When it comes to creating an emotional brand experience, forget copy, taglines, imagery and brand iconography.

There's nothing like touching and feeling a product first-hand. Tasting the product is even better.  Especially when that taste is vaporized rubber and burning brake pads.

Of course you have to be a gearhead, enjoy automobiles and love driving.  That's why Audi's Driving Experience is perfect in terms of targeting and likely a big success in generating sales.

On Saturday, I attended Audi's complimentary two hour session at Summit Point racetrack in West Virginia, as the the result of an invitation I received as a current Audi owner.  I thought it would be a great way to spend a few hours on the weekend and get a ride in the 2009 A4.

Instead, I experienced a great example of experiential marketing and even witnessed a prospective Audi customer turn into a likely purchaser.

During the session, we had the chance to run the new A4 on an autocross track against three competitive models: Lexus IS250, Mercedes C300 and the BMW 328xi.  All models were comparably equipped and all featured all wheel drive.  While I admit an Audi bias going in, I found the A4 to be the best drive on the autocross track, showing a great balance of power, handling and luxury.

I drove in the car with a couple who were in the market for an automobile in that class and I was able to watch their preference swing very strongly to the A4 after they'd driven the other three models around the course.  It was clear to me that after driving the cars head-to-head--and a lot harder than they would get the chance to in a standard dealership test drive--that this couple was off the fence and preferred Audi for their next car.

Of course, that's exactly what Audi was hoping for. What I experienced with my co-driver was probably exactly the way Audi and Emotive white-boarded it in the planning stages.

After the autocross, we had the chance to go out and drive the A4 at speed on the racetrack for several laps, following a professional driver.  Talk about a great way to end the day, and not even have to worry about tires, fuel and brakes!

Of course, Audi ensured that the experience was all true to the brand.  The signage was beautiful.  The complimentary continental breakfast in the lounge reminded me of a luxury European hotel.  And all the furniture, including stainless steel tables and chairs, and modern white sofas was brought in specifically for the day.  Nothing at all was left to chance, even the use of high-tech iPod Touches to capture the post drive survey and the very cool Audi caps handed out as thank you gifts.  Vorsprung durch technik indeed.

What should you consider when undertaking an experiential marketing campaign?  My takeaways:

1. Budget appropriately. In order to do this right, Audi spent a fortune.  From purchasing competitive vehicles, to detailing them (they were impeccably clean), to the furniture, food signage and impeccably-groomed young staff, everything was perfect.  When you're trying to sell $48,000 cars, nickels and dimes spent on the presentation do matter.
2. Don't be afraid of the competition. Don't hesitate to let your prospective customers compare your product head-to-head, especially when you believe your product can stand up.  Bring in a reasonable set of the products likely to be cross-shopped and let your customers touch and feel those products as well.
3. Don't be afraid to guide the conversation. While you can let people make up their own minds about your product in relation to the competition, Audi did a fine job in the pre-drive briefing letting us know how to test the cars and what to look for.  Of course, Audi was bound to do well in that comparison because we knew what to think about during the drives.
4. Sweat the details. Is the coffee good?  The pastries of best quality?  Is the upholstery clean?  All of this matters and all of this costs almost nothing to get right.
5. Have a plan. The logistics of having hundreds of people come through to drive the cars must have been mind-boggling (the presenter indicated they brought 70 cars with them).  Yet, everything ran very smoothly.  Clearly, Emotive (the group that put together the day for Audi) had a lot of experience and a very good plan in place.

How have your experiential marketing experiences gone?  Have you had similar good experiences?  Or ones that went awry?

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OK, as a CMO you're going to be fired in ~23 months anyway.

But a recent study, carried out by Marketing Management Analytics, Financial Executive and Ed See, makes me think that more senior marketing executives should double-check the shine on their resume and perhaps consider a few more networking lunches in the near future.

A very brief summary of that report found in Ad Age frightens me and brings to mind a few courses of action that you can take today, if you find yourself in a similar situation.

A few quick points from the study follow. The CFOs interviewed said that:

• 9/10 of CFOs don't use marketing ROI metrics in development of marketing budgets.
• 7/10 don't use their company marketing forecasts for earnings guidance or public disclosures.
• 6/10 believe their marketing departments have inadequate understanding of financial controls.
• less than 4/10 said their company marketing forecasts were audit-ready.

