5 Signs it's Time for a New Strategy

I have written often about making strategic marketing changes. This post addresses the question “How will I know when it's time for a change?”


1.) It's Always about Price

If your customers are always making buying decisions based primarily on price, then its time to thoroughly re-examine your marketing strategy. An effective strategy offers your customers things they need and want, and that they can't get from the competition. Your customers have a vivid imagination, and their “nice-to-have” list is continually expanding. If you do a good job of delivering those results, the “nice-to-haves” migrate to “must-haves”, and you have outmaneuvered the competition. Additionally, your price and margin situation will also improve.

If you don't offer your customers these distinctions, you'll never get out of the downward price spiral.


2.) You're Losing Good People

If your best staff are looking to move on, this is another sign that it's time for reconsideration. Really good employees are looking for a challenge, and for a place where they can grow. If they have decided that working for you is no longer interesting or challenging, they will look elsewhere. Further, your best people are on the look-out for innovative ways to address the market. If you can't provide that, others will. Address this situation now, before the best are gone and only the mediocre remain. That will make it even harder to turn things around.


3.) The Annual Plan is a Photocopy

Perhaps a more up-to-date sign would be if this year's plan is really just a cut-and-paste version of the last one. Try this test: Pull out the plan from 5 years ago, and highlight 3 major differences in this year's plan. Hard to do? Then it is time for major change. No business can succeed today with the same plan it ran 5 years ago. Too many market factors have changed. Some, radically.


4.) People Confuse You with the Competition

Is this scene familiar: you introduce yourself and your company at some business event, and people think you work for your competition? If people don't automatically know who you are, and how you differ from the competition, that's a sign that some change is needed. When people don't know what sets you apart from the competition, it's because you haven't told them. Some new ideas are in order.


5.) It Just isn't Fun Anymore.

Here is the final and most important sign. Time for a truly honest gut-check. Are things still fun? Is there a sense of adventure everyday when you get to work? Are you always interested in telling people what wonderful things your company is doing? Perhaps more interested than they are in listening to you go on and on?

This is an instinctual assessment, rather than the quantifiable ones listed above. But it is no less valid. If it isn't fun, exciting, and challenging anymore, then you (and your staff) run the risk of just going through the motions.

If these points hit home, then it is time for a change. Some real change, not just tinkering with the details. You need something radically new, and you need to shake things up.

Like the Nike ad says: Just Do It!

It's the Comparison that Counts!

The Political Season is upon us. Perhaps it never really goes away, but it certainly is here in all its fury . My comments in this post are not about the politics, but rather the advertising. And, more importantly, the incorrect lessons that may be drawn.

The political ad is the ultimate in Comparative Advertising (today's subject.) Much of the advertising produced in this cycle takes direct, and critical, aim at the opponent:

• He will just raise your taxes.
• She won't support middle-class priorities.
• He is against creating jobs.
• She isn't really like us.

And with all of this harshness in our ears, we come to think of Comparative Advertising as a bad thing. Yes, this political form of the advertising science is bad. But Comparative Advertising in general is a wonderful tool, if used correctly, and the concept should be embraced.

In fact, this facet of advertising can't be ignored, because ALL ADVERTISING IS COMPARATIVE.

Every ad you run, even if it never mentions your competition, is comparative. This may not seem obvious at first, because the comparison doesn't really take place in the ad copy. It takes place in the head of the audience, the people you are trying to reach.

Whenever someone hears / sees your ad, they quickly digest who you are and what you do. Then, they slot you onto the hierarchical ladder of companies they know in your industry. This helps them simplify their choices. The top rungs of the ladder are their first choices when it comes time to buy. Obviously, getting you on one of those top rungs should be the goal of your advertising.

Who's in that position already, and how can you take their place?

People use many methods to determine which companies are on the top rung:

• The last company that provided a good buying experience.
• A company with a highly-creative ad campaign.
• The perceived “leader” in the industry.
• A company mentioned favorably by a colleague.
• The easiest company to buy from.
• And a dozen other reasons.

Every time you touch a prospect (with an TV/ radio ad, a flier, an e-mail, a handshake at the Chamber bar-b-cue, etc.), you get a chance to move up the ladder. And, even if you never mention the competition, the prospect is analyzing what you say and making that comparison for you.

