Tom Asacker

Shakespeare on brand names

"What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

I just signed up for an email management service.  The list had simply become too much for me to handle. That's why you may have received an email from Aweber - on my behalf - asking you to confirm your email address.  If there was some confusion, I apologize.  But please do opt-in, so you'll continue to receive my articles.  Thanks!

Aweber? Hmm, that's not a very good brand name for an email list management system, is it?  So, why did I choose it?  I'll tell you why: it came highly recommended. Does that make sense to you?  That someone would purchase a product or service based on a recommendation that extolled its performance, ease of use, friendly people, and other tangible virtues?  Well, it doesn't seem to make sense to Laura Ries.  Here's something she just posted on her blog:

"Having a better brand is not about actual differences in people, products or services. Having a better brand is about having a better brand perception in the mind."

Do you think she really believes what she wrote?  Especially in this emerging age of the consumer-controlled marketplace?  You can read her entire post here.

Abraham Maslow on problem solving

"To the man who only has a hammer in the toolkit, every problem looks like a nail."

It's official.  Toyota sold more autos than General Motors around the world for the first time in history during the first quarter. My educated guess is that it was due primarily to Toyota's reputation for quality, durability and efficiency (and increasingly, design), and thus, consumers expectation of a cost-effective, hassle-free ownership experience.  But perhaps I'm using the wrong "tool" to view and interpret this historic event.

Brandweek Magazine ran an article about GM and Toyota in its March 26, 2007 issue under the heading "Strategy."  See if you can spot their "tool:"

"General Motors dealers are mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore.  A number of leaders at the dealership level, who believe GM's corporate ads aren't aggressive enough, have banded together to take Toyota head on as GM continues to lose sales to its Japanese competition."

The article goes on to describe a radio spot, written and directed by the general manager of a large dealership in Atlanta. Here's the voiceover:

"Toyota recalled more vehicles last year than it sold.  The reality is Toyota contributes more to our staggering national trade deficit than any other manufacturer and those American-built Toyotas are mostly American assembled from imported parts.  Folks, the reality is Chevrolet is better for you, your pocketbook and America."

Pretty big hammer, huh?  The ad not only insults our intelligence - "Toyota recalled more cars than they sold? C'mon.  And aren't the parts in GM cars imported as well?" - it also speaks to us like we're children. "Take the Chevy medicine. It's good for you, and for your fellow Americans."  Banging a brand screw with a hammer not only looks like a desperate measure, it's damaging as well.

Knock it off dealers.  Roll up your collective sleeves and engage in the real strategic pursuit of overhauling your dreadful dealership ordeals.  Work to make them an inviting, spin and pressure-free, transparent and engaging experience, and perhaps we'll venture in and listen to what you have to say.  Expand your inadequate toolkit.  The days of beating people into submission with a big, mass marketing hammer are long gone.

Blaise Pascal on communication

"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."

I have had the time, and that's why you haven't heard much from me lately. :)  Instead of frequent blogging, I've been working on another little book, A Clear Eye for Customers.  With it I hope to clearly articulate today's changing economic and cultural environment, and provide a new 21st century model for examining and enhancing the "value" of marketplace offerings.  It is, by far, my most difficult work.

I've been sharing this evolving "identity and happiness" model of value with various audiences over the past six months, listening for objections, confusion and, most importantly, insights.  I've addressed business-to-business companies, financial service firms, well-known telecommunications brands, global nonprofits, consumer products giants, advertising and media companies, beverage behemoths, etc.  And they all seem to get it.  Which is great. But I want to be clear about something.

My business philosophy is based on my belief that our western society has turned its attention away from the future toward the near term.  I don't feel that most people view the next generation as, necessarily, a hopeful time. Certainly not like we used to. If anything, we're more stressed out and anxious about a future that may, in fact, be worse than the present (economically, environmentally, safety, etc.).  And frankly, most of us don't feel that we have an authority to place our faith in, nor a philosophy to guide us.

So to cope, most of us use the marketplace as a diversion. We approach it with an emotional logic. We want to experience novelty, and the pleasures of consumption, leisure and well-being.  We want to lose ourselves in new challenges and experiences, control our personal near-term futures, and better ourselves physically and mentally.  We want to feel good about ourselves and our decisions, and so we're constantly on the lookout for something that suits us better in those pursuits (a.k.a. value). 

Our western marketplace is driven by this egoistic, searching behavior; more, faster, seduction, flexibility, instantaneous, ephemeral, entertainment, change, fashion, performance, stimulation, innovation, ad infinitum.  And the way to succeed in business is to tune in to this new consumer reality and to be better at orchestrating and delivering said "value."

