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!
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.
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.
Get away from assumptions and entitlements – cast them aside
List your Brand’s basic greens fees of performance
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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)
I’m far from being in the Gen Y segment, but I did text a donation to the ARC and will tell you that it was easy for me to participate. As important, I felt comfortable donating because of the supportive and reinforcing messages I saw on TV news and various high profile broadcasts such as the NFL playoffs and the Golden Globes.
Also, after texting the shortcode “HAITI” to 90999, I was asked me to respond “yes” to confirm my donation and then I received a nice comforting thank you too – nice touch.
This overwhelmingly positive experience led me to spread the ARC’s good word and to feel more comfortable using this channel in the future.
Strong brand promise, ease, convenience, simple message and trust are the hallmarks of success for the ARC’s texting campaign and they could be put to good use for your brand’s future success too.
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!
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:
People don’t join causes…people join people with causes and
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):
The perfect imagery setting of speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial
The use of simple, small, easy to understand common words
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”)
The effect of name personalization (e.g., my friends, you, me, we etc.)
The effect of location personalization (e.g., he lists key towns and cities where many of the members of his audience live)
The clarity of his speech – perfect annunciation and diction
The passionate nature of his voice – how can you motivate people if you’re not
The perfect pacing and changes in speech patterns (e.g., high, low, quick, slow)
The use of short phrases and sentences to drive home memorable key points
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!
If you think young people these days are inconsiderate, selfish, concerned with only themselves and wear their “pants on the ground“…think again.
Soon after the devastating Haiti earthquake hit, @RedCross tweeted: “You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts in #haiti.”
Kudos to the Red Cross marketing folks for being prepared (excellent online disaster newsroom) and recognizing the fundraising opportunity available to them in this terrible time of crisis.
And, much more kudos to the kids that drove this “texting bus” because they’re the ones credited with leading this Red Cross effort which has raised over $10 million for the cause since this record breaking mobile fundraiser was launched last Tuesday.
This is a great example of using technology to build rather than destroy.
Watch text marketing grow from this effort and put in on your list of things to test for your business too!
P.S.: Here is a list of 8 ways you can help Haiti by texting:
Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross
Text HAITI to 25383 to donate $5 to International Rescue Committee
Text HAITI to 45678 to donate $5 to the Salvation Army in Canada
Text HAITI to 20222 to donate $10 through the Clinton Foundation
Text HAITI to 864833 to donate $5 to The United Way
Text CERF to 90999 to donate $5 to The United Nations Foundation
Text DISASTER to 90999 to donate $10 to Compassion International
Text RELIEF to 30644 (to connect with Catholic Relief Services who will instruct you how to donate money with your credit card)
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!
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:
They do not discount – they add value
They execute well against basic fundamentals
They innovate (e.g., paninis*) and continuously improve
They know who they are (not a “refueling” stop – they’re a treat) and work to make their experience special – not cheap
They’ve watched cash flow and have strong cost controls that allow them to re-invest and build when costs are low
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).
My experience with Panera has always been positive. They provide a good value, have unique quality products and are always quick, clean, convenient, comfortable and friendly.
Panera didn’t invent a totally new model – they just work it better than most everyone else.
*P.S.: Contrary to what you may believe, Panera did not invent the Panini, which dates back to the 16th century and became popular in America in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s – long before Panera came into existence. Again, they simply made it better! Innovation doesn’t always have to mean “new” – it’s just as effective to be “new and improved.” It also helps to have a CEO who knows the business inside and out.
BrandMill is a marketing consulting and coaching firm that builds strong brands because we're Pittsburgh strong. Like our hometown, the word that defines us is strength. We've excelled for 25+ years despite radical changes in the marketing industry, economy, communications and technologies. Our people are made from tough stuff. We don't cut corners and we don't take shortcuts. We work smart, hard and fast to help brands build, retain and win-back business. Our principled core values are honesty, integrity, decency, loyalty, dedication, servant leadership and keeping our promises. If business as usual is not building your business, let us share our strength and build your brand. We promise to give you our all.