From the CMOs and senior marketing leaders surveyed:

• Only 33% of CMOs reported "full cooperation and an open dialog" with finance in setting metrics and methodologies for marketing ROI calculations in 2008.
• Only 10% indicated that they could forecast the effect of a 10% cut in marketing spend.
• Only 14% said senior management had confidence in their firms' marketing forecasts.

To summarize:

1. CMOs ability to estimate their impact on the business isn't even of ballpark (+/- 10%) quality.
2. CMOs don't have a great grasp of providing accurate and reliable forecasts of investments that will pass reasonable audit scrutiny.
3. CMO's don't play well with others.
4. The CFO's have so little confidence in the marketers that they crunch the numbers with relatively little input from the marketing team.

So what do you do, if you're a senior marketing leader and find yourself in a situation like the above?

First, accept you have a problem.  Get with your CFO and let them know one of your top priorities is to fix the problem.  Make sure you both understand what the CFO's specific problems are with your marketing planning, forecasting, ROI calculations and assumption development processes.

Second, triage. Figure out what you're doing wrong, but as importantly, figure out what you're doing right (and I know you're doing a number of things correctly) and learn from those processes that are working well.  Work out a punch list with your CFO, and understand the "A" priorities.

Third, partner with your CFO to improve your process. I insist in the concept of the financial guys driving the calculations and modeling side of the equation, the marketing team leading the assumptions and scenario planning, and then a "team of two" on running the iterations of your plan or forecast.  (The marketing team should pressure test the calculations and the financial team should pressure test the marketing assumptions.)

Fourth, own the issue. As CMO or senior marketing leader, if your financial leadership doesn't trust your ability help get to clear marketing metrics and ROI calculations, it's your problem, not theirs.  Make it really clear that you own the forecasts, plans and budgets and that you'll be the one to be held accountable for the hits and misses--not the financial guys who built the models, nor can you blame the last CMO for problems.  It's on you.

So do you have problems with your planning and forecasting? Are you a financial pro who needs some help in improving the planning and forecasting competency of your marketing team?  Let's talk, here or on the phone.

photo credit: Gary Denness

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A recent article in the New York Times got me thinking about the psychology of marketing again, and how some basic principles are used or under-used in social media marketing.

"Warning: Habits May Be Good for You" explores how an anthropologist turned to marketing experts from CPG companies like Procter & Gamble to help increase the incidence of hand-washing with soap after using the toilet in the nation of Ghana to improve the health of children.  Obviously, this was an important effort and I was encouraged to see marketing practitioners as instrumental in helping achieve success in this endeavor.

As I was reading the article, it struck me that many of the techniques used are found in Robert B. Cialdini's classic Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. I'd lent out my copy a few years ago and, thankfully, had to buy a new version which includes an epilogue written by Dr. Cialdini in 2007.  My re-read then triggered a few thoughts on social media.

If the social media crowd can stop navel-gazing long enough to do some quick research and scientific work, boy will money be made. [More after the jump.]

Dr. Cialdini's research caused him to identify six key weapons of influence:

1. Reciprocation
2. Consistency
3. Social Proof
4. Liking
5. Authority
6. Scarcity

Many of his examples focused on face-to-face selling or just plain interactions with others.  When I first read the book (originally published in 1984) for the first time in 1995 or so, I was struck by the fact that my company at the time was using all six of those principles, but in various offline direct response channels.

We didn't intend to use Cialdini's principles; rather, we evolved into using them through years of scientific univariate tests.

Which of the six principles is most important to a social media startup? From what I can see, it's the concept of Social Proof.  Jason Calacanis becomes a Twitter advocate and, because several of his followers also pick up on Twitter, it soon provides proof to a certain circle that Twitter is a good thing.  Boom, the product takes off.

What's the problem with the concept of Social Proof in growing social media? Try this:  Ask anybody over 40 who's not a regular reader of Alley Insider, Valleywag or Paid Content what Twitter is.  My bet is you get a blank stare two out of three times.

