Pancakes in a can? I’m all in!

What a simple brand promise – so easy and clear to understand.

Think Reddi-Whip aerosol can, but think Pancakes – maybe think both at the same time (hint – writing this during dinnertime – and, I’m a little hungry)!

Anyway, I plan to try NEW Batter Blaster this weekend, after eating up it’s marvelous marketing and unique story for some time now. You can learn a ton about how to effectively create and launch a new product by studying the good folks at Batter Blaster. For example, here are just a few reasons why they’re achieving amazing success:

1. They created a truly new product that solves a need. Make pancakes easy and quick to make with little waste and mess.  Everyone knows that it’s a pain to make pancakes for one or two people – especially in the morning if you work.  Most people blow off breakfast – the most important meal of the day – because of a lack of time – so, Batter Blaster to the rescue! Plus, BB cakes must taste pretty good to be able to quickly earn nearly $20 million in 2009 sales when it just got up and running in 2005. Certainly it might not be the best tasting pancake you ever had – taste is a subjective attribute – but balanced on the whole against speed and convenience, it must taste OK and certainly worth a try.
2. Clear Positioning – Easy, Quick, Better…Fun. Shake, point and shoot! It’s so easy to talk about it – so easy to explain. People get the core value proposition spot on and it’s easy to spread the buzz. Everything about Batter Blaster is easy – their web site, lists recipes, places to find product,  product information and it’s a cinch to find contact information too. And, it’s fun – love the 50′s-style jingle when you hit the home page – “Make a better breakfast faster, Batter Blaster! It’s a spot on benefit rich positioning statement that’s easy to remember.
3. Show and Tell and Proof of Performance. Great use of demos, testimonials too – love the Guinness Record Book move – brilliant!
4. Great use of Public Relations and Social Media – How about 9,000 Facebook fans of Pancakes-in-a-Can! Let’s face it though – it’s a much easier to get coverage and viral buzz when you deliver on your promise!

In this age of iPod, iPhone and now iPad…iWant, INeed, iGotta have me some iPancakes from Batter Blaster because I’m thinking I’m going to love them! At least one time!

Today is a special day of remembrance for me because I’ve admired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ever since I was a young boy.

King’s life’s work was to create a formidable movement of change and progress on the issue of civil rights in America – which he most certainly accomplished. In fact, his legacy has expanded to encompass not only the advancement of civil rights, but human rights throughout the world.

Dr. King and others in the Civil Rights Movement taught me a lot about living my Christian faith and American patriotism out loud, and both taught me lessons about marketing a meaningful cause.

First and foremost, their brand message was true, right and good – they operated from a solid foundation of truth and righteousness.

From having a spot-on brand message – equal rights – the Civil Rights movement created support (buy-in) of their cause with personal, touching, motivating and powerful storytelling imagery such as:

• Segregation signs at water fountains, rest rooms, restaurants and hotels
• Elderly women in their Sunday best being turned back from voting
• Rosa Parks sitting in front of a white man on a bus and then being fingerprinted
• White firemen turning high pressure water hoses on the old and young alike
• White policemen leading German Shepherd attack dogs through black crowds
• Innocent black children being escorted by soldiers on their way to school
• Unarmed, peaceful marchers getting viciously beaten by armed police
• Disgusting Ku Klux Klan marches, and burning crosses
• Rampant black church burnings and bombings

There are certainly more, but I’m sure you get the picture.

All of these powerful images of factual accounts and experiences combined, provided a motivating case for drastic and immediate change.

Certainly, many images were created, but more often than not these images were created and spread virally because they were true, authentic and emotional which makes for a far more reaching impact.

The positioning message was a simple one of good vs. evil.

Dr. King persuaded, motivated and modeled the movement after Gandhi’s peaceful marches and protests with dignity and discipline. These non violent marches were impactful, but as impressive…if not more so…was the way in which he communicated his brand’s message of civil and racial injustice.

Two things I’ve always remembered in marketing are:

1. People don’t join causes…people join people with causes and
2. People typically buy first on emotion, then justify with facts

These two marketing maxims certainly apply to the Civil Rights Movement.

