Monday, September 24, 2007

diversity...


"How can you attract diversity when you expect people to be like you?" --Masrhall Thurber

posted by Ben Mack at 8:38 PM

1 Comments:

Blogger Ben Mack said...

Chapter 14: Plan to have Many Conversations
“When an advertisement first appears, a man does not see it; the second time he notices it; the third time he reads it; the fourth he thinks about it; the fifth he speaks to his wife about it; and the sixth or seventh time he is ready to purchase.”
-P.T. Barnum

Your loyal customers each went from becoming aware of you and getting enough information to try, all the way through preferring your product or service and being willing to pay a premium to have your product or service…
– Awareness
• familiarity
• overall opinion
➢ consideration
• intention
i. OWNERSHIP
1. Product exploration
a. Product usage
i. Repeat buying
ii. Loyalist…will buy nothing else

A great Direct Response letter takes a stranger from introduction to ownership in a single communication. The bigger the price tag the less likely this is to occur in a single conversation. Advertising is trying to make a sale; branding is about making this sale and the next two sales. If making a deal to a new customer is hurting your relationship with an existing customer…that’s not being good to your gander…this tactic might be costing you future sales.
Some business folks think branding means just being warm and fuzzy—I don’t know where they got this misinformation. Some marketers equate the narrative in an ad as wasted space. I beg to differ. The story is part of what makes you likeable, what gets somebody’s attention, what facilitates their ability to dream. Now, should you ask for a sale? Yes. Should you offer an incentive for folks that are just signing up now? Probably. Should you make a current buyer say, “If only I’d waited.” No. Because next time you approach them they will likely hesitate knowing that a better deal is just right around the corner.
Most companies attempt to separate their conversations into two groups: users and prospects…owners and non-owners…Like when you call a company and it asks you for to press 1 for sales and 2 for existing customers and then the wait message has different information…
Prospects Users
– Awareness
• familiarity
• overall opinion
➢ consideration
• intention
i. OWNERSHIP • OWNERSHIP
o Product exploration
• Product usage
• Repeat buying
• Loyalist…who will buy nothing else

It feels weird for me to get a “Dear Valued Customer” when I’ve never made a purchase. Worse, I get spam that reads, “Dear , You are a valued customer…” Funny. I don’t feel that valued.
If you are alone with a non-user, then you can offer them whatever you want without current users feeling jealous. Just realize that if they are only buying now because of a steep discount, then this patron is likely to only buy with steep discounts. If you think two sales ahead…is this customer worth the effort? Will you profit enough from them?
It generally takes more than one conversation to make a sale. The neat thing about legends is that a single legend includes a multitude of stories. Structurally, an advertising campaign with more than one story is a legend. However, part of what makes legends so appealing is that they vary from one telling to the next. I have yet to see this taken into account with mass media. Sometimes I watch niche media and I might see a cool Altoids commercial during each break. It is really cool the first eight times I see it. I might even enjoy the next twenty if there was a modicum of variation: a different expression when the guy falls in the fire, a couple of different lines here or there…anything. Eventually, I just tune it out. Slight variation gives me something to experience.
Buyers. That’s what business is about…buyers. We made an offer and somebody not only said yes, they paid and we got the money in our account. For most marketers, their most expensive cost is getting a prospect to buy. Then, the moment that the customer has the product in their hot little hands, they are greeted by the conversation that has the least thought and care that has gone into the whole deal…the packaging. Opening the product is probably the most important moment in the customer’s experience and has the greatest impact on their future satisfaction.
A buyer is so wonderful…they’re more likely to buy from you in the future than any other target population. It’s time to help them appreciate what they have. Sure, a catalogue of other offerings is fine, but your collateral about their current purchase should be all about why they made a fantastic choice and how much they will enjoy this purchase for time to come. Reinforce they’ve made a great purchase. Point out what’s likeable.
Sometimes, I buy a product and the instruction manual is almost incomprehensible, but there is a ton about what else I might buy in the future. That’s sort of like screwing a girl and asking her out for next week and she hasn’t had an orgasm yet.
Skip the next paragraph if you find seduction discomfiting. Be an adult.
“The truth is, the majority of people are very reasonable. They don’t write letters when something offends them on TV. ‘Cause reasonable people know that IT’S JUST F*C#ING TELEVISION! And not only that, reasonable people HAVE A LIFE!”
–Bill Hicks

If seduction analogies don’t scare you…read The Game by Neal Straus, its all about speed seduction…actually, its more than that, but if you are in the business of marketing you are in the persuasion game and you are seducing customers. How do you make somebody want to sleep with you again? You ask them, “You like this? How about this?” and you listen to their responses which aren’t always in English. And you give them what they like.
I love hate mail. This is not an invitation. I’m just saying that having an advertisement that made somebody take some action shows that at least some people are reading your messages. If you aren’t being bold you’re probably invisible.
“Without promotion something terrible happens. Nothing.”
--P.T. Barnum

I’m a huge fan of promotions. I also think that the promotion should be an extension of your brand essence, a promotion that reinforces your brand essence. Your story is what wraps the promotion into your brand essence…into the intellectual territory that makes the promotion yours. Your swagger. Your attitude. Your personality. Your brand. Your relationship with your customers and your prospects.
This is about building your relationship. Do you have a friend where every time they call, you know they are asking for something? Asking somebody for something with every breath is not the way to build a long-term friendship. Occasionally, it is nice to have somebody just say Hi. Especially if it’s a Christmas card or a thank you note.
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading my book. If there is anything I can help you with, please don’t hesitate to email me.
~Ben
Every communication leaves an impression. Branding respects the cumulative value of these impressions. Since most marketing communications are basically ignored, only a germ of an idea may get imbedded in our prospects’ minds. Realize that it is a very rare germ that grows into a cold. You are exposed to thousands of germs a day. Your defenses keep the colds or other illnesses at bay. Colds come on when germs have built up faster than defenses tear them down. Your brand essence is the DNA of the mental germs you’re leaving in peoples’ minds after they have touched your communications. But when you actually have somebody’s attention…I hope you will ask for the sale!
I am sometimes ridiculed for believing in brands after I say that a brand isn’t your logo, it isn’t your awareness level, and that a brand isn’t even something that has been found to be predictably measured with great accuracy. I do believe in brands.

“More persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing in nothing, than by believing too much”
--P.T. Barnum

Chapter 15: Everything Communicates

...GAR...

9:28 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home