JCPenney, in efforts to win male shoppers, have been buying male-oriented media (ESPN Radio, for example) and pitching a male-oriented tagline: "Get In, Find It, and Get Going." They obviously have identified how men prefer to shop (i.e. quickly), and even try to set apart the male zone as the Men's Department inside JCPenney.

Never mind that the Men's Department inside JCPenney is not noticeably different than the Men's Department inside many other department stores, but that's not the point.

Recently they have tweaked their tagline, replacing "Get Going" with something more benign. I guess "Get Going" sounded too much like "Get Out." Frankly, I don't think most men would be offended by that. I can't even remember the new wording! Ask my kids -- my wife has trained them that "when you're shopping with Daddy, you're on a mission." Hey, it works for me.

Now Ace Hardware has taken a strikingly similar line: "Get In, Get Help, Get On With Your Life." The theme is clear: men tend to view shopping as a task to be done but not savored.

These taglines are intended to reduce perceived risk -- the risk of having to spend a lot of time shopping when all they really want is to find something and move on. If you want to attract male shoppers, you need to cater to that desire and communicate it.

Have you identified what appeals to your customers? Are there obstacles in your customer's mind that delay visits or purchases? Speak their language and their interests -- you won't win them all, but you'll win more. And right now, that's a great start!

Labels: advertising, customer centered, differentiation, marketing, strategy, taglines

More and more I am believing that the strategic partnership is marketing's great frontier.

There is nothing new about two entities joining forces and collaborating in some fashion, but I'm seeing a lot more of it. And I'm recommending a lot more of it.

A strategic linking of complementary businesses is becoming an ordinary part of the planning process. Long gone are the days when we decided "what to advertise and where to advertise," and that's about it. We feast on companies that are stuck in that kind of limited thinking.

Creativity isn't just for graphic design, it's for finding ways your business can evolve to something more.

Of marketing's "Four P's," strategic partnerships are now a critical element of Placement. For a great read on where to find mutually beneficial relationships, read pages 49-80 of Blue Ocean Strategy. (Actually, read the whole thing.)

Who shares your same customer? Who shares your same image? Who can link you to higher visibility while you do the same for them?

Labels: marketing, planning, strategy

Continuing on the thoughts from yesterday's post, there are other advantages of competing against your larger, slower competitors. Namely, they are often stupid.

The problem with huge corporations is that stupidity has lots of room to flourish. Quote me on that.

Consider the words of the great Minnesota Fats: "You don't learn from smart people, you learn from idiots. Watch what they do, and don't do it."

Want to see something stupid in the customer service category? A colleague of mine recently needed a receipt for a flight he had taken on Delta Airlines. Logically, he emailed to request. With a little less logic in action, Delta replied by email to tell him to snail-mail his document number to a certain department so they can email a receipt back to him. Meanwhile, his document number was in the email itself. Classic.

What is considered "normal" in your industry that drives customers nuts? Or confuses them? Learn from the big idiots, and give customers a clearly better way.

Labels: bad habits, customer service, customers, differentiation, marketing, planning

You're probably stronger than you think. You're probably better suited to compete for customers than you think you are.

Humility doesn't exactly abound in our culture, but I think many business owners sell themselves short. They see themselves as outmanned, outgunned and underqualified versus bigger competitors. But they're not.

Local banks and credit unions can often make a better case to customers than big regional or national players. Independent jewelers can differentiate themselves very believably against "the mall stores."

There are opportunities like this in almost every industry.

Owner-led businesses can respond quicker -- like now. As soon as an idea is ready, they can implement it immediately. No corporate approval needed. No passing it up the ladder to the franchise marketing department. This autonomy is the ultimate business version of "just do it."

Some built-in advantages follow the simple fact that you're local and in charge. What moves can you make that your larger rivals aren't flexible enough or fast enough to match?

