Be Different or be dead

September 19, 2016

5 simple ways to get your marketing message across

5 simple ways to get your marketing message across.

Marketers today face a formidable challenge when it comes to communicating their message to the market

Never has there been so much noise from so many companies in so many forms of media all vying for mind share.

Here are five tips that will help you cut through the clutter and land your message successfully:

Be really clear on who you are talking to — Who do you want to receive your message? Who do you want to convince to buy what you are selling? Too many organizations these days push their message on the masses thinking that it will resonate with someone who cares.

It’s a supply orientation where the emphasis is on pushing what you supply as opposed to fulfilling what people need and desire. And it operates from a belief that there is an ‘average’ potential customer who possesses all the attributes of a worthy target.

It’s a risky proposition to spray the masses with your demands expecting a healthy hit rate that will yield a healthy return on the communications investments made. It might resonate with some but it will be ignored by many.

Effective messaging looks the target straight in the eyes. It is a penetrating one-on-one expression that’s based on what the individual wants, not what you think the crowd wants.

Effective messaging is ‘eyeball to eyeball’. Best to know exactly who you want to talk to before you open your mouth.

Speak to what they receive not what you give — People are tired of getting stuff shoved down their throats and being told what’s good for them in all forms of advertising.

Typically, this ‘message push’ has two characteristics that make it unproductive:

- The communications stresses what the product or service consists of; its feature elements and the gee whiz technology used to provide it;
- The messaging is based on a customer profile which is a composite of what the lowest common denominator person looks like in the market segment being targeted.

By emphasizing what the product does and the technology it employs, companies are hoping the target will be infatuated with its coolness and buy it to be part of the in-crowd.

And by targeting their message at a composite average customer profile, they hope that a sufficient number of potential customers will see the relevance of the product to their own particular needs and make the purchase.

Most organizations hope that their message bombardment will strike the relevance chord with the majority of the audience, but it doesn’t. All it does is add to the noise and clutter.

Both expectations are severely flawed. People buy something because it satisfies a need or want — like amazing pictures on their mobile device — not because it uses a particular technology to deliver it.
And, because everyone of us is different in some way, what I care about is different from most other people so I will likely ignore a message based on an average profile.

Effective messaging speaks to personal relevance, what we as individuals personally care about with absolutely no consideration of the person standing next to us.
So take off your product and service hat, downplay its technology platform and focus on what individuals desire, covet and ‘lust for’ if you seek a messaging strategy that will perform beyond expectations.

Convince them why they should choose you — You have merely seconds to establish your currency in the crowd of companies all vying for audience attention. Everyone has a shield up in front of them to protect themselves from the inundation of messages they see on television, hear on radio or that pop up on the web page they are browsing.
The volume of messaging stimuli is overwhelming so the ignore factor is always high.

So how do you capture my interest in a nano-second before my eyes glaze over and I move on?
Even if your message addresses what I care about — i.e. it’s relevant — in a compelling way I may still ignore it because relative to other companies supplying something similar it doesn’t stand out — it’s not unique.

Elsewhere, I’ve talked about creating the ONLY Statement to express what makes an organization special, unique and unmatchable in a relevant and compelling way:

‘We are the ONLY ones that…’

Your messaging plan must use your ONLY as the way to carve out your place in the crowd and enhance your indispensability to the audience.

Make your call to action respectful and easy — You can’t demand their money but make them feel stupid if they don’t capitulate to your offer at incredible savings. I’ve actually had sales people suggest I was crazy not to take them up on their offer that would save me money.

‘In your face’ asks like this are insulting. Be honoured if they decide to do business with you. And if they don’t, be respectful and grateful that they even considered you.

And, if they do agree to buy, make it easy for them to complete the transaction. Making them go through hoops could force them to lose their good intentions.

The reason most organizations can’t get their message across is they are trapped in mass thinking, and pushing their agenda on everyone. This approach doesn’t work in today’s ‘me’ society where relevance and personalization are key.

Don’t talk about low prices — The price messaging game is insanity. If all you have is lower or lowest price to talk about, you have nothing substantive to say at all. So ZIP IT!

Organizations that advertise lower prices trust that this strategy will make their business better off, that somehow they will gain a market advantage in the long run.

The benefits of focusing on price are illusory or short term at best. Revenue may spike up in the short term but it comes at the expense of lower margins unless costs can be reduced at the same time (which rarely happens).

Communicating lower prices has little strategic value; it never enhances your long term market position.

It contributes nothing to differentiate you. It doesn’t make you special or unique in the eyes of the customer.
In fact it has the opposite effect. It shouts out your status as a commodity player who is interested in providing little more than low prices.

The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about — Seth Godin

Price floggers are a dime a dozen; you will not likely win this game. You might keep your head above water for a short time but sooner or later you will either hit the margin wall, or some gunslinger will come along and lower their prices again.

And the race to the bottom is on.

Effective marketing communications speaks to value and benefits being delivered to the customers you want to attract or keep. Forget about the easy price message because you have no credibility or future with it.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 9.19.16 at 06:28 am by Roy Osing
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May 16, 2016

Is your product really worth taking out for dinner?

Is your product really worth taking out for dinner?

Or would you make a weekend out of it?

A dinner conveys a certain amount of value being derived but a weekend is at another level completely.

And of course if you wouldn’t even talk to your product, that’s another story.

The amount of personal time and money you are prepared to invest depends on the value you receive.

How is value described? 

By how your product functions? Does it work as promised? Does it deliver to specifications?

Or is value related to how your product makes you feel when consumed? Are you proud of it?

Does it blow your mind?

Does value derive from function or does it come from feelings?

Which is more important? Which is the better metric of product performance?

Most organizations believe a product is performing well if it consistently does what it’s supposed to do.