Don't let the harshness of the political season and its horrible ads affect your advertising judgment. Recognize that your ads will treated in a comparative manner, capitalize on that fact, and build some positive comparisons into every contact opportunity.

Just how you do that is the subject of the next post. Until then, here's an idea:

Practical Tip of the Day:

• Look over your advertising material from the last year.
• Eliminate all of the bland verbiage like your name, location, contact info, and general platitudes.
• Make a list of what's left. That's what people (may) remember.
• Is there a pattern? Does it reflect the image you want? Will it move you up the ladder?

Don't be like Harry Connick!

Yes, I am talking about Harry Connick, Jr., multi-talented jazz musician and actor, but this is really a post about your small business marketing strategy. I will tie the two concepts together in a moment.

I am a big Connick fan, and have been for many years. If you are familiar with his work, you will know that he has two very different musical sides. Sometimes he thinks he is Frank Sinatra, and does a great Big Band belter or gentle crooner, as required. Other times, he thinks he is Thelonius Monk, the
jazz pianist and composer famous for “dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists” (wikipedia).

My musical tastes are idiosyncratic, so I enjoy both version of Harry Connick. However, when I pick up a CD, I have to study the musical selections to understand which Connick is present.

Connick is very good in both genres, and this approach to the jazz repertoire seems to have worked for him. But, as a small businessman, IT WON'T WORK FOR YOU!!!

You can't afford this bifurcated approach. As a business owner, you have a tough enough time establishing a reputation in one area of operational excellence, much less two or more. And while this may seem counter-intuitive, the smaller your business, the fewer things you should do.

To be specific, I am not really talking about the customer activities you undertake each day, but rather the things you talk about in your advertising and in your various image-building activities.

• Find ONE THING you want to be known for.
• Do that ONE THING very well, and much better than the competition.
• Then, talk about that ONE THING every chance you get, in your advertising, in the phone book, on your business card, in your emails, on your building and vehicle signs, ...everywhere.

That's the best way to build your brand inside the head of your customer base.

If you want to take on customers and activities that are off-message, that's OK. However, your best performance is going to be in the activities that you do the most often. And your reputation won't be enhanced by your successes in those non-core areas. The more you can focus on the ONE THING, and the more you can promote it, the more success you will have.

Is it possible to be successful by doing MORE than the One Thing?

Sure. McDonald's does. General Electric does. WalMart does. And so do dozens of other companies. What do they all have in common?

• They have been in business for a long time, and have well-established images
  
• They have HUGE advertising budgets to put behind each of their market segments.

Does that sound like your small business situation? Probably not. You may not even have enough resources to do a good job of promoting your primary focus, so spending dollars to promote your secondary activities will only detract from you main message and confuse your customers.

Avoid the Harry Connick dilemma. Stay focused.

Practical Tip of the Day:

• Gather all of you printed and electronic media advertising from the past 12 months.
• Analyze the primary message of each ad, and look for a common theme. If there isn't one, Make One.
• Build that one theme into every ad you run in the next 12 months. Your customers will respond.

And if you want to know more about Harry Connick and his music, Click Here.

The Sears Problem and Theory Validation

'Tis the Season for a great many things, including holiday shopping and evaluating the resulting retail profits. Some of this years' results seem to bear out the underlying philosophy of this blog.

As reported on the Dow Jones Newswire: “Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) plans to close as many as 120 stores and take a charge of up to $1.8 billion as the struggling retailer reported fewer sales during the all-important holiday season, again raising questions about the company's ability to regain lost momentum.” The article went on to say that the company plans to take the money saved by these store closings and re-invest it into the store facilities and in their customer loyalty program.

Investors aren't impressed.

Share prices have fallen 25% over the last 12 months, and fell by another 25% on the announcement.

SHLD owns the Sears and Kmart stores, with about 2200 locations in North America. These brand were the kings of American retail a few decades ago. So what happened?

Sears was the biggest name in department stores. They were famous for their catalog, and they were the place to go for appliances, tools, and quality clothes at reasonable prices. They competed against Montgomery Wards and JC Penny on the clothing, but nobody put the whole package together as well as Sears. Kmart was the top discounter in the nation, when the only competition was Woolco.

