Success = Making It Easier For Customers To Buy

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While most marketers try to motivate potential customers to want what they have to sell, really successful marketers help customers do a better job of buying what they already want.

In a recently published article posted on BNET.com, William Taylor describes how Netflix has dramatically improved the way their customers identify and evaluate movies they might want to view.

Most of us think the breakthrough that has driven Netflix’s explosive growth is their pioneering of first a mail and now an online distribution solution - but their greatest achievement of all may be something even more appealing.

Realizing that the main issue customers struggle with when picking a movie isn’t so much about how it’s delivered but about how to make a good choice from thousands of options, Netflix has developed a truly better way to reduce the risk of a bad selection.

Netflix has created a smooth process that helps customers find new movies they are likely to enjoy through an automated suggestion system. Based on shared characteristics with movies the customer has previously liked as well as recommendations by other members with similar tastes, the system presents options that maximize the customer’s likelihood of satisfaction.

And by making the customer experience better and more consistently positive, Netflix is soaring while competitor Blockbuster is hoping to come out of bankruptcy sometime in the near future. Netflix has 16 million fee-paying members, annual revenues of over $2 billion and a usage rate where customers rent 98% of all the titles every quarter.

So what’s the point? It’s just one more example of the power of a total brand solution. Not simply a better sales job, but a solid brand value delivered on a consistent basis.

Read more details about this brand’s strategy and thinking.

And when you’re ready to talk to someone about building or sustaining your own brand solution, contact us by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

Putting Your Brand In The Hands Of Prospects

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Whether it takes the form of a pdf document, a piece of printed literature or an online digital brochure, the need for some form of content-rich sales presentation is a primary communication tool for almost every brand.

That means the more capably you can present the value of your brand and build its credibility using this form of communication, the greater your competitive advantage.

So what does it take to create a strong brand message that prospects will read both for its clear promise of benefit as well as its thorough coverage of supporting detail?

Our Sadler’s TenderSplit brisket new packaging brochure is a good example. Here are three things it does well:

1. It Clearly Establishes The Brand’s Unique Value – from the front cover all the way through it announces, enhances and sustains the brand’s promise to provide “generations of pit-smoked flavor ready to serve in minutes.”
2. It Powerfully Builds A Persuasive Presentation – with exceptional photography, expressive copy and a convincing call to action, it doesn’t just present the facts for the reader to evaluate themselves, it leads them to the desired response with confident expectancy.
3. It Inspires The Reader To Realize Their Own Success – connecting on both a rational and emotional level, the brochure encourages buyers to see this brand as a solution their own customers will buy willingly and often.

View the entire brochure for yourself.

To talk to someone about turning your sales literature into a more powerful brand presentation, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

How To Avoid Becoming A Commodity

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"All things being equal" has to be the worst phrase any marketer will ever hear from a potential customer. It means your only hope of a sure sale is a cheaper price.

Letting your brand become a commodity is a disaster for your whole organization. In effect, it raises all the costs of production, sales and service because it lowers your opportunity and ability to offset those expenses with a favorable return on investment.

So what can be done to avoid this tragedy? Raise the value of what you're selling in the mind of your customers to a higher level as revealed in a BNET.com interview with Paul Boitmann, president of global sales at Newell Rubbermaid.

Faced by a market full of cheap knock-offs, Boitmann describes how Newell Rubbermaid employs a competitive strategy that helps channel partners realize greater total value than just the revenue they make from the merchandise on their shelves.

Their approach is to provide a level of knowledge and expertise that goes beyond just knowing their own product line in order to help retailers improve the success of the entire product category in the store.

Boitmann states "While we want to own the category as a whole, if this means giving a prominent display to a competitor's product in order to maximize the performance of that department, that's the recommendation that we would make."

Newell Rubbermaid's goal is to help retailers lower their risk of buying inventory that isn't going to sell and avoid the resentment generated by channel stuffing. "We're essentially offering a solution to the problem of 'how do I make this category profitable' rather than just supplying them something to resell," explains Boitmann.

So to avoid allowing the buying decision to come down to price, raise it above basic product facts and features. Beyond a delivery date or size availability. Turn your entire organization and your brand into a success solution.

Read the entire interview for yourself.

And when you're ready to present your brand as a more complete solution, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

Lead Follow-Up Objective #3 - Demonstrate Solutions

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The objective of your marketing communications strategy is to generate leads that will become new business. Sometimes that happens quickly, but not often. How do you get the most out of the leads that don’t buy immediately?

In our first post on this subject, we suggested initiating a follow-up communications program to share your knowledge with potential customers. This gives them a no-obligation way to evaluate your thinking and approach. Then in our second post we recommended a methodical plan to highlight your advantages over time.

This time we’ll consider a third objective.

Demonstrating solutions

The fact is, the only reason a prospect considers their vendor options and ultimately makes a change in their product of service choices is because they are trying to find a better solution to an issue they want to solve. So give them some examples of solutions you've developed. Define a problem you were asked to solve. Explain the main development decisions and the resulting strategy. And highlight some of the results. The whole idea here is to eventually demonstrate a range of successful applications of your ideas and skills. Demonstrating solutions gives the prospect more ways to see you as the answer to the challenge they have an urgency to solve today.

Finally, while we don't have a lot of detail about the time-to-conversion or percentage of secondary leads who become hot leads in a particular program, we do have solid evidence to show that a lead that has responded once is much more likely to continue to accept communication and therefore influence than a first-time prospect. And respond at a higher rate as well.

