Warady's Riffs, Raves and Rants on Marketing

I was out and about the last few weeks "parading" (that's an homage to Ringo in A Hard Days Night), and while I haven't been blogging, I've been spending a lot of time observing, and have jotted down some great things to share with you. As well, with the short time off from writing, I have some great rants in me, just itching to get out

Let's talk about marketing and marketers!

I love marketing, and love what marketing can do to help grow awareness for products, and grow a business' revenues. I love the impact that marketing has on the overall economy. GM declares bankruptcy; it is due to poor marketing, and horrendous new product development. Circuit City disappears; it wasn't the products they sold, they were fine. It was poor marketing! The same with Linen 'n Things. The fact is, great marketing can save companies, and bad marketing can speed a company's demise.

So let's get back to the fact that I love marketing. I do! But I really get tired of listening to all of the marketing bulls#*% that exists in the marketplace today. I meet people who call themselves social media marketing experts, and they have been doing the work for a few months. I meet marketing experts who talk about positioning, integration, strategy, and they have absolutely no idea how consumers actually think. At some recent trade shows, I have met people who swear that they have years of experience marketing products, but spend no time standing in a store observing why and how people buy.

And if one more person uses the phrase "paradigm shift" in front of me, I swear that I will jump over the table and tackle them. I'm tired of marketing speak, marketing jargon, marketing theory, marketing ROI. How about we simply market to sell more product?. How about marketing for the sake of business growth? How about worrying less about how smart we sound as marketers, and worry more about how effective and innovative our marketing is?

I'm tired of Stupid Marketers!

Isn't it time to focus our efforts back to the essence of marketing? Isn't it time we really start to listen to our customers in as many ways as possible, and really understand what they want? Isn't it time to get back to communicating our brand promise, our product features and benefits, simply, effectively, and intelligently, so more people buy more product, resulting in their happiness with the products or service they purchase as well as our happiness with the increased revenues?

Enjoy this video parody of an Enlightened Stupid Marketer.

In the past, I have discussed how important it is to say Thank-you. Whether the gratitude is directed to your customers, your clients, your co-workers, your friends, or a stranger sitting next to you, saying Thank-you goes a long way towards building a relationship, and building trust. All the social media tools in the world won't mean a thing if people aren't willing to say Thanks!

If a customer is unhappy, if a client thinks we have let them down, if we have wronged a co-worker, or hurt a friend's feelings, or simply treated a stranger poorly, saying I'm Sorry with conviction is another great relationship builder. 

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know there are times when I am presented with a new product or service, and I find myself questioning whether the idea is genius, or simply crazy.

Have you seen The Racktrap? It is described as "an undetectable personal bra pocket that holds everyday essentials including cash, credit cards, and drivers license conveniently in your bra". You can purchase it as a single unit, or a set of 4 (I have to re-read my anatomy books. Why would you need 4?)

1. Locate your breasts. (ummmm, they were here a minute ago.)

2. Decide what breast is most accessible. (how can one be more accessible than the other? What am I missing? I'm so bad at this.)

A hard thing to do is to ask people to honestly share with you their opinion of your skills.

Aren't you getting tired of people calling themselves Social Media experts!

First of all, the concept of Social Media, and the accompanying technologies and platforms, are all relatively new. Anyone who claims that they are an expert simply is over-stating their experience. They might know a lot about Social Media, but no one is really an expert. You read articles all of the time as to how marketers are still trying to figure how Social Media fits into the overall integrated marketing strategy. The key phrase here is "trying to figure it out." We all are.  None of us are "experts". Some of us simply get it more than others.

Did you watch the Tony Awards last night?

Marketing

No matter how well known your brand might be, you should never stop marketing. And if brand recognition starts to drop off, you need to market in new ways and new channels. Case in point is Neil Patrick Harris. He did a great job as host of the Tonys, but more important is to think about where his career had been, and where it is today.

Neil (can I call him Neil or do I have to say Neil Patrick), for us "older" folk, will always be Doogie Howser M.D.. He was a young teen actor in a major network weekly show, playing a young teen medical doctor who had a genius IQ. The problem was, after the show ended in 1993, he had been typecast. Sure, he would appear in single episodes of other shows as a character actor, or he did voice work for animated series, but he wasn't gaining any traction. The NPH brand wasn't selling. So he looked at the potential target markets, figured out that his old fans weren't buying, and he decided he needed to introduce his product to a new target market. 

In 2004 he appeared in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. By no means a classic, but who am I to judge. In the film, Harris mocked himself, and his Doogie role. In my opinion, it is no coincidence that in 2005 he became the star of How I Met Your Mother, a sitcom still on the air today. 

