Marketing eYe

a biztactics.com blog | by Ankesh Kothari

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Brilliant car marketing

click here to enlarge the picture

I laughed when I first saw the picture. Isn't that brilliant marketing? The plumber uses his car for marketing purposes. And on top of that, he gets creative and creates a great car ad.

The car ad wins attention.
It is different and funny.
It generates free word of mouth marketing.

People have to tell their friends what they saw on a car!

Thanks to Sharon Lambkin for passing the picture.

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Posted on 7/31/2004 | Permalink | |

Coke vs Pepsi

Many a blind taste tests showed that people like the taste of pepsi better than that of coke. Yet coke out sells pepsi year after year. Your tongue prefers pepsi but your brain prefers coke. Do you know why?

A new study on neuromarketing shows why.

Using modern technology, peoples brains were scanned while they made decisions. When people drank their favourite cola, a region in their brains associated with rewards lighted up. This region lighted up in blind tests the most when people drank pepsi showing that people loved the taste of pepsi.

When people were told what they were drinking, their preference changed to coke and a region in their brains associated with higher thinking lighted up.

"The results showed that people make decisions based on their memories or impressions of a particular soda, as well as taste."

This means good news as well as bad news.

Bad news is: even if your product is better than your competitions, it will take a lot of effort for people to start buying your products if your competition has build a strong brand.

Good news is: if you have invested in building a great brand, your competition will have a hard time out selling you even if their products are better.

The lesson is: start investing in building a stronger brand and selling will become easier.

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Posted on 7/30/2004 | Permalink | |

Perfect Timing

I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore recently. And I started thinking on how timing has played a terrific part in making that movie the most watched documentary!

The documentary wouldn't be a hit if Michael Moore would have made it 6 months late. And even if he would have made it 6 months early, it wouldn't have been such a big hit. But Michael Moore released it right in the middle of election campaigns. The timing was simply perfect.

The timing plays an extremely critical role in the success of a business. Get your timing right and you will receive tons of free publicity.

The best way to get your timing right is to keep tabs on what is going to be hot:

Two examples of how to use timing to your advantage:

During the recent mars viewing, a palm reader sent press releases to the media. His press release, although not very well written got picked up by many. People were searching for super natural news at that time and palmistry made a great fit.
A pizza place ran a marketing campaign during valentines day: they gave away one free rose with every pizza ordered on 14th of february. Their sales hit the roof!

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Posted on 7/28/2004 | Permalink | |

The future of advertising

Wow! The future of advertising is here. Holographic (3D) ads is no more just an idea. Its real.

A Danish company, Vizoo created floating holographs that look like real life human beings. Click on Showreel after the intro to see 6 videos that show how they've used holographic ads till now.

Amazing technology, isn't it?

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Posted on 7/28/2004 | Permalink | |

One man marketing machine

Interesting article about how Andy Hyman generated $4.2 millions in revenue in 2003. Without any contacts, he reaches celebrities. And the celebrities spread the word about him.

An excerpt from the article:

Exhibit A: the visiting NFL team. Hyman sometimes rents a limousine to pick up a limo-load of players at their downtown hotel. The limo ferries them to his Buckhead store, which sells throwback jerseys, caps, jackets and other sports items recalling bygone days.

"It's a two-hour rental on the limo, but the guys end up spending thousands."

Read the entire article: One man marketing machine - Andy Hyman.

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Posted on 7/28/2004 | Permalink | |

Different means of advertising

Thanks for reading 3 free issues of Marketing Hotsheet.

I just read an article that shows pros and cons of different types of advertising:
- Newspaper advertising
- Radio advertising
- TV advertising
- Yellow pages advertising
- Outdoor advertising
- Direct mail

Read the entire article here: Deciding on the Advertising Media

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Posted on 7/26/2004 | Permalink | |

New: Marketing Hotsheet

You might want to check out http://www.marketinghotsheet.com

Its a premium newsletter I'll be publishing 24 times a year, twice every month. You can read 3 hotsheets for free right now:
http://www.marketinghotsheet.com/#free-marketing

If you like it, you can subscribe to it for just $1 per hotsheet. This deal is just for the first 50 subscribers.

