A New Definition Of Marketing.

As adopted in October 2007 by the American Marketing Asosciation.

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

I hope you find that communication to be as clear and useful as I did.

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Taking Aim With Flexible Branding.

Thanks to Ben's fabulous post, I read this one about flexible identity.

The fact that the visual representation of a brand can be flexible and still recognisable perhaps illustrates that brands are molecular, mean different things to different people and that single messages are overly restricting.

Designers know that people are smart enough to recognise variant logoes. Marketers should have similar faith in their ability to receive a number of different messages without becoming confused and know that this way lies the elusive grail of being able to engage with them in richer ways.

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Branded Utility Has To Be Useful.

A lot of the talk about the interesting concept of branded utility being the wave of the future seems to me to focus too much on the brand and not enough on the utility. If you ignore the latter, you'll end up with gimmicks and there will be no consumer memory of your actions.

This might be because the cited examples are always sexy products like Nike ID, but Tide got it right and proved (maybe emphasised) that even "boring" commodity products can have a huge impact.



It's all about remembering that little things make a real difference.

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Geek Marketing 201 - Don't Buy Our Product.

When I first saw Buglabs modular "computers", I had no real idea what they were but I knew that they were worth watching.

Then they won an innovation prize at CES and more people started paying attention. More impressive for me is that this uber-geeky business is not acting like a geek business. Here's their first sales announcement.

If this were 1997, this post would be chock full of blinking content as we announced our store's opening with pride. Instead, we'll be only slightly more subtle as we open the padlocks, and welcome you in to browse around. I want to take a moment to (and boy is this going to sound odd) potentially discourage certain shoppers:

For those of you who have ZERO programming experience, this isn't a great time to buy a BUG. It'd be like having a Web browser on your computer in 1988 (which would've been quite a feat, by the way): the platform works, but it doesn't have much going on. Right now, and for the next few months, our focus is building a developer community...

Now that's smart marketing. It recognises that a disappointed user is probably lost for good and that early adopters are not where the money is made. The geek content resides in the product - some people will care about it, most won't. It has no place in the marketing.

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In The Long Run We Are All Dead.

"There are no solutions, there are only rearrangements of problems."

David Mamet: November

So quit procrastinating, analysing and planning, just get out there and do something.

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Unchained America: Customer Service RIP?

The photo is of Taylor's diner in Independence, Oregon on the occasion of its closing in November 2006 - not because it wasn't profitable but because the newest Taylor generation have careers elsewhere. It's reproduced here courtesy of Dave Gorman who, last night, presented the first UK showing of his tremendous new film Unchained America documenting his attempt to cross the USA coast to coast in a 1970 Torino station-wagon while patronising only independent hotels, restaurants and gas stations. "Paying Mom & Pop and not The Man."

This romantic quest was inspired by his revulsion at the homogenous experience of touring the US as a performer that prompted a desire to find the true independent spirit of America. In doing so, he has created a lovely film about the changing face of small-town America that is filled with the humour you'd expect, but also with innumerable quiet insights into business and customer service - as was the Q & A session that followed the screening.

For me, one of his most telling remarks was that his hated corporate America experience had not been bad per se. Indeed it had been entirely acceptable and that was the problem. Think about it. When it comes to customer service, acceptable is such damning praise.

The essence of authenticity/experience/service is not mere consistency, it's much deeper than that.

1) It's about respooling till rolls from the 50s and sewing together typewriter ribbons because you can no longer get spare parts for your ancient but perfect cash register (paying attention to the small details that have huge impact).

2) It's about the people, not what they sell (there are always people - they may be virtual, but they are there in every business and they are who your customers remember).

3) It's about making the effort to make a difference (and realising that the customer notices when it happens because it makes a human connection).

It was suggested last night that such a journey could not even be attempted in ten years time, but the lessons of the film are timeless. If you can, make sure you see it.


(If you're not in the UK, I can only direct you here).

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Now That's What I Call Marketing.

"The best way to get a kid to go to bed is don't ask them if they want to go to bed, ask them what color jammies they want to wear"

Merlin Mann

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Marketing Needs Attention.