Simply relying on Social Proof can get you pigeonholed within a very select segment of people.  Now, for companies that provide great services to that limited target audience, it can be very good business indeed. (See how Rafat Ali made out with Paid Content.)

The key is how to use the concept of Social Proof to expand beyond that initial, lucrative target audience and become more ubiquitous.

Summary and key takeaways

1. What's "old" is new again. Go back and do your research.  Classics of marketing and psychology are relevant today, just as the concepts they cover were 10,000 years ago.  Plus, with Amazon, it's now cheap to really build your library of information!
2. Consider how humans are hard-wired. When building products, services and delivery methods for those products, think about basic human infrastructure and how you can find the path of least resistance to your ideas.
3. Remember that great psychology can't overcome a bad product. You can certainly fool some of the people some of the time using some of Dr. Cialdini's "click, whirr" discoveries.  But that's still only going to take you so far.  Start with great products.

I'll look at more of Dr. Cialdini's concepts in the future.

In the meantime, how have you applied psychology in your marketing?  Or, when have you seen good (or clumsy) attempts been applied to you?

photo credit: HeffTech

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You plan for offensive operations, while you prepare to play defense.  You'll find this concept in both warfare and sports, and it's applicable in business as well.

I much prefer playing offense, because that's where you score and generate revenues. A strong business offensive plan also limits the amount of places you'll need to prepare to play defense, freeing up more resources for--you guessed it--playing more offense.

What's an example of planning as opposed to preparations in a marketing context?

A great example can be found in the United States Postal Service and the annual postage increases.  If you're using direct mail as a marketing channel, you can be sure of two things:

1. Postage will go up, driven by higher USPS costs and the rapid decline in the volume of first class mail.
2. Automation requirements will become more rigid, which limit your ability to be creative in your mail formats.

One of the key cost components of your direct mail marketing efforts is always going to go up (which it has done for years) and is going to go up more rapidly than in the past because of the USPS's need to cover labor costs and, now, energy price increases.

The USPS is trying to counteract the labor cost increases on their side by providing a bigger carrot for mailers who automate their mail more effectively and using a bigger stick (higher prices) on those who don't.

In the past, we used to counteract higher postage rates by getting more creative in the the formats we'd mail. Moving to heavier packages, with larger non-standard sizes paradoxically would counter the postage rate increases.  Not anymore.

So, what's the difference in "planning" for the USPS's annual price action vs. "preparing" for the same?

In "plan" mode, you understand what you're likely to face in the future and are testing for it proactively today. For example, at a past employer,  we knew the USPS was changing the automation requirements to require a certain amount of flexibility in the mailings or face significantly higher postage.  We were using a very rigid piece that was going to lose its automation discount and the price increase would have tanked our ROI.  So, we immediately began testing a number of different formats that met the flexibility requirements for next year, so we'd know the impact on our marketing ROI and could further develop plans to overcome any degradation.

In "prepare" mode, you've got to be ready for anything and then respond in a reactive way. You could prepare by figuring out what the price increase might be.  Or what the automation requirements might be.  Or any other number of things.  Being ready for too many options would suck away marketing resources into planning and analysis and away from the key task of acquiring more customers.  Plus, once you reacted, you still wouldn't know the impact on your ROI.  Rolling out untested responses to competitive or environmental changes is the number one way to destroy your marketing ROI.

Plan = Proactive = Offense

Prepare = Reactive = Defense

Summary and key takeway
When you have the choice, play proactively and play offense.

I'm not saying you shouldn't prepare for the unexpected, whether it be competitive efforts, consumer preference or even the weather.  Instead, you should be aggressively planning to launch new channels, acquire more and better customers and developing new and better products.  Then, on the planning side, be prepared for the 20% of things that could cause major disruptions to your business.

What do you think about the proper Plan to Prepare ratio?  Have you ever had an example where you suddenly realized you were preparing too much and, hence playing defense when you should have been playing offense?

photo credit: selena marie

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Today is the 64th anniversary of D-Day. I am appalled that none of my daily mainstream media reads (New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today) this morning had anything commemorating the event.

On June 6th, 1944, the brave men of the Western democracies began the liberation of occupied Europe in one of the most audacious and complex military operations the world will ever know. They beat back the forces of evil and tyranny and, through their sacrifices, helped give us the lives of peace and prosperity we enjoy today.

