New Restaurant Marketing Blog Is Up!

Haven't been writing here much... well.. at all! Been busy with another venture(s).

One is very dear to my heart and has to do with restaurant marketing.

Also, big changes are coming to this blog. I have finally figured out what I want from it. That is still a good month or two out. But I promise it to be very practical and useful to anyone in the business of selling (whether in person or via a sales letter).

Is This A Viable Marketing Medium?

Several times over the last year or so, I needed to go to my bank on the weekend to get some cash. Understandably, the bank would be closed and I'd have to use their ATM.

Now, the ATM's there have a shelf, a little slab of plastic that is there for you to put your bag on or to have a convenient spot to slide the cheque into an envelope.

Long story short, a few times I've been there, there were little 2 1/2" x 5" fliers lying around on that shelf promoting "Mr PC Doctor", who's apparently a omni-dexterous technical genius capable of fixing your home P, removing virus and spyware, and even building a website.

No idea if he's any good.

But the fact that his pamphlets find their way there with some uncanny regularity, I conclude that this little racket is profitable to his "little" business.

There are several interesting lessons that can be derived from this "doctor":

1. Being able and willing to take certain risks is crucial to your success, especially if you're a start-up.

2. You should not be "above" any marketing method or media. As long as you're not flirting with the law, the only correct way to judge the viability of a particular medium is the profit you generate.

3. Action beats perfection. The first flier I got there was god-ugly, had 4 offers, wacky font types and colours, no pictures, and yet it was out there and was getting him some leads. The second and the third, and especially the fourth piece had a few mistakes but overall were quite good. He acted fast, learned from it, tweaked his ad, and kept improving his results. Lack of marketing knowledge or education notwithstanding.

I'll try to scan those in and publish then in one of the future post. And I think I'll call the guy to see if the bank caused any trouble for him like pressing littering charges.

Stay tuned.

The "Restaurant Makeover" Close

Ok, let's pick it up where we left it last time.

I think the "Restaurant Makeover" close is so great, because:

- When you are about to discuss your fees or your project budget, you prospect is on the defensive and is bracing up for a touch negotiation. And when you say, "What would happen if we didn't come", you immediately take their attention away from the money and make them focus on the problem they have. It's no longer "about the money". It's a "do or die".

- You get a yet another chance to confirm that they really are a good prospect for you. If they are happy with status quo, the best thing you can do is turn around and walk away. If, on the other hand, they start sobbing and drop on their knees begging you to help them, you know you're in the right place.

- People buy on emotion and justify their purchase later by logic. You question requires a very emotional response and when it does, the deal is in the bag.

I can think of a several more (lesser) reasons why this close is powerful. It will work in almost any selling situation. The key is to use it in your business.

I most certainly will.

Lessons from Restaurant Makeover

I was watching another episode of Restaurant Makeover today. If you're not familiar with the show, they take a failing restaurant and send there a chef and designer, and then re-build the entire store in 6 days.

One of the key (and somewhat poignant) moments of the show is when the chef and the designer ask the owner to pony up cash (usually $15K, matched dollar-to-dollar by the show) for the project. Today I noticed that every time they talk money, the designer asks this brilliant question:

"If Restaurant Makeover didn't come, what would've happened here?"

This line is brilliant in so many ways I think it's worth of a separate post to talk about it.

John Reese fired me

Well, not me but my blog. Marketing Rant wasn't good enough to be included in the BlogRush network.

Deservedly so: I have not been posting frequently enough over the last months. Which is about to change.

If anything, this unhappy incident re-affirms my trust in BlogRush and its ability to provide targeted quality traffic.

Marketing Rant will be back on the network... just give it a few weeks.

John, here I come!

Bloggers Rush To BlogRush

If your computer has been plugged into the 'Net over the last 3 days, this shouldn't be news to you anymore. John Reese's new creation became an instant hit with Internet marketers big and small.

It is called BlogRush and is a tool that offers an easy and free way to drive more traffic (and more targeted traffic) to your blog.

Obviously, John knows a thing or two about generating traffic. After all, he is Mr. Traffic Secrets. But I believe the popularity of the tool has little to do with his fame and a lot with how brilliantly simple and effective this little tool is.