A number of recent posts have focussed on the supply-side of attention. There are a number of things to consider.

Attention: In the face of rampant demand for our attention, the nature of that attention is changing. It's not continuous partial attention, which has increasingly proven to be unsatisfactory. Rather it is intensive attention. This can be a fast burst of intensive attention or a much longer, absorbed, interactive attention. But in both timescales, we are increasingly moving towards a binary world - you get intensive attention or you get totally ignored. Knowing this affects how you go about getting that attention.

Approach: Your approach must encourage people actively to absorb what you're saying. There are many elements to this, but what it does not include is the recent trend in UK talkshows. Here ad breaks have been moved from the end to the middle of guest interviews in the belief that absorption in an interview will translate to absorption in an ad break for fear of missing the interview's continuation. The latter will potentially get intensive attention, the ad break however will be totally ignored unless it is specifially accessible to the viewer. (Iain makes a similar point about download times today.)

Accessibilty: Making content glanceable seems to me to have a lot to do with knowing what it is that our brains process first. I've blogged in the past about how colours are processed at different speeds and how it is surprising that retail stores are not filled with yellow signage, but it's also a question of whether a visual, a headline or a combination of both is most effective at grabbing attention. However, while there is a debate to be had about whether dialogue (written or spoken) is necessary in a visually literate age, let's not forget that some people are visually stimulated and others verbally stimulated.

Attitude: Just as important as the hard-wiring of the brain in registering attention is the mindset of the person you're trying to attract. Context is all. Google adwords work so well in a search contaxt because the act of searching implies a better than average chance that the searcher is closer to a purchase state of mind. Other web 2.0 businesses that are dependent on ad revenue might be in a less happy position because the personalised ads that are generated are targetted on a word in the text or someone's comment or social network preferences, none of which, to my mind, speaks directly to a likelihood of the purchase mindset prevailing.

The nature of attention has changed - marketing has to follow suit.

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Introduction to the Painting Business Success Hierarchy

In the next series of blog posts I’m going to reveal the building blocks for creating a solid long term and (more importantly) profitable painting business. I say “More importantly profitable” because there are plenty of painting businesses that hang in there year in and year out who are barley making ends meet!

I call these building blocks… “The Painting Business Success Hierarchy”

Regardless of whether you are a:

• Full time, full service painting business…

• Part time one man show…

• Or a mammoth multi crew franchise painting contractor…

Developing your painting business using the proven building blocks of “The Painting Business Success Hierarchy” gives you the best possible chance of long term profitability.

Let’s get right to it…

Step 1 – Marketing! Marketing! Marketing!

It is important to realize that:

As soon as you decided to start your painting business you ceased to be just a “house painter”, you became a “MARKETER”!

”In order to build a profitable painting business you must develop a series of cost effective marketing strategies that allow you to target the specific jobs that work best for your business model.”

This is especially important when you are just getting started. The last thing you want to do is dump a bunch of money in an ineffective traditional advertising campaign.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for traditional advertising but it is certainly not when you are just getting started! Yellow page ads for example are only effective when you have the advertising budget to get noticed… (Half to full page ads that can cost TENS of thousands of dollars per month)

I talk to painting business owners all the time who are “Just Squeaking By” month after month because their yellow page ad eats up all the profits.

Most of them have no idea about the dozens of powerful cost effective marketing strategies that have been proven to work far better than any traditional advertising ever could… For PENNY’S on the dollar!

I reveal 15 of them in step by step detail in the Updated and Expanded 2008 Version of the Painting for Profits – Master Painting Business Success System which is being released to the public on January 28Th…

The truth is, unless you have a cost effective marketing plan that keeps a steady flow of new clients calling you for an estimate… You are dead in the water! It’s that simple.

In my next blog post I will reveal the second step in the Painting Business Success Hierarchy... Keep a lookout for it.

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There's A Word For It.

The evolution of language and specifically new words is an indicator of emerging trends of which the marketer should be aware. This antipodean competition for word of the year features some great ones and means that every time I go to the gym, the phrase arse antlers now springs to mind.


Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

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Free And Quite Good.

I had intended to write about the great phrase "peak attention" that I spotted via Russell, but he's done it superbly himself.

