6 Words That Define Your Product

I came across a post today that “Hemingway was challenged to write a story in only six words.” He came up with, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Even alcoholic misogynists can have their brilliance.

If you can whittle your brand, your product, your image, your career, even you down to 6 words, you can get a better grasp on who or what you really are. I’ll give you examples from my life:

Progressive Design Apparel (PDA): Colorful, creative, happy place to work.
Promotional Products: Used wisely, best bang for buck.
Bella apparel: Soft and cute; everyone agrees 100%.
Alo apparel: Bella’s great, moisture-wicking exercise line.
UltraClub organic T: Softest organic T, unbeatable price point.
Dri-duck endangered species hat: Soft, organic cotton; adjustable and pre-embellished.
Myself: Forever student; sometimes funny; always honest.

How would you tell your story or the story of your product in 6 words? I’ll do a few more to get your wheels turning:

GM: Crumbling giant, epitome of corporate incompetence.
Starbucks: Grew too fast, lost reality grasp.
Windows Vista: Over delayed, under functional, software bust.
iPhone: Hyped marketing; new AT&T contracts frustrate.
Global warming: People pretend to care; do nothing.
Chinese Democracy: Axl’s unfinished masterpiece? Axl’s big joke?
2007 New England Patriots: 18 and 1, perfect season choke.

Now your turn…

Create A Successful Promotion – Part 4

Today I wrap up my 4 part series “Create A Successful Promotion.” Over the first 3 posts, I introduced Promo-smart, PMRT, which are the keys to a successful promotion.

1. Product
2. Message
3. Recipient
4. Timing

I already explained the first 3, and in today’s final installment I’ll cover the last one, Timing. For a quick recap, in the first post, I said it’s not enough to have a good product, you have to have the right product for the person you’re trying to reach. In the second post, I let you know that an effective message isn’t your logo alone; rather you must include a call to action. And in the third post, I gave you an example of how targeting specific groups to deliver your message is the most effective way to do a promotion. The final essential is:

4. Timing

What’s the difference between the latest, hot tech product and a piece of junk? Timing. It wasn’t long ago that we carried around floppy disks to transport our files. Now there are online storage sites, flash drives, portable hard drives, and even Blu-Ray burners. And in a few years Blu-Ray will be laughed at by the next generation they way you laughed as you used your Tandy, Apple II, or Commodore 64 while your parents did their resume on a typewriter.

Timing is also vital to your promotion. Sending out a promotion that doesn’t arrive at the right time is a waste of resources. Think about a floral shop. A promotion in June might not be very effective since Mother’s Day is in May. On the other hand, a promotion in January might give them a chance to get husbands and boyfriends to place orders for Valentine’s Day. The florist can better forecast what resources they’ll need to meet demand and the men don’t have to worry about picking up wilted flowers from a gas station on their way home from work on February 14th.

I’ll give you another example. A car dealer wants to sell more service. Knowing how much mileage the average driver puts on their car in a year, the dealer can offer promotions to get people to bring in their car for the expensive regular maintenance, such as the 30 and 60,000 mile check ups. If a promotional product shows up when you’re at mile 55,000 you’ll likely be a lot more interested in a 60,000 mile service than if you’re at mile 80,000.

“Better late than never” isn’t always true. A Christmas card from your insurance agent in March will actually make you think twice about keeping your business with that agent.

As always, feel free to comment. I’m sure you’ve all done something with bad timing, so I won’t ask you to relive the embarrassment.

Create A Successful Promotion – Part 2

In my first installment of “Create A Successful Promotion” I introduced you to the 4 keys to a successful promotion and a nifty way to remember them. PMRT, or Promo-smart, stands for:

1. Product
2. Message
3. Recipient
4. Timing

I covered the first of the 4 keys to a successful promotion, Product, and pointed out that it’s not enough to have a great product. In addition to a great product you have to make sure your product meets the needs or otherwise reaches the specific audience you’re marketing to. Following Promo-smart (PMRT), here’s the next step in a successful promotion.

     2. Message

Many companies think that splashing their logo on a promotional product, whether a shirt, pen, magnet, hat, or any other kind of widget, is a good use of marketing campaign dollars. But it’s not. Do you recognize the following logos?

Unless you haven’t seen a television in a few decades, you instantly recognize Nike, Apple, and Pepsi. Nike, Apple, and Pepsi can put their logo on anything, but unfortunately for you, you’re not Nike, Apple, or Pepsi. These 3 can pull it off because they spent gobs of money on corporate branding so that when someone saw their logo they would know what it means. So, if you’re going to tap into the next biggest athlete the world has ever seen, ala Nike signing Michael Jordan, you’ll be able to stick your logo on anything and people will know you.

What Can You Do?

You need to focus on the M in Promo-smart (PMRT). Your message isn’t only who you are, but why someone should choose you. You need to induce an action. Let me give you an example.

A pizza place just moved into a great spot near a big university just outside of Indianapolis. They go to the quad and student union on a beautiful spring day with 250 Frisbees. They are white and imprinted in red letters, “Empire State Pizza.” Not bad. College students like Frisbee and would rather toss a Frisbee than sit through another discussion of The Canterbury Tales. But what has the pizza place gotten? Not much. They have no way to know if the message was a success.

Now, let’s say the message changes. This time, using 250 white Frisbees with red letters, they pass out the following message: “Empire State Pizza. Across from Dodd Hall, next to the laundry mat. Bring this Frisbee in by May 1st for a free slice when you buy a slice.” The words “Empire State Pizza” are now smaller because the same size space contains a lot more info. But, the message calls the students to action. The Frisbee says why they should eat at Empire State Pizza—because when they buy 1 slice, they get another free. Attracting new customers is much easier if they know where to find you, and Empire State Pizza told the students exactly where the pizzeria is located. Finally, the message called for a specific action, bringing in the Frisbee, and contained a deadline, May 1st. This makes the promotion timely and easy to track—all you have to do is keep a running list of the number of people who show you their Frisbee.

Using the right message is a vital component of a successful promotion. You might think that the right promotional product and the right marketing message is enough to ensure success, but there are still 2 more keys to success in the Promo-smart (PMRT) method. Next time we’ll discuss the Recipient.

In the meantime, feel free to comment. Have you ever done a marketing campaign using just your name or logo and felt it wasn’t a success?