It's All About The Brand

Brand awareness is how many of your target consumers know your brand.  

Note the words TARGET CONSUMER.

Is it important that people on city sewage know the brand name of septic tank cleaners? Or for 85 year old ladies to know the name of the most popular Death Metal Rock Band?

No.

Instead of worrying about making sure your brand is known by everyone make sure the people who are likely to use your business know it exists. 

Why is Brand Awareness important in judging your advertising?  Did you buy a car today? How about lunch at your local restaurant?  Get a six pack of beer?  How about renting a movie?  Purchase a book?   Maybe you did some of those things, maybe not.  But if you were going to do all those things where would you go and what would you get.  Chances are you have answers to those questions and you will mention BRANDS you will purchasing.  Why? Because these companies have carefully branded their products to you over a period of time. This is why they are the first places we think of when we think of certain products or services.

It is hard not to judge our businesses and advertising dollars on a day-to-day basis when we have limited resources, it is important to remember building a business through advertising takes time.  Persevere and you will find success.  

Evil Avoidance

It's so easy for big companies to fall into some pretty evil ways, even when they're being careful.

The lesson learned here is that everyone makes mistakes. While mistakes may seem evil, sometimes they really are just mistakes.

And sometimes they aren't.
Our last example of evil comes from that great blue box - Best Buy.  Best Buy boasts a new buyback program that they unveiled at the Superbowl. It turns out they are already being sued by a company that claims they designed the entire program and Best Buy stole the proprietary information. The suit claims that Best Buy refused to pay for the information and program designed by TechForward. The program is virtually the same as TechForward's, with a few minor changes. You can read more about it here.

Best Buy has indeed set a terrible example of how a company should act, as have the other companies written about this week.

It is important to establish a code of conduct for your business - ethical standards that are at the core of your business.  For some help on that topic and to discuss this more, visit this blog.

You can define your company ethics, but remember every situation is different. So when a situation comes up that doesn't fit exactly into your ethics code, take a minute to think about what you're really doing to that other person. If you wouldn't want it to happen to you, don't do it to them.

If you're still thinking of taking the evil route - don't forget your copy of the Villain's Guide to Better Living! 

QR What?!

One of the newest technologies being used by marketers are QR Codes.  I love embracing new technologies that market to customers and convey a message, but just like any new technology there is a learning curve for marketers and users. Many businesses love to embrace the newest technology hoping to set them ahead of the competition, and they rush into using the newest technology without a plan. When you’re adding new technology to a marketing plan, it’s best to plan for it.

Today, we’re going to look at some QR mistakes.

1. While at a business trade show I saw a sign for a QR Code that said scan to enter to win an iPod touch, 5 will be given out each day of the show.  I followed the QR code and it took me to the page to follow them on Twitter.  So I followed them on Twitter, and saw a tweet a little later that said there would be a drawing at 3:30 for the next iPod, showed up at 3:28, asked about it and waited two more minutes to make sure no one else entered to win, then walked away with my new iPod touch.   How could this company of been more successful with this campaign?

First, instead of using a QR code to take the customer to Twitter, just say follow us on Twitter.

Second, make sure you know your demographic. Many of the trade show attendees at this event were experienced construction owners, a demographic that is not always following the latest smart phone technology.

Many businesses used QR codes at their booths taking customers to the company webpage.  Sounds great doesn’t it.  But why should you have someone go to your company webpage to learn about your product when you have five salesmen within 15 feet of the customer. 

2. I received an email yesterday from a business trying to sell me something, so I opened the email to a QR Code that said follow me for a discount. I immediately removed my name from their mailing list for wasting my time.  How could this of been more successful? 

I was already engaged with their business by taking the time to read the email.  Just send the special, don’t assume a customer wants to work to find out what a special is when they may not be planning to spend money on your services right now.

The final lesson on new technology and QR Codes - don’t rely on technology to sell your product, when the sales team is available to talk to the customer and don’t make it difficult for a customer to find you. New technologies are all about making things easier for your customers.

Thinking About Discounts #3

Today we are going to re-visit the question - Do I need to discount my products or services. Throughout the week we've posed a few more questions in this blog.

Now we want to wrap this up and make it simple. Do you need to discount?

1. Are you trying to move product off your shelves quickly?
2. Do you need a temporary way to bring in customers?
3. Are you trying to bring in a new customer base?
4. Do you have enough margin to discount your services and stiff make a profit?
5. Do you rely on customer referrals?


If you answered "Yes" to any of these questions than the next step is to consider a discount based on which question you answered "Yes." After creating a discount, be sure to carefully track the customers who use it to ensure your success.

For any other questions or help, feel free to contact us.