His mention of the rise of "free and quite good" alternatives to existing products and services is key and not to be underestimated.

Secondly, there are lots and lots of non-commercial alternatives that are free and quite good. And 'free and quite good' is really hard for regular commercial media to deal with.

But, these do not have to be small, amateur operations. As I constantly write, being remarkable is not about being world-class (though that is preferable), it is about being different. About meeting a demand in a different way that customers think is better than the alternatives. Free fits that bill for many.

Those of you who have clicked through on some of the video links in this blog will already have seen Markus Frind - the king of free and quite good - speaking on some panels. In 2003, he created a low-fi, ad-supported online dating site that was free to users.

In doing so, he showed that the big bucks lie where an existing demand is; that you don't need bells and whistles; and that the strength of that demand can overide the need for perfect user experience (for his users, the overcoming of the hardship of meeting people in real life perhaps outweighs the inconvenience of navigating the site).

He runs Plenty of Fish on servers in his apartment, works maybe 10 hours a week and curently has annual profits of around $10 million. Free and quite profitable.

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Frequently Unanswered Questions.

While struggling with the shortcomings of the upgrade of The Times's online registration system, I have received a number of communications urging me to consult the FAQ page on their website.

But if your customers/users are asking a number of questions that frequently, maybe an FAQ page is not the best solution. Wouldn't it be better if those questions were answered (intuitively or explicitly) at the point when they occurred to them? The problem with frequently asked questions is that they need to be asked at all.

Their prevalence shows that the creators of a product/service have not only failed to put themselves in the shoes of the customer in the first place, but have also failed to react to the feedback that the frequency of those questions provides.

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Consistency is Key to Success

I hope you decide to take action on the knowledge you are gaining during your information gathering phase…

Step #3: Be Consistent… Marketing is an ongoing process NOT a one time event!

The real key to building momentum is applying what you learn with consistency. Doing something once usually won’t give you the results you desire. You must consistently do the right things over and over until they become second nature.

Take marketing for example… Marketing is the life blood of your painting business; it is what you are and who you are. When you decide to start a painting business (or any business for that matter) you are no longer just a house painter, you are a business owner who paints.

…And being a business owner means you are a marketer. Why? Because unless you know how to market your painting business to get your phone ringing and keep a consistent flow of new customers coming in, then like it or not you don’t have much of a business.

One of the biggest misconceptions about marketing is that it is expensive. I guess I would agree, if your view of marketing only entails traditional advertising!

Unfortunately for most painting business owners marketing means placing a classified ad in the newspaper or yellow pages and then crossing their fingers and hoping the phone starts to ring. (Don’t hold your breath!)

As a business owner you need to begin to think creatively… You need to begin to become a student of business. By far the most successful painting business owners I have met regardless of the size of their business were constantly learning new and creative ways to market their business.

In 2007 I had the privilege of getting to know dozens of house painters and painting business owners personally - People from every walk of life and background using their painting skills to earn a good living being their own boss.

I talked to men and women, young and old, who have built thriving painting businesses…

Regardless of whether they were part time, one man shows or full time, multiple crew full service painting business they all had something in common...

Come back tomorrow I will reveal “The Painting Business Success Hierarchy” that helped each of them keep their schedules booked, and earn higher than average profits week after week, month after month all year long.

Have a great day!

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B-to-B Online and Interactive Marketing - Cutting Through the Hype

Online advertising, social networking, search engine marketing (SEM), Internet broadcasting, wikis, Web 2.0 … what do these terms mean for your marketing strategy? How do you harness the power of this new medium without straying from your current strategy? The new and constantly changing digital marketplace represents great opportunity for your marketing organization and your company; however, many tech marketers are off to some operational false starts in this area. I recently completed a study of the online and interactive marketing area and related processes of 15+ tech marketing leaders. This included in-depth interviews with marketers as well as spending a full day with ~20 leading tech marketers discussing these issues as part of an IDC Marketing Operations Board meeting. Here is some key insight and guidance based upon this research:

• Consolidate online and interactive marketing efforts from a process, infrastructure, and governance perspective, yet continue collaborating with business units (BUs) and the field (e.g., integrated marketing councils). The resulting benefits will include greater branding and messaging consistency and improved efficiency and effectiveness across your marketing organization, enabling you to do more with less.
  
