Continue reading »]]> Poor American Airlines, they had a PR fiasco due to kicking Alec Baldwin off a flight. We get it, FAA regulations are no laughing matter, and your staff was apparently just doing their jobs. But did posting a rebuttal on Facebook actually help the situation?

Alec Baldwin has been joking about the incident, and that has definitely lightened the mood. In fact, he has done more to minimize the PR situation than AA has.

But what does AA do?

Oh, I’m sorry, I nearly nodded off from the poorly-written, pointless rationale written by a PR intern under the direction of a manager who thought it would be effective to post this message to Facebook. Here is a beautiful opportunity to get attention for your business, and you come off as a dry, stiff, unfriendly, lawyer-reviewed entity with absolutely no heart.

It doesn’t matter that you were right. This isn’t a court of law. The court of public opinion plays by different rules. What we will remember is that you can’t be bothered to put a human touch on your product. By the way, we still remember that you were the first airline to screw us over by charging for the first checked bag.

So what could AA have done? Maybe asked to be part of the joke. Get Alec in an AA commercial. Perhaps even persuade him to provide a public service announcement of why the regulations exist. Maybe their response could have stated that the pilot just lost a game of Words With Friends to Mr. Baldwin, and may have been bitter about that. They could have lightened the mood, and made people laugh.

American Airlines certainly hasn’t put much focus on being a friendly airline. Looking at their website shows a more serious airline, which doesn’t seem to put an emphasis on enjoying travel or making things pleasant for travelers. Whereas Delta loves to fly, and United gives you the friendly skies, American has always taken a more stoic stance. So if they refuse to look friendly to the public, their response should have been said:

“American Airlines, keeping you safe and on-time, even if we have to kick celebrities off our planes.”

Lighten up AA. If you refuse to be human beings, get off social media. It’s not doing you any good.

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Continue reading »]]> There is an undeniable truth to all business situations. This is typically referred to in project management, but true in all things you do. You are constrained by three factors:

• Time
• Money
• Quality

These three factors are interdependent on each other in every business situation. If we have unlimited money, we can afford to put all the time in the world towards the highest quality work. If money is limited, we must scale back on our dream advertising campaign, and invest more time to make it happen. Each factor has a give and take to it that affect the other two. Essentially, you get to pick two of these elements.

It is for this reason that social media is most likely the absolute last marketing tactic that a small business owner should pursue.

Wait, doesn’t that contradict EVERY social media marketing blog that touts the wonders of the free marketing which are Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, etc? Yes it does. The difference is, I’m not trying to sell you anything. This isn’t to say that proper use of Facebook can’t be beneficial to a business, but the real return can most often be ridiculously low.

Small business owners are often short on time. They have a business to run, books to keep, employees to supervise, and quite frequently a second job to pay the bills. Time is a luxury they are not given.

Social media requires a great amount of time to adequately manage. To really make it pay off, much time must be spent planning, communicating, listening, and getting to know how to effectively communicate. This is a luxury afforded by very few people trying to keep a business running.

So, do you pay someone to handle social media for you? Here’s a slippery slope. An expert can provide a great deal of value to your business, and paying for marketing help is a necessity for small businesses. But we go back to the issue of time. Social media takes time. Someone else’s time costs money. More often than not, the amount of time it takes a decent consultant to execute a decent social media campaign is still quite a bit of money. Could that marketing help put the same time into other activities that have a greater capacity to drive business? Almost always. This isn’t to say that an effective social media campaign can’t drive business, but the time to do it right will often exceed the budget of the business. Which comes down to…

Quality

Is it better to do some marketing than none at all? Absolutely! As I said before, every small business needs to devote time and money to marketing. EVERY SMALL BUSINESS. No, you are not an exception. Not all marketing looks like billboards and Twitter accounts, but every business needs to do something. But the reality is that very few businesses will have any success from just social media alone.

So given those factors, should you really worry whether your gas station has a Facebook page? It’s time to ask for real help. Social media is not a new customer acquisition method, and it is not free. The costs of time, and quality far outweigh the alleged money that is being saved.

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Continue reading »]]> There are so many cliche phrases thrown around these days. The one that needs to die right now “this economy.”

When a small business owner isn’t doing well, that’s usually the go-to excuse. “There aren’t enough customers coming in because the economy is so rough right now.” “People are dining out a lot less than they used to because of the economy.” “Once the economy picks up, maybe I’ll have enough money to think about marketing.”

Bullshit.

I know, the last thing you want to think about when the bank account is near empty, is spending money. But your business needs attention, it needs revenue, and the road to revenue is proper marketing. While your restaurant sits empty, just up the road are a TGI Fridays, Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, and a shitload of other chain restaurants with a line of customers waiting to get a taste of overpriced microwave meals. Their food isn’t better than yours (well, if it is you have a serious problem), but they’re out-marketing you. People know who they are, and what’s on their menu. They flock to them because they’re familiar, and frankly it makes people nervous when a place is empty.

People need to eat, and they’re going to dine out. The difference between these diners choosing your place or that craptacular place with the cheesy decorations on the wall is whether they know and remember that you exist. I’m not talking about putting banners out on the street, and stop sending your employee out to wave a sign to attract drive-by diners. It’s time to get people in the door and dazzle them with something better than an awesome blossom.

