Geoff Dillon - Marketing, PR, Strategy Blog

What's Hurting Marketing...

...is someone’s always trying to shorten the cycle. To hurry the result. To break through the clutter immediately. To get people to “buy now”.

Marketing by it’s nature is not always that good at the short term. Sure there’s a place for direct response, “buy now” marketing that gives you immediate results, but that only works in the context of some form of broader marketing program that slowly, methodically, deliberately gets your name associated with the position you want in the market. You can't just run an ad an expect immediate results.

Case in point - on the surface things that appear to be short cycle results from marketing really aren’t.

Ron Popeil of the famed direct marketing company Ronco sold millions and millions of dollars worth of merchandise in 30 minute infomercials – think chicken rotisseries, bald spot spray for men, etc.

But at least part of the customer decision to “buy now” within that short 30 minute window was the much longer term brand building that Ronco had done.

While impressed by the sight of a moist juicy chicken spinning around in a Ronco rotisserie, the viewer was thinking “I know that guy, he’s familiar, he’s established, he’s been around. I trust him.” It was those underlying thoughts that allowed the viewer to react to the short term impulse to “buy now”.

As marketing and client interaction increasingly become two way dialogues instead of one way broadcasts, the need to nurse potential customers along the spectrum of a relationship is more important than ever.

The irony here is that the rate of change in the market is faster today than ever before. For some, that translates to the need for marketing to work faster, to deliver results sooner, and make an immediate impact. 

It may feel counterintuitive, but rushing to the “buy now” decision with your marketing can hurt your credibility, and that’s costly in a noisy market where your brand name and identity need to have meaning for people. The world may be going faster, but your marketing may ultimately need to be a bit slower and more methodical to be effective. 

 

 

Throwback Marketing

I admit it - I'm a fan of Pepsi Throwback. It just arrived in Canada and I snapped up a case as soon as I could. In fact I've dropped my usual Coca-Cola on the weekend in favour of Pepsi's retro cola.

But marketing Pepsi throwback is an interesting challenge, isn't it? It's almost like admitting there's something about your current product that isn't as good as it used to be, hence the need to reintroduce an old formula as a "throwback".

In the 80s and I guess part of the 90s, pop was made with real sugar. To save money, major drink manufacturers slowly moved to high-fructose corn syrup. As a teen I didn't really care, but as a responsible grown up I preferred not to drink high fructose corn syrup. That, and the cola just didn't taste as good. 

But now Pepsi from the 80s is back. So what's the message here?

Does it undermine the current Pepsi branding by suggesting that the formula from 20 odd years ago is better than their flagship brand? 

Or is it a harmless line extension that will help sell some cola?

I think it's a bit of both.

Bringing a cola product to market that pushes the "made with real sugar" angle certainly suggests that there's a reason you'd want to have sugar rather than corn syrup. It would be like launching a KitKat bar made with "real chocolate" (slight exageration but chocolate substititues have increasingly shown up in chocolate bars over the years to keep costs down so you're getting a lot less chocolate than you used to.)

And once you switch a cola drinker to the retro product, you'd better be prepared to keep it on the market since you may not get them back if you pull it. They may seek out sugar-based alternatives (the premium "Jones Soda" brand would be one option).

However, Coke currently doesn't offer a sugar-based option so its possible Pepsi will sway some cola drinkers who keep hearing bad things about high fructose corn syrup. 

And, if you assume most current Pepsi drinkers skew younger because of the brand's relentless pursuit of the younger end of the market, a "throwback" product doesn't seem terribly likely to cannibilze sales (teens and 20-somethings don't think much of retro products). 

Should be interesting. In the meantime, I'll keep enjoying a small slice of younger days. 

 

 

Convincing or Conversing?

Look at your marketing and PR efforts and ask yourself - do you spend most of your time trying to convince people that they need what you are selling, or do you spend your time conversing with people who already know they need the type of product/service you offer and positioning yours as the best choice. 

The former is a lot harder and much more expensive to pull off. 

Of the many things I like about Seth Godin's views on marketing, one of the most relevant for marketers and PR folks is the concept of a "worldview". Everyone has a view of the world. It's really, really hard to change it through marketing and PR (not impossible - just hard). You are far better off trying to market your product to these people whose view of the world is favourable to your offer in the market.  

Some people believe having a smartphone is a time saver that makes your day better through it's variety of apps and functions. Others believe the cost of these types of phones is way too high and that anyone foolish enough to buy one is just falling prey to the latest fad in gadgetry. 

The most fertile ground is in the first group. Sure, some of the doubters in the second group will come around eventually, but only after they get sick of hearing from people in the first group about how cool their latest app is. 

This is fairly intuitive, and yet everyday you see ads that have that "did you know" flavour to them, where the advertiser tries to educate and convince the prospect that:

1 - a problem/need exists

2 - the prospect might have that problem/need

3 - the advertiser has a solution to that problem/need

Wouldn't your marketing be much more effective if you could just skip the first two steps and talk to people who "get it"? And if there aren't very many people who "get it", what are you selling, and why?