Do yourself a HUGE favor and listen carefully to Dr. King’s entire, “I Have a Dream” speech. The “Dream” speech is a masterpiece and it’s amazing how quiet the audience is throughout it too.

Here is a list of 10 Communication Tips from Dr. King that I picked up from his speech (see if you can pick them up and agree with them; and see if you can discover a few more):

1. The perfect imagery setting of speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial
2. The use of simple, small, easy to understand common words
3. The impact of the repetitive nature of select phrases (e.g., “now is the the time,” “we are not satisfied,” “I have a dream,” “let freedom ring,” “free at last”)
4. The effect of name personalization (e.g., my friends, you, me, we etc.)
5. The effect of location personalization (e.g., he lists key towns and cities where many of the members of his audience live)
6. The clarity of his speech – perfect annunciation and diction
7. The passionate nature of his voice – how can you motivate people if you’re not
8. The perfect pacing and changes in speech patterns (e.g., high, low, quick, slow)
9. The use of short phrases and sentences to drive home memorable key points
10. The fact that he used notes sparingly because he spoke from personal experience, believed in his message and thus knew it by heart – teleprompter be damned

Much is made about President O’Bama’s communication skills, but he’s far from being the skilled orator of Dr. King. The president has the Internet, a ton of communication consultants and speechwriters and his infamous TELEPROMPTER (which he uses entirely too much as a crutch). Dr. King had none of the tools that the President has at his disposal, but created such an amazing, impressive long lasting presence.

The President and all of us can learn a great deal about tolerance, patriotism and doing the right thing from Dr. King AND we can all learn a great deal about how to be a Marketing Rock Star too!

Happy Birthday and Rest in Peace Dr. King.

Did you ever wonder why all football field goals are worth three points or all touchdowns are worth six points? I have…and the more I think about it, the more outdated the tradition seems to me, and changing the values would make the game more exciting.

Aren’t 50 yard field goals tougher to make than 20 yarders? Certainly they are, so why aren’t their values different?

In gymnastics and other sports, the degree of difficulty is rewarded so why not football.

Here’s a thought…how about…

• Making all field goals between the goal line and 10 yard line worth 1 point
• 11-20 yard line = 2 points
• 21 – 30  = 3 points (probably today’s average kick)
• 31 – 40 = 4 points
• 41 – 50 – 5 points
• 51+ = 6 points (double the average)

Wouldn’t this single idea create cool new strategies and more game excitement in the NFL, College etc.? Yes it would – it would open up the game a ton. I’m not sure about changing the value of touchdowns, because the degree of difficulty getting a touchdown in the Red Zone (20 yards in) can be tough, but why not look into it.  Why always stay with the status quo especially when the environment you exist in has changed?

The NBA finally adopted the 3-point shot in the 1979-80 season after seeing it tested over the years, so why can’t the NFL change?

Bringing this marketing idea home to you and your business, what can you take away from this discussion?

Well, for starters take a hard look at your pricing and see if the pricing of the selling of your goods and services (goals) truly reflects what their real and perceived worth is to your customer.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself when reviewing your pricing policies:

• Do you offer better terms of service than your competitors
• Does your stuff last longer
• Is your stuff simply better
• Are you nicer to do business with – more trustworthy
• Do you offer guarantees – replacements
• Are you faster
• Are you cleaner
• Are you more thorough
• Do you offer more prestige
• Do you offer more value-added services
• Is it harder to do what you do
• Is your error rate smaller
• Does the quality you deliver reflected in the time and care you take to deliver
• Do your ideas transform businesses into more long term profitable brands vs. short term easy to lose small gains

Certainly this list isn’t exhaustive, but you get the idea.  You get the picture.

In my experience, over 80% of the pricing problems I see with brands, turns out to be that they should raise their prices and clearly demonstrate their true value .

The problem most brands have (if they have a quality product) is that they do not clearly communicate and demonstrate the value they offer, so they simply resort to lowering their prices until their customer believes their effort to be of some value.

