Marketing Consulting Blog

An interesting piece I found on Talking Biz News that is worth a gander: Where Business Editors and Newspapers are Failing.

Think it may be a good idea to find some top flight bloggers and syndicate them across many newspapers? I think that's a viable solution. Many of us are finding and sharing good content throughout the day so why not include that research in a news rag?

I generally try to stay away from soap opera garbage, but this one is simply too good to pass up. First, let me say I consider myself a Trump fan as I admire what he's done in the business world. In contrast, I have never seen what Rosie O'Donnell brings to the table. She's always come across to me as an obese loudmouth with very little talent and ability. I have yet to figure out why or how she ever got on television in the first place, but it must have been a case of right place right time somehow. Whoever signed off on propping her up on television should be ashamed!

In things such as this, I'd normally try to see both sides, but I'm so happy someone finally blasted Rosie in a public forum that it is hard for me to look past my own giddiness to evaluate whether Rosie even has a point or not. In the Miss America case, I'm going to side with our Kentucky girl (Tara Conner) because what is the real harm in living it up a bit in the Big Apple? Everyone makes it sound like she committed murder by drinking before she turned 21, but 75% of us have done that so what's the big deal? I know, I know--she's supposed to be a role model for young aspiring beauty queens, and she has "duties" to perform. In my mind, she made a mistake that far too many of us have made, and it's not the end of the world nor should it be the end of her crowned career.

People like Rosie never have been viewed as attractive by the mainstream, and she's always battled the bulge so she's likely speaking from a position of extreme jealousy when it comes to Tara Conner. Same with her out lash at Trump--he gets to interact with these young beautiful women and befriend them in many cases whereas Rosie is more like a drunken sailor washed ashore. My only hope is that Rosie does disappear from television for good, and we no longer have to endure her loud and obnoxious antics again. Not that I watch The View now, but I certainly wouldn't with her on it. Her television show was a turd so how could she possibly add anything to The View? Anyway, I hope The Donald keeps blasting her again and again until she disappears from television's sight.

Advantage: Trump by a landslide.

I found this on Michael Wade's site this morning: Excuse Box

It seems as though Rick Pitino is using one of these rather frequently. In all seriousness, please don't let yourself or your company get into the trap of using one of these when dealing with your customers.

Among my circle of friends, we have a running inside joke about our favorite sports teams achieving "sponsorship" from a fictitious company called "Medicore" when they're average at best. We don't accept mediocrity (the company name's obvious origin) very well, and we hate it when some coach, GM, or owner tries to sell us on the fact that the team we follow isn't as bad as it truly is. The same could be said for business--there are a lot of businesses masquerading around under the Medicore sponsorship umbrella.

I look at a company like Penn Station, and it screams "medicore." Their food isn't very good, they boss the customer around trying to "train" them into ordering the way THEY want you to, and they are annoying with their insistence on calling their second rate French fries "fresh cuts." #1, the fries are fries. They're not very good ones at that--frequently overcooked with that flavor of overused cooking oil built in. No thanks!

Another medicore sponsored business is definitely Wal Mart. Yes, Wal-Mart is insanely popular, but it's a chore to shop there. Standing in line for a long time isn't an efficient use of anyone's time, but it seems as though Wal-Mart has done a good job of making people feel as though they are getting this huge bargain by shopping there.

Engage in a little math with me for a second. If you had to put an hourly rate on the value of your time, what would it be? In my consulting business, I frequently charge $100/hour so let's use that as a baseline. If I go to shop at Wal-Mart and find 20 items that would save me an average of $2 on each item (very generous assumption), my initial savings are $40. With me so far? Ok. When I go to check out, I'm going to stand in line for a minimum of 20 minutes on most occasions. If you take $100/hour and figure that rate up for the minute, you're looking at $1.67. 20 minutes x $1.67 = $33.40 so my original big time savings have been dwindled down to $6.60. To me, that's not worth the hassle Wal-Mart inflicts upon me to save a little money so I avoid shopping there regardless of the potential net-savings. The only way I'll even think about going in there to buy something is during a snow storm (there's one within walking distance of my home) or very early in the morning when no-one else is shopping (like 2-4 AM). Just because a business is popular doesn't mean it's good. It might just mean people haven't valued their time appropriately and engaged in the little math equation we just went through.

