The latest trend today is to “go green”. That is good. Don’t really know if that help us avoid 2012, but well, we do what we can.

So, thought I seen it all, until I saw this – Organic Cotton BABY WIPES. I am a little too old for this, but it did bring out the giggles. I fully understand the motivation and the attraction of the idea, don’t get me wrong here. But well, baby wipes?

Used to be that Organic Marketing had a totally different meaning. Now, new term like Sustainable Marketing and Triple Bottom Line are beginning to become common. Will it every become mainstream enough that you will not need to Google it to figure out what it means? Who knows.

Will you be on this band-wagon?

I just saw this very interesting post over at the Versa Blog. It was talking about some sales guru who appeared to have the monopoly on great sales technique… I’m a skeptic, but if Vivienne feels it is good, then there must be something to it. Go read it at Meeting the Heart Sales Guru

Times, they are bad indeed. So I guess any boost that you can give to improve sales would be an improvement. Right?

Many small companies do not think that they need a brand. Actually, this topic has been covered by many speakers and writers who talk about branding.

Mostly, everyone is saying the same thing – you need to brand yourself. And of course, there are a ton of reasons why that is a good thing. So, if you are running a small business, how should you brand yourself and is there really a benefit to spending money on branding?

Paying a few thousand dollars to have a brand guru come in might not be the best option, especially for small businesses.

Before I go on, I want to make one statement – don’t be fooled by the big guys.

You see, many of us look at the big brands and we can understand why they do branding, advertising, marketing and promotions. Then we turn around and look at our little print shop or deli and wonder how that is relevant to us. And we think we do not need branding. After all, Jack comes in every morning for his coffee and Mary takes her bagel, with cheese; and they don’t really care the color of my logo. Actually, I just want to suggest that they do care. But maybe not in a way that you would like them to care. And in many case, you don’t care. And that makes it a moot point, doesn’t it?

Many small businesses do not take their own branding seriously. They do not see how a small business like theirs can benefit from a brand. Branding is a way of telling your customers what you stand for, and therefore, what they are getting. You would be surprised, that when you close your deli, and the new owner sets up shop, Jack might no longer get his coffee and Mary no longer needs her bagel. Why?

For small companies, branding is not about big, glitzy campaigns. Branding is about providing a consistent level of service, quality and value – and doing it with a consistently recognizable “face”. That same cup with your logo (or name, if you don’t have a logo). The same brown, eco-friendly paper bag. The tinkle of the door bell when a customer enters. Yes, even your welcoming smile. It all adds up the the total experience of buying something from you. Over time, that becomes your identity. Over time, you would have established your brand, like it or not.

So, small companies do need to brand themselves. But maybe not in the same way as the big boys do. Do you know what you need to do? If you have no idea, you might want to start with a simple Quick Branding Package which you can do online.

I want to suggest that to have your branding strategy started, do a simple survey as ask:

- what your customers like about your products/services
- what they like about your company
- what your suppliers think about your company
- what your staff like about your product/service

Once you have an idea of what your “brand” represents, you will know the priorities and the choices you need to make in order to maintain it. No need for the big bucks if you are small, but that is no excuse for not doing a few simple things to ensure your brand is clearly and properly communicated.

It is quite a common lament by small businesses that advertising and marketing that seem to work so well for others, are almost always a total waste of money for the small business person.

I just did a guest post over at Versa Creations Blog: “A 500lbs Gorilla will beat a 100lbs human anytime”

Would love to hear your comments on that.

It is strange. When we were in school, we skipped as many lectures as we could. Now, I spend 15 mins listening to one and actually liked it.

This post: How Starbucks Uses Psychological Triggers To Influence Customers – Video contains an excellent video of a lecture by Bryant Simon on how Starbucks has used various psychological triggers to successfully market their brand. Excellent stuff.

If you are not smiling after watching this, you don’t love marketing. Go sell cars. :)

Every morning, while everyone is still fast asleep, comfortable, warm and in bliss – the cock crows. Grumbling people get out of bed and go about their chores. Why?

You see, when the cock crows, everyone knows the sun is going to rise. Then, if the cock does not crow, or worse, there are no cocks where you live (get your head on straight); will the sun rise?