Thinking About Discounts #2

The point of discounts, as with any form of advertising is to entice customers to use your service or shop at your business.
Sometimes offering a discount to new customers allows them to try your service or products for a lower price. If customers like the service or product enough, they will happily come back to your business again and again. An even better outcome is that they will tell their friends about it!

Discounts can be given for multiple reasons. For instance, there are discounts for signing up for an e-mail list, for being a new customers, for spending a certain amount of money, for having a birthday, for buying products from last season. There are multiple methods of discounting and each one will bring in a different customer base.

If you are already comfortable with your customer level and you just want them to shop more frequently, discounts offer them a reason to return. I rarely shop at a grocery store across town, because I have plenty of stores to choose from on my side of town. Occasionally, the grocery store across town offers a discount that I just can't pass up, so I travel that much further to pick up those items. I'll also do the rest of my grocery shopping while I'm over there for convenience. This is a discount to bring in an already existing customer base.

Some businesses need new customers. While living at a set of apartments, I encouraged one of my friends to rent in the same complex. When she did rent, I received a discount on my rent and she received a discount on her first month's rent. This referral discount brought in a new customer, while also rewarding an existing customer. This kind of discount encourages word-of-mouth advertising.

When you decide to use a discount, take a minute to think about the purpose of that discount. If your goal is to bring in new customers, reward the customers you already have or sell off a product more quickly, you'll have different discounts available to each category.

Thinking About Discounts #1

This week we're going to take a look at discounts. Discounts can be like sales, or they can be closer to the clearance section.

Either way, we'll delve into the affects of discounts on business and why most retail businesses use discounts to move products. We'll also look at how your business can use discounts to help bring in more business.

So before we start, you should ask yourself - "Will a discount be helpful for my business?"  Don't worry, if you don't know the answer yet. We'll figure that out by the end of the week.

Let's start with a basic explanation for today. A discount is a reduction of price, whether permanent or temporary. When you get your weekly grocery store flyers, they announce discounts on certain products. This is a temporary ploy to entice you to get to the grocery store for those sales, because they have such a limited time frame.

The permanent discounts are often seen at retail stores because every season brings in a new truck load of items to display, so they have to make room for the new items. These clearance sections are usually at the back of the store, so you have to make your way through the temptation of new items to get to them.

Either way, discounts are designed to bring you in to a store, so you'll be tempted to buy full price items, while you're getting some great deals!

A Week of Coupons #4

It's not a Daily Deal - it's a never ending discount. What is it?

This is a perfect example of a discount that can sometimes last too long. Restaurant.com can be a great site to advertise for some restaurants, but not everyone can benefit from this kind of coupon. This is a coupon that has a long-term affect on a restaurants brand name because the contract is for one year. That means you can't control the distribution of this coupon and in the end it becomes more than a coupon - it becomes an expected discount to your business.

So where should you advertise a coupon?  There are hundreds of places. Type "coupon" into your favorite search engine and you'll find dozens of places on the first page alone.

You can also advertise coupons in your local newspaper, a direct mail piece, a well-placed bulletin, in a Val-Pak or other, similar places.

What we recommend is a mix. Develop a coupon with a sensible expiration date, a reasonable discount and find a few places for distribution. Make sure you include an online site, or promote it on your Facebook or Twitter pages, and look into a direct mail option.

If you do decide to use an online site like Groupon or Living Social, just make sure you're ready for the increase in customers!

A Week of Coupons #2

Your daily coupon comes to you from - well... it's your choice. Groupon?  Living Social? Or maybe Google's new Daily Deal. 

After discussing the need to have expiration dates for your coupons, I wanted to expand to online coupons that appear for one day only. This shouldn't be confused with an expiration date because having an offer that only appears for one day still carries a separate expiration date.

All of these daily deals offer your business a great opportunity - although, it must be stated that there are a few things to consider. The first consideration to remember is that this is a form of advertising. Advertising costs money.

When you use a daily deal service you end up losing about 75% of your normal price. Here is how it works.
You offer a product or service at half off.  So your $20 widget is now $10 on the daily deal site. You've lost 50% right there.
When each purchase is made for your widget, $5 goes to you and $5 goes to the daily deal site. That leaves you with 25% for every widget. I don't know about you, but most businesses don't have that much room in their profit margin for that kind of loss.

What the daily deal sites offer are an amazing opportunity to advertise your business to a large group of people who will be excited to try out your business. This also means that when those people visit your business, they will be more likely to come back or tell their friends about your business. This is good news for you!

Just make sure, if you opt to participate in one of these deals, that your business is prepared to handle the increase in traffic!

The Week of Coupons #1

I picked up my newspaper a few weeks ago and was very happy to see my local, favorite pizza place had a coupon! They just opened a few months ago and coupons were non-existent.
I hung the coupon on the refrigerator and thought, "We'll just use that later this week."