The competitive landscape has changed.

• I buy most of my clothes at specialty clothing stores.
• I buy tools at the big-box hardware stores.
• I can buy brand-name appliances at numerous retailers.
• If I want to shop at a discount store, I head to the big W.
• And no one but my 95-year old mother shops from a catalog anymore.

So what, one might ask, are Sears and Kmart particularly good at these days?  

NOTHING, it would seem.

Business mediocrity comes in many business forms, but the most common marketing example is the “Me Too” image. Neither of these companies do anything particularly noteworthy, and their marketing image is simply one of the many Me Too's.

Mediocre operations can survive when the competition is weak and the selling environment is strong. But when the competition is strong and the economy is weak, the mediocre have few advantages to promote. The only option left is to constantly lower prices, and they aren't well positioned to do even that. As a consequence, they often die a slow death.

Although it doesn't make the headlines, small businesses go out of business every day for exactly the same reason: They haven't figured out how to stand out, and the buying public sees them as just another “me too” operation. If your company falls into this category, NOW is the time to make some changes.

Practical Tip of the Day:

• What is your company known for in the buying community? Don't trust your analysis of this, take the time to ask your customers for their opinion.
• If the answer is “Nothing”, but your sales numbers are still OK, then your competition is in the same boat, and you still have an opportunity to succeed. Start looking for some key differentiation.
• If the answer is “Nothing”, and your sales are drifting downward, Now is the time to respond.

The GE Marketing Position Strategy

General Electric is rather unique in the world of business these days: they operate as a conglomerate. A popular business format in the 70's, the conglomerate lost its luster in later decades as some of the largest ones imploded. But GE seems to be able to pull it off. And a key reason is their Market Position Analysis.

General Electric has numerous divisions and makes a wide variety of products, including:

• Wind Turbines
• Power Plant Generators
• Airplane Engines
• Advanced Healthcare Screening Devises
• Locomotive Engines
• They own ½ of NBC Universal
• and they do a dozen other things

I was intrigued with a key financial tool they used for managing investment across their various product lines. The process starts with an honest assessment of where each product ranked in its own marketplace. Each product was evaluated, and put into one of three categories:

1.) If the product was ranked among the top three in its industry / market segment, it was provided the investment necessary to keep it there.

2.) If the product was not in the top three but had strong growth potential in the near term, it was given the investment necessary to get it into the top three.

3.) If the product wasn't in the top three, and wasn't likely to get there, the investment of new funds was stopped, the division was milked for cash or, often, sold.

Here's the reason:

The top three companies in any market generally offer strong value, and have the pricing power to earn reasonable profits.

All of the other companies in the market end up competing on price, and earn little or no profits.

So GE invested its capital in products that were proven winners, and products that had strong potential growth. It cut its losses on those that never really made it, or had run their course.

Applying the lesson to small business

Contrary to the logic used by many entrepreneurs, a small business needs to be even more focused than its larger competitors. Here's why:

• The small operation has even less cash available to invest in non-winners.
• The small operation has even less management capacity to invest in low-profit lines of business.

We strongly recommend that each business periodically undertake a Line Of Business Review. This LOB analysis should be run for each segment of your operations (either product or services). It should detail not only your sales per each LOB, but also look at customer groupings and net profits for each segment.

It can be a lengthy process to do all of this analysis, but the results will help you do a better job of tailoring your business for the future.

Practical Tip of the Day:

Once you have completed your LOB analysis, ask yourself three questions:

1.  Which products are at the top of their field, and could justify a margin increase?
2.  Which products could be enhanced to get them to the top of their field?
3.  Which products could be dropped without having a negative impact on your bottom line?

The Tiered Elevator Pitch

For years, business people have been encouraged to develop an “elevator pitch”: Something that would describe their business, and could be given during a short elevator ride. As a management tool to help people focus on essentials, and to develop a succinct presentation, this has some benefit. As a marketing tool to help promote your company, it has limitations.

The most obvious being this: People who casually ask about your job don't really care.

It's like that adage about personal communications: “How are you?” is really a greeting, not a question.