• Incorporate online and interactive marketing efforts as part of broader awareness-building and demand-generation strategies, but think "engagement" and longer-term relationship building — not just generating a lead.
  
• Don't hesitate to experiment; build it into your plan. Changes are happening fast in the digital marketplace, and those companies that are able to quickly identify and harness the benefits of the best technologies and applications will be first to achieve competitive differentiation. After all, shouldn't technology companies be first to demonstrate thought leadership in this space?
  
• Marketing must partner and collaborate with IT, something that marketing hasn't historically been good at. Leverage your strong marketing operations team and other process people in the organization to develop a longer-term IT strategy for the marketing organization, and team with IT to provide the foundation for a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.
  
• Don't abandon your more traditional marketing knowledge and experience! Just as in the real world, you can build it online, but that doesn't mean that they'll come.

Feel free to email me at mgerard@idc.com if you'd like some additional information about this study or post any questions/comments directly to this blog.

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Inspiration Marketing.

J J Abrams, creator of Lost, talking about the impact of the design and usability of his Apple Powerbook.

It asks me "What are you going to write - worthy of me?"

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The Power Of The Blog.

As with 300, a movie review on this blog leads to box office gold. Tiny little Juno is just the latest of my picks to top the US box office. The causality is undeniable.

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Take Enthusiastic Action

Yesterday I talked about the importance of gathering information and how important that is to getting a fast start.

The time and money you invest in gaining the knowledge you will need gives you the inspiration and confidence to move on to step two.

…And it also saves you time and helps you avoid the stress and frustration of trial and error! As they say, “Education isn’t cheap but it costs a heck of a lot less than failure!”

Today I’m going to talk about what to do with all your new found knowledge… After all what good is gaining knowledge if you don’t know what to do with it?

Step #2: Take Enthusiastic Action: Procrastination is the enemy of enthusiasm!

If you find yourself procrastinating about starting your painting business it may be because you don’t think you have what it takes to succeed or that there is too much to learn before you can get started.

This type of thinking will keep you stuck in your comfort zone! One thing I am constantly telling painting business owners is “Don’t over think things.”

It is easy to think of one reason after another why what you want to do won’t work… It simply doesn’t make sense to try to figure out what step two, three and four will be before you have taken the FIRST step.

When you begin by taking action on the first step and you do it with enthusiasm you quickly see how all that changes. You get a spark of excitement; you realize that it is not so scary after all and that you DO indeed have what it takes to make it happen!

So step #2 is to simply put what you learned during your information gathering phase into action, one step at a time.

Whether you choose to use Painting for Profits or some other home study course it comes down to what you do with that information (the actions you take) that will produce results.

Even the best information is worthless unless you put it into action. Once you begin to take action the next step is evaluating your outcome and using what worked to create momentum!

More on Step #3 Creating Momentum tomorrow!

If you would like to be notified every time I update my blog simply click on one of the RSS Feed subscribe buttons to the left (towards the bottom) that matches your homepage.

For example if Google is your homepage just click the link that says "Google Reader or Homepage" and follow the directions it gives you.

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Painting Business Success ~ Fast! A Simple 3 Step Process

There is nothing wrong with fast success! In fact it is quite easy to get off to a fast start even if you are just getting started…

Here is the first step in a simple proven three step process for getting your painting business off to the fastest start possible. (Or sparking new life into your existing painting business that may be just limping along.)

1. Step # 1 – The Information Gathering Phase: Knowledge gives you Power!

Arguably the first and most important step in starting or growing ANY business is the information gathering phase.

Unfortunately, it is also the most overlooked… If you want to succeed at anything, the first thing to do is find people who are already successful and duplicate their actions.

For example: It is really easy for me to teach house painters how to start and grow a successful painting business because I have done it myself, but when I decided to create Painting for Profits and make it available online I had no idea how to do it.

The first thing I did was research and gather information about what it takes to successfully market my book online.

