Can you imagine if Apple had decided not to include the features of an iPod on the iPhone, for fear that it might cause them to sell fewer iPods?
Companies does nutty things like that all the time. Does yours?
Today’s newsletter, Cannibalize Yourself (Before Someone Else Does), takes a lesson from Steve Jobs, from a story in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs.
Go ahead, compete with yourself.
Do your customers love you?
Do you know why they would love you?
Can you think of a more important question you need to ask related to your brand?
Have a look at today’s newsletter, Why would they love you, and then ask yourself this question. Do you know why your customers would love you?
Read the newsletter: Why would they love you?
The front page of the business section of yesterday’s New York Times carried a story about the $213 million dollar first quarter loss generated by United Continental Holdings, the parent of United and Continental Airlines.
If you unfold the paper to see that the back page of that section, you will see, printed inches from this story on the same side of the same piece of newsprint, a full-page ad for United Airlines.
The front page of the first section of the same paper carries a story about how the recession has caused sales of eco-friendly consumer products to plummet, claiming that American consumers’ allegiance to green is fickle, at best.
If you unfold the paper to see the back page of the front section, you will see, printed inches from this story, a full-page ad for Macy’s eco-friendly cosmetics.
Looking at those two pages unfolded in front of me, with harsh news stories set next to pretty ads that cost United and Macy’s tens of thousands of dollars, reinforces how unreal advertising is when set next to the actual world we live in.
Communicating a message to your customers is a very tough challenge in times of message overload and a skeptical public. You may need to advertise, but avoid the pitfall I see companies fall into all the time: The mistaken belief that the work is done as soon as the ad copy is written. Just because you say something, you can’t assume that your customers will believe it. They don’t read your messages in a vacuum, with their full, committed attention. They weigh your boasts and promises against everything else they see in their crowded field of vision.
As I was writing this post I browsed further into the same edition of the New York Times. I saw an article on page 3 of the business section that describes how revenue at the New York Times was down 58% in the first quarter, due largely to the drop in advertising revenue. Next to this article was a review of Morgan Spurlock’s new movie, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, which opened last night in a few cities. (Not the one I’m in now) The movie, as many of you already know, is a movie about advertising product placement funded totally by advertising product placement. Based on the trailer, which I’ve seen, it looks like the movie will point to the absurdity of having your business’s success depend on “capturing eyeballs,” “cutting through the clutter” and “getting our name out there.”
I remember hearing that an educated person in Elizabethan England read an amount of material in his or her life equivalent to that in a daily edition of the New York Times. If that person had read yesterday’s Times he would have been able to learn a great deal about the truth of advertising’s waning power in our times.
How do I answer the question, “So Steve, what is marketing?”
Read today’s newsletter, “Definition of Marketing,” to find out … and then please share your comments here.
Today’s newsletter, How to Do Differentiation Differently, follows up on our last issue, offering steps to help you focus on a kind of differentiation that will mean something to your customers.
Please share your comments and experiences! How well does your organization show its individual customers that your recognize what makes each of them unique?
Read the newsletter here: How to Do Differentiation Differently
Today’s newsletter, Do Differentiation Differently, turns the tables on differentiation: If it’s so difficult to get customers to see why you’re different, why not focus on what your customer thinks is different: Himself.
I explore this concept in great detail and have some innovative exercises for you and your team, so go read the newsletter: Do Differentiation Differently!
Here’s a link to my last newsletter, The Way We Connect.
In a world where products and services are, in the minds of customers, largely interchangeable, the character of your interactions with customers is one of the most important ingredients of effective marketing communication. So, how well do companies interact with you? How does your company compare?
I’m organizing my day with my normal tools: laptop, notes from yesterday, a bowl of cereal, and the news on the TV. Suddenly, a commercial for a bipolar depression medication comes on. Since I have a friend with this disease, I start to listen to the ad, which, in the first 15 seconds, seemed compelling. However, the last 45 seconds was overpowered by a voiceover delivering a long list of medical warnings. If you’re a teen, you may commit suicide. If you’re elderly, it may increase your dementia. If you play golf left-handed, it may increase your slice on dogleg par 5′s.
Compulsory medical warnings on TV commercials are stupid. They are unnecessary. These warnings are based on the fallacy that advertising is the deciding factor in creating purchase decisions. It isn’t, especially for these kinds of products. The purpose of pharmaceutical television advertising is to get you to ask your doctor, or to encourage you to tell a loved one to ask his doctor, about the medication. The doctor is responsible for diagnosis and prescription. MSNBC and ABC aren’t. If we can’t trust the doctor to deliver the warnings, then he shouldn’t be prescribing.
And, these warnings are a pain in the you-know-what for the 99% of the people watching the commercial who don’t have Restless Leg Syndrome, or whatever illness is being advertised. We have to listen to a litany of unappetizing side effects and, let’s not kid ourselves, we’re all paying for it. The ad I saw this morning was a :60, and it could have easily been a :30 if it didn’t include warnings about orthostatic hypertention and hallucinations. CNN made some cash, but the rest of us lost out – I’m sure AstraZeneca’s pricing model includes amortization of these premium advertising costs. (Here’s an idea for reducing the cost of health care … maybe Harry, Nancy and Rahm are factoring this into the calculations they are working on right now …)
Advertising is an ever-smaller part of the input to purchase decisions. Come on FDA, get with the times.
The disciplines of marketing and sales need to unlearn their most fundamental principle: That marketing and sales are about disseminating information.
The accepted views of marketing and sales look something like this: Marketing is a rain cloud, showering information down on the marketplace. And sales is a water hose, spraying information at specific customers.
Marketing is not a rain cloud, and sales is not a water hose. If you get people wet, they will duck. They will not listen.
Marketing and sales are not about spraying your stories at customers. They are about creating engaging stories in your customers’ mind, stories in which you figure as an important character.
Stop showering your customers with information. Start engaging them in conversations
Sales and marketing are not about telling stories. Sales and marketing are about helping your customer create a story, in his mind, in which you figure as a prominent, clear, vibrant character. If your customer tells himself a meaningful, motivating story that includes you, he will be much more likely to get more involved with you, and take actions that improve your business results.
Stop telling stories about yourself. Instead, figure out how to make yourself part of your customer’s story.
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- Tom Peters
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In addition to writing, I spend most of my work time helping companies unleash their potential by creating better connections with their customers. This happens through my speaking events and through Yastrow & Company consulting engagements, where my team and I help companies figure out who they intend to be in the future, and then engage the entire company in creating that future through strong "We" customer relationships.
Before starting Yastrow & Company in the mid-90s I was vice-president of resort marketing for Hyatt Hotels. My experiences in the hotel business showed me clearly that most marketing doesn’t happen in the marketing department. Customers are paying attention to all interactions with a company, not just the promises made in traditional "marketing communications."
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