Okay, you knew I couldn't get through this without a sports take. Let's look at Rick Pitino this year--he's consistently trying to sell University of Louisville basketball fans that this year's team is more like an Escalade in the making when most can see very clearly it's more like a Kia Rio. It's truly average and ordinary at best. It has achieved that dreaded "sponsorship" from Medicore, too. I hate it when my sports teams achieve this dreaded status.

Years ago, when John L. Smith (a.k.a. "Janelle") was the head football coach here at UofL, we would passionately debate whether he could take us to that next level of football. I was even called an “ass” on an Internet message board for voicing my displeasure in the Liberty Bowl bathroom following another bowl game loss down in Memphis. Granted, John L. had taken Louisville from 1-10 the year prior to his arrival to five straight bowl games, yet his record was 1-4 in those bowl games; the lone win coming in the rather below average Liberty Bowl. It was Medicore sponsorship at its finest, and it was unsettling for many of "us." One or two guys within our group would always try to spin it to put lipstick on the pig so to speak, but it wasn't working for the majority who aspire to compete at big time levels. As things have turned out, we have a coach in place today that gets it (Bobby Petrino), and he rarely uses excuses when things don't go as desired. He can be found on the sideline chewing guys out for missing an assignment after a first down when he felt the play should have resulted in a touchdown. That's aspiring to greatness. Janelle would ignore the fact that his teams had zero discipline and were among the leaders in penalties each year (a trend which followed him to Michigan State and resulted in his eventual firing after this season finally concluded). As long as his teams finished with a winning record, all was seemingly okay in his world.

The Cincinnati Reds, my favorite professional baseball franchise, are kings of striving for mediocrity and spinning it to look as though they are trying to build a winner. I won't bore you with the dealings of the past and broken promises made by the organization, but I will share one recent transaction that should sum it up: Mike Stanton! Talk about the epitome of mediocrity, and he's in the twilight of his career so it's going to be a stretch to get even average production out of the guy. It appears as though the boycott of the new stadium will live another year--not until they can finish a season above .500 will I step foot into their new park which is sad because I enjoy visiting the Queen City.

Bottom line: many companies and sports teams merely aspire to mediocrity so that's exactly what they get. It seems as though the majority is okay with that because they don't need things that are really good--just good enough will do. What's my underlying point in all of this? When you set out to do something, don't settle for "sponsorship" when you can achieve greatness. The choice is there to make so why bother messing around with half-assing something? Do it or don't; there is no in between if greatness is what you aspire to. Achieving a fictitious sponsorship in this vein isn’t going to help you achieve anything worth taking about.

Michael Wade posted this on his execupundit.com blog, and it's a very interesting read. Thought I'd share the wealth a little instead of boring everyone with my Christmas shopping thoughts and musings. That'll have to wait until tomorrow I suppose.

Enjoy!

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1. Unless you’re working in a coal mine, an emergency ward, or their equivalent, spare us the sad stories about your tough job. The biggest risk most of us face in the course of a day is a paper cut.

2. Yes, your boss is an idiot at times. So what? (Do you think your associates sit around and marvel at your deep thoughts?) If you cannot give your boss basic loyalty, either report the weasel to the proper authorities or be gone.

3. You are paid to take meaningful actions, not superficial ones. Don’t brag about that memo you sent out or how hard you work. Tell us what you achieved.

4. Although your title may be the same, the job that you were hired to do three years ago is probably not the job you have now. When you are just coasting and not thinking several steps ahead of your responsibilities, you are in dinosaur territory and a meteor is coming.

5. If you suspect that you’re working in a madhouse, you probably are. Even sociopaths have jobs. Don’t delude yourself by thinking you’ll change what the organization regards as a “turkey farm.” Flee.

