With a hat tip to Paul Williams, I’d like to remind everyone not to forget reputation.
Brand = Reputation
Image = Reputation
Survival = Reputation
In the sink or swim world we live in, reputation is everything. Sure, you can get by for a little while skating around like an elephant on an April ice sheet, but sooner or later you’ll crash through into the hypothermia-inducing water (i.e. have to go out of business). If not go out of business, you’ll have to run and hide. Or change your name and move to a non-extradition country with lax laws regarding entry.
In order to get repeat business–or even stay in business at all–you’ll have to manage your reputation. And with a bad experience spreading on the Internet faster than a virus in a 90 minute horror movie, you have to regularly stay on top of what’s being said about you–and who’s saying it.
Nobody has the luxury of enough time to constantly monitor their mentions online by going from site to site haphazardly. That’s why you can setup a Google Alert for your name, company, product, or anything. Google with its minions spiders all over the ‘net will let you know when your alert word is mentioned.
Your survival in business and your professional survival is all about your reputation. As Paul points out, many people lose touch with what a “brand” is. What people think of when they hear, “Mac”, “F150″, or “Coach purse” is reputation. I’ve never owned a Mac, F150, or a Coach purse, but because of their reputation I have an opinion of those brands.
Do you monitor your brands, products, or person online?
What products/brands do you want based on reputation only?
What products/brands do you want nothing to do with based on reputation only?
Maybe firing them is a bit extreme, but today I read an article that said make your marketing budget work by cutting it in half. Before I even got to the suggestion of why a company would do that I already knew why that was a good idea. What happens when you halve your budget? You have less to work with, of course. When you have less to work with, you have to work smarter and more efficiently. All of sudden, you see less money going out and more money coming in. You adapted; and it was a success.
According to Plato, necessity is the mother of invention. I strongly believe he’s right. From a biology standpoint, when something needs to be done it either gets done or you die off. It’s the same in the business world. Sometimes you need to get off the ground, spread your wings, and quit being a dinosaur. Whether that’s cleaning house or rethinking your entire image, a big change in results requires a big change in action.
Write that down, it’s important:
“A big change in results requires a big change in action.”
In a story that surprised me, I just read that not all adopters of the ill-fated HD-DVD technology will spend eternity on a couch next to a stuffy man smoking a pipe and flaunting his contrasting elbow patches while they try to get at the root of abandonment issues caused by Toshiba pulling the plug after a short-lived, much-hyped battle with Sony over the next generation of home video. Despite it being 30 years full of bombs since the Walkman was introduced, Sony was bound to have another hit someday. Unfortunately for Toshiba and HD-DVD purchasers, Sony won with Blu-ray technology. So what’s an early adopter to do? Take a leap ala the stock brokers in the 1930’s?
Well, some will learn their lesson—though most won’t. However, if they bought their HD-DVD player from Best Buy, they’ll be able to get $50 on a gift card to soothe the pain of those who bought before the guillotine dropped. Granted $50 isn’t the $200 or $400 these people spent to get the player, it is a very smart move by Best Buy. Through credit card purchases, RewardZone records, or any other data trail they can sort through Best Buy will mail out $50 gift cards. Circuit City is extending its return policy to 90 days also (refund will be in the form of store credit). Certainly this isn’t as big. It tends to help those few who used their Christmas cash to buy HD-DVD, and it handsomely helps them big time. Though the early adopters are left holding the bag—and to be completely fair, they knew it was a risk of being an early adopter.
Best Buy and Circuit City are certainly trying to clean up their image a little and I think it’s a great PR move. I was actually strongly considering both purchasing an HD-DVD player as a gift and one for myself this holiday season. (Although the best prices I could consistently find were on Amazon.) I ended up doing something else for the gift and getting a steal on an upconvert DVD player for myself. It’ll last me until I get a Blu-ray player. I just hope prices will plummet in the next 6-18 months as more are bought (economies of scale—not demand).
A lot of people hate Best Buy and Circuit City, but like I said, I think this is a good move for corporate image. Does anyone see this as a bad thing? Any shareholders out there like to comment? Any HD-DVD buyers getting in on a refund?