However, a while back I came across this idea of a tiered introductory pitch which intrigued me. I couldn't find the reference in my personal library, and I don't remember the author (she was a Hollywood writer or agent, I believe), but I remember the concept and I think it has legs

Recognizing the problem mentioned above (most people don't really care about your answer), the tiered approach starts off with a teaser line. So, instead of saying “I am a real estate agent”, you might say “I help people find their dreams”. Instead of saying “I am an accountant”, you might say ”I am a master of the financial arts.

All of which leads to one of two responses:

1. “Oh, How interesting. Have a nice day.” (They weren't interested anyway.
2. “That's interesting. Please tell me more.” Or, “What do you mean by that?”

If you get the second response, they really are interested in hearing more, and you can give them a more traditional introduction that spells out what you do.

If you put some thought into this, you can even come up with a second line that is more specific, but still leaves some mystery. The listener is now truly engaged, and will pay close attention to your pitch.

Even if they aren't really focused on your answer, you have presented yourself as both interesting and memorable. That gives you an advantage.

This multi-step approach allows you to give your best, focused introduction to people who are really interested, and won't be bored with your answer. And having an engaged audience is always more fun.

Practical Tip of the Day:

• Throw this idea out to your staff, and see what they come up with.
• Perhaps, as a group, you can come up with 2-3 standard introductory pitches to use, depending on the situation.
• Once you find some appropriate lines, practice them until they feel comfortable, AND THEN USE THEM.

How Does Your Business Card Sound?

If you've read my previous posts, you know I believe in having a tight company focus. If everyone in the company is focused on doing a few things very well, you have a much better chance of success....if you also communicate in the same way.

One approach to improving your communication is known as the Aural Business Card.

Side Note: This is also sometimes called the Oral Business Card. However, “aural” (what people hear), is more important than “oral” (what you say), so I prefer the former.

Imagine yourself in the following setting: you are a visitor at a Chamber of Commerce mixer, with hundreds of attendees. People come up to you during the evening, shake your hand, and ask “what do you do?” How do you reply?

When we run this exercise at seminars, we get all sorts of answers:

• The long, rambling explanation that wouldn't fit on a brochure, much less a business card.
• The too-short reply that mentions the company name, but not what it actually does.
• The technical product description that few people can understand.
• And a few that are short, simple, and to the point.

The preferred form is the Aural Business Card: One or two sentences that state what your company does, and some additional point that sets you apart from the competition. It's an approach that people will remember.

Here is what it should include:

Part A.)  “I am with XYZ Company.” 

“I own...” or “I am a partner in...” also work here.

Part B.)  “We do ABC, specializing in DEF.”

Don't start this section with “I”, even if you are a 1-person business. Find a way to say “we”, or “our company.” Something that makes you look bigger than just yourself.

Make the ABC part generic enough that everyone can easily grasp what you do. Assume your audience isn't as conversant with your industry as you are.

Make DEF some feature that sets you apart from the competition. If that person at the Chamber mixer meets 10 people who say they sell insurance, he won't remember any of them. If you say you specialize in Key Man Insurance, you will be easier to recall.

 Some examples:

• We sell deli sandwiches at lunch time, specializing in mid-town office delivery.
• We manufacturer metal storage racks, specializing in industrial refrigeration installations.
• Our company provides bookkeeping services, focusing on independent retailers.

Have another 2 or 3 sentences ready and waiting for the person who wants more information. But wait until they ask before trotting them out: In the introductory stage, the more you say, the less they hear.

You can change the words to make them fit your situation, but you should have a statement available that covers all of these points.

Practical Tip of the Day:

Create your own tightly focused company introduction.
Practice it enough so it rolls off your tongue.
Get everyone else on your staff to use the same line.

It may take some work to create this introduction, but it's well worth the effort.

NEXT POST: The Tiered Elevator Pitch

Vive La Difference!

A technical term often used in marketing discussions is the USP: Unique Selling Proposition ( or, sometimes, Unique Selling Point).

It refers to something offered by the company that the competition can't/ won't/ doesn't match. It is a great way to get the buyer's attention.

