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Posts tagged ‘Navel Marketing’

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.

November 15, 2010 at 3:09 pm bcritchfield Leave a comment

Word of Mouth Marketing – Dilbert Style

A recent Dilbert cartoon nailed most companies’ approach to word of mouth marketing:

After you have yourself a quick chuckle, you’ll realize how much truth there is in this simple comic strip. How many companies today have heard of word of mouth marketing as a tactic and decide they need to add it to their “marketing mix”? I know have had too many companies approach me asking if I can do some of that “word of mouth stuff” for them. The problem is that marketing doesn’t happen in campaigns.

Let me share a secret I shared with the attendees at a recent workshop I conducted. The secret to word of mouth marketing is this:

Create an organization worth talking about
Engage with your customers
Arm them to spread the word for you

Notice step 1 is to have something worth talking about. How many companies do you know who miss that first, critical step?

How do you become a company worth talking about, you ask? Check out the “innie” model for a few ideas.

Any examples of companies you have seen who seem to epitomize the comic strip above?

October 4, 2010 at 4:15 pm bcritchfield Leave a comment

Are The 4 Ps Dead?

(The following is an excerpt from the Introduction of the upcoming book Marketing From the Navel: How to Become a Company Worth Talking About and Arm Customers to Spread the Word)

The 4 Ps

In 1960, a concept was introduced by E. Jerome McCarthy that identified the four basic tenants of marketing as Product, Price, Place, and Promotion or, as it is more commonly known, the 4 Ps. Anyone who has ever taken a marketing class from then until now is taught the 4 P’s as the basic overview of marketing. These simple questions are what make up the basics of marketing:

What kind of product are we going to produce?
What is the right price for this product?
How are we going to distribute this product?
How are we going to promote and sell this product?

The purpose of McCarthy’s model was to further the understanding that marketing is much more than selling and advertising. In actuality, Selling and advertising only make up the promotion component of McCarthy’s model. According to McCarthy in his book Basic Marketing: A Global-Managerial Approach, “The aim of marketing is to identify customers’ needs – and to meet those needs so well that the product almost sells itself.” Easy enough, right?

The truth is that today many marketers are declaring the 4 P’s dead, or at least no longer relevant. There are many marketers who have even added more P’s to the mix, such as people, process, physical presence, or (as the word-of-mouth/social media crowd like to say) participation. The big question is can any product almost sell itself, or are there other critical factors in the new reality of the consumer movement?

The Missing Ingredient

While the 4 Ps offer a good basic framework for understanding the all encompassing nature of marketing, they are missing one key ingredient that has been made blatantly apparent by the consumer revolution – the consumer’s involvement in the process. The 4 Ps are segmented like an organizational chart, chopping up the functions of marketing in 4 bite-size chunks. But what about the fickle nature of the consumer? What if what meets their needs well one day doesn’t the next? What if your product is priced correctly, but so are the other 123 options on the market? What if the best person to design your product is the consumer? What if the consumer discovers your product is manufactured in sweat shops in India by 8 year-olds because someone walked in with a camera phone and then posted it on YouTube, their blog, and their Facebook page?

As I mentioned before, the world has changed since advertising’s glory days in E. Jerome McCarthy’s 1960s. However, many marketers have not. I have had the opportunity on many occasions to guest lecture in a university marketing class or judge a high school or college marketing class and am disappointed, to say the least, to see that our marketing education has not kept pace with the changing nature of marketing. Marketing educators still spend the majority of their time on the 4 Ps (with some attention paid to segmentation) and then dive into advertising. Some might say that this is indicative of the average age of the tenured professor, the fact that so few educators are practicing marketers within the wild west of the last 5 years, and some might even say it is a flaw in the system.

According to the existing system, educators lump this new reality of the consumer revolution into “interactive marketing”, because a significant portion of it occurs online. What they fail to see is that we need to re-address the underlying models upon which marketing is based. It goes beyond adding more “Ps”, but needs to address the new reality that we as marketers face today. We need a model that helps us understand the X factor that the consumer plays in the marketing process. We need a model that helps us connect with and engage the consumer in ways that they are most comfortable with. We need a model that helps cut through the clutter that exists in the commoditized markets in which we compete by tapping into the ability of human beings to influence each other.

November 2, 2009 at 12:14 pm bcritchfield Leave a comment

How to Arm Customers to Spread the Word

Up to this point, I have emphasized the Navel Model for creating a company worth talking about. It is critical that you do this piece first. As the great military strategist, Sun Tzu, once said, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Most literature in the marketing realm is about tactics. In social media, people go right to Twitter and Facebook. In advertising they go right to the 30 second spot or the full page print ad. However, in order to have successful tactics, the strategic pieces need to be in place first.

Once you have created an organization worth talking about, the next step is to arm your customers to spread the word. It doesn’t matter what the medium is, the process remains the same. The six steps below work especially well in social media, but also work in public relations, advertising, direct marketing, or any other medium. The six steps below are also not linear but are circular because they are not always done in order. By implementing the steps below, you can better find your target influencers, arm them with tools to spread the word, and amplify their efforts.