I contend that 50 yard field goals are worth a lot more that 25 yarders and should be valued accordingly – it’s certainly easy to demonstrate the value because they’re longer and harder to make!

What do you do that’s better than your competitors, but your prices are similar?

Figure out what your dramatic difference is and clearly demonstrate your value-add and win! If you don’t have a dramatic difference that you can clearly demonstrate…get one!

Photo: James Clear

I recently went on a golf vacation with my two brothers – both celebrating a 50 and 53 birthday. Not really on a hard and fast budget, we were looking to play as many fun, attractive and challenging courses as we could in our limited time together.

In the pro shop of our second round, two elderly gentlemen casually approached us as we were about to pay.

My 50 year old brother asked to walk with a pull-cart and was told, “You can’t, it’s against the rules at this time of day.” My brother who is an ex-college football player, marathoner and in great health and just walked a course the previous day with no challenges was ticked off as was I.

Then, as we boarded our golf carts, the same guy hurriedly ran out to us as we were about to tee off on the first hole and said, “I’m adding a single golfer to your foursome.” And, when we explained again that we were on vacation together and just wanted to play by ourselves he sternly said, “Well, that’s the rules, I don’t make them, the Board does and I have to follow them.”

So, we asked for and got a refund of over $150. That day the golf course lost more than $250 because of lost food, beverage and souvenir revenue. Plus, they’ll lose more in the future, because my brother vacations in the area a few times each year and will never go back – let alone refer anyone to play there.

Our rule? You tick us off and we don’t pay you or use your services and talk badly about you to lots of people. I’m sure a lot of folks follow that rule too.

We then took off and went to another golf course a few miles away – a far better course – and walked away with better memories to boot.

Now, I’m all for rules – without them you have total chaos – however people need to be trained to offer solutions when rules don’t make sense.

The course was not crowded, it was short and flat and was an easy walk in the park. Plus, we would have paid a little extra to play by ourselves.

Also, if the golf course attendant would have been friendly to begin with (a basic greens fee these days) and took a little time getting to understand our situation – vacation, special birthdays – his common sense might have prevailed because there are always special circumstances to bend said rules.

I’d bet that if our situation was presented to the “Board” – which I’m sure will not be the case – they would have let us play as a three some and let one of us walked.

I wonder if the Board has a process on place for employees to bring improvement suggestions to the table based on customer feedback?

What crazy old rules do you still follow that prevent your front line employees from making a sale, saving a sale and creating a happy customer?

Make a new rule in 2010 to break all stupid rules!

P.S.: Here are two cool quotes to keep in mind.

“Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.” Dalai Lama

“If you obey all the rules, you’ll miss all the fun.” Katherine Hepburn

P.P.S.: Next time you’re in Florida near Bonita Springs, Naples, Ft. Myers area, play golf at Stoneybrook Golf Course. Not only is it a great Florida golf course (it’s Ft. Myers best golf course and facility), the people are super nice!

Sometimes I think marketing is a pretty easy business. Do right by your customers and they’ll do right by you – follow the Golden Rule.

One company that makes a hard business look easy and that rocks my marketing world is Southwest Airlines. Since 1999, Southwest’s domestic market share has increased by 48%, while the five network carriers have seen their combined passenger base shrink 20%. This year, Southwest will fly about 28 million more people than it did in 1999, while its rivals will fly a total of 62 million fewer passengers!

Southwest is a leader – pure and simple. They’ve been zigging while the Big 5 have been sagging for years. They start by being friendly and have built their brand around LUV.

Southwest is gaining valuable market share, even as it reduces its overall flying, by exploiting a competitive weakness at other airlines. The universal competitive weakness among all of Southwest’s competitors is the perception that they are out to “nickel and dime” passengers with fees for services that were once part of the base airfare.

Southwest’s ‘bags fly free’ marketing strategy is pure genius and is proving to be another major success for them. Check out this story from the Chicago Tribune, Southwest landing flyers with its ‘bags fly free’ strategy.

Do like it when companies ding you for every little thing?

Do you ding people with your pricing?