I was born over twenty-three years later, yet I will never forget.

There are countless stories of bravery and leadership, such as that of Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who insisted on arriving in the first wave on the beach to provide morale to the troops. He led men up the beach wearing a knit hat, supported by a cane and brandishing a .45.

Or Brigadier Lord Lovat, who together with his piper Bill Millen led his men into battle armed with bagpipes and a knife. You'd follow men like those into Hell itself.

What does all this have to do with Marketing? Only as a reminder that:

• Things never go as planned. (So be well-prepared and know your mission cold.)
• You can't be too prepared, because of the things that will go wrong.
• Personal leadership, at all levels, is the key to overcoming chaos.

Today, I'll remind my children of the importance of this day and begin re-reading Stephen E. Ambrose's terrific history of D-Day. I'll also read Ronald Reagan's famous speech at the 40th anniversary a couple of times.

What will you do?

photo credit: Zigar

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Today's article is a reminder that customer service, when done correctly, isn't an expense.  It can be your #1 marketing tool and put a wide moat between your business and your competitors.

L.L. Bean is the standard against which your phone support should be measured.

From their website:

Guaranteed.  You Have Our Word^TM.

Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way.  Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise.  We do not want you to have anything from L.L. Bean that is not completely satisfactory.

Unlike a lot of companies, L.L. Bean really lives by their guarantee.

I was preparing for our annual Outer Banks vacation this year and checking out our Bean Sunbuster shelter.  We've had it for four years--it's a fantastic product for use when spending long days in the North Carolina sun.

However, the last time we used it, one of the large fiberglass poles broke.  When I pulled it out today, I remembered that and decided to call for a replacement in enough time to receive it before we left for Nag's Head.

I called and immediately got a very courteous phone representative who found the part number in under one minute.  Secondly, he asked for my name.  The instant I gave him my last name, he confirmed my address--he'd apparently pulled my record up via the ANI when I called--and thanked me for giving him the correct pronunciation of my last name.

Before I could even ask the price, he let me know it would arrive at my home via FedEx on Saturday and was there anything else he could do?

The price? Gratis.

I asked about the price, and was more than willing to pay for a new pole.  No dice. L.L. Bean wanted me to be happy and refused to take my money.

In my entire interaction with the company, I didn't hear a representative worried about talk time, first call resolution rates or any of the nonsense you normally encounter in call center management.  He clearly owned the problem, cared about the problem and was empowered to make me happy.

Will I buy from L.L. Bean again?  Absolutely. (In fact this experience makes me think about why I'm not doing so much more frequently)  Will I tell others?  I just did.

Summary and takeaways

1. Treat customer service as a marketing investment.  Not an expense.  Give those front-line employees all the tools they need to keep your customers happy and let them have at it.  Treat product replacements as marketing, not a cost to be squeezed out ruthlessly.
2. Ignore the traditional call center metrics. Stop beating on your employees for talk time "infractions" and other petty nonsense.  Your customer service team is your key to success.  Treat them and pay them well and let them win for you.
3. Fire a few MBA's. Get rid of the people who come to you with "metrics" about why you can't do #1 and #2 here.  Take the money you save and use it to pay more to your customer service team.

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At one point during my college days I wanted to be an A&R guy for a record label.  My reactions to smoke-filled clubs and early-to-bed habits caused me to rethink that career option.

But music, and the marketing of it, has remained a lifelong interest.

Last night, my wife and I saw Duran Duran at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD.  This was her 11th or 12th time and my 10th time to see the band.

When you go to a Duran Duran show, you know you're going to see a great performance, an enthusiastic crowd and hit after hit.

What I didn't expect was a textbook example of creating and maximizing a marketing channel, and an example of how big a part luck plays in everything we do as marketers.

Creating a marketing channel.

Opening for Duran Duran was Your Vegas, a band from Leeds, England.  We sat down early to catch a few minutes of their show and thought they were pretty good.

At the end of their set, they thanked everybody for listening and said they'd be up at the top of the hill signing autographs and giving out free posters.  I listened to their call to action and headed up the hill to see the response, and purchase a CD.

I was pleased to see no aloof rock stars there.