It takes only a minute to create an account and add the BlogRush widget to your blog (you can see one on the right side of this one). Now what happens is that every time someone opens your blog, you earn a "syndication credit" that makes one of your recent posts to appear in the similar BlogRush widget on some other blog in the network.

Simple enough. But BlogRush doesn't stop there and that's what makes it unique and different from of syndication scenarios. You also earn credits off the blogs that you have referred to BlogRush. And also from the blogs that those bloggers have referred... and so on, 10 levels down!

They say all brilliant ideas are simple. I'm not sure if that's always true but it certainly works in this case. The stampede of bloggers putting these little widgets on their blogs and the barrage of emails sent out to large lists, suggest that this tool is here to stay.

If you have a blog of any kind and on any platform (Blogger, WordPress, M-Type, TypePad or whatever you may have) adding BlogRush will provide some very important long-term benefits to your online projects.

Toronto Airport Hotel is blogging

Novotel Toronto Airport has a little problem: Too few people know where it's located. They have been "under construction" for a good 5 years and have just recently re-opened. A relatively small hotel and bit off of the main "strip", the mentioning of their name even to a cab driver demands of him a couple of minutes of concentrated thinking to remember how to get there.

Novotel Toronto Airport also has a huge advantage: Their marketing team who will use the marketing methods that other hotels would consider too "unorthodox" or too laborious.

Such as...
- offering a cold face cloth at the check in on a hot day;
- and putting fresh crisp apples on the counter for you;
- and placing the telephone in every room by the desk where the business traveler is more likely to need it and not by the bedside where you find it in most other hotels (yeah why is it that they always "park" your phone where you can't reach it and the cord is never long enough?)
- etc, etc, etc.

Oh and they use joint ventures to bring in seminars and conventions and to spread the word out.

And they are... blogging! Right here: Novotel Toronto Airport Blog.

Good to see someone not entrapped in the "this stuff doesn't work for my business" thinking so prevalent in the "old" industries like hospitality.

Slim Down by... Sending Greeting Cards!

Huh?

I know what you're thinking: Alex, what have you been smoking? What does losing weight has to do with greeting cards?

Hey, cards have no sugar added and no calories! Isn't that cool? :)

...

Okay, okay, that's a joke, of course. (April fools, hee hee.)

I confess I came up with this title just to get you to read this post. But I am going to stand behind this bold claim.

Read on.

What I am about to tell you today is key to achieving any goal in life, be it losing weight or anything else you care to dream about.

Question: Do you know what happens when you think about someone you like?

- You feel pretty good.

And what if just as you thought about them, you could send them a beautiful personal greeting card in the next 30 seconds, a card that would make their day?

- You'd feel even better.

And when they receive your card and call you back to say thanks and tell you what a great person you are...

- You'll be on cloud seven!

A-ha!

Feeling good is paramount (a big word for "very important") to achieving success in every area of our lives, be it our business, career, personal relationships, or even things like losing weight.

It is a well-known fact that when we DON'T feel good about ourselves we make bad dietary choices and losing those extra ponds becomes unachievable.

There are many ways to get into a "feel good" state, but most of them work only for a short time. And of all these ways, there is nothing -- nothing -- that beats doing something nice for someone else.

Just imagine that you can start every day of your life by thinking about someone you like and sending them an unexpected greeting card.

If you still don't see it the way I see it, 3 things will inevitably happen:

1. There will be a lot of people out there thinking very positive thoughts about you.

2. You will love yourself and your life and will have the energy to deal with any temporary setbacks.

3. Serendipitous things will start happening in your life and it will stop being a constant struggle.

Speaking of "serendipity"... I do think there is a reason we've met and you're reading this letter today. The meaning of that I will leave to you to interpret.

What I want you to do now is click on this link and request a Referral Formula DVD. It's all on me, including the postage. I want you to have it.

'til next time,

-Alex Makarski
http://www.ReferralFormula.com
416-240-7990 (Canada)
307-459-0970 (US)
Skype: marketingcomrade

PS: Get you free Referral Formula DVD now.

New Marketing Blog for Network Marketers Goes Live...

I just launched a new blog about network marketing. Here's the link:
http://www.NetworkMarketingHeroes.com.

I have become quite fascinated with the topic. Being a curious guy, my plan is simple yet rather grandiose: I am going to interview 52 successful network marketers in 2007, pick their brains and share this knowledge with my readers.

