Thursday, October 7, 2010

Don’t Forget Impulse Buyers in your Marketing Plan

Fall is in the air and merchants are already displaying the upcoming holiday season items. I often wonder if consumers are really thinking about Christmas shopping before Halloween. Part of the magic of shopping for any holiday item is shopping in the season not pre-planning the purchase months in advance, but purchasing that terrific impulse item that fits the recipient of your gift perfectly. Oh the anticipation and excitement of watching an impulse gift being opened. Doesn’t get much better than that does it?
The art and science of creating marketing/advertising campaigns for impulse purchases is often overlooked or minimized by items displayed at the checkout line. However, when you get right down to it, impulse buys make up a large portion of Retail Company’s bottom line and they are not all small ticket items. The tricky part is how to segment the impulse buyers from the pre-planners by season, price point, demographically and geographically. What is appealing to impulse buyers versus the buyer that does their research ahead of time and only goes into the store to purchase one or two items. Marketing to these unique profiles should be part of your marketing plan and marketing message. Assessing buying behaviors in the past will help predict buying behaviors in the future thus help support the ROI of your marketing campaign. So next time you are out shopping and throw a few extra items into your buggy, remember a profile of your buying behavior can be determined and marketed to.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Stop Being So Secret

I don’t know about you, but all too often people claim to have the secret answer, secret ingredient, the magic bullet or whatever else they won’t tell you how they do it.

As a kid I can remember watching a magic show and being amazed by the silver rings that were so shiny and apparently solid construction, only to be surprised when the magician was able to “magically” separate them in an instant. This is great for kids, but bad for marketers. Clients don’t want magic tricks, or smoke and mirrors, they want answers and strategies that are based on a solid analytical foundation and yield great results.

Recently I stayed at a Ritz Carlton and had an amazing meal to which I commented to the waitress how good it was – her response, would you like the recipe? I was flabbergasted, here I was enjoying something new and delicious and they were going to provide me with the step by step process to enjoying the meal again and again.

Imagine if you had a relationship with your business partners, wherein they would explain the recipe to you and help you to replicate the results over and over. That would be the definition of a long term partnership - and it would be delicious.

At Blu we believe in the process of walking through challenges with our clients and answering the 7 questions that surround every marketing challenge and in turn serving up great results for our clients.

Bon Appetite.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Customer Needs and Wants vs what you are selling

I just got back from a business trip in which I spent a good deal of time in the airport world. People watching is a favorite past time of mine, as I enjoy analyzing human behavior and apply the key findings of my observations to my every day life and the advertising marketing world in which I work. While the business of travelers moved around me, I had about 45 minutes of people watching. As I watched people move in and out of shops and boarding lines, it occurred to me that all people really want out of their purchasing power is for you give them what they want, not what you think they need. As I pondered this concept , I wondered what sort of analysis could be performed for a company to assist them in this marketing endeavor. Times are hard and money is limited, so how do you make a marketing budget truly impact the bottom line? The logical answer is a thorough analysis on your customer base so that Identifies the drivers of profit, hooks that help retention, and markers to find more profitable clients. I know it sounds simple, but the reality is most companies don’t have the resources to dedicate to finding out what really is working, and most importantly what is not working. If you think about what really drives your own buying behaviors, I suspect you will find that you are drawn to companies that have what you want (fulfilling your need), have excellent delivery channels (can buy it on-line, in person or by phone), and you are endeared to their brand at some level. In my life, there are many times where my emotional wants and desires trump my logical needs. It really is the world in which we live.
As part of the Reflex blu team, we understand the need to know your customer, know what drives profit, and how to market through multiple channels to get your message heard. Don’t settle on marketing what you think the consumer needs, find out what they want and fulfill the need. Long-term profits will be the return on your investment, when you marketing to the right person, at the right time, with the product or service they need.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

“SO WHAT”

Do you ever watch or read an advertisement and immediately think to yourself, “So What”. It happens to me all the time. The “what’s in it for me factor” is left out of most advertising these days. The basic rule still stands that the consumer must be able to see the benefit to them before a purchase is made. Seems simple enough, however it escapes most campaigns. So did the marketers get so caught up in the ad campaign that they simply forgot about what makes the consumer buy?

Developing marketing campaigns is like putting a puzzle together, you have to have the right pieces in the right place to see the whole picture. In order to see the whole picture you have to ask the right questions to develop a campaign that draws the consumer to your brand and product. At Reflex Blu the process is called "7 Questions, 1 Answer". This 7Q1A process is the foundation and path to successful marketing campaigns that drive ROI. We work with clients across all industries and the “So What” to us is bottom-line results. We believe that by asking the right questions we can deliver the right results for you time and time again.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Have we become accustomed to settling for mediocrity?

When was the last time you were in a situation where you thought someone had exceeded your expectations? Quite frankly, it has been a long time for me. It seems people are willing to just do the minimum and are happy with the results. I looked up the word mediocrity to see what the dictionary said and, sure enough, it confirmed average and second rate as the definition. Have we become so accustomed to “average” being the norm that we have forgotten how to expect excellence? Is excellence and giving 150% a bad thing? Especially when we look at it in the context of generating revenue to the bottom line. When did we start settling for mediocrity?