That call from the stage created a long line in front of the entire band, where they took their time chatting with the fans, signing the free posters and CD's and taking photographs with the fans.  The band was gracious, appreciative, and seemed to be genuinely enjoying the interaction.  Further, their new CD was moving briskly from the stand next to them.

Will Your Vegas be the next Killers?  Luck will play a big role, but the band is doing everything right by:

1. Creating a face-to-face marketing channel, starting with their call to action from the stage
2. Engaging in CRM by getting face-to-face with 50-100 fans every night.
3. Making a small investment in posters and pen ink to support the campaign.

Luck and music.

Anna Ross, Simon Willescroft and Dom Brown joined the band as backup vocals, sax and guitar, respectively.  All are highly talented and excellent performers.  Ms. Ross has been touring with the band since at least 2005 as well.

Any of these folks could be headlining a show with their own band.  Why not, then, last night?

In a word, luck.

• Answering the right ad in a paper looking for a guitar player.
• Sitting next to the right person in grade school.
• Being in front of that guy in an audition.

Anna, Simon and Dom are surely doing fine touring with Duran Duran and have done everything right to prepare for success.  One or two breaks and they might be headlining.

The point of this?  The impact of luck on your marketing efforts can't be entirely eliminated, but can be minimized by proper planning and preparation.  Also, don't get down when things break the wrong way, as will invariably happen.  Go right back to planning for the next effort.

Summary and key takeaways.

1. Look for unique opportunities to talk with your target audience.  Don't necessarily think "sales channel", but instead find unique opportunities to talk with those who are interested in your products and services.
2. Prepare for the impact of luck.  Preparation won't eliminate the impact of luck on your campaign outcomes, but it will position you to capture the upside when things are working well.
3. Wear earplugs. Tinnitus (of which I have a mild case) is no fun and only gets worse over time.

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How can you tell if an offer is good, i.e., is a strong consumer offer that makes money?

The answer is when the organization making the offer continues to use the offer.  The case in point is Chrysler's "Let's Refuel America" $2.99/gallon gasoline offer, which I wrote about recently.

The offer was supposed to expire in early June, but based on early results--including 25% more web traffic and a 34% increase in Internet leads--the promotion has been extended through July 7th.

Apparently Chrysler has re-crunched the numbers and found the financial results worth continuing making what's turned out to be a very strong offer.  This is good news for the car buyer looking for a deal, the dealers who like the floor traffic and is good for Chrysler, as far as "moving the metal" goes.  (Overall, though, Chrysler is still in trouble.)

The takeaway is that Chrysler's promotion has, once again, proven the old direct response maxim: If you want to dramatically increase your response, dramatically increase your offer.

When was the last time you looked at your offer? How might you reallocate your offer cost to create a more exciting offer that's a true consumer benefit?
photo credit: epicharmus

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Guy Kawasaki, who is one of my favorite regular blog reads and speakers, is the author of The Art of the Start, which is a quick and worthwhile read for anybody thinking about starting up their own company.

One of the 10 things you should do, according to his book, is "Make Mantra." I absolutely loved this, because it accurately describes what all truly innovative companies are doing and, more tellingly, what a lot of big companies are not doing.

I think that Papa John's has "Made Mantra" with their focus on making it easy for the customer to order.  They've sold over $1 billion of pizza via their online ordering tools.  According to the CNN article, it's just the start of likely dozens of new ways a Papa John's customer can order.

Now that's a mantra--make it easy to order.

So what are you doing to make it easy for your customer to buy more of your products?  Or more often? Or more efficiently?

Guy Kawasaki talking about "Make Mantra" is below.

photo credit: ronnie44052

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If you've gone through the hard work of developing physical products for customers, why not take advantage of the low-cost and free Web 2.0 tools available to help increase adoption of your product and reduce your sales cycle?

A perfect case in point is Octane Fitness and their line of elliptical trainers.

We were in the market for an elliptical trainer for about 6 months, when we finally pulled the trigger in early April on an Octane Q37ce trainer.  Since then, we've been extremely happy with the investment.  I've found that a six-day-a-week workout routine is easy to maintain and have seen marked improvements in my level of cardiovascular fitness.

