For anyone looking for a new job (pay attention college grads) or trying to get that next big sale and running into a roadblock because you can’t get the attention of a key decision maker, check out this brilliant job search strategy by copywriter Alec Brownstein.
I suppose with all the beautiful newness and growth that Spring brings, I find myself more inspired and looking for ways to help my clients breakthrough with innovative new ways of doing things.
Spring never fails me.
I truly work on being innovative and constantly look for inspiration inside and outside of my industry.
And, it’s always awe inspiring to me to see common things done in an uncommon way.
How about square watermelons?
As you know, a round watermelon can take up a lot of space in your refrigerator and the usually round fruit often sits awkwardly on refrigerator shelves.
Innovative Japanese farmers have forced their watermelons to grow into a square shape.
They do it by inserting the melons into square, tempered glass cases while the fruit is still growing on the vine.
Here’s a picture of the packaging.
And, here’s one way Mr. Clean uses Crosswalk lines for advertising/product placement:
And, here’s another use by a local office supply store:
We work a lot in the restaurant and hospitality and retail industry. And, I’m amazed at how many businesses lack a sampling or “Free” taste test component in their marketing operations plans.
In 2008, Arbitron studied product sampling (Arbitron product_sampling_study_2008) and over one-third (35%) of those who tried a sample bought the product during the same shopping trip. And, nearly 60% said they would buy a product after trying it.
Sampling, which reaches 70 million consumers every quarter, “is both effective in making new customers aware of products, while also establishing a firmer identity with those consumers who have considered the product before,” said Carol Edwards, svp of sales at Arbitron’s out-of-home media department, in a statement.
The survey segmented consumers into three areas: acquisitions (those new to the product), conversions (those willing to buy it after sampling it) and retentions (those who had previously purchased the product).
Check out these sampling results:
85% of retentions who sampled a product said they would purchase it again compared to 60% of conversions.
Almost half (47%) said they would now look to purchase it.
28% of respondents received a free sample in the past three months. Of that group, 64% said they accepted the sample.
Nearly a quarter of those polled (24%) said they bought the product they sampled instead of the item they initially set out to purchase.
Freemiums are another terrific way to generate customer interest and involvement by offering a product or service for free (e.g., software, educational webinar etc.) while charging a premium for advanced or special feature.
For example, I offer free marketing advice through my Blog, however for more specialized marketing consulting advice I charge a fee. And, it helps drive leads.
Marketing Lagniappe occurs when a brand offers a customer something for free and unexpected when they buy something – surprise and delight occurs. Stan Phelps’ new book due this Spring (can’t wait to read it – nice helpful Web site too) will highlight 1,001 “something extras” such as Doubletree Hotels’ practice of giving warm, delicious chocolate chip cookies.
Stan’s five R.U.L.E.S. for effective lagniappe are that these free offers need to be Relevant, Unexpected, Limited, Expression, Sticky.
I couldn’t agree more and plan to take a harder look at my client’s marketing plans and bake a little sampling, freemiums and/or lagniappe that surprises and delights into them. You should too.
It seems to me that over the past few years, many of us have veered far away from sound thinking. Not just strategic thinking – simple common sense thinking too – and just about all other kinds of thinking in between.
I’ve always been one to strive for better ways to use my noodle and to put it to good use. Certainly, I’ve had my share of blunders, but when I carefully analyze them, I realize that I didn’t take time to think to make a sound decision, gather enough intelligence, come up with enough good ideas etc., and ACT!
I owe a great deal of my street smarts to my brothers and parents – especially my father. And, I owe a lot of my business savvy to several generous mentors over the years. Plus, I’ve gained a great deal of inspiration and insight into better thinking by reading a mini library of books.
However, these books don’t even come close to scratching the surface for me. I read a new marketing related book just about every two weeks and several magazines, e-zines etc., Plus, I continuously drink the cool-aid and read and re-read the works of great thinkers like Edison, Godin, Jobs, Kawasaki, Peters, Reis and Trout and more.
A great tool I use is a gift (I paid for the tool, but it’s so valuable to me that I consider it a gift) I received from the innovation masters at IDEO (absolutely love these people). IDEO’s Method Cards have helped me to discover better design ideas.
Today, with so much information at your fingertips and the pace of new information coming at you fast and furious from so many sources, it is increasingly difficult to process it all and make sound decisions and act upon them.
I enjoyed and got some use out of Malcolm Gladwell’s, Blink, whose POV is based more on the merits of intuitive, quick thinking rather than Maxwell’s critical thinking hypothesis – which I prefer – and when I take time to do it magical things happen.
Thinking For A Change’s case is based upon the hypothesis that successful people think differently than unsuccessful people and says that if you change your thinking, you will change your life. Yeah, I’d bet on that.
Here are the 11 thinking skills the book teaches:
1. Big-picture thinking – does your thinking extend beyond you and your world 2. Focused thinking - concentrate to find clarity on your actual problems 3. Creative thinking – think outside the box and find break through thinking 4. Realistic thinking – does your thinking have a solid foundation based in reality 5. Strategic thinking – is your thinking leading to ways for you to reach your potential 6. Possibility thinking – helps you find solutions to difficult problems 7. Reflective thinking – revisit history to gain understanding and learn from it 8. Popular thinking – question popular thinking and see if you’re simply rejecting the limitations of common thinking 9. Shared thinking – connect with others to expand and sharpen your thinking 10. Unselfish thinking – consider others and their needs 11. Bottom-line thinking – be focused on results
Maxwell also provides a lot of good examples of these thinking styles at work and I’m sure the book will help you become a better thinker. This is a great book for breaking down the critical thinking process and encouraging people to start thinking again. Especially during these fast times we live in where we all get a ton of new messages every day and information overload is overwhelming.
