In fast food, big brands like McDonald’s and Burger King spend considerable investment on national campaigns, constantly broadcasting their messages to consumers. Not Chipotle’s non-traditional marketing strategy.
Chipotle, in contrast, works with a much smaller budget, barely advertises on TV, and does most of its work in-house. And yet they are seeing much better growth, at least in the last few quarters.
It’s been nearly half a century since Philip Kotler first published his Principles of Marketing, which has defined the practice of millions of professionals worldwide ever since. It’s no stretch to say that before Kotler, there were no true marketing professionals.
What made Kotler different than what came before is that he took insights from other fields, such as economics, social science, and analytics, and applied them to the marketing arena. Although that may seem basic now, it was groundbreaking then.
Today technology is transforming marketing once again. Although up to this point, most of the impact has been tactical, over the next decade or so there will be a major strategic transformation. This, of course, will be a much harder task because we will not only have to change what we do but how we think.
“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”
Do you have an idea that will change the world? Well, it’s not worth anything unless you can turn that idea into a reality. So take the plunge and see just how far that idea can take you. Or, you can sit around trading advice over the internet.
The choice is yours.
Marketing, at its best, is about the future. Unfortunately, we spend most of our time stuck in the past. We research what already happened and extrapolate forward to produce a plan. It’s not that we’re lazy, we simply know a whole lot more about the past than the present or the future.
We already know that marketing is becoming more social, local, and mobile, just as we know that big data and new interfaces such as touch, voice, and gesture are becoming increasingly more important.
How’s that possible?
It comes down to their specific marketing strategy.
There was a recent AdAge report documenting the non-traditional elements of Chipotle’s CMO and his team.
Its strategy was to win over millennials by solidifying its reputation for freshness. It also sought to offer a healthier fare than its competitors.
Traditional media.
The brand also gained reputation by shying away from traditional media. Why you ask?
Because younger audiences feel like it’s less authentic and less easy to connect with.
Chipotle’s marketing strategy TV ad
Even Chipotle’s first national TV ad wasn’t traditional by any means. It featured Willie Nelson telling a two-minute animated story of a farmer whose business grows massive.
Eventually, Willie’s conscience convinces him to revert to more humane, sustainable operations.
Non-traditional marketing … grassroots level
It’s working at a more grassroots level to build support too, like with its Cultivate food and music festival and its Farm Team loyalty program. All are focused on humane food sourcing and organic farming.
The bottom line
The lessons we can take away from the Chipotle marketing strategy?
Know which customers you want to target, study their characteristics, likes, and dislikes, and build your strategy around these.
So, guess what? Chipotle’s strategy, while different than their larger competitors, is not so unconventional, is it?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Do you make continuous improvement a focus of your marketing strategy? Most of the best marketing strategies we study and follow certainly do, and that is an awesome way to do marketing. Yes, the innovative Disney marketing strategy is making their business better and better all the while.
And their growth is all about their marketing strategy. Of course, if you are a family with children or grandchildren you certainly know this.
Too often we obsess about using digital techniques to DRAG customers to our website or social media accounts. But it’s so much easier to show up where they already have an established community — in real life or on the web — and just be a helpful, friendly human being in that environment.
Have you noticed? It is hard not to notice, isn’t it?
Let’s examine the reasons their marketing strategy is so effective:
Marketing, at its best, is about the future. Unfortunately, we spend most of our time stuck in the past. We research what already happened and extrapolate forward to produce a plan. It’s not that we’re lazy, we simply know a whole lot more about the past than the present or the future.
Here is an interesting story about how Pablo Picasso, the famous Spanish artist, developed the ability to produce remarkable work in just minutes.
As the story goes, Picasso was walking through the market one day when a woman spotted him.
She stopped the artist, pulled out a piece of paper, and said, “Mr. Picasso, I am a fan of your work. Please, could you do a little drawing for me?”
Picasso smiled and quickly drew a small, but beautiful piece of art on the paper. Then, he handed the paper back to her saying, “That will be one million dollars.”
“But Mr. Picasso,” the woman said. “It only took you thirty seconds to draw this little masterpiece.”
“My good woman,” Picasso said, “It took me thirty years to draw that masterpiece in thirty seconds.” [1]
Picasso isn’t the only brilliant creative who worked for decades to master his craft. His journey is typical of many creative geniuses. Even people of considerable talent rarely produce incredible work before decades of practice.
We already know that marketing is becoming more social, local, and mobile, just as we know that big data and new interfaces such as touch, voice, and gesture are becoming increasingly more important. What comes next?
Some excellent examples are shown here.
Brand identity
Youthful, magical, fun, and family-oriented, and true to the brand.
While establishing a differentiated meaning for a brand is tough, perhaps the greater challenge facing marketers today is the growing number of places consumers touch a brand. It’s become incredibly more complicated to execute a brand promise. This is what we call bringing the brand to life. Consumers are interacting with brands in myriad new ways, but brand organizations have to move much faster, with greater agility and responsiveness to consumer actions and reactions, which can be at warp-speed in this rapidly changing environment.