Product specifications are delivered 24X7. Dependability is the key success factor.

The issue is that performance doesn’t go far enough today; customers expect products that work as promised. And when they do, they are at best satisfied.

No loyalty is created and the customer will leave for a better mousetrap when it shows up.

On the other hand, when the product amazes, when memories are created and when magic happens, customers buy in at a completely different level.

They turn into maniacal fans who go out of their way to support your organization in every way.

And they spread your word to others.

By all means ensure your product performs consistently, but don’t stop until you wrap it up with an AMAZE layer that delights.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.16.16 at 04:04 am by Roy Osing
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May 9, 2016

5 practical ways to diversify your revenue growth

“It’s not good to have all your eggs in one basket” is a saying that speaks well to the business risk of relying on too few assets for a disproportionate amount of your income.

Too much from too few leaves you vulnerable to the negative effects of unexpected economic and competitive events.

Five steps will help you develop valuable diversity.

Target customers where your wallet share is low

These are customers whose spending on your service or product comprises a low percentage of their overall spending in your particular business sector.

Sell current product applications

Focus on applications provided to your most popular customer groups and market them to other customers who don’t currently use your products in the same way. Use existing marketing materials in the sales process to maximize return on investment.

Develop new applications

Develop new applications for your current products based on the wants and desires of your high-value customers. New application success depends on the clarity and ‘intimacy’ of the customer requirements you identify. Emphasize the value derived from your products, not the technology used to deliver it.

Go fast and easy

If you are tempted to pursue new customers for your products, employ the fast and easy approach. Identify those who have good revenue potential and are easy to pitch to and quick to buy. Business risk is increased by going after new customers who pose difficulty and consume too many of your resources as you try to sell to them.

New products

For the longer term, develop new products to satisfy unmet customer demand. This usually involves new technologies that are more difficult to adopt and take longer to assimilate.

But don’t be too diverse.

Provide what your customers care about, and be the sole provider.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.9.16 at 05:08 am by Roy Osing
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February 3, 2016

How your new brand dream can either succeed or die

Source: Unsplash

How your new brand dream can either succeed or die.

What or who in an organization has the greatest control over your brand?

Why is it disastrous to change your brand without changing your strategy with a new operational support infrastructure?

I’ve sat in board meetings as the EVP of marketing listening to board members pronounce their views on the company’s brand and how it should change to meet changing market conditions.
From the 21st floor, they declare what brand position best serves the organization in terms of the current business plan and the environment as they see it.

Yes, board members should have influence on brand positioning, as should people further down the line in marketing, advertising and public relations — not to mention a plethora of others in the organization who want to join the brand party because it’s fun to be involved.

But let’s be clear: the brand work done by these folks is at best aspirational and bears little resemblance to the impact felt by the brand when implemented and experienced by customers and other stakeholders.
The brand developed by marketing, for example, represents the value proposition that they want communicated in order to meet the marketing objectives involving competitive differentiation and customer value considerations. 

Whether it’s declared by the board or marketing, it’s a paper brand position at this stage — a brave idea only

Because at the end of the day, if an organization can’t deliver on its brand promise, the promise is useless and and is seen as a lie by all who witness it.

The brand stays in the ‘dream’ stage until it’s edited, filtered and tested by all of the practical, operational factors that impact the brand’s efficacy.

In my experience, these are the factors that either reinforce the brand dream or kill it.

▪️The frontline of the organization who engage with demanding customers day-in and day-out with aggressive competitors must believe the brand promise.
They must feel that they can deliver on the promise 24X7, because if they don’t believe, the dream dies;

▪️Operating processes that impact the way customers engage with the organization must support the brand promise. If, for example, the brand promises a friendly future but the internal policies make it cumbersome and difficult for customers to transact with the organization, the promise and delivery collide and the brand lie is borne over and over again. And the dream dies;

▪️Internal rules and policies affecting the customer experience must be in harmony with the brand promise. If the brand promises amazing customer experiences but internal rules force the customer through hoops they don’t like, customers are pissed off, they tell their friends what horrific service is being delivered and the dream dies;

▪️Frontline people must have the personal attitude, life experience and competence to deliver the brand promise day-in and day-out. Rude and uncaring treatment of a customer renders an organization as self-serving and narcissistic with utter disregard for the needs and wants of the people they serve. And the dream dies;

▪️The organization must be cleansed if the grunge and CRAP that gets in the way of employees delivering the brand promise. If frontline people are constantly fighting unnecessary internal roadblocks that get in the way of delivering what customers crave, again, the customer experience suffers and once loyal customers leave for a more friendly environment. And the dream dies;

▪️Frontline emotion and proclivity to serve others must be a huge component in the engagement process if the organization is to maximize the value of the customer experience, and this requires that people with a high EQ - emotional quotient - are recruited into frontline positions. If frontliners don’t illicit goosebumps during the interview process then the wrong person is being hired. And the dream dies.

Changing your lipstick

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.

▪️There are many organizations that decide to rebrand themselves without addressing the alignment factors discussed in the previous points — and nothing changes. They create a new identity with a flashy new logo and tag line but the essence of the organization carries on the way it always has. For these organizations, leadership seems to believe that the new logo will miraculously change their performance, but it doesn’t.

They overhaul their web sites with a new look and feel. Advertising messages change stressing an aspect of the organization they feel is now important and nothing changes.
The same operations problems persist; the same employee morale issues remain and competitive vulnerabilities continue despite the fact that how the organization is visually presented to the market has been morphed into something different. And the dream dies.

A brand begins as a dream, conjured up by people intent on finding the best solution to the market challenge they face in a crazy changing environment. And it stays as a dream until leadership creates the infrastructure — the support systems — that makes the brand real.

If they’re not up to the task, the dream dies.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 2.3.16 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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