Posts tagged ‘Cause Marketing’
What They Don’t Teach You In School… About Marketing
Over the last couple of weeks, I have lectured in 3 different college marketing classes (I have 2 more scheduled) and judged a high school marketing competition. Based on these encounters with mushy young minds, I was able to make a few general observations about the status of our educational system as it relates to marketing. Some of the observations were good, and some not so good. However, I walked away with a general frustration at a lack of the solid marketing principles upon which brands are built today in our educational system.
Don’t get me wrong, while there are some great teachers out there who pour their heart and soul into helping students learn and apply the right knowledge, I think some are a little farther removed from the real world of marketing. In fact, I think it is changing so quickly, it may have passed them by entirely.
Based on my experiences over the last few weeks, here are a few key principles that I don’t feel like teachers spend enough time on in school:
- Positioning - It seems common sense that a class on marketing would start with “what makes you different than everyone else?” I believe that teachers spend WAY too much time on the 4 P’s (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). While these are the basic building blocks of marketing, you first have to understand where to build. I believe that any beginning class on marketing should be 80/20: 80% positioning and 20% 4 P’s. Most of the high school marketers built their plans around the 4 P’s but with no thought to differentiation. In my opinion (or IMO for you short hand freaks), positioning is the blood that runs through the veins of marketing. Thank you to the Godfathers of positioning, Al Ries and Jack Trout, for blessing us with this morsel of wisdom almost 40 years ago.
- Focused Segmentation - Again, this is another component that receives cursory attention in school, but is critical to the success of any marketing effort. The more focused your target market, the easier your job becomes as a marketer. Start with demographics, narrow your focus with psychographics, then pinpoint with buying emotions. As the ole’ cliche goes in marketing, “the more you narrow your focus, the more you broaden your appeal.” In my view, marketing is a very simple concept. Identify what truly makes you unique (positioning), find out who cares about it (segmentation), and figure out how they get their information. That leads me to the next point.
- Marketing is About Conversations - This was one of my greatest frustrations, with both high school and college students. Whenever they developed their marketing mix, they went right to TV, Radio, Billboard, Print, oh.. and some Internet stuff. Why? Because that is the way their parents and their parents’ parents did it. This is where the previous 2 pieces come into play. If you do any sort of of research, people are skipping TV commercials or watching it online, buying satellite radio or iPods so they don’t have to listen to radio commercials, and getting their news and information online rather than from the printed newspaper or magazine. Not that these can’t still be effective, but stop and think about where the target gets its information from first. Second, think about how you can talk WITH them, not AT them. The reason social media has exploded is because consumers want transparency, not carefully crafted marketing spin.
- The Cause - This is a theme I talk quite a bit about in my interactions with clients as well as students. In order for any brand to become outrageously successful, it has to create customer evangelists. However, most marketing efforts are focused on “speeds and feeds”, if you will. Customers buy products, and will buy your competitors’ products whenever they are cheaper or more convenient, but evangelists buy causes, or buy into causes. Evangelists have to be passionate about something in order to be evangelists. Who get’s passionate about a “good quality product” or “good customer service”? What is the higher, holier calling to what you do? What is the altruistic meaning behind why you are in business? And don’t start into your “mission statement” because that ain’t it either. What is the real reason people buy your product? That is your cause.
- Social Media - To the credit of the college professors, this is the topic they wanted me to come and talk to their classes about. However, most of them were clueless about how to integrate it into marketing efforts. They knew it was a powerful medium, they just didn’t know how to use it. I remember giving seminars 5 years ago about what a blog or a podcast was and now people come to me hungry for information on how to use social media tools. It is a nice change, but those who educate our nation’s youth need to be up to speed on what social media means to 21st century brands. They need to integrate case studies into their classes and, most importantly, need to be users of social media themselves. (As a side note, I was shocked with how few students knew about Twitter, but were avid Facebook users)
- The Simple, Repeatable Message - Unfortunately, most would insert the word “tagline” here but a simple, repeatable message is not a tagline. It is a one line answer to the question, “what is it that you do?”. Too much of marketing today is what Bill Bernbach called “irrelevant brilliance”. It is all about snarky quips and provacative phrases. They miss the simple answer to “why should I buy from you?” Creatives often step over (or on) the simple, repeatable message in favor of some mythical creature called “the big idea”. Don’t get me wrong, your marketing efforts should be wrapped around a consistent, compelling theme but you don’t need to create complex out of simple.
These are just a few of the things that I wish they taught more of, or better, in school. It would sure make what our youth are paying for their educations worth the price.
As a side note, I somewhat broke the rules in the high school marketing competition, but I did it consistently. I took the time with each team to enlighten them as to the principles above. Hopefully they walked away from our interaction with a little more clarity as to what marketing is all about. I thought that was much more important than how many points they received.
What about you? What nugget of marketing wisdom have you learned that you wish they taught you in school?
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3c4a4aee-d870-4330-8e30-a20d5de470d8)
A Company with a Cause
For those of you familiar with the Navel Marketing Model, creating a cause is the pinnacle of any marketing strategy. Customers buy products but evangelists buy causes – they buy into something. Whenever anyone asks me what they should write about on a blog, we start with the cause. When a company asks me what they should promote, we step back to the cause. When a company is struggling with their brand, we create a cause and rally around it.
In the transparent marketplace in which we operate today, companies need a “higher, holier calling” that goes beyond making money. They need to stand for something. They need to “make meaning,” as Guy Kawasaki would say.
Recently I was approached by a marketing automation software company, called InfusionSoft to become a certified consultant for their software. Once I investigated the product and its capabilities, I was blown away. This was something that I wish I had known about sooner, for both my own businesses and for many of my clients.