Thanks for profiting from these stories and ideas.

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Posted on 7/23/2004 | Permalink | |

Kmart changes slogan again

For the third time in 3 years, Kmart is changing its slogan. This time they are changing the logo too.

Why?

I think its a mistake. But instead of writing my opinions on this, I thought of quoting copywriter John Kuraoka who wrote it best:

The thing that really gives a slogan power isn’t what it says, but how long it says it. You can’t drive sales or branding through a slogan, but, over time, you can embed a slogan into customer’s perceptions of the brand if it affirms a positive brand experience. When slogans change every year or so, all it does is increase customer confusion.

Kmart is just confusing customers. Don't be like Kmart. Pickup a slogan and stick to it.

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Posted on 7/23/2004 | Permalink | |

Speak in your customers language

An Ad Age article says that consumers are are confused by ads for a tech product as they can't understand the jargon in it.

I'm guilty of this mistake myself. Ive confused many a people by using technical jargon. By using dollar words when dime would work.

If you want to sell more, speak in your customers language.

Eugene Schwartz, one of the most successful copywriters once said that there are many copywriters who are more talented than him and who have a flair of writing better copy. But he constantly writes sales letters that are better than theirs because he works harder than them. And he writes in the customers language.

If Eugene had to sell an infoproduct, he would read the infoproduct more than 4 times. He would write down the words used in the book and use them to write the sales letter.

Eugene also suggests following sports and reading Vanity Fair. Because millions of consumers follow sports and read gossip newspapers and magazines. He suggests talking to every taxi driver you meet. Listen to people. Listen to what words they use. And then use those words to write better copy.

To listen to a seminar by Eugene Schwartz, click here.

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Posted on 7/23/2004 | Permalink | |

Blogs going mainstream

You know a technology is going mainstream when celebrities start using it. Blogs is going mainstream. A few blogs written by gurus and celebrities that I follow:

Billionaire Mark Cubans blog:
Great for NBA, but also has some amazing business wisdom:
http://www.blogmaverick.com

Wizard of Ads:
A whole bunch of Wizard of ads partners blogs that I follow:
Making ads work: http://wizardofadsaustralia.blogs.com
Hispanic Trends: http://juantornoe.blogs.com/hispanictrending/
Marketing to women: http://www.wonderbranding.com/
Customer service: http://wizardofadscanada.typepad.com/touch_points/

Seth Godin:
Viral marketing guru:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Laura Ries recently started her own blog:
Writer of a few best selling business and branding books
http://ries.typepad.com/ries_blog/

- George W and John Kerry started blogs too.
- I also heard that Bill G is soon going to start blogging.
- Many corporates is appointing an employee to run a blog for the company.

Infact blogging is so easy and so effective, that 21% of blog readers start their own blogs!

(my isn't that a lot of links in 1 post! But all of them have great content.)

Advantages of a blog:
- They are free or low cost.
- They don't require much time. 10 minutes a day is more than enough.
- You will constantly be giving out new updated content. Thus if the content is good, the people will keep on coming back.
- And even if the content is bad, search engines will keep on coming back. The traffic I receive from Yahoo.com has almost doubled since I started this blog.

You might want to consider starting a blog. Just one advice if you do: have a purpose in mind. Don't let your blog get lost amongst millions of other on the web. Select a topic and stick to it.

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Posted on 7/22/2004 | Permalink | |

100% sales record

Jeffrey Gitomer writes about how his friend Gary Nowicki gets a sale everytime he does uses particular tactic. Receiving a 100% sales record is near impossible.

Consider this:
- A 2% response rate in direct mail advertising is considered awsome.
- Even great salesmen like Don Alm just close 1 out of every 3 sales.

And yet using one simple tactic, anyone can get a very high sales response. The tactic Gary uses doesn't cost much money. But it does require time. And thus is not recommended if you sell a product with a low profit margin.

