Alberta Business Marketing

I am a marketer and a gardener - I love both. I like to putter in the garden. There is nothing like digging in dirt to reduce stress. There is a calming effect of being outside. And a feeling of health seeing fruits and vegetables grow.

When I went to purchase my vegetable seeds this year, my stress went up. The prices had increased and the quantity of seed had decreased. Seeds already seemed outrageously priced for what they are. The seed company was stepping over the invisible value line that I had in my head. They were under delivering for the price.

I had the same reaction when I went to purchase hayfever pills. They seem overpriced. And often when I read the ingredients, they are simply repackaged, recombined and marked up.

Perhaps it is time for me to stop gardening - it is too hard on my stress level.

Pricing is an often overlooked part of marketing. It is often handled by a different department and different people. But as marketers we have to realize the impact it has. In the worst case, overpriced product can never be sold even by the most brilliant of marketer.

Remember in pricing the invisible line that all customers have. To move the line up, you need to increase the perception of value. Marketers can do this by telling the story of how good the produce will be, by having bright juicy pictures and by giving planting tips to help the gardener.

Sometimes though, no amount of story, pictures etc can move the line as easily as giving the customer something extra. If I was selling seeds, I would give a few free seeds - perhaps of a different plant. Or perhaps give free mini stakes to mark the rows with. Or offer a 'mail in your seed' envelopes to get a free something.

Perception of value attracts customers and keeps them coming back.

Jim Estill

Tags: Strategy
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All press is good press. I had read that but was never sure I believed it but I recently read The Buying Brain - Secrets to Selling to the Subconscious Mind by Dr A.K. Pradeep.

I am not a neuro physicist (if ever doubt it, I can just ask my kids) but I am fascinated by how the brain works and know it applies to marketing.

Pradeep's book clarifies how the brain works.

Our brains often ignore negative modifiers. Using this fact, it would say that "all press is good press" would indeed be true. Apparently as we age it seems even more optimism kicks in. We ignore the negatives even more. In medicine this could be dangerous. "Do not take with food" could be remembered as "take with food". And as marketers we know we will increasingly be selling to older audiences.

So when marketers write copy do not use negative terms or modifiers or if I were to say that properly for your memory - use positive statements.

Using this knowledge would also explain why side by side comparisons in marketing are dangerous. People forget which product is the winner. Did Coke or Pepsi win the Challenge? And if there is a negative property in a competitors' product, readers might ignore or forget that.

Pradeep also explained why repetition works. Our brains seem to think things it repeatedly hears are true. (perhaps I should work more on my affirmations) As marketers we always know we need frequency and it turns out we are just playing to the Buyers Brain.

Another interesting aging fact. Apparently our brains still remember as much as ever but we are not as good at filtering out the noise. For marketers, this would speak to having clear messages without too much clutter.

Now I feel so much better that any journalist can write anything they want bad about me and know that it will be good for my brand.

Jim Estill

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The market leader always has the advantage. Once a brand is established, it tends to have momentum to stay. The goal of any marketer is to establish the best brand with the budget available.

If your brand is as well known as Coke, a simple Coke sign is enough marketing to spur sales. For a small niche competitor like Dry Soda to compete, they need to do a lot more than flash their name.

The bigger the brand, the more free PR occurs (like I just mentioned Coke). Also the most established brands actually sometimes get credit for competitors' marketing. Think for example of funny Michelob advertisements. People who see them often think they are advertising Budweiser. Or if a Michelob commercial makes someone want to have a beer, they will often drink a competitors beer.

What this speaks to then is building brand quickly. The goal is to be big and recognized. Most marketing campaigns should be front end loaded. Spend most of the annual budget in the first 3 months then reduce to "maintenance" marketing. Once a brand is recognized, it takes less marketing to keep it known.

The only case where this should not be done is if you are uncertain what marketing works yet. Then you want to experiment to figure out what works before spending the budget. I talk a bit about testing marketing programs in the article I wrote on Overspray in Marketing.

