Communicating Differentiation to Grow Customers

Paul Travis is an Interim Management Executive with an expertise in determining and developing the right product for the target market and establishing the marketing infrastructure to profitably attract and retain customers.

Recently earning my CMC (Certified Management Consultant) prompted me as to revisit the importance of differentiation in the marketplace. In this particular case, only 1% of consultants have earned this accreditation.

While the Institute of Management Consultants has very low brand recognition in the marketplace (note they’re not the Institute of Marketing Consultants, but give me time!) it is simply following the model of the CPA, which businesspeople have come to understand is more rigorous, exam-tested, and worth more than an [otherwise uncertified] “accountant”.

This is especially helpful in the case of “consultants” (who tend to be born every time a company lays people off) where the business world really does benefit from having professional background-checking, courses taken and classes taught, and thorough indoctrination of international ethical standards and code of conduct.

One of my upcoming clients has an exciting, patented, energy-saving technology that provides 50-100% increase in electric motors. Our plans include creation of a certification that will help government, corporate, and consumer buyers know the difference between this technology and the status quo. Just like “Intel Inside” computer labeling, the Good Housekeeping Seal, and the “Underwriters Laboratories” label.

These communication devices help the customer in quickly understanding one level of quality vs. another. They (and partners) are willing to pay more for this!

The Opportunity: How can you differentiate your products or services in the customer’s mind from the rest of the pack?

Paul Travis can be contacted at Paul.Travis(at)oneaccordpartners.com or 206.910.2222. To learn more about Interim Marketing expert Paul Travis, you can view his profile at OneAccord or his blog 2020 Marketing.

How to Market to a Generation: Gillette Case Study

It is rare for a entire generation to become customers of a brand, although iPod has perhaps come the closest in recent years in capturing the loyalty of Gen Y. Gillette is another brand that was able to capture a large share of a generation as described by this article by Ford’s Scott Monty.

As I was shaving with a disposable razor this morning – not my usual razor – I began thinking about the power of generational marketing. One way of segmenting markets is by looking at the various generations: Matures (b. 1909-1945), Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1976) and Millennials/Gen Y (1977-1994). We’re well aware that the Baby Boomers are the largest generation, followed by the Millennials, hence such the interest in both.

As I was using the disposable two-blade, I thought about my Gillette Mach3 Turbo razor and was reminded of how I got to use the Gillette brand in the first place. In the late 80s / early 90s, Gillette made an incredibly smart marketing move: they purchased the mailing list of the Selective Service. If you’re not familiar with the Selective Service system, every male in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 25 must register, in case there’s the need for a military draft.

Gillette sent their new (at the time) razor, the Sensor, to every registrant. For reference, Gillette makes more money on their blades than they do on the razor mechanism itself – it’s similar to the computer printer model, in which printers are priced affordably and the cartridges are expensive. Each and every young male that registered got a free razor and set of blades from Gillette, essentially giving them the opportunity to be Gillette customers for life. I don’t know what the long-term adoption rate for Gillette was, but I can guarantee you that it got more men thinking about their products than just advertising would have done.

But it got me to thinking more broadly: how many opportunities are there for marketers to really affect an entire generation? It seems like a tall order in this minute-by-minute attention-starved generation. But if it’s something as simple as what Gillette did, such an experience has the potential to stick – especially since word of mouth (online and offline) can help such efforts grow.

Are there other campaigns that you know of that have affected entire generations that way? Or are there opportunities that you foresee for current brands to have this kind of impact? Drop me a comment and let’s discuss it.

Photo credit: Brian Warren (Flickr)

This article was originally posted at The Social Media Marketing Blog and is licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 license.

Become an Exceptional Marketing Organization -9 Simple Steps

by Scott Philips, Interim Management Executive OneAccord

We frequently hear the statement ‘what was successful last year isn’t working anymore, so what can we do to find the magic again?’ There really is no easy answer, but there is a process that will enable you to find success with your marketing initiatives.

1. Analyze the market
The better you know your industry, your customers, your competitors and yourself, the better you will make good decisions that give you leverage in your marketplace.

