Don't forget WHY your customers buy from you

What is the major reason a customer makes a purchase that most advertising misses?

Ask that questions of any sales, advertising, PR, Promotion and marketing person you know. You'll hear price, convenience, timing, need and more, but the answer is almost always perceived or real benefit to be received. Will it make us healthier, sexier, stronger, faster, look better and so on?

The failure in most marketing communication is a focus on features not the benefit. This should be as obvious as the nose on your face. It is commonsense. It is too rarely used.

Don't forget the benefits!

Use Coupons to Your Advantage, but Don't Forget the Expiration Date - Dumb Marketing Move

This week’s Dumb Marketing Move goes to Speedy Lube.

It’s really for something simple, but that’s marketing.

“Marketing is all the exhilarating big things and all the troublesome little things that must be done in every nook and cranny of the entire organization.” – Theodore Levitt, The Marketing Mode 1969.

Speedy Lube did a great job; they placed their coupons on windshields of all the cars parked within 5 blocks of their shop. Great idea but after examining their coupon I noticed the expiration date, 12/31/2010. I got this in January of 2010. Coupons are handed out to generate sales quickly, and to also create brand awareness. With an entire year to use these coupons, I’m going to forget about it and never redeem this coupon, or worse, never visit the store or in this case the mechanics.

Lesson Learned: When creating a coupon, don’t overlook the expiration date. For a retail store, use a month for a good expiration date. For a mechanic, use a 3 month expiration date for savings on an oil change, since it is recommended to get one every three months. For the bigger repairs, think about a longer lead but the main thing is, get customers in the door. Also, think about the small items; offer something like $1 off of motor oil. Just don’t forget to create a sense of urgency!

Kill the Messenger

Good management wants feedback from customers, and vendors but especially from their employees and not just with good news. When something isn’t working, especially in marketing activities, you want to know it ASAP. 

When the reaction is known to be retribution instead of appreciation how often do you think you will be told of a small problem before it blows up into a big mess? Get smart and create the right environment …. or get out and let someone with brains and character step in.

Survey Your Customers - Dumb Marketing Move

This week's Dumb Marketing Move goes to Deep Spring, a product of Coca-Cola.

Sometime what one considers a "dumb" marketing move is really a result of a management that doesn't pay attention to its business or worse has a lack of a communication channels that consumers, trade customers or their own employees can't make them aware of an ongoing problem with their product or service.

These thoughts went through my mind when recently on a business trip to Australia the following scenario took place.

I was staying at Jupiter's Casino Hotel in the Gold Coast, an upscale establishment and I was fortunate to be staying on their "Executive" floor which had certain benefits such as continental breakfast, the availability of snacks during most of the day and non-alcoholic beverages all day long. It was the latter where the tale began. I went to the refrigerator in the late afternoon and took out what looked like a refreshing fruit based drink named Deep Spring - Orange and Passion Fruit. I took it back to a table with some snacks and sat down to relax and enjoy the great view. I tried to twist the cap off but after 5 minutes of trying gave up. Now I am 5'11", 200+ lbs, exercise on a regular basis, consider myself relatively strong, so it was a little embarrassing to ask the petite hostess for help. She then told me, as she got out a tool to open it that everyone has the same problem. She said it is literally impossible to open without a handy tool.

What surprised me is this is a product of Coca-Cola, one of the more astute marketers of beverages. But for whatever reason they don't seem to know about this situation or if they do they are ignoring it. Thus they get ore "Dumb Marketing (or Management) Award".

Lesson Learned: You want your company to be user friendly! Don't forget to survey your customers on customer satisfaction. You might be surprised what you find out about your product or service. You might want to keep it anonymous to get the true feelings of your customers.

SIMPLE Website Design

Don't you just love those beautifully designed websites with all the animated, and flash (whatever) technology that takes you forever to navigate the site?

There is an old marketing maxim you might want to try when developing your site, It is known by the acronym K.I.S.S. or Keep it simple stupid! 

I'm sure you're all much more smart than that though...cause this is common sense!

Dumb Marketing Move - Exhibitor

This weeks Dumb Marketing Move goes to Exhibitor Magazine, but in reality reflects a growing problem in companies who use direct mail.

Recently, I received not one but two of the same magazine from them. At first, I thought they might have had two different names on it, maybe one for me and one for another employee. NOPE! They were both to me, to the same address but had slightly different company names.

This is a quality publication full of valuable information, but in these tough economic times they do a disservice to themselves and their advertisers. Why? A mailing list that is not cleaned up on a regular basis wastes money and reduces the quality of the audience advertisers are paying to reach. With employee turnover at an all time high and companies consolidating it is more important than ever to be sure one's mailing list is clean. Not to do so is a …Dumb Marketing Move … and for that reason Exhibitor Magazine has been nominated to this "award."