Nice job of rebranding. From Harold & Kumar, to host of the Tony Awards, in 5 short years. Amazing!

Gratitude

I'm big on saying thank-you. I think there is nothing worse than having people do things for you, and then not thanking them. It can be a simple email, a note, a call, an instant message, it doesn't matter. Thank-yous are meaningful, and people appreciate them.

I also believe that you have to thank your customers, your clients, your employees, your employer, your network. Just say thanks. People appreciate it. Sometimes it is great to show gratitude for not particular reason simply because it indicates that you appreciate the people around you.

Angela Lansbury is going to be 84 years old this year, and last night she won a Tony, her fifth. With the poise of a star who has had a long career, she showed heartfelt gratitude to her fans, her fellow actors in her current play, and most importantly to the theater community for allowing her to work at her age. Out of all of the speeches, hers was the most heartfelt. You truly believed that she appreciated everything about her career, and the fact that she hasn't been forgotten.

When was the last time you thanked someone with that type of heartfelt appreciation? I think it makes both parties (you and the thankee) feel great.

Accepting Change

Jane Fonda is 71 years old. She has had an interesting career. An actress, a political activist, a fitness expert, a wife of a billionaire, and now back to acting again. Love her or dislike her, she has been around a long  time and manages to remain in the public eye.

Last night at the Tonys, she was updating her Twitter feed live, from her seat. In addition, she was uploading backstage photos to Twitpics. Talk about willing to accept change!

Fonda, at age 71, is doing things that we can't seem to get our clients to do because they find it too difficult. She isn't asking if Twitter is going to be around in five years. She isn't questioning their business model. She has realized that if she wants to continue growing "Brand Fonda", she has to connect with a new market, and she is using her Twitter feed and her website to do just that.

I give her a lot of credit. By the way, her Tweets were pretty insightful, and personal. They allowed us to see into her head, which is the best type of brand transparency. Nice job!

Final Thoughts

Broadway continues to struggle during this economy. Ticket prices are high, and the number of tourists visiting New York is down substantially. If I were a Broadway producer, or theater owner, I would allow people to sign up to follow a Twitter feed for the show in my theater, and beginning 15 minutes before the curtain goes up, I'd start to Tweet about how many seats I had left for that evening's shows, and start to sell seats at a discount. Once that curtain goes up, and the seat is empty, that's it. You'll never get revenue for that seat, that evening. Aren't you better off filling that seat with a body willing to pay? What if someone waited until the last minute, and was willing to pay $25. Should you take it? It will go right to the bottom line, right?

How can that same concept work for your business?

Wow! I never thought I could ramble on so long about the Tony Awards and Broadway. I must be getting really sophisticated and cultured. But I have to run. I have to rent Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

• You post on a blog
• You tweet on Twitter
• You update your status on Facebook
• You upload your video on YouTube
• You post on someone else's Facebook wall

• Don't stop thinking.
• Don't stop writing.
• Don't stop creating.
• Don't stop sharing.
• Don't stop projecting.
• Don't stop talking.

People really do care to hear what you have to say. I promise! You may sit and wonder if all of your hard work to be interesting is worth it. You may wonder if anyone is listening.

Last week while in Amsterdam, I was involved in a conversation with some European business executives and we were discussing various business topics, including the fact that people in their twenties and early-thirties tend to change jobs more often than we did when we were their age. Surprising to my colleagues, I defended the phenomenon, and explained that it did not have to do with the fact that this generation were less career-minded, but in fact it was due to how quickly the world is changing around us. 

In the book, Grown Up Digital, Don Tapscott explains it best when he states that the Net Generation is simply different than previous generations. As he states in this highly recommended book, the NetGens' brains are wired differently than the brains of the previous generations. They work and live at different speeds, able to react to various stimuli at the same time. This allows the NetGens to be able to work on client presentations, while listening to music on their iPod, engaging with their friends in texting conversation, and monitoring their Twitter feed. 

I come from a family of doctors. My father was a doctor, my brother is a doctor, and my brother-in-law is a doctor. I know, I know. What happened to me, you might ask? Well, anyone can learn how to save lives; it’s all in the medical textbooks. But to learn how to market products, well that is both an art and a science. SNAP!!! (me being hip)

But the two worlds are converging. While I doubt we will hear stories about marketing people saving lives, marketers are saving hospitals. As the world of medicine continues to be more competitive, hospitals are engaging in a number of marketing initiatives to differentiate themselves from their competition.

While I’m all for marketing, and I’m a huge believer in social media, I did read a somewhat troubling article in the NY Times on May 24. It seems that many hospitals are utilizing social media techniques to raise the awareness of their brand in the eyes of prospective patients. One of the examples discusses how hospitals are bringing video equipment into the operating room, and uploading videos of brain surgeries, heart surgeries, etc. for the world to view.