Recently, I flew Southwest to Florida for a little golf vacation with my brothers and even my golf bag was checked in for free. Plus, the smiling, friendly faces and natural customer rapport they provide was pervasive throughout my experience – from service counter to stewards to pilots. It was a great experience.

And, as I thought about this Blog post and my favorable Southwest customer experience of saving at least $100 with their ‘bags fly free‘ policy, I thought about my BP gas station experience earlier in the day. BP charged me $1.00 to put air in my tires (see copy in bottom right corner)! Make that two tires – my dollar didn’t last long enough to top off the air for all four tires.

So, here’s the $24,000 question.

Do you ever hear of anyone raving about their recent experience at a BP gas station?

Didn’t think so!

P.S.: Check out how well Southwest’s stock price has outperformed BP’s stock price over the last 10 years! It’s obvious Southwest is a marketing rock star!

Throughout the year, I’ve been using WordPress more and more to build a variety of Web sites and have been super impressed with it.

Not only is WordPress easy to use for non-programmers, but it is so search engine friendly that my clients have easily realized double and triple digit increases in Web traffic.

I’m always on the lookout for new Web technologies and in the world of Content Management Systems, I just researched WordPress a bit more to see if it was too good to be true because there are so many out there (see list here).

My concerns were put to rest after I caught this video of Matt Cutts who works for the Search Quality group in Google, specializing in search engine optimization issues.

“Straight From Google: What You Need To Know”
WordCamp San Francisco – May 30, 2009, by Matt Cutts

In this video (see about 3:10 minutes in), Matt states that if you want to do better in Google, “WordPress automatically solves a ton of SEO issues.” and that it is such a fantastic piece of software that, “WordPress takes care of 80-90% of your Search Engine Optimization mechanics.”

Matt’s word is good enough for me and I encourage you to watch this video for additional SEO tips. I’ve been a big Google fan since its birth and it’s quality people like Matt Cutts that keep me loyal.

Check out Matt Cutts’ Gadgets, Google, and SEO Blog too – good stuff.

During recessionary times, the first place people cut back is with their eating and drinking out dollars.

Sure, there is a progression. First, white table cloth restaurants are the first to feel the pinch, then casual, fast casual and then fast food.

After a scorching sales tear for some time, McDonald’s is now considering a $1.00 breakfast menu nationwide.

With unemployment at 10.2%, no one is safe.

Now it appears that people are buying less at the supermarket.

More are using shopping lists, feel prices are to high, hate the experience and nearly 8 out of 10 would flip brands on a deal! Loyalty be damned.

The restaurant and hospitality industry isn’t the only one suffering – every industry is suffering and only the smart, speedy and strong will survive. So, what can you do to succeed in these tough times?

Here are five marketing ideas to put on your shopping list that will help you survive and thrive in these tough times.

1. Do remarkable things that add value and drive word-of-mouth. Pretty simple statement, easy to understand, but so few do it. So, you do it. Positive word-of-mouth drives customer referrals, online reviews and media coverage while keeping your marketing costs low. Do something remarkably well.

Value offerings for specific reasons make sense (e.g., Anniversaries), but you need to watch it because deals are so easily copied and it’s difficult to move to higher prices when times get better.

You need to work on creating unique value priced offerings. People are re-thinking all of their purchases, so if you’re not truly giving value or a exceptional experience you better start. This requires packaging creativity and more customer focus.

List all the possible value-added services and amenities you offer and then look for ways to improve your customer’s experience for little or no cost to you.

If you’re in hospitality you could offer things such as free parking, free upgrades, late check-outs, drink certificates etc., and look to your marketing partenrs to help defray the costs.

Deliver value in creative unique packaged experiences.

If you’re average player in a today’s recessionary economy, you’re running backwards and you’re a loser.

2. Keep the Heat On. If you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind. Don’t just arbitrarily cut your advertising, but look for ways to more effectively spend or not spend it.  Get into social media marketing, improve  the search results of your web site, network.  Create stronger, more emotional appeals for your goods and services.

