of the towns I mentioned. It is buried back in the hills a bit. It is not a city you drive through. You have to want to come here. I believe it is exactly that seclusion that attracts people here.
The city now stands at a crossroad. It can try the “me too” approach and mimic one of its neighbors. It can continue with its “Gateway to the Birds of Prey” message, of which there may only be a handful of people that care about that. Or it can be uniquely Kuna. All of the same marketing principles apply here: target market, core emotional need, competitors, and differentiators. Even a city needs to look at it’s “brand” if it wants to accomplish long-term sustainability.
You Are Insignificant
I love this new Brand Camp cartoon from Tom Fishburne:
One observation and one suggestion:
Observation: The reality is that as marketers, we are so wrapped in our own product or service (in this case, pickle relish) that we don’t take the time to step back and really understand what our customer cares about. How often is pickle relish at the forefront of their mind? Maybe when you are standing in the pickle relish isle looking at options is it one of the few times it is on your mind. Al Ries and Jack Trout always used to say, “you position your product in the mind of the customer”. Well, how much of her mind can you honestly hope to occupy?
Suggestion: If you really want to create an evangelist, target what she really cares about. This is really where a cause comes in. Pick one of those big chunks of grey matter and provide value there. If you provide value to the customer, they will provide value to you. This means giving her something that she can really emotionally invest in and the result will be more sales of pickle relish. Take Roaring Springs, a local water park, for example. Instead of focusing on selling more season passes, they focused on giving mom’s daily meaningful activities for their kids. The result was more ticket sales, more food sales, and more merchandise sales.