6. Your technical skills may impress the other geeks, but if you can’t get along with your co-workers, you’re a litigation breeder. Don’t be surprised if management regards you as an expensive risk.

7. If you have a problem with co-workers, have the guts to tell them, preferably in words of one syllable.

8. Don’t believe what the organization says it does. Its practices are its real policies. Study what is rewarded and what is punished and you’ll have a better clue as to what’s going on.

9. Don’t expect to be perfect. Focus on doing right instead of being right. It will simplify the world enormously.

10.If you plan on showing them what you’re capable of only after you get promoted, you need to reverse your thinking.

As I waited to see the doctor I referenced in a previous post, I skimmed through the complimentary copy of Bicycling Magazine (which I have a personal subscription to) which was sitting in the lobby area. I had time to kill so I figured I’d browse through it to make the time go by a little quicker.

About halfway through the magazine there is an ad with a smokin’ hot blond depicted wearing Shimano clothing. Quick 4-1-1 for the uninitiated: Shimano is a popular component maker for bicycles, fishing equipment, etc. which is obviously trying to expand their presence into apparel and gear. Upon further reflection, I realized I hadn’t even noticed the brand until well after scrutinizing “Miss Thing.” It’s not like I have any “shot” with this girl, and I’m perfectly content with the girl I’m presently dating. It’s a total guy thing though—it’s who we are and how we’re wired. Our human nature, if you will.

Stop and think for a moment: what is Shimano really selling in this ad with the gorgeous blond? Clothing, right? Hell no—they are selling HER! They are selling the ideology that somehow buying their product gives you a shot with the model or someone much like her. It’s that subliminal message connecting some strangely placed dots within the male ego that has worked for years and will continue to do so because that’s how we’re wired. It may work on women, too, but I’m not as sure about that. Any women care to chime in to lend some “expertise?”

A majority of cyclists are men so this is likely an effective ad because guys will undoubtedly talk about the girl which will invite other guys to check out the ad. Shimano is a secondary component to the girl, but they know that. She definitely grabbed my attention so the ad worked (on me at least). All heterosexual guys will almost always notice gorgeous women (and make comments to their buddies) because we’re extremely visual. It doesn’t matter if they are single or married either—it’s the very basics of advertising to men, and it won’t go out of style. We warm blooded guys won’t let it. I’m not so sure “taken” (married or seriously involved) women would have the same reaction would they?

On Wednesday, I was waiting to meet with a potential client who happens to be a doctor. Doctors are notorious for making us wait no matter what time we show up for our appointment. If we’re early, the wait is longer. If we’re late, we get shoved to the back of the rotation until they can “fit” us in even if THEY are behind schedule. I fully understood that I was at the back of the rotation as long as paying customers were walking through the door, and that was the price of engagement on this particular appointment.

So as I waited, I got to paying attention to how quickly the patients were “turned over.” When I arrived, there were three guys waiting to be seen, and that number quickly grew to six in about fifteen minute’s time. I began to think I might be there all day when magically the doctor pops his head out and says “come on back.” The patients were all gone (for the moment). As we were walking back to the office, another patient walked through the door. Hopefully he didn’t have to wait because of me, but the doctor actually moved people through rather quickly and seemed to genuinely care about his patients. That’s a wild concept isn’t it? A doctor that seems to legitimately care and one that is focused on getting someone in and out—try that on the next time you visit your busy doctor.

It got me to thinking, what allows us to accept waiting to see someone that we’re going to have to pay a lot of money for that doesn’t seem to care one way or another if we heal as long as we can pay the bill? It’s common knowledge that doctors have to endure a lot of education and have extremely high overhead costs because of insurance and specialized help, but would we wait very long for another “expert” in another field to help us that seemed disinterested in us? Do lawyers do this? Actually, they probably do, and I guess that’s the nature of the beast, but that doesn’t mean it’s right.