I spent hours sifting through course after course and I invested Thousands of dollars purchasing and applying systems taught by people who were already successful as online marketers.

Needless to say because I took this first step, “Gather Information” I saved myself an untold amount of time and frustration trying to figure it out on my own.

It is no different for house painters who want to start their own business. Sure you know how to paint (Or you know someone who does) but do you know how to locate and bring in a consistent flow of jobs?

Do you know how to bid and estimate the jobs to ensure a high close rate and higher than average profits?

What about hiring employees or keeping good records? There is a lot of knowledge to gain before you just jump right in.

Investing a few hours and a few hundred dollars in the beginning will put you way ahead of the competition and give you the confidence to take action, knowing that the actions you take are going to produce predictable profits.

I will reveal step 2 tomorrow!

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Champagne, Roses and Marmite?

Last year, around St. Patrick's Day, I picked up a jar of limited edition Guinness flavoured Marmite at the supermarket. Needless to say, it remains unopened and not just because of the stories at the time that you could sell it on e-Bay for twice what you paid. Today, I hear that they are trying a similar trick for St. Valentine's Day by producing 600,000 jars of Marmite with, wait for it, a hint of champagne.

Yes, they'll earn a lot of media coverage and yes there'll be some extra sales, but I can't help but think that this is a social object that will be talked about because of itself but is too removed both from the original product and from the actual event (who toasts their true love with Marmite anyway?).

It makes perfect sense to associate your wine with Valentine's Day but the sociality of a savoury spread surely lies somewhere else.

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Keep Gaining Knowledge...

The one MAJOR lesson I took from 2007 was to always keep learning, listening and growing… No kidding all the really successful business owners I spoke to made it a point to keep gaining the knowledge they needed to stay ahead of the crowd.

…and there is no more critical time to gather the needed information than when you are just getting started!

I have just finished updating and expanding Painting for Profits and my goal was to create the absolute best source of information available anywhere on the process of starting and growing a profitable painting business.

I will do everything I can to help you reach your painting business goals this year.

That process starts with creating dialog… This blog will educate, challenge and keep you informed about the “Business Side” of the Painting Business.

If at any time you have a specific question please feel free to email me and I will do my very best to help. I don’t claim to have all the answers but I do have access to some of the most respected people in our industry and I am confident that I can point you in the right direction.

Remember - the first step in accomplishing your goals starts with gaining the knowledge you need about what it takes to achieve the success you desire.

Like I said, I have just finished Updating and Expanding Painting for Profits for 2008 and I’ve got to tell you, it is bigger and better in every way! My plan is to release the updated version on January 28 and everyone who purchases the e-Book download between now and then will receive a FREE upgrade to the 2008 version when it is released.

Oh, I forgot to mention I will be raising the price for the updated 2008 edition to $167 but it you purchase your copy before January 28 you can get yours for the original price of just $97

This is not a sales pitch just a heads up!

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Go Tell New Hampshire.

When I first saw a spreadsheet automatically update, I immediately wondered how businesses had ever been able to test scenarios or assess data without one. Of course, since then number-crunching has grown exponentially, but as New Hampshire Democrats showed the prevalence of data is a double-edged sword.

Twenty-four hour news coverage led to a proliferation of polls that non-statisticians conflated into average findings and interpreted on the fly without paying attention to the large margins of errors that quick data collection must allow. Accordingly Clinton's victory was seemingly a big surprise though not such a big one if you had looked quizically at the soundings and kept in mind the bigger picture and data that had gone before.

Measurement in marketing is increasingly important and rightly so, but perceived preferences can oscillate rapidly, so make sure you understand what you're measuring and how and why it has been measured. It's easy to get more data, it's not so easy to unplace your marketing bets.

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Get Off to a Great Start in '08!

Happy New Year everyone! Today is my first day back from holiday vacation and I’m excited about what 2008 is going to bring…

After taking some time to reflect on 2007 I have begun to formulate a plan to make 2008 even more fulfilling. (And YOU will benefit along the way.)

One of the things that made the last year so rewarding was getting to talk to so many painters and painting business owners.