Having a USP creates a superb marketing benefit, but only if it is actively promoted. Which brings us to today's topic:  Comparative Advertising.

I LOVE comparative advertising! I think it exemplifies what great marketing is all about.

The first time I remember seeing this approach was in a television ad for Wilkinson Sword Blades. This was back in the day when the US shaving market was dominated by Schick and Gillette. Wilkinson, the big British company, was trying to break into the market with its new, plastic coated blade. The commercial was simple: a small table, with 4 packages of blades from the major US companies. A hand appears, brushes the competitor's products to the floor, and places a pack of Wilkinson blades in the middle of the table. The announcer states that Wilkinson Sword makes the best blades anywhere, and the commercial ends.

The advertising community was shocked. Mentioning your competitors, particularly in a negative manner, just wasn't done. Complaints were made to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), but they held that comparative advertising could benefit consumers and encouraged it, provided that the comparisons were “clearly identified, truthful, and non-deceptive.”

What constitutes “truthful and non-deceptive” has been debated in many court cases since, but that hasn't stopped the practice. Some great examples through the years include the famous “Pepsi Challenge” and, more recently, the very clever “Mac vs PC” ads. (Here is the Youtube link to those ads.)

The automotive companies make extensive use of this technique today, particularly in their truck advertising. The Ford ads with Dennis Leary, and the Chevy ads with Howie Long, both state their advantages over the competition. They tout their mileage, power, and towing statistics, and they name names. It is powerful, and persuasive.

So, why don't more companies use this tactic?

We can assume it's because:

• They wish to appear to be “polite”
• They don't want to mention the competition's name
• They haven't figured out a USP
• They don't want to encourage a counter-attack

In my admittedly-radical point of view, if you don't have a USP, you really shouldn't be wasting money on advertising. I am a big believer in addressing the customer in manner they consider relevant, and in answering the Big Question. As detailed in an earlier post, before someone makes a purchase from your company, they endeavor to find an answer to the Big Question: “Why should I buy from you, rather than 6 other companies that do the same thing”.

Comparative advertising certainly attempts to answer that question. Are your ads as effective?

Practical Tip of the Day:

• What sets your company apart from the competition?
• What do your customers like about your company, as compared to the competition?
• Do you promote those qualities in your advertising?

Letting Go is the Hardest Part

I had a great conversation over coffee the other day with an acquaintance that runs a small business in town. He'd read my posting touting the benefits of focused product lines, and had a major objection. His argument boiled down to this: He needs all the business he can get, and can't afford not to offer a wide range of products and services.

I understood his plight, and I paid for his coffee. But I don't agree with his analysis.

If his objective is to earn enough money to pay his bills this month, I can see his logic. If, however, he is trying to build his business for the long term, he should take a different approach. I recommend the following:

Part One: Find a unique niche that will provide both sales and profits.

This is a three-step process:

• Find a product or service at which his company truly excels, and
• the competition does not do particularly well, and
• that appeals to a significant segment of his market.

I know, that seems like a big, perhaps impossible task. Isn't everything already being done? Aren't the competitors already in the lead in these areas? Not necessarily.

Most competitors are not particularly innovative, and customers are always looking for new products and new ways to do things. There are often unexplored niches available to exploit. And all significant profits come from providing something the competition doesn't have.

Many business people will say they differentiate their business from the competition in some way. Observe them at work, however, and what you see is their daily attempts to convince customers that they are:

• Nice people to work with
• Willing to work hard for their customers 
• Always eager to offer a discount to get some business.

Two problems with this approach: It doesn't set them apart from the competition (who are doing exactly the same things) and it doesn't give customers a compelling reason to buy from them. (Read The Big Question post here.)

So get going, find the one big thing that will set you apart from the competition, and then move on to

Part Two: The really hard part, Letting Go.

The first part is undoubtedly difficult, but it deals with pragmatic, quantifiable issues. Part Two is much harder because it has an emotional impact. Part Two involves Letting Go of something.

• Your staff is already busy doing things they assume are important.
• Your management group bandwidth is already stretched working on existing projects.
• Dedicating time and resources to the new focus (as determined in Part One), requires eliminating some current activities.