So why did it take 6 months to purchase a product that I; a) really wanted; b) really needed; and c) is a terrific product that fits my needs exactly?

After reflecting for a month and doing some additional research, it's clear that Octane could have cut the sales cycle down to under a month.  Here's how.

Our month and a half with the product has been great. It's sturdy, has a number of very usable electronic training programs and it fits both Mary Beth and I quite well.

The key product benefit for us? It has narrow pedal spacing, which makes the stride very comfortable for both myself (5' 8") and Mary Beth (4' 11").

Of course, neither of us knew that pedal spacing was important (to us, anyway) or the other features and benefits of a trainer that might be important.

And we didn't find the answer when we started doing some basic searches for information about elliptical trainers.

This is the point where we get into the marketing of elliptical trainers and where Octane Fitness could easily improve their efforts.

AIDA and SEO

Let's see where Octane Fitness could have done better in the old AIDA model through some simple improvement in their SEO and other online marketing tactics.  We got stuck in the "A" part of the funnel for a number of months, even though we were intent on buying home fitness equipment.

Attention/Interest

Try some searches on elliptical trainers or for elliptical trainer reviews.  The search results, whether you use Yahoo or Google are disappointing and confusing.

The SERPs return mostly SEO'd pages from various manufacturers or online retailers that clearly don't offer any real consumer point of view on the best elliptical trainers.  The landing pages are mostly garbage and devoid of objective information.

Within a few minutes of searching, I came to the conclusion that the entire fitness equipment industry was somewhat sleazy.  Not an environment conducive to immediate purchase decisions and I froze here while I tried to figure out who to trust for unbiased information on the product category.

How could Octane do better to improve Attention and Interest? A few quick suggestions:

1. Build an online community.  It doesn't have to be complex.  It could be as simple as a Yahoo or Google group or a message board.  Get some deep and unique content generated about the benefits of the products.  As that takes hold, real consumer information will start to show on the SERPs and will counteract the impact of sleazy SEO tactics.
2. Improve/start SEM efforts.  I just checked and still see zero efforts by Octane in SEM.  Create a thoughtful SEM strategy that targets consumers at key points in the purchase cycle funnel with the right information to counteract the SEO efforts of the competition.  Octane could have driven me to the right retailer in our area, Fitness Resource, to demo the product.

Decision

How do people decide on which product to buy?  Increasingly, it's through word-of-mouth (or blog).  Octane has to get it's satisfied customers (like me) to write and blog about their products.

How can Octane get customers to blog about their products and participate in community?

1. Launch an effective email program.  I registered my trainer online the day after it was delivered.  As I write this, I haven't received a single communication from Octane.  Why not email me to thank me for purchasing?  Or encourage me to participate in their online community?  Or ask a trainer how to make better use of my purchase?
2. Build the online community. Give people a chance to talk about their product and how to use it.  When prospective customers identify with a current product owner and get an honest and unbiased review of the product, it opens the door for Action.

Action

The key to driving action is to give me an immediate reason to buy today.  If you check out Elliptical Trainer Deals on Yahoo search, nothing from Octane or Octane retailers pops up.

How can Octane Fitness drive action?

1. MDF to retailers for use in SEM.  Provide your retailers MDF to spend on SEM and for incentives, such as free home delivery or a free floor mat, to drive traffic to the stores where the sales people can close the sale.  This is a particularly good tactic if you're not doing any SEM (as appears to be the case with Octane) or if you sell through retailers instead of direct to consumer.

Summary and key takeaways

As you can see, building great products is just the start.  Even manufacturers of physical goods need to use new "pull" marketing techniques to complete the sale.  A quick checklist:

1. Are you using your database? If you're asking for customer information and they give it to you, are you taking the time to thoughtfully engage the customer in a conversation about the products?
2. Give the customers a chance to talk with each other. Even if the interaction between your customers isn't always positive, you have the opportunity to learn about how your products are being perceived in the marketplace.  And if they're collectively raving about the product, you'll rise above the SEO noise screen your competitors might be tossing up.

Are there any products you've used that could benefit from the free/low-cost techniques available now?  How would, say, manufacturers of industrial pumps take advantage of Web 2.0 in their marketing?

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