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April 27, 2007

Are YOU A Luddite?? (Marketers Take Special Note!)

I don't think of myself as a Luddite (From Wikipedia definition..."The Luddites were a social movement of English textile artisans in the early nineteenth century who protested — often by destroying textile machines — against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt threatened their livelihood.").

Just wanted to start off that way. I graduated from an Ivy League school, have a graduate degree in Chemistry, and have been an entrepreneur for 20+ years. I know how to use by DVD player, installed my home office network, have a Sonos wireless music distribution system in my house and have a Rhapsody subscription license.

But, as I was catching up on Robert Scoble's now-famous blog (Scobleizer)...started when he was a Microsoft Technical Evangalist and now maintained from his new post as VP of Media Development at PodTech.net...I began to feel like one. His May 24 posting "Google Tracking My History" is valuable for anyone who's business is touched by the Internet (read...everyone.)

I didn't know about Google History (heck, Seth Godin already has a History history...). I had not yet signed up for my Twitter account, and so, even as a pretty forward-thinking marketer, I did not know what Twitterment was.

Now that I have flogged myself mercilessly, let me note that I often work in industries that are pretty "conservative." And as a reader, if you had never heard the term Luddite, have never visited Wikipedia, did not know who Robert Scoble was, did not know Seth Godin, aren't familiar with Google applications, never had heard of Twitter or did not get the Rhapsody reference...then I suggest that you start looking for work in a textile factory.

The point? The next generation of marketers are entereing the workforce. Check our this year's Brandweek list of "Marketers of the Next Generation." (If link broken, let me know...) Some of their tactics scare even me, but if you find their work offensive or silly or useless....then you are not connected to the changes that are coming. As with any revolution, this one will be fueled by information and what most of us over 50 types need to remember is that human knowledge accumulates and it is accelerating the pace of learning. Marketing as we know it is being turned upside down and you need to shake off the dust and start learning the new tools. They may not all apply immediately for you...but awareness is the start.

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April 26, 2007

You Don't Want To Buy A Drill, You Want To Buy A Hole....

Rabert Faletra is the Channel Group President at CMP, publishers of the tech industry's most august publications. (CRN, VARBusiness and others). Their ChannelWeb.com website is a very nice online resource for tech industry VARs (and obviously an ad destination for the industry's myriad suppliers...).

In his April 16 editorial in CRN (formerly Computer Reseller News if you are not familiar with the publication), he exhorted readers how important it is to take discussions away from technology...or "best of breed"... and to get them onto subjects that matter to customers. He had a great line: "Selling technology is a raffle." How true.

Unfortunately, it is amazing how badly many companies are at delivering on that simple-sounding strategy. It turns out, as salespeople, we are conditioned to want to sell "products" and not "solutions". It reminds me of the classic story about Ted Levitt's Harvard Business School exhortation to his students, "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole." Since we can't buy "holes", we buy "drills"...but that doesn't change what is important to the customer...it's the result, not the tool. So why is it that copier dealers want to sell "MFPs" or car dealers want to sell "SUVs"?

For one, it's easier. If you are trying to sell a prospect on the quality of your "upscale, aspirational transportation" it can be confusing versus talking about the Escalade's elegant interior or tricked-out ride. It's hard to talk about "optimized document production process" versus your "low-cost, 25 PPM multifunction printer with ADP, finishing and high-volume paper tray". And besides, most manufacturers love to talk about their "stuff". Just like a bunch of men talking about "who's bigger" they forget that "size doesn't matter." (Female readers...apologies for the reference...but I couldn't resist the analogy.... ;-)

However, the times they are a' changing. Customers are getting smarter and information transparency makes it easy to learn product specs and subsequently bargain on price like a buyer in a Marrakech souk. Failure to get a customer to talk about the issue they are trying to solve makes it hard to compete on other than easily commoditized features/benefits.

As Bob Faletra said, "Solve problems, but never sell technology." Good advice for people in lots of industries...tech and beyond.

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April 23, 2007

Dealer 2.0 -- The Web 2.0 Remake of Dealers As We Knew Them

It has been a little over two weeks since my last posting...an inexcusable lapse for any true "blogger." I have been on the road a tremendous amount -- visiting customers, making sales calls, spending time with suppliers and also executing projects. It was an exciting time that left me with many ideas for writing about.

