Business lessons from Kobe the Labrador
About three years ago, I tried my hand at vegetable gardening. This would be my second attempt and it proved no different than the first. The results were dismal. We carved out space in our backyard, added a few bags of good soil to the sandy stuff our home builder put down and we got a lot of nothing.
In addition to having sand for soil we also lacked pollinators; the lovely critters that go from flower to flower and well pollinate.
Now I could have gotten out there with a Q-Tip and helped the process but I was one defeated vegetable grower.
This year I was determined to grow something other than weeds.
So I started my vegetables in pots using really good potting soil and that’s where they’ll stay.
Yesterday I noticed that our seven-month old puppy acts as a pollinator. His nose is always smelling my plants and I realized he was assuming the role of CPO…chief pollinating officer.
One day this summer, my family will enjoy the collards, tomatoes, strawberries, bell peppers and okra I planted and Kobe the Labrador pollinated.
Kobe reminded me that sometimes in business and in life things don’t always go the way you planned.
- Employees quit.
- Parts are discontinued.
- You don’t get the sale.
- Equipment fails.
- The IRS wants to see receipts.
- Customers get irate.
- Shipments get delayed.
- Cash flow flows a little less freely.
- Hackers hack your servers.
- Insurance premiums go up…again.
- And last quarter’s sales didn’t reach target.
Those things happening don’t mean you walk away from your business, it means you do some creative problem solving.
And sometimes solutions are in unlikely places and take you completely by surprise.
Who knew Kobe the Labrador could do the job originally assigned to another?
It definitely pays to know your staff and that doesn’t mean having access to their Facebook accounts either–I’ll digress now. You may have staff sitting on a talent or skill that benefits your business and strengthens company loyalty. There maybe a vendor with a side business or has an excellent referral that can be used as part of your creative solution.
If you’re facing challenges, check to see what resources you immediately have access too that could help solve the problem.
For me, it was a very curious seven-month old Labrador named Kobe.
The art of being sticky
As a new bride some years ago, cooking would have been listed under weakness on my SWOT analysis chart.
I didn’t enjoy the process and I didn’t have the patience for it.
Cooking things like meatloaf and homemade biscuits I especially loathed because it required getting my hands dirty and sticky.
Fast forward a few years and you can add cooking to my strengths column; I learned sticky fingers are just a part of the creation process.
As much as I hated sticky fingers there are some things that deserve to be sticky.
Your Website should be sticky and the stickier the better.
What exactly is a sticky Website you ask?
A sticky site attracts and retains visitors and some sites are well, stickier than others. For example, entertainment sites are very sticky for the “news” or content they distribute. TMZ would be considered a very sticky site.
Your product or service may not draw the traffic as if you were reporting some celebrity’s untimely passing but you can influence your industry and your market by learning the fine art of being sticky.
Increasing your site’s stickiness factor
- “Play that funky music white boy” - Some Web templates have background music options but what they don’t have are volume or mute buttons. Give visitors the option to control your site’s music without having to adjust their own volume controls and then make those controls easy to find.
- The power to skip – If you have a flash or animated entry, allow users to skip your intro especially for repeat visitors.
- A fresh approach – subject matter is bound to be duplicated but it deserves your approach and insight.
By simply being you, you add freshness to the subject matter and search engines will appreciate your approach and reward with you favorable rankings. (There are pages of articles that talk about sticky Websites but mine as far as I know is the only one that approached from cooking standpoint.) Being you works in your favor. - Design matters – Make your site easy to navigate and it should be aesthetically pleasing. Not everything needs to be in Flash but a site full of bullet points isn’t very engaging either. Be sure to use relative photos!
- Answer questions – If you’ve researched your audience and communicate with current customers you should have a pretty good idea of want people what to know about your product or service. Go ahead and answer them with a FAQ or links to other areas of your site that answer those questions.
See, being sticky isn’t such a bad thing! It’s actually desirable and the stickier you are the more opportunities you have to tell your story and hopefully create raving fans and brand loyalists.
Your blog’s reach
I created a poll on Facebook that asked if fans of my page had a favorite blog that they read daily.