- Later in the Week-

I grabbed the coupon and picked up the phone to order a pizza, only to look closer and find that the coupon expired the same day it came out. So the coupon came out on Sunday and expired on the same Sunday.
I was pissed. I ordered Chinese instead.

Coupon Lesson #1

 If you are going to spend the money to have a coupon run in your local newspaper, make sure the coupon has a reasonable expiration date.
A "reasonable expiration date" is defined as a date that accommodates the customer, doesn't end too soon for them to use the coupon, but does have an end date in the near future. Generally, two to three months is a good time period for an expiration date. If you don't add an expiration date, you'll have customers walk through your doors two years later with a coupon that you have can no longer honor. This is just as bad as having a ridiculously short expiration date.

Celebrating the Old, Looking for the New

Every three years, in a small town, in Pennsylvania, they hold a celebration designed to attract families to the town. Old Home Week started in 1902 and was initially only for the men to get together and see each other. Three years later it was a week for the men AND their families.
A smart move in my opinion.

Now, over a hundred years later, Old Home Week is celebrating it's 37th reunion and it just keeps getting bigger. Thousands of people descend on the town to celebrate being together. The week long celebration includes a parade, fireworks and dozens of displays and events. This is a long-standing tradition - people are already planning for the next Old Home Week.

When you start your first business or you just start your career, think about the traditions. It's the traditions that make companies entertaining and keep employees together. Just remember that every once in a while the traditions might need a little updating. I imagine Old Home Week wouldn't have the same celebrity if it was still Old Boys Week.

Traditions that alienate or mock people aren't the kind of traditions you want to keep and sometimes it's alright to start a new tradition.

So celebrate the old and keep looking for the new this week.

Long-Term Behavioral Changes

"Will Traumatized Consumers Ever Recover?" asks a new report from Adweek that talks about recovery from the down economy and it's long-term effects on consumers.

Taking that a step further - Will businesses ever recover? Will there ever be the excessive spending accounts from the big car companies? Will there ever be the same budgets dedicated toward advertising? Consumers have short memories compared to the long memories and deep scars companies in the US carry from the depression. The question is, will these companies learn from their mistakes and do business more efficiently? Will they show their consumers that they are willing to take the steps necessary to find advertising that appeals to them in a creative manner.

The golden age of "Mad Men" style advertising is over. All hail the ushering in of a new era of conscience and sensibility.

You're Stuck In An Elevator...

...for 30 seconds with a Rabbi and your next potential client.

What do you do?

For starters, you ignore the Rabbi. He's muttering to someone on his cell phone anyway and you're pretty sure you can track him down, if it was necessary.

What's left? You're next potential customer - so you take a deep breath and...?

Now what?!

You have to ask?

I'm shocked that you don't know the answer to this one by now. It's called the 30 second elevator pitch because that's about the amount of time you have to really interest your next potential client. In those first 30 seconds you need to catch their attention and keep them interested in your product or service. Sometimes you only have 30 seconds to explain exactly what you do.

My 30 second spiel?

"Xente Media is a company that saves you money. We will research your customers and find out exactly what they like - from their favorite TV shows, magazines, Internet sites, how much they make, how many children they have, what kind of car they drive and more so we can use your budget to reach only those customers in your target market with efficient, well-placed advertising. Xente Media is not just an advertising agency, we're a company based on strategy and using your ad dollars wisely."

Could it use some work? Probably. Every elevator pitch takes some practice and some skill in saying exactly what you need to say to grab the attention of your customer.

I've found there are some great sites dedicated to helping you craft the perfect elevator pitch.

How To Craft a Killer Elevator Pitch

The Art of The Elevator Pitch

Microsoft Small Business - 5 Tips For Creating an Elevator Pitch

Rather than re-inventing the wheel today, let's just work on something tried and true. Let's hear your elevator pitch? What do you have to say in 30 seconds?

Hey, You! You Got Some Change?

Today's Theme Song - Smash Mouth, "All Star"


I have a Snapple lid on my desk that says, "When in doubt, change zip codes."

As advice goes, I wouldn't normally suggest taking it from a Snapple lid, however this particular lid offers an odd bit of wisdom.

Let's dissect this a little more.

"When in doubt..." - If you're having second thoughts, or you think something should change.

Let me tell three short stories here to illustrate the point...

Story 1: A man walks in a McDonald's and orders a burger and fries. He happily accepts the tray of food, complete with napkins, ketchup packets, drink and straw. He sits down, unwraps the sandwich, dumps out the fries and starts the brutal attack on the ketchup packet. Since he touched his greasy meal already, his fingers slide off the package again and again as he tries to tear a hole just to get a little bit of ketchup for his fries. He finally puts the package between his teeth and savagely rips at it. The ketchup packet explodes and he suddenly understand why they gave him so many napkins - he spends the rest of the day with a ketchup stain on his tie. He avoids his last meeting of the day because of the stain, ruins a major deal for the company, resulting in his ultimate demise with this company.

