As a brand marketing consultancy, people pay us to, “call their baby ugly” and discover profitable ways to make it more attractive. It’s not an easy thing to do, especially when the business owners or leaders you’re consulting with happen to be the ones who gave birth to the baby you’re critiquing.

A few months ago, I caught the news and television commercials about how Dominos Pizza executives blatantly called their baby – a pizza pie – ugly. They announced that they had listened to their customers (inside the company and outside the company) and had taken strong, bold steps to clean up their act and improve their product.

I applauded their authentic, open approach and knew if they were true to their words with actions and walked their talk, their honesty would be rewarded in spades.

Here are the steps Dominos took:

1. They first listened to their customers (internal and external) and agreed to take action because they believed what they were hearing – that is, their product was not good. They started to revamp their recipes more than 1.5 years ago following a ton of focus group and social media site criticism. Remember, the first step to transforming (see rehab) a brand or yourself is admitting you have a problem and need help.

2. They “started over” (total transformation) from scratch by revamping their pizza recipe (new sauce and cheese combination and herb-and garlic-flavored crust)

3. They launched an honest documentary style ad campaign (in short, “we’re sorry…we agree with you that our baby tastes like cardboard…we did something remarkable about it…we think you’ll love it…please try us again”)

The result? A ton of curious customers rushed to try the new Dominos pizza and rocked their sales. In fact, Dominos Pizza Q4 2009 profits more than doubled!

Here’s a great Dominos turnaround video explaining how it all went down.

And, here is a link to a current Dominos commercial challenging Papa John’s claims and a link to the story about their amazing results.

So what are some of the steps you should take when your company or client is performing poorly and you recognize radical change is needed?

Here are 2 suggestions.

1. Be careful and smart with your language. You need to be careful to not to just slam the poor quality of your brand’s systems, products, people, processes etc., because the people you’re trying to influence may be defensive. Have concrete facts.

2. Concentrate all positive energies on transformational business building ideas. Focus on specific business building ideas to help them achieve their KPIs (key performance indicators).achieve their business objectives. Discuss how you’ve experienced similar challenges and relay to them potential outcomes and blue sky possibilities.

Be a marketing ambassador of hope and handle those ugly babies with kid glove because when you do, their brand parents will adopt your way of thinking!

P.S.: I love all babies.

File this Blog post in your, “What were they thinking” folder!

From very reliable and ticked off sources, I understand that Denny’s restaurants have been airing a disrespectful television commercial degrading the Irish by offering unlimited pancakes or fries in celebration of the ending of the Irish Famine.

Mama Mia!

If this is a joke, it’s not even close to being funny. The Irish Potato famine (An Gorta Mor) which caused the suffering and death of 1.5 million Irish due to forced starvation and related diseases is nothing to celebrate.

It’s a blatant insult to the Irish and they’re mobilizing.

For you Brands involved in Social Media Marketing watch how this unfolds.

I’m sure Denny’s will pull the Ad, and some talking head (whose head and whose mini-me heads should roll) will say, “I take full responsibility…yadda…yadda.”

But, is a simple apology enough? I don’t think so.

Watch the Irish mobilize and give Denny’s their own version of a Grand Slam – the marketing bozos at Denny’s deserve it!

Here’s a protest letter (AOH Denny’s Letter) from the president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

First, they offend African Americans (who knows how many other people since) and are made to pay $54 million in Race Bias Suits, and now this asinine insulting ad?

As a marketer (and a restaurant and hospitaly marketer too), I’ve been amazed by the amount of positive coverage (Super Bowl Ad) in the mainstream marketing media about Denny’s Free One Day Breakfast campaigns.

As for me, I prefer a Denny’s tagline in Time Magazine, “Denny’s: Where the Food Is Free and Drunks Can Pee!” because I believe in truth in advertising!

Full disclosure – I’m 50% Irish and a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. And, I haven’t been a big fan of Denny’s since the African American incident. I go out of my way to get my eggs over medium at a local independent Mom and Pop joints and will continue to do so.  I suggest you join me.

FYI – I called the following Denny’s Customer Service number (1.800.733.6697) to demand that they pull this ad off the air, and they said, “I apologize and we’re aware of people’s concerns and we’re working to pull the ad.”

Some answer.

Note: The old days of a customer telling 9-12 people of her negative experience is way over.  With Social Media, it could be thousands. Brands need to raise their game, because if/when you pull a stupid act like Denny’s, you’re going to get blasted!

When I caught this headline, “Banned for Bad Tipping” on CNN.com today, I just had to check it out since we do so much work for restaurants and the hospitality industry.

View the story here:

I’m not sure who is right here, but my gut says the customer.

