HOW MUCH DOES YOUR BRAND POSITION & PERCEPTION MATTER? CONSIDER THIS...

By Jeff Taylor

In Washington D.C. , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.  During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.  After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing.  He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About 4 minutes later… 
The violinist received his first dollar.  A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

 At 6 minutes…
 A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At 10 minutes…
A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly.  The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time.  This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 minutes…
 The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while.  About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour…
He finished playing and silence took over.  No one noticed and no one applauded.  There was no recognition at all.

 The violinist was  Joshua Bell, noted to be one of the greatest musicians in the world .  He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.  Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

The event was arranged by the Washington Post as an experiment in perception and priorities.  The experiment also has some very sound marketing lessons.  If your business is positioned as a premium provider, be very careful how you present your business to your customers.  If you speak about discounts and value you will confuse your customers and they will begin to ignore you.  Likewise, if you are a value and price business and you try to discuss your premium quality you will also confuse your customer.

When Joshua Bell presents his brand as a premium entertainer and prices his tickets accordingly he sells out.  When he was presented as value worthy of donations only, nobody paid attention.  Think about your brand position and marketing approach, are they consistent?

Great News for the Corridor

By Julie hein

A Forbes blog says that Cedar Rapids is expected to see employment growth of 14.2% -- which is the best in the country.  The CR economy  is expected to grow by 30% over the next three years which is also the best in the country.  Sounds like we’ve got a great thing going on here!   We knew that.

Are you poised to take advantage of this?  Better get ready!

 

Trigger Happy

By Glen Gardner

Normally being "trigger happy" might not be such a good thing, but when it comes to marketing and effective advertising it can be a great thing.

Knowing what the buying triggers of your customers and potential customers are can be a great tool in making your marketing dollars go further. It can also make your advertising much more effective.

The triggers are the things that happen to people that will move them from being cold to hot when it comes to your product or service. An example would be body work. Until I either hit a deer or slide on the ice, I'm not a hot prospect for a body shop. Once one of those triggering events happen, then I'm all of a sudden in the market.

In the case of the body shop, talking about those specific events will make my marketing dollars more efficient. If I have repeated the message enough, people will associate my business with that triggering event. That's why it's so important to run consistent frequency. We don't know when that trigger happens, but we do know what it is.

The job of good marketing is to make sure you get the call when they are ready. So go ahead and be trigger happy!

--  Glen Gardner GG&A Public News Service YourNews.com Madison 608-848-8502 office 608-345-5291 cell 800-881-9146 fax gardner.glen Skype

Part two: Ask smart questions, they think you're smart. Ask dumb.......

By Kim Peterson

According to Jeffrey Gitomer's “Little Red Book on Selling”,

Here are the dumbest questions salespeople ask-and why they’re dumb:

·   Who are you currently using..?  Pre-call research should tell you that.  And maybe the prospect feels that’s none of your business.  Good start.

·   Are you satisfied with your present ….? Everyone will tell you they’re satisfied. So what?  Well, OK, if you’re satisfied, I’ll just leave and quit.

·   How Much are you currently paying for…?  None of your business #2.  Let’s get down to price as fast as you can.

·   Can I quote you on…?  Why send a quote- the next person who quotes 2 cents cheaper gets the business.  What about the value?

·   Can I bid on…?  Same as a “quote” only worse.  This is a 100% price driven sale.  Low margin.  Low commission.  Low percentage of success.  How low do you want to go?

·   Are you the person who decides about….?   Come on.  This is THE question that breeds the most lies.  The answer is most often “yes”, and the answer most often is false.  Why ask a question that breeds misleading information?  The correct question to ask is:  How will the decision be made?

·   If I could save you some money, would you…?  Every salesperson thinks that the customer will jump at the hint of saving money.  This tactic actually has a negative effect on the buyer and makes the salesperson work twice as hard to prove himself and usually at a lower price(and lower commission).