In what has become something of a classic, The Simpsons’ episode entitled “Lisa’s First Word” (Season 4, Episode 10) features a clown bed that Homer builds for Bart because Lisa needs the crib and Bart loves Krusty the Clown. Unfortunately, Homer’s creation is more Pennywise than Bozo. What follows is Bart spending the night in the creepy clown bed envisioning the evil clown coming to life. The next day we find young Bart in the living room holding himself in the fetal position and repeating, “Can’t sleep; clown’ll eat me.”
It turns out that such a response isn’t all that far from the truth. Scientific research has actually concluded that kids don’t like clowns. Some suggest that the era we live in with televisions and Elmo-on-demand has made clowns outdated as an entertainment source. From my own childhood experience, I didn’t particularly dislike clowns (though I didn’t like them either), but scariest movie was Poltergeist. And it was known around my house as “the clowny movie.” If you don’t remember the scene, I’ve got it for you here.
So what happens when you find out the beloved corporate image you’ve spent years building scares the very people you’re trying to target? If you haven’t paid attention in the past few decades, one of the largest restaurant—and I use that term loosely—chains uses a clown as its mascot. Ronald McDonald is a legend. And yet, he’s a clown. Should McDonalds lose the clown? Should they ignore the masses, including adults, who don’t like clowns? Mickey D’s doesn’t have clown wallpaper and I haven’t seen a new commercial featuring Ronald in a very long time. Has upper management decided to put Ronald in the closet? With locations all across this great country and beyond, does the use of a clown in corporate image hurt McDonalds at all? I’ve got to guess that’s probably not the case. Most people wouldn’t want to find a mouse in their home, but Chuck E. Cheese is also a corporate icon.
Not too many people are afraid of Romans, so Little Cesar is safe. Colonel Sanders and Wendy are people, so no worries there. Chick-fil-a uses a cow and I’m pretty sure in the history of man no one’s been afraid of an unprovoked cow. The King is pretty creepy and I know of people (myself included) that eat at Burger King less or not at all now that BK has decided to use the creepy king to hock its burgers. Subway has Jared, who isn’t even fictional; Arby’s has recently used an oven mitt, which is pretty harmless; White Castle, Hardees, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, and plenty of others have no personified animal or object in their current use.
I have no doubts kids will want to go someplace based on the character at the door, but are kids (or adults) avoiding altogether some places based on a creepy character? What’s your personal experience?
I have no idea what “Shiny Shiny” is, but I stumbled upon (the original stumbled) their site when tooting around Technorati this morning. (Shameless plug: you can add me to your favorites if you haven’t already.) A post caught my attention, “Txt Spk baby names? Oh dear God in heaven…” The post brought up that some are suggesting people are now starting to name their children with crazy spellings, punctuations, and capitalizations after too much texting.
With a name like Michael, you’d think I’d be staunchly in favor of creative names dripping with individuality. But that’s not actually true. It turns out that people continually misspell and mispronounce Michael. There are also plenty of people that think because my name is Michael that they can automatically shorten it to any of the common shortened versions that other Michaels prefer to go by. People always butcher my last name, but Michael has been a common name for a long time. Not only was it in the Bible, meaning it’s been around for at least two millennia, Michael has been one of the two most popular boys’ names in the U.S. for each of the last 53 years (holding the number 1 spot from 1961-1998). So if people can’t get my name right, I have little hope anything a kid gets named will be spelled and pronounced correctly 80% of the time without making the name particularly unique in spelling or pronunciation.
I think this brings up the question, is it creativity, laziness, or another texting consequence? In my years as a teacher, I had a wide variety of student names (and Michael wasn’t the most common). Those kids were named a long time before texting, so apparently this isn’t a new problem. At best (worst?), it’s a growing problem. Of course, there’s one other option that could be the root of the problem: ignorance. It’s quite feasible that some kids get misspelled names because the parent doesn’t know how to spell the name they are giving to their child.
Even more interesting than “why” is what are the effects of misspelled, unique, creative, original, or uncommon names? All kids are made fun of and I suspect everyone has their name messed up at least once by a teacher. What are the effects on a child’s brand, their personal, corporate image, if you will? I actually read a study within the past year or so that claimed people with names that were hard to pronounce were less likely to be brought in for an interview when seeking employment. It was easier for the hiring manager to bring in someone whose name they could easily pronounce. Do you think a crazy name helps or hurts a person?
