September 17, 2018 · 10:36 am

You’re The Customer Too, Dummy

We haven’t had a screed in a while in which I point out the on-going silliness of many of us in marketing, so let’s start the week with one! There was an article in the eMarketer newsletter about a recent study. I’m just going to quote it directly:

In an August 2018 survey of 103 ad agencies, publishers and marketers in North America conducted by Pressboard, 27.2% of respondents said they use an ad blocker to block ads on the websites they visit. These figures are similar to those found in the general population. According to eMarketer forecasts, 25.2% of US internet users will use an ad blocker in 2018.

Pressboard’s research showed that advertising professionals are more likely to rely on their friends than on ads when they decide whether or not to purchase a product. Nearly eight in 10 respondents (78.6%) said that word-of-mouth from friends influenced their recent purchase decision. Just fewer than 16% of those surveyed reported making a purchase after being influenced by banner ads.

I hope you can see immediately why this precipitated my response. It’s might be easy to shrug this off. I mean, what does it really say? Marketing and advertising professionals are humans too? How is that a surprise? Well, it’s not, but it does point out a fundamental problem. Apparently, when they put on their business hats and get to work they forget how they feel as consumers. After all, if they react badly to banner ads and rely more on word of mouth, why do they persist in figuring out how to invade the consumer’s website use in as many ways as possible? They use ad blockers because, to paraphrase Barry Goldwater’s campaign slogan, in their hearts, they know it’s right. The state of web marketing is akin to that of an Arabian bazaar or a NASCAR driver. Ad blockers at least make the web tolerable.

The message to any of us is that we’re customers too. We need to think like customers and not as marketers when we’re figuring out the best ways to interact with our audiences. How can we solve their problems? How can we deliver information that’s useful to them and not just scream at them? Keep that in mind and not only will your customers be better off, but you will be as well. Make sense?

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September 14, 2018 · 11:39 am

Everyone’s Got A Deal

A very wet Foodie Friday here but that won’t deter me from posting a few thoughts about what I think is a post-value world. What I mean by that is that value seems to be more of a given today that it did a few years ago. I also hope by now you’ve learned the difference between value and cost because your customers certainly have.

In the food business, you see this playing out in spades. Everyone has a deal, whether it’s $1 menu items or $5 foot long subs or free cheeseburgers from using an app to order. I suspect that many of these items are loss leaders. They certainly can’t be maintaining the margins which are already slim in the restaurant business. They’re designed to build traffic and that traffic will buy other, more profitable items.

The problem with this is the restaurant business is one where the supply has outstripped the demand. Chain restaurants are growing faster than the overall population and there aren’t enough hungry folks out there to support them all. Because deals are so prevalent, it actually frees the consumer to decide if they place more value on the price of the meal or if they value higher quality ingredients or better service or just the overall dining experience an establishment offers. More often than not these days, the price is less of a concern. Why? Because everyone’s got a deal!

What does this mean for your business? It means you’ve got to continue to get beyond thinking about cost in terms of how your customer values your product or service. The health of the business depends on more than a lot of customers. Fewer, more profitable customers seem better to me than a lot of slim-margin ones. Ask K-mart, whose profitability peaked in 1992,  if the low-margin, high volume strategy can work over the long term. Someone can always compete on price (Walmart).

The “deal” I try to offer to my potential clients is the highest level of value. That value is defined in THEIR terms, not mine. If all they’re after is a low price, I’m probably not going to be working with them. If what they want is a profitable result that advances them to their goals, well, that’s my deal. What’s yours?

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September 12, 2018 · 8:33 am

There’s No “I” In Storm

One more bit of thinking today as Hurricane Florence approaches the Carolinas. While it’s easy to see the eye of the storm in the satellite photos, the message here on the ground is that there is no “I”. Let me explain and tell you why it’s relevant to your business as well.

Riding this thing out seems to be a communal effort here. My neighborhood has a closed Facebook group and it’s been overwhelmed with offers from neighbors offering to help one another with everything from cleaning up yard waste to clearing storm drains to fixing generators. There are constant reports of where there is bottled water or gas available to buy (both are hard to find) as stores’ stocks are replenished. In short, while everyone is looking after their own storm prep, they’re doing so with an eye to the community as a whole.

That’s something that gets lost in business sometimes. Each of us is very focused on our own success and we sometimes lose track of the whole. I don’t just mean the entire enterprise (how well is the business doing) but also of our co-workers (how well are the people doing). Too many of us are selfish. We spend time self-promoting. We try to climb over others on our way up the ladder, not recognizing that doing so creates the envy and resentment that can poison an organization.

The truth is that while of course business is competitive, at its best it’s also collaborative. You can’t succeed, either as an individual or as a business, without the trust and support of others.

We’ll get through this storm just as we did the last one. That, in part, will be due to good preparation and help from one another. As with the storms that happen in business, it’s much better than trying to ride it out alone, don’t you think?

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