It's not 2007 yet... and one interview is already there. It is with Robin J. Elliott, a worldwide Joint Venture expert.

Hop over to http://www.NetworkMarketingHeroes.com.
and take a listen.

Consider this my little Christmas gift.

Merry Christmas!

Marketing Success Formula: See What Everybody Else Is Doing And Go In The Opposite Direction

Whenever I turn on my TV or read the paper (happens very infrequently these days), it seems as if we (the collective "we") are obsessed with our dietary choices. We count the calories, watch the trans fats, and load up on the proteins. And lest we forget the Omega 3, which is very good for us although nobody knows what exactly it is.

So what do our "purveyors of food" do? Let's see:

- Farmers are pulling their hair out trying to make their produce more organic;

- Food manufacturers keep coming up with increasingly healthier additives;

- And the restaurateurs are tripping over themselves adding "healthy choice" items to their menus.

Heck, even the ever-so-ubiquitous Golden Arches, the traditional stronghold of His Majesty The Burger, are now becoming more known for their salads!

Question: If you are a restaurant, should you follow?

If you do, you will be just a number in a huge crowd of others competing for the same piece of the pie. Remember that in business you don't get a reward for doing it the hard way (I'm paraphrasing the great Dan Kennedy here).

And if you go in the opposite direction, you may just corner the market.

The way Jon Basso of Heart Attack Grill in Tempe, AZ did.

At Heart Attack, you don't get just a burger. You get a Double Bypass Burger. There is also a Triple Bypass, as well as the most monstrous of them all, Quadruple Bypass. It is brought to you by a "nurse". Your vital signs are being monitored by a "doctor". And when you're done (done eating, that is) a "nurse" takes you to your car in a...wheelchair!

Heart Attack has been around for less than a year but has already deserved prominence on numerous news sites worldwide.

Jon claims to provide the "taste worth dying for", but his and the Heart Attack's fame has nothing to do with the quality of the burgers (I haven't had one, but now I'm so sold I can't even imagine them being not fantastic).

It's all about the decision to not only do something different, but do the exact opposite of what everybody else is doing:

- If they switch to salads, Jon gives you a burger;

- If they serve smaller plates, Jon builds the biggest burger you've ever seen;

- If they promote healthy eating, Jon offers the "taste worth dying for";

- If they are being serious, Jon turns it into a farce, compelte with "nurses", "doctors", wheelchairs, theme songs, and downloadable ringtones.

Once you get a business like this going, marketing is effortless. It just happens. Like a letter from the Office of the Attorney General of Arizona complaining Jon's... ahem, "nurses" are not real nurses!

http://www.heartattackgrill.com/not_real_nurses.htm

Two things are for certain:

a) Whichever way this controvercy gets resolved, Heart Attack stands to benefit from it.

b) Next time I am in Tempe, I'm having a Double Bypass.

Dumped by your girlfriend? Turn it into a marketing publicity stunt!

Scott Tucker, a debt management wizard from Chicago and a brilliant marketer, has a new title:

A GUY WHO'S GIRLFRIEND DUMPED HIM!

How many people would go public about that? Hardly any. But Scott is no regular guy. In every problem therein lies an opportunity.

Scott is stuck with 2 first-class round-trip tickets to Barcelona for HER birthday, with HER name on it. He decides to turn all this into a publicity stunt. Up goes a website to do a search for another girl with the same legal first and last names.

The result?

Scott Tucker is interviewed by and featured on:
- WQAD
- FOX 5
- Dallas News
- Forbes
- Quote.com
- US 99.5
- Market Watch
- The Seattle Times
- WGN9 Chicago
- WLS 890 AM
- KWQC TV
- WIBC 1070
- NBC5

and list goes on... and on... and on.

As the old adage goes, you need to make news, not the news releases.

Find out more about Scott's campaign at http://www.FreeTripToBarcelona.com

Fellow Canucks help Leesa

Do you live in Canada? If so please help my friend Leesa Barnes.

No I am not asking for a pledge or donation (hm, is it not the same thing?). All I ask of you is 30 seconds of your time to answer a few questions in Leesa's survey about podcasting. Don't worry if you don't know what podcasting is and have never even heard the word. Just go to this link and cast your vote: Canadian Podcast Listeners Survey.

