Marketing: it's not brain surgery. Or is it?

The fundamental purpose of marketing is to change people's minds. When you do that, you literally rewire the synapses inside their brains.

Okay, you don't use a scalpel or a laser, but you use something just a powerful: an idea. Only a few of us will go under the knife for brain surgery, but all of us have been rewired by the doctors of Madison Avenue and their esteemed colleagues in the media.

Do you feel thirsty when you see the Coke logo? Do you drive a little faster when the Porsche passes you? Do you fight the urge to say "super size me"?

Who put THAT stuff in your head?

Labels: ggcb, marketing

In 1952, Dr. Virginia Apgar invented the "Apgar Test" to evaluate the health of new born babies. Until then, doctors assumed that new-borns were in good health and sent them off the nurseries, where many died.

Dr. Apgar's test, which is free and easy to perform, measures five characteristics, which another doctor turned into a mnemonic that spells her name (Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration). It's estimated that tens of thousands of babies' lives are saved each year because doctors apply the test all over the world.

I am pleased to report that I have developed a similar test that you can apply to your shiny new website to see if it will survive in the cold cruel world of the web. I call it CIGAR:

• Content. Is there anything of value in your site?
• Interesting. Is there anything interesting -- to somebody other than you and your mother -- in your site?
• Grabby. What's in your site that will "grab" people and get them to come back for more?
• Attractive. Is your site easy and fun to look at, well designed without too much text on each page and plenty of pictures?
• Relevant. Is your site relevant to its target audience?

In other words, if you can't answer the question why somebody would hit your site, well, NO CIGAR.

Labels: apgar, CIGAR, ggcb, marketing, website design

In his book, The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and the 82 Days that Inspired America, Thurston Clarke makes an astonishing claim. He contends that, when Bobby was killed in California, there was dismay, horror and disappointment among those traveling with him. But, he says, no one -- not even Kennedy himself -- was surprised. Everyone, including RFK, expected that he would be shot before the campaign ended.

One of the key arguments of the book is that, despite that expectation, Kennedy campaigned fearlessly -- reaching out to sometimes unruly crowds, riding in open convertibles, and shunning the cautious warnings of his closest advisers. Whether you consider that foolishness or courage is beside the point.

In his brief campaign, Kennedy catapulted to a front-running position, pressing his points, winning over supporters, and inspiring the country. Dangerous, but effective work.

Kennedy's tragically short campaign is a reminder of what we can do if we believe in our message and if we're not afraid to say so.

Labels: fear, ggcb, kennedy, marketing

Whenever I'm feeling a little down, I just go light-tackle fishing for bluegill. I march down to my favorite fishing spot (see above), tie a cheap fly to the end of my line, and cast the little lure under an overhanging tree branch.

Splash! In a few minutes, a nice fat bluegill is fighting for all he's worth at the end of my line. On my delicate rod, he feels like a tarpon. It's very satisfying. After a short battle, I release him so he can fight again another day.

And there will be another day. Bluegill are dumb. They have no memories. In a week, he'll glup down the very same fly, hook and all.

I am amazed by the marketers who are still bluegill fishing. They serve up the same old message, event, promotion, sale, product or service and they expect customers to bite -- just like they did in the old days. And some do still bite, of course, convincing the marketers that they are right.

But they are not. Gradually, the sales revenues get smaller. Market share narrows. Competitors strengthen.

Customers are not bluegill. They learn. They remember. And they choose more tempting bait.

Labels: bluegill, fishing, ggcb, marketing

In 1971, I joined the staff of The Wall Street Journal in Detroit. General Motors was the biggest company in the world. Gasoline on Woodward Avenue cost 25 cents a gallon. And, at a lunch with the head of Buick Division, he sniffed at the comparatively tiny import cars and declared proudly that, "When a American passes you on the road, it takes a long time for him to go by."

That arrogance vanished rapidly when the first energy crisis depressed sales of his hulking Electra 225s and boosted sales of the venerable Beetle. But few realized that was the first major crack in the clay feet of the Detroit giants.

Now, almost four decades later, Chrysler is bankrupt and GM is facing a similar fate. It has taken a long time for the Detroit iron to go by.

Labels: Buick, GM, marketing

It's no accident that the seats at The Grand Ole Opry look like church pews. If you look around the audience at a performance, you see the reverence that the Opry inspires. When it comes to country music, this is High Church.

Although the crowd is unmistakeably gray, many are just kids when it comes to the performers at the 80-year-old institution. There are plenty of wrinkles on the stage under the makeup. As the performers march across the stage to do a number or two, some would seem to be as comfortable with a cane as a guitar.

Yet the energy is unmistakable. The singers bring an inner spark that ignites each song, even though they have done it hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times. It's captivating, especially for the awestruck audience.

The entertainment industry has always demonstrated, and The Grand Ole Opry proves, a principle that we too often forget. Performance isn't about age -- it's about energy. If you think you're too old to do your thing, think again.