Of the 55 respondents, 74.5 percent of them said no, they did not have a favorite blog that they read daily.
Roughly 25 percent said they did.
Now there are many more follow up questions to ask but I did find the response to this one question quite interesting.
Those who blog are encouraged to do so consistently.
Find a schedule that works for you and stick to it.
Sometimes easier said than done if you want to write your own posts and not use private label rights material or PLR.
I could conclude that writing daily isn’t necessary because a large percentage of my survey pool doesn’t read the same blog daily anyway. But I know better than to follow that line of thinking. It could be that the content wasn’t relative to them on that particular day and I think that’s where we’ll find the meat of this discussion.
It all boils down to content.
Your content may not reach the same reader everyday but it will reach somebody.
Your post could easily be distributed via Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest and find someone who will benefit from that day’s content. This confirms an article I read last year that said Twitter users weren’t reading most of the links they retweeted. They just thought it was good info to pass along.
If you hold your blog under a microscope using tools like Google Analytics, you can find out where your readers are coming from.
There’s even a big pie chart that details new visitors versus repeat visitors.
The metrics will tell the story.
Or maybe it’s time to review your content and reexamine your audience.
Maybe you and your audience are like two ships passing in the night and need to rethink your message because it all has to be right; the message, the audience and the medium.
You can conduct your own survey and find out what your readers are looking for or see if Google Analytics reveals any trends. Are there certain topics that perform better than others?
It’s worth looking into.
Because reaching the right audience with a message we believe in is why we struggle to fill a blank computer screen day after day.
What Kobe the Labrador taught me about marketing
Our Labrador Kobe is six months old; we’ve had him since he was 15 weeks.
My husband and I were convinced that if we were going to be pet owners of a big dog, the dog would have to be well trained.
Let’s just say leash training a puppy is not for the faint of heart.
When we first brought him home, I enjoyed frequent morning walks. I had just finished my first four-mile walk in ages and was excited about keeping up this new pace. No such thing would be while leash training a new puppy.
I cut my walks short because the whole process frustrated me. He wasn’t enjoying it and neither was I.
It wasn’t too long before I quit going altogether.
I know, not a good thing.
Then I decided I wanted to regain that part of my life back. So we would go walking and it would be my way…period. I was in control and I dictated the walks. That worked maybe once or twice. Walking Kobe was still a headache.
Then finally today, I light bulb went off my in head.
Kobe’s bigger now and my husband has trained him to respond to whistle commands. Kobe can walk off leash and come when you call. He is true to his breed; he loves puddles and chasing birds. He seems quite happy to splash around and frolic in the mud so I let him.
Don’t tell Cesar Milan but I let Kobe do what makes him happy first. He runs off leash, chases whatever catches his attention, and runs at full speed through puddles. We do that for a spell, then I put his leash back on and he and I have the most agreeable walk. We have no problems because I met his needs first.
As we were walking home I gave this a great deal of thought.
Isn’t marketing about making the consumer happy first? Meeting their need in exchange for profitability?
It goes back to the AMA’s definition of marketing which talks about a business providing value.
You simply can’t escape this truth.
Because I let Kobe take mud baths first, I enjoyed a brisk walk with no tug-of-war with a rambunctious six-month old puppy.
Satisfy the customer first and the exchange is mutually beneficial.
Another added benefit? I’m able to write uninterrupted because Kobe the Labrador is fast asleep from all this morning’s activities; he’s not bringing me chew and pull toys to play with. He’s knocked out in the corner.
Providing value to your customer will net you similar results. Repeat business and referrals are just a few ways your customer can respond to your meeting their needs first.
So this marketing tip is brought to you by Kobe, our Labrador.
And yes he got an extra treat for being such a good boy this morning.
It’s got to be right
Here’s a helpful tip that will save you time and money.
You have to have the right product or service, for the right price, targeted to the right audience, accompanied by the right message, in the right medium to see success. Otherwise, you’re one frustrated business owner and marketer.