Marketing results: You "get" 10 times what you "give"

Marketing is part art and part science. You can argue which part is bigger or more important. Most people would agree though that marketing is very practical -- it's all about investing some dollars and cents so as you'd get back a larger quantity of dollars and cents later on. Right?

Well, yes, sort of. See, there is also a metaphysical side of marketing, which I'd like to touch on today.

I've seen it time and again, how some people follow every single rule in the book and create what would seem to be a killer copy, then send it out and get only mediocre results. And then someone else would whip out a totally amateurish piece and bring in a ton of new business.

How is that possible?

There is an explanation.

Everything is energy. Your sales copy is just a medium to transmit your energy to other people.

So when you are trying to figure out why a particular piece did not perform as expected, try to remember how you felt while writing it. Also, try to remember what your gut was telling you when you were about to hit the Send button. Were you excited? Were you confident? Or were you feeling that uncomfortable "suction" in you gut?

Also, were you sending it out to "give" or were you sending it out to "get"? If you send it out to "give" and in your heart of hearts believe that this stuff is going to help someone, this energy will be in your letter. If you are sending it out to "get", you are coming from a "need" or "scarcity" mentality and that bad energy is going to be there too.

Good energy -- good results.

Bad energy -- bad results.

Honestly, I don't know how it works but it does work. And it works in all areas of our lives, not just in marketing.

I am hardly a master of that force and still learning. Yet, speak with any successful marketer and you’ll find that not only they are very aware of this force but also know how to direct their own energy, and that's what makes them successful.

They also listen to their tummy a lot. Because it's your tummy and not your head that knows what's right for you and what isn't.

"Whatever we send out, we get back 10 fold"
- Kody Bateman, CEO and Founder of SendOutCards

"The key to success is to raise your own energy; when you do, people will naturally be attracted to you. And when they show up, bill 'em!"
- Stuart Wilde (as quoted in Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker.)

American Idol's Taylor Hicks comes only second...

No I am not mistaken: Taylor Hicks is only number #2. Not on the American Idol, of course. I'm talking about Google's Zeigeist, a service that shows you the most popular (searched-for) phrases over the last week.

Here're the 15 most popular phrases:

1. clay aiken
2. taylor hicks
3. danica patrick
4. famke janssen
5. indy 500
6. rebecca romijn
7. memorial day
8. juggernaut
9. ghost rider
10. dixie chicks
11. ellen page
12. kimberly dozier
13. hugh jackman
14. coco
15. katharine mcphee

While this is an interesting service that tell you what many people "out there" are instested in, I'm in for a surprise: I can only identify 8 out of the 15 most popular phrases and why they are in that list (and 3 have to do with Americal Idol). For the rest of them, I am clueless.

Hmm... Maybe I need to bone up a bit or what's going on in the world.

Or maybe not. Because "the world" is not my target. And not yours either. Figuring out what's "hot" in your niche a lot more important.

Yet, if you can hook people with something that appeals to a very large audience this can help you attract more prospect.

I, for instance, is interested to see how the traffic to this blog will increase because of this little article.

How To Sell A Fridge To An Eskimo: A Marketing Stunt and A Lesson In Listening To Your Customer's Needs

Ever since I read about James Sterling Moran, a publicity icon and a master of outrageous stunt, I wanted to know HOW he managed to sell a refrigerator to an Alaska Eskimo.

Last week, I found an answer. Turns out, none other than Toronto's own Mel Lastman pulled out a similar stunt and sold a fridge to an Inuit.

First, a few words about Mel. He is our former mayor and the holder of the world record of mayoral longevity (38 years in a row!). In 1955, he founded a chain of furniture and electronics stores called Bad Boy.

Bad Boy had to compete with the "big boys", large retailers with deep pockets and a lot of dollars in their advertising budgets. Our hero managed to survive and prosper -- and become a celebrity -- by using a series of publicity stunts designed to seize the attention of the buying public.

So, how did our Bad Boy Mel manage to sell a fridge to an Inuit?

He LISTENED to his customer's needs.

Inuit don't need a fridge to keep the food cold. There is no lack of permafrost to ensure their food doesn't go bad prematurely .

Where the fridge comes in handy is when they need to protect the food from the animals never ceasing to try to dig it out and steal it.

Last week, ex-mayor Mel returned to Bad Boy. One can only guess what other publicity stunts Mr. Lastman has up his sleeve. One thing's for sure: The Brick, Leon's and their likes are about to lose some customers.

