April 2008 – Page 3

Sequels And Sales

One of my favorite authors has a new book out.
It is the best she’s ever written.
I’d love to recommend it.
I can’t.
Why?
Because the book is a compilation of characters
found in previous books.
If you haven’t read those books,
you’ll be lost.

Sequels of successful products are tempting
but be very, very careful.
It is so easy to filter out new customers.
Combine that with the natural loss
of previous product customers
and you have lower sales.

John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts,
has sounded off on sequels in the games industry.
“For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat.
There’s been lots of product that looked like last year’s product,
that looked a lot like the year before.
We’re boring people to death and
making games that are harder and harder to play.”

Roots, The Olympics, And Branding

Roots and the U.S. Olympic Committee have parted ways.

Was that a bad thing?

Roots co-founder Michael Budman didn’t think so.
He called the split “one of the best deals that
I’ve ever orchestrated for Roots.”

Would it have helped the bottom line?
No.
“We didn’t have anybody who wanted to buy the product,”
he pointed out.
None of the big U.S. retailers would sell it.

Would it have helped branding?
No.
The Olympic Committee wanted a more formal look
than the Roots brand is known for.

And then there are the protests.
“The Olympics represent something different to me now,”
Budman said in the same interview.
“It’s people being put in jail because they are protesting.”
No one wants their brand associated with that.

Just because a deal is high profile,
doesn’t mean it is the right deal for your company.

Debt And Growing Businesses

The media folks may be all gloom and doom
but business leaders and entrepreneurs?

Not so much.

Some are quite giddy…
including John Bragg, the world’s wild blueberry king.
Just last year,
he expanded his interests from food into communications.

His advice about taking on debt?

“We would say,
at these interest levels,
fill your boots.
But we’re careful to do it with secure assets.”

The low interest rates are creating opportunities.
How can you take advantage of them?

Babies For Obama And The Importance Of Names

Children love saying the name Obama,
resulting in increased media
for the Presidential hopeful
as a flood of Babies For Obama videos
are loaded onto YouTube.

Why Obama?

Speech expert Harriet K. Klein says
that Ba and Ma are two of the easiest syllables
for babies to say.

Are your brand names simple to say?
Is your company name simple to say?
It is easier for a customer to recommend a product
if they can pronounce the product name.

Apple And 99 Cent Downloads

Apple has surpassed Wal-Mart
to become the top music seller in the world.
How did this tech company do that?
Especially with so much competition
in the digital music space?

Michael Greene with Jupiter Research credits
the 99 Cent Download as the big win.
Apple gave customers the ability
to pick only the songs they wanted
and offered them at an affordable price.

Can you break your product offerings
into bite-sized purchases?

Giving Prospects An Out

I was approached to train some volunteers.
The interaction with the co-ordinator
went something like this.

“Could you do the training,
that is, unless you’re too busy.”
“Sure, I’m not too busy.” (A lie)

“If you don’t want to, I’d understand.”
“I want to.”

“Don’t feel like you have to say yes.”
“I’m not that nice of a person.”

“If the weather is bad and you have to cancel,
I won’t get upset.”
“If the weather is bad, I’ll leave earlier to get there on time.”

The conversation went on and on
until I wanted to cancel
so it would stop.

So many salespeople do this with their prospects.
They try to talk them out of the sale.
This isn’t being “nice”,
this is being irritating.

Once the customer says ‘yes’,
stop talking.

Are You A Spammer?

In the July 2006 issue of deliver magazine,
Seth Godin is quoted as saying
“You’re spammers
if you’re sending me
unanticipated, impersonal, irrelevant junk
in a format I don’t want to get
about a product I’m not interested in
and won’t have time to look at.”

The easiest way to prevent this
is to always think about adding value.

To your prospect.
Not just to your bottom line.

Marketing To Boomers

Many people view the 44+ crowd
as being set in their ways,
unwilling to try new things.

Not true.

According to a 2005 Yankelovich MONITOR survey,
28% of Boomers purchased products
from a catalog over the previous 2 months.
7% of Boomers made a purchase
after receiving mail from a company
with which they had not previously done business.

Don’t rule Boomers out as a source of new business.

Why Clients Go To Conferences

A loved one is at a conference right now.
This conference is held by his company
with the attendees major clients.

Of course,
his company is holding this conference
to build relationships and increase sales.
That is understood by everyone.

But why are the clients attending?
Hint: It is not to be sold to.

No, the clients are attending to meet with other clients.

Job 1 for the host company is
to faciliate this.
That means organizing meet and greets,
and not isolating attendees.

Why are clients attending your events?

Can’t Get No Respect

A local actor was talking about
the lack of local media coverage and
how that is translating into less star power
and lower earnings.

Having never heard of the guy,
I Google’d him,
looking for a photo.

Was there one on IMDB?
No.
Was there one on Wikipedia?
No.
Did he have a website?
No.
A blog?
No.

You know why there is a lack of media coverage?
Because he makes it damn difficult.

Are you making it easy?
Do you have your logos online?
Your product offerings?
Photos of your top execs?