Sometimes in marketing, isn’t this how it seems to be? You see, we marketers have all these creative ideas, cool slogans and dazzling logos; our marketing {crowing} is irressitible. We hypnotise them with our witty copy, compel them with our TV commercials and of course, endorsements – who can resist when a movie star tells you which soap to buy?

So, it is not surprising, that just as there are some dumb cocks (no pun intended) who think that they are the ones who bring the sun up each day; we marketers sometimes feel that nothing succeeds without our brilliant marketing. It’s exciting stuff, this marketing.

What I want to say here, is that success requires teamwork. Any company that thinks that it can succeed with excellent technology alone, or products, or low cost, or great marketing – are delusional. So, we need great marketers; but these must complement a group of great engineers/cooks/designers…. you get the picture.

One final word on this. A smart aleck farmer hated cocks, so he assigned that crowing job to the ducks. I don’t know how successful it was, his farm is still dark, probably not awake yet.

For many of us in marketing, it is sometimes a challenge to work with very technically oriented people. They seem to see everything in terms of spec-points and checklists.

Imagine this story. Three guys running an engineering company wanted to hire a secretary. They agreed that they needed someone who could use Microsoft Excel, Word and the occasional PowerPoint. They also agreed that she had to be good with arranging schedules and handling clients who call. So, after interviewing 20 candidates, our three guys decided that Ms Scarlet would be the best – she had cute long legs.

How many times have we thought about buying something, listing out all the “features” that we want, calculating our budgets and so on… then throwing it all away when we walk into the store and see this latest and greatest gizmo that you would just die if you did not own?

Marketing is an art. Sure, there is a science to it. But there is no way that anyone is going to convince me that the pure mechanics of marketing can beat the power of a creative streak that is unsupported by any statistics or history.

Ask the market, “Do you need a Spreadsheet?” In fact, think about it, before they came out with it, how many of us ever imagined that the “presentation software” would be so important to our daily, working lives?

If it were up to the “bosses”, no on would have launched anything new.

Market studies, statistics, have had an up and down history. They have gone from boom to bust and back again, with companies first embracing it, then pooh-poohing it. But the reality is that most large corporations continue to rely on it.

We ask the market questions like:

- what do you like?
- which is better?
- which is tastier?
- what is the best feature?

But after watching this season of American Idol, the chill that was creeping up my spine has become a full blown blizzard. First, the survival of Kristy against so many of her betters for so long (but she was really smart…) and then now, the survival of Jason Castro.

I mean, that was the worse rendition of Memory I have ever heard. Yes, that includes sleazy bars, cheap cabarets and of course, cruise ships. Yet, I am guessing that they voted for his dreadlocks.

So, marketers, beware. The next time you wave your “indisputable” market study based on a cross section of “relevant” targets, keep in mind, that these are the same people telling you how great your product is, who voted for dreadlocks in a singing competition.

Another thing about statistics. If you read this article in eNews – American Idol: Carly Smithson Voted Off, you will see right at the bottom an interesting statistics that:

Nielsen data through last week showed that “Idol” on its regular nights of Tuesday and Wednesday was averaging 28.9 million viewers – down 8 percent from 31.3 million one year ago at this point…

If you think about the 28 million votes that Ryan claimed they received, it means that on average, everyone who watched the show voted. Yeah, right.

Simon said of David Archuleta, that he would be surprised if the song was chosen by him last night.

For those who do not follow American Idol because someone has held a gun to your head or tied you to the chair without passing you the RC first, David sang a really unknown song, bland melody and all that. That’s not the point. The point here, is that each singer has been told to “go with their hearts” and to understand their own vocals when making a song choice.

Very obviously, someone else chose the song for him. It was so out of character and it was such an esoteric choice, a 17-year-old could not possibly have even heard the song, much less prefer it. And the results were predictable – no one liked the song, though they still loved David.

Do you do this to your Ad Agency? Do you “choose the song” for them to sing?

If you did know better, why hire an ad agency in the first place, right? It could be an ego thing, to hire experts, and then telling them what to do. But it is hardly something that will be highly positive for the betterment of your marketing efforts.