Google Calendar A Godsend To A Small Business Marketer

I'm spending as much time working from my home office as working from my "office" office, or my clients' offices. Yes, I do have a PDA (it's a grown up Palm Pilot called AlphaSmart, a laptop alternative). But I'm not too diligent when it comes to synchronizing it with my Outlook.

Now, the new Google Calendar comes to my rescue. The Quick Add feature is the best. It's almost like having a human personal assistant. "Susan, I am having lunch with John Q. The Client at 12:30 PM tomorrow".

And what if I'm not online? Well, that shouldn't be too much of a problem because I have my daily to do list with me.

Alright. I'm giving it a try.

AIDA: Old Marketing Formula for New Marketers

Today, I did a 1 hour talk to a class of 12-graders. It was the son of one of the guys in my business networking group who invited me (Thank you Michael. It was great to meet you.)

They had "leaders" of various caliber speak to them about "business".

I wish they did this to me when I was in Grade 12! (I actually never was in Grade 12, but that’s another story.)

Based on my experience of working with these kids' dads and moms, I didn't expect them to know much, if anything, about marketing.

Not them. Not these kids.

Well, I was in for a nice surprise. The AIDA formula (stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action, in case you have not been around Planet Earth for the last 120 years) was old hat to them.

I kid thee not: They can teach their own parents some marketing! And if they did, maybe those parents wouldn't be struggling as much in their little businesses. And who knows, maybe those businesses wouldn't be so little anymore.

Targeted spamming... I mean, marketing...

Among all the spam I shovel out of my Inbox every day, I get some interesting pieces. The one I got today was particularly hilarious.

Here's what it was:

Dear alex@bizLeverage.com:

Our company offer Target marketing services:

1. Supply target emaiI-list (Just for your order).

2. Custom-built your email-list and send out your email
message for you.

Right... I guess it doesn't get any more "targeted" than this, does it?

How To Drum Up More Business This Very Week By Creating A Tie-In To The ... Canadian Elections

The elections are back.

I just got off the phone with someone soliciting my support for one of the political parties (alas, not the one that will get my vote).

You turn on the TV, and it's all about political debates, non-stop.

Newspapers keep polling their readers on which way they are going to vote (or even on whether they are going to vote at all).

And as if all that wasn't enough, my son Eugene, who's 10-years old, came from the school yesterday and started telling me which parties I shouldn't vote for. NDP is this, and the Green Party is that. He really didn't leave me much room for manoeuvre, some fervent kid! Well, turns out, he had a very serious political discussion on the way home on the bus with Mathew, his buddy from Grade 8.

Crazy.

If even 10-year old kids are so enthralled by this debate, what do smart referral marketers do in this situation?

Answer: They create a campaign that has a tie-in to the current news!

A word of warning: When you work on your "tie-in", make sure to add a dose of humour, as otherwise your message may be mistaken for being a part of the event itself and dismissed as junk.

This is exactly what we are going to do: create a campaign.

"I Vote: You!"

Here's an idea for an easy-to-do inexpensive campaign (in most cases, you can set it up in just one day).

Create a card - or a postcard - showing a polling station and a person inserting their vote into the "box". As you can see on the sample card provided here, I used a heart-shaped cut-out for the picture to make it look less official: As I already suggested, you don’t want them to mistaken you for a politician trying to drum up their support.

If you’d like, you can replace the Elections Canada logo on the polling station with your company’s logo.

Add the headline that reads, "I Vote: YOU!".

And that's it! We're ready to rock'n'roll.

The successful execution of this campaign depends on answering the three questions:

- Who are we going to send this card to?
- What exactly are we going to say on this card?
- How will this card get printed and mailed?

In lieu of space in the blog, I provided the detailed answers to all these questions in this special report, The Fastest, Easiest, Most Effective Way To Drum Up More Business This Very Week By Creating A Tie-In To ... The Elections. Just click on the link to download the report (no, you don't need to register, I won't ask you for your email address.)

Happy Referrals & 'till next week.

Crazy Marketing Ideas 2005 - Million Dollar Homepage

Would you like to buy a few… pixels?

A client sent me this link a couple of days ago: http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com. I figure that was no accident, as this site is now hitting the radar screens of news agencies and tabloids worldwide. (I was also timely as I just finished reading -- and re-reading -- a great book on P.T. Barnum written by Joe Vitale.)