Story 2: Young Timmy forgot to get his 5th grade sweetie a Valentine's Day present until the last minute. So he begged and pleaded with his Mom to "PLEASE" take him to the local drugstore so he can see if there is anything left on the shelf. He gets there and in his frantic search finds only a few packages of pale, chalky hearts with old, outdated messages. He sighs and hands the packages to his Mom. The next day, Little Susie examines the odd messages printed on the hearts, tastes one, spits it out and spends the week with Bobby, who thought to bring her some chocolate.

Story 3: A TV station once decided to fill a void - A void it saw as black hole in the American heart that truly loved it's music. And with the announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," the Music Television Station was born. Twenty years later, that little station lost it's way. No longer did Rock and Roll rule the screen. Instead it was filled with talk shows, reality TV, date shows and every once in a while a music video popped up. Teenagers, radicals and rebels checked their TV Guides and saw the logo which proudly announced itself as "Music Television," only to tune in to betrayal. For over ten years, people turned away from their televisions in hurt and confusion.



And now for the next line...

"...change zip codes." - It might be time to make a change - a small change or a big change, it. is. time!

And the ending to each story to illustrate...

Story 1: Heinz Ketchup announces that it will finally change it's Ketchup packets so they are easier to open. Better late than never? And they are so sorry for the ruined clothing over the years.

Story 2: Necco who makes the age old conversation hearts has decided to update their messages, flavors and colors. It might be too late for Timmy, but surely someone will benefit from this long awaited update.

Story 3: MTV finally changed their logo in the most subtle way possible. They simply removed the words, "Music Television," from the logo and left everything else. This attempt to note the difference in their format probably should have been more dramatic, but they did try.

The simple lesson here?

Make sure your business changes with the needs of your consumer, so you aren't left out. Keep up with your customers. Sometimes change is a good thing.

A Doggie Dog World

I walked into my favorite groomer's the other day and as I was presenting my little beast for his nail trimming I noticed that my groomer was reading an article about branding.
I realized when your dog groomer starts talking about branding you know that word is no longer just an ad agency buzz word, but a word that deserves some attention.

So branding. What is it?

dictionary.com defines brand as: kind, grade, or make, as indicated by a stamp, trademark, or the like.
Of course it also defines brand as: a mark formerly put upon criminals with a hot iron.
Considering that branding seems to have originated out of the ad world, that second definition probably isn't that far off the mark, but I think we can look a little deeper.

Your brand is how other people see you, it is your worth in their eyes. Take the Starbucks brand - for all of the ups and downs, this is a multi-million dollar company based around a slightly exotic cup of coffee. When you think about Starbucks you think about their logo, that distinctive green you see in all of their shops and depending on how you feel about the company, a few other adjectives will come to mind.

When you go to build your own brand you need to consider what you want it to say about your company. The first step is choosing a good name. There are thousands of books written just about picking a good name. My suggestion? Don't stress over it, just think of it as a tattoo. This is something that you are going to have for the rest of your life, so make certain it is what you want.

The next thing you want to consider is what your overall feeling is going to be. Are you a straight laced, business suit kind of company? If so, you'll probably want to consider more conservative colors, such as gray, maroon, dark blue. If you're a jeans and flip-flops place than consider something a little more festive.

And once you pick your colors, use them! Everywhere! These are the steps towards creating your brand. There are more and there will be more posts in the future, but this should give you enough to think about for now.

Word Soup

I'm reading a chart filled with a lot of terms I don't understand and probably never will - I've recently started a job helping to improve patient retention and to manage overall operations. I have no real need to know popular vernacular at the job, I just need to look at a few key words - recommended treatment, follow-up, suggested shots, or anything that will help me re-schedule that patient while they are standing in front of me at the desk. Now this isn’t a hard sell, this is necessary treatment that will help promote the business while protecting the patient from very expensive future problems.
My first goal is to help everyone notice these important words. Once the office staff notices these words, they are now equipped to move to my second goal. Using the correct phrase to optimize scheduling.
Instead of asking, “Would you like to schedule your next appointment?” I will encourage the staff to say, “I see the doctor has recommended (appropriate treatment). Can you come in two weeks from now on Tuesday at Noon?” Or any combination that requires the client to stop and think, to make a distinct effort to say no.
I would even go a step further and suggest that the staff carefully explain to each client the need for the treatment. The more your customer knows the easier it will be for them to make an educated decision.
And the next time you make that cold call, or that follow-up call remember to use your words. A good explanation and a well worded question will generate better responses.