Listening II

Do you listen to understand?

Or do you listen to respond?

Sales v. marketing II

Sales can be outsourced.

Marketing can't.

Sales v. marketing

Sales sells what's on the truck.

Marketing determines what should be on the truck, and where the truck should go.

And both need to understand - directly or through research - what is selling, what is not, and why.

A $3 latte worth $506,628???

It is if:

• You save that $3 a day and invest it weekly in the stock market
• You're in your 20s, and continue this for 40 years
• The stock market matches its historical average return of 10%

The power of compounding is amazing. Do the math, here; if you're not familiar with financial calculations, start with 0 for your Present Value (assume you have nothing now); enter 40 Years (if you're in your 20s), compound your interest rate Annually, at a 10% Rate, your Contribution is that weekly $21 saved by not buying the daily latte (discipline counts: you must do this each and every week; set up an automatic contribution into an index fund). Finally, push the Future button.

So, millennials, ask your self each morning, how much is that $3 latte worth?

Knowledge matters.

A 400-year advantage

In "Google Maps announces a 400-year advantage over Apple Maps," blogger Mike Dobson writes

If you go back over this blog and follow my recounting of the history of Google's attempts at developing a quality mapping service, you will notice that they initially tried to automate the entire process and failed miserably, as has Apple. Google learned that you cannot take the human out of the equation. While the mathematics of mapping appear relatively straight forward, I can assure you that if you take the informed human observer who possess local and cartographic knowledge out of the equation that you will produce...a failed system (emphasis added).

A blow-dry bar???

Walking back from dinner, I noticed a scad of young women in a recently renovated store front. But there was seemingly nothing there...

"Oh," my wife said, "that's the new blow-dry bar that just opened up."

Huh?

Questions

Do you ask questions?

Or give answers?

Which do you think is more likely to be successful?

Experience matters.

Selling trust

At a Meetup group sponsored by I Love Marketing (lots of good tips and videos), we listened to a local entrepreneur who has developed a 6-figure home cleaning business. She has built both a loyal clientele and workforce by delivering consistently superior results and is able to charge a premium - heck, who hasn't gone through multiple cleaning ladies (this tends to be a female dominated profession) and thus is willing to pay for reliable results.

A cardinal sin

I (try to) regularly attend a variety of Meetup (*see below for a description) groups, for learning and professional and social networking. Basically, you can find a group of people who have similar interests: books, kids, art, food, sports - something for almost everyone.

Mostly, I appreciate deeply the effort of the organizers, and I have no issue if they personally benefit.

What I abhor, though,

How to write compelling copy

Read. A lot.

Write. Often.

Edit. Ruthlessly.

Have someone else read it and give you honest feedback.

Experience matters.

Buying v selling

Who doesn't like buying? The excitement of acquiring something something new creates a mild euphoria in the human species. Yet, we hate to be "sold" to: we turn off very quickly the minute we feel we are being "closed?" Why?

Get out of the building

I've read about Lean Startup Marketing, so when the local entrepreneurs Meetup group offered a chance to learn from those who had undergone the three day process, I took it.

The concept is straightforward:

Do you have a dog's resilience?

Yesterday, our dog ate something he shouldn't have, and had, um, shall we say, serious indigestion. We spent a good part of the day nursing him back to health. He was one sad puppy - loss of bodily fluids does that to you.

Today? Yesterday doesn't exist. He's back to doing his job, which is mainly to be cute, friendly and affectionate.

Dogs live in the present. Jane McGrath in a piece for Animal Planet writes it is because they "they don't have the power of episodic memory, or the ability to remember particular events in the past."

Radical v incremental innovation

Innovation, writes Patrick Thibodeau, "is the most abused word in tech." A Google search yields 108 million entries and, without even trying, I found more than 20 articles published in the last 24 hours.

Part of the confusion is that few distinguish between radical and incremental innovation. Radical innovations, like the steam engine, the cotton gin, the telephone, the automobile, the computer (quick quiz: when was the first programmable computer invented? - see the end of the post), and penicillin change the structures of societies.

What are you paying for?

I can't stand most Chinese restaurant food.

Yes, I'm spoiled. I spent two years in China and had really, really good Chinese food. Here, despite the sometimes attractive decor, all the sauces taste the same (and they're all bought in gallon jugs from the same distributors...), the food is too sweet, and the dishes have names that don't exist in China.

So, how do we pick? Easy.

Who is your customer?

Peter Drucker always asked every one of his clients four questions:

1. Who is your customer?

2. What does your customer consider value?

3. What are your results with customers?

4. Does your customer strategy work well with your business strategy.

If the answers to these don't cause you to rethink your business, you're not thinking hard enough about the answers.

