Web Site No-Nos

As we enter into 2008, I want to once again encourage those businesses that have put it off for another year to get their web sites up-to-date. You do not have to do much to make your site 200% better for your current visitors and prospective buyers to want to enlist your products and services. 

If you don’t want to hire a professional (like myself), please consider making sure your site:

1. has a white or light background color. Your background should not be competing with your words or images.
2. uses limited blinking/flashing/animated objects. It hurts downoad time and distracts people from what you’re trying to sell. 
3. uses proper spelling and grammer. Print out the pages and proofread!
4. that every page has navigation. Nothing is worse than sending a prospect to a page where the only way to leave the page is to leave your site.
5. where all the links actually work especially those going to outside sources. A few poorlinks and people wonder how updated your material is.
6. update your copyright at the bottom to 2008.

 Web sites have proven to be one of the easiest and viable ways to gain new customers. Isn’t it worth your time and some investment? Just having a programmer who can code your site is not enough. Invest in a professional to develop a site plan for you that includes how to keep it fresh, compelling and create a look that says this is a professional company you should trust and buy from.

Higher gas = lower consumer confidence

Some helpful highlights from the BIGresearch May Consumer Intentions & Actions Survey.

• 33.3% of consumers say they are worse off financially than they were a year ago.
• 18% say they only buy apparel on sale, up from April’s 16.8%.
• Drivers are supplementing spending at the pump with dollars earmarked for savings and not cutting back so much on other purchases. Fewer than a third (32.2%) are focused on paying down debt, down from last month (34.0%) and May ‘06 (37.1%).

• Grads may be receiving laptops, digital cameras, and perhaps even a wide screen TV. Expect parents to make their Electronics purchases at Best Buy, where almost a third (29.1%) of consumers shop most often, gaining from 25.6% last year.  Second is Wal-Mart with 15.0% (declining from 18.4% in ‘06), followed by Circuit City (7.8%), Sears (2.6%), and Target (2.2%).
• Six month purchase intentions are down for all categories this month: autos, computer, furniture, home appliances, housing, jewelry, major home improvements, stereo equipment, TV, DVD/VCR, digital cameras, and vacation travel.

Influence of Higher Gas Prices (% of respondents)
	All	North-east	Mid-west	South	West
Buying more store brand/generic products	22.2%	17.5%	25.7%	24.0%	20.3%
Doing more comparative shopping online	16.8%	16.0%	17.6%	16.8%	16.6%
Doing more comparative shopping with ad circulars/newspapers	23.3%	21.4%	25.5%	24.2%	20.9%(
Shopping closer to home	37.9%	33.8%	38.5%	40.7%	36.9%
Shopping for sales more often	30.7%	28.7%	33.6%	31.3%	28.6%
Shopping more online	13.3%	13.8%	12.3%	14.5%	12.4%
Taking fewer shopping trips	40.2%	34.2%	43.0%	43.0%	38.3%
Using coupons more	23.5%	22.4%	24.8%	24.8%	21.2%
Source: BigResearch, May 2007

What does this mean for your business? Anticipate lower propspect traffic. Ramp up your customer service to keep your current customers very happy and buying. Marketing materials must strongly connnect to customers for it to make an impact… and a purchase.

Send your questions or submit your marketing for critique to Jeny at jeny@ampbranding.com. All submissions may be published; please indicate if you would like your name or company name withheld.

10 reminders of why we buy

When it comes to developing strong marketing campaigns, one of the first steps is figuring out which audience you want to attract. And attracting in marketing, like in dating, is based upon understanding human behavior. Here ten universal truths about why people buy. Even in the business-to-business realm, it is still people buying.

1.       We buy from people they know, like, and trust.

2.       We make snap decisions about you and your business based on little things, like the paper stock of your business card.

3.       We cannot tell you why we buy anything or predict if we will buy something.

4.       We can tell if you don’t believe in your product or service.

5.       We respond to enthusiasm.

6.       We are always interested in women, babies, and pets.

7.       We do not care about you or your business until you show us how you can help us.

8.       We pick up on your energy, more than on what you say or do, and decide to work with you or not based on what we sense.

9.       We respond to sincere flattery.

10.    We become information junkies when we are interested in buying.

Send your questions or submit your marketing for critique to Jeny at jeny@ampbranding.com. All submissions may be published; please indicate if you would like your name or company name withheld.

Five Minutes of Free Consulting

I think when I’m driving and I’ve been driving quite a bit this week. Here’s a sampling of questions to ask yourself that might work to profit your business.

1. Are you marketing as much to your employees to stay as you are to customers to stay? Sadly, internal communications fall to the wayside especially in adolescent-stage companies where you are just beginning to feel the pain of not everyone being in the loop. Depending on your size, it is possible to improve communications quickly…. monthly lunches with everyone (cater it in or rent a room), breakfast brainstorms, implement a weekly email memo from the CEO sent to everyone. Because what will it cost you long-term to lose your most talented?
2. Research shows consumers need to hear a message at least three times for them to have name recognition and recall, and nine times before they become a customer. These number have not changed in 30 years. So… do you have nine marketing efforts planned for the next six months targeting the same audience?
3. Who are your main customers? And I don’t mean age. The best way to find your core audience and deliver messages that work is to evaluate their lifestyle… where they live, their commute, their likes and their spending power.
4. Instead of cutting your price on something, can you make the value bigger? Like making your cookies just a little bigger or attaching a free sample to pass along to a friend or cross-promote another product.
5. Have you told them what you do lately? Especially if you offer a variety of services, customers forget sometimes you can do ALL that. Remind them. Send updates on your company, success stories of other clients who used your X service. And be consistent. If workload and cost are factors, there are ways to get the word out, my friend.