Even if the owner is correct when he says that his customer is not a good tipper, she still paid her bill for the basic food and service she received.

Now, I consider myself a pretty good tipper, but more and more I’ve been working to get back to tipping based on the quality of service I receive. There are far too many people and businesses in my life (and I’m sure yours too) where they feel entitled to a reward for doing basic or even sub par work.

It’s got to stop.

I’m not sure where or when this entitlement gig got started, but my guess is that it started sometime about 35 years ago in kids sports – especially baseball – where “Tee-ballers” started to hit baseballs off of tees (instead of having the ball pitched to them) and everyone started to get trophies regardless of where their team finished.

Oh yeah, I’m blaming it all on Tee-ball!

In the hospitality business, you’re supposed to be “hospitable” it’s the basic greens fee part of the gig. Tipping is supposed to be based on what someone does over and above the call of duty.

I mean my hot food should be hot and my cold food should be cold. Servers are supposed to deliver my food to me in a reasonable time with no foreign objects in, on or around it right? I’m supposed to tip you for that? C’mon people.

I checked out Magellan’s Worldwide Tipping Guide to see where we American’s rank and right there, I  confirmed my suspicion that we American’s are one crazy bunch of people. We tip more than just about every country in the world, and I’ll bet you agree that for the most part your customer satisfaction level with the majority of business and people is average to below average!

The interesting thing about my argument is that the majority of customer satisfaction scores in industries have statistically improved (see American Customer Satisfaction Index here).

Yeah, but my gut and head says that what people say and what people actually do and feel aren’t always coordinated. I believe most people have internalized their customer satisfaction expectations (read – lowered their bar) because for the most part, they’ve been let down so many times that they simply learn to accept and deal with sub par performance.

Here are a few of “Marketing Tips” for you today to help your Brand excel.

1. Get away from assumptions and entitlements – cast them aside
2. List your Brand’s basic greens fees of performance
3. From that list, work up a few cool ideas to “surprise, delight and impress (read – WOW)” your customers> Make sure these ideas are ones that your core customer base considers valuable and are not offered by your competitors.
4. Implement these new cool ideas.

Now – watch your tip jar explode!

P.S.: Years ago in a performance review session, one of my team members thought she should get a bonus (read tip) because, “I always come to work on time.” She was wrong to assume, but I was more wrong because I wasn’t clear in my expectations of performance training.  I never made that mistake again.  Big lesson.

Twenty years or so ago, I had several conversations with marketing colleagues about how supermarket chains lacked creativity. The general experience was underwhelming and one that most people dreaded.

During those years, I would take Cadillac, Oldsmobile and McDonald’s clients into Wegman’s supermarkets throughout western, New York to show them how great they were and to learn merchandising, customer service and overall retailing lessons they could take back to their car dealerships and restaurants.

They were amazed that you entered the store through the produce department instead of the typical trip past the cash registers as was the general industry practice way back then. Their merchandising strategies had no peer.

Wegman’s then and now, is one of the most innovative and well-run supermarket chains in America. It’s no surprise to me that they’re ranked #3 on FORTUNE “100 Best Companies to Work For.” They are consistently ranked as one of the top supermarket chains in the country and have received a ton of well deserved awards.

Stew Leonard’s – the world’s largest dairy store – was a hot case study of discussion too.

And way back then, I could not understand why the innovation I saw across the country was not occurring in my own backyard.

About 10 years ago, I got some some luncheon meat from the deli at my hometown Giant Eagle supermarket and was ecstatic to receive it in a plastic bag instead of paper! I mentioned my discovery to a colleague of mine whose spouse worked for the company and told me that the store received the bags as part of some deal and they were simply testing to get some use out of them. Amazing – it was a huge boost to my satisfaction.  This little simple new touch was so well received that it quickly spread throughout their stores and became a permanent part of their system.

Well, something must be a bit different in the water these days in Pittsburgh’s three rivers (especially the Allegheny River) because Giant Eagle has been on a tear of remarkably innovative new product launches such as its:

• GetGo Convenience Stores
• FuelPerks and FoodPerks – a billion dollar business conceived by CEO David Shapira – a great businessman and humanitarian
• Giant Eagle Market District

And now, Giant Eagle is testing in four concept stores it’s latest innovation for HBW (health/beauty/wellness) which could become a huge profit center by linking its supermarket pharmacies with its HBW departments. What a stroke of innovative genius.

I’m happy the new Giant Eagle has finally landed in “innovation land.” Their story should demonstrate to older established brands that it’s never too late to innovate.

To profitably increase your market share you need to establish an innovation plan and follow it. Don’t wait for competitors to come into your neighborhood to force you to do it. Self inflicted innovation is the preferred route to take.