This same technique works in selling situations. Meet with a prospect or customer 3 or 4 times in a short period of time. Get to know them and get them to know you. Once you know the person then you can drop back to phone calls and emails and still have the rapport to continue making sales. Front end load time in selling.

One way to maximize return on marketing spend is to spend most of it early.

Jim Estill

Tags: Strategy
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As a marketer, it does not take much of an excuse to market something. Holidays are a great time to market.

Often holidays have a theme already built in so there is very little creative thought needed. Christmas for example is easy to show pictures of Santa, wrapped presents, snow scenes etc. And easy to use Christmas music.

I know there is a general societal movement to high political correctness so for those concerned with being perfect, simply avoid any religious or political holiday. There are still lots of special days you can use.

And if you do not sell consumer items, it adds humour to have an event around a holiday. I used to sell bar code readers and one of my favourite flyers was "get your mother a high speed laser scanner for Mother's Day" (my mom still loves me). A close second was "surprise your sweetheart with an original toner cartridge for Valentines Day" - complete with the infatuated look on the woman's face as she opens her present.

And there is nothing wrong with a fabricated holiday. Everyone likes a new reason to celebrate - streamers and cake are always in order. "Jim has declared February 1st as energy saving day. On February 1st you can buy any of the following energy saving products at special prices...". Notice this one also ties in a deadline. Must do it that day!

Part of marketing is "fitting in" and getting permission. A holiday gives just such an excuse. You fit in and because you fit in, people tend to give you permission. Humour also helps with permission.

Now I cannot wait for Boxing Day, New Years Day, Valentines, St. Patrick, Ground Hog day, Three Kings Day (Dia de los Santos Reyes), Martin Luther King, Jr's Birthday, my birthday, my business anniversary, Baha'i New Year (Naw Ruz), Passover, April Fools, First Day of Summer, Mardi Gras etc.

Jim Estill

Tags: Strategy, This and That
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This post is inspired by Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely.

His thesis (backed up by lots of scientific studies) is that people do not act rationally. For example, when people were told the $20 CD they were buying was on sale for $13 15 minutes away, they said they would take the time and buy the cheaper one. But when they were told the $500 suit they were buying was on sale for $7 less 15 minutes away, people said they would not take the extra time. What happened? Same time and same $7.

Irrationality #1 - Price discounts are proportional to the total cost. So there is little point offering small discounts on high ticket items. (but don't despair - you can use irrationality #2, #3 or #4)

Amazon offered free shipping on orders over $35. Sales worldwide increased. Many people would add something to their $20 order to get over the minimum. This happened everywhere but France. Were the French different? Upon investigation, it was found that the France division was not offering free shipping but was offering shipping for only 20 cents.

When France changed to free shipping, their sales followed the same pattern as the rest of the world. There is a big difference between free and 20 cents even though it is irrational.

Use the power of free to market. For example - free web site analysis, free marketing report, buy 2 at the regular price and get one free (this actually works better than 33% off when you buy 3), free tie with any suit etc.

Irrationality #2 - Use the power of free in marketing.

Lawyers were asked if they would work for $30 per hour to help elderly people. Most said no. When they were asked if they would do it for free, most said yes. Free was better than $30 per hour.

What happened? They saw free as doing their civic duty and compared it to volunteer work. They compared $30 per hour to their hourly rate. People make decisions by comparison. Change what is being compared to help sell.

Irrationality #3 - Change the comparison

Subjects were asked if they would bid an arbitrary amount (they actually used the last 2 digits of their Social Security number) for a set of items including a wireless keyboard, concert tickets, etc. Simply going through the list and saying yes or no if they would buy the items.

After that, they were asked how much would they pay if they would not pay that much. Those with high Social Security numbers (like 80-99) offered to pay over $50 for the wireless keyboard. Those with low ones (1-20) offered less than $20.

What happened? They were anchored to the price.

Irrationality #4 - Use anchoring to sell. (one trick is to have one very high priced item that you never expect to sell. People look at the $600 dress then they think the $200 is a bargain)

Marketers have long played to these irrationalities. Understand the irrationalities to help market better.

Jim Estill

Tags: Strategy
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