Tom Feltenstein

Marketing blunders, boo boos, and snafus have plagued many a business over the recent years. I’m constantly amazed at how many companies make these simple marketing mistakes. Yes, they are funny, but instead of sitting back and laughing, take a moment and learn from the other guy’s mishaps.

Twenty years ago who would have ever thought of paying for a bottle of water? Now, prepackaged water is the standard and the thought of drinking from the tap is less than civilized.  On CNNmoney.com’s 101 Dumbest Moments in Business, they highlight an interesting blunder by Fiji Water. With every other bottled water producer showing pictures of natural springs, waterfalls, and clear mountain lakes touting their clean and refreshing water (though many are bottled in major cities), Fiji wanted to set themselves above their competition by running a magazine ad headlined, “The Label Says Fiji Because It’s Not Bottled in Cleveland.” Officials from Cleveland decided to combat that remark and ran a few tests on Fiji bottled water. The tests revealed that Fiji bottled water contained 6.3 micrograms of arsenic per liter, while the city’s tap water had none. The city released its finding to the media and battle was on, all be it short lived.

Fiji Water earns a Feinstein Folly Award for their witty yet incriminating retort stating that their own authorized tests found less than 2 micrograms of arsenic per liter.  Now granted this amount of arsenic can be compared to a drop in a swimming pool and has no adverse health effects, but the general public doesn’t think in those terms. They hear arsenic and think poison. Fiji may as well have slapped a skull and cross bones on their label.  What we can learn from this is if you’re going to compare your products to anything else, even a city, you’d better have your facts straight. The best marketing is done through creativity and imagination not thoughtless reaction.

I get more work done during the day than most people half my age. No, I’m not drinking a bunch of caffeine and I don’t drink green algae or take hourly B12 shots. I make effective use of my time. Hardly anybody matches my personal productivity, because they refuse to embrace my methods (most of which are just common sense). The one method that I take the most flack about is that I don’t have a computer on my desk. I don’t waste my time on the mind numbing daily internet surf or reading about if Tiger has another girlfriend. Instead I use my time wisely on the things that bring in revenue to my business or enhance my life in some way. Unfortunately, the majority of business owners don’t understand the importance of this thought process and wind up being slaves to their cell phones, laptops, and email. What a time drain!

I simply prioritize my day, figure out what’s really important and cut the rest out. If I don’t have time to do what has to be done, I immediately delegate it. This gives me the results I want as well as the freedom to enjoy doing what I want to do. There is a growing recognition that this constant obsession with being connected is more harmful than helpful. I recently saw a Frontline program on PBS featuring the research of a Stanford scientist who used MRI’s to demonstrate potential permanent damage to the very ability to think from too much computer time. Dare I say it; we can actually spend too much time on our electronic gizmos and gadgets. How many customers do people ignore or lose because they’re constantly texting or checking email? Who would you rather do business with, an actual person who takes the time to speak to you or Mr. Roboto who works you in between emails and texts?

This constant connectedness to the digital world is a never ending disruption of thought as well as a drain on your time and productivity. I say no more! Toss your laptops in the dumpster on the way home. Turn your cell phones off. Stop texting and start thinking. Revolt against the machine, take back your time and invest it in what really matters – your business.

One of the biggest excuses business owners use is that they don’t have time to learn new techniques to grow their business. I speak with many who flat out tell me that they can’t leave their business for even a few days.  They run around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to do anything and everything. This is nuts! The truth is they don’t run their business it runs them. It’s all about priorities. Do you feel like a slave to your business with no time to promote your brand or get new customers? Have you lost your focus on growth and become a mindless zombie wandering around blindly? Do your employees roll their eyes when they see you walk in the door and think “Oh no, here comes Major Micro-manage?” Why are you scared to let go and delegate? Your  main responsibility as a business owner is to hire the right people so you can put your efforts toward expanding your business.

I hire the best and brightest in the country. I don’t want to know how to upload photos, fix my computer, or ship orders. My best talent is spent meeting customers face to face and getting new business. If you don’t concentrate on your strengths, your weaknesses are going to crush you. Learning not to insist on control of every aspect and every decision is difficult for some business owners. To this, I say – SNAP OUT OF IT! Is your best time really spent standing in line at the Post Office or going to Costco to buy bottled water?