The heart of Disney’s marketing strategy is their brand. The brand is built into and reflected by its tag line … the happiest place on earth. They clearly understand that their brand is not about them. Rather it is about how the potential client community sees them, feels about them, and talks about them. They realize that their brand represents their current and future relationships. Their goal is to deliver emotional connection to their services. And they are doing it very well.
Build excitement: Let’s face it; Disney is not a low cost vacation. By providing custom touch points filled with useful and exciting content, unique to each families’ post-purchase, Disney is helping to build excitement. It works, and it’s brilliant.
Personalize: All customers are unique, have different needs, especially in travel. Since this is not a one-size-fits-all world, what everyone needs is different from just about every other person. Disney knew that and deliver a book that is unique for each family. They send a book that was specific to their hotel and reservation details … all the information needed in a custom 15-page book. It works, and it’s brilliant.
Times have changed since Walt Disney’s days but his marketing ideas are still amazing. Let’s take a look at a few of Disney tactics:
Continuous promotion – If there was one thing Walt Disney did well it was promoting his business. And he did so continuously. He made sure he kept his organization in your mind. When it came time to think of going on vacation, to a movie or any of a number of other things Disney always came to mind.
Build lifetime value – Go to a Disney attraction today and find people who have been coming back for decades and many times at that. Disney keeps their customers so happy that they keep coming back, again and again.
Web site
The Disney web sites are the physical center of this firm’s marketing. Their designs are very user friendly, yet contain the means to integrate all the strategy elements we discuss today. They encompass several ways to allow two way client engagements, including live chat, email and telephone.
Again little to no selling, as they let their products do the marketing. Their strategy reflects the belief that pushy sales pitches turn customers off, but personally relevant and interactive engagement switches them on. You can’t help but notice that all the material is put into the language of the client community.
Innovative Disney marketing … it’s the stories
The story is king – Walt knew that the story was the real reason people enjoyed his attractions. Even today, every Disney feature has a story behind it. People relate to these stories. It’s just part of the human condition. They are great at engaging people on a human level. Their stories abound at every turn.
Customer immersion
Always something new: Disney fans keep coming back because there’s always more to see. Disney’s motto isn’t “Lots of Rides”—it’s “The Happiest Place on Earth”. And Disney maintains constant interest by making sure there’s always something else to notice.
Interesting, interactive queueing areas for the rides.
Sporadic “spontaneous” performances by Mary Poppins or Alice and the Mad Hatter at various times of day.
Rides like the Jungle Cruise that are strikingly different at night.
Holiday theming. Different fireworks displays. “Limited-time only” eatables.
In the experience
Continuous theming: If you take away the theming, there’s nothing particularly special about Disneyland’s rides. Tame roller coasters, generic log flumes, perfectly ordinary carousels—off-the-shelf mid-range rides you could go on at any theme park. In fact, several nearby parks have far more extreme and exciting rides.
The thing is, Disney’s theming isn’t just slapping a few cartoon animals on the sides of rides. It’s all about the unique experience, complete and, in its own way, classy.
Engage customers directly: Disney was often seen walking around Disneyland talking to visitors. At other times he’d go to see a Disney movie and get people’s reaction to the picture. This was one of the ways Walt did his market research. You can follow this model also. Don’t always use a marketing research firm or some kind of online research tool, such as Google Analytics. While these are very worthwhile, there’s no substitute for interaction with customers. Get views about your products and services straight from the people who use them.
Details and more details: Enter any Disney property and you will see attention to detail everywhere. You know that something special is ready to happen. This is a key element of any content marketing campaign. Even the street signs on Disney properties pay attention to detail. They are rabbit ears with arrows on them. The company could have used normal street signs but where’s the magic in that?
Adapting to change
Disney parks are in a state of continual change with new entertainment. A very progressive company that keeps up to speed on consumer trends and needs. Certainly always eager to adapt their parks expertise to new areas. And certainly always looking to try new things, including marketing.
Can you change? Of course, you can. Everybody changes every day. But how versatile, agile, and quickly can you adapt yourself and your organization to stay relevant in today’s society?
Organizations are always evolving. What’s different now, is that we set a new speed record of change on a daily basis. Technology gives us unprecedented possibilities. And this sea of opportunities is pushing the traditional bureaucratic, controlled and hierarchical organization into an identity crisis.
Social media
Disney utilize all the main social media channels/platforms to engage potential clients. All channels are used to engage and share all their material in a conversational manner. They always looking to engage and learn and serve customers.
Short and sweet messages
80-90% of Disney marketing messages are short and to the point. As we said previously, many topics are used to produce many messages so as not to over saturate the market with the same messages.
Integrating the elements
All of these strategy elements complement the firm’s brand and messages. The integrating elements? The brand and the client educational element. The key is to have a central theme to the brand. In Disney’s case, the themes are all built around a family focus, fun, dreams, and happiness. Integration of all elements is the most important part of the strategy.
Walt Disney was a genius in many ways. His technological prowess is storied but it was his marketing genius that set him apart from everyone else.
Use a little of Walt’s business insight in your content marketing campaign and enjoy renewed and continuous business success.