Alex Tew, a 21 years old Brit, created a webpage consisting of 1 million pixels. Now he sells them (pixels, that is) as advertising space at $1 per pixel.

If you go this website right now, it may not even come up: It’s a stampede of Internet users from all over the world rushing there to take a look-see or buy some pixels.

According the the man, it all started as a simple idea – a very outrageous idea – to make a few bucks that would pay the university tuition. Nice score on that one! There no shade of doubt in my mind this tuition will no longer be a problem. The real question is, does Alex Tew need it anymore? I think those university professors have a lot to learn from him!

Hmm… maybe I should go buy me some pixels before they’re all gone.

See you in 2006!

Marketing Superstar Blues

Joe Vitale made my day. I don't remember laughing so hard in my life. (Good thing Irina was at the office and the kids were at school, they'd think daddy went complete cuckoo.)

Don't wanna spoil it for you fellas, check it out here:
http://www.infoproductu.com/Superstar/

All the best to you, Joe. Never felt so good giving someone a little plug in my blog. Nicely done.

Namaste.

Google Searches Blogs

Google has come up with Blog Search: http://blogsearch.google.com. It still says "beta" but I bet you it's here to stay.

Don't know why it took them so long...

And Now At The Gas Pump? Gimme A Break!

No, this post is not about high gas prices (and I know they're high).

Last night, I was filling it up at the new Esso gas station a couple of blocks from where I live. And while I was doing that, there was an LCD TV going louder than at the movies. Yes, they installed that flat screen fancy tee-vee right on top of the pump! So while you're holding that hose and normally would be waching the numbers on the display roll up calculating the damage to your wallet, this thing now just goes off and burries you in a tidal wave of advertisement. And there's nowhere to hide.

With so much advertising hitting your prospects' eyes and ears everywhere they go, it is any wonder your message can't make even a small blip on their radar screen?

I spoke with a dentist the other day. His flyer used to bring 10 to 12 new clients every every time they'd send it. Now it only brings 3 to 5.

Hmmm. I think I know why.

Hurricane Katrina Blog Infocenter

If you really want to know what’s going on in New Orleans, traditional media won’t be of much use.

Michael Barnett and several other folks from DirectNIC keep the entire world riveted by their reportages directly from the city devastated by the hurricane. If you haven’t been to their blog yet, you should. It’s as up, close, and personal as it gets. http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/.

Goodbye CNN. Hello blogging.

A Quick Marketing Tip From A… Parking Lot, Of All Places.

Today I had a meeting downtown and parked by the Hummingbird Centre, the main Torontonian ballet and opera venue (that is, until they complete the new and smashing The Canadian Opera building) that they routinely sell out.

The multi-level parking was packed so I had to leave my car on the very top, on the “roof”, which was level 6. As I took the stairs down, I just couldn’t help noticing a little touch they added to make it easier for the patrons remember where they left their car. Each level and exit was named after a particular ballet! So on my way down, I passed Madame Butterfly, and the Magic Flute, and the Swan Lake.

Would this trick alone produce more customers? Well, possibly. If I’m a ballet buff, I’ll remember that parking the next time I go there to catch a show. Every little touch like this, combined with other little touches, can tip the decision scale in your favour.

7 Key Profit Drivers Workshop

... is back on June 27, 2005, which is a Monday. This time at the Herb’s Private Lounge.

I love Herb’s. It is a place setup for business networking. Clean and stylish, not too fancy and definitely not opulent, it exemplifies business casual in venue design. The food alone is worth the trip.

Same drill as the last time: networking, dinner, workshop. And yes, I added a lot of new content and made it even more interactive. After you register, I will even send you your homework to complete prior to the event! You will want to get the most out of this event, right? That's why the homework. But don't worry, it won't be much.

Here’s the registration link:

http://www.jumpstartcommunity.com/workshop.aspx?ID=75

Hope to see you at Herb’s.

Sistas In The House: Blogs Go Corporate (O…M…G!)

My friend Geordie Allen (no relation to Woody mentioned in the last post), when explaining blogging to someone not familiar with the topic, says, “First of all, it’s legal.” (And invariably, he gets a laugh.)

Blogging is also profitable, I might add.