Right Product/Service
This goes back to yesterday’s post on delivering value. It truly doesn’t matter if you make the world’s finest seven finger gloves. You can hand-stitch the finest materials to craft your gloves but if you don’t have buyers for seven-fingered gloves you’re not delivering value to the consumer. And more than likely you’ll be out of business soon unless you can find an innovative solution for using seven-fingered gloves. Deliver goods and services consumers want, do some investigating and develop products consumers may want and clamor for (think iPad) and you’ll have the right product.
Right Price
What’s the right price to sell your product or service? Pricing strategy requires you do your homework. See what the competition is doing, again gauge the customer and determine their value of such services. There’s the price of materials and man-hours. All of which must be considered when pricing your product or service. Are you pricing just above the competition to differentiate your product?
Right Audience
I can’t emphasize enough targeting the right audience for your product or service. There is nothing more frustrating than presenting a fabulous product or service to the wrong audience. Your audience determines your message and your price so if you miss here, you’ve wasted a lot of time and money. Make sure you segment your market and find your target audience.
Right Message
If you’ve done the hard work of segmenting the market, found your target market, developed this killer product or service, priced it just right you owe it to yourself to present the right message. Just because you like black and white photography may not mean your target audience likes black and white photographs. They may prefer caricatures or color images. Don’t do all the right things only to craft a message that appeals to you and your stakeholders. You’re not the ones buying the product. Deliver the right message to the right audience. Speak their language, use their pop culture references, craft the message to them.
If you do these things, you’ll save yourself time, money and aggravation.
Offering value to today’s consumer is a must
Organizations will often submit definitions for their field of interest. For instance, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) will write and submit a definition for public relations which is then used by professionals and academia. The American Marketing Association (AMA) is no different and offers the following definition of marketing. They contend that 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.”
I applaud this definition for two reasons. The first delivers a blow to those who would say marketers will sell or promote anything. Savvy marketers and business owners realize that they must deliver value to their customers. The second reason is that it speaks of managing customer relationships; customer service is critical because it has the potential to make or break a company.
Shopping isn’t what it used to be
I don’t think there’s been a time in history where the consumer has been so armed with information. Smartphones and other mobile devices make it easy to look up information, especially while shopping. My husband is notorious for this. We were in a store browsing around and happened on a kitchen counter top rotisserie. We read the featured highlights on the box but we wanted to know more. Would this thing break on us after a few uses? My husband pulls out his smartphone and within seconds we’re reading reviews of the product. We also compare prices and conclude it would be a good buy but ultimately decide against it. My husband and I make up that 30 percent of shoppers who actually use their smartphones while shopping.
Today’s customers are armed with information and short on patience.
Delivering Value
How do you deliver value? One way is by anticipating the customers needs and/or wants. This calls for innovation. Apple is a shining example of this kind of delivering value; of being innovative. Because who knew 10 years ago, we’d need iPads? In order to deliver value, businesses have to listen to their customers, ask questions and then respond in a timely fashion. And then your product or service must live up to your positioning strategy if you want the customer to concur with the value being associated with the product or service.
They won’t be customers very long if you’re not delivering value.
The importance of managing customer relationships
It’s also true that if you’re not managing your customer relationships, if customer service is poor, you could also potentially lose customers. I remember I was looking for a vendor and filled out a few online communication forms. It was the weekend and suspected I wouldn’t hear from anyone until Monday afternoon. I heard back from one company. The rest never responded and I won’t call on them again. The one company that did call me back has been in contact with me, made some suggestions and is a good example of managing a potential customer relationship well. I have no doubt that once we conduct business that they will take care of me as a customer.
Marketing isn’t a room full of conmen trying to find ways to dupe mindless consumers out of their hard-earned cash.
Today’s marketers know they are dealing with a savvy customer who is a mobile device away from pricing and product information and delivering value to that customer is a must.
So much more than a logo
Positioning and Branding
Positioning is a marketer’s attempt to create a favorable opinion of a product or brand in the mind of the consumer. Positioning supplies information, data, images to influence the consumer’s perception of the product or brand.
“Branding,” according to Marian Wood “is the use of words, designs and symbols to give a product a distinct identity and differentiate it from competitive products.”