Here’s the thing, the Disney dream isn’t just a new way of marketing, and it’s really a new way of running a business. They certainly understand this concept well and are using social marketing to rapidly promote their business.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Advertising works the way the grass grows? Not in our minds. Check out what’s going on in the insurance advertising war.
But first, let me share a story with you:
Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job with a timber merchant, and he got it. The pay was really good, and so were the work conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an ax and showed him the area where he was supposed to work.
The first day, the woodcutter brought in 18 trees, and of course, his boss congratulated him. Motivated by his boss’s words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring in 15 trees. On the third day, he tried even harder, but he could only bring in 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing in fewer and fewer trees.
The woodcutter thought he was losing his strength, and he went to the boss and apologized, saying that he couldn’t understand what was going on. His boss then asked, “When was the last time you sharpened your ax?” Appalled by the question, the woodcutter harshly replied, “Sharpen my ax? I have no time to do that. I’ve been busy cutting trees.”
So I pose this question to you: Are you too busy chopping trees on the front line and not allocating the time needed to sharpen your marketing skills? What is that costing you and your business? Furthermore, how much time would it really take to keep your marketing ax sharp?
Back to the main story: in many ways, you can trace the insurance ad war back to one man — Warren Buffett, who in 1996 made Geico a subsidiary of his Berkshire Hathaway. To this day, Geico Chief Marketing Officer Ted Ward can repeat what Mr. Buffett told him that year. The one thing I don’t want you to have stand in your way is money. That’s what I’ve got.
That moment would launch an onslaught of advertising the likes of which the car-insurance industry had never seen before — filled with pigs, cavemen, googly eyes, and, of course, a little green lizard that was conceived on the back of a napkin and debuted in ads in 2000. Geico’s advertising strategy propelled the insurer to yearly market-share gains and forcing competitors to step up their game. Insurer after insurer is now hitting the airwaves with character-driven campaigns, from “Mayhem” to State Farm’s “magic jingle” to Nationwide’s “Greatest Spokesperson.”
Do you ever see an insurance commercial that you liked and watched it? Can you remember the brand? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and tell us in the comments section? It would be greatly appreciated by our readers and us.
And who doesn’t remember those jingles? “Nationwide is on your side” and “You’re in good hands with Allstate” can be accurately sung by almost anyone who watches television. You’re probably singing one of these jingles right now. All of this smart and pervasive advertising leads to a few questions: How much does all of this cost? Are your premiums higher because of all the cartoon lizards and cavemen? Do you select an insurance company based on their commercials?
Or has this ad blitz brought in so many new customers and so much new revenue that your policy rates will go down? Not likely, as the competition is to win market share mostly from each other.
Related post: A How-To Guidebook for Creating Winning Advertising
The costs? That is the shocking part. Data provider SNL Financial found Geico had spent about $994 million on advertising in 2011. That was fully 22 percent more than next-largest spender State Farm, even though State Farm’s ad spending grew at nearly three times the rate Geico’s did.
SNL found that Geico’s ad budget represented 6.5 percent of the premiums it wrote in 2011. Wow, 6.5% of its revenue! That’s shocking to us. Among the rest of the five largest auto insurers in the country, none spent more than 4.9 percent of premiums on ads. State Farm spent 1.7 percent of premiums on advertising.
For the whole industry, in fact, the average is just 2.4 percent. [Allstate spent $745 million or 3.0 percent on advertising; Farmers spent $718 million or 4.9 percent, and Progressive paid $536 million or 3.9 percent, according to SNL.]
But is the spending sustainable? And how are insurers differentiating themselves in the crowded market? By these commercials? If so, consumers need to wake up. There are no fewer than 11 major TV campaigns on air … creating lots of consumer confusion?
State Farm, which has 18.6% of the market with premium revenue of $30.5 billion in 2009, and Allstate are fending off pesky challengers Geico and Progressive, while smaller players such as Liberty Mutual and American Family Insurance are seeking attention with very un-Geico-like serious messages.
Behind it all is an important market dynamic: the shift from the traditional insurance agent to do-it-yourself rate shopping hyped by companies like Geico and Progressive that taught millennials, the 76 million people born between 1977 and 1992 increasingly entering the insurance market, to seek quotes online. Some 48% of millennials turn to the web first, according to J.D. Power & Associates’ 2010 Insurance Shopping Study.
The goal is to grab the attention of consumers who would rather not think about insurance. Experts say most people only ponder policies when they have an accident, buy a new car, move, or renew their existing agreement, which usually happens twice a year, at most. Today there are about 187 million insured privately owned vehicles on the road. Turnover is relatively little from year to year — 11% of consumers switch their policies while an additional 20% shop but don’t switch, according to J.D. Power. But that still means more than 20 million people are in the market each year.
The average shopper can name just four insurance brands off the top of their head, according to J.D. Power. But is it going to remain faithful that the way to get on that list is to advertise — all the time?
So let’s review the ad strategy of each of the largest market share holders.