Labels: aging, energy, Grand Ole Opry, marketing

Now a decade old, the Country Music Marathon demonstrates a key marketing principle: Mixing Passions.

If you like to run and you like country music, you were in Nashville last weekend, pounding up and down the rolling terrain of the Music City. In all, more than 32,000 runners competed, colorfully clogging the city's arteries and flooding the economy with millions in tourist cash.

The marathon's incredible success - for the competitors, the city and the promoters - feeds on both running and music. Country music performers were strategically placed around the course to entertain the runners. Makes no difference that the runners only heard a few bars of a song as they dashed by; the creative combination of the two passions was enough to bring them to Nashville. (As if to compensate, all runners got into an evening concert free. )

If your service or product can be linked to another activity or idea that people love, consider the link. It might just give your marketing legs.

Labels: country music, ggcb, marathon, marketing, Nashville, running

One of the five key rules of building effective "buzz" is knowing and using "connectors" -- people who will tell your story to other folks -- especially the right ones.

At a meeting I was facilitating the other day, one of the participants called his connectors "sneezers." They, he said, are the "super connectors" -- the people who, when they sneeze, give other people colds.

Think about who your "sneezers" are. Are you keeping in touch? Do they know your story?

Labels: buzz, ggcb, marketing

Can you quantify the value that you offer your customers?

Traditionally, marketers draw the bright line between features and benefits with two simple questions. If it answers the question "What?", it's a feature. If it answers the question "So what?", it's a benefit.

Some go even further and argue that if it doesn't have a good answer to the question "What's in it for me?" (WIIFM), it isn't even a benefit at all.

Increasingly, in these difficult times, there is a further question: "How much is in it for me?"

Sales and marketing professionals who usually stopped at WIIFM are finding that they are losing to others who can quantify the benefits more clearly. It's especially challenging for professional and financial services professionals trying to sell intangibles like "experience" and "client service."

For example, imagine two large banks promoting their "global reach." Is the bank with offices in 80 countries more attractive than the bank with offices in 50? How much?

How about an accountant with 15 years of experience? Is he or she more valuable than one with 10 years? How much?

Consider a charity that serves 2,000 needy persons per year. Is it more worthy of a donation than one that serves 1,800?

The recession makes life tougher for anybody trying to sell anything. That's the downside. The upside is that it forces those of us who sell to explain our value proposition better.

And that's a good thing.

Labels: fundraising, ggcb, marketing, sales

It's a global trend. When times are tough, people pick quality first. They invest in Treasury bills. They shop for better cars and homes. Somehow, when every penny counts, people think more about how they spend or invest their money. It's called "The Flight to Quality."

So, explain this: why do some companies cheapen their products and services in a downturn? True, people look harder for value when times are tough, but less quality at a lower price is not a "deal."

"We have to do more with less," everybody says, but they don't mean it. They mean less with less. And they're going to deliver it with a bad attitude. Count on it.

So if you want to position yourself to make good money -- in bad times and in the better times that are coming -- all you have to do is deliver good value when everybody else is delivering junk.

Labels: ggcb, marketing, sales

Want to do something smart to enhance sales, donations or customer relationships? Create a "competitive experience."

A competitive experience is an event that is compelling enough to compete with the constant barrage of other events that swirls around us every day. Think about how events impact your life: you can lose your job or your car keys; you can have a war in Iraq or with your neighbor; you can face your significant other across a romantic dinner or a bill collector with a dunning notice. Consider the events that shape our times: 9/11, the Obama Inauguration, Katrina, the Super Bowl, Thanksgiving, our birthdays.

Nothing is as powerful as an event when it comes to getting somebody to do something. Not the Internet, not television, not the press, not even Twitter.

Suddenly, though, it has become fashionable to shun events. Every politician from the President on down has spoken out against events. You will notice that they are doing so after the election -- and countless campaign rallies and $1,000-a-plate dinners.

I'm not advocating lavish junkets, high-priced golf outings or big bucks black tie galas. Competitive experiences don't have to be expensive -- but they have to happen. For example, I recently heard of a financial services organization that canceled what had been a successful client event. I suppose they figured that their clients didn't want to hear from them anymore. That may prove a self-fulling assumption.

Even more interesting was a non-profit CEO who announced that he had decided against what had been a successful annual fundraising event. He sent out post cards asking for money instead -- and made just as much money on lower donations -- because he saved the price of the event. But he's also conditioned his donors to give less and next year, having lost this year's "momentum," he may find it harder to sustain the relationships he had nurtured with the event in the past.

By the way, the CEO made his point at an event attended by hundreds of other non-profit officials. Ironically, motivated by this experience, some may have gone home...and cancelled their events ... without realizing the irony of doing so!

Labels: events, fundraising, ggcb, marketing

Not long ago, I found myself in front of an audience of seasoned fundraisers. They seemed like a savvy bunch so I asked them what I thought was a pretty obvious question: "What are you selling?"

Initially, there was a dead silence.

Then, the answers trickled out. "A chance to give back." "Guilt." "We're not selling anything; they're investing."

