“Rainy days and Mondays always get me down”– or at least they did Karen Carpenter as I grew up hearing her sing the song. Today is Monday and it’s pouring rain. I’m actually writing this blog article to waylay my having to go out and get wet delivering some printing jobs to clients. In my mailbox this morning I found a short email about competition. It conveyed some simple thoughts. See what you think about them.
“How good am I?” is the second question that every business owner must answer. “How good are my competitors?” is the first.
Like it or not, your competitors set the height of the bar you must jump.
It’s a weary old saying, but true, “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”
And as venture capitalist I knew once told me, “We learned quickly that the most important predictor of success is determination. At first we thought it might be intelligence. Everyone likes to believe that’s what makes startups succeed. It makes a better story that a company ‘won’ because its founders were so smart. But while it certainly helps to be smart, it’s not the deciding factor. There are plenty of people as smart as Bill Gates who achieve nothing.”
So, essentially making money is easy:
Sell what people want to buy
Offer it at an attractive price
Occupy a high-visibility location
Wave your arms and draw a crowd
Maybe you can’t have all of those, but I have never seen the combination fail. Need some help? We’re here.
As a lot of my friends and business colleagues know, my oldest son is currently in the process of getting his driver’s license; ad guy by day, dad and driver’s instructor by night. One of the things we have been practicing without fail on a daily basis is parallel parking. When I was 15 years old, my grandmother was my driving coach and she taught me a few “tricks” about rearview mirrors, side mirrors and the blind spot just over your right shoulder as a way to glide any car into the parking space with just the three maneuvers you can have during your parking test. With a little practice and these little tips, my son has parallel parking down.
But what about business? Yes, your business and some of the tips and tricks necessary these days to make the most of your marketing dollars and keep you within the space allotted without bumping or hitting the curbs? Blind spots in cars are easy to identify. Blind spots in our businesses aren’t so easy. Why—because if we could see them, they wouldn’t be blind spots. Here are a few common blind spots I see in businesses with which I consult: Continue Reading »
Brands are dead. Advertising no longer works. Weaned on TiVo, the Internet, and other emerging technologies, the short-attention-span generation has become immune to marketing. Your marketing performance will determine whethere or not you can overcome these obstacles. Consumers are “in control.” Or so we’re told.
But the real truth is a much more important and lasting cultural shift has happened.
As technology has created avenues for advertising anywhere and everywhere, people are embracing brands more than ever before–creating brands of their own and participating in marketing campaigns for their favorite brands in unprecedented ways. In the process, they–we–have begun to funnel cultural, political and community activities through connections with brands. You can use consumers’ word-of-mouth to enhance your marketing performance without the consumer ever knowing.
What do you know about your product, company or brand? Our FREE marketing performance test is 12 questions that measure 7 key areas of your marketing performance. In just about 15 clicks you can have a thoughtful and measured review of how you’re really doing! Start here.
Touch point focused and two-way? Have any idea what I’m talking about? Planners still classify media touch points as “above-the-line,” “below-the-line” and “new,” but planning should always be based on some critical considerations: Which touch point will best reinforce your brand value? And…where will the brand + media equation yield real engagement? Effectiveness will result only where the plan is seamless, believable, personalized, and authentic. There are those engagement words again— personalized and authentic. Media planning innovation and technological innovation are fast becoming one and the same.
Mobile devices, for example, are becoming an increasingly important touch point for consumers and a starting point for migration from desktop to laptop to blacktop. Location-aware software for phones, while still new, will inspire the mobile medium, so expect promotional coupons to show up along with IMs and look for greater granularity in measuring marketing ROI. Marketing dollars transitioning to online isn’t new, but social networks are also becoming more engaged in engagement to help marketers more effectively deliver messages and determine return on their efforts. Take a look at your media plan. Review it for creativity and innovation. Need ideas and suggestions? We’re as close as your phone, your UberTwitter app, or email.
There is so much to accomplish! Our world changes so rapidly and every day seems to bring a new challenge or crisis for a business that is not keeping pace.
“The Catapult Effect” is about new effectiveness in new ways in a very quick time. It can be as simple as closer relationships with customers, speeding a new product to market, or collaborating with a new team. We are talking about transformational change. It happens oftentimes very quickly and not in the most positive of ways. Relationships end, an accident changes a life, a business closes and people lose their jobs. How quickly those changes happen, sometimes in the blink of an eye. The point of the Catapult Effect is to take the crisis and manipulate it for our good or betterment, not for something bad from which we may not be able to recover.
Have you downloaded your copy today? It’s FREE! Get it here
“Rainy days and Mondays always get me down”– or at least they did Karen Carpenter as I grew up hearing her sing the song. Today is Monday and it’s pouring rain. I’m actually writing this blog article to waylay my having to go out and get wet delivering some printing jobs to clients. In my mailbox this morning I found a short email about competition. It conveyed some simple thoughts. See what you think about them.![[del.icio.us]](http://blog.marketingperformance.net/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
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