3. Strengthen Your Customer Relationships. Strengthen your sales force and put together win-back and retention strategies. Work to maximize the lifetime value of your key customers and integrate all of your communication messages into relevant targeted appeals.

4. Build a Centralized Segmented Marketing Database. The bedrock of all customer relationship management strategies is a unified, centralized and segmented marketing database. Fortunately, it’s easier than ever to set up and manage a CRM system today.

5. Become a Direct Marketing Master. Direct marketing needs to take a greater role in your business plan whether it be direct sales, email, mail, phone etc., The most effective weapon is email marketing to current customers (but smartly segment them).

This is a good list to follow, but make sure you do not skip the first step!

I caught this Chicago Tribune story about how Starbucks is combining its Gold Card program, and its Starbucks Card Rewards, into a new program called My Starbucks Rewards (MSR) on December 26th!

Merry Christmas to me?   Nope…don’t think so!

MSR replaces the Gold Card’s 10% discount and $25 annual fee with a tiered rewards program that offers free birthday drinks, free refills and free Wi-Fi.

Starbucks is hoping to drive brand loyalty with the new program, but I doubt it will work.

Driving performance with incentive programs is one thing (e.g., limited time offer to drive consumer trial on a new product etc.), but loyalty programs are a whole different matter.

I’m not a fan of loyalty programs.

Think about people and businesses and other things you are loyal to and ask yourself, “Why?”

For me it’s family, friends, clients, my BrandMill team – Stephanie, Sam and Angie my dry cleaner, Jackie who cuts my hair and the Pittsburgh Steelers and Penguins.

Why?

They all deliver on their promises which show care, concern and respect for me, my time and y investment in them. In addition, they all deliver remarkable, consistent favorable experiences.

Aren’t these the same kinds of reasons you’re loyal to someone or something?

You can’t buy or extort loyalty with MSR cards, Gold cards or any other card.

You earn loyalty by showing customers care and concern and delivering on your promises.

As for Starbucks, for them to earn my loyalty, I don’t need a card. I’m sure a great deal of other people don’t need another card as well. For me, they can drop prices on a straight cup of coffee or tea speed up their drive-through. I love Starbucks bold black coffee and teas with no frills, but I don’t love it THAT much to put up with slow service and high prices.

In the early 80′s, I was working with GM dealer marketing groups throughout the country. In those days, multicultural or ethnic marketing was rarely discussed with my GM, Oldsmobile or Cadillac marketing counterparts or even car dealer clients.

In fact, even targeted marketing to females was rarely discussed and at the time they were moving fast into the workforce.  Female sales people were rare as well. The best in the country was Donna Dunnivan at Bendik Olds in Pittsburgh. Even though Donna’s success was well known nationally, dealers were slow to hire female sales people and cater to them as customers.

To build my product knowledge of the cars I was marketing, I frequently attended classes at a local GM Training Center.  I once asked a GM engineer why their cars didn’t have vanity mirrors on the driver’s side visor – most Japanese cars did – and he said it would take about three years! The funny thing was a lot of my dealers sold extra mirrors with rubber bands that you could affix to the driver’s side visors.

In those days in the car business, when you lost a sale, you lost it for about seven years minimum and maybe more if the customer was happy with her purchase.

Isn’t it amazing how marketing opportunities are all around you if you only paid attention and worked hard to maximize them!

McDonald’s has been paying attention for a long time.  Sure, they may have stumbled a bit over the years (who hasn’t?), but I’ll take their track record any day.

My first real exposure to extreme targeted marketing (seniors, moms, kids, teens, tweens, seniors etc.) and multicultural, ethnic marketing was during my McDonald’s days in the 80′s and 90′s.

I don’t profess to be an expert (does one ever truly arrive at anything to be considered and expert?), but I gained valuable insights that I bring with me to every marketing engagement and I work hard to expand my knowledge base.

Naturally, I was proud to see my old friend McDonald’s CMO Neil Golden rock the house with his “Leading with Ethnic Insights” presentation at the recent ANA Masters of Marketing Conference (see AdAge coverage of his speech here – here’s another report – take time to read both – good stuff!).