So profitable, in fact, that P&G had to include blogging into their marketing arsenal.

Since March, P&G has been using a blog to market their new Secret Sparkle Body Spray targeted at girls. Four fictitious characters, Van, Tiki, Rose, and PK (short for “peachy keen”), engage themselves in a careless chatter sparingly using teen jargon and WeIrD CaPiTaLiZaTioN, putting “like” in every sentence, dabbling into bad poetry (“I’m one girl/ In a big world…”), but never failing to promote the spray to their blog “sistahood”.

I can venture a guess that behind this thing is some smart male copywriter in his mid-forties, with receding hairline and back problems from too much work at his computer: Phrases like “carefully regimented exercise program” are a give-away. It’s actually fun to read! Check it out for yourself: http://www.sparklebodyspray.com.

If anything, it’s going to be an interesting experiment. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more such blogs in the near future. And kudos to P&G for being so un-corporate in their thinking and so bold in their moves.

I Always Wanted To Learn How To Spell "Kierkegaard"

Woody Allen in Small Time Crooks says, "I always wanted to learn how to spell Connecticut." Well, I personally have no touble with Connecticut, but Kierkegaard is a different matter. And since this name has a lot to do with our today’s marketing lesson, I had to figure out the spelling.

Sören Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher who is considered the father of existentialism. This is not a lesson in philosophy; it’s a lesson in marketing. One (of many) Kierkegaard’s ideas should be of particular interest to us marketers and savvy entrepreneurs.

Kierkegaard maintained that every human beeing lives in their own universe.

Ta-da!

Every human being lives in their own universe! I live in mine. You live in yours. Your best prospect lives in hers.

When it comes to your marketing message, it has many important jobs to do, and the first one is to get your prospect to notice it (the message). And where does your prospect live? That’s right, in her own little universe! (Hey, great job! You’re catching up fast!)

So if you ever wondered why it was so difficult to get your prospects notice your marketing message, a Danish guy with a hard-to-spell name gave you an answer some 200 years ago.

Marketing Medium Numero Uno

I am afraid that in the last post, I didn’t really give you an answer that would leave you happy and satisfied. You asked me about marketing media.

“Use what works,” said I.

“Huh?” said you.

No worries. I got an answer! (Now, please understand I’m not saying that this is the only medium you should use. I am just saying that this is the medium that attracts the most advertising dollars of them all, and the one that has it’s share growing year after year. )

Ok, I won’t keep you in suspence any longer.

The number one marketing medium is… (drumroll, please!)…

Direct Mail! (a.k.a. "junk mail" that I love so much and most people resent.)

“Direct mail? Says who?” and might ask.

Many people. AdAge, for example. And they have hard numbers to back it up. Just take a look at this chart (click on the picture to expand it):



The AdAge folks measured where advertisers spend their dollars, where they spent them last year, and where they spent them a year before. And from that, you get these charts.

These numbers really tell a story. Not one - many stories.

Notice how direct mail keeps carving out a bigger slice for itself every year? That’s because a lot of advertisers are starting to use direct reponse techniques, those that we teach our client at bizLeverage.

Direct reponse is not the same as direct mail. (You can create a great direct-respnse TV ad, and you can create a lousy image-centric direct mail piece.) But it is a lot easier to be smart, know your ratios and stay profitable when you use direct mail.

The Internet is the fastest growing medium. Why? Again, because more people realize that it’s an ultimate direct reponse medium, if you know how to use it.

And who’s the biggest loser? It's TV advertising.

Did I hear you say “A-ha!”?

Your BBQs Are In!

Thank you to all of you who sent me your BBQs (your Big Business Questions, that is). You got questions -- we got answers.

Most of your questions revolved around two themes:

- What is the best marketing strategy to use in business today?

- What is the number one marketing medium to use?

The first question was easy to answer. The answer is this: direct reponse. Direct reponse marketing in all of its living forms. There were no two opinions in the group. Whether you do space advertising, Yellow Pages, Internet, TV, direct mail, or any other type of advertising, you need to use direct reponse techniques – always. Image advertising is a huge waste of money (and that’s your money we’re talking about).

Now, the second question did not draw a concensus: Everybody had their preferences and would present solid arguments as to why their favourite marketing medium was the best. I figured the right answer is to use what works for your business. The one-size-fits-all answer simply does not exist. Just find what works in your business and use it. As simple as that.