The tactic instantly demonstrates your products, reduces the risk factor and allows you to build a bond with your prospective client at the same time. What is the tactic? Read all about it in this article:

100% sales secret

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Posted on 7/22/2004 | Permalink | |

The iPod mistake

Apple had done everything right. Their iPods are all the rage today. Go for a walk in a crowded park and you will see people with iPods jogging. According to some resources, iPod has captured more than 60% of the mp3 players market. And yet there is a strong demand for the iPods. Infact, there is a waiting line in most stores to get one!

There was only one complaint about the iPods. Their battry lives were short. So Apple came out with newer versions of iPods - with longer battery lives of 12 hours!

And then they made their mistake.

They priced the new iPods at $299 while the old ones were selling successfully at $399. Why? Why price the better iPods at a lower price? Some sources say: "Apple is closing the pricing gap between iPod and competitors."

But if the competition was the problem, why not lower the prices of the old iPods to $299 and set the price of new iPods at $399? That way, they would sell both the versions of iPods and earn more money.
They would capture the lower end market with their older versions and the upper end market with their newer versions.

Reducing the price of something better just doesn't make sense.

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Posted on 7/21/2004 | Permalink | |

Free iPods

1,650 freshmen students at Duke University will receive a free 20GB iPod during orientation in August.

Duke University is gaining world wide publicity with their free give away stunt. The free publicity they have received more than makes up for giving away the $300+ Ipods. But more than that, they have instantly become a cool university which students might want to go to. They are bound to receive more applications because of the tactic.

Points to ponder:
How can you give away a hot "in demand" product and gain tons of publicity for free in return?

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Posted on 7/21/2004 | Permalink | |

Short copy vs Long copy

The camp has always been divided. Some copywriters say: "the more you tell, the more you sell." Others say "the more you tell, the more you bore."

Finally, its been decided which copy works best: long or short.

In one word: neither.

"Trying to judge the persuasiveness of copy by it's length is like trying to tell how fast a car is by looking at the color of its paint."

Read about the funny fight that lead to this conclusion at Persuasion architect.

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Posted on 7/20/2004 | Permalink | |

More speed at McDonalds

The average time to fulfill a drive through order at McDonalds is 2 minutes 36 seconds. Mr. Bigari, who owns 12 McDonalds franchises, reduced this time by 30 seconds to 1 minute!

Whats more, the increase in speed didn't lead to any decrease in accuracy. In fact accuracy improved too. Mr. Bigari's McDonalds reduced the error rate from 4% to less than 2%!

How?

By outsourcing the drive through order taking function to a call center 900 miles away in Colorado Springs!

Cheap, quick and reliable telecommunications lines let the order takers in Colorado Springs converse with customers in Missouri, take an electronic snapshot of them, display their order on a screen to make sure it is right, then forward the order and the photo to the restaurant kitchen. People picking up their burgers never know that their order traverses two states and bounces back before they can even start driving to the pickup window.”

Mr. Bigari says that the savings the call centers provided more than made up for the costs of installing the call centers within 6 months! Because of the call centers, he now has to hire less staff at all his McDonalds. And the number of orders they process has also improved leading to more profits!

Read the entire article at NewYork Times. (free registeration required.)

Great innovation and use of technology.

Thanks to Brand Autopsy for the tip.

Points to ponder:
Can you outsource the mundane and monotonous aspects of your business and improve productivity?

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Posted on 7/19/2004 | Permalink | |

Napoleon Dynamite

One easy way of increasing revenues is to make people use your products more than once.

Restaurants provide good service so that people come and eat again.

Dentists ask you to visit them once every year - even if you have perfect teeth.

But its much harder for the studios to make you see the same movie again. Very few people would go to the theatres to see the same movie twice. When 1-2 new movies release every week, why would some one go to theatres to watch an old movie?

The movie studios know that there is profit to be made in showing the same movie twice to people. And so they used to add special scenes and behind the camera scenes in their DVDs to entice people buy the DVDs even if they had seen the movie in the theatres.

And now, Fox studios has copied the same tactic others used to sell DVDs to make people go and watch the same movie twice in movie theatres. Fox released their new movie, Napoleon Dynamite, on June 11. And if you go and see the movie now, you will find that the movie is longer with more scenes than before. Fox has added a 5 minute epilogue to entice fans to come back for a second showing. This scene was just shot 4 weeks back!