Last week, I presented a customer a new concept for their channel partner programs: "Dealer 2.0". The idea behind this was the fact that Web 2.0 phenomena are requiring distribution channels to evolve and adapt. Here is my thinking.

Operating in the world of channel marketing, I see a dizzying amount of change happening...and and equally amazing amount of disorientation. Customers are spending more time online researching and planning their purchases. That means that the dynamic of what a dealer, retailer or distributor needs to do to be successful is different. Customers are not so easily "bamboozled." Real-world customers want different types of support today, not just help picking out whether they should buy the 28 PPM or 35 PPM multifunction printer model, or the Metallic Blue or Gunmetal Grey paint on their new SUV. Add to this the fear of sales disruption that is pervading many manufacturers. As manufacturers jockey for stability in sales, they are continually rejiggering their channel programs -- at the same time that market forces are also disrupting routine operations. Not a pleasant combination for the channel partners.

My Dealer 2.0 concept is built around the fact that distribution channels must think about the value they add. There is not room for "dumb" channel partners who simply add cost without commensurate value. Pricing transparency brought on by the Internet has made it increasingly difficult to integratre simple "markups." I encourage people to leverage Ted Levitt's venerable whole product concept when thinking this through. For example, the following diagram is a whole product mapping for an office products dealer:

The old standby of "a good product at a good price" (think Wal-Mart) is no longer enough...even for Wal-Mart. The Dealer 2.0 concept is a valuable one for both ends of the distribution chain. As a manufacturer, are your programs adapting to meet the needs of an evolving, increasinlgy electronic-tools savvy set of partners? As a dealer, are your programs and customer service initiatives evolving to meet the demands of an increasingly savvy customer base?

I have long believed that "where there is change, there is opportunity." But, seizing the opportunity can be a scary thing.

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April 6, 2007

A Lesson in Web 2.0 Marketing...From A Car Dealer! (Rated R ;-)

Regular readers know that I rail frequently about the need for dealers (in any industry) to get a message out that speaks of THEIR value and avoids copycat product-babble.

So alas, I present to you the video component of a promotional campaign for Clay Automotive, courtesy of our friends at AdRants.com and Catch Up Lady, that simply and humorously demonstrates the art of local promotion. This viral video, and the associated Website (www.dontgettaken.com) are humorous while also being informative and highly differentiating. This is dealer marketing at its best and a real lesson for channel marketing professionals.

Who wouldn't want to buy from these guys....

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E-Mail Marketing: Coming Of Age??

I read about the latest Forrester report on e-mail marketing, "Email Marketing Comes of Age" in DMNews Online and was pleasantly surprised by some of the data: click-through rates remain steady (since 2003) at around 5%; e-mail readers spend over 138% more on products they see advertised in e-mail than their non-e-mail marketing counterparts.

However, the line I keyed on was from Shar VanBoskirk, the Forrester analyst who authored the report, "The responsibility of marketers today is to think strategically about how to incorporate e-mail into an overall marketing program and how to reap the benefits of a good e-mail program." Why?

E-Mail marketing is unlike other media because low cost is quickly leading to heavier and heavier use. Diana Dilworth in DMNews noted that the Forester report identified that 94% of its surveyed marketers are using e-mail marketing. While that number is obviously skewed by their sample set, (I know lots of small business who are not doing "e-mail marketing" in any classical use of the term) it is fair to say that the medium is getting a lot of attention. And as I noted, that worries me. Volume in e-mail is hard to "ignore" so it is unlike advertising...and unlike direct mail, it's low cost makes it easy to do regularly.

Which leads to my thought that the greatest threat to e-mail over time remains misuse by larger marketers (I have gotten 7-8 Gevalia e-mails in the last month) and plain old use by small businesses, non-profits and other organizations. As noted in a previous post, with over 24 million small businesses in the US, if each sent you one e-mail per year, you would receive an average of 652 e-mails every day. Overuse will not only force a restructuring of the medium, but it will also create weary consumers who begin to tune out the medium. And THAT, as advertisers everywhere are already experiencing with traditional media, is a REAL threat.

So, what to make of MarketingProfs blog author Roy Young's posting titled "The Biggest Threat To Email Marketing..." in which he identified the threat as "the failure of marketers to "market" email as a communications vehicle to senior management." I know lots of CEO's who will take the raw numbers and encourage increased use (reactive management at its best.) But, the answer is not in MORE e-mail, but in BETTER e-mail. That may be implied in Roy's post, but it was worth emphasizing.

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