And for anyone still confused, it’s Michael just like Jordan and Lombardi just like the trophy. Say it with me, “My-cull Lum-bar-dee.” Once more, real fast, “Mycull Lumbardee.” Not as hard as it looks; now, how do you say yours?
In the professional world, particularly in commission-based sales, business cards are important. They have the obvious function of holding your name and contact information, but a good business card—or a bad one—tells more about you than just how you can be reached. Spending a little more money on a better business card will come back to you. So here are four great ways to make your business cards—and you—stand out.
Hire a graphic artist: Chances are you’re not an artist, and even if you are, you’re probably not a production artist. If you don’t use registration marks (or even know what they are), do yourself the favor of hiring a professional.
Leave room on the back for notes: A business card is worth much more if it has information that is unique, and therefore valuable, to the recipient. By leaving room to write on the card, you can give a client your “secret” cell phone number, the price and model number they’re interested in, or special discount by contacting you again. Just remember if you leave a spot for notes: matte finish, not glossy.
Focus on your message: Your message is to convey who you are, what you do, how well you do it or why you do it better than the next guy, and how to get a hold of you. Instead of listing your title, why not list a concise version of your job description. Better than “John Wood. Mowley Construction. 317-012-3456,” is “John Wood. Mowley Construction. 2-time five-star award winner for superior service. Specializing in upscale kitchen remodeling and outdoor kitchens. 317-012-3456.”
Use a unique medium: Paper cards seem too boring? There are lots of other options out there. PVC business cards are flexible, durable, and colorful, plus they can have grooves and ridges giving a tactile experience to your card. I recently came across a card that allows you to include various rewards with your card: mp3s, ringtones, dvds, even pizza. Less traditional cards can be paper coasters, mini mouse pads (also great as coasters), or any promotional product.
Do you have any other suggestions? I’d love to know what they are, so feel free to share them.
As I’m sure you’ve already heard, Starbucks is closing its doors this evening to retrain employees. It’s important that Starbucks makes this move since sales have been sluggish for the company recently. Remember that when your product is more than the next guy’s you must offer something the other guy doesn’t. Certainly some people prefer Starbucks’ coffee to Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonalds Premium, or Burger King’s Joe coffee, but just because they prefer the taste doesn’t mean they’re willing to pony up the extra dough. As they say, “quality, speed, price: choose two.”
With Starbucks some people would say you lose on price. Other people would say you lose on speed, since you can get your coffee much faster from a McDonalds than a Starbucks. And certainly some would say you lose on both of those; they would be the ones who go somewhere else.
Starbucks takes a lot of lumps being a giant in its industry. It’s been widely joked that Starbucks is everywhere—even on Mars once photos from the Mars rover were sent back to JPL. Starbucks is making a big statement by closing every store and retraining the employees. Granted, they do most of their business in the morning, but they are admitting to having a problem. More importantly, they’re saying that they will fix the problem.
Is this step enough to help Starbucks see better numbers? Do you think this is a move you’d ever see out others who are tops in their category (McDonalds, Walmart, GM, etc.)? It appears to me that better than a promotion or a campaign, this is still results in word of mouth and news coverage, but shows that Starbucks is willing to be unconventional to improve its customer’s experience. This story has been covered on the news and around the ‘net, so it’s clearly a case of press releases or other business news becoming marketing. The question is merely how effective this particular effort will be. What are your thoughts?
As I mentioned the other day, I attended a tradeshow last week. Now, most tradeshows are arranged so that you can look out over the floor and see a bunch of vendors at the same time. This means your (potential) customers or competitors can watch you; and you can watch them. Just like a predator can tell that its prey is weak, others at the tradeshow will be able to tell whether you’ll sink or swim. How you perform at tradeshow is indicative of how you run your business. I said in my last post that with everyone offering virtually the same product will make price easily the defining factor that separates you from your competition. But it’s really service that should be the big indicator. Taking it even further, in a word, what makes you a winner or a loser in business—or sports; or music; or life—is preparation.
When you show up to a trade show do you have all of your materials? Do you have samples or a demonstration model? Do you know your new products cold? If not, you’re in trouble. Someone will surely ask what makes the ’08 version better than the previous. Or they will think your spiel is great, but if only they could try one or take one with them to show the person who makes the decisions. If people stop by and you don’t have even some literature to show them, you’re just plain out of luck.
