Astonish Your Customer(s)

My Giants, My Celtics, My ...

It has been very common to hear people pronounce, "My Giants won today", or "I can't belive how badly My Wildcats played today".

My, not THE. Notice the difference?

My favorite movie is ..., My beer of choice ...

Does your brand get referred to as ... My, or just THE? Do what it takes to make your brand a "MY" brand.

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

Dream Bigger

"There’s one story that Carmine Gallo thinks will sum up Steve Jobs’ career at Apple. 

An executive who had the job of reinventing the Disney Store once called up Jobs and asked for advice.  Steve’s advice? 

Dream bigger. 

I think that’s the best advice he would give us today and the advice he will continue to offer to Apple as its Chairman.  See genius in your craziness, believe in yourself, believe in your vision, and be constantly prepared to defend those ideas."

TY: Carmine Gallo 

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

Creating or Finding a perfect storm

Seth Godin talks about how Halloween became the monster event, seemingly all by itself, rather than as an orchestrated marketing strategy by some monolithic entity. 

He says, "You can't make a perfect storm, but you can find one". 

To me, Seth is saying that you should stop with the angst over trying to create the new or create an audience for your new thing.

Instead, find the audience that has already formed, will be there year after year, is always open to new, bigger, better ideas and give them what they might want.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

Social Security as a marketing strategy

Doug Degn famously stated that Walmart serves customers who live paycheck to paycheck. 

Confining yourself just to that statement, Walmart is all about the size of the paycheck, regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, race, location and so on. 

Maybe a smart CPG marketer could more clearly define and serve a piece of this audience, say the person living on their monthly social security check. The SS recipient is a large and growing audience and many, maybe most, feel quite stressed about how they are going to make ends meet on this limited amount of funds.

Could a smart marketer create a line of products that would persuade and delight enough SS recipients to make it a viable business? 

The packaging could generally reflect the graphic elements of a SS Card to establish a firm brand identity. 

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

What was inspiration & objective of Jet Blue

Overcome dehumanization of air travel. Give people what they most want – civilized travel at fair price. CMO in charge of training and other critical customer touch points not just traditional “marketing”. Considered giving prizes for best-dressed travelers to upgrade the overall look & feel of Jet Blue flying experience. 

Let the golden rule prevail in air travel. 

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

Hard Manufacturing Company

The maker of hospital beds already had 90% market share with an indestructible product = growth problem. Action: Gave nurses a blank sheet & asked them to design the ultimate hospital crib. They included a digital scale and computer monitor in their feature list. Preemies have to get taken from their crib to be weighed and checked often, which creates problems for the baby. 

Hard launched it but provided no marketing or sales support due to 10x cost - from $1,000 to $11,000. Nurses spread word: “Product saves kids lives”. Hospitals pay attention to that. Now, #1 crib in units & dollars.

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

TY: Seth Godin

Commodity x Design = Ex-Commodity

Kimberly Clark, the makers of Kleenex and Kotex among other paper and pulp products is keeping relevant via design.  

Kleenex "boxes" now come in a stylish oval design as well as a wedge-shape that looks like a slice of watermelon or other fruit. 

The new "U" Kotex Tampons come in a black package with a bold color mark - kinda smacking of Wrigley's 5 Gum Package.

Can you imagine how much hell the engineers raised when the oval and wedge/fruit idea was proposed. There must have been 100 good reasons not to do it but they did it anyway. 

Another example of a marketer - Chrisitine Mau - proving that a product is only a commodity if you let it. 

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

How many customers to be a success

I suggest that you read this incredibly interesting take on the matter by the very plain speaking, yet incredibly insightful, Kevin Kelly. 

The synopsis: A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author (or product manager) - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living. 

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

A solution in search of a problem

Does your product solve a real problem that people are also seeking a solution for? Or, have you decided that the problem needs solving for the consumer? 

I have two friends that own two different, and very successful, businesses in the diabetes space. Each company spent an incredible amount of time and dollars developing a new product that is breakthrough in many ways and should appeal to the rational and hyper-diligent person with diabetes. 

The issue, rational and hyper-diligent folks are not easy to identify or reach and it turned out that the research was right - most of them just don't view the solution as important. So, despite smart marketing programs, the products are invisible. 

It is a real dilemma. When should you ignore the research that tells you that the product has limited appeal and drag the horse to water, or just give up? 

You must find at least a small niche that view the product as indispensible, who will be power users and advocates, who are so enthusiatic that they are likely to market it for you by word of mouth/mouse. 

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