Jan 3, 2012 | Branding, Customers, Marketing, Sales
We are in the middle of the post Christmas sales, an orgy of discount opportunities for consumers as retailers rush to clear stock, and take advantage of the behavior consumers exhibit every new year, “buy, buy, grab the discount”.
Whoops?
Have we trained customers to expect great deals post Xmas, do they put off spending at full price till the post Xmas period, not because the deals are great, but because they have been trained to do so?
Clearly the answer is yes, customers have been trained, just like Dr Pavlov demonstrated.
So, what else can customers be trained to do? When you think about it, the list gets pretty long.
Switch brands indiscriminately
Demand discounts
Be impatient and unforgiving
Expect free service, whilst getting a discount price
24 hour delivery
Limitless warranty
The list goes on, but to each, there is a positive side, customers can be trained to stay with the one brand, not to expect discounts and unreasonable service and warranty, not all of them, but usually enough to make the investment worthwhile, as the alternative is to go broke being the cheapest to all, rather than delivering genuine value to those who are prepared to pay for it.
What are you training your customers to expect?
Dec 1, 2011 | Branding, Communication, Customers, Marketing, Social Media
Marketing on line is no longer the “next new thing” it was just a few short years ago, it is mainstream, a major consumer of marketing resources, and source of huge marketing value when done well. As with all new things, you get better with practice, and we are just at the beginning, learning how to use the tools now becoming available to build an experience for our customers they relate to, and can value, building the relationships they have with our businesses in the process.
In past blogs, I have noted the success of Tesco, particularly in Korea with their virtual shops, and the astonishing range of innovation that can be generated using QR codes.
In this link to what is in my view the best curator of web marketing topics, the Businessgrow blog, there is an accumulation of the best on line campaigns done to date. It avoids the usual suspects, and concentrates on those that are pushing the boundaries, and is therefore a valuable glimpse into the opportunities emerging. The web may be a free medium, but it is one where content is king.
Being different takes creativity, guts, foresight, and resources help, but are not a substitute for the other three. In the end being effective on the web is way more than just being there, because almost everyone is there now, you have to stand out, be relevant, engaging, and useful.
Nov 4, 2011 | Branding, Communication, Marketing, Strategy
A consumers relationship with a brand is a bit like a friendship, if it is strong, you will be prepared to put up with a bit of nonsense and still be friends, if it is weak, you may not be. If the poor behaviour continues, it will normally be the end of the “brand friendship”, after all, a friendship is supposed to be a two way process.
It’s a simple equation, deliver the benefits of friendship, the “brand promise” to people who care, and you will not depreciate your brand, fail to deliver, and depreciation occurs, and as every marketer knows, building it up is always harder than tearing it down
Accountants understand the notion of friendship in a balance sheet, called “goodwill”, they see it all the time, problem is they do not understand how it gets there.
A quick scan of the commentary yesterday after the Cup day reduction of retail interest rates resulted in all the major banks, except NAB, passing on the whole reduction indicates, a customer PR bellyflop of significant proportions, a whack on the nose to all “brand friends” .
It really does not matter how justified the “banking” of .05% of the decrease by NAB may be, they have just spent millions telling us how they are different from the others, setting themselves up as the bank for service, one you can go to with your financial problems, your banking friend, and it has been an effective message. All gone, “Poof”.
A rational bankers decision based on the margin squeeze created by the rising costs of wholesale money, and the reducing rates in Australia, but taken in an emotional market. Dumb.
Want to see brand depreciation, just look at NAB for a case study.
Oct 20, 2011 | Branding
Building a brand takes time, resources, and determination, but more importantly, insight. Whilst it is impossible to break insight down into a checklist that is useful for all situations, picking the brains of experts is always useful, and provides if nothing else, a menu to start the thought process.
Finding the right expert is usually a problem, there are many touts, too few experts, and brand building results are cumulative, and often not obvious inside the payment cycle for the touts.
However, there is lots of pretty useful stuff around that can offer thought starters, amongst the best of them is offered by David Aaker. This post of David’s on the ways to create barriers to competition, and this one on the components of a great brand, taken together provide an excellent list of factors that demand some consideration.
Sep 15, 2011 | Branding, Marketing
Rubbish you say, marketing always matters.
Well, the next time you try and get some sense out of Optus or Telstra when you have anything that does not fit into an easily packaged Q&A form for someone in Bangalore who does not know Sydney from Senegal , try and tell yourself marketing does matter to them, and fall about laughing.
If it did, your issue would be treated as important to them, there would be someone who could fix the problem in easy reach, you would not have to wait hours being told your call was important to them, and then never get a return call.
Clearly in the current telco environment, demand is greater than supply, so marketing does not really matter, or so they think, customer churn is a part of the game, and annoying a few is a small price to pay in the chase for short term margin maximisation.
Marketing does not matter to them, at least for now!
However, the worm usually turns. Remember when you could not get a spot on prime time television without selling your grandmother, or a preferred position in the Herald Saturday classifieds, and had to wait weeks and sometimes months for the local bookstore to get in an obscure title you wanted?
Now, response can be virtually instantaneous, and we have become very used to instantaneous, and when we do not get it, we can pile buckets on the perpetrator via social media, just as we can promote their great service on the odd occasion it happens.
Marketing always matters, because without a customer, you have nothing.
Sep 2, 2011 | Branding, Communication, Marketing
The link here is to the Social Media Examiner site, probably the best commentator on things “social media” amongst the thousands out there, offering 9 reasons why content does not get shared, emerging from some useful research.
Thing is, as I read the list, it is not just about the leverage offered by social media, it is about marketing generally.
All the 9 reasons can also explain why your brand has little relevance to a consumer, refuses to “stick” despite the huge advertising budget, and just gets missed by busy consumers.
Make sure you have a look at the Volkswagen ad in the post, sure to bring a smile to the face of anyone with a heart, it also ranks in the top 10 viral ads, according to the number of on-line views.