Fox had earlier changed the ending of their movie "28 days later" and increased the box office life of the movie.

Read all about it in this article by Time magazine.

Read more about the other 4 tactics Fox has used to earn more from Napoleon Dynamite.

Points to ponder:
How can you make clients come and use/see/buy your products again and again?

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Posted on 7/19/2004 | Permalink | |

Christ built a cult?

Dave Young writes an interesting post that gives 7 reasons why Jesus Christ is a cult. You might agree or disagree with his post but do read his post for great insights.

Insights on branding and building a cohesive group of loyal evangelists.

Click here to read the post.

Also read:

How cults seduce and what marketing can learn from them (white paper- pdf format.)

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Posted on 7/17/2004 | Permalink | |

Lose fat 6,000 feet above earth

Fitness expert David Barton teaches exercises to passengers aboard a Song airlines flight.

What can people do while in air?

They can eat.
They can watch movies.
They can listen to radio.
They can sleep.

What else?

Why not pickup a hot trend and make money doing it?

Why not make people exercise and charge them $8 a pop for equipment and instructions?

Thats exactly what JetBlue and Song airlines are doing.

The best part of the whole idea is: when one person exercises, 9 others sitting around him can observe him. And when they see a person trying something new, they will want to try something new too. The airlines are selling the service without any work. A demonstrable idea sells itself.

And the word of mouth advertising this idea will generate is enormous.

--

Stay tuned for some very exciting news... am working on a new project :)

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Posted on 7/16/2004 | Permalink | |

How to get free publicity

People pickup a newspaper to read news. Not ads. And so a small blurb about your company written for free in the newspaper will bring in a better reponse than a quarter page paid ad. In today's Early to Rise newsletter, there is a guest article that reveals how you can receive free publicity from a newspaper:

The trick to having the media to pick up your story is to get them to see you as news. Basic guidelines for doing this include:
highlighting the way your product/service is part of a hot trend
being timely -- for example, sending out news about your innovative dating website in time for a Valentine's Day story
using recent studies to prove how your product/service helps people -- especially the people who are the readers of the publication you're aiming at

The article goes on to talk about how Paul Lawrence received 200 inquiries in one single day for his ballroom dance classes. Read the entire article by clicking here. (scroll down a bit for the article.)

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Posted on 7/16/2004 | Permalink | |

How Tesco is winning customer loyalty

A recently published article on marketingprofs.com talks about a new book on how Tesco creates loyalty. The best part of the article is not on loyalty, but how Tesco tracks what customers buy and then makes suggestions for future purchases.

The scope and capabilities of Clubcard are astounding. Tesco collects data on each head of lettuce, can of peas, bottle of wine or other item purchased by more than 10 million Club card members. It analyzes this tsunami of data to send a magazine with segment-specific content and six highly targeted coupons to each member four times a year.

Four coupons are for products the customer already buys, and two are for products that the customer has never bought before but is likely to buy.

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Posted on 7/14/2004 | Permalink | |

Advertising on wheels

Adrants.com points out that AdFleet will start sticking ads on the taxi wheels. They have already lined up companies like Taco Bell and Jiffy Lube.

This is getting out of hand. Why would anyone want to advertise on wheels when they know your ads won't be read when the car is in motion?

Instead why not just advertise on the side of the car? Or add a board on the top of the car?

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Posted on 7/12/2004 | Permalink | |

The merchants of cool

Do you have 53 minutes? Then watch this amazing video: The merchant of Cool.

It had aired on TV a few months back. Now you can watch it online. And that too without the advertisements :)

The video is divided into 6 sections online, so you can watch it in installments. But I think once you watch part 1, you will be hooked and won't get up without watching the entire series.

Link: The merchant of Cool

--

Also check out Harry Joiners blog: Proven ways to get new customers.

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Posted on 7/12/2004 | Permalink | |

Supermarket advertising

3 means to advertise your products to people who shop at super markets:

1. Advertising on cart parkers: kartdox

2. Advertising on handles for plastic and paper bags.

3. Advertise on the order divider bar

These advertising means look good for "remember us" ad. You can't sell your products through them. But you can refresh the prospective customers mind with your product. The more he sees your ad, the more are the chances of him remembering your product when he needs it.