P.S.: Not all innovations have to be big and expensive – think deli meat plastic bags.

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!

In an earlier post, I reported that it was great to see the Gen Y kids driving the tremendous outpouring of financial support for Haiti relief via texting.

I’m happy to report that the American Red Cross “Text ‘Haiti’ to 90999″ campaign has raised $24 million to date. See the DMNews story here.

Think about this campaign for a moment. It has achieved some amazing accomplishments – in a short period of time – since this devastating earthquake hit Haiti just last week on January 12th:

• $24 million has been raised via $10 individual donations to help the Haitian people – 1/5th of the amount the American Red Cross has raised to date – breaking all records by a huge  margin.  Reference note: After Hurricane Katrina – a mere 4.5 years ago – the ARC only received $120,000 via texting – and Katrina occurred on American soil!
• The ARC has built a valuable mobile text database for future marketing communications and financial appeal efforts
• The ARC’s core donor base skews older and texting gave the Gen Y folks an easy, quick and convenient channel to offer their support (marketing lesson – treat different people differently)
• The campaign execution of  the ARC and its mobile firm partner mGive was flawless – amazing too – considering the fact that they started to work on the texting campaign the evening of the earthquake
• The viral goodwill spread of the “Text ‘HAITI’ to 90999″ campaign in Social Media channels such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter (100K tweets/retweets)

About 10 years ago, I made a huge change in a long time relationship. After about a 15 year relationship, I divorced my dry cleaner because they wouldn’t stop busting my buttons!

Time and time again, when I’d button my shirt, the buttons – especially on the collar and sleeves – would crumble in my hands and seemingly disappear into thin air.

Now, to be fair, my old dry cleaner (and a few others I tried) would replace my buttons free of charge, but how does that help when you’re on the road or running late for a meeting?  More often than not when traveling, I wouldn’t even have buttons on my sleeves or collar!

Stupid me. I put up with poor service because of habit. I, like so many of you simply avoided change.

Well, I’ve been married to Sam’s Cleaners & Tailoring  (412.343-4933 – 1604 Cochran Road, Pittsburgh) – yes married…I’m that loyal -  for about 10 years! I’d bet that Sam busts people’s buttons too, but you’d never know it. They carefully inspect their work before returning their customer’s clothes.

Plus, they’re nicer and they even know my name!

I spent thousands of dollars over the years with my old dry cleaner and the interesting thing is that they never contacted my once to find out why I stopped going to them. They never contacted me despite the amount of my business and despite the fact that they have all of my contact information! Amazing!

The other amazing thing is that I’ve never received a discount at Sam’s and I’ve told at least 50 people how great they are and never received a commission. And, I’ll continue to spread positive word of mouth without expecting anything back from Sam’s. No bother.

A couple questions.

How many brands do you spread positive WOM for that are like Sam’s?

How many of you are busting your customer’s buttons and know it or don’t know it?

For those of you who have a marketing plan that you follow, do you have a retention and win-back plan?

Now can Sam do a better job marketing?  Sure, we call can. But, when you deliver flawlessly on the core basic brand promise of your business in a nice and friendly fashion, in the majority of businesses you’re already far ahead of the game.

Take Sam’s lesson to heart and stop busting your customer’s buttons.

P.S.: Always remember if you want people to buzz about you, do something buzzworthy!

Photo by Photofigg.

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 loved reading this recent Time Magazine article about the raging success of Panera Bread company and its various reasons for success despite the tough economy.

I’ve been a big fan since I walked into my first Panera store about 9 years ago.

Panera stock is up 26% this year and is one of the top performing stocks of the decade with a huge 1,560.65% return! And, they’re rocking this year too.

Here are a few ways in which they’ve achieved their remarkable success:

1. They do not discount – they add value
2. They execute well against basic fundamentals
3. They innovate (e.g., paninis*) and continuously improve
4. They know who they are (not a “refueling” stop – they’re a treat) and work to make their experience special – not cheap
5. They’ve watched cash flow and have strong cost controls that allow them to re-invest and build when costs are low
6. They operate with an enthusiastic non recessionary mindset (love this)

For example, CEO Ron Shaich’s enthusiastic non recessionary mindset is pretty basic, but enlightening and focused, “We understood that the fundamentals of the marketplace really haven’t changed,” says Shaich. “Unemployment went from 5% to 10%. There’s 90% of society that is still employed. I couldn’t capture all those people that are unemployed. They weren’t eating out at all. All I could do was stay focused on who my target customer was, and not be reactive.”

Mindset and focus are so important. Instead of focusing on the negative (e.g., 10% unemployment – woe is me attitude), they focused on improving their services to the working 90% of us (glass 90% filled).

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!