State Farm
State Farm leads the pack in 2012 with 10.3 % of the market. Their strategy is to boost its digital marketing and to roll out a series of humorous TV ads that highlight affordability and service. Some feature Green Bay Packer stars Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews and gaping fans. Others feature a sad sack who dumped State Farm for a discounter right before plowing into a utility pole.
To keep its current customers, State Farm spells out how turning to another insurer that looks better on the outside can cause regret—and lets customers know that it’s OK to “let it out.” Tagline points to getting to a better state.
Liberty Mutual.
Liberty Mutual
Liberty Mutual had 5.4% of the market in 2012. With so many light-hearted campaigns running, some insurers think the way to break through is to get serious. Liberty Mutual touts car-replacement coverage in an ad, where a car is rear-ended, shattered and then magically put back together as somber piano music plays. Messages show Liberty Mutual understands that accidents happen to even the most responsible people. And pointing out that they are at their best when humans are at their worst.
Insurance advertising war … Allstate
Allstate follows in 2012 with 5.1% of the market. You may know Dean Winters as a television actor, appearing on shows such as 30 Rock. But you know him as “Mayhem” in Allstate’s favorite ad campaign. Mayhem was a unanimous selection for the best commercials.
The 2-year-old Mayhem campaign, with character actor as a cross between Dennis the Menace and a devious frat boy, has been an effective counter to Progressive and Geico’s discount themes. At least a partial concept of claim service?
Travelers
Travelers had 4.4% of the market in 2012. They are taking a more emotional approach to their campaign. Dogs are advertising gold, and Travelers knows it. The company has been featuring an adorable scruffy dog in a series of ads that show how they can cover home and auto and reward customers for “good behavior.” In this particular ad, the Travelers dog falls in love and soon finds he needs more protection than ever before.
The Geico Geko.
Geico
Geico had a 3.9% market share in 2012. Anyone who has watched television in the United States even briefly knows the Geico brand — talking British geckos, erudite cavemen, greasy-haired announcers with mock baritones, all of them mostly running gags used to get the company’s name to stick in peoples’ heads.
Geico has had some advertising campaigns that are loved for their humor by some, and disliked by their frequency and lack of value by others (See our article The Geico Happiness Advertising Series: Most Effecting Advertising?). But who doesn’t know the most famous tagline… 15 minutes can save you 15% or more. What don’t we understand is how a business that pays so much on advertising can be lowest in premiums or even competitive?
Nationwide
Nationwide with 3.3% market share in 2012 uses its campaign featuring “the world’s greatest spokesperson” appearing with a microphone at the side of customers in trouble—echoing the company’s slogan and the commercials’ closing jingle of “Nationwide is on your side.” In this commercial, he is sitting next to a customer in his overturned vehicle, delivering the bad news that the car is most likely totaled. However, he brings some good news and cheerful banter to make light of the situation and make customers feel comfortable and safe with Nationwide on their side.
Progressive
Progressive’s commercial spokesperson “Flo” is admittedly getting old, but the addition of two awkward insurance clerks from a nameless rival company has breathed some life back into their campaign. In 2012 they had a 3.2% market share. The lying rivals—who are called out for claiming they offer a service that is only available from Progressive—send customers the message that they should stick with a company they trust, or else they could end up losing their “pantaloons.”
While Flo is designed to close the deal with consumers who are already in the market, Progressive’s new character, called the Messenger, is meant to get more people thinking about insurance. In ads, the mustachioed, leather-jacket-wearing pitch man sneaks up on customers, pushing them on discounts.
A smarter way to shop around … now that’s progressive.
Insurance advertising war … USAA
Another competitor, USAA Group, has rolled out its first-ever national marketing campaign, which Vice President of Marketing Chris Owen credit’s for the carrier’s 8% jump in market share last year, at 2.6%. USAA caters to military personnel, veterans, and their families, so USAA Group eschewed humor for six TV spots featuring customers. The key message is the legacy of the company in its service to the military … passed down from generation to generation. Bringing peace of mind in claims and service in your times of need.
Much of the marketing and jawboning may make little difference in the long run. While consumers may be shopping around more, Bob Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute trade group, says only about one in 10 drivers switch policies, a level that’s been consistent for a decade — even with the big ad push. The so-called retention rate during the recession didn’t change much. Rather than switch carriers, many cuts cost by raising their deductibles or dropping coverage.
The bottom line
The experience should match the customer’s expectations. For example, a customer’s expectations will be different for a roadside hotel versus a full-service luxury hotel like the Four Seasons. That smaller, roadside hotel may have a brand promise that includes a clean room and friendly service. The Four Seasons promises much more with a luxury experience. Both of them are making a commitment to you in the form of their brand promise. By keeping the brand promise, they meet the expectation.
What will have to change is the marketing mindset. The fundamental questions in the coming years will not be how to deploy this or that new technology, but how to can solve fundamental marketing problems, such as how to earn consumers’ trust and how to create experiences that are more impactful, useful, productive, and beneficial.
So how do you select your insurance company? Does thinking about the commercials, their messages, and costs make you rethink your decision? It certainly does for us.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your advertising design?