I had the chance to spend last week in certification training trying to understand the software and the best methods for implementing. What really impressed me, however, was the company itself. It has been around for about 7 years and started as a custom software house. It launched a product based on a project for a mortgage broker. Since then, the company has grown exponentially. It has attracted venture capital as well as the attention and endorsement of several well known authors and marketing consultants.
Early on, InfusionSoft figured out its cause and has had the discipline to stick to it. The cause: “Revolutionize the way small businesses grow”. So many companies avoid focus because it is difficult, there are so many opportunities out there, and they are afraid of alienating a portion of the markeplace. As the famous saying goes, “the more you narrow your focus, the more you broaden your appeal.”
As you listen to the founders tell their story, it is amazing to hear how they felt the pain of running a small business and how they built a solution around helping small businesses grow without adding staff and helping fix the inherent issues around follow-up failures in small business marketing.
However, it doesn’t stop with pitching their product. They have been touring the country with their Marketing Revolution Tour where they are teaching companies tips and tricks for changing the way they market. They sponsored a Fix your Follow-Up Tour with noted author Dan Kennedy where they paid to have Dan teach successful marketing principles in 4 cities within 4 days. The CEO of InfusionSoft, Clate Mask, even wrote a very compelling eBook that they are distributing free of charge on their website that highlights 9 proven techniques to double your sales. This is not to mention the dozens of other webinars, seminars, and speeches they give around the country to further the cause.
Their growth is a testament to selling the cause, or the InfusionSoft Dream, as they like to call it. This is a company the is prime example of cause marketing at its finest. Build a cause and then educate, advocate, and innovate around that cause.
What other companies have you seen that are built around a cause?
What should I blog about?
This seems to be one of the most oft asked questions I receive. It typically comes right after, “I want to start a blog.” Most often this comes from the fact that this person has heard the term “blog” so many times, they feel like they are missing the bandwagon and need to get on board. “Bobby has a blog so that means I need one too.” Well Bobby may just be more interesting than you!
Having a blog is one of the easiest things to do, but one of the hardest things to do well. The first shocker I give people is to tell them it is not a marketing tactic. Blogging is a way to create transparency and, most importantly, start a dialog. It would be like asking someone ” would you like to chat” and then after they say yes proceeding to give a long lecture about how so dang cool you are. Simply maddening.
So why have a blog and how do you do it right? The first step is to first have a cause – a compelling reason to write. As I have often said to clients, customers buy products but evangelists buy causes. They buy into something. And no, selling more stuff is not a cause. Come up with a higher, holier calling about what you do.
Step 2 is to explore the cause. Make it conversational. Explore the different opinions on the topic. Ask for input and feedback. Make it stream of consciousness.
Also, remember the key rule of blogging – make it compelling. That means you need to piss them off, make them laugh, tug on their heart strings, or spark their interest in some way.
Don’t blog just because some marketing guy told you to. Blog because you are passionate about something. Blog because you have some expertise in a particular area. Blog because you want to change the world in some small way.
There are a lot of bloggers out there with some great success. What do you find makes a good blog?
Riding a Cause – the Power of Movement Marketing
I need to preface this post with the disclaimer that this may come across as a bit twisted.
That being said, I was at a funeral last week for a cousin of mine. It was an extremely sad situation. He left a wife and 4 young sons ages 6 to 1. He was only 34 years old.
However, I saw a bit of marketing wisdom at work. A friend of his just opened a new Gelato shop in town. When he heard of my cousin’s death, like all of us, he was devastated and wanted to do something for this family.
So he hosted a night in honor of my cousin. All the proceeds he made for the entire day went to a fund that my cousin’s wife had set up in his honor. News of the event spread like wildfire via word-of-mouth (supercharged by things like blogs and Facebook). There were pictures posted all around the Gelato shop. His wife and kids were there to greet people.
All in all, it was a wonderful event and very theraputic. Lines were out the door the entire day. People came out in droves to honor my cousin and the great life he lead.
However, this Gelato shop owner may have made a brilliant move without even knowing. Now an enormous group of people not only knew where his shop was, but had a chance to try out his ice cream. Also, he was now associated with a wonderful cause and I would imagine that a significant percentage of that crowd that showed up to honor my cousin will be back to patronize the Gelato shop again.
He may have raised $15K for my cousin’s family, but he probably only spent about $1000 in product costs. His return will likely be tens of thousands based on the lifetime value of his customers. You simply can’t buy that kind of marketing any other way.
I saw the same thing happen when at previous firm that I co-founded, we decided to take up the cause of a popular football coach for Boise State University who was being courted by a major college program. We posted an online petition, we hosted a rally in front of the stadium, and we printed posters highlighting the accomplishments of the program trying to convince him to stay. In a matter of 1 short week, we had been featured in almost every media outlet in town. Although he eventually took the job at the other university, we had garnered ourselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in free press.
One of the most powerful marketing tactics available to a small business is hitching yourself to a cause or a movement. Giving can sometimes be very profitable.
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.
It All Begins With a Cause
I have worked with many companies and I am amazed at how many of them think that marketing is akin to Martha Stewart’s resurrected reputation, the alien landings at Roswell, or the Red Sox winning the World Series. In short, they think it’s magic. I don’t know how many times I have heard, “Can’t you guys just come in and do that word-of-mouth marketing stuff?”
The reality is that the formula is fairly simple. However, the first step can always be the most difficult: creating a cause. Customers will buy products from you, but evangelists buy into a cause or a “higher, holier calling.” This means creating a altruistic vision or “making meaning” as Guy Kawasaki likes to say. It’s a reason for being beyond just making money.
If you truly want to begin the process of change within your company, start by coming up with a cause. Whether it is “daily meaningful activities” like Roaring Springs, or “stick it to the man (a.k.a. Bill Gates)” like you Mac users out there, there has to be something that your customers can rally around. What’s your cause?