But here's the rub: although I understand this to be the nature of our individualistic, do-it-yourself, better oneself, and be happy economy, I'm not saying that consuming is the path to happiness in the long-term. In fact, studies suggest that we are generally less happy today than when we had a little less. It's a paradox.  Indeed, our world is filled with paradoxes; e.g. the two top-selling categories of books in the U.S. are cook books and diet books.

So yes, I do teach how to appeal to today's consumer psyche in order to be successful in the marketplace for products, services, entertainment, ideas, et al.  But no, I'm not saying that your products or services are necessarily going to make people happier in the long-term. I'm not that naive. I'm more inclined to believe Buddha, "To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him."

But until someone can show me a better large scale system than our modern capitalist system at improving people's lives, I'll continue to work hard to help make it more relevant, more human, more real, and more meaningful to everyone who chooses to be involved in it.  And as Forrest Gump so aptly put it, "That's all I have to say about that." 

Mark Twain on knowledge

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you; it's the things you know that ain't so."

What's your understanding of marketing?  How do you define it?  Here's the latest definition from the American Marketing Association:

"Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders."

So, it's an organizational function?  That must be why nonprofits, independent professionals, and small business owners have problems wrapping their heads around the marketing concept.  Most don't have a marketing "function." 

And let's see . . . marketing manages customer relationships to benefit the organization and its stakeholders.  "Stakeholders" include the customers themselves, right?  So that must mean that tobacco manufacturers are engaged in something other than marketing, because precisely how are their customers benefiting?

Einstein wrote, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."  Let's make marketing really simple and see what happens:

"Marketing is any attempt to influence a current, and/or future, exchange."

Given that understanding, not only are the 4 P's marketing (product, price, place, and promotion), but so are web site design, customer service interactions, keeping the side walk in front of your store clean, eye contact, fund raising activities, package design, and even most blog comments. Blog comments?  Yes, blog comments.  Don't get me started.

Are you trying to get people to exchange their time, attention, or money for something you have created or in which you are involved; e.g. the written word, film, video game, software, consumable product, podcast, sporting event, baked goods, advice, worthy cause, etc.? Yes? Then you are engaged in marketing. 

Emerson was right:  In the 1800's, if you built a better mousetrap, the world would beat a path to your door. This, however, is 2007.  Today that "better mousetrap" has to be "better" in very different ways (and you'll still probably have to deliver it). It has to add value to people's lives beyond pest control; e.g. a humane trap, which will be meaningful and reflect favorably on a customer's sense of self. 

That's the challenge for every marketer today: How to uniquely orchestrate a bundle or continuum of "value," infusing it into the product, service, packaging, store front, delivery truck, sales process, blog, shopping experience, advertising, et al, such that customers feel good about their decision to choose you. 

And I am not talking about a singular "value proposition," e.g. "Quality is Job One." Those simplistic, advertising-as-brainwashing days died soon after Emerson. I'm referring to meaningful value, which actually has a chance at influencing a decision; e.g. entertainment, learning, connection, identity, purpose, etc.

Emerson also wrote something that has survived the test of time, "This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it."  If your goal is to be successful at influencing others in the marketplace for products, services, entertainment, ideas, etc., know this and it will be a very good time indeed: It doesn't matter what people think about you or your organization.  What matters is how you make them feel about themselves - and their decisions - in your presence.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery on charity

"Charity never humiliated him who profited from it, nor ever bound him by the chains of gratitude, since it was not to him but to God that the gift was made."

The headline of this month's tiny BusinessNH Magazine is striking: 7,000+ NH nonprofits compete for your dollars. 7,000+ New Hampshire nonprofits?  That's one nonprofit for about every 175 people (man, woman and child) in the state.

Last week I gave a pro bono presentation to a nonprofit in Virginia.  Near the end of my talk about our radically new economy, I was acutely aware of a glaring look from one of the attendees.  I could almost hear the voice in her head:

"This is disgusting.  We need to appeal to what makes people "feel good" about themselves in order to garner donations?  What a bunch of rubbish. Marketing manipulation, nothing more.  We should simply keep doing what we're doing, albeit a little harder: let people know what a great cause we represent, and kindly - and diligently - ask for their support."

Charity may have never humiliated him who profited from it, but I can assure you this: most charitable organizations are humiliated by the thought of marketing.  Why is that?  Each and every day, we are exposed to thousands of organizations trying to influence us to trade our limited resources for their products and services.  And for the ones who do it well, we happily acquiesce. Why don't nonprofits employ the same, sophisticated philosophies and methods?

Wake up nonprofits!  And believe me, I know that people hate being woken up.  Unless, of course, they may be late for something. The number of nonprofits in the U.S. continues to increase. If you don't get moving in the right direction, you will be late.  The marketplace for products, services, entertainment, information, ideas, and, yes, even principled causes, ALL vie for our limited attention, time and money (which are getting more limited day by day).  So do yourselves, and your beneficiaries, a favor. Open your eyes, open your hearts, and expand your marketing minds.