Just as David could still be loved for his excellence in execution, so can your ads. But it would have been so much better if it was totally enjoyable rather than having to nit-pick to find something to like about the performance.

Do yourself a favour, don’t choose the song for your ad agency.

UPDATE:

David insists that he chose the song himself, and it was in fact, his personal favorite. OK, this brings to bear an interesting counter-point. Sometimes, even the best ad agencies can make wrong choices, wrong decisions, and it is the client’s who will then suffer for having trusted them. Look at the track record. No one is perfect. But if the evidence of excellence are there, then the likelihood of you being “more right” is lesser. We all know about caveat emptor… but it’s painful…

Sorry to have to get back to this topic again. But I just read this post about Burger King’s Inappropriate Commercial and I just had to heave that sigh… I wanted to say “I told you so!” but then, I would be lying.

You see, I have never met the marketing folks over at Burger King. If only they read the warning…

I would hate to repeat all that was said about this topic, so, do head on over to read what Eliza Ferree has to say about it.

A friend of mine in the tiny, sunny island of Singapore, just told me about a really interesting development that really got the people miffed: “The New Taxi Stand Rule“.

This was really interesting. You see, most of the policy makers, as commonly assumed, are government scholars. The best of the best. The brightest of the bright. So, they are supposed to, short of being able to see tomorrow’s stock index, be able to map out the plans for the future.

Now, the “central business district” is the downtown area that is consists mainly of offices and shopping malls. It is usually the most crowded and traffic is usually congested. This whole “taxi” rule came about because of a desire to improve road safety and to impose a stronger measure of orderliness in an already highly ordered society.

The problem occurs where the rubber meets the road, almost literally. While the measures are good, it created ripples of inconveniences that the law-makers never expected – the disabled, the elderly, and the vagarities of the weather. Having to trudge 50 meters in the rain to get to/from the allowed taxi stand is definitely not an improvement in the eyes of executives and office workers who used to have the convenience of a taxi to the doorstep.

Forcing a wheelchair bound person to use the taxi stand is even more ludicrous. Now, how is all of this relevant in a marketing blog?

Marketing is about communications. But communications is not all there is to marketing. How the example of logical thinking failing in the face of reality can be illustrated by one example that I will give below:

Everyone knows that there is no better way to drive volume and increase take up rate by giving away one free for every two purchased. Right.

Several years ago, a company wanted to launch a new game. The revenue model was for gamers to buy a prepaid card with a special code number on it, then, they get to play for 30 days when they enter this code into the computer. So, marketing said, “Buy 1 and get 1 free”. Simple.

Well, actually, what really happened was, instead of increasing sales and increasing take-up, they have just REDUCED SALES by 50% and lost 80% of the follow up sales. Those familiar with the online games market will understand this. What happened? Unlike other consumer products, online games have a definite, and usually short, life-span. Giving one for one simply made it so that gamers (who always move in groups) simply pooled together and bought half of what they would have purchased originally.

Then, follow up sales suffered because not everyone will continue. So, with a lower initial sales, follow up sales will also be lower. Now, this is again different from those instances where games are played for free and then later have upgrades to a paying model. It is not as simple as it appears at the outset.

All I am saying is, knowing happens at many levels. And sometimes, the heart and soul of a specific market could be very different from the norms of a generic market.

NOTE: As of now, they are reviewing the policies to address some of the concerns raised about the elderly and the disable. The rest of them just have to learn to use an umbrella, I guess.

Once upon a time, in a board room not far away, the Council met.

“You know what we want,” said the Head. “Deliver for us a creative of such excellence, none who view it can resist The Product.”

It was a daunting task. A task that would challenge the mettle of The Best. But it was not impossible. Properly targeted, armed with information, demographics, statistics and other magical tools; knowing the Final Objectives, The Product shall thrive.

“Indeed, we will!” the Leader of The Best proclaimed confidently. “Now tell us more.”

“There is nothing more to tell. You are The Best. You have the Knowing. Speak no more and go Create.” And so speaking, the Head turn and walked from the room.

For one brief horrifying moment, the Leader realised, finally, he has met the Mission Impossible.