Client focus matters.

Microsoft's new logo won't make a difference

The intent is laudible. Preparing to launch updated versions of most of its products, "we felt it was a good time to express the newness in the Microsoft logo (see below) as well," said Jeff Hansen, Microsoft's general manager of brand strategy. 

Microsoft certainly needs to do something. With the exception of late a spike in 2007 and a dip in 2009, the stock price has hovered between $25 to $30 for a decade.

Failing at strategy

How many new strategies have you actually seen succeed?

If your organization is typical, you undergo an annual 'strategy' process which almost invariably confirms the current strategy. Nothing changes. Not because of the data. Or the hard thinking. Or the valid strategic options.

Losing the sale

My daughter, shopping for clothes for her first job, walked into an upscale store, approached a saleswoman and asked if she had any suits.

"No," she said somewhat disdainfully.

Dogs are loyal

Dogs are loyal.

Until someone else gives them a treat.

Dreaming of sushi

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a must-see documentary about the world's greatest sushi chef, 86-year-old Jiro Ono, the only sushi chef to receive 3 stars from the Guide Michelin. The restaurant, located in a subway station in the Ginza, has 10 seats. A 20-minute meal STARTS at $370, and diners often reserve a year in advance.

Jiro has been perfecting his craft for over 75 YEARS (his alcoholic father abandoned the family when Jiro was 7 and when he left home at 9, he was told he had no home to come back to), yet says "even at my age, in my work, I haven't reached perfection."

Robotic brand behaviors

By now most marketers (effective ones, anyway) have moved beyond a Mad Men "brand = logo (or advertising - read From Mad Man to Superwomen) view of the world, and are focused on behaviors.

And with good reason. Viewing marketing as communications (only) is like viewing sales as cold calling or finance as accounting - necessary, but no where near sufficient. A logo or ad may catch your attention, but the customer experience results in the sale, and repeat business. Great companies define and build the experiential aspects of the brand into everything they do, creating a competitive advantage that can't be replicated.

But there is a fine line between definition and prescription.

Do it right

I had my first Five Guys hamburger years ago, well before they took the nation by storm. I'd given up on the other fast food competitors (one almost right next door), despite the price - those burgers over the years had become inedible.

USAToday wrote last week about the chain's success in an article entitled Five Guys found a simple recipe for suceess: Do it right. CEO Jerry Murrell (the patriarch of the five sons for whom the business is named) said, "We did everything we weren't supposed to do." Such as:

Picked especially for you...

Increasingly, I get eblasts that start "Picked especially for you..."

Amazon made this popular, and I still enjoy its missives, because it actually has made picks for me, based on sophisticated algorithms. I don't always buy, but I am always interested in learning about new books that may be an enjoyable read.

Great sales personnel (and lousy ones)

I love great sales personnel.

As much as I loathe lousy ones.

We were looking for track lighting at the local lighting store, from whom we had bought in the past. Those who've shopped for lighting know this takes some time and, often, in home consultations. After all, it is neither a small purchase, nor one you can easily replace.

Listening

We'd heard about a nice local deli, and stopped in to see the offerings.

Greeted with a smile, we asked about their prepared dishes, particularly vegetarian ones which, unfortunately, were on the sparse side. Because the store came with high recommendations, we persisted in our questioning.

Until the clerk offered us a sampling of the store's meatballs, something they were well known for.

Huh?

Movie theaters

Movie theaters should be dead.

Yet, the latest statistics from the MPAA show international box office receipts are up 35% over five years ago and even US receipts are up 6% over the same period. This despite the fact that a ticket costs more than a monthly subscription to NetFlix, which many can watch on home systems exceeding the sound and video quality of the theater.

And yet the movie theaters are packed. Why?

What's a smile worth? Redux

In the local supermarket today, two young women offered wine tasting samples. Good location, right at the front of the store.

I walked right by.

Not because of the wine.

Planning to fail

I love gelato.

So I've watched closely the relative success of the two gelato stores within walking distance. One is living on borrowed time, despite similar, if not higher, quality, selection and service, and competitive prices. 

What's a smile worth?

I stopped at the local Fresh Market for a piece of fish for dinner.

While the prices are a little higher than the competing local supermarket, I go there often, for a variety of reasons, including the quality of the fresh produce, meats and seafood, the selection and the deli.

Landing that job

In light of Friday's anemic jobs report, it's clear that competition for open jobs is not going to get any easier.

So how do you get an edge?

Everyone lives by selling something...

...said Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Sales reps, of course, sell products and services to customers.

CEOs sell their vision to their boards and employees.