Labels: management, marketing, planning, strategy

In the book HumanSigma -- a very good read for marketers and managers, by the way -- Gallup data is presented revealing that only 14% of front-line employees can state their company's mission or vision. These are the employees that actually interact with customers, and they have no idea what their company stands for.

Do you think that's the case with Disney employees? In my observation, the Disney mission and culture and aesthetic is infused into every last cast member before they ever leave training. They know exactly what their company is about, and how they fit into it.

What's the percentage at your company? Do your people know what the business is all about?

If not, it could be that something has been lost in translation. Or just as likely, it could be that you need to take a step back and decide if you have ever established what your business is about.

Do that today. But while you're at it, go ahead and step back just a little further -- into the eyes and minds of your customers. That's where your mission and vision need to come from. Then you communicate it forward until every employee, customer-facing or not, catches the vision and radiates it.

Labels: branding, customer centered, employees, management, marketing, planning

"Branding Only Works on Cattle" by Samuel Baskin is not a great read, but it is provocative. The primary point of the book is that your brand is not ultimately determined by anything you try to project, but rather by your behavior. Your behavior is your brand.

I agree with much of the premise. The premise would make for a very powerful article, but isn't developed enough to justify the length of the book. My review can be found on our website's Reading page: http://www.foxmarketing.us/reading.php

Having just returned from a Disney cruise, there are all kinds of business lessons percolating in my brain. I posted on Disney yesterday, here again today, and there will be more tomorrow and beyond.

I was reminded of Samuel Baskin's book multiple times on our cruise. Disney projects an image of "the happiest place on earth," a place where dreams come true, a place where magic happens. That's enough to get people to try you. That's the starting point of the Disney brand.

But it is the customer experience that defines the brand from that point on. And that is why Disney's brand is so strong. They live their vision. Every cast member embodies the vision in their interactions with you.

What do you think your brand is? What do your employees think your brand is? (More on that tomorrow.) Follow through on your branding -- ensure that it is not just something you project, but something the customer experiences.

Labels: branding, customer centered, marketing, planning, strategy

Back to work, fresh off a 4-day Disney Cruise, I'm reminded yet again what excellence looks like.

(Some people are Disney people, and some people are anti-Disney people. We tend to be Disney people. It's possible to get too much of the Mouse, I suppose, but we're not there yet.)

There are many books on "The Disney Way," including one by that very name. How would Disney run a hospital? How would Disney run a school? And on and on. I haven't read any of them.

I have only gathered my observations and opinions by spending my own hard-earned money to do so. And having done so four times in the eleven years I've been a parent, I always come back impressed. Very impressed.

Disney does it right. If more businesses devoted themselves to making the customer's dreams come true or making the customers feel like princesses or making the customers believe in magic, Disney would be the patriarch of the movement.

Here are just a few Disney-esque principles I've observed in action:
1. Do nothing half-way. Every ride is a movie set and every employee is a cast member, and every theme is carried out to an almost ridiculous degree. I don't believe there is an organization anywhere that executes their vision more thoroughly than Disney.
2. Exceptional is the expectation. "Average" is not on their radar screen. The "minimum requirements" are not even a consideration. Maybe this point is the same as the one above. That's how well they execute.
3. Build in cross-selling. Every Disney property is littered (poor choice of words) with profit centers, all feeding one another. There are no "operational silos," at least as far as I can tell. Every piece of the business model is cooperative and synergistic.
4. Take pride. This is not a repeat of points 1 & 2, this is about profit. Disney is not cheap. Disney will never be cheap. We've all been to cheap amusement parks. By taking great pride and making points 1 & 2 a way of life, there really is no peer to drive their prices down. Pride is a profit strategy.

It's becoming clear to me that this post could get really long, so I'm just going to cut it off right here. How can you "Disney-fy" your business? Open your mind really, really wide for this one, because dreams really can come true.

Labels: branding, creativity, customer centered, differentiation, management, marketing, planning, strategy