I had the privilege of helping literally hundreds of people start and/or grow their painting business. Painting for Profits became a best seller - and all the tips, strategies and techniques I reveal are now proven to work all over the world.

House Painters from Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand and the U.S. have used the Painting for Profits – Painting Business Success System to bring in a consistent flow of new customers and earn higher profits (WITHOUT expensive traditional advertising).

…And before you say, "yeah but my painting business is different," let me tell you the Painting for Profits system has worked for painters from all different skill levels and backgrounds.

Whether you are a seasoned pro running a full time, full service, multi-crew painting business or you are new to the painting trade and will be starting from scratch my program will do the same for you.

Whether you are going to be targeting commercial properties, new construction or the 100’s of residential repaint jobs that are available every day right in your own backyard, you will benefit from Painting for Profits.

Unlike a lot of other painting blogs I will not talk a whole lot about painting techniques… I will concentrate on the “Business Side” of the painting business.

Topics like:

• Marketing
• Bidding and Estimating
• Employee Management
• Office Management
• Goal Setting
• Mind Set
• Etc…

I hope you find this blog both educational as well as entertaining. I encourage feedback and dialog so feel free to ask questions…

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Is It The Best You Can Do?

A new year brings a lot of talk about favourite advertising of the year that's passed and new campaigns being launched. It's interesting, but it also serves to remind me that agency people and media commentators look at advertising in a totally different way from the target audience due to their investment in the work and their attachment to the ironic referencing of cultural and, yes, advertising staples.

The whole process of pitching, working up ideas and then having to get them past the client is bewildering to me and is surely not the best way to do things. Despite the efforts of a lot of talented people, it is undeniable and unsurprising that a lot of wasted advertising is produced. The system places the focus on jumping a series of hurdles and it is a strong person who ignores that momentum and asks what I think are the vital questions - namely what's wrong with this ad in terms of its strategic message, its creative execution and its media buying? Is that the best we can do?

Even if it is the best that a bunch of very smart people have so far produced and normally cautious and uncreative marketing directors have approved it, should that be the end of it? The clutter above which you have to rise is louder and denser than before. We all know that, but let's not just pay lip-service to it. If it's not the absolute best you can do, then frankly what's the point of doing it?

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Marketing 2.0 Is Groucho Marketing.

The belonging/copying debate that is emerging from the world of Herd and Social Objects will get very loud this year as people seek to understand the social influences on buyer behaviour.

One of the discussions I'm having with various people involved in it is just how good/different your product/service has to be before people will view its possession as something worthy of copying. In other words, is your club worth joining? Groucho marketing if you will.

Coincidentally, Cynical Rob alluded to the same thing in the comments yesterday when he wrote

we've just done some work in Indonesia and found that the real reason behind certain brand choice/desirability was because it gave people a sense of 'belonging' [to the wider population] as opposed to it offering any inherent desirable quality.

Personally, I've always believed that, outside of the fashion/craze realm, the answer is that it has to be pretty damn good which leads back to one of my abiding beliefs - that marketing starts with product development. Maybe I'm overestimating that.


Image via spadepot.com

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Fan Or Fantasy?

Economic conditions have proven difficulty for retailers this past year and today there are announcements of profit warnings from some of the "pile it high" stores.

By contrast, the managing director of Waitrose supermarkets apparently receives 50 letters a week from people asking him to open branches in their neighbourhood.

They're definitely supermarkets, though physically smaller with a focussed product range aimed at a slightly upmarket clientele. Their market share may only be 4% but their differences clearly appeal and this creates the loyalty that other retailers lack.

The managing director can genuinely declare that "We don't have customers so much as fans." That's something that any contemporary would dearly love to repeat and which critics of the economic underpinnings of certain social network businesses should note.

Think of making people your fans rather than passive customers with "loyalty" cards and business gets a lot more interesting.

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Joined Up Marketing.

Holidays over, so let's get back up to speed with a pop quiz.

A letter arrives from a major national electrical goods retailer in response to my customer service query. It explains that

It is not always possible for the store to be aware of each of the television advertisements that we display. However, they can quickly check with our marketing department in order to establish this information for (you)

Can you spot the mistake?

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