Publish – There is an argument in the social media space about whether content is king or conversation is king. The reality is that both are important for successful word-of-mouth. Content without conversation is advertising – it’s one way. Conversation with content is chatter. It is social media strictly for the social benefit. The first step is to publish great content. With all of the tools available today, there are many mediums you can use – it simply depends on your audience. If they have time to read and revisit often, then right a blog. If they are more inclined to download content and listen at a later date, then a podcast may be the best option. If they learn visually and your content is meant to be demonstrated, then produce a video series, or vidcast. For tools, check out WordPress, Libsyn, and YouTube. If you want to know what to write your content about, always think “educate and advocate.” Provide educational insights, how to’s, or insider information. When advocating, look to the cause you created in your Navel Model.
Syndicate – Now that you have produced great content, step 2 is to find all the places you can share that content. Obviously, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or other online communities are a natural fit, however, also consider how you can share this content in your advertising, PR, and direct marketing efforts. Link to it within your social communities. Use snippets in advertising. Use it to pitch editors to cover important topics about your company or industry.
Integrate – The amazing thing about where technology has come from in the recent past is that today, everything talks to each other. That means you can spend less time and get better results from your efforts. By integrating your blog utility with your social communities, every time a new post is created on the blog, it can automatically be posted to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. Every time you Tweet it can update your status in Facebook, both your personal profile and your business pages. The key with integration is to amplify your efforts.
Converse – Referring back to the argument under “Publish”, once you have great content, the next step is to talk about it. Talk about your content. Talk about others’ content. Talk about a recent lesson you learned in your business. The key is to talk. Dare to be human; to be more than just a brand. The more personal you can be, the more others will grow in affinity for your brand and share it with others.
Help - This is the concept upon which social media was built – people helping people. The Golden Rule is as applicable in social media as anywhere else. The more that you help others, the more benefit you receive in return. This is where you solidify your customer evangelists. It can be something as simple as re-Tweeting their Tweets or something more complex, like writing a blog post about them. You can answer questions on LinkedIn (and syndicate by linking to your content) or you can comment on another person’s blog. These are all forms of help.
Monitor – Lastly, one of the most powerful aspects of social media is that it is infinitely searchable. I can monitor conversations going on almost anywhere in the social web and (politely) engage in the conversation. I can measure how much chatter there is online about a particular brand. I can even automate monitoring so that I am instantly notified when a conversation is taking place. The ability to monitor online conversations is one of the most important aspects of the social web and the reason it is one of the fastest growing marketing mediums today.

With the six steps above, you create great content, share it in as many places as you can, make your technologies talk to each other, engage with others, be helpful, and monitor conversations in order to start the cycle all over again. If you have done your previous work, such as creating a position, cause, culture, and message, you’ll know what to share and converse about. While you may go through the Navel Model only once in a while, the above steps will be a daily to do list.

With the six steps above, you can adequately arm your customers to quickly spread your message for you. Which do you do already and which could you improve upon?

September 24, 2009 at 7:19 pm bcritchfield 3 comments

And… We’re Back

Due to issues with WordPress, we were down for about a week. Now that those issues are resolved, we are back up and running.

Also, the world headquarters of Navel Marketing have moved from Boise, Idaho to Phoenix Arizona. We have been a bit silent during the transition, however, never fear! There is great content, insight, and humorous quips on their way.

September 23, 2009 at 8:07 pm bcritchfield 1 comment

Be Your Own Media – Hollywood Style

We created the term “Be Your Own Media” when I was at BlueLine Marketing. We even hosted two well attended conferences entitled “Be Your Own Media. But what does it mean?

Simply put, it means that you no longer have to rely on traditional media to be the gatekeeper for your information. You no longer have to rely on “prayed” media to get your message out. With the tools available to you through social media, you can become your own media outlet. You now have the opportunity to speak directly to customers, fans, and shareholders.

Recently, I was impressed with a powerful example of Being Your Own Media. While Twitter has become a great place to stay in touch and build relationships, it has also become an excellent place to build your own media channel. You are no longer limited to paying for time on TV or radio, but you now can build your own channel of communication.

If you do some surfing around Twitter, you can find some of Hollywood, music, and professional sports’ biggest stars. For some examples, check out the Twitter pages for Diddy, Ewan McGregor, Ashton Kutcher, Maria Shriver, John Mayer, Gerard Butler, Shaquille O’Neal, and more. Why would so many superstars become active users of such a casual conversation technology?

One reason – to be their own media. As my buddy Ashton Kutcher said, “We are taking over our own tabloid media.”

When you have been hounded for so long by paparazzi and tabloid journalists, the ability to tell your own story can be incredibly liberating. Rather than being rendered helpless to fight the tabloids only in the court systems, they can now fight in the court of public opinion?

In my opinion, this marks the beginning of the end for yet another form of media – the tabloids. In addition, you now have the chance to get to know these celebrities on a much more personal level. Is it just more noise or is it a win for transparency? You be the judge.

February 23, 2009 at 9:01 pm bcritchfield 2 comments

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.

January 31, 2009 at 3:20 pm bcritchfield Leave a comment

Live, from the Watercooler…

The Navel Marketing tribe has moved into new office space in the new Watercooler building in Boise on the corner of 14th and Idaho streets. The Watercooler project has been an effort by the City of Boise, the developer Mark Rivers, and a host of sponsors including HP to create an incubation center for the creative economy.

The Watercooler provides office space, meeting space, and networking opportunities for technology start-ups and those involved in the “creative economy”. You can read more about the project here, here, and here.

We are proud to be a part of the Watercooler project and serve as a service provider tenant with these innovative new companies. If you are in the area, drop on by and we will give you the quarter tour (used to be the nickel tour, but with fuel prices, everything is going up!).

May 20, 2008 at 8:50 pm bcritchfield 4 comments

Under Construction?

Not to be alarmed, we are making a few “tweaks” on the Navel Marketing website. If you hit the website sometime in the next few days, it may look like everything from your basic Craig’s List simplicity to a Da Vinci Masterpiece. Bear with us as we customize the site to fit our new look and feel.

And thanks for visiting, by the way!

February 12, 2008 at 6:00 pm bcritchfield Leave a comment