Tickets for
country singer Kenny Chesney’s
August 2009 concert
went on sale in December,
a dreaded discretionary expense
selling
in the midst of an economic melt down.
The 60,000 seats sold out
in 10 minutes!
There’s no blaming poor sales on the economy.
Consumers have money to spend
and are spending it.
A decrease in sales
is a product/marketing/sales problem,
not an economic problem.
It is no coincidence
that Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana)
is 16
while her target audience
are tweens (ages 6-14).
Kids prefer an older role model.
As my 8 year old niece tells me,
anyone younger is a ‘baby.’
That holds for cartoon role models also.
I helped develop a kid targeted juice box
featuring a cast of fruit characters.
The target demographic was the lunch box group.
The fruit characters, however, were early teens.
When in doubt,
go older
(but still parent friendly).
Making a decision is tough for prospects
so don’t force them to make a decision
about what free gift to accept.
As Bob Stone and Ron Jacobs state in
Successful Direct Marketing Methods
“offering a selection of gifts of comparable value
usually reduces response.”
Offer one free gift
for each level of participation.
Do free gifts increase sales?
The right gift can increase sales by 25%.
Or it could become the product
being sold.
David McConnell offered a custom made perfume
as a free gift with a purchase of his books.
The perfume was so successful,
he started selling that instead
and Avon was born.
With my February release,
Invisible,
I had a ‘lucky accident’.
The heroine had a certain mannerism
and then in the last few chapters of writing,
I found out why.
It wasn’t planned.
It simply happened
and it was magic.
Product development is like that.
Think of the 3-M Post-it note legend.
Heck, think of most great products.
There’s a lot of work and thinking and then…
bam!
Something unplanned and ‘lucky’ happens
to make it work.
Robert Altman has a technique
for increasing the possibility of lucky accidents.
“We normally shoot a few takes,
even if the first one is terrific,
because what I’m really hoping for is a ‘mistake.’
I think that most of the really great moments
in my films were not planned.
They were things that naturally occurred
and we said,
‘Wow, look at that—
that’s something we want to keep.’
That’s when you hit the truth button
with the audience.”
As I head into a major project,
I’m hustling to put
everything else on auto.
The problem is…
I’m dragging it.
Mentally and physically.
I can’t seem to get motivated.
So I’m playing the one more game again.
One more blog post.
One more chapter.
One more email.
That one more always turns out to be multiple
but focussing on
the smaller goal drives me forward.
Do one more, just one more…
I see it all the time in investing.
An analyst says buy
and a junior jammer investor buys.
The issue is…
she then doesn’t know when to sell.
That is how it is with new product development.
An industry leader comes out with a product,
a response to changing consumer demand.
Competitors see the leader making sales
and follow suit.
But if they don’t truly understand
WHY consumers are buying the product,
these companies are doomed
to always follow.
And sometimes
following too slowly leads to disaster.
If you’re going to have me-too products,
make sure you have a me-too knowledge base.
When facing the choice between
a 15 second ad
and a 30 second ad,
go short.
Why?
Because,
according to ARS Group,
although 15 second ads
are traditionally just over 1/2 the cost
of a 30 second ad,
they are 3/4’s as effective.
And, of course,
now is the time to negotiate those costs
down even more.
During a recession,
all advertising goes on sale.
If you’re going to break the rules
on the internet
and piss off gatekeepers,
be very, very careful about it.
Or they will block you.
Forever.
A site owner was setting up
reader’s choice voting
for her Best of 2008 contest.
She asked folks not to vote until a specific time.
I can understand regular readers not following rules
but many of the nominated authors also didn’t.
They voted.
While logged in.
So they angered the person
deciding which books got reviewed
and because books had to be reviewed on site
to be nominated,
what award nominations they’ll receive next year.
Dumbness.
Everyone I know removes
pricetags from gifts they give.
Everyone.
So why don’t gift box manufacturers
make the price tags easy to remove?
Most don’t.
Most require givers to scrape the label
off with their fingernails.
That creates opportunity.
I bought more of one gift item
this holiday season
because
it came with a tear away price tag.
(It was a great product too
but had serious competition.)
The permanent part of the ‘price tag’
was a gift enclosure card.
Make it easy for your customers
to give away your product.
As awards and bestseller status still matter,
your new product or company
may benefit from having it.
And you’re in luck.
It is now ‘Best Of 2008’ award season.
There are two main types of awards,
awards that are committee or expert driven
and
awards that are ‘reader choice.’
The latter is the easiest to influence.
How?
By recruiting your fan base.
Typically you choose a few
of your most loyal fans
to nominate your product
(by nominating you,
this will give them ownership of your potential win).
Then you announce the nomination to your full mailing list
(you could offer a discount to celebrate your nomination)
and tactfully ask for votes.
When you win,
of course you’ll want to contact this list,
letting them know
and offering them a ‘thank you’ gift.
Some people call this bribery.
I like to think of it as rewarding loyalty.