Evaluate your own capabilities and identify whether or not some of the tasks you spend so much time on are really moving you forward, or if they could be better performed by someone else. If you’re in business to make money, use your talents wisely and trust your employees to do their jobs. If you don’t trust them than why did you hire them? How much would your business grow if you were more focused, had more time, and less worry?

For literally decades I’ve heard everyone from CEOs to media experts talk about the fact that any publicity is good publicity.  Their misguided premise is built on the idea that as long as your name is in the news, and it doesn’t cost you anything, that it helps your business. Not only is this not true, the wrong kind of publicity can have devastating effects on your brand and your bottom line. Look at the recent problems Toyota has had with cars accelerating unexpectedly. While it is true that the issue has become an international media frenzy, it has also devastated the positive and superior brand that Toyota spent most of the last century building.

A year ago if I’d asked you what you thought of Toyota cars you might have used words or phrases such as: reliable, well-built, or great resale value. But what you would say today? If I offered to let you test drive a Prius or Camry right now, would you hop in the driver’s seat or would you think twice? Now think about the fact that the negative news stories about Toyota didn’t really start in earnest until the Federal Government recall in January of this year. What took almost a century to build has been devastated by bad publicity in a short three months.

Don’t let this happen to your brand! It takes a great deal of time and energy to build and sustain a company image and you must fiercely protect it from issues and problems before they garner unwanted media attention. This includes handling issues right up front and ensuring that your relationship with your customers is maintained. If customers perceive for one second that they are your last concern, then your business will soon be six feet under and the media will be all too happy to shovel dirt on the grave.

Your Front Line is Your Bottom Line

Overlook your front line employees at your own peril.  They’re the face of your business.  After all they are the men and women who interact directly with your customers, either in person or on the phone.  Your customers will remember the individuals who serve them long after they forget your latest advertising campaign.  It’s your job to make sure that the face of your business has a big smile on it.  Following are some simple, inexpensive tactics you can use to help keep your internal customers happy, so they’ll pass those smiles onto your customers.

Give every employee that works for you his or her own personal business cards. Now all the bosses seem to have them, but why, why doesn’t the person making an hourly wage have his or her own personal business cards?  I never understood that.  If you have a product that you would like for your internal customers to promote, put a stamp on the back so that the employees can give away one of the product. Let them give away, say, five free products a month to whomever they want. It builds their self-esteem, and it makes them part of the organization.  It’s little stuff like that that is so huge, more powerful than a TV spot when we can do that.

Make the first day on the job or the first paycheck really special. What about sending them out for dinner that first day with their family?  What about making it special so they’ll always remember?  Or what about a paycheck, that first paycheck that says, “Congratulations, Joanne, you did it,” and you put a Payday candy bar in there with it.  Why wouldn’t we do that?  Or the second paycheck: “Congratulations Joanne, two more weeks until the next one.”  Market to our internal customers.

Celebrating retention. After they’re with you for 90 days, give employees some type of really cool celebration and send the family out for dinner.  Or give them some little gift.  And do that over a period of time.  If you own a restaurant chain or you have a mom and pop coffee shop or a similar business model, let them bring in their entire family.  We need to start rewarding our folks more.  Or, if you happen to be in the retail business where you’re meeting customers all the time, one of my favorite tactics is to have a button that says, “I’m in training; thanks for understanding.”  Put it on your most experienced people. I love it when customers say, “My God, you’re in training and you’re really this great?  How did that happen?”  It’s a lot of fun, and it really works.

A few simple, inexpensive rewards will let your employees know that you care about them.  You’ll be amazed at how quickly they’ll show their appreciation by treating your customers like gold.  It’s a win-win situation for everyone!

