A wise man once told me that "a good deal is only a good deal if it's a good deal for both parties." In marketing, as with other business functions, this proverb holds true.
Good marketing must provide something of value - a good deal - to both the customer and the organization. If a marketing strategy only results in the organization making a buck at the expense of the customer, it isn't good marketing. If a marketing strategy provides an exceptional discount to the customer, but fails to result in a lasting and profitable relationship for the organization, it isn't good marketing.
Recently some friends and I stopped at a local SUBWAY restaurant to pick up some subs for a picnic in the park. SUBWAY was advertising this month as "ANYtober" - during October, customers can purchase any regular footlong sub for only $5.
Now, in one sitting I can only eat a 6" sub. So on a typical night at SUBWAY I would have purchased a 6" turkey breast sub for $3.50. But that evening I could purchase a footlong turkey breast sub - a double-portion of food - for only $1.50 more. I couldn't eat that double-portion of food that night, but I could save half of my footlong in the fridge for another meal, thereby getting two meals for only $5.
Two meals at SUBWAY for the price of one at another store? That was a good deal to me.
SUBWAY would get a good deal out of the bargain, too. They would procure a $5 purchase from a customer who would ordinarily have only spent $3.50 in their store. Throughout the month of October, SUBWAY has the opportunity for hundreds more similar up-sales from other customers who might usually only purchase a 6" sub.
SUBWAY's "ANYtober" is good marketing. It provides SUBWAY the opportunity for increased per-customer sales, and potentially increased traffic, as customers choose SUBWAY more frequently over other restaurant options this month in order to take advantage of the discount.
And it enables customers to save money on food they would have purchased somewhere anyway.
Are your marketing efforts providing a good deal to both you and your customers? If not, it isn't good marketing.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
In Memoriam
Within the past 40 hours, virtually every notable business publication, technology blog, and news outlet has offered a tribute to the late Steve Jobs.
From a brief four sentences on the Apple landing page,
to a five-page biography by Wired,
to Forbes' speculations about the next rising tech star,
everyone has something to say in credit to the Apple founder who revolutionized the way the world approaches computing, music, telecommunication, and publication.
For all his quirks and flaws, Steve Jobs is a man honored for his vision, creativity and passion for beautiful design and a seamless user experience.
My prayer for Steve Jobs is - regardless of accomplishments and failures, strengths and weaknesses, friends and enemies, wealth and poverty - that when he left this planet, he was satisfied with life.
Isn't that something we all wish for? Live your life so that in the end, you will be truly satisfied.
From a brief four sentences on the Apple landing page,
to a five-page biography by Wired,
to Forbes' speculations about the next rising tech star,
everyone has something to say in credit to the Apple founder who revolutionized the way the world approaches computing, music, telecommunication, and publication.
For all his quirks and flaws, Steve Jobs is a man honored for his vision, creativity and passion for beautiful design and a seamless user experience.
My prayer for Steve Jobs is - regardless of accomplishments and failures, strengths and weaknesses, friends and enemies, wealth and poverty - that when he left this planet, he was satisfied with life.
Isn't that something we all wish for? Live your life so that in the end, you will be truly satisfied.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Love Your Customer As Yourself
Nearly every religion in the world endorses a version of the Golden Rule, known most commonly in English as "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," (stated by Jesus of Nazareth in Matthew 7:12).
Confucius stated it as, "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself." (Analects XV.24)
Buddha said, "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." (Udanavarga 5:18)
And the Hebrew Torah reads, "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Leviticus 19:18)
What happens to marketers who apply this Rule in their work? Who act based on the customer's point of view, rather than their own? Who evaluate ideas on the basis of how they would feel if they were the customer? Who consider how they themselves like to be treated (or serviced, or communicated to) as customers? Who value the customer's interests above their own?
I would venture to say that these marketers are better able to meet the customers' needs, and better able to make a connection with consumers. And thus they enjoy stronger customer loyalty and stronger sales.
