In this series of posts, we are covering how I get started with a client. These questions help clients understand where they should target their marketing efforts. Our second variable to look at is whether your company has a strong company brand. Strong company brands are obviously a help in marketing efforts because your clients know who you are. We consider a strong company brand one that is prevalent and correct. For many clients, having a prevalent brand is vital. When you say the company you are calling from, a prevalent company brand means the customer already has a set of expectations and understanding of what you do. Typically a strong company brand is built through more traditional advertising as the message has to hit home often. We say “correct†because there are times when a brand message is out in the market place but […] Continue reading
Service or Product – Getting Started
This will be the first post in a series of how I get started with a client. These questions help clients understand where they should target their marketing efforts.
Are you a product or a service company? Seems like a no-brainer. You either sell products or you provide a service. Duh. But how one markets a company depends on the answer to this question. Marketing a service is often marketing the intangible. You can’t touch a service, hold a service, look at it and judge it the way you can a product. That isn’t to say that marketing a product is easy, though. The product has to be in its best light and look as good as possible because a consumer will make a judgment just from a quick glance. So when designing your marketing plan, this is the first variable we consider.
Product Company
The first thing we identify with a product company is what features are obvious in the product (colors, textures, what the main purpose or function is, etc.) and what features are not obvious (other uses, features that aren’t used as often, etc.). This is so important because when communicating, you don’t want to assume anything. Just because a feature is obvious to the manufacturer doesn’t mean it is obvious to everyone. I once attended a Pampered Chef party and the person brought their pizza stone out of the oven using the oven rack that came with us. There were two of us in the room who had no idea that was what that was for and had been using it as a cooling stand. The designers at Pampered Chef would have been surprised!!! The lesser known features are just as important. I recently read an article where a woman mentioned that at 50-something, she had just learned there were tabs on the sides of her plastic wrap box to hold the roll in the box. Neither my mother nor myself knew this one either and boy, is that a help! If my brand didn’t have it, I would definitely have tried a different brand as it eliminates a lot of the frustration with handling plastic wrap. This kind of feature can help tip the balance between one brand and another if the customer feels they are identical.
Service Company
With a service company, we have to understand what the service is, why it is important, and why it is provided in the way that it is. The last thing a service company wants to do is set the wrong expectation for what will happen once a customer signs up. If I’m having my car serviced and I’m told part of the service is to get a ride back to the shop, I better get a call before 6:00 saying they are on their way to pick me up. (FYI – my service provider actually picked me up in MY car so I could test out the repair with a tech in the car with me. Nice.) Next, we’re going to have a long talk about what customers WANT and EXPECT. And if necessary, we’re also going to talk to customers to make sure that is what they want and expect.
If you are both a service and product company, you will want to look at each side separately and blend the marketing approaches at the end. The idea here is to get a handle on what you sell at the very beginning. Later this week we will discuss Strong Company Brand vs. Strong Personal Brand.
Marketing and Campaigning – They All Look the Same To Me
As part of my networking activities, I joined the local Chamber of Commerce. We are lucky to have a very strong, active Chamber and the staff in the office do a great job to keep business people in Medina involved and informed. This morning we had our Meet the Candidates for all the local races. I will confess – in the past, the local politics hasn’t been as important to me because my work took place in a different city, the majority of my clients were in other states, and my general outlook was on bigger areas. Now that my work centers where I live, I find local issues more important. And with an easy way to get information, it is crazy not to be involved.
So today for the first time in eight years, I met the local politicians. There are some interesting races in that where I live there are four people running for two spots on the board of trustees. Three were there and I got to speak to them one on one and as a group (small towns are great, aren’t they?). The fourth guy who didn’t show will clearly not get my vote. It doesn’t matter how much I read about him, I saw the passion in the faces of the three people I met. I feel like I can successfully judge their abilities to get things done and to focus on the right things. Of the three, we have one individual who started on the board the same month and year I WAS BORN. I didn’t tell him that, but it was a crazy thing to think that I am the physical embodiment of his political career. As we talked, he was greeted by many in the room and really knew the history of the township. The second individual has served for four years. He talked about how much he enjoys the area and how interesting the board is. He certainly knew what is going on and I was able to update my husband on several things we had wondered about but didn’t know who to ask. The third person is brand new to the board and is focused on communicating through technology. He is concerned there isn’t enough information for the residents and has created a LinkedIn group as well as a website to get information out there.
So why is all this relevant here? First, if you don’t show up, it is hard for people to know you. As you are reaching out to customers, you gotta be where they are. Period. Second, there is nothing different in campaigning than marketing. The two guys currently on the board just wanted to get back to work. Not saying they didn’t present themselves well or give me the time, but they have things at the office pulling on their attention and the truth is, they didn’t want to have to try to get back their jobs. The third guy is new and is excited. His enthusiasm came through before anything else and his embracing new technologies has an appeal in certain circles. So who are you? Are you the guy with the history who knows why things are they way they are and can give your customers a grounded perspective? Are you the guy who knows his way around but still has more to learn? Or are you the newbie who is excited to be there and brings new ideas to the table? Is there any way you can be all three? I told one of them what they were doing was no different than the marketing I do every day. We are all running for office this November!
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