I think branding is more than this.
I agree with Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh; your culture is also your brand. In Hsieh’s book Delivering Happiness: A Path to Passion, Profits and Purpose he stated that he wanted the Zappos brand to be more than just shoes. He goes on to say that companies are mostly remembered for the customer service they provided. If a company consistently offers poor customer service then that becomes their brand. That’s what they’re known for. Continental Airline customers were sorely disappointed by the United merger because the United brand for many passengers equates to poor customer service. Tmobile customers let out a collective sigh of relief when the AT&T merger fell through. Why? AT&T’s brand is associated with poor customer service.
This culture is your brand philosophy is reflected in the company’s core values. They are:
- Deliver WOW Through Service
- Embrace and Drive Change
- Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
- Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
- Pursue Growth and Learning
- Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
- Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
- Do More With Less
- Be Passionate and Determined
- Be Humble
In the company’s infancy, the decision was made to make excellent customer service their platform. They created a culture geared around providing excellent customer service to customers and vendors and that became the Zappos brand. The Zappos brand is not just about shoes or a symbol, but instead it’s about a company’s culture and I wholeheartedly agree.
Zappos has done so well with branding, positioning and culture development that they created Zappos Insights; a service that shares what it has learned and accomplished. It’s all part of Mr. Hsieh’s commitment to running Zappos as transparent as possible. Here they share what they’ve learned and mastered in creating the company culture you truly desire.
Everything a company does is a reflection of the brand and works to position the company in the mind of the consumer. For Zappos, the branding strategy took care of the positioning strategy.
Since it’s not going anywhere
It’s official. Social media isn’t going anywhere and businesses are learning how to navigate its waters and introduce their brand. Internet branding is an effective strategy business owners can employ to establish and solidify their position in the marketplace. Major brands use these strategies and expansion of their brand has been great. Utilizing the Internet to establish your brand then is critical because of the significant role the Internet plays in the everyday lives of the consumers. Businesses of all sizes should utilize it as one of the means to communicate their message to the consumer.
With internet branding, you are basically using the tools provided by the internet as a leverage to all your marketing efforts. The objective with using the internet as a medium for promoting your brand works the same way as any other branding methods, and that is to increase the demand for the products in your brand.
Importance of Internet Branding
Every business owner is aware of the benefits that a good brand can deliver. Since the brand is basically what distinguishes you from all the other companies that offer the same product or service, you must execute your branding strategies properly for the best results. Take a look at some successful brands in the industry, who have become so distinct to the point wherein their names have been associated with a certain product. This is what business owners must try to aim for.
Is It Worth Investing In?
Yes. Wherever your customers are gathered you want to have a presence and reinforce your brand. Don’t lose your advantage to other brands who make their presence known.
There’s more to internet branding than setting up a Facebook fan page, creating a LinkedIn page or revamping your Web site. The internet is an extension of your brand and the value you create for your customers must be articulated. Your internet branding strategy must be a product of thorough evaluation and planning.
What About Small Businesses?
Despite the large impact of the online industry in people’s lives these days, it is only projected to grow in the years to come. This makes the internet an even more reliable avenue to expand marketing efforts. The best thing about the internet is that it provides an even playing field for big- and small-time businesses to promote their brand. Even new businesses can utilize the internet as a means to position their brand and make their existence known in the market.
Being able to offer products and introduce a brand to a larger market is beneficial for small businesses since potential buyers can focus only on the quality of service and performance. By maintaining the value and continually differentiating your product, then internet branding will offer several potential benefits for your business.
Do your emails smell a little spammy?
I’ll be honest and admit that I’m not the biggest fan of email marketing. Wait a second and hear me out. I’ve talked to a few people and for a good number of people email in-boxes are equivalent to black holes. One business owner told me she only checks her email twice a week and then only looks for personal email. This scenario has got to be one of the top ten worst nightmares for anyone who engages in the email marketing campaign process.
But then there are those who have well segmented lists and their products are viewed as extremely valuable. These marketers get high open rates and lots of click-throughs that result in sales.