Why? Because they continually do unto the customer as they would have others do unto them.
Love your customer as yourself.
Confucius stated it as, "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself." (Analects XV.24)
Buddha said, "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." (Udanavarga 5:18)
And the Hebrew Torah reads, "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Leviticus 19:18)
What happens to marketers who apply this Rule in their work? Who act based on the customer's point of view, rather than their own? Who evaluate ideas on the basis of how they would feel if they were the customer? Who consider how they themselves like to be treated (or serviced, or communicated to) as customers? Who value the customer's interests above their own?
I would venture to say that these marketers are better able to meet the customers' needs, and better able to make a connection with consumers. And thus they enjoy stronger customer loyalty and stronger sales.
Why? Because they continually do unto the customer as they would have others do unto them.
Love your customer as yourself.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Marketing: The 3,500-Pound Weapon
On my first day of driver's education, my instructor gave me one word of warning: "Haley, remember, you're in the driver's seat of a 3,500-pound weapon."
He said this to teach me a respect for the vehicle I was driving. I needed to recognize that an automobile is not a toy, but a very large, very powerful tool. This tool could be very useful to me. But if I used that tool improperly, someone could be hurt - or even killed.
Marketers use a set of tools with similar potential for much usefulness or much harm. The design we choose for our products; the pricing model we set; the sources of our supplies and labor; our manufacturing processes and distribution channels; the way we communicate with customers; the messages we send; the language we use; the values we promote - all of these things can be beneficial for identifying the needs of customers and delivering products that serve their needs.
However, when used wrongly, marketing tools can also do much damage - causing an organization to hurt or lose customers, lose marketshare, or hurt its reputation.
So how do marketers use their tools dangerously? Let's take some examples from driving school.
Tools become weapons when their drivers:
(1) Stop paying attention. When a driver stops noticing what is going on around her, she is driving dangerously. She is at risk of ignoring a lane change, missing a traffic signal, or failing to stop for the brake lights in front of her. When a marketer stops observing her organization's position in the market and the movements of customers and competitors around her, she similarly impedes her ability to respond to changes, or even to continue moving in the right direction.
(2) Move too fast for the conditions. A driver moves too fast when his speed prevents him from maintaining control of his vehicle and adjusting safely to unexpected changes along the road. Driving too fast can occur out of recklessness (i.e. cruising well over the speed limit just to see "how fast this baby can go") or failure to pay attention to warning signs (i.e. a speed limit sign, or the start of a rain shower). Marketers must use appropriate timing, and pace their actions based on the market conditions and their own capacity.
(3) Fail to yield the right-of-way. Car accidents are often caused by the failure of one driver to yield appropriately to the other, as when a driver runs a red light, or pulls out in front of another driver. Similarly, a marketer fails to yield the right of way when she fails to yield to the customer's needs and opinions instead of her own. When the marketer forgets that the customer comes first, crashes (or clashes) happen.
Remember, marketers, you have plenty of tools at your disposal - tools that are powerful. Tools that are 3,500-pound weapons. Use them respectfully and responsibly to bring benefit - not harm - to your organization, your customers, and your world.
He said this to teach me a respect for the vehicle I was driving. I needed to recognize that an automobile is not a toy, but a very large, very powerful tool. This tool could be very useful to me. But if I used that tool improperly, someone could be hurt - or even killed.
Marketers use a set of tools with similar potential for much usefulness or much harm. The design we choose for our products; the pricing model we set; the sources of our supplies and labor; our manufacturing processes and distribution channels; the way we communicate with customers; the messages we send; the language we use; the values we promote - all of these things can be beneficial for identifying the needs of customers and delivering products that serve their needs.
However, when used wrongly, marketing tools can also do much damage - causing an organization to hurt or lose customers, lose marketshare, or hurt its reputation.