When an expert specialist figures out how to balance caring about the client, effective time management techniques to minimize the client’s waiting time, and easy ways to pay the bill without having to fill out a life history on each visit, he/she will own their local niche market. There just aren’t many of them out there today willing to meet us halfway like that.

That will be the nugget to think about for the day—meet your clients, customers, or patients halfway if you want to make them happy. They may spread the word without you having to ask.

I began thinking about our free one-month offer of services last night and wondered internally "how is our free offer different from everyone else's?"

For starters, our free month is 95% free (you have to invest human time resources and share relevant contact information to make it successful). If a potential client calls us up to begin working on a project and gives us an opportunity to demonstrate our abilities, they do so without signing any papers, and they are free to walk away at the end of the month without owing us a dime. Obviously, we're not in this to give away our expertise, and we believe that once we've proven ourselves a client will want to continue the relationship on a compensatory basis. That's the theory behind it. Most people stumble across us and have no idea who we are or how we operate so it's in both of our best interests to test one another before making it a commitment. We may decide at the end of the month that the client may be better served working with another firm. We're not for everyone and vice versa so it's truly a two way street.

Contrast that with today's marketing version of "free." 95% of the time you are asked to purchase something in order to get the free item or service. Gas stations require you to pay for filling your tank before giving you the "free" car wash. There are offers all over the Internet where you buy one product and get a "bonus" or a "free gift" for doing so by a certain date and time. In concept, it's a reward for doing business. Simple enough. We love receiving rewards don't we? It's not really a free offer though. You're requiring the customer to pay first which means you’re simply diluting the price by adding another item. If the item's cost requires/permits diluting, what does that say about your pricing of that item? Oh, you're "adding value," you say? Whatever.

Free just doesn't mean what it is used to imply a good majority of the time. It’s an old trick to fool people into spending money. Fooling people is never a good way to start things off, but it must work because people fall for it all the time.

If you stumble across a truly free offer, share it with us. We'll help spread the word.

First off, I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving and a safe one. Our family got together for a fantastic meal at my brother's house in which his wife (Donna) cooked up a mean bird and her world famous green-beans. I used to hate green-beans, but she got me back to liking them to the point I can make a pretty tasty pot myself (her recipe tweaked of course).

Since this day is about giving thanks, I thought I’d take the time to give thanks for the following:
1) My parents are still alive and kicking. Mom is in a nursing home, but she’s at least adjusted and seems content/at peace. I hate seeing her there, but they can give her the care she requires at this juncture. Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease that I hope they find a cure for as it’s affected my mom’s side of the family pretty heavily which scares me to no end—I have seen what the disease can do, and I don’t want to go through that. That’s a selfish view, but I can’t help but wonder if I’m headed there eventually. Luckily, my dad’s side of the family doesn’t seem to be afflicted with Alzheimer’s so there’s hope. Anyway, I’m very thankful my parents are still with us regardless of capacity. If your parents are still around, please appreciate the time you have with them.

2) I have my health for the most part. My knees now cause issues, but I’m in pretty good condition other than that. Every since I kicked the diet drink habit (February 8, 2006), I’ve felt much better overall, and my cholesterol, blood pressure, resting heart rate, and energy levels have returned to normal. That aspartame is a demon—stay off that stuff if you can.

3) I met a great girl this past year (Jennifer), and we’ve been going strong since March. While I’m sure I frustrate her with my tunnel vision focus on work sometimes, I’m really glad to have her in my life. I’ve been fortunate in the dating department and probably take some of it for granted when I get zoomed in on another aspect of life, but that’s just who I am.

4) I got my own business started in earnest this past year—something I have always desired to do for as long as I can remember. It’s beginning to produce fruit so I feel good about the future of this firm. It takes a lot of work to start a business (a topic for a future article?), and I honestly had no idea what I was doing when I started down this path last year. I halfway started this thing then, but I threw myself totally into it in the summer of 2006. I’m thankful to have the opportunity to work with some great people and expand my own knowledge along the way.