Some of the basics include knowing your S.W.O.T. – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal to your organization and Opportunities and Threats are external to your organization. Find places and ways to leverage strengths and to minimize weaknesses.

Another key is understanding where you earn your the greatest profits, as a percentage and in total dollars.

2.Target the best prospects
You have hundreds if not thousands of different target options for finding new prospects. The most important step in finding the right prospects is to ask the question ‘Which prospects are easy to acquire, difficult to steal, provide significant margins, in sufficient quantities and that will be loyal to you over the long run?’ These are your best prospects. And, they really do exist.

Identify them by industry segment, size, commodity, geographic region and any other means to clarify where you will spend your sales time and effort. For example, one of our transportation clients targets the shipping of eggs throughout the mid-west. They have found a market where they can be highly targeted, very profitable and in a space where they can be ‘the best’. And, their results are exceptional.

3. Focus your strategies for best leverage
The three key strategies commonly identified are a) market focus, b) pricing and c) differentiation. Unless you are the very biggest of companies where economies allow you to dramatically lower your operating costs, we recommend focusing on specific markets (market focus) or differentiation as your primary strategy.

Make your company strategy to be your defining mark and match your special capabilities to those prospective companies most needing those capabilities. Maybe you are ‘experts’ at designing special engineered solutions for your customers, concentrate on making that be the focus of your business.

4.Match the marketing elements to your strategy
Most everyone has heard of the four P’s of Marketing – Product/Service, Price, Place and Promotion. We don’t have space to go into detail here, but suffice it to say that these four marketing elements need to be consistent with your overall marketing strategy. If you are following a differentiation strategy then your marketing elements must match that strategy.

5.Develop a Unique Selling Proposition
This fifth step is simply developing a more refined definition of your primary strategy. The Unique Selling Proposition is the identification of one or two key things that make your company stand out in your customers’ minds. What makes you ‘unique’ to your targeted prospects? Examples of these include things like exceptional communications, simplified ordering process, ability to deliver products more quickly, or any number of other ‘special’ or ‘unique’ capabilities.

One key thing to note, your Unique Selling Proposition must be something your prospects really want from you. If not, they will look right past you to someone else.

Once identified, make sure that everything you do supports your unique selling proposition and let everyone you serve know what it is.

6.Create actions to deliver results
The next step is to list key initiatives and actions you need to take to make your marketing initiatives work for you. For example, maybe you need to review your pricing to see if your ‘extra services’ justify a price increase. The key to successful marketing is clearly identifying those actions that enhance your impact with customers.

7. Execute your plans relentlessly
The saying ‘a mediocre plan executed relentlessly will always outperform a perfect plan imperfectly implemented’ is absolutely true. More times than not, we find one of the key differences between a good company and a great company lies in their ability to execute on their plans.

8. Evaluate results
If you have executed your plans well, it is time to measure your progress. Evaluation of results is imperative if you are to improve. And, don’t just look at the numbers, also look at qualitative results. Talk to customers, vendors, prospects and even employees to see how well your plans are working with them. They will tell you.

9.Make adjustments to your plans
Finally, don’t just sit on your successes. Continue to refine and adjust your plans and actions in a continuous effort of improvement. The marketplace is in constant flux which means that today’s solutions won’t necessarily work tomorrow. Keeping a constant vigilance on your customer reactions and your competitor adjustments will help you win in the face of competition.

Nine simple steps will make all the difference in being an exceptional marketing organization with a consistent flow of new customers.

Interim management executive, Scott Philips, is a C-level executive based in Portland with over 30 years of diversified experience in enterprise wide leadership. He is recognized as an action-oriented leader with strengths in strategic management, business assessments, global brand building, business development and enterprise selling. Scott’s experience in analyzing market data, developing solutions and effectively executing plans have resulted in significant revenue growth in a number of companies in a wide variety of industries. He can be reached at 503.913.2705 or scott.philips(at)oneaccordpartners.com

Image by kozumel

The Marketing Landscape is Shifting – Are You Adapting?

by Charles Sipe

The marketing landscape is currently undergoing a monumental shift that will change how products and services will be marketed for many years to come. Technologies such as digital video recorders, the internet, and mobile phones have fundamentally shifted how people consume media, which changes the relationship between company and consumer. Here are some eyebrow raising stats.

• There are 31 billion Google searches executed every month. In 2006, this number was 2.7 billion (1).

• The number of text messages sent per day exceeds the world population (1).

• Today 4 billion people in the world have mobile phones (2).

• Nokia predicts that by 2012, 25% of entertainment will be created and consumed within peer circles (3).

• About 34 percent of American households use a DVR of some sort to record shows for viewing later (4).

What this means, is that shouting at the consumer will no longer work. A one way dialog will no longer work. Companies will need to really communicate, which means a two way conversation. Do you embrace new marketing tools such as search engine optimization, blogs, social networks, and Twitter? Or are you sticking to what has worked in the past and believing that it will still get you enough business so that you won’t have to change your marketing? Remember, Charles Darwin said “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”.

1 Did You Know 3.0 Video
2. Marketing Over Coffee Podcast Episode 3/25/09
3. Nokia Press Release
4. DVR Fallout: More People Delaying Season Premiere Watching The Tampa Tribune, March 12, 2009

Photo by Mark j Sebastian

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The Disruptive Online Loss Leader

by Jonathan Gilliam, Interim Marketing Executive

A slow business environment tends to highlight novel and effective marketing. Among interesting techniques retail outfits are adopting is the co-optation of low-cost, high-margin internet business models as “loss leaders” to get people in the stores and spending money.

Case in point: My wife spent about an hour on Shutterfly, one of the highest-traffic photos sites, attempting to get photo cards printed on the cheap. After a few technical glitches she gave up, and then remembered a friend describing a good experience on Costco’s site.

Costco? for online photos? Turns out the Costco experience was quicker, easier and about 50% cheaper. Being the marketing wonk I am, I thought about what Costco did that Shutterfly couldn’t.

Here’s the breakdown:

1. Wife has superior experience getting the card done and sends them to the store to print.
2. Wife goes to Costco to collect her prints, takes a detour through the store.
3. Costco adds logo on backs of the cards, which are then mailed to family and friends.
4. Husband wonders how $21 photos became $250 in bulk groceries.
5. Costco wins a big purchase, free viral advertising and a happy customer in worst economic recession in decades.

Now try this with other businesses that are supposedly exclusive to innovative online companies. Netflix? Try a video kiosk at McDonald’s for a buck, and grab a burger while you’re there.

Jonathan Gilliam is a interim marketing executive for OneAccord and is based in the Austin area. Jonathan has a deep background in business development, market analysis, opportunity development, relationship management and C-level sales. Mr. Gilliam welcomes questions at 512.775.7566 or Jonathan.Gilliam(at)OneAccordCorp.com. Jonathan also blogs at Business Developments.

Photo credit.

Why the CFO Should Be Funnel Savvy

by Chuck Besondy

The revenue funnel isn’t the sole domain of sales or marketing. CFO’s should be as familiar with their company’s funnel structure and metrics as any sales executive or marketing executive. Here’s why.

1. Funnel modeling tools provide the best way for marketing, finance, and sales to talk the same language during planning and reporting.

2. The variables of the funnel make up the actual metrics of the revenue engine. These variables are the levers and dials over which management has control.

3. The funnel, over time, enables the sales forecast to be made with higher and higher degrees of accuracy.

4. Requests for more resources from Marketing and Sales can in part be justified or refused based on funnel economics

CFO’s should be trained in the use of sophisticated funnel modeling tools right along side their marketing and sales colleagues.

An excellent source of this training is the FunnelAcademy(tm), which includes comprehensive training on sizing a funnel and measuring progress. It also includes the most robust funnel modeling tool I’ve ever had the pleasure to use.

Chuck Besondy is a principal at One Accord Partners and is co-author of Leadership on Demand: How Smart CEO’s Tap Interim Management to Drive Revenue. You can read more about Interim Sales and Marketing Management by Chuck Besondy at his blog The Sales Funnel Fanatic.

Get Out of the Commodity Business

by Paul Travis, Interim Marketing Executive

I’ve never liked being in the commodity business, because someone can always come along and unseat you on best price. The places I love to play are in differentiating from others by defining a new category.

E.g., when in the late 90’s I was heading up product management for a product competing in the “log file analysis” business (to understand where visitors were going within a web site) we repositioned ourselves as providers in the “e-business intelligence” category.

What about when you cannot define a new category, such as wine in a bottle? How do you get your product to stand out from the crowd?

You cultivate an appreciative customer by engaging them in a compelling story of the background of the land the grapes are grown on, the quality control processes, the craftsmanship, the physical path it takes to market, the farmers themselves, awards that have been won, and anything else that creates appreciation (and therefore willingness to pay more than “Two Buck Chuck” — a fascinating example in itself of urban legend story that swirled success for Trader Joe’s!).

What if the bottle of wine came with its own sommelier? That is the idea behind a print technology that Italian company, Modulgraf, is set to roll out next month at Milan’s wine fair. The innovation is a system for embedding micro-chips into paper labels that transmit information via RFID (radio frequency identification) to handheld devices. Through your PalmPilot or perhaps a grocery store’s loaner Walkman (”Wineman”?) buyers will be able to listen to information about the vino and perhaps even some Italian mood-setting music.

Can you differentiate your products or services by defining a new category? If not, how can you differentiate within your category? “Facts tell and stories sell”.

Paul Travis is an interim marketing executive at OneAccord. Mr. Travis is based out of Seattle with 25 years of experience in high technology, marketing, and consulting. He can be reached at Paul.Travis(at)oneaccordpartners.com and at 206-910-2222.

Learning From Your Customers

by John Moore

Mark Hurst over at the Good Experience blog posted his 10 steps for becoming the VP of Customer Experience at your company.

He speaks of forming stakeholder groups and offshoot ad-hoc teams, implementing “skunk work” projects, and championing the cause throughout the organization.

Good stuff … but his 10-step process could use an extra step … a step zero.

For anyone wanting to be a VP of Customer Experience, especially at an offline retailing business, start at STEP ZERO and immerse yourself fully in the role of the front-line employee and treat every interaction with customers and fellow employees as a learning experience.

Experience your business as employees and customers do by GETTING OUT OF THE OFFICE and GETTING INTO THE STORE!!!!

Learn first-hand the nuances of the customer experience from the employee perspective.

Learn the challenges front-line employees experience in delivering consistently good experiences to customers.

Learn how front-line employees can be better equipped with tools, resources, motivation, and training to deliver consistently great experiences.

Learn how to better design store layouts and improve merchandising sets from watching and helping customers navigate through the retail environment.

Learn how to improve upon products/services offered by hearing first-hand feedback from customers and by seeing how customers interact with products on the selling floor.

And when you return to the office to form teams of stakeholders charged with improving the Customer Experience, don’t forget to include the most important stakeholder – THE CUSTOMER.

It’s just as much a necessity, and maybe more of an imperative, to include the Customer perspective in Customer Experience projects just as you include the perspectives of marketers, product developers, and operators.

This article was orginally posted at Brand Autopsy and is licensed under the Creative Commons 2.5 license.

Growing Referrals with Good Business Karma

The Number 1 Rule of Marketing for Executives: Quantify, Quantify, Quantify

by Paul Travis

Do you have a favorite retail quote?

I do. And it’s not one that I think the industry should be proud of…

Save up to 40 percent, or more!

What are we, the consumers, to think — 1% or 99%? Human beings can only consider offers and value propositions within a meaningful frame of reference.

Consider this example — a customer feedback card from Silver City Restaurant & Brewery in Silverdale, Washington, made to look like the classified ads.

$375k per year sounds a lot more impactful than $15 for five minutes. Misrepresentative? No, I see creativity in catching attention and “portraying value”.

There is always a way to quantify the true value. Sometimes we have to work hard to figure it out. Often, going through the exercise helps us understand how to communicate to the prospective consumer.

So… how can you quantify your value proposition for your prospective clients and customers?

Paul Travis is a principal at OneAccord which provides interim executive services. Mr. Travis is based out of Seattle with 25 years of experience in high technology, marketing, and consulting. He can be reached at Paul.Travis(at)oneaccordpartners.com and at 206-910-2222.

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