Astonish Your Customer(s)

Why is marketing such a fascinating exercise

"Once we move beyond the simple satisfaction of needs, we move into the complex satisfaction of wants. And wants are hard to measure and difficult to understand." - Seth Godin

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

You can learn from a frog

Only in rare instances will successful brands specifically and publicly tell you how they got to where they are in helpful, informative and actionable detail, which imparts a lesson (rather than in a self serving PR kinda way). 

Frog Design is that rare brand, company, serial market-maker.

Learn from one of the best by reviewing the numerous bite size yet piercing case studies that cover 13 different industries.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Here's one method - what's yours

Why are cleaning products strictly functional and based on problem/solution? Can customers and cleaning products have an emotional relationship?

The founders of method products saw a real relationship between consumers and their home.

Your home is your second skin. Your home is as very personal.

They looked at categories like skin care as inspiration, where consumers often buy into a philosophy or lifestyle and then a range of products which reflect that sensibility.

The founders combined design elegance, a point of view and a free prize (green) to create a breakthrough line of products. 

It started with a critique of the current industry, a point of view and an unapologetic sense of mission about how it could be different and better. 

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

TY: Adam Morgan

Industry-wide spec

"There's no reason that your printer (or, your product) should be less elegant than a BMW Z4 Roadster. When you look at most cars (or, your product), you get the feeling there's one global manufacturer." - so says, Laurenz Schaffer of BMW Group Designworks USA

How true, especially in my industry (CPG)! I guess it is due to the relentless practice of "follow the follower" that pervades most industries.

Product design is the next frontier for brand innovation, especially for those brands that want to survive and thrive in markets where every product essentially meets the core needs (not wants) of consumers.

Alan Webber, co-founder of Fast Company magazine says that the real purpose of design is to "Solve problems, Initiate change, Announce innovation".  Sounds good.

Design is also a means to meaningfully and dramatically differentiate your brand or amplify the underlying message or value proposition that your product offers.

Take Dyson vacuums - James Dyson not only designed a breakthrough mechanism to inhale dirt, he took the added (some might call it unnecessary) step of adding a secondary dramatic design element by wrapping that mechanism in a stylish outer "skin". 

Design: it is not a nice-to-have, or a maybe, or a step at the end of the process to pretty-it-up - it's the difference-maker and a great path to validate a premium price. 

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

Deliver the present & Protect the future

Read the Ad Age article from Denny's CMO Mark Chmiel about the requirement of CMOs to deliver the present (sales), while protecting the future (build the brand).

Denny's and Mark faced what many marketer face - Denny's sales were continuing to decline and consumers were not excited by the brand. In fact, the 56 year old brand has 95% awareness and 90+% trial, which meant that consumers felt that they knew the brand.

How to re-energize and re-activate consumers, or better said, how to deliver sales, while simultaneously building the brand? Note the requirement for simultaneous results.

Denny's chose to adapt the highly successful Hyundai Assurance program to the Denny's business and consumer with Free Grand Slam day (advertisied on the Super Bowl). The result: over 2 million consumers visited Denny's that day.

You may think that anyone can give something away and get a lot of response due to the lift from a Super Bowl ad. You might be right but how many give-aways also build the brand for the long term, a la Hyundai (and only-time-will-tell Denny's)?

The article is more expansive than the above topic, as it speaks eloquently about the way CMO can, and must, stay in alignment with the CEO and the Board of Directors by staying sales focused.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.   

Bait-N-Screw

I am in the market to buy a car and have a very good credit score. I have owned and leased new and used cars. I don't think I have ever had a monthly payment less than $400 and more often it is closer to $500, for cars that cost about $40,000.

I asked the GM of a car dealership why I never seem to be offered the low monthly rates quoted in TV ads, that range from $199 to $329 for very expensive cars. He told me that those deals are for a short time period (24-36 months vs. usual term of 48-60) and for low annual mileage (8,000 vs. average 12,000-15,000).

So, it is a bait-n-switch offer - employed by all the major players in the industry. A technically accurate offer, but one that does not align with the way people purchase/finance or drive their cars.

When you learn that an offer is bait-n-switch, do you ever say ... Well, I should have known better? Or, The company is being fair and treating me with respect. Or, I really like to do business with a company that behaves this way. Me neither.

If even banks like ING Direct and Ally are now winning by being totally upfront about what they will and won't give you for being a customer and treating customer using the "Golden Rule", why aren't any major car companies following suit? When an industry is hurting badly, is it smart to promote via a bait-n-screw strategy?

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

I'm not such a good judge

Do you ever recommend or buy a book for a good friend relating to a topic that you know he is deeply interested in and find out that he never touched "your" book? 

Are you ever surprised about the clothes or shoes a good friend wears or the car he drives?

Are you ever surprised about the movies or music that your friend loves?

Are you ever surprised about the girlfriend or spouse that your good friend has chosen?

Has a good friend, whom you know well, ever told you something about himself and you say, "I didn't know that?'    

It happens to me all the time.

So, if I can be so wrong about the tastes of just one person that I know well, what makes me think that I can make an accurate judgment about the tastes of a mass of people that I view from 30,000 feet?

I need to get involved in my customers lives - become a part of their life and the Tribe(s) they hang with - to really have a chance at understanding and serving them.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

"Critics are our friends ...

... for they show us our faults." Benjamin Franklin

Market research data is often abundant, sometimes too much so, especially for big brands. Despite having the data, brands still find it difficult to define a breakthrough opportunity. Try this.

Create a detailed critique of your industry:

• Question and challenge all the conventional wisdom & practices of an industry
• Challenge some fundamental dimension or driver in the category
• Challenge some aspect of the way the consumer shops for, experiences, or consumes a product
• Challenge the culture surrounding the category (e.g. wine is snobby) 
• Challenge some broader aspect of contemporary culture (e.g. Sex sells)
• Challenge some dimension or quality of the competition/market leader
• What would it take to make people change behavior

Go ahead, become a critic - you'll be your own best friend before you know it.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

TY: Adam Morgan

What constitutes being smart

"He's really smart" seems to have become the ultimate (business) compliment.

What is troubling to me is that I very seldom hear a person provide relevant context to that remark - context that would demonstrate why he thinks a person is smart. 

He's so smart because he ...

• doesn't play follow the leader (or follow the follower)
• anticipates customer needs or changes in trends
• has solved two really complex problems
• makes wise choices about how to allocate resources
• knows how to get his team to do their best  
• keeps things simple and focused
• recruits people who are smarter than him
• gives very clear direction

Neither an MBA from a prestigious school, nor a 4.0, nor working on a successful brand, nor speaking articulately make you smart ... doing the right things, doing them honestly and winning make you smart.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

He's very good at what he does

Someone used that phrase with me today and I confess, it drives me nuts when I hear it and never more so than when someone uses it about himself.

Do people use it because they think it is the highest possible compliment or do they presume that it totally clarifies things? I am always bewildered when I hear it - "What exactly do they do and why are they very good at it?", is what I say to myself.  

It may make sense if a person's job included just one task - diamond cutter, mohel, matchbook artist - but otherwise save it for your conversation with other MBAs.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.