But you can’t afford to outspend them on television ads? You don’t need to. You just need to swallow your pride and admit you aren’t a marketing expert. Get some help now! You need a message that compels the public, you need to have your name recognized, and you need to tell your neighborhood that you are delicious!

Don’t wait for the economy to get better, make your economy better. Invest in your business. No one ever cut costs so deep that they became profitable. Spend money to make money, or call it quits.

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Continue reading »]]> Think about it. If you’re a small business owner, sole proprietor, or partner, your business represents a major part of your life. Marketing that business is most often the difference between it living on or dying.

So you’re struggling along hoping things will pick up one day. Maybe you have even allowed some ad salesperson to convince you to open the wallet occasionally. But those one-time ads, daily deals, and other gimmicks aren’t quite working. So you know some marketing help would be helpful, but you’re trying to maintain a tight budget. It makes sense, dollars are tight, and it’s not wise to be throwing money around. But you need to ask yourself that question, “what is this business worth?”

You need this business to succeed to get a paycheck. You have employees and others who are counting on you. But if you aren’t willing to seriously discuss a reasonable marketing budget, then you’re throwing it all away. It’s incredible to me how often I have a proprietor tell me they can’t spent $2-3,000, or even $250 to make their business improve. Trust me, I know how hard it can be to pay those expenses, but if you have a lot invested in this business, then you need to see it through.

Otherwise, shut the doors and do something else.

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Continue reading »]]> Thanks to a story by Niall Harbison on Nextweb.com, I saw something I’ve been telling so many people. The article lists the top 20 brands on Facebook, and at the top, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Disney, Oreo, and Red Bull. The top brands on Facebook have something in common. It’s not the approach to social media. It’s not number of updates per day, number of videos, use of landing pages, amount of interaction, use of unemployed real-estate agents as consultants, or any other common trend I’m told are supposed to yield success. Do you know what they have in common?

They spend a metric shitload on advertising.

Coca-Cola has long been known as one of the largest advertising spenders in the world. At over $2 billion annual marketing spend, they have earned that number one spot on Facebook. 31,847,519 fans, which at $2 billion means they’re spending $62.80 for each fan. How much are you spending? And you expect to be an overnight success by having a page on Facebook?

Of course, it’s not accurate to measure advertising spend to number of fans like that, but it’s as sensical as a lot of the ridiculous marketing metrics out there. The point is, that these companies who have so many “Likes” have spent a lot of money getting their name out in the public. And they continue to do so today. To believe that you will find success on Facebook without spending some money on a proper advertising, PR, and marketing plan disregards how much these major brands are spending to be known, and provides a benchmark of reality.

Take Starbucks for example. Over 23 million fans on Facebook, over 16,000 stores (corporate & licensed) worldwide. 1437 fans per location. Over $176 million in advertising dollars spent in 2010. Does your bakery or coffee shop need to be Starbucks? No, but do you see what you’re up against? Now don’t give up, but realize you cannot battle that competitor without putting some time, money, and effort into your marketing plan.

Advertising is a legitimate business expense that you need to budget into your operations. Starbucks, McDonalds, Converse, and other big brands get this. It’s time you understand this as well.

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Continue reading »]]> For starters, there are a small handful of businesses who could actually use Foursquare as a user. Meaning they would have a user account, and check-in to places. A food truck, a public figure, or something else that actually moves around. But a restaurant? A retail store? Or an educational loan service? That’s not the most effective use of your time, and it doesn’t make any sense.

Do you pick up your retail store and hang out at other venues? Is your business the life of the party who everyone is hanging out at the bar waiting for? Is your brand really a person who I want to make friends with, and have stalking my every check-in?

For that matter, have I ever even done business with you? Then why the hell am I getting a friend request from your company?

You didn’t really think about this, did you? So here’s what happened:

1. You have an ambitious employee who heard businesses use social media.
2. Some moron SocMed “expert” tried to sell you on his services.
3. You’ve read any of the worthless shit on the internet that says there are cheap & easy ways to market your business.
4. You work with a desperate low-quality agency.

I’m calling you out for your own good. Seriously, heed this advice. A business like these checking into other places and sending friend requests is the same as running Girls Gone Wild advertisements during Dora the Explorer. Wrong media, wrong audience, wrong approach.

Due to much of the work that I do, I sometimes break the “friend” rules because I do have a public brand that people want to connect with. But I cannot be friends with a faceless business who is just wasting their time on a completely misguided effort of being social. It’s not that I don’t like your business, because I’ve turned down friend requests from some of my favorite businesses. These were requests sent by people I personally know, but they were doing it wrong.

Just because a marketing activity is free, doesn’t mean there’s no risk in doing something. You’re wasting time, and showing the public that you have no respect for proper marketing. You wouldn’t buy inappropriate ads to run during children’s programming, so why are you wasting your time with this bad marketing? Knock it off.

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Continue reading »]]> Every once in a while I dig through the hundreds of marketing blogs out there. Usually it results in me pushing the “unsubscribe” button in email or Google Reader, but occasionally there are some decent thoughts.