On Friday, everyone I met was knowledgeable about their product. That’s obviously a minimum requirement. Past that, there were some people who had a table full of samples; some who had a stack of catalogs and other information; some who had a big presentation setup. In a few cases, the company’s representative had all of these things. I bumped into many of my suppliers and it was easy to tell which ones would get an increase in business from me.
I’ve had one supplier that’s gone through the fire to get one of my jobs done and make my client happy. He was there. And you can bet he was prepared. We’ll call him “Adam;” because that’s his name. My coworker, Traci, came in with me to check out Adam’s setup. He had a giant presentation board with multiple samples of everything his company makes. And when Traci wanted to know if Adam made headphone clips, he filled her hands with samples for her to use. Adam knows it’s a two-for. If he’s prepared and does an excellent job, Traci and I will work with him again. But he also knows if Traci and I are knowledgeable and have samples of his product, we’ll get him even more business because we’ll be prepared.
So the next time you need to go to a tradeshow or send someone to a tradeshow, remember that you can’t fool people if you’re unprepared. Alex Rodriguez couldn’t succeed in the playoffs if he didn’t go to batting practice. And you can’t succeed in business if you aren’t prepared.
On Friday I attended a trade show for those of us in the promotional products industry. It was here in Indianapolis, actually just a stone’s throw away from PDA. My fellow colleagues and I headed over, put on the obligatory name tag and began to circulate. Below are the take home messages from my latest trade show experience:
Hosting a trade show in rooms of a hotel is incredibly aggravating. The rooms are too small to allow adequate flow in, around, and out of the set up.
The promotional products industry is full of copy cats. Everyone seems to offer the same product, making the only thing that differentiates one company from another is price or service. Some clients will choose price, but in my experience service should be the clear winner. There isn’t enough money in the world to make you look good when you deliver an empty promise of a promotional product the day after an event.
Despite what it seems like, there is more to the success of a promotion than just buying pens. There are lots of options; you just have to make sure your supplier isn’t lazy and will work to find the right solution for you. For example, there are lots of new and innovative products and ways of making products that might work for you. It just might be worth it for you to spend the extra x% and get your product sublimated.
The trend in 2008, as I’ve mentioned before, is green promotional products. Pens made out of corn, travel mugs made out of potatoes, tote bags made with organic cotton, 100% biodegradable plastic Frisbees; eco is everywhere this year. I saw each of these items at the show on Friday and even got to take a few of them back to the office. Think about going green so that you’re seen as a leader in your industry and not just the next guy to jump on the bandwagon. You’ll then be able to say, you were green before green was cool.
Over the years, we’ve seen many popular trends among the younger generation: Barney, the pet rock, astronaut ice cream. We’ve also seen companies trying to latch on to what’s hot and make their own version. How many silicon wrist bands are there since Lance Armstrong started the Livestrong initiative? Heck, I’ve even sold them to one of my clients who wanted them (6,000 in fact). The silicone wrist band, while already past its popularity peak, is still plentiful as a promotional product. But what about when companies clone their own products?
I remember, even as a kid, the major toy companies rehashing the same product with a new spin. Barbie, GI Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, LEGOs, and Trivial Pursuit are just a few toy lines that got overzealous with their name in recent decades. How many iterations of Monopoly does one need? Sometimes, as in the case of the GI Joes or Barbies, would merely change the color scheme of the toy to introduce a new line. So all of a sudden, good ol’ Joe would now be sold as snow camo Joe, urban camo Joe, and desert camo Joe with, at best, a minimal change in accessories.
What does this kind of mindless copying do to brand name or brand image? Companies do it, so it must be good for them in some way. What do you think? Are choices for the sake of choices superfluous or essential to your life? Does it matter if a company adds a new product that has the same function of an existing one without removing the latter, ala Coke introducing Coke Zero but not discontinuing Diet Coke?
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I'm Michael Lombardi. I live in Indianapolis and have a Biology degree. What does my degree in biology have to do with marketing? Read my About page to find out...
In what has become something of a classic, The Simpsons’ episode entitled “Lisa’s First Word” (Season 4, Episode 10) features a clown bed that Homer builds for Bart because Lisa needs the crib and Bart loves Krusty the Clown. Unfortunately, Homer’s creation is more 