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Does your business have a winning business proposition. We have found many clients that cannot articulate their unique business proposition. In our opinion, trying to win against your competition without good business discrimination is like trying to sail with no wind. Nothing is more important for your business than competitive advantages … the more you have, the stronger your business. So pay close attention as we tell you how to build a winning business proposition.
Marketing is often confused with promotion, but it’s more than that. As Peter Drucker put it, “the aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” In truth, marketing is about insights more than anything else.
So how do you derive good differentiation and insights? For starters, make sure you understand the concept of a value proposition:
Start by understanding there are two ways to win in a competitive market:
Achieve sustainable lower cost (and therefore price) than your competition for the same products and services (very difficult to sustain)
Deliver more value, despite equal or higher price
A business is a value delivery system. The heart of a winning value proposition is the end-result experiences of value a business intends to deliver to its target customer segments. It needs to be articulated for the customer value end-state … not for your product, service, or business process.
Here is a short 4-minute video to refresh you on this subject:
Be your customers … study and creatively infer value by observing/learning from what they do.
Do your claims surpass the value alternatives in the marketplace? Do your customers believe your claims?
So where should you look for value in your business’s value delivery chain? The top areas include:
Best value
The most useful definition of unique selling propositions (USP) is a believable collection of the most persuasive reasons people should notice you and take the action you’re seeking.
This way, it guides your decisions much more clearly and can be used as the basis for marketing messages.
If you don’t have strong selling propositions, people don’t have good reasons to do either of those.
For example, if your online bookstore has average selection, decent prices, delivery, a guarantee, good customer service, and a website, why would anyone buy from you? There’s surely a competitor who beats you in at least some of those aspects.
You don’t have to be the best in every way. Sure, it’s great if you are. But realistically, it’s difficult enough to be the best in just a couple of ways.
However, if you’re the best in at least several ways, you’re the best option for the people who value those propositions.
Starbuck’s doesn’t have the lowest prices. Amazon isn’t the most prestigious book seller. Zappos’ isn’t the easiest way to shop. People buy from them for other reasons.
So, if your bookstore has the largest selection, for example, but the other things are just average, the people who value a large selection have a reason to buy from you.
You must have some product or service elements that are unique. Something has to make you the best option for your target customers.
Otherwise, they have no good reason to buy from you.
Business proposition … the heart of the proposition
The heart of a winning unique selling propositionis the end result experiences of value a business intends to deliver to its target customers. The end result experiences are what you should consider.
For example, a customer shopping for an electric drill is looking for one that can deliver holes as easy and conveniently as possible. Also, one that can deliver the most multiple functions.
Great service creates a great experience and becomes something worth your customer talking to his friends about. It is the most important element of your word of mouth marketing campaign.
Trust and warranty
Trust is the most often named reason customers say they select businesses to do business with. Good warranties are great places to start building trust.
Business proposition template … new ways
Consider value in new ways of doing business. The best example for this value proposition in my mind is Netflix.
Demonstrate the proof
If you say, my pizza is the best in the world; will people flood your restaurant? No. They won’t believe you.
Without proof, you can’t say much before it starts to sound like marketing talk. No one pays attention. Or remembers. They just don’t believe. No believing, no trust. It is all downhill after that.
For example, I recently saw a digital marketing competitor site where they claimed to be the secret weapon of digital marketing for the most successful companies in the world. Needless to say, we doubt anyone can take that seriously when nothing supports the claim.
As long as you don’t prove your claims, people are unlikely to really believe them. And your unique selling proposition becomes of no use.
Use studies, testimonials, and common sense, among other methods, to prove your claims.
Impressive numbers can be the right choice, but they don’t always work.
To end this lesson, ask yourself the following questions:
Can you validate and deliver your unique selling point?
Is it sustainable, at least in the near term?
Is it simple, clear, and specific?
So apply these two lessons. What is the unique selling point for your business? How does it stack up with competitors?
The bottom line
True innovation often doesn’t make us comfortable. It makes us uncomfortable. And yet, it is in that discomfort that the new ways, the new ideas, and the new feelings come to light.
When you drive to work via a different route, you see different places and sights. If you go to the newsstand and peruse the magazines that you never otherwise look at, you will see things you simply would never think about otherwise
So, if you were wondering where to put your marketing time and energy to optimize how to win customers from your competitors, focus on defining and delivering winning unique selling propositions.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And this struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improve your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
More reading on value propositions from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Have you ever defined your favorite brands and questioned why they are favorites? It is a key exercise we often use with our clients. This exercise helps to evaluate what should be the heart of your company’s strong brand identity by examining the best of the best.
We like to quote from the book Funky Business Forever when we discuss brands or branding with our clients:
The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of similar companies, employing similar people, with similar educational backgrounds, coming up with similar ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices and similar quality.
It is not easy being different, is it? But all the more important.
Before we continue, let me ask you a question.
What works best for branding design in your business? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? Be the one who starts a converstion.
The key to a good brand is being different. There are 4 critical things to remember about brands and branding:
Every business has a brand, whether explicitly defined or not. The important question to be answered is how good is the brand?
Brands deliver emotional connection to a business’ products and services. Most purchase decisions have critical emotional components.