And the worse question of them all:

·   What would it take to get (earn) your business?  This question literally is saying to the prospect: “Look, I don’t have much time here.  Could you tell me the quickest way to get this order, and make me do the least amount of work possible to get it.”

 Sales Truth:  Salespeople become known by the questions they ask.

The sale is yours for the asking; all you gotta do is ask for it in the right way!

Chicago Just Got Closer

By Julie Hein
I know that our friend Eliot Keller is dancing in heaven as they announced federal funding for passenger rail from Iowa City to Chicago.  This is good for everyone.  Millenials who want to be close to the fun and shopping of a big city will soon (well, 2015) have a way to groove into Chi-town and back without the monotony of driving or paying all those annoying tolls.  One of the true joys of living here is that it's so close to everywhere--the Twin Cities, St. Louis, KC, Chicago. 

MAXIMIZING YOUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS

By Jeff Taylor

How do you get your loyal customers and advocates who love you talking about you more? Consider these ideas on how to get these advocates to help your business.

1. Create a Fan Club – Formalize an official fan club where you send your fan club "Fans Only" offers or even send them gifts.

2. Bring them to Your Store or Place of Business – Get to know them! Why not have a mixer where you invite them to your work to meet employees that work for you. People want to get to know who they are advocating so it’s important to put faces with names.

3. Early Deals – If you know you will be having a huge sale, why not reach out to your advocates a week or two earlier and give your deals to your VIP’s

4. Give them Schwag – Your loyal customers are going to likely use or, better yet, wear things with your logo on them. So if you got it, send it.

5. Thank Them – When an advocate has said something nice about you, why not send them a note? Sometimes a simple thank you goes a long way.

Event marketing, part 2 of 3

By Chris Law

Event Marketing, part 2 of 3

In my time with Z102.9 and 1600ESPN, I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of several events and live broadcasts.  Many went very well, others unfortunately didn’t.  Here I have a mini-list of things to consider before booking that live broadcast for your birthday bash.

1)     Make sure there is something in it for the customer.  Yes, we covered that in part one, but I need to mention it again here because frankly, it’s just that important.  Peoples’ lives are busy and if you want your customers to make an appearance at your party, they need to have a reason.  Free popcorn, free soda, and balloons for the kids just won’t cut it.

2)     YOU need to be the star of the show.  Few people will show up at an event just to see our on-air staff, and those that do typically aren’t your best customers.  Radio personalities are very good at talking to people over the air, so let’s get them talking about your event and the reasons your customers should stop by.

3)     The most important element of a live broadcast is the commercial package that comes with it.  Before people can attend your event, they have to find out about it.  Yes, some of your customers will hear about your event in real time with the live on-air breaks, but that pales in comparison with how many people will find out about it via the commercials we run before it.  A live broadcast without an up-front advertising schedule is nothing more than someone standing out front of your business with a really big megaphone.

4)     Don’t forget about your existing customers.  The most likely people to attend your event are those that already know and love you.  Let them know about your event well in advance via email, phone calls, signage at your place of business, newsletters, your webpage, Facebook, twitter, while they shop… you get the idea.

5)     Timing, timing, timing.  This can mean a lot of things.  Thinking about throwing a 1^st anniversary party for your winery?  That might be a problem if it’s located on a scenic and twisty road in the middle of January.  Putting together an outdoor event in June?  Better have a backup plan in the event of rain.  Thinking of a big Saturday sidewalk sale in Iowa City in the fall?  Better check that Iowa football schedule first.

6)     Make sure you are ready for it.  Live remotes can be great tools to help a grand opening get off the ground, but if things aren’t running smoothly they can do more harm than good.  Nothing is worse than having throngs of people show up to opening night at your restaurant only to find out the computers don’t work right, your servers don’t know the menu, and your head chef doesn’t know medium rare from medium well.

These things all appear common sense, yet anyone working in radio very long has been a part of an event in which some or all of these things weren’t considered.  In part three, I’ll share details of a few events I’ve been a part of--some that went well and others that didn’t.