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Posted on 7/11/2004 | Permalink | |

Tricycle billboards

Saw this image on brandmarketers.com. Moving ads win more attention. And it might be cost effective to hire some high school kid to ride a tricycle 4 hours a day during peak hours. The stereo system will win peoples attention. And because cycling is slower than driving cars, people will be able to take down the contact info from the billboard too.

It might be a lot cheaper to just rent adspace on taxi-cycles though.

Also check out: Bike Billboards

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Posted on 7/10/2004 | Permalink | |

Slogans - hot or not?

Does a company need taglines and slogans? An article by David Vazdauskas says a brand doesn't require a slogan.

He makes some good points. Most of the slogans are useless. They are way too general to differentiate a brand. You take 5 companies and interchange their slogans, no one would even notice.

Slogans like
"We exist to give customers pleasure"
"Good devices. Good Life"
"For leaders who care"
are flooding the marketplace. But they don't help a brand at all.

Read the entire article here.

My opinion? Mediocre slogans don't help. But good slogans can help people in remembering the brand. And the best tag lines are ones that have the brand name in the tag line. If the tagline doesn't have the brand name in it, it will need a lot of advertising for the tagline to register in peoples minds.

My favourite tag line of all time?
There are somethings in life that money can't buy. For everything else, there is MasterCard.

Resources:
Slogan hall of fame
Learn how to create killer slogans

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Posted on 7/10/2004 | Permalink | |

Political party reaching more people

Republican National Committee started an online affiliate program that pays 30 cents of every dollar a referral donates.

(Whats an affiliate program? Affiliate Programs are a way for you to sell another company's products or services and receive a commission.)

From republicans point of view, an affiliate program is a good way to reach more people. But some people are saying its unethical to provide incentives to people to promote a party.

Ethical or unethical, the move is sure going to get some free publicity for the republicans.

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Posted on 7/10/2004 | Permalink | |

The formula of a multimillionaire

Barbara Carey sounds like a fascinating woman. Once on the verge of bankruptcy, she slept in her car and lived off peanut butter sandwiches for 17 days straight! And then negotiated a deal that earned her million dollars within 17 days! And once she found the formula, she used it again and again establishing 2 million dollar companies.

She then taught the formula to her 10 year old son who made a million dollars too!

Amazing article. Read it.

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Posted on 7/09/2004 | Permalink | |

Pokia

Nicolas Roope observed: "Ten years ago, we were all excited by cellphones because they were new ... manufacturers and designers alike responded to this excitement by designing them as futuristic and sci-fi. Now, 10 years later, they're still stuck there."

And so he created Pokia (picture above). And sold it on ebay for $140!

While Pokia will never become more than a fad, it shows how similar all the cell phones are. All are going for the futuristic look. A cellphone company could make a killing designing retro cell phones or luxurious cell phones or cellphones only for women...

Points to ponder: are you thinking like your competition too? How can repackage your products for a particular target audience and leave your competition behind?

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Posted on 7/09/2004 | Permalink | |

Bouncing the customers

Its a famous cliche: Customer is always correct.

But even discs and bars know thats not correct. Thats why they have bouncers who kick the rowdy customers out.

If you run a business for a long period of time, you are bound to get a few customers who eat up more of your time and resources than they are worth. Its best to have a system in place to "kick out" these customers away - nicely.

One way thats worked for me is just referring them to another company. Let them know "you might not be right for them" and that they should go to Joe Anonymous as he might be able to help them better.

One thing to remember is: never burn the bridges. Let the customer leave on a happy note. Because even bad customers talk!

Read what Best Buy is doing with their demon customers...

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Posted on 7/09/2004 | Permalink | |

"Will work for referrals"

John Jantsch of Ductape Marketing fame wrote about a 3 step system to get tons of referrals. Its so simple and yet so effective!

Read his post by clicking here

Give something away for free to the influentials. The marketing maven.
And then get them to refer others.