Your brand represents a collection of your customers’ perceptions of how they see you, how they feel about you, and what they say about you.
Your brand communicates every time it touches a customer. This makes you, as a marketer, responsible for this communication ‘moment of truth’.
Most brands sell products or services. GM sells cars. Borders sells books. Real estate brokerages sell homes. The best brands, however, satisfy desire to get at the emotional heart of the matter.
Here is a short video that will refresh a brand for you:
Let’s review my favorite 6 brands and why they stand out as the best for me. This is a great way to appreciate the importance of branding and emotion.
KLM Airline
I prefer brands that are most innovative and very eager to try lots new and different ideas. And not afraid of a failure or two. KLM Airlines certainly deserves to be this camp. Real social media marketing innovators. They frequently come up when marketers are discussing the best in social media marketing.
They have been successfully executing their social media marketing plan for over 4 years, and their strategies has played a key role in their marketing and customer engagement.
If you’re not familiar with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, known by its initials KLM, it is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. With headquarters is in Amsterdam, KLM operates scheduled passenger and cargo services to more than 90 destinations worldwide. It is the oldest airline in the world, still operating under its original name (Founded in 1919).
Their brand identity is built around a culture of innovativeness. Over the past four years, KLM has launched a number of social campaigns – some big, some small. They had a few failures along with great successes but they keep exploring and testing what consumers like the best.
LEGO
The Lego brand is another of my favorite brands I like best for their ability to adapt and innovate by trying lots of things. They teach us many things through their stories, storytelling, and messages. The words and images they use, then, reflect who they are, what makes them distinctive, and the brand values they want to represent to all their stakeholder communities. The brand represents their ability to influence how people see them, feel about them, and talk to others about the brand.
It is human and emotion, and at that critical time when a customer engages with one of their employees or someone in their channel, or even one of their products, their brand comes alive with engagement.
We are big fans of the Lego Company and its products. The LEGO brand is more than simply a familiar logo. It is the expectations that people have of the company towards its products and services, and the accountability that the LEGO Group feels towards the world around it.
When Lego tells its creative branding story , the Lego Brand experience teaches us to create a distinctive voice with unique words, feelings, emotion and images … dare to create differences with your communities.
I like this brand for creating unique selling propositions that have real value for me. They are my favorite airline, no question. JetBlue’s brand success centers on the achievable – the simple things – they knew would make a difference for their passengers. This set the stage for direct TV and XM radio, the provision of first-class seats to everyone, more legroom, great snacks and high end service at lower end pricing. No other airline offers this unique set of value propositions. They are different and their brand stands out because of those differences.
Simple. Attainable. Targeted. They delivered.
Zappos
Zappos brand is the top of my list for their awesome culture from the top to bottom of their company. They don’t sell shoes. They deliver that extra dose of love we all need from time to time. There is no secret here. Zappos became Zappos because of the fanatical customer support it offered. That, is the company’s brand.
As Tony Hsieh, the Zappos CEO, puts it,
Back in 2003, we thought of ourselves as a shoe company that offered great service. Today, we really think of the Zappos brand as about great service, and we just happen to sell shoes.
Related post: Secrets to the Remarkable Innovative Lady Gaga Brand
A favorite of mine for their aggressive innovation style and the way they engage customers. Starbucks brings us a space to enjoy the products they sell, rather than a just a product.
Some would say that it fills a psychological need that other companies have not had to do in quite the same way. The emotion is all about uplifting moments and daily ritual. Stimulating all our senses.
Disney
The Disney brand is a huge favorite because I love their products so much. Magical, fantasy entertainment. Being bringers of joy, affirmers of the good in each of us, to be — in subtle ways — teachers. To speak, as Walt once put it:
not to children but to the child in each of us.
Disney’s brand does this through great storytelling, by giving guests a few hours in another world where their cares can be momentarily put aside and by creating memories that will remain with them forever. I love living in their world of imagination.
While there are many brands I like very much, these 6 qualify as my favorites. So what stands out the most for your favorite brands?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your branding design strategies? Such as creative branding ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Do you have a lesson about making your brand marketing better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on brands and branding from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Have you seen the recent Guinness marketing video? A significant change in the Guinness marketing campaign we believe. The strategy is using simple storytelling to gain our attention. Refreshing.
Let’s examine this video and strategy and what contributes to their strengths and weaknesses. We want to evaluate if it has the ability to influence and persuade with its storytelling.
Everyone hates TV commercials, and this is a well-known fact amongst the people who make TV commercials. Fortunately, a few brands and ad agencies are turning things around with genuine, heartfelt storytelling marketing. Guinness is trying to become one of these brands.
As you can see, this Guinness ad veers away from the clichéd beer model and creates its own: beer-drinking, manly men that can be both strong and sensitive. It also creates an impactful and unique message promoting qualities like dedication, loyalty and friendship:
The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character.
Guinness is no stranger to effective video marketing. This new video reached three million views within four days of online release. A simple plot; a game of wheelchair basketball followed by a pint of Guinness. The twist is that only one of the men in the group is an actual wheelchair user – the rest, it seems, are his friends who are playing wheelchair basketball so that they can all play together.
