Last night, during the Daytime Emmys,
you heard cast members of
The Guiding Light,
the longest running soap opera on American television,
thank Proctor & Gamble.
P&G owns a soap opera?
No, they don’t just own the show,
they helped create it.
Soap operas are called that
because of their sponsorship by soap companies.
And P&G has been affiliated with The Guiding Light
since that first radio broadcast in 1937.
A marketer’s dream.
A campaign lasting 70 years.
Stephen King’s goal is
to create passion for the product
(in this case, the stories).
Recently,
he compared his stories to heavy metal music.
Metal music’s message is…
“I’m going to clear out your head.”
“Don’t you be talking about sh** when I’m playing.”
His writing… “I want you to burn dinner.”
Are users so passionate about your product
that they burn dinner?
Who buys Father’s Day cards?
Children, right?
A no-brainer.
Or is it?
According to Greetingcard.org,
15% of all Father’s Day cards are bought
by wives for their husbands.
This is a huge secondary market
and should not be ignored.
As with any secondary market,
target the primary market (the kids)
but ensure that the product is suitable
for the secondary (the wives).
Guy Kawasaki did a 360 on his Truemors launch,
including the total price tag ($12,107.09).
What really interested me was the comments.
Most were unsupportive/borderline hostile.
He spent too much money,
they didn’t like the product
(even though they were not the target audience),
it could have been launched faster,
the success is unsustainable.
Now crank up the hostility
due to you not having Kawasaki’s history of success
and you get a pretty good idea
of what the reaction to your own ideas will be.
I’ve launched product successes,
I’ve launched product failures,
the negativity around each pre-launch
has been the same.
If you were to leave this earth tomorrow,
would your business carry on?
In Steve Irwin’s case,
it has.
A year after his death,
the Australia Zoo has continued.
The Crocodile Hunter brand has continued.
This is no fluke.
When he passed away,
Irwin had a detailed 10 year plan in place
and his widow and business partner Terri Irwin
has stuck to that plan.
She says that its as though
he is still there with them.
She finds herself saying
“Gotta get this project done.
Steve would have wanted it done by now.”
When asked how he decides
on the song list for a concert tour,
country singer Keith Urban
states that he doesn’t.
He doesn’t have one song list.
Why?
Because by offering different songs
in each show,
he encourages his crazy monkeys
(the name for his die hard fans)
to go to more than one.
Multiple purchases by the same customer.
You’ve done the difficult part,
getting the prospects in the store,
but once they’re there,
are they buying?
The difference between traffic and
conversion into sales transactions
is an easy source of increased revenue
yet according to Headcount,
less than 25% of retailers track traffic.
Take that extra step.
I hear the questions asked often…
Do I need a blog?
Do I need a website?
Do I need business cards?
No.
That’s not what you truly need,
that’s a tool.
What you truly need could be
A way to communicate with your customers daily.
A means for prospects searching online to find you.
A reminder for that person you met at a cocktail party
to call you.
There are many tools available to accomplish that.
Pick the best one.
I read blogs in English.
I write blogs in English.
Sometimes I forget that
there are entire segments
of the blogosphere
available in different languages.
Bigger segments than the one I play in.
English is not the number one blogging language.
Japanese is, at 37% of the blogosphere,
English is second at 33%.
Know another language?
Consider blogging in it.
A recent study shows
that participants watching Letterman
ate 44% more chips
than those not watching tv.
Participants watching Leno ate 42% more.
Both results proof the theory
of sensory specific satiety.
The more attention you pay
to the food you eat,
the faster you will feel full
and the less you will eat.
It also points out which
show potato chip manufacturers
should advertise on.