Maxwell’s book about critical thinking, whereas Gladwell’s Blink is a book about intuitive thinking. To think better you need to practice both methods.
P.S.: Check out some of Thomas Edison’s thoughts on creativity and hard work too. Lots of good books on old Tom. I loved At Work with Thomas Edison, by Blaine McCormick. Also, consider adding Edison’s Idea Quota into your daily routine!
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.
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.
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!
For the second consecutive year, a BrandMill marketing campaign has helped a client become a Marketer of the Year recognized by the Pittsburgh American Marketing Association. However, this year’s recognition is extra special because BrandMill client, the Priory Hospitality Group took home first prize honors as Pittsburgh’s Grand Marketer of the Year!
Here’s the full press release from the Pittsburgh American Marketing Association.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Kim Butler – President, Pittsburgh AMA
412.234.0294, kimberly.butler@bnymellon.com
The Priory Hospitality Group Named Grand Marketer of the Year
“The Priory Hospitality Group is thrilled to receive the Grand Marketer of the Year award from the Pittsburgh AMA,” said John Graf, co-owner of the Priory Hospitality Group. “It is an unexpected and treasured honor to be recognized among some of the illustrious brands that call Pittsburgh home.
Winners of Pittsburgh’s only results-based marketing competition were recognized in 9 categories for their marketing excellence and effectiveness. The 9 finalists and Marketers of the Year in their respective categories are:
David "Mr. McFeely" Newell of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Accepting Fred Rogers' Hall of Fame Award
Mr. Fred Rogers was honored posthumously at the event as a local and legendary brand and inducted into the Pittsburgh AMA Hall of Fame for his unique and impressive marketing impact throughout western Pennsylvania and the world. Dr. Dean R. Manna,Robert Morris University, was honored with the Distinguished Educator Award.
“The event was a huge success,” said Kim Butler, President of the Pittsburgh AMA. “We are honored to celebrate such phenomenal marketers in the Pittsburgh region and to shine a positive light on the marketing profession.”
About the American Marketing Association and its Pittsburgh Chapter
The American Marketing Association, one of the largest professional associations for marketers, has 38,000 members worldwide in every area of marketing. For over six decades the AMA has been the leading source for information, knowledge sharing and development in the marketing profession. For more information, visit http://www.marketingpower.com.
Founded in 1946, AMA Pittsburgh is celebrating its 64th year as the largest marketing association in the region with more than 300 members and supports an additional 900 professional marketers who utilize AMA services and resources. Its mission is to support the professional growth of these 1,200 marketing executives through a variety of initiatives such as educational seminars and programs, a luncheon speaker series and networking events. For more information visit http://www.amapittsburgh.org.
I was proud that Pittsburgh my hometown agreed host the recent G-20 Summit. I dig the fact that we were courageous to take a shot to do something remarkable.
Time will tell if the city’s investment was worth it – my gut says it was a good one. Sure, mistakes were made, but as a wise man (probably wise woman) once said, “You have to crack a few eggs to make an omelete!”
I was vacationing in Orange Beach, AL when the Summit was held (What Marketing Lessons I Learned from My Summer Vacation Blog posts coming soon – take this signage tip as Lesson #1) and I couldn’t help but recognize the great work of sign art that Greenpeace created. Their sign hung from Pittsburgh’s West End Bridge. Check it out – and check out the cool Greenpeace Ninjas that are rappelling from the bridge to unfurl the sign – BRILLIANT!
The road sign color composition is an idea to consider when you’re crafting your own signage to stop traffic. eMarketer’s excellent charts do a similar great job.
Pittsburgh's G-20 Summit Logo
P.S.: I thought the G-20 Logo was pretty cool too – which highlights Pittsburgh’s Bridge history as well as the Summit’s goal of bridging nations together.
For a long time, I worked and played from the point of view that to get ahead in anything in life, you have to beat someone else at the game. And, while I achieved a lot of success with that strategy it became tiring and left me unfulfilled.
However, over the past 25+ years I've been working professionally and studying various business and marketing masters, I've come to realize that giving away some of my valuable ideas to empower those around me has improved my outlook on life, expanded and enhanced my relationships and has improved my economic state of affairs.
As a marketing consultant, it took me a while to figure this out and I owe many thanks to the help I received from various online mentors such as Tom Peters and Seth Godin and many more.
For example, A free seminar (which took me 41 hours to create and 2 hours to give) I gave to a local university here in Pittsburgh years ago is still paying dividends in terms networking, referrals and related income.
A free web site, Blog and email marketing system I created for an Irish fraternal organization a few years ago has again increased my network of good friends and associates and delivered directly and indirectly nearly six figures in income. Plus, it helped me improve my team's and my skill set and satisfied several personal goals of paying things forward.
Giving away my good stuff has:
enabled me to expand my reach of people, places, industries and influence
helped me to keep a viral floe of good karma going at a good rate of speed
quickly proved to my prospects and clients that I can deliver on my promises and more
Please understand that from time to time I do hesitate to give away my good stuff, because I make a living by selling ideas and the selfish side of me worries about someone not paying me or stealing my ideas.
Make giving away your good stuff one of your own personal marketing strategies and then sit back and watch how you and your business will grow.
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.