It may be some products or services, it may be some territories or some specific customer groups. It won't be easy, and it may feel like you are being asked to cut off one of your arms. However, not all products, territories, and customers offer the same profitability or have the same future potential. They do, however, all soak up resources that would be better applied to the new focus.

Calculating what to eliminate may not be highly difficult, but actually Letting Go can be extremely hard to do. That will be the true test of your leadership skills.

Practical Tip of the Day:

Look for some new ideas that will set you apart from the pack.

• Listen deeply to your customers. What are they looking for that you aren't providing now?
• Listen to them again. What do they dislike about your competition?
• What are the innovators in your industry doing to set themselves apart? Are there any clues here you can adopt?

And How Would You Define “Marketing”?

The term “marketing” has been used by so many people to mean so many different things, it's no wonder that people find it confusing. Rick Pence defines marketing as the activities that precede the sales conversation. My best description of the term is to say that the purpose of marketing is to create a qualified sales lead.

Too often, people use “marketing” when they really mean “advertising”, and sometimes it is used as a substitute for “sales”. While these concepts are all inter-connected, the important marketing activities occur before the advertising kicks in. These early-process activities are sometimes referred to as strategic marketing.

What is it?

In the world of small business, marketing is the triangulation of three things:

• The benefits that your products / services provide, as compared with
• The benefits on offer from the competition, as compared with
• The wants and needs of your target buying group.

An effective marketing plan will offer an in-depth analysis of these three components, and will produce the single most important marketing tool: The Message.

In an earlier post, I discussed how most small business advertising fails to answer the Big Question. To save you going back and looking it up, I'll remind you: Before making any significant buying decision, the customer asks, “Why should I buy from this company, instead of 6 others that do the same thing?”. If you don't answer the Big Question, you don't have much chance of getting the customer's business.

That's where The Message comes in. It gives the customer a great reason to buy from you rather than the competition, and is formulated in a way that resonates with the buyer. The Message clearly states the unique extra value that you offer.

Once The Message is formulated, everything else gets easier:

• Advertising can be created to push the message to the targeted (receptive) audience
• Leads will come in from prospects that are attracted to the message
• Sales staff can tailor the message to the needs of individual buyers

And why doesn't it get done?

Because, too often, the small business owner prefers to stay in his comfort zone. Further, practical business people often prefer the tangible (What deals did we close this week?) over the intangible (How do our customers perceive our value proposition vs the competition?).

Additionally, there is the Never Quit Credo, which condemns many businesses to endless mediocrity. More on that later.


Practical Tip of the Day: 

     Does your advertising really give your prospects a good reason to buy from you instead of the competition?  If not, try this 4-step approach:

• STOP YOUR ADVERTISING ! It isn't really working anyway.
• Bank your savings, to use when you have something better to say..
• Analyze your top 25 accounts, and determine why they buy from you instead of the competition. (Hopefully, it isn't just price.)  If you are having trouble figuring this out, ASK THEM.
• Create a message based upon these strengths, and re-build your advertising campaign according.

Avoiding the 2 B's of Advertising- Part 1

In the next two postings, I will discuss some highly technical marketing terms:

Baloney, and Bumph

These two examples of bad copy writing appear far too often, and afflict all kinds of advertising.

We will start with Baloney, which is a polite way of saying:

• lies,
• half-truths,
• exaggerations,
• distortions,
• falsehoods,
• fabrications,
• deceits,
• fictions,
• hyperbole,
• and plain, old B. S.

Readers quickly identify this material and recognize it for what it is. And once a reader picks out something considered Baloney, they disregard the other claims in the advertising.

So, why are these types of statements used so often?

I'll answer that question in a moment. First, lets look at some examples of commonly-used marketing Baloney:

• Fastest Service in Town
• Lowest Price Anywhere
• Friendliest Service in the City
• If elected, I will lower your taxes
• As Mayor, I promise to represent all of the voters
• I've never done this sort of thing before
• Satisfaction Guaranteed
• Sale Extended due to Overwhelming Demand
• This may be your last chance to get rates this low

Some of these examples are from business advertising, some are from the political arena, and some are heard on the social scene. They all have something in common, however the audience thinks of them as Baloney!

