12 Books to Read for 2012 – Part 2

January 9, 2012 By 1 Comment

Continued from 12 Books to Read for 2012 Part 1

7. Steve Jobs - I’m not going to even try to pretend that Steve Jobs made for the best role model of a father, husband or – even at times – a CEO. However, this insightful look at the development of many of the hottest consumer products ever helps you to understand just how far passion can take you. The idea to put an artist front and center in the development team, to not be run by focus groups, and to add value through curation  are all part of Job’s legacy. You will not want this book to end after you get into it.

8. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – What if you knew that by performing two simple actions you could almost guarantee improved responses to your marketing materials? What if you could drastically increase your sales conversion rates by making a subtle change to your presentation? These seem like fairy tale statements. The promise of a magical silver bullet, right? This classic shows you how you can predictably and repeatedly persuade others to take a desired action. You must promise only to use these powers for good!

9. Browsers to Buyers - When I left Ohio to join Heartland Homes in 2007, the first thing that arrived at my new address was Browsers to Buyers. I had ordered it during my last week at my previous employer, and it spurred the creation of our online sales position shortly after. It is currently being updated by the author – but it still is your best entry into the online sales person role. Just do what it says and see an immediate impact. This year, my online concierge team of 2 will assist with over 170 sales.

10. Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - Brands are not just symbols you can recognize or names that roll off your tongue. Brands, used properly, are a weapon that the competition has no easy answer for. This is perhaps the best book of 2011 that you have never heard of.

11. What’s the Secret: To Providing a World-Class Customer Experience – No one sets out from the beginning to provide bad customer service, but the reality is that most places end up doing just that. What’s wrong here? This insightful book is packed with real life examples and illustrations of how to recruit, train, and empower those who work with you to provide truly remarkable experiences. I don’t know of a home builder yet who does this right… yet. You could be the first with this book.

12. The Toyota Way – Yes, I know about the whole problem with car brakes in 2009/2010, but that still doesn’t mean you can’t learn a thing or two about business from Toyota. Most of us know that “waste” is something that is no longer needed and disposed of, but this book taught me that waste also occurs when you over engineer a product beyond the value level that your prospect is able to perceive. This book is packed with similar insights and is NOT just for manufacturing companies.

That’s it. The 12 books you shouldn’t put off reading any longer. They’ll have a positive impact on your attitude, your outlook, and most importantly – your results and how you achieve them. Here’s to a great 2012.

PS – Let me know what book you would add to this list!

Click here to see the first six books that made the list.

12 books to read in 2012

Filed Under: Marketing Psychology Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Defining the Definitions

April 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Branding, Marketing, & More - DefinedI thought it would be helpful to give a quick overview of terminology that you’ll see throughout this site. Yes, there will be a reading comprehension exam sometime later – so pay attention you in the back row!

Brand

The summary of all interactions with the people, products, services, and reputation of the company in the mind of the consumer.

Seth Godin also says a brand is composed of:
[Prediction of what to EXPECT] x [EMOTIONAL power of that expectation]

Building a strong brand is a slower and more methodical task, because you have to build up all of those different types of interactions over time. No shortcuts to get there, you can’t just buy it. To make it even harder, those interactions should have a level of consistency in message and tone.

Positioning

The acknowledgement of other brands in your marketplace, and the strategic differentiation of your brand to stay clear of the clutter.
Ex: “Avis is No. 2, So We Try Harder” – a slogan that would never have existed without positioning.

Marketing

Consists of the 5 Ps:
- Product – Sticks and Bricks
- Price – How much the product + place is worth
- Place – Land Position
- Promotion (& PR) – How do we communicate the product / place / price in a way that’s meaningful
- People – Sales people, supervisors, managers, receptionist, warranty techs, etc.

Marketing is primarily concerned about present day results – it is heavily focused on immediate impacts, ROI, and speed. That’s why you’ll meet people with the title of Director of Strategic Marketing, Marketing & Planning Manager, or Brand Manager if they are tasked with long term thinking. However, in the home building industry – it’s usually going to be your job to be in charge of both marketing AND branding.

Advertising

Communication with the goal of persuading an audience to take your desired action.

PR

Maintaining a desired image with the goal of others communicating that desired image on your behalf to others.

Filed Under: Branding, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Systems Tagged With: , , , , ,

Time to Limit Your Reach & Raise Your ROI

September 1, 2010 By

The most direct definition I could find for the word overreach is “to reach above or beyond.” I admit it doesn’t sound like a bad thing at first, and in some things – like negotiating – it may not be. However, when it comes to determining the advertising channels you use to market your company or product – overreaching is almost always a bad thing. The reason is because you are paying for everything “above and beyond” your target market.