So how do marketers use their tools dangerously? Let's take some examples from driving school.
Tools become weapons when their drivers:
(1) Stop paying attention. When a driver stops noticing what is going on around her, she is driving dangerously. She is at risk of ignoring a lane change, missing a traffic signal, or failing to stop for the brake lights in front of her. When a marketer stops observing her organization's position in the market and the movements of customers and competitors around her, she similarly impedes her ability to respond to changes, or even to continue moving in the right direction.
(2) Move too fast for the conditions. A driver moves too fast when his speed prevents him from maintaining control of his vehicle and adjusting safely to unexpected changes along the road. Driving too fast can occur out of recklessness (i.e. cruising well over the speed limit just to see "how fast this baby can go") or failure to pay attention to warning signs (i.e. a speed limit sign, or the start of a rain shower). Marketers must use appropriate timing, and pace their actions based on the market conditions and their own capacity.
(3) Fail to yield the right-of-way. Car accidents are often caused by the failure of one driver to yield appropriately to the other, as when a driver runs a red light, or pulls out in front of another driver. Similarly, a marketer fails to yield the right of way when she fails to yield to the customer's needs and opinions instead of her own. When the marketer forgets that the customer comes first, crashes (or clashes) happen.
Remember, marketers, you have plenty of tools at your disposal - tools that are powerful. Tools that are 3,500-pound weapons. Use them respectfully and responsibly to bring benefit - not harm - to your organization, your customers, and your world.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Reaching "Young" Adults
On a flight earlier this week, I sat next to a lady who offered to share with me one of her recently purchased fashion magazines - a genre of publication I don't usually find worthwhile to read. However, I accepted her offer, and spent part of our time airborne browsing through photos of overpriced clothing, interviews with up-and-coming celebrities, and reviews of new television shows, movies and books.
One of these reviews provided some interesting commentary on 21st-century American culture. It discussed a new reality show - one of several, I know - about a few sets of young married couples. These particular couples use expletives to show affection for their newborns, are more likely to play video games than watch the news, and, at thirty years old, exhibit parenting styles closer to those they watch now on Teen Mom than to those they grew up watching on Full House.
The show reflects - albeit in a somewhat extreme fashion - a cultural shift toward lingering "youthfulness" into a person's twenties and thirties.
In the mid-20th century, western society perceived a young person as an "adult" when he or she graduated high school (and usually entered the full-time workforce, got married, and started a family) around age 18.
In the early-21st century, this transition to adulthood has been delayed. Young people now tend to report that they don't feel like "adults" until age 25 or 26. Studies indicate that contributing factors include the proclivity of Generations X and Y to pursue college and graduate school; to switch career paths early; and to get married later.
(For more on this phenomenon, see studies such as these.)
So, how do marketers respond to this emerging set of "early adults" (as distinct from adolescents and full adults) and the tendency even of middle-aged adults to continue to enjoy youthful activities?
A few have opted to appeal to the fun, youthful side of our adults, while recognizing and applauding their adult responsibilites, such as...
...raising a family...
(see more on the Toyota Sienna at youtube.com/sienna)
...and maintaining digestive health.
(see more on FiberOne's "magic" brownies at fiberone.com/magicbrownie)
Has your organization adopted any means of simultaneously appealing to the youthfulness and the responsibility of 21st-century adults?
One of these reviews provided some interesting commentary on 21st-century American culture. It discussed a new reality show - one of several, I know - about a few sets of young married couples. These particular couples use expletives to show affection for their newborns, are more likely to play video games than watch the news, and, at thirty years old, exhibit parenting styles closer to those they watch now on Teen Mom than to those they grew up watching on Full House.
The show reflects - albeit in a somewhat extreme fashion - a cultural shift toward lingering "youthfulness" into a person's twenties and thirties.
In the mid-20th century, western society perceived a young person as an "adult" when he or she graduated high school (and usually entered the full-time workforce, got married, and started a family) around age 18.