In a program we developed to maintain communications with architects who classified themselves as having "a future interest" in our client's product, we documented initial electronic communications click-through rates ranging from half of one percent to just over one percent. Follow-up communications to those same responses, however, generated click-through rates from 22-39% depending on the content.

That's the whole point right there. To keep a once-responsive secondary prospect interested until something in their situation or your communication raises their urgency of action to a higher level.

Read more about the other two lead follow-up program objectives now.

If you want to talk to someone about a brand follow-up program for your leads, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

Panera Bread Keeps Rising Despite Recession

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If you've found yourself waiting longer to be seated, served and possibly even to pay for a meal at your favorite mid-level restaurant these days, it could be a side effect of the same cost squeeze affecting so many industries.

But while some eateries suffering from a loss of business have chosen to cut costs on food quality, menu options or service staff, Panera Bread is taking the opposite approach. In an article published online at Bloomberg.com, executive chairman Ronald Shaich describes how the 1600 unit chain has intentionally kept its growth intact and how it tries to differentiate itself from other restaurant operators.

"Almost every single one of our competitors said 'We need to pull costs out.' As a consumer, if you walk into their restaurants, the lines are longer, the waits are longer. You have a table next to you with dirty dishes. That is the effect of increasing labor productivity. It has to come out of somewhere.

"We've continued to invest in labor in our cafés and the quality of our people. We've invested in the quality of the food. When everybody pulled back and we did more, the difference between us and our competitors went up."

And the results have been dramatic. Since the end of 2007 when the recession began, Panera Bread has boosted revenue 24%, added 191 stores and increased their workforce by 20%. In comparison, the U.S. Restaurant industry saw same-store sales drop 2% in 2009 while the casual restaurant segment suffered an even worse decline of 4.7%.

The article is a great read and I highly recommend it. It shows how really sound thinking and marketing strategy can deliver exceptional results even facing severe competitive challenges. And while they had some significant financial advantages from previous successes to bolster them when conditions worsened, they've made the most of their opportunities to create even more competitive distinction because others retreated.

This story is just one more illustration of the fact that when presented with a host of dining options that are all relatively equal, consumers will select the brand that communicates and delivers a distinctly higher level of value. That's what good brands do for a business. Any business. Consumer or Commercial.

Read the full article on Bloomberg.com.

To talk to someone about developing more competitive distinction through your brand, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

What Good Sales Sounds Like

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We’ve all heard a zillion radio spots that we would love to forget. Bland, boring announcer- or owner-read lists of various features and offers that drone on until we tune them out.

But every so often we get a little audio treat. A spot or campaign that seems to have a real point to make and a presentation that’s fun to hear. It makes the unique promise of the brand easy to relate to. The benefit it offers more attractive and desirable.

So how does it work? What are the keys to a good spot?

First, it connects with its audience. The situation, issues and values match the interests and needs of those it’s designed to motivate. It’s believable if illustrating reality or obviously exaggerated if over the top. The voice, music and vocabulary also help draw the right listeners in and hold their attention until the pitch is complete.

Second, it delivers the brand promise loud and clear, making the sales message the hero and not the actors or the spot itself. It adds just enough detail to make the story credible. And it presents an easy-to-follow path to an attainable result.

Lastly, it generates excitement and anticipation for the recommended brand solution. Its voices and sound quality are distinctly different from other commercials. Its professionalism raises its appeal. And its creativity maximizes its memorability.

Hear what good selling sounds like for yourself. Listen to several spots Cornerstone created for the re-positioning campaign for FirstBank, an 80-year-old savings and loan that wanted to become a bank.

To talk to someone about making your brand presentation sound this good, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

With Bags Flying Free, SW Brand Soars

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Have you ever noticed how added fees really add up? Even on something simple like a fast food order. Tack on a few cents for this and another dollar for that and before long you're losing your appetite for a brand you once valued.

That's the power and the genius behind the Southwest Airlines "Bags Fly Free" promotion. Taking another departure from the industry norm that has marked the unique airline brand for years, Southwest again shows how well it connects to the issues and motivations of their customers.

In an article published on the bnet.com blog, Brett Snyder describes how Southwest has made the choice to win new business and encourage more business from existing customers rather than maximize their profit today in the process of pushing passengers away. It is a long-term strategy intent on building a more powerful brand connection by maximizing the customer experience – and it's working.

The article reports very positive feedback regarding the "Bags Fly Free" advertising that any marketer would love, but the real success is the continued positive gains Southwest has made over time in terms of customer satisfaction and value. In looking at survey results from 2006 to 2008 to 2010, these numbers illustrate the trends:

1. Answers like "It’s my favorite airline and I’d go out of my way to fly with them/one of the first I’d consider flying” went from 42 percent to 58 percent among the all-important business travelers.

2. Answers such as “It’s the best airline out there/one of the better ones” went from 56 percent to 70 percent.

3. Responses like “Really like and have a lot/something in common with” went from 54 percent to 64 percent.

This is big. It shows how the Southwest brand is continuing to build value in the minds of flyers. And not surprisingly, they continue to make money on a regular basis. It also shows once again that a brand is not a single promotion or feature change, but an integrated strategy to establish and leverage a distinct competitive difference.

Read the full article How Southwest Measures the Success of "Bags Fly Free."

To talk to someone about helping you establish and leverage your brand difference, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.