Strategy Daddy

Because They Don't Care About You Like You Do

As much as we would all like to think that we are all critical thinkers, the general public isn’t.  Does anyone really stop their daily routine, sit and think about a specific business, research the advantage of using one product versus another and make an educated decision?

When is the last time you personally tested the elasticity of your garbage bags compared to all the other brands on the market? 

When is the last time you tried a different brand of sugar because your research showed that the quality was affected by weather conditions in the growing phase? 

How about changing your brand of socks because you discovered that a different brand has a 3% higher absorption rate then the socks you currently wear?  Do you even feel a 3% higher absorption rate? 

It’s doubtful that any of these examples have ever crossed your mind.  There are too many factors in our day–to-day life to become experts in all of them.  We rely on what we hear or see to make decisions.  A mistake is to talk too much about a product, and not enough about the benefits.

Meet Mike Keesee

The Pantyhose Revolution

1970s is known as the decade of revolution. Neil Armstrong has jumped on the moon just a year back. The first test tube baby is born. Intel introduces microprocessor that revolutionizes the computer industry.  There is advancement on the civil rights front. The neutron bomb, which destroys living beings but keeps buildings intact, is developed. The Beatles breakup and Elvis dies. Everything is undergoing change. So it came as no surprise when the women’s hosiery market underwent a revolution too.

Since many years, women’s hosiery market remains stagnant and shows no signs of growing. That all changes in 1970 when L’eggs Pantyhose enters the market. Since the very beginning, L’eggs decides to separate themselves from the pack and create a radical product difference. L’eggs decides to do everything opposite. While every brand of hose comes in flat, 2D dimensional packages in the shape of a leg, L’eggs pantyhose is crumpled up in a ball and comes in 3D plastic eggs. The packaging isn’t only different, but also easily recognizable in the stores.

While all other brands of hosiery are sold in department and specialty stores, L’eggs sets up displays in grocery and drug stores called “L’eggs Boutiques.” They revolutionize the distribution system too. For attention, L’eggs buys its own fleet of trucks that pull up in front of each store. Then a female driver, wearing the L’eggs product and tight pants, deliver L’eggs products through the front door of the stores instead of the back door.

Branding, Brands and the Pictures in my Mind

I'm probably going to insult a handful of brand managers and marketing directors here in the next few moments.   The whole reason that this is going to happen is because of a definition problem.   But I am willing to risk insult (theirs) to ensure understanding.  

 

Here is the definition that is going to start it all downhill.  Branding is a shared emotional attachment to a recall cue.   If a group of random customers can hear the name or see the logo of your brand and it paints a similar picture in each of their minds, then the brand has been branded.   I'm not saying that upon hearing "Colgate", everyone thinks toothpaste.  That is name recognition.  I am talking about emotional attachment.  How can you determine if something is branded?

 

Maslow and the Hierarchy of Marketing -

You have no doubt hear the old marketing story about the drill bits and the holes.  I wish I knew whom to credit for the example.  The example goes that thousands of drill bits are sold every year, but who wants a drill bit.  People want the holes.  So sell them on the value of a hole.  I want to take that even further.  Who wants holes in their walls?  No one!  They want holes to put screws to either hold a something together or hang up something.  I say, sell them on how they will feel when they finally hang up that College Degree, knowing that it is secure…just like your child’s future.  This is an example of what I have nicknamed Maslowing.  I know that many people of heard of Maslow and his Hierarchy of Need.  It is a fantastic model for getting to the heart of human motivation.  And isn’t motivating people the purpose of our marketing?   So this is a quick explanation of the Hierarchy of Needs and then how it can relate to marketing. 

Here is Maslow’s Hierarchy:

 

Transcendence (High)

Self-Actualization

Esteem

Love

Safety

Physiological (Low)

 

Congratulations Never Tasted So Good

Jack Baum, the owner of Dallas based Canyon Cafes, wanted  to lure locals to his restaurants. So he employed one simple marketing tactic. He spent $1,625 in one year on the marketing tactic. And that tactic received 29% response and brought  in $106,177 in revenue. What was the tactic?

Sending congratulatory notes to people who were featured in newspapers.  Jack hired an administrator who would read news for 45 minutes everyday and find people who were just promoted. He would then find their contact information, and send a personalized mail to them offering free wine. This simple tactic was  a great hit.

The personalized letter didn’t only receive a 29% response rate, but each person that came to the restaurant due to the letter, revisited the restaurant an average of 3 times in one year! Every 1-dollar spent on the marketing tactic brought in more than 65-dollars in revenue!

The Right Pond Makes the Bait Work Better

Abraham Lincoln must have have been highly accomplished with a hook and cane pole.  It’s a rational conclusion when one appreciates his deep understanding of both strategy and tactics.

For many of us, the terms are intertwined, frequently interchanged, and often confused.

Strategy and tactics.  Tactics and strategy. Like so many terms in business, these have come from the military. Strategy is the planning of the grand scheme of how to win the war. Tactics are the planning of individual battles. Strategy is a decision of what to do. Tactics are choosing how to do it. Tactics constantly change. Strategy does not.

Fishermen instinctively understand the best bait in the world won’t work when you drop your hook into a pond without fish.  Choosing the right fishing hole is strategy.  Selecting the bait is a tactic.

Deciding whether to move the troops is much like a decision about where to fish.

Dare to be FCUK'ing Different

  French Connection is a fashion chain that was battling other fashion chains in the UK.   None of them stood out from the rest of the crowd.   That is until 1997 when the CEO Stephen Marks decided to try and break from the crowd and stand out.   His goal was to make his company one of the most talked about brands.   But how could he do this?

The idea came when they were communicating by fax with their new Hong Kong store that was opening up.   They came across a fax "From FCHK to FCUK".   The new brand strategy was to use the shortened FCUK as the company logo.

  

Stepto's Direct Mail Piece That Will Forever Haunt My Waistline

Mike Stepto's Bar-B-Q Shack in Evansville , Indiana has some great food.   You can't drive by his location without the smell of Memphis Style Barbecue trying to seduce you off into his parking lot.   One of the things Mike wanted to do was to grow his catering business, but wanted to make sure that diverting his marketing dollars didn't cost him any of his restaurant business.   Mike got the idea from another restaurant owner out of town that would make this possible. Mike sent out a direct mail piece to local businesses that said:

           

"You've won a FREE lunch for 10 people in your office"

 

Marketing the Mousetrap and Not Listening to Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson is regarded as one of America's most influential philosophers.  He will not be remembered, though, as an entrepreneur. 

Emerson's best known quote is: “A man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods the world will make a beaten path to his door.”

But, Ralph was wrong.  Better mousetraps are built every day.  And every day another inventor goes bankrupt waiting for the world to line up at his door. 

Why?  Because the world doesn't even know the inventor has a door. 

And Kevin Costner's “If you build it, they will come,” will leave the inventor just as disillusioned, and just as broke.   

You see, the world of commerce doesn't turn on technology, but rather on benefits.  People don't want quarter-inch drills, they want quarter-inch holes.  They don't want to order on line.  They want to never stand in line.  People don't much care about you, or your invention, until they understand how it's going to make a difference in their lives. 

If you don't want to end up with a warehouse full of unsold mousetraps, you have to let the people of the world know that you have a better trap, why they should buy it, and where your door is. 

That's what marketing is.  Telling the world about your new and improved mousetrap.