Lesson Learned: Although list clean up is a messy job, but it saves money, time, and it assures your message is getting to the right person and is being heard. Time to get cleaning!

Dumbest Marketing Move, 1/8/10

What does your URL say about you??

Well, today's DUMB Marketing Award goes to whorepresents.com for their URL!

They may have had something in mind when they obtained this URL, but what does it spell out? As a simple web-surfer I see WHORE Presents. Just imagine, they're getting a lot of traffic to their site that isn't relevant because they aren't in the whore business but some might think they are with that URL. They might even be losing money from their pay-per-click ads from people misreading their website.

It actually spells out WHO Represents. Here's their logo.



Well. it makes a little bit of sense once you see the logo. At least they were smart enough to capitalize the R. Overall, I think this is a dumb URL and yes, URL's are part of your marketing mix.

Lesson Learned: Pay attention to how things might be misread in print, internet and everything in between. Your URL is like naming your kid, you don't want them to be teased, and you definitely don't want your URL to make the DUMB Marketing Move list.

Best, Curmmie

Curmmie Speaks on Websites and Customer Service

The Marketing Curmudgeon shares his thoughts on website and customer service.



Main Entry: cur·mud·geon
Pronunciation: \(ˌ)kər-ˈmə-jən\
Function: noun
1 archaic : miser
2 : a crusty, ill-tempered, and usually old man

Dumbest Marketing Move, 1/1/10

This week’s Dumbest Marketing Move goes to……I don’t know! We don’t know what company this is on the billboard. (pictured below). Maybe they thought it was a clever billboard, but they are really missing the boat and it was an expensive trip. PLEASE LET US KNOW WHO THIS IS IF YOU KNOW. We will send them a dumb marketing move certificate in honor of this award!

Four major flaws in this billboard are that there was no logo included, no contact info or website, too much copy and it required too much thinking. Billboards are one of the hardest forms of advertisement out there and this billboard brings that point home. Billboards require the most creative thinking in copy writing. You must be succinct, saying what you need to say in a few words. You have less than 3 seconds to get your point across to your audience, even if they're only driving 35 mph.

Lesson Learned: Keep your copy short, dummy proof it, make it obvious what it is for, and use a visual! Visuals on billboards speak louder than words, unless your words are clear and concise. Here’s an example of a good billboard, which was picked because off the top of my head I didn’t know this logo but the message still came cross loud and clear!

Best, Curmmie

Mimic Marketing & Poor Attitude

Are Mimic Marketing & Poor Attitude Factors in today's economy?

The better question is mimic marketing, the act of imitating your competition, one of the reasons for so much poor performances in the marketing arena? Is the trend to imitate, rather than originate or innovate, a factor contributing to the down economy?

Do you believe, as I do, that the key to out thinking the competition rather than outspending them is one's attitude on how one approaches the marketplace? Is it an open-minded attitude willing to consider change or one that is frightened of change even though change is a constant? Is it one willing to think outside-the-box and on a larger scale or is all the thinking focused on small thoughts or a fear of being different because they feel safer? Is the procrastination in making a decision due to an attitude of avoidance of taking any risk? What are your thoughts?


Best, Curmmie

Dumb Marketing Move of the Week, 12/08/09

This week’s dumbest marketing move goes to Netflix!

They’re a great company and have done some pretty good marketing, such as The Wizard of Oz anniversary where they allowed everyone to view the free stream of The Wizard of Oz on the day of the anniversary. But this one definitely takes the cake.

In the photo below, you can see that they are attempting to have a referral program. The only problem is you get nothing for referring your friends and family. Even if it’s a $1 off your subscription for a month. . .they literally give you nothing in return! Oh wait, there’s a circle that says “Thanks for sharing Netflix”.

So, I’m supposed to give out these handy FREE month’s subscriptions to my friends and family, which you can already get if you just go to their website?? What am I missing? From my understanding, you can’t even start a membership without having a free month. Sorry guys, you need to do better than that for me to want to share this. Three cheers for the dumbest marketing move!!

Moral: Don’t forget the “WIFM” effect, “What’s in it for me?” Referral programs have a broader reach if you give a reward to loyal customers, who may eventually become brand advocates.

Best, Curmmie

Features VS. Benefits, Which is Better??

Why is it that so many advertisers have failed to grasp the basic understanding that people don't buy features, they buy benefits

If features are communicated from the advertiser's perspective rather than benefits of the targeted audience's perspective, they are doomed to failure or at best minimal success. After all the singular most important interested the individual has is themselves and that which will benefit their lives and those they care about. It is just common sense. . .which unfortunately has become the uncommon factor in most marketing efforts.

Best, Curmmie