In the early-21st century, this transition to adulthood has been delayed. Young people now tend to report that they don't feel like "adults" until age 25 or 26. Studies indicate that contributing factors include the proclivity of Generations X and Y to pursue college and graduate school; to switch career paths early; and to get married later.
(For more on this phenomenon, see studies such as these.)
So, how do marketers respond to this emerging set of "early adults" (as distinct from adolescents and full adults) and the tendency even of middle-aged adults to continue to enjoy youthful activities?
A few have opted to appeal to the fun, youthful side of our adults, while recognizing and applauding their adult responsibilites, such as...
...raising a family...
(see more on the Toyota Sienna at youtube.com/sienna)
...and maintaining digestive health.
(see more on FiberOne's "magic" brownies at fiberone.com/magicbrownie)
Has your organization adopted any means of simultaneously appealing to the youthfulness and the responsibility of 21st-century adults?
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Managing Busyness
I've concluded that if too much busyness is what drove me to regrettably stop blogging and stop reading a year ago, then perhaps I can use all the help I can get in learning how to better manage busyness.
I've been trying to glean wisdom from authors and mentors about managing busyness, and in the process, a few thoughts have surfaced in my mind:
An Inc.com article from yesterday offered me some good insight about this last point. Please enjoy the wisdom from this brief conversation between Inc.com writer Marla Tabaka and author Peter Bregman: "Mastering Distraction in 18 Minutes"
I've been trying to glean wisdom from authors and mentors about managing busyness, and in the process, a few thoughts have surfaced in my mind:
- Busyness in itself isn't a bad thing, provided that it doesn't rule our lives. As with everything else in life, busyness needs boundaries. Healthy human beings know how to be productive and to make the most of their time, but they also know how to rest, enjoy life, be at peace, and build relationships with those they care about. They give equal importance to both busyness and stillness. They manage their busyness; their busyness doesn't manage them.
- We ought to be busy about the right things. Highly motivated and highly competent people, perhaps most of all, seem prone to pursue too many things at once - because they see that those things are good ideas, because they believe that no one else will do those things correctly if they themselves don't, or because they fear missing a good opportunity. But not every good idea is the right idea to pursue. Healthy human beings know how to say "no" to some good ideas in order to say "yes" to the right ideas.
An Inc.com article from yesterday offered me some good insight about this last point. Please enjoy the wisdom from this brief conversation between Inc.com writer Marla Tabaka and author Peter Bregman: "Mastering Distraction in 18 Minutes"
Monday, September 26, 2011
Ideas. And the Return of Haley's Marketing Blog.
Dear readers,
It's been a long time - a year, in fact - since I last wrote to you of any ideas surfacing in this young, developing marketer's head.
After a year's hiatus, I now return. I look forward to sharing with you some of the things I've learned over the past year, and many more things that I will continue to learn as I recommence exploring marketing ideas with you.
For now, let me share just one thing I've learned during my break from blogging - the reason for my return:
When we stop growing, we start dying.
I'd heard this adage before, and thought it applied mainly to biology: when a creature stops growing (for humans, around age eighteen), it slowly starts to die. I didn't realize how much this maxim applied professionally.
When we as professionals stop learning and observing and growing, our ability to contribute and improve and add value in our profession starts to die.
Business professionals must keep growing and learning if we're going to keep contributing value. When we stop learning from new ideas, and start relying on our old thoughts and ideas and ways of doing things, we stop being effective and relevant in the work we do.
I stopped blogging last September because I felt that the busyness of life was causing my blog to suffer, and that it would be better to step away from blogging until I could reduce the busyness and more fully devote my attention to searching out and writing about fresh ideas in marketing. I thought this decision would help me to stay sane (or at least, get enough sleep at night), be happier, and improve the quality of my work all around.
I was wrong.
