Tag Archives: Consulting

August 25, 2014 · 12:07 pm

Dead Ninjas

As you might expect, I know quite a few other consultants.  One thing with which I think each of us struggles is our positioning statement:  what is it that we do and why is how we do it different (and better) and others.  My friends in the marketing agency business face the same challenge.  There are many firms chasing the same pieces of business.  How are we to stand out?

What I’ve seen over the last decade has been the rise and fall of various segments.  Consultants and agencies focus on the next shiny niche.  There were SEO specialists and then SEO changed.  There’s far less one needs to do on an on-going basis (other than create great, interesting content) to warrant an investment in SEO over time.  Paid search is a sector that continues to flourish but increasingly it’s more part of the “traditional” marketing mix.  Does one really need a specialist who may or may not understand the entirely of the marketing mix?

The ones that bother me the most (I’m not sure why, but they do) are the “ninjas” and “gurus.”  It’s amazing how they shift from new segment to new segment as marketing evolves.  Maybe they really are ninjas – they move very fast and somehow always seem to be selling the next shiny thing.  Of course, as things are evolving there is no real right or wrong and it’s hard to know what demonstrable results are expected.

You can see this today.  Content marketing seems to be the flavor of the month.  How many of the folks selling content marketing were selling SEO two years ago?  How many of the loudest voices were just as loud on another topic when that topic was emerging?  I don’t mean to single out my consulting or agency brethren.  Conferences, software vendors, and others are just as guilty.  What we all need to be doing is thinking about the fundamental principles of marketing and business.  In my 35+ years in business those things haven’t changed very much.

Self-promotion and “hot” positioning are great.  Fantastic, measurable results are even better.  I think maybe we need to kill off a few ninjas and deal with people who practice sound business. What do you think?

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August 6, 2014 · 1:15 pm

Experts? Hardly.

You may be following the saga of Foursquare as it tries to find a business model that works.

Foursquare Logo

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The bloom of collecting badges has clearly worn off and almost every app has some sort of check-in feature to let your friends know where you are. Now Foursquare seems to be moving in a direction that will let them compete with Yelp (which has a good business model) and are splitting off the check-in part of the service into another app (Swarm).
Maybe you got the same email I did the other day which talked about their new feature called “Expertise”:

In the new Foursquare, we want to reward people who share their expertise, helping other people to great experiences. When you leave great tips, you make progress. And, the more people like or save them, the faster you’ll earn expertise.

It goes on to say that all of the tips you post thereafter will show they were posted by an expert.  On behalf of people who actually DO have some expertise on a few things, may I call BS?  I’ll even go further: I’m offended.

I’m offended because any moron with the price of dinner and a mobile device can write a review which may be complete blather and very inaccurate. I have no problem there.  But if they do so 10 or more times, does that really make them an expert or just a blithering idiot?  How is anyone to recognize the real experts?

I’m offended  because Foursquare is doing something that I find offensive among a number of content companies.  They are using the very same audience they sell to marketers to make their product.  The reward to the consumer for doing so?  An ego trip:

Once you’ve earned an expertise, we both mark your tips as coming from an expert (so the world knows), and make sure more people see them because they’re high quality. And, when you’re looking for great things to do when you’re at a place, you can see which ones come from experts.

How about something more tangible – a gift card, a weekly sweepstakes, anything that reflects the value of the contribution?  Foursquare seems to believe the famous Woody Allen quote that showing up is 80% of success.  If you show up at a place and write about it, you’re a success – an EXPERT!  My take?  Hardly.  Yours?

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June 27, 2014 · 8:55 am

Vegas And Veggies

For our Foodie Friday Fun this week I’d like to ask you what your local supermarket and a casino have in common?

Casino Royale en Las Vegas

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You might not have noticed but neither of them have clocks that are highly visible.  In the case of the supermarket there is a general rule that says the longer someone is in the store the more money they will spend (I suspect the same is true of a casino) so they don’t want anything to remind the customer that time has passed.  That’s one of the things each of these very different types of establishments do to increase sales.  You’ve probably never seen windows in either place (in fairness very few stores have windows other than up front), and both deploy a wide range of sensory stimuli to encourage spending: music, fragrances, lighting, even nuances like colors.

It’s really about engagement.  Does it surprise you that both casinos and supermarkets have researched how to create engagement for a very long time?  In my mind, the only reason that it should is that both do a fairly good job about not being obvious in the psychological tricks they use to create engagement.  Here is a quote from an interview with the manager of a Fairway store:

“The real secret of Fairway’s success is to make the shopping experience emotional,” the manager concluded. “We want our customers to be wowed by our unique product selection, service, and merchandising.”

Which is very good guidance for any of us in any business.  The strongest connection you can have with a customer is an emotional one.  Your pricing may change (for better or worse in the customer’s eyes) but their memories of having been treated like a special guest won’t.  If you’re tending to their needs and making sure they’re content instead of “doing transactions” you are creating a bond.  It can be with content or it can be an in-person interaction but engagement through an emotional connection is as good as it gets.

Think about that while you’re wandering the aisles!

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