Service is so awful, customers expect to be abused. Cold food in restaurants, dirty public washrooms, late deliveries, rejected parts, lost orders, lazy staff — it’s all normal. Bottom line, people expect bad and rude service. Give ‘em junk and they’re not surprised. Just what they expected. As long as the abuse isn’t any worse than they expected, they’ll be back for more. Your customers are a revolt waiting to happen. They’re only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing any better. Let’s start a change. I always say change what needs changing, not what’s easy.It’s not even about service anymore, because service is a mechanical skill, but hospitality is a heartfelt relationship that you have between two people.

I want to really move over and create a hospitality revolution. The key is to treat your internal customers as your most important customer. Once you have really have this process down, you can watch sales and profitability grow as your employees grow in terms of how they feel about working in your business.  Remember  your front line is your bottom line and many companies are using innovative and creative ways to show employees how much they’re valued. So, I really want to what are you doing to show that you value your employees?

I always say if you treated your external customers the way you treat your internal customers (or employees), you wouldn’t have any customers.

That is the key.  All great companies depend on great employees who will support products and services, and validate the brand.   Employees who are enthusiastic and gracious service providers make the greatest brand impression on consumers and are most effective and enduring, and ensuring repeat visits.

For successful companies, the most truly effective marketing starts with employees.  It has to.

Companies can do all the clever marketing in the world, but if your internal customers aren’t on board, engaged, and enthusiastic, the results will be unsatisfying for the brand.  And any executive who understands this aspect of four walls marketing tends to reap tremendous rewards.

What kind of marketing plan do you have for your internal customers?

Marketing is the message, but human beings with hearts and souls are the messengers.   We’re in the feeling business; everyone is.  We need to focus on the experience your customers and your employees have with you and your company.  Respect authenticity, empathy, being vulnerable.

So, I recommend a plan for everyone that I work with to always start with an internal customer survey.  You have a two-point prong here.  First, it’s recruiting, and I have lots to share about this subject later, and the other is all of those internal customers you have on board now.  How are they feeling about themselves?  We do all this external research, but we do not seem to do the internal research as we should.  Our role isn’t to measure employee satisfaction; it’s to create employee excitement.  So, the survey really gauges the self-esteem of the employees that becomes the litmus test for what happens next in the sales-growth plan.

Many clients are surprised when they find out that only 35 percent of their employees   would recommend their product, service, or business to their friends and families.

Look at the revolutionary power of employees Zappos has created!

I have been preaching the gospel of neighborhood marketing and strategic four walls branding for decades – even to many of my clients who do not have traditional physical locations. If you think your business does not have four walls, think again. Perhaps you are a real estate agent, the owner of a dating service, or a lawn care professional. Thanks to the Internet, everyone is capable of creating a virtual four walls location, and the same customer-attracting formulas that work for a brick and mortar store will work for you as well. Ask yourself the following questions and then think about how to initiate your own virtual four walls marketing strategy:

• Does your website look like Fred Flintstone invented it?
• Do your marketing support materials look like they belong to ten different companies?
• Does your vehicle fleet hold more empty coffee cups than a Starbucks warehouse?
• Do your employees show up at your customers’ homes dressed looking like they just go tout of bed
• Is Quasimodo answering your phone?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you are not using your virtual 4 walls to your best advantage.

The secret to successful tactical promotion is your ability to present a special benefit to your intended audience. And to succeed, you’ve got to make the right pitch to the right people.  You have to know what motivates them. Talk to your customers.  Listen to them.  Get to know their dreams, their frustrations, and their goals.  Messages that evolve from an intimate understanding of your audience have real pulling power.

Be specific.  Compelling promotions are precise, not watered down with generalities, multiple offers, or messages.  You must offer your prospect detailed facts and clearly focused, quantifiable claims. Singular messages have impact.

Sell the benefits.  To sell, you must clearly communicate your product’s benefits.  Your customers want recognizable benefits or advantages.  Don’t bore or distract them with minute details about your business or its employees or owners.  When was the last time you were motivated to patronize a company because the owner appeared in an ad and told you his family history?  Instead, tell me why your product or service is better or valuable or offered at a good price.

So when selling a new item or service, let your audience know how great the product is or how convenient or how speedy the service is.  Don’t sell features; sell benefits.  Features don’t sell, only benefits.