Here is a critical point in this discussion. It doesn't really matter whether the statement is true or not. It only matters that the listener thinks it to be false, or at least highly suspect. That's what defines a statement as Baloney.

Now, back to the earlier question. Why do these statements appear so often in small business advertising? Four reasons come to mind:

• The businessman thinks the customers are rather stupid; the least likely scenario.
• The owner has come to believe his own advertising (has drunk the Kool-Aid, so to speak).
• The copy writer is just too lazy to create effective copy.
• The statements may actually be true, but are unsupported.

This last option is rather common. The advertising claims are true, but aren't automatically believed by the audience and are classified as Baloney. As a consequence, the whole ad becomes tainted.

How do you address this problem?

If you are going to use a statement that a skeptical audience might find hard to believe, add some support.

Instead of:      We have the best sandwiches in town.
Try:                Winner of Daily Gazette's Most Popular Sandwich Award three years running.

Instead of:      Fastest Service in Town.
Try:                In and Out in 10 minutes, or it's free.

Instead of:       Lowest rates available.
Try:                 If you find a lower advertised rate, we will match it.

You can see the point here. Make a statement that the public can believe, and that they think is credible. Don't just blow smoke. They will see through it every time. It doesn't make sense to pay for expensive advertising media, and then send a message that isn't believable.

Baloney is everywhere, and it is a huge waste of advertising dollars. Don't let it waste yours!

In our next post, we will discuss the other “B” you should avoid: Bumph.

Practical Tip of the Day:

• Look through your marketing materials, and tweeze out statements that could be considered suspect.
• If a statement has some real positive impact, find a way to support it.
• Tighten up your copy, add some more credibility, and you will gain the public's trust.

Don't Argue, Less Really is More.

When I introduce the subject of Less is More in advertising seminars, I immediately get some push-back. How could less advertising be better than more advertising?

I answer that I am not really talking about advertising frequency or budgets. Rather, the point applies to advertising messages. Especially for small business.

The purpose of an advertising event is to make an impression on the audience. Obviously, a positive impression is preferred. And, as mentioned in an earlier posting, the key to doing that is to answer The Big Question.(see The Big Question post.)  You can't do that effectively if you try to be all things to all people.

Which brings me back to Less is More. If you have a huge advertising budget, like McDonald’s, you can afford to run multiple campaigns with different messages. They run campaigns for breakfast, new salads, new coffee options, and kids meals, all at the same time. And it works for them.
It won't work for you (assuming you run a small business).

Why? Because everyone seeing/hearing a McDonald’s ad already knows exactly what they are and what they offer. They use their commercials to mention something new, or to re-enforce an already-known image.

If you operate the typical small business, most people don't really know your company, or what you can do for them. Very few know how you are different from the competition. Even if you have been around for decades, most of your prospects haven't used your services and have only a vague idea about your operations. And you don't have millions of advertising dollars to spend telling them.

 FOCUS

Pick one area of your industry to specialize in, make sure you do that one thing far better than the competition, make that one thing a key element of every part of your company, and use your advertising to
pound away at that one message.
Somewhere between the 3rd and 5th time your audience hears / sees you advertising on that one message, they will finally assimilate the general idea. (Remember, they aren't paying close attention, so you need to hit them hard and often to get the message across.)

The objection I most often hear to this philosophy runs like this. “We do many things, and don't have money to run lots of commercials, so we must make each one tell our whole story.” While this argument seems logical on the surface, it ignores the most important element: the audience. They aren't really paying close attention, and the MOST you can reasonably hope for is that they will take away one thought from your ad. So make it a big point, and make it count. All of the extras you throw in will just get lost in the noise.

How will you know if the Less is More strategy is gaining traction? First, new customers will start calling and asking about the One Thing. Second, you will get your competition's attention, but they probably aren't reading this Blog, and won't be smart enough to respond effectively.

Practical Tip of the Day:

• Gather up all of the advertising / promotional material you used in the last 2 years.
• Make a list of all the products, services, features and benefits, and customer value you mentioned in those ads.
• Look for 2-4 that make up a common theme, and that (hopefully) set you apart from the competition.
• Build your ads around that one theme for the next 6 months, and watch the impact.