And speaking of BBQs (those with a grill), I'm going to use mine tomorrow, for the first time this season.

Off To Phoenix

I have just a few minutes left before having to dash out and leave for the airport. I’m going to Phoenix, AZ this morning where I and 5 other business development and marketing consultants from different cities (some guys I met before and some I’ll see for the first time, but all are very able marketers) will spend 4 solid days brainstorming some cool marketing ideas and work on our clients.

Contrary to what what has become a good blogging tradition, you won’t see a “travelogue” here, because I won’t really have any time to see anything while down there. The schedule is simple: home – plane – hotel – business centre – hotel – plan – home. The goal is to lock ourselves in a room (not literally, but almost) for 4 straight days and accomplish as much as possible.

Last time we did it 8 months ago we had some real breakthroughs, so this is something I've been looking forward to doing again for quite awhile.

I have a special offer for you, the reader of this blog. Do you have a big burning business or marketing question that you’d like a panel of experts to answer? If so, send you question to this special email address: BigQuestion@bizLeverage.com. I will table it in Phoenix in front of these guys, we’ll come up with an answer, and I will post it on this blog.

See you in a week!

Wrong Place To Start...

A friend of mine who is a fledgling real estate agent, has recently confided to me his thoughts on how he should be marketing himself. “Alex,” says he, “I think I need to advertise on the TV. See, paper advertising is dead.”

He was excited I didn’t have the heart to tell him he was making a mistake, and if I did he wouldn’t understand me then. (I simply imvited him to my marketing workshop and sent to him some information on other people in his industry whom he should model his business after.)

Now, his mistake wasn't really about TV vs space advertising vs Yellow Pages vs whatever. The mistake was, he was starting in the wrong place! And so do many other entrepreneurs – both fledgling and veterans. Here’s what I mean.

The “Three M” marketing formula is:

Market -> Message -> Medium

Your starting point should always be defining who your prospective customers are (gender, age, profession, income, hobbies, family status, ethnic background, etc.) The better you define the market the greater your marketing (and business) success will be. Most importantly, all these people (or companies, if you’re b2b) should have common “pains” that you need to identify. That’s the first “M” in the formula.

The next step is the message. What do you say to this market? Which particular “pain” do you solve? That’s the second “M”.

And now only the third, and the last “M” is the medium. Which medium (or media) should you use to deliver your message to your target market in the most effective and efficient way? Whichever media you pick, the message should be constructed and delivered in such a way so as you could measure how much business – in dollars and cents – you get per each $100 spent on advertising in each medium.

Where most people get it wrong is they start with the medium whereas it really should be the last step in their marketing plan.

Don’t take this formula lightly. It’s simple to understand but requires work (== thinking) to actually follow it. It’s a lot easier to say “Oh, this medium is not working, let’s try that one.” 99 times out of 100, the medium is not the real problem. It’s either the market or the message. Or both!

Go back and do the homework. Don’t cut corners and business success will find you.

Promise.

P.S.: As for my friend, it’s been a couple of months since that conversation and he has never brought up this subject since. I think I can hear gears turning in his head.

Plain Jane Mundane Space-Age Marketing

I recently had a chance to visit the Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral. When we got there, the tour bus had already left, so all we could do was check out The Rocket Garden and the Shuttle prototype turned into an exposition.

I didn’t need a tour: There was something that blew me away without that tour. The old rockets.

They turned out to be so unexpectedly plain jane and low-tech. So… what’s the word… mundane. The gloss of a picture in the book comes off, and what’s left is a sheet of metal clumsily wrapped into a tube. I found it difficult to imagine them fly… Even more so to imagine someone crawl into that tin bucket called the cabin and fly these things.

Nonetheless, there they were, artifacts of the glorious past, a testament to the courageous epoch.

Now think about your marketing. Are you spending money on the looks? The only person that’s going to be impressed is you. Your customers won’t care. Are you trying to make it fancy or to make it work?

If you’re going to study ads, start with those plane jane all-text ones that trick you and make you think they are editorials. People who run these ads treat them as their sales force: if these ads don’t produce sales they get immediately pulled just like a sales person that doesn’t sell gets fired.

The gawky machines that helped the man conquer the space didn’t need to be slick. The ad that will help you conquer the market won’t be a slick one either.