Let me take a step back. In advertising there are two very important concepts to understand. The first is reach – how many people will be exposed to your message (note: this is NOT the same number as those who will even be aware of your message – let alone act on it). The second is frequency – how often will they hear that message over a given period of time. Here is my philosophy: limit your reach to include your target audience only and raise the frequency as high as possible using as many different methods as are relevant to your target audience.

Why? Because your target audience is just like every audience – they’re busy and they don’t care about you as much as you care about them (at least, not yet). You need the frequency to make your message scratch the surface of their psyche. An old rule of thumb is that it takes a consumer an average of 6 to 7 exposures to a message before they are even aware of it – and many more before the message actually sticks. If you waste (and that is truly what you’re doing) your marketing dollars by going with a high reach approach (are you sure all those people want or can afford your product?) then you probably won’t have enough money to make the frequency high enough that they will even faintly remember you.

Does the internet and social media change this ideal ratio of reach and frequency? Not at all – it just lets you target better… and make your frequency more personal and cost effective. More on that later.

PS. If the product your company makes is truly something that everyone needs, wants, and could reasonably afford to buy (like gum or laundry detergent) - then you can tone down this post - but just a bit.

Filed Under: Marketing Systems, Media Buying Tagged With: , , , ,

The Missing List

August 9, 2010 By

We all have to-do lists. They may be in our head, written down on paper, or on our laptop – but we all have a set of tasks that have been assigned to us. Some tasks are ones that are self generated, but the majority come at us from outside influences – our boss, co-workers, spouse, friends, etc. What content makes up the list and what physical form the list takes on varies from person to person, but we all have them.

The list that many are missing is a stop-doing list. At first, the thought of a stop-doing list sounds like it may be a joke at best or the idea of a lazy couch potato at worst. We are often taught that the person who gets the most tasks checked off in a day wins, and so this idea just doesn’t sit right with many at first. However research today like studies published in “The Myth of Multitasking” by David Crenshaw show how switching back and forth between tasks all day cause a “substantial lag” in brain power that ultimately makes us less productive.

All resources are scarce, but the ones in shortest supply will always be time and money (in that order). The stop-doing list forces us to separate the important tasks from the merely urgent ones and in doing so gives us the best opportunity to have a higher ROI (return on investment) and ROE (return on energy).

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great said in a 2003 USA Today article that he thought the best New Year’s resolution for many would be a stop-doing list. Stephen Covey said “I find that most people do not do long-term planning; rather, they plan for the very short-term and, because of it, are driven by the urgent.” A stop-doing list, even if only focused on the short term will have long term benefits.

Steve Jobs at this year’s D8 conference made the following statement “Apple is a company that doesn’t have the most resources of everybody in the world… the way we’ve succeeded is by choosing what horses to ride…” Over the years Apple’s stop-doing list has included floppy drives (they left them out of the first iMac and never looked back), CD-Roms (left out of the MacBook Air), and the keyboard (the iPhone and iPad). “Sometimes when we get rid of things… people call us crazy,” he said “but sometimes you just have to pick the things that look like they’re going to be the right horses to ride going forward.” Horses really are a good analogy because riding more than one horse at a time is a daring feat indeed. If you want to ride another horse you have to dismount the one you’re on first.

Often people are surprised to learn that I have a full time social media / online content creator on my marketing team, that I just bought six new Flip cameras for my sales people to use in the field with customers, that we are in the process of creating not one but four new websites, or that we have a dedicated online sales person. They wouldn’t be nearly as surprised if they knew all that we have stopped doing. When I joined the company in 2007, our marketing budget was 2.5 million – today it is just over 1.5 million. That’s a lot of stopping. The result? Our market share is up from 7% to 23%, our traffic is up nearly 30%, and we are having our best year of sales since the company was founded twenty-six years ago. Personally, my favorite result is that my builder knows that I value his money like my own and trusts me to invest it wisely.

As a marketing professional are you still riding a horse that’s likely to die soon? Here’s a test – what percentage of your budget is spent on print advertising versus development of your online presence? Do you have a stop-doing list that forces you (and your boss) to acknowledge the limited resources of time and money? Another test – name the last initiative or project that you intentionally put the brakes on (here’s the catch) even while it still performed “ok.” The sooner you create your stop-doing list, the sooner you can focus your time and money on doing something great for your company.

Filed Under: Marketing Systems Tagged With: , ,