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Articles filed in: Marketing
Consumers Don’t Just Want Better Products, They Want Better Narratives
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
Sixty years ago, when the world was smaller, people wanted to pay once for something and for the thing to last. We transitioned to an era where we no longer knew as much about the provenance of a product. That fact changed our perception and expectations of quality. We were a little more forgiving as long as the price and the quality story matched. Today though consumers want both.
It’s not enough to have a great product, that’s well-made. Savvy customers want to know its backstory. More and more people are keen to understand that the things they invest in were made with care and intention. They want the product story to reflect an understanding of the context of their story. They want us to demonstrate that we know why they are buying this particular product, and how it shapes their lives and their narrative.
Customers don’t just want us to make things better. They want us to have and tell better stories.
Image bt Trekking Rinjani
Who First?
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
The realisation of an opportunity to solve a problem for a specific group of people is at the heart of every business success story. Sometimes the potential customer already knows their problem or need exists, but often they are not actively looking for a solution.
It’s hard to give answers to people who are not asking questions.
As a marketer, you have two choices. You can convince the non-believers that they want what you have, or you can find and serve a core group of people who are open to trying something new or different—then help them to succeed wildly and give them a story to tell.
The Colour Run started with one event and 6,000 participants in 2011. The following year 600,000 participated at 50 events across America. It turned out that a lot of people felt excluded from running events, but they would take part if events were less competitive and more fun. Those first customers were the hardest to get and the most important to please.
Who are you planning to reach first and what story will you give them to tell?
Image by Thomas Hawk.
The 12-Word Business Plan
Have you ever struggled to illustrate or articulate how your business or idea creates value?
This 12-word framework is the simplest way to do it.
Take a look at how we could map Blue Apron’s business plan using the 12-word framework.
Blue Apron’s 12-Word Business Plan
OPPORTUNITY
People want to eat healthy, home cooked meals, but they don’t have the time and skills to cook.
CUSTOMERS
Health conscious, time poor, couples and families in urban centres.
SOLUTION
Fresh, competitively priced meal kits, conveniently delivered to the customer’s door every week.
EXECUTION
Step-by-step recipes designed to help customers succeed and save time on meal planning.
Seasonal ingredients sourced directly from farmers and producers. Freshness and quality are assured.
Portioned ingredients, means no waste.
Customers choose and pre-order kits online, saving time on meal planning and grocery shopping.
Free delivery at times to suit customer’s schedule. No more battling traffic and supermarkets.
Healthier, more convenient, fun and less wasteful than meal planning, shopping, and preparation.
We win by sourcing well, bulk purchasing, predicting demand, managing distribution, scaling, supporting suppliers and delighting customers.
Over to you. What does your 12-Word Business Plan look like?
Image by Giselle Leung.
A Question Of Tactics
When marketers had no choice but to pay thousands of dollars each year for print, TV or other forms of conventional advertising they had to discern which media to invest in and why.
The good ones had a strategy. The rest dabbled.
In a digital world though, it seems like every day there’s another opportunity to expand our reach for free. A new platform to try, another channel where the eyeballs are—a place where you should have a presence. And so we invest time (which of course is not free), executing on tactics in the hope of making gains we haven’t yet clearly defined. A strategy should still come before tactics.
7 Questions to ask before allocating marketing resources
1. Why should we invest in this channel or platform and why now?
2. How will this benefit our brand?
3. How will this benefit our customers?
4. How will we measure if it’s working?
5. What’s the opportunity cost of devoting resources here and not there?
6. What other opportunities exist to invest in growth by delighting existing customers?
7. If this is the right thing to do, how are we going to be the best in the world at it?
Do you have a plan or are you just dabbling?
Image by Hernán Piñera.
Marketing Inversion
When Amazon.com was still in its infancy, Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder and CEO had this to say; “In the old world, you devoted 30% of your time to building a great service and 70% of your time to shouting about it. In the new world, that inverts.”
Shouting brought us Pop Tarts, Alka Seltzer and Sardine & Mackerel flavoured Entrée cat food, that’s 8% crude protein, packaged in the Flavor-Lock™ pouch. Building on the other hand, gave us 1-Click ordering, Kindle and free shipping.
Are you spending most of your time building or shouting?
Image by Megan Trace.
Why How Matters
How you design the product changes how it feels to use it.
How you train your staff changes how the customer is treated.
How you answer an email changes how the recipient responds.
How much of yourself you bring to work changes how you perform.
In a world where more people understand the impact of how they do things everything changes.
Image by Benedicto de Jesus.
Trust Vs. Hype
Malcolm Gladwell announced his new podcast last week. Before the first episode even aired it had jumped to #2 in the iTunes charts, topping long established shows like This American Life.
It’s not just Gladwell’s record for writing bestsellers that’s driving people to the podcast. It’s that we trust him to produce nothing but great work that’s worth our time. It’s possible for one person to build a reputation the preceds him without the use of a megaphone. Gladwell has done it by earning our trust, word by word, line by line, article by article, book by book, over twenty years.
Yes, hype is more immediate than trust, but in the long run trust is a more sustainable strategy.
Image by Sebastiaan ter Burg.
Getting On Your Customer’s Radar
Many brands believe the biggest challenge they have is creating more brand awareness. If they could only get on the radar of potential customers then many of their problems would disappear. And yet brands like Macy’s and Ralph Lauren that have built awareness for decades are struggling to remain viable. Their biggest problem isn’t getting on the customer’s radar, it is (and has been for some time) keeping the customer on their radar.
The brands that have thrived and become important to us in recent times remain relevant because they see us, not because they made us more aware of them. We succeed by understanding how to create value, joy and connection not simply by being more visible.
Image by Anthony Quintano.
The Heart Of Customer Loyalty
Despite everything we know about the benefits of fostering customer loyalty, most of our marketing is designed to change what people think or do in the short term. We change the label from white to yellow to get a millisecond more attention. We offer discounts on product lines we want to shift and when we run out of reasons for people to buy, we invent them.
If you’re playing the long game you have to dig deeper and think about changing how people feel—not just about your brand, but about themselves in its presence. A beloved brand aspires to change how people feel, not only to manipulate what people think and do.
People come back because they feel like it, not because we made them.
Image by Baily Cheng.
How To Reach Your Customers
Here’s how our customer’s time was spent across the various media platforms in 2015.
Print 4%
Radio 13%
TV 36%
Internet 22%
Mobile 25%
Here’s where we spent our dollars trying to reach them.
Print 16%
Radio 10%
TV 39%
Internet 23%
Mobile 12%
While we’re spending money in places where fewer of our customers are engaging (print and TV), we’re missing opportunities to meet them where they are (mobile). According to Meeker’s Annual Internet Trends Report, this represents a $22 billion opportunity in the US alone.
The best way to reach your customers is to meet them where they are.
It might not be where you assumed they’d be.
Image by Pieter van Marion.