Related post: 11 Steps to Media Framing Messages for Optimum Engagement
Marketing or advertising, you need to create information that your customers find interesting and worth talking about and remembering. This video certainly achieves this goal, don’t you think?
Let’s evaluate other keys to this video and storytelling marketing strategy:
Guinness marketing campaign … be relevant to your target market
Keep in mind that one message does not fit all. It starts with knowing your target market. Here the target market is young adults with a high focus on maturity. It focuses on the traits of friendship and sharing happiness. This video is certainly relevant to this market.
Define your positioning
The positioning of your business is your frame of reference. Make comparisons to your competitors if you can.
Not only does this ad do a great job of building a beautiful story, it positions Guinness as a different kind of beer brand. By taking the opportunity to break the mold, Guinness stands apart from a pool of brands targeting the stereotypical girl-chasing, party-loving man-child. Guinness is much more than that and we like it.
Guinness certainly knows who its major competitors are and but chooses to not take them on in this video. A good move we believe.
Grab and hold viewers’ attention
The Guinness goal is to hold the audience’s attention with interesting information. Keep in mind that people don’t watch ads … they watch what interests them. Your ad messages must be interesting to your target communities. This message certainly grabs and holds attention based on simple emotion.
Define a value proposition
The value proposition should truly discriminate you from your competition. Give your customers reasons to select you. Maybe not the most significant visible feature, it does illustrate Guinness as a company that puts high priority on caring, which is their clear objective.
Simple messages that the reader will quickly understand are the goal. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words. Videos, well, they do even better than pictures. Creating customer emotion does not get any simpler than this, does it?
This video from Guinness flips the switch by presenting a group of athletic, beer-drinking men who are defined as much by their kindness as their physical strength.
The spot’s “Made of More” message is refreshing, memorable and heartwarming—acting as a breath of fresh air within the beer industry.
Consider the end state values to your customers
Guinness’s marketing strategy has flipped traditional beer advertising on its head by getting rid of the template and telling a story – a real story – that connects with people.
The responses were overwhelmingly positive… customers and particularly the target customers are looking for meaningful stories. The marketing strategy certainly is addressing this end state in our opinion.
Guinness marketing campaign … influence and persuasion
There is no better means of influence or persuasion than emotion. It is hands down the best, in our opinion. The video focuses on emotional appeal in grand fashion. They are saying that people who drink Guinness are decent people who are good to the core. This advert scores 10/10 for emotional engagement factor. It is the secret of this video’s message and story’s success.
“For the most part, [beer commercials] depict men as unfeeling doofuses who only want to hook up with hot women and watch sports without being bothered by their wives.
… Guinness flips the switch by presenting a group of athletic, beer-drinking men who are defined as much by their kindness as their physical strength.”
The reason I admire this spot so much is simple: it’s different, thoughtful and has an unexpected ending. While many beer advertisements rely on slapstick humor, an overkill of masculinity and a simple message, “drink our beer,” this one takes a different approach. It is both effective and creative. The spot’s “Made of More” message is refreshing, memorable and heartwarming—acting as a breath of fresh air within the beer industry.
Guinness has definitely taken advantage of this open opportunity in the beer marketplace—and they are doing it with style and class.
After looking over these enablers, we believe Guinness has created a very effective commercial. What do you think? Does this video story persuade you?
What are some of your experiences with advertising as a component of an integrated marketing campaign?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Beat Amazon? All of a sudden, Walmart has gotten serious about this ecommerce competition. Why? It’s all about the future and the current trends. And the Walmart e-commerce strategy.
According to Nielsen, ecommerce will gain more ground than any other segment of the retail industry by 2017, with a compound annual growth rate of 11% each year. Supercenters come in second, with their growth rate projected at only about half that of web shopping. When you consider sales for consumer packaged goods online — food, groceries, everyday items — are more like high double digits, almost 20%, you can see Walmart’s concern.
Both chains dominate their areas of expertise. Once just a bookseller, Amazon is now the biggest online store in the world with $61 billion in 2012 revenue. Walmart is the world’s largest retailer of any kind with $469 billion 2012 revenues (estimated $7-8 coming from E-commerce in 2012).
Related post: Secrets to the Remarkable Innovative Lady Gaga Brand
Walmart is doing all it can to catch up with Amazon online. But lots of obstacles exist.
Here is a short video that will refresh a brand for you:
We don’t think Walmart can catch Amazon for these 6 reasons:
Amazon’s singular focus
Amazon is an e-commerce company in everything they do. They have developed all their expertise in full support of e-commerce. In fact they now do e-commerce for many other businesses. They are not hamstrung by an enormous brick and mortar business like Walmart.
No internal competition like what Walmart faces day-in day-out. Walmart doesn’t discuss this subject and probably would deny it exists. But it does. No question there. And it yields a gigantic silent advantage for Amazon.
Walmart E-commerce logistics
Logistics is what made Walmart great. But delivery is a different matter. Walmart is dabbling in same-day delivery and even going a step further than Amazon by using stores as fulfillment centers and if expanded, could turn 4,000 stores into bases for same day delivery.