Want more? Hire me for a project, a day or more.

Which level are you on?

Last night I awoke feverish with wanting to discuss consumer selection and branding. Maybe it’s all the business news I’ve been reading but it seems many companies are not sure what the end game of marketing looks like. And there is an end game, my friend…. it’s just then there’s maintaining of that end game once you get there.

So what should you be striving for? Brand insistence. Let’s take the example of toilet paper.

Ms. Smith is in Costco (because everybody is buying TP in bulk these days) and needing some toilet paper. Four brands on the shelf and she picks up the one with the lowest price. Doesn’t even care about double roll, extra quilty, absorbency, pretty designs. That’s called Brand Indifference.

Now… Mr. Walker is needing some toilet paper. Four brands on the shelf and he prefers Charmin but it’s the most expensive. So he picks up a lower priced brand with similar attributes (he likes the “double roll” benefit). That’s called Brand Preference.

Finally (this is the end game one)… Mrs. Brown is needing some toilet paper. Four brands on the shelf and she insists on Quilted Northern but that palette is empty. She finds a sales clerk and they check in the back. No luck. Mrs. Brown leaves the aisle without picking up one of the other brands. On her way home from Costco, she stops at the grocery store and picks up a 4-pack and plans to head to another Costco tomorrow to get the bulk size. That’s called Brand Insistence.

And yes… people will do this. for specific coffee beans, printer paper, camera film, batteries, and quite possibly your brand.

Now that’s stretching it, Starbucks

Starbucks has been in the news quite a lot recently… Howard’s email on why the stores don’t have the same “brand love” going on they once did… problems with opening the Forbidden City site (which I believe is really wrong!)… and now out of London… Starbucks is launching its own record label, Starbucks Records, and top names in music are already being linked to the venture, possibly including former Beatle, Paul McCartney.
The brand says it will sign established and new artists to the new label, which builds on in-roads into music that the coffee chain has already made. The chain has already released albums under the label Hear Music, which licensed songs from other companies… Under the new label, Starbucks Records, the chain will be able to pick and choose artists and music that adhere more greatly to its brand identity… Starbucks has opened four Hear Music Coffeehouses where visitors are able to purchase music and burn it to CDs.
Source: Joanne Payne, Brand Republic 13-Mar-07

Now, I understand the CDs have been a hit in the stores. I’ve picked up two myself. But when does a coffee company decide to go into music? And extend the brand name into this arena? Has no one over there studied positioning?I quote from the master Al Ries “Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better.” Coffee. Music. Only one, Starbucks.

I’m not saying Starbucks the entity cannot go into music. Hear Music should become that brand and supported with dollars rather than stretch Starbucks to try and mean two things in people’s heads… because it is not going to. And I predict, more people will question the quality of the coffee (are they focussing on this at all?) when they start seeing music of Starbucks artists.

Who do you think you are?

Should your customer break up with you?

Indulge me for a moment… think about one of your favorite purchases. Maybe it was a big, luxury splurge or an on-going service (carwash, pedicure, etc.) for yourself.Remember how happy you were researching it… seeing glossy pictures as you desired it. You were even happy buying it. That first time your toes were done… the technician so wonderful and caring. And now… now where is it? Post-purchase has the glow disappeared?

Much can be made between courtship leading to marriage and corporate courtship leading to purchase.
As a prospect, you are wooed. The company leaves you messages in all your favorite magazines and during your favorite programs. When you went to their website, they began flirting with you… sending discounts and special promotions. Then you purchased. They were so excited. They sent two thank yous. They smiled. They called. And now? Now they want to eat in front of the TV with sweats on.

Marketers estimate that acquiring a new customer costs five to eight times more than keeping an existing one. The average company loses 20-40 % of its customers every year due to delivering an “under-whelming” customer experience. Research shows that a decrease in customer defection of only 5% can improve a firm’s bottom line profits 25-85%, depending on the industry. Likewise, in some sectors, an increase in customer loyalty of just 1% is the equivalent to a 10% cost reduction. Don’t ignore customer emotions and the important role they play in propelling customers to deeper loyalty.

What feeling does your company want to leave its customers with? As management consultant Alan Weiss says, “Logic makes people think. Emotion makes them act.”How has your company been as a lover? Is your attention just as constant? Do you slip special notes into their statements saying Thank you? Do you offer them sneak peeks at products or the same specials as new customers? How would you feel coming across an ad in your favorite magazine from a company you already buy from still talking to you? Many times industry experts pan this idea but why? I would feel great knowing a company still loves me and my money. Take a look at your practices and where you might be able to make small changes. Go listen to Customer Service and see how they are treating customers. Find out wait times. Start paying attention.

When is the last time you asked a customer how they really were? And listened to the answer?