Quite the opposite happened, actually. For when I stopped blogging, I stopped reading the marketing journals and magazines that inspired my blog posts. When I stopped reading, I stopped learning. When I stopped learning, I stopped discovering fresh ideas to apply to my work. When I stopped discovering fresh ideas, I stopped contributing as much to my organization, and stopped feeling as happy at work.
This year has reminded me how important it is to keep learning. In their book The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas and Make Them Happen, Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer emphasize that successful professionals continuously and intentionally "hunt" for ideas: they observe, they ask questions, they take a deep interest in diverse subjects and people, and they immerse themselves in the ideas of others. They "sell" the best hour of their day to themselves for the purpose of learning, searching out, and discovering ideas.
It makes sense. We can't make something out of nothing. Everything - whether an organism, an automobile, or a manufacturing plant - requires inputs in order to produce outputs. If I'm to produce new ideas that will improve the quality of our products, the efficiency of our processes, or the way we serve customers, then I must first - and continually - take in ideas from the world around me.
And so I've returned to blogging, partially to continue serving you with ideas, but mostly for selfish reasons: I want to start generating ideas again, and blogging is my impetus to read, observe, and receive the inspiration that will let my ideas start flowing again.
I encourage you to join me in searching out ideas. Ideas that will serve your industry, your organization, and your customers. And as a result, your career.
It's good to be back.
Cheers,
Haley
It's been a long time - a year, in fact - since I last wrote to you of any ideas surfacing in this young, developing marketer's head.
After a year's hiatus, I now return. I look forward to sharing with you some of the things I've learned over the past year, and many more things that I will continue to learn as I recommence exploring marketing ideas with you.
For now, let me share just one thing I've learned during my break from blogging - the reason for my return:
When we stop growing, we start dying.
I'd heard this adage before, and thought it applied mainly to biology: when a creature stops growing (for humans, around age eighteen), it slowly starts to die. I didn't realize how much this maxim applied professionally.
When we as professionals stop learning and observing and growing, our ability to contribute and improve and add value in our profession starts to die.
Business professionals must keep growing and learning if we're going to keep contributing value. When we stop learning from new ideas, and start relying on our old thoughts and ideas and ways of doing things, we stop being effective and relevant in the work we do.
I stopped blogging last September because I felt that the busyness of life was causing my blog to suffer, and that it would be better to step away from blogging until I could reduce the busyness and more fully devote my attention to searching out and writing about fresh ideas in marketing. I thought this decision would help me to stay sane (or at least, get enough sleep at night), be happier, and improve the quality of my work all around.
I was wrong.
Quite the opposite happened, actually. For when I stopped blogging, I stopped reading the marketing journals and magazines that inspired my blog posts. When I stopped reading, I stopped learning. When I stopped learning, I stopped discovering fresh ideas to apply to my work. When I stopped discovering fresh ideas, I stopped contributing as much to my organization, and stopped feeling as happy at work.
This year has reminded me how important it is to keep learning. In their book The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas and Make Them Happen, Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer emphasize that successful professionals continuously and intentionally "hunt" for ideas: they observe, they ask questions, they take a deep interest in diverse subjects and people, and they immerse themselves in the ideas of others. They "sell" the best hour of their day to themselves for the purpose of learning, searching out, and discovering ideas.
It makes sense. We can't make something out of nothing. Everything - whether an organism, an automobile, or a manufacturing plant - requires inputs in order to produce outputs. If I'm to produce new ideas that will improve the quality of our products, the efficiency of our processes, or the way we serve customers, then I must first - and continually - take in ideas from the world around me.
And so I've returned to blogging, partially to continue serving you with ideas, but mostly for selfish reasons: I want to start generating ideas again, and blogging is my impetus to read, observe, and receive the inspiration that will let my ideas start flowing again.
I encourage you to join me in searching out ideas. Ideas that will serve your industry, your organization, and your customers. And as a result, your career.
It's good to be back.
Cheers,
Haley
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