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.

Be a threat

I watched the local high school basketball team the other night with a friend. The big man on the team kept catching passes at the foul line and did very little with the ball, other than pass to a teammate - never turned to face the basket, nor looked to shoot, nor dribbled to the basket.

My friend started yelling at the big man when he caught the ball, "Be a Threat!" 

What a great mantra for marketers, "Be a threat".

Be a threat to your competitors, the status quo (in all its forms). 

How could you and our brand be a threat - follow one or more of the paths used by Apple. Apple didn't invent these methods, they just utilize them routinely and fearlessly. 

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

Short cut or Long odds

You'd almost never hear someone in a business planning meeting say, "Let's take the short cut". They be afraid of looking a fool or unprofessional or naive. Similarly, you aren't likely to hear someone say, "Let's take the path with the longest odds of success". 

Yet, in most cases, big companies choose to bet the long odds when they launch the umpteenth me-too or nothing-different line extension. 

So, what is the the short cut to success? I like the postulation by Seth Godin.

1. An idea that disrupts a market 
2. Make (& keep) an audacious promise
3. Over-Deliver

Short does not mean easy, it means best odds. 

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

D.O.T. as marketer, yes marketer

I was traveling on the Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania. Saw lots of signs reading: "Don't Tailgate" and "Report Aggressive Drivers". I would guess that there was little compliance. 

Than, all of the sudden there were huge white dots painted in the lanes, every 40 feet or so as you traveled along the lane. Then a road sign appeared with a message something like "dots indicate travel distance between cars."

All the sudden, cars started complying, including myself. My kids were telling me to make sure I drove over my dot at the exact same moment that car ahead passed over its dot. 

I observed the other cars and just about everyone was falling into line. 

Presto, chango, behavior change. 

Why did it work? 

It was a game? It was a competition? It took skill? It broke the monotony? My kids were hectoring me? It made sense? It appealed to basic human nature? It was simple? 

Wow, bravo to the D.O.T.

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

Product Spam

I'm talking about the kind you put on store shelves - yeah, Product Spam (and, I don't mean the one from Hormel).

Aren't the vast majority of line extensions just another form of spam - Product Spam? How many long lasting successes have you had with (the umpteenth) line extensions? Lots, a few, none? 

When deciding whether to proceed with a line extension or a we'll-do-it-just-because-we-can product launch, think about whether that product will feel like it is remarkable or spam to your ... customer, sales team, retailer, market researchers, brand team, R&D group, regulatory team, executives. 

If it feels like spam (not different or better, not asked for, unwanted, easy to ignore) even a little bit, it probably means that its a big piece of Product Spam.   

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

Clothes and minds available in plaid

It is quite common to see males and females of all ages wearing plaid shorts in various color and design patterns. 

However, very seldom will you ever see those same folks wearing plaid slacks in the very same pattern. In fact, most would not be caught dead wearing a slacks in that design (the pro golfer Ian Poulter  being one prominent exception).

Why is that? 

Why do people behave that way? 

What do people behave in such a contradictory manner?

People are weird, you know, which is one of things that makes marketing fun and challenging and it also gives near endless opportunities to delight an audience. 

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.  

Peril of sameness

Seth Godin just posted: "Sometimes we try to so hard to (have our product) fit in we give consumers no choice but to seek the cheapest. After all, it everything is the same, why not buy what's cheap and most readily available?" 

And then he follows that simple point of brilliance with this shot to the gut: "Easy to read this and nod your head, but... what's your resume look like?"

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

Diversity - in products as well as workplaces

Many companies are very overt about diversity, including their mission, their progress so far, their unyielding commitment. They even create reports that substantiate the diversity of the employees in the company and put the data on public display.

Yet, so many of these same companies create and market products that have very little, if any, diversity vs. competitive products.

Diversity, in all that a company does, is what really matters and what will create long term success and the opportunity to create an even more diverse workplace.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

Cater to the Seven Deadly Sins

Sequoia Capital's Roelof Botha says he only invests in companies that let consumers indulge in one of the 7 Deadly Sins - envy, sloth, gluttony, wrath, pride, lust and greed. 

Does your product let consumers so indulge or how about avoid or extricate themselves from the hold of these sins?

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

TY: Red Fin: The 8 Best Questions from Venture Capitalists