Note: McDonald’s marketing is in good hands with Neil Golden!

McDonald’s estimates that about 40% of its core loyal U.S. business comes from the Hispanic, Asian and African-American markets, and 50% of consumers under the age of 13 are from those segments too.

A few questions for you:

• Do you know what your ethnic population base in your core market/s?
• Do you know how your ethnic sales mix breaks down?
• Is your management team ethnically balanced?
• Do you have ethnic marketing practices? Hiring practices?
• Do you know how to manage cultural differences?

Today, with more targeted media and the internet, it’s a bit easier to market to specific groups, to communicate relevant messages, make them feel welcome, and to treat different people differently and with respect to their uniqueness.

Get out from your desk and start a multicultural marketing plan today.  I’m sure you’re leaving money on the table. Great Multicultural Marketing isn’t black and white, but it certainly is GREEN – that is, it will ring your cash register and you can take it to the bank!

P.S.: Remember Neil’s sage advice that there are, “No malls in the ghetto!” I’m lovin’ it!

Check out what restaurant’s like Applebee’s, Golden Corral and McCormick & Schmicks, Outback Steakhouse and others are doing to honor our awesome Veterans on Veterans Day.

A few weeks ago, one of my clients, The Priory Hospitality Group honored veterans of the Afghan and Iraqi wars a FREE Winter White Wedding! And, another one, 1902 Tavern in Pittsburgh’s Market Square is doing its part too.

There are a ton of examples of brands who give back to the communities in which it does its business such as Campbell’s Labels for Education and McDonald’s  Ronald McDonald House and more. In fact, U.S sponsorship spending on cause marketing is estimated to reach $1.57 billion in 2009, per the IEG Sponsorship Report, Chicago.

But can you do better by doing good? Absolutely.

While I first believe that everyone should do his part in helping others without expecting anything in return – pure charity – it’s best to strategically think of your cause marketing in terms of how it best connects with your brand’s cause and concerns of your constituents.

For example, a local restaurant may provide a benefit to Veterans today because everyone at that restaurant benefits from the freedom our Vets have protected for them.  Digging deeper, providing for a local school, emergency workers in the restaurant’s local trade area makes just as much sense because those people are likely current and potential customers and everyone is part of the same community.

As you’re planning for 2010 put a cause marketing initiative (make it part of your corporate DNA) on your calendar and you’ll find that you’ll do better in business when you’re doing good things and being a good corporate citizen.

You’ll also discover that:

• Your staff will feel better working for you – corporate pride will rise
• You’ll attract people because most prefer to work for caring companies
• You’ll be more welcome and respected in your community
• People will more readily recommend your company’s products and services to friends and family
• People’s trust and favorability ratings for you will rise

Being a better corporate citizen is a key business strategy today and it will set your brand apart from your competitors. However, keep in mind that doing good doesn’t simply begin and end with promotional tie-ins. You also need to focus on:

• Demonstrating how you value and care for your employees
• Following ethical, open, honest and responsible business practices
• Delivering over and above required safety and industry performance standards
• Ensuring that your advertising is accurate and true
• Treating your environment well
• Having open channels of communication
• Being an active member in your community
• Embracing diversity
• And more…

Certainly, one cause may not be enough of a rallying cry for all of your employees since everyone has personal pet charities that are only special to them. So, get your folks to contribute their thoughts in the planning stages. One end solution could be a corporate matching fund initiative.

In the same way, a single cause cannot possibly impact all customers equally (i.e., improve their emotional experience).

Also, you’ll find differences between public and private companies.  For example, some people do not believe that publicly traded companies should be using corporate profits for social causes, but you can stll be a good corporate citizen by being ethical, environmentally responsible, honest etc.

When you first undergo a cause marketing planning process it can seem daunting and you’ll have difficulty figuring out where to start with so many worthwhile charitable causes.

When this happens, remember these words from Mother Theresa, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”

Just get started and do something.

Believe me, you do reap what you sow in life.

When you do good, others will do good by and for you too.