An article from Andy Bagnall titled, “Does this ad make me look gay” was one of those admirable articles. He asks, “If you launch a gay-targeted campaign or even simply run advertising in gay media, will you be pegged as a “gay brand”? Could this turn off your heterosexual customers?” He points out that there has never been a successful boycott due to marketing to gay consumers. The extreme-conservatives get some publicity, but aren’t successful in causing economic damage.

I’d like to add: fuck them.

No, seriously. Why would we want bigots as customers? Why should we acknowledge their hatred and validate them? Unless you’re selling burning crosses and white robes, shouldn’t you want high-quality people to be your customers? People aren’t defined as gay, or straight, they’re people. If someone has a problem with you selling your product, then let them go. They’re the ones who will lose out on your great product.

If you don’t have that level of confidence in your brand, then you should really consider your entire business strategy.

While we’re at it, can we stop monetizing demographics? It’s a myth.

Sorry kids, truth hurts sometimes.

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Continue reading »]]> Many small businesses are started because of a dislike for the competition. But how many of those small business people actually think about the things their competition is doing right? It takes a thorough investigation into everything that is happening in the industry to succeed in business.

I just read an incredibly insightful article in Wired about Ticketmaster, aka: the evil empire that “everyone” hates. You know, that company that charges you $10-20 in fees for a $15 event ticket. I’m guessing that many small ticketing start-ups began because of their frustration with the extraordinary fees, and lack of creativity of the market giant. But how many of them appreciated what Ticketmaster can do better than anyone?

I’m not playing devil’s advocate here, as I believe the cannibalistic nature of the excessive fees is long-term bad for both venues and performers. But what is true is that your small business will not succeed if you haven’t evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of your competition. Will your upstart ticketing company be able to handle millions of tickets sold this week without system failure? Can you lock down 40,000+ seat venues in your market? Do you need to?

Not every business must be able to topple the giant in their industry, but there is a need to truly understand your competition, how you’re similar, and different. You must know what your place is in the market, and understand what challenges your competition hands you. I worked with a small upstart recently who boasted the ways they were doing something no one else in the industry was focused on. Problem was, the positive things they were doing were indeed exactly the same as the rest, while the only unique elements of their business were not desired by their customers. They were preparing for a take-over of an industry, when in reality all they were equipped for was a small slice of a pie that was firmly controlled by their competition.

Get to know your competition. Discover what you can do better, and know what they do better than you. Learn from their expertise and hardships to get where they are.

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Continue reading »]]> Intellectual property disputes have always been one of my greatest passions, as well as frustrations. So many complexities taken into consideration to decide who has rights to what brand name or tagline. It can be exhilarating if you’re into that sort of thing. Other times it can be downright frustrating. Then other times it can be hysterical.

ThinkGeek, an online marketer of technology accessories, comical shirts, and other hysterical parody products, posted an April Fools joke product for “Canned Unicorn Meat.” Anyone with an ounce of common sense would know this is a joke, and curious parties who attempted to purchase the product got a message that they had just fallen for an April Fools gag. Everyone got a good laugh out of it, everyone except for the National Pork Board.

In the advertisement for mythical meat product, ThinkGeek used the phrase “The new white meat” and several sites referred to the product as “the other white meat.” The National Pork Board had their lawyers send a cease & desist letter, pointing out that THE OTHER WHITE MEAT is a registered trademark of the National Pork Board and ThinkGeek’s use of the term is an infringement and dilution of  their trademark rights.

Trademarks are a way to distinguish that the product in question comes from a unique source. That way, we know whether we’re buying Hormel’s authentic SPAM product, and not an off-label spiced ham meat byproduct. Trademarks are important to help consumers know they are buying the authentic product that they prefer. If another company attempted to call their spiced ham canned meat SPAM, Hormel could interject and bring legal action against the offending company.

I don’t believe any consumers saw the canned unicorn meat and truly believed it was a viable replacement for pork. This was not a true threat to the National Pork Board, nor was it something damaging to the public’s love of pig-derived meats. The real threat to the National Pork Board are the counselors to the board who thought it would be a good idea to pay thousands on the drafting of a legal document asking ThinkGeek to stop using the similar taglines to sell their competing meat (which never existed in the first place). Instead, they spent a lot of time and money to provide comic fodder for the masses so we could mock the National Pork Board and Faege & Benson, the attorneys who sent the C&D letter.

Before you react to what you believe is a trademark violation, take a moment to consider whether there is a real threat to your business. It’s probably wise to consult with someone other than your trigger-happy lawyers before you dump dollars into starting a fight that doesn’t really exist. I’d gladly save you the several thousands of dollars and embarrassment.

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Continue reading »]]> The Brandgym blog recently discussed how hard it is to topple a leader brand in a specific segment. They compared the “men’s” calorie-free cola category battle between leading brand Pepsi Max, and the runner up Coke Zero. As they describe, Pepsi Max certainly has a stronger name, great advertising, and clearly stands for the market of men’s calorie free soft drinks. But there is one fatal flaw I believe makes a major difference.

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