CIOs sell their plans and budgets to the management team.

CFOs sell the company's investment plans to Wall Street.

CHROs sell the benefits of working in an organization to prospective employees.

Inventors sell their ideas to investors.

And CMOs must help sell all of these.

All require an in-depth understanding of both the offering and the buyer.

What are you selling?

And have you done the hard work to develop the insight required?

Experience matters.

Know your limits

Late last Saturday afternoon, my wife decided to try the new organic juice (imagine apple, cucumber, romaine, celery, kale and chard...all mixed together!) place that just opened.

No go. Closed.

Sunday afternoon, closed again.

Why I'll go back

Despite arriving on time for our reservation, we were told we had to wait. A bit annoying, since we could see a couple of open tables. The host then directed us to the bar, where the bartender, of course, asked if we wanted a cocktail, which we declined. Within the space of a minute, our anticipated pleasant evening was going downhill - I'm thinking typical restaurant trick, trying to eke out an extra couple of dollars from a patron. But then my attitude changed.

Oh brave new world: Re-imagining EVERYTHING

"After 244 years, Encyclopedia Brittanica announced the end of print editions in 2012," notes Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker in what businessinsider.com terms an "incredibly insightful presentation."

While you may already know this, and that Kindle is replacing books, Pinterest is replacing scrapbooks, NetFlix and YouTube are replacing Blockbuster and, one of my personal favorites, Yelp is replacing the Yellow Pages, did you know about:

Why market research fails - don't start with the customer!

How many times have you seen quality research shot down because a decision-maker said it didn't match what they knew? And despite the reams of data and the quality of the analysis, the nay-sayer simply wouldn't budge.

Marketing and strategy professionals do their best to gather data through a variety of quantitative and qualitative techniques. Despite these efforts, many are frustrated when decisions are made seemingly in spite of the data. And then they double down and do more research, or try a new technique, with the same result.

A quick way to destroy your brand: cut prices, buyback shares, don't innovate

The mattress business is clearly not very restful: Tempur-Pedic's share price has dropped from $87 in April to $22 on Friday, a 66% decline. A colleague suggested I take a look at buying the stock. So I did a bit of research:

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

My wife and I just walked out of a Chinese restaurant. Not something we ever do.

Not because the food was bad, or because of the price.

The experience was perhaps the worst we've ever had.

Convincing strangers to become customers

Back in the Madison Avenue glory days, all you had seemingly had to do was create a catchy message, pick the right media, pump up your advertising investment and, presto, your sales increased, reaping profits far in excess of the cost. In extreme cases, the actual physical product was irrelevant (remember Pet Rocks?).

Of course, it really wasn't all that easy then.

Innovation hype

'Companies throw the term "innovation" around but that doesn't mean they are actually changing anything monumental,' writes Leslie Kwoh in "You Call that Innovation?"  Now that this has made the Wall Street Journal, "innovation" has probably reached peak of what the Gartner group calls the "hype cycle," and is likely headed for the "trough of disillusionment." But for those who follow trends, this should be no surprise.

Marketing definitions from the Masters

Herewith are some of my favorites (from a blog I posted several years ago):

Phil Kotler:  "Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others."

George Day: "Understanding, attracting, and keeping valuable customers."

Sergio Zyman: "Selling more stuff to more people more often for more money more efficiently." 

Peter Drucker: "The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him [or her! - DH] and sells itself."

Theodore Levitt: "Marketing is a stepchild in most corporations because of an overemphasis on creating and selling products. But selling is not marketing. [Selling] is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariably does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse, and satisfy customer needs."

What are your favorites? Leave a comment.

Brand premium: the difference between a $15 haircut and a $160 haircut

Ahh, brand premium. The holy grail of branders. We all seek it, yet few find it.

I've always been mildly intrigued by the difference in pricing between a woman's stylist and a men's barber. But today as I was getting my $15 haircut at the local barbershop, I decided to do some research. What I found, though, was that prices for men's haircuts - in Manhattan anyway - can approach those for women.

What's the difference between a $15 haircut and a $160 haircut? Turns, out, a lot. Stylist Antonio Gonzales writes that for $160,

Branding overload

Last week I wrote about the brander's paradise that is South Beach. This week, I spent some time in Manhattan, which most would think of as a brander's paradise.

But right now I only feel fatigue. And I'm not just talking about Times Square.

Manhattan, everywhere, overloads the senses.

What experience are you delivering?

South Beach, where I live, is a brander’s paradise.

No, I’m not just talking about the ubiquitous retailers, including Sunglass Hut which opens its largest store in the nation tomorrow or the always-packed Apple store.