Okay, I guess I can live with that (pun intended), as long as the patient has provided permission. But further in the article, examples are provided illustrating how surgeons are incorporating Twitter to offer play-by-play of their surgical progress.

I’m not sure I would want this if I’m a patient. The fact is, as an avid Twitterer, sometimes I personally find it hard to figure out how to condense my tweets down to 140 characters. I really have to concentrate on what words and symbols I will use to properly convey my message due to the character limitations. Do we really want surgeons concentrating on condensing their message, instead of focusing on the surgery itself? I can hear the conversation now.

Nurse: Doctor, it looks like we have a bleeder in the right ventricle, and a thrombosis is forming in the patient’s lower left leg.

Doctor: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Which is it that is the real problem? The bleeding or the thrombosis? I only have 140 characters.

Nurse: Doctor, look at the amount of blood that is pumping into the chest cavity. Aren’t you concerned?

Doctor: “Gr8t amount of blood in patient cavity. U can’t believe the mess. Going in” Okay, sorry, had to tweet that before I fixed it. Suture!

(4 hours later) (after final closing of the incision)

Nurse: Doctor, you did an unbelievable job, even though you were tweeting while performing surgery. You should be proud of yourself. Aren’t you going to tweet about how you saved the patient?

Doctor: Ummm, have you seen my Blackberry? I had placed it on the patient’s stomach when we started to close.

Nope, I don’t think Tweeting in the O.R. is the right marketing message to send to prospective patients looking for great health care.

Stay well!

Today we discuss love.

First let me share a sad love story. While this may be hard to believe, when I was a freshman in college, I was a bit, ummm, questionable when it came to being cool. I was funny, had a “great personality”, but was far from ever being called a stud. But I thought I had enough qualities that I would make a great boyfriend.

I was dating a girl over whom I was definitely “ga-ga”. After having dated for a few months, one Friday night, I took her to a campus showing of the Redford – Streisand film, “The Way We Were”. Having seen the film before, I thought this was to be a perfect situation for me. I’d have my arm around her, the movie would make her cry, and we’d look into one another’s eyes, and it would result in “make-out city”! How could the plan not work?

Well, we watched the film, she did cry, but she didn’t end up in my arms. Instead, as the movie ended, she told me that she was tired, and would like to go back to her dorm room. A few minutes later, after a quick peck on the cheek, I left her so she could get some rest, and I went off to the bars to find some friends.

You’re on the edge of your seat, aren’t you? 90 minutes later, I’m sitting in a bar, having a beer, and in comes my “girlfriend” with another guy. She wasn’t tired, she had another date! I was mortified, she was embarrassed, and the other guy was simply a jerk!

When I confronted her the next day, and asked her why, she simply offered this up as an explanation; “Joel, I like you a lot, but I don’t love you. I think you’re great, but I just don’t see ever loving you.”

Crushing! And you can see I have gotten over it (so what if I remember it like it was yesterday.)

Why share this sad, gut-wrenching story? Simple! It is to reemphasize why it is so important to get people to love your brand, not just “like” your brand a lot. Whether you are selling a product, a service, or simply selling yourself, it is not enough to have people like what it is you are marketing. To create brand evangelists, to develop brand ambassadors, the consumer has to fall deeply in love with your brand, and they need to be willing to commit to having the brand in their life.

This concept of building brands that people love is covered greatly in the book, Lovemarks by Kevin Roberts. Those of you who have heard me speak know that I love this book, and quote it often. I highly recommend that you read it a few times to get the most from it. But the concept is simple; as Roberts so eloquently states, Trademarks are owned by the companies, Lovemarks are owned by the consumers. If people love your brand, they will take ownership in the brand itself, and ultimately the success of the brand.

It is all about LOVE! Don’t simply try and get people to like the brand, always work towards getting them to LOVE your brand. You don’t want them saying they are tired, and then searching for a different brand, as my Friday night college date did.

Okay, I know that you want to know the outcome of the love story. Well, she ended up marrying the guy from that night, but sadly it didn’t work out for them. I, on the other hand got lucky, married a wonderful person named Heidi, who loves brand Joel, and it will be 19 years of brand loyalty this September (even though the brand needs some “new and improved” features).

I’m a real romantic, aren’t I?

When you get the chance, do a brand love-audit. Whatever your brand, whether it is a product, corporate brand, or simply yourself, sit down and take some time to evaluate why people should love your brand, and if they don’t, what needs to change about the brand to get people to emote love.

Always ask yourself this question; “if I were to see my brand for the first time, would I fall in love?”