Two-thirds of the U.S. population lives within 5 miles of a Walmart, and trucks crisscrossing the country arrive daily to replenish the stores, which can greatly reduce shipping costs. However, the process comes with serious limitations, particularly since it diverts workers’ attention away from ensuring stores are clean and properly stocked. But it is still a possible big advantage to Walmart if they could think like one business instead of two.
They are also attempting to crowdsource package drop-off among customers.
But Amazon has non-perishable products like diapers that its infrastructure allows shoppers to set up regularly scheduled deliveries, a service popular on Diapers.com. A fantastic feature.
And Amazon is already a step ahead with its Amazon Fresh same-day delivery, currently available in the Seattle area but soon headed for California. Amazon is building out this infrastructure for perishables. Groceries will be the battleground very soon coming to the forefront. This will further eat into solid Walmart business.
Related material: Here’s How to Make Your Brand Awesome
But what is Walmart doing? They are creating a vast new logistics system that includes building new warehouses for Web orders. Hedging their bets so to speak. More illustration of the internal competition in our mind.
As Walmart’s online orders have grown, it has turned to makeshift spaces carved out of store-serving distribution centers and third-party warehouse operators to help handle the load. The extra layer added to its costs. Walmart’s online shipping can cost $5 to $7 per parcel, while Amazon averages $3 to $4 per parcel, analysts say—a big difference considering some of Walmart’s popular purchases are low-cost items like $10 packs of underwear.
Walmart e-commerce strategy … agile innovation
Amazon has existed in the ecommerce technology world since their inception. They think like a technology company and agile innovators. They are not afraid to try new things and they can get things done quickly, thanks to the culture their CEO Bezos has instilled.
The big box behemoth may not be a start-up, but it does try to think like one with its Walmart Labs division. Those groups is developing Pangaea, a global technology platform with scan and go apps that let shoppers buy in store via a smartphone, and online operations in growing markets outside the U.S. such as Brazil and China. They’re doing more new things, but they are slowed down by their legacy business and its mindset.
They are as trying out lockers, one of Amazon’s hallmarks, allowing shoppers to order items online and pick them up in stores — crucial for the Walmart demographic, a quarter of whom reportedly do not use debit or credit cards or even have a bank account. But why would an on-line shopper want to deal with the congestion of a visit to a Walmart mega store? Not us.
Walmart ecommerce strategy customer set differences
Walmart demographics, a quarter of whom reportedly do not use debit or credit cards or even have a bank account, represent a big difference with their key e-commerce competitor.
While we have not found any statistics on Amazon customer set, we speculate a much larger representation of higher end incomes among their shoppers. Big advantage to Amazon we believe, both in consumer disposable income, but also in ability to operate and shop on-line. And take advantage of frequent new technology features.
Existing in-store strategies
Walmart has an enormous and growing network of brick and mortar outlets — 4,000 in the U.S. and counting. More internationally. With those stores goes an equally enormous product offering. A blessing but an equal curse. They are a long ways on being able to put all the products on-line where they can be easily found.
At some stage these stores and product line may be an advantage for Walmart. But those are technology constrained goals that are, for now, out of reach. And that is not even considering how Walmart might solve its internal competition problems. Can you imagine the Wal-Mart cash cow making compromises in terms of revenue and profit to help their e-commerce business? Not us.
Walmart e-commerce strategy … e-commerce technology lead
Like Amazon, Walmart has a massive product offering. This isn’t a new problem for either of them, but as the race to fulfill orders guarantees quicker turnaround times and more convenience after placing the order, Walmart must control everything it can before the order is placed to ensure it’s actually placed through them.
In this case, that means making sure customers can find what they’re looking for, quickly and easily. Or, in the case that customers don’t know exactly what that is, helping them figure it out with a fairly high degree of accuracy.
Walmart must transform itself into an invisible personal shopper to help customers navigate its vast inventory.
What exactly would that take? A lot. But Walmart’s two most crucial priorities will be helping online customers navigate its extensive product list easily and quickly, and streamlining online and offline operations to create a turnkey overall experience.
To act as an invisible personal shopper, Walmart must master what they do with this powerful combination of content and data—and when they do it. The goal is to use it in real-time, as customers are browsing their online store.
Walmart is trying to improve links between its store inventory, website, and mobile phone apps so that more customers can order online and pick up their purchases at stores, which half of Web customers do already.
Walmart is trying Web-based shopping tactics, like its Pay With Cash program for Walmart customers who don’t have credit cards. The new program allows them to reserve products online and pay cash at their nearest store.
Key takeaways
At the end of the day, Walmart’s rise to online dominance really just revolves around turning an otherwise complicated shopping experience into one that feels quaint and easy. It can accomplish this by setting up a strong behind-the-scenes infrastructure that puts the customer experience at the forefront.
And isn’t that what their new strategy is all about—giving the customer what they want where and when they want it?
Unfortunately, it is much easier said than done.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your branding design strategies? Such as creative branding ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Do you have a lesson about making your brand marketing better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on brands and branding from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
