The task now is not just promising what you do but to deliver a real, authentic experience. Being as good as the competition is not good enough, being different is. Copying ideas and ways of doing things from other industries isn’t fraudulent, it actually makes great business sense just call it creative swiping. There are many examples.

Innocent Smoothies are very similar to Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. They were founded by old friends and have similar visions and values. Their marketing represents a ‘cool’ and ‘hip’ way of communicating with the marketplace through packaging, language and tone. They have a social conscience as well as being expensive and premium. Even banks have succumbed, HSBC has recognised it is a retailer on the high street and adopted that approach by creating January sales just like the clothes stores do.

You will think of others. In essence there is nothing to stop small businesses from doing the same. Consider Starbucks who didn’t invent coffee but created a whole new experience for the person in the street buying coffee. Not only that but they make us wait longer and charge three times the price it used to be. 

Tyre service companies could do with looking at the same approach. Rather than dirty, oily waiting rooms where the coffee machines are covered in grime, why not make it a pleasant experience. Most people waiting for their tyres to be replaced are in smart clothes even suits. Sitting down isn’t tempting in most of those environments, and if you do, it’s a swift visit to the dry cleaners round the corner afterwards.

Providing clean seats, coffee machines that work, spotless toilets and relaxing music wouldn’t go a miss and wouldn’t cost the earth, but, would provide that all important competitive advantage. There is nothing wrong with the tyre service industry looking at coffee shops and copying what they are doing, in fact, it’s innovative thinking, trend setting and simple to do.

Could you do the same in your business?

Coherence in marketing is important, consistency is boring. Being creative and reinventing your messaging/story/tune every so often is critical. Sparking ideas and doing things your market place has never done before delivers that differential advantage. 

Few companies can afford to coast nowadays and, at their peril should they choose that particular strategy. Consistency is about delivering similarity, it’s a result of messaging and selling, it’s about being tidy. Coherent is about clear communication, variety in what you have to say and clarity in all the marketing approaches you adopt. You’re ability to be creative when being consistent is severely inhibited but being coherent can allow the ideas to flow.

New ideas compel, they captivate, old ideas simply fade into the distance. Grabbing peoples attention with new information has always worked and if it’s done coherently it can lift you apart and take you to the next level of communicating those important marketing messages. Change isn’t an option, it’s safer to create and execute new ideas now than wait for your competitor to do it first.

He doesn’t disappoint does he? And, as usual, gets you thinking beyond the norm. Go to it at:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/10/pithy-quotes.html

We have all heard of the four p’s in marketing. With that infamous phrase went the selling of features and benefits. Not too sure either are relevant anymore. Customers are rejecting marketing messages that are similar and that’s what features and benefits communicate, the same stuff all your competitors have.

They are bored, cynical and marketing resistant, so new ways of getting across what you do need to be found. Perhaps it’s now about working out what your values are and selling those, after all they are unique to your business.

It’s as important as ever to see your customers as a community of people/individuals who have a relationship with you, not a database or group of people who just buy from you. Traditional client to supplier transactions are just that, transactions. 

Cultivating participation in your brand is critical, Lego have done it with thousands of subscribers on its website. Oddbