Smart Marketing 4 Tough Times - - Volume 2, Issue 2

From Volume 2, Issue 2 - 2004

Can't we all just wise up?

Will somebody please tell us WHO is responding to the stupid e-mail from the widow of the former dictator of Nigeria?

Somewhere, someone is reading her plaintive plea for help and getting ready to hit the "reply" button, starting a process that will end inevitably with a transfer of money from their account to some not-that-clever scammer in who knows where. Meaning someone is being taken by a ruse that has been the punchline of a thousand jokes.

Which begs the question - just who is still being had and why? Ready for the sober truth? The answer is all of us. As the famous Pogo cartoon once pronounced, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Spam is only prevalent because people are still responding to junk e-mail. Some people just can't resist the lure of quick riches, extended youth, greater vitality, or whatever other promise is dangled in front of them.

So what does that say about us?

As a society, we may be better educated but that doesn’t make us all smarter.

Being street smart can make a difference in guerrilla warfare and on the business battlefield.

PhD? MBA? Bah! Paper smarts can be effortlessly squashed by a lowly BS or BA with passion and savvy. “Smarter” is gauged in different terms than typical academic degrees.

What difference does “smarter” make?

All the difference in the world. Remember when Sony brought out betacam and seemingly everyone else in the world was introducing VHS? Okay, maybe not, but trust me that this was a giant “pedigreed” corporation taking a lone stand against the entire world. Who won? Well, did your family have a VHS machine or a beta player? Yeah, that’s what I thought, and the same battles are being fought on new standards for all kinds of technology, from DVD writers to instant messaging.

So, back to the point of this newsletter - be careful about your plans, that they should be smart and not just predictable. The breakthrough point in a winning marketing plan is when the ideas make so much sense that you wonder why no one thought of them before, not when they sound so familiar that you're sure someone already used them, and in your market.

Be sure you understand this point: the breakthrough moment is not when everyone on your team accepts the strategy. In fact, that is the moment you worry, because you have just become predictable. The breakthrough moment is when the smart people on your team are willing to fight to the death for the strategy. Read that sentence again to make sure you get it.

Next subject, and a question: What is the personality of your brand?

And now that you're thinking about that, here's a snapshot observation to overlay on that thought: The new cult of belligerence. Having attitude as part of your brand.

There’s a marketing firm attempting to make their living by being overtly obnoxious to their customers. They're actively seeking press to tout their arrogance towards clients. Interesting strategy, no? Maybe it sounds like your ad agency or PR firm. Can you see the session in which this brilliant idea was conceived? Four people sitting in a small, dimly lit room. They're new to the game and want to make themselves known. "Okay, here's how it goes down. We act like we're like totally cocky and people think we're that way because we're like really good." "Dude, that's brilliant." "Shut up, I already knew that." And so up it goes, another stunning epiphany floating in the air like a balloon filled with methane, only to be shot down by the market while emanating a resulting odor. So, didn't they wonder what clients would think of their counsel, given their own total failure to understand the signature of a good brand? Apparently not.

What’s in a name? Does AOL Time Warner seem better off or worse off without AOL in the name? Well, let’s talk about names for a few minutes. This is an example of when changing a name makes sense. Remember all of the companies with dot com in their moniker? Know how many there are now? That’s right. Gone. Like last year. Not even Amazon “.com” remains. So, a name change makes tremendous sense when the existing name is a liability. But, if your name means nothing and has no awareness in the market, don’t change because you feel like a fresh wind needs to blow. Unless your corporate name has “dung” in the name or connotes something equally unpleasant, just drive reality under the name and create a positive brand association. While we're on the subject: more name changes – Worldcom, now MCI. Okay, maybe this one also makes sense given the widespread bad press about financial shenanigans. How about Enron? Yep, another good candidate. Perhaps a good new moniker would be Moron since it's close and probably would ring more true with so many people.

A great example of positive brand change is an airline known as ValuJet. Remember that name? That’s right, ValuJet was the airline that lost a jetliner in the Everglades killing everyone on board. The kind of incident that usually spells the end for a relatively small airline. So, what happened? Well, first off, you don’t see the name ValuJet floating around any more, do you? Instead, the airline changed its name to AirTran and continued its low fare business model. Today, AirTran is the number two discount airline in the U.S., in a solid second place behind perennial leader Southwest. Of course, ValuJet management didn’t just change the name of the carrier. They also made even greater changes that brought value to customers, like a single fare structure and reserved seats – as opposed to the Southwest “rush for the gate and the best seats” model. Could they have turned the airline around with the name ValuJet? Probably not. Instead, they changed the name and "branded" it with a good business model that touched their customers.

How about FedEx Ground or the UPS Store? These are two top brands in the highly competitive parcel transportation market that took existing brands and polished them up by extending their big brand halos to them. Will we remember Mailboxes Etc? Maybe, but most people will think of The UPS Store far more quickly than MBE. How about RPS? Nope. FedEx Ground will have almost instantaneous recognition over the brand it bought.

So, when do you change names and when should you extend an existing brand name to an acquired or new brand?

Brand oops
We made a purchase this fall from buy.com. When we received an e-mail notice that our order had shipped we noticed a hyperlinked button that said, “click here now to claim your thank you reward for your order.” Sounds nice enough. Except for one problem. When you click the button a wonderful new screen comes up:
“A system error has occurred and we are unable to process your request.
Please go back and try again. If the error persists please call customer service at 1-800-890-4892.”

After three times with this same result, it’s time for a double clickout. No call to customer service. No return to the site. In fact, we shopped online during the holidays but this site was not among the online stores we patronized. Probably just a coincidence that this incident had occured earlier but we had an odd residual feeling about this online store and writing up this example just made us realize what may have colored our thinking. Be very careful that what you think you're doing as a favor to your customers doesn't backfire if it doesn't function.

Next issue we're going to talk about slogans and taglines - the good, the bad and the ugly.

For more information about Luminor, call us in Seattle at 206.956.0300 or in Southern California at 949.589.2478, or send an e-mail to info@luminor.com.

Take care and market smart. With things getting better many of your competitors are going to wake up and start marketing hard again, but your company can win.

Other recent articles

	Volume 2, Issue 1 - 2004	- "It’s Still Not Too Late To Be A Leader"
	Volume 1, Issue 5 - 2003	- "How Easy Is It To Do Business With Your Company?"
	Volume 1, Issue 4 - 2003	- "The myths of branding."
	Volume 1, Issue 3 - 2003	- "How to use market intelligence as a competitive weapon."
	Volume 1, Issue 2 - June 2003	- "How to know what your market wants and needs."
	Volume 1, Issue 1 - 2003	- "It's time to get on with it."

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