Focus on the marketing mavens and you will get more bang from each of your advertising dollar.

Resource: The tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell. Great book on viral marketing and how to generate referrals. Borrow it from your library. You'll love it.

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Posted on 7/08/2004 | Permalink | |

"Will work for food"

Heinz is running a contest: "say something ketchupy." They asked customers to give Heinz a funny punchline.

They received some really funny responses like:

"Meatloaf enhancer"
"First aid for food"
"Complete recipe, just add food"
(more...)

This contest did take money to run. And the benefits this contest provides?

1. It makes customers loyal. It allows customers to connect with the product. Customers become loyal when their input is encouraged.

Paul Williams on Brand Autopsy says: "Heinz turned a chore of low excitement into something fun. I found myself moving bottles around on the shelf to find the label that I liked best."

2. It creates free publicity for Heinz. Contests always have the ability to generate free publicity.

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Posted on 7/07/2004 | Permalink | |

T-shirt TV

To promote Will Smiths new movie, I-Robot, male and female models are going to wear T-shirts that promote the movie and roam around near malls.

But the T-shirts are different. They weight 6 and a half pounds and have an 11-inch flat screen TV embedded in them.

The concept was developed by Adam Hollander of Brand Marketers who says: "People of my generation and younger are so used to moving images on TV that if it's not a moving image, it doesn't move them."

The T-shirt TV's might be too expensive for you right now. However, you can adapt the concept: moving images grab more attention.

A 3D holographic postcard will work better than a normal postcard.
A billboard with a little bit of manequin movement on it will work better.

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Posted on 7/06/2004 | Permalink | |

Use 3D billboards

A billboard advertising Nextel is winning a lot of attention. So much so that it has already caused 5 accidents.

And the billboard doesn't even use cheap pictures of barely clad women. The billboard has 10 words on it. And it has a couple of 3D manequins. 3D catches peoples attention. Because its something unusual.

Use 3D in your outdoor ads. Even though it'll be expensive, it'll be worth it with all the extra attention the ad will generate.

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Posted on 7/03/2004 | Permalink | |

The Godfather

Marlon Brando, who played Godfather, passed away yesterday. I haven't seen any other movie of his except the Godfather. And I loved the Godfather. Have watched it many a times.

And I learnt one of the most important marketing lesson in that movie. Don Corleone (played by Marlon Brando) was a poor immigrant. He grew up in poverty and yet soon became very rich, successful and powerful. He had a lot of clout amongst the politicians and the policemen. How he succeeded can be summed up in 2 lines from the movie:

"They'll never go for it, Pop."

"I'll make them an offer they can't refuse."

Thats the secret of growing rich: make an offer people can't refuse. While writing a salesletter, or selling face to face, or even while selling through phone - just ask: How can you make the other person an offer he can't refuse?

Offer a free trial.

Give a money back guarantee.

Give them double the money back guarantee.

Pay the shipping fees too.

Risk reversal is of prime importance. Let there be no risk in the offer and your profits will increase.

Accept money in installments.

Hook people up with credit and loans.

Tell them how they can make money before they have to pay you.

Or tell them that they can see the benefit for themselves and you will encash the cheque only after 30 days.

Just ask yourself how you can "make an offer they can't refuse."

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Posted on 7/03/2004 | Permalink | |

Reading habits of people

Here are some statistics that will help you better target your market if you advertise in newspapers:

General News is the most widely read section among adult daily newspaper readers at 70%.

After General News, men read the Sports section most (58%), while women (45%) read the Food/Cooking section most.

Daily newspaper readers 35-44 are almost twice as likely as those 18-24 to read the Business/Finance section. (39% vs. 20%)

Daily newspaper readers with Master's degrees are more likely to read the Movie Listings and Reviews section than those with high school diplomas (39% vs. 28%)

After General News, the Business/Finance section (51%) is read most by daily newspaper readers with household incomes $75,000+. Likewise, the Editorial section is read most by daily readers with household incomes of $30,000 or less (38%).

After General News, Classifieds and Sports are the most widely read sections among daily newspaper readers in technical/clerical/sales occupations (40%).