Nice try. Then I asked the next question: "Is anybody else selling the same thing?"

Heads nodded.

"Do you think you're going to sell more of that or less of that in the future?" I asked. Light bulbs blinked on across the room.

Fact is, non-profits are selling something every time they receive a donation. It may not seem like that at first glance, but nobody I know gives money for nothing.

In these difficult times, when non-profits must work harder for every badly-needed cent, it pays for them to understand why their donors are giving -- or not. The "old" answers, which the fundraisers gave me, are really blunt tools.

I'd argue that the successful fundraisers are the ones that capture the trust and imagination of their donors. Those development professionals are adept at targeting and packaging their cases in new, innovative and powerful ways.

They KNOW what they're selling.

Labels: development, fundraising, ggcb, marketing, nonprofits

About 50 yards ahead on the sidewalk, the empty wheelchair stood like a riderless horse. Next to it, on the ground was a pile of old clothes. People were rushing up and down the sidewalk, stepping around the pile of clothes.

When I got a little closer I could see that there was a person inside those clothes, lying helplessly on the ground. He apologized for being heavy as I helped him back into his machine.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"No," he said. "Can you buy me a Big Gulp?"

"Sure," I replied. "What flavor?"

"Root beer."

I returned from the corner convenience store, handed him drink and wished my new friend well.

Then I rushed off for dinner with another friend who serves on the board of The Baltimore Opera Company. Over a better beverage than root beer, she announced sadly that the opera had that day decided to close after almost 60 years of performances. A great social asset is gone -- and it's not coming back.

"We had some promises of money, but there just wasn't enough out there," said general manager M. Kevin Wixted in The Baltimore Sun the next day. "To raise money for a season of opera was out of the question. We could have struggled on month to month, but we'd never get ahead. I know people wanted to believe we'd come back. But in this business, you have to depend on raising big money from people."

I guess they decided to stop putting the opera back in the wheelchair.

It’s a sad but important lesson of the economic downtown: we are all its victims -- from the homeless man on the street to the opera.

Labels: economics, ggcb, marketing

This is a story that illustrates a simple lesson: NEVER assume that the people who design your CRM systems know anything about customers, relationships or management.

I recently logged into a reservation system of a major hotel empire. I punched in the hotel I wanted, the dates, my preference for bed type, my personal information, my credit card number, AARP number, and hotel "membership" number. Of course, none of this was on a single "page." The system carefully digested each "bit" of information, then whirred and buzzed and re-displayed all the information, asking me to confirm each step. Finally, it displayed everything and then allowed me to hit the "purchase" button.

Click.

Instantly, a message appeared informing me that there was a problem and I should call an 800 number. So I did. Of course, I had to work my way through a phone tree before I talked with what could euphemistically be described as a customer service representative.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Our system is down. We're hoping it will be back up in an hour."

"What about all the information I entered?"

"I'm sorry, you'll have to re-enter it," he said.

Now, boys and girls, let's think about this for a minute. Why wouldn't the CRM experts design a system smart enough to tell you it was down before you enter the data? Indeed, what CRM genius would design a system so stupid that it makes you call a person -- just to tell you it was down? And why would you -- or anybody in his right mind -- enter the data AGAIN, since you'd never know until you were finished if the system got any of it?

Well, that's CRM -- but it's certainly not customer relations management.

I picked up the phone, called the hotel, and talked with a human at the front desk.

Labels: ggcb, marketing

Breakfast with my favorite doctor always yields a juicy insight or two. His fun fact for today: the average healthy person carries about 25 million cancer cells in his or her body -- and about 10,000 of them are malignant.

Our miraculous bodies handle this threat with absolutely no problem. The trick our immune systems performs is keeping all those nasty cells apart. But let them clump together, forming little colonies of evil, and we're in big trouble.

One of the key leadership issues, whether for the country or your sales team, is dealing with the little malignant cells of doubt and fear that will sap the energy you need to get the job done. Take a tip from Mother Nature: don't let them reach critical mass.

Labels: leadership, marketing, sales

Somebody once asked a country doctor how he decided what to charge for delivering a baby.

"Well," he said, "when I go into the waiting room after the birth, if the father asks 'Is it a boy or a girl?', I charge him $2,000. But if he asks 'How's my wife?', I only charge him $500."

Similarly, when I ask my clients "How many customers do you need?", I know I am in for an expensive engagement if they answer "As many as possible."

After many years of working with professional and financial services firms, one Golden Truth stands out: too many customers is just as bad as too few. The reason is that it's very hard to provide great service to too many customers.

So one of the grim ironies of these troubled times is that too many of us focus on getting more clients rather than paying more attention to the ones we have. Brokers are notorious for hiding from clients in bad times, because they fear the complaints. One knee-jerk reaction from many houses is to cancel client-focused events -- to save money. Another is to cut client service staff, thereby guaranteeing poorer service.

Now is the best time to build great client relationships. Focus on quality, not quantity.

Labels: ggcb, marketing