5) Last but not least, I’m thankful for my family and friends. I’ve got some high quality people in my life, and I’m glad to have them share in the trials and tribulations of my life and vice versa. Every successful person has a solid support group so I’m fortunate to have that. Repeated success is sure to follow with the group I have in my corner.

Now onto a recap of my Thanksgiving if you’re interested.

Day in General
My day got started by doing something I truly enjoy—bicycling with our Louisville Race Team. We (13 of us at the start; 9 at the end after a few peeled off early to head back home) set out to do 40 miles from one of the local parks at a decent pace but nothing too brisk. I somewhat determined the route we’d follow with input from a few other guys. Much to my chagrin, I guided the team past a key turn about 25 miles in, and we ended up with 70+ miles instead of the planned 40. Oops! Sorry about that guys. I hope nobody got thrown into the doghouse for being late, but I’m guessing a couple of guys did. I feel bad about that because I don’t like misguiding a group of friends/teammates, and I really didn’t want the extra 30 miles because I’ve been battling knee pain for a while now, and that didn’t help matters. Around mile 50 or so, my legs started locking up in the knee area (of course) so the last portion of the ride was rather painful. Thankfully we weren’t drilling it out today, or I’d have been complete toast! Not sure if I can ride tomorrow, but the ride today really helped create quite a bit of hunger so there was some serious damage done to the food spread. This is the first Thanksgiving I can remember in a long while I haven’t been hung-over from totally blowing it out the night before so I’m happy about that. I drank nary an ounce last night so I felt pretty good all day aside from the end of the ride. Perhaps I’ve finally matured?

Work
I’ve actually done some work today—can you believe that? Maybe I’m obsessed, as some have suggested, but I truly find it easier to “catch up” during holidays because people aren’t looking to do something or go somewhere.

I am working on another SEO article and also researching different copywriting techniques to guide people through a website and ultimately get them to sign up for something or at least have enough interest to contact me. I’m disappointed in my website’s traffic so I’ve decided to do something about it. Getting it to rank well is one thing, but “converting” visitors is another. The site gets consistent new visitors each week, but they obviously aren’t intrigued enough to go to the contact page and fill out the form or sign up for the newsletter. If you have some constructive criticism you’d like to share on what you’d do to better “convert” visitors, I’m very open to that. The site can be found at http://smbconsultinginc.com/. Check it out and shoot me an e-mail (go to the contact page on site and reference this post otherwise I’ll think you’re just some wise ass. Ha, ha.)

Sports
While I sit here watching the Boston College/Miami college football game, I’m reminded of how far the Hurricanes have fallen yet I don’t believe Larry Coker should be fired. The guy has a 58-15 record (.795 winning pct.) coming into this game. That’s phenomenal! I think he should be given another year at least. You can’t throw someone with that kind of record under the bus so quickly and easily even though the fans are screaming to chop the guy’s head off.

Tomorrow the Cards play in Cincinnati against Dayton in basketball, and Saturday the football team is at Pittsburgh. Both are worrisome games because the basketball team can’t stop dribble penetration worth a damn, and the football team’s defense struggles against the pass. Tyler Palko (Pitt) is a solid quarterback that could pick apart the secondary if we don’t get consistent pressure on him. I believe we will put some pressure on him, but that doesn’t mean a win is guaranteed because of that alone. Our offense has struggled of late, and this game has been a source of stress all season even when we were undefeated and rolling.

As for the basketball team, there is a good group of young talent, but Rick Pitino doesn’t like to play freshmen as much as he’s going to have to play them this season. That troubles me because this freshman class is a very talented one, but they have to learn on the job. Last year was a complete circling of the bowl in hoops, and I frankly won’t go through another one of those this year. If this team shows signs of sucking, I'll have to find something else to do with my time. My blood pressure simply can't handle a repeat of last season.

There you have what’s on my mind today. Not a lot of business for a change, but I figure a change of pace every now and again doesn’t hurt anything. Right?

What are you pondering this Thanksgiving Day? What are you thankful for? As always, feel free to e-mail me or comment below, and thanks for reading.