What is the difference between ordinary and extra-ordinary? That little “extra” right? Extra-ordinary is alive and well at Blu. You might then ask, “That sounds good but, what is so extra-ordinary about Blu?”

> Extra-ordinary respect for our clients
> Extra-ordinary passion to serve our communities and in communities around the world
> Extra-ordinary blend of logic and creativity
> Extra-ordinary ability to produce great results (and quantify them as well)

We deliver exceptional results for our clients because we refuse to settle for mediocre ideas. If you feel as though you are in need of extra-ordinary, step out of the ordinary and into the Blu.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Give 'em what they want

Apple has done it again. They released a much-anticipated product that sold 300,000 units…on Day 1! Some fanatics pre-ordered theirs on-line. Others stood in line in the wee hours of the morning for the privilege of being one of the first few lucky owners. And what did they get? A crossover product. A hybrid. Something that bridges the gap between laptop, eReader and iPhone. It’s portable, lightweight and app-driven.

Apple has earned a reputation for creating products that are useful, simple and sleek. Visual appeal and sound clarity set their products apart from the rest. First, it was the iPod. With it came iTunes (even my 67 year old father uses it). Then came the iPhone. Now, the iPad. And with each new product, there’s a newer version waiting in the wings to keep the momentum building. We have seen it time and again from Apple – iPod classic, iPod shuffle, iPod nano, iPod touch, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3Gs. The next hot version of the iPad WiFi version that was just released – the iPad 3G. The brand loyal innovators and early adopters get these products moving off the shelves. The late majority (this is where I fit in), who are willing to wait for the bigger, better version with all the bugs worked out, keep them moving.

How did Apple do it? Like they always do. They created a buzz, started by a demonstration from Steve Jobs. They rolled out a few press releases, a couple of TV commercials, did some on-line advertising and used iTunes as another channel. But the bulk of their advertising was done virally. Pre-release, everywhere I looked there were articles and reviews by more “experts”. Some loved it and some didn’t get it. But chat rooms and tweets were full of people trying to determine if it was a must buy.

Apple listens to its customers – then develops. They know the demographics of their audience. They cross-sell that audience into products that move them to the next most logical product. We’ve all heard the saying, “the devil is in the details”. Without question, the details are in the demographics. Apple doesn’t try to push products that people don’t want. It doesn’t work. Look at the Palm Pre. It’s about to drag Palm into bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Apple dominates the marketplace.

Do you know WHO your customers are? Are you giving your customers WHAT they want? Do you know WHEN and WHERE they want it? Do you know WHY they want it? WHICH channels of communication should you use to reach them? HOW do you know? Reflex Blu can take you through the 7-question process to unveil the answers.

Monday, April 5, 2010

How loyal are you?

Has poor customer service ever caused you to take your business somewhere else? You’re not alone. According to a recent survey of over 1,000 U.S. adult consumers, a single negative experience with a customer call center would likely cause 68% of the respondents to take their business elsewhere. Survey results also revealed consumers expect excellent service in return for brand loyalty: 87% of people felt they had a right to a better contact center experience if they regularly spend money with a company or stay loyal to a brand. 51% of people said the main reason for their dissatisfaction with a company is poor customer service or a bad contact center experience.

Here are recent examples of car salesmen behaving badly… Three years ago, I entered into a lease agreement on a car. I planned on purchasing it at the end of my lease and had built up quite a bit of brand loyalty due to a good track record with the car and the dealership’s service department. As my lease was nearing the end, I set out to negotiate the purchase price of my car (I discovered that the residual value was higher than the current market value, according to Kelley Blue Book). So, I called the dealership to discuss my options. The salesman really wasn’t interested in selling me my car- he wanted me to purchase a new one. After much back and forth, he asked me what number he needed to get to in order for me to buy. When I told him, he said, "you're really working me hard” and that he really didn’t know what I wanted him to say. I told him “nothing and thanks.” Initially, I had no intention of getting rid of the car – but I decided to go check out the competition.

That weekend, I went to a different car dealership. After test driving a couple of automobiles, the salesman promised to call the next morning with some figures (since it was near closing time). When it became late afternoon the following day and I had still not heard back, I contacted him. He said that he was off work that day and would need to call me back in the morning. The next day, he had someone else contact me who really didn’t know all the details originally discussed. The pricing he gave me was ridiculous. Frustrated, I called (or e-mailed) a total of 6 dealerships to get price quotes. Here are the results: 66% of the dealerships didn’t follow up when they said they would and 50% of the dealerships e-mailed price quotes back but were way out of line with where I told them I wanted to be.

But, one dealership was different. Not 10 minutes after I pressed “send” on the online request for quote, my phone rang (and it was 8:43 pm!). This salesman was extremely helpful, polite and came up with several options right off the bat. During the next week, we negotiated the details over e-mail (rather than wasting a lot of time sitting in the car dealership). He came up with multiple pricing options, sent a credit application via a link to their secure site and was always quick to respond.

It’s clear that companies who communicate through the RIGHT CHANNELS, provide SOLUTIONS and are in tune with the importance of EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE will ultimately prevail over those who don’t. The original salesman finally called back and got to the figure I was looking for - but it was too late.… So guess which one got my business?? Oh, and they also took care of my car tag - it’s being mailed to me. :-)