I’ve noticed however, over the past few years that emails have changed. Emails with flashing bells and whistles; graphic heavy emails are showing up less and less in my inbox. That is because spam filter software has become very adept at telling the difference between a professional email that could be spam and personal communications like the ones my business owner friend only likes to read.
That’s good information to know. From that we learn how to avoid email delivery problems when constructing our email campaigns. We just have to work to make sure marketing emails do not look like spam and look more like a private email so they fly right through spam filters and get to customers.
In addition your marketing emails must act like private emails. Recent trends I’ve noticed are email subjects written in all lower case letters which may be making it easier to pass through spam filters and emails with no graphics whatsoever.
Spam filters look at the number or level of graphics in an email to determine if its spam or not. So many people are foregoing the graphics altogether. While very attractive emails do send a message of professionalism to the customer, they don’t send that message if they end up at the bottom of a spam quarantine folder. So just avoid the use of them altogether. Just say what you have to say to your customer and then draw them to your web site with a link where they can see your professional graphics.
Take a look at what’s in your spam folder. Then vow not to create anything that looks like or sounds like the emails taking up resident in your spam folder. Notice how spammers write and remove any similar language from your emails.
When writing an email that will go out to your customers or prospective customers, think of that customer as one person whom you are writing to as a friend. Be informal and avoid a lot of marketing “hype” and hyperbole. Spam filters are good at “listening” for the language of spam artists so if you write like a person writing to a person, it is very likely your email will go right on through because it will not be flagged as marketing at all. And honestly, most customers appreciate and respond favorably to emails written in this tone.
Make a hobby of keeping up with how spam emailers work and how their messages change as they learn to get around spam filters. The spam filter businesses will be changing with them so be aware of any new trends in this strange part of cyberspace communication so you can alter how you create your marketing emails so you make sure your communications with your customers never look like spam.
Building a brand doesn’t happen overnight
You’ve done everything right. You wrote out a plan and implemented your plan, you’re in all the right places to engage your customer, your press release was picked up by your local media but you’re still not seeing the success you’d hoped for.
Know that no business brand is produced overnight. It follows a methodical process that involves strategy, organization and sometimes even trial and error. But if you think that once you have a business name and logo that your work is finished you’d be mistaken. Even businesses with superior brand recognition consistently manage their brand. Big brands also invest lots of time and money just to ensure that the legacy of that brand remains consistent to its values.
Small business owners can take comfort in the fact that building a brand does not have to be expensive. All you need is a commitment to the process. These four elements will guide you in producing a successful business brand.
Consistent Message
One of the best ways to achieve a consistent marketing approach is to create a unified name, logo, and image. This is one of the most efficient ways that you can communicate what your business is about to your potential customers. That’s why it’s so important to keep in mind the vision and mission of your company, which should be the inspiration behind the design of the logo. Then use the unified image with the marketing strategies you’ll employ to promote your brand image and increase awareness.
Even when you come up with innovative marketing ideas to reinvent your image or offer customers something new, it has to remain true to the ideals of your business.
Brand Planning
Careful brand planning is essential in building a strong business brand. Regardless of what marketing methods you utilize to enhance brand awareness, you need to look into each detail that is involved with the process. This helps ensure that you are able to achieve consistency, which is a crucial element indicated above.
You need to identify what branding strategies will enable you to achieve your goals. If it does not work, what back-up plans do you have? All marketing efforts are aimed towards strengthening your brand to gain a return on investment.
Branding System
This is where you put everything into action you have designed during brand planning. Different systems must be employed for every phase involved in the overall business and brand development. It must properly outline what steps you and your employees must take during certain circumstances. Bear in mind that a holistic and integrated system is key in creating a strong brand.
Review and Management
Every brand must continually undergo a review process. Since consumers’ needs and demands change, so must your brand’s marketing approach. Here are aspects of the brand review and management procedures that you must take into account:
- Product benefits and features
- Market competition
- Changing customer needs and demands
- Marketing methods used
Continued evaluation of these factors in relation to your brand’s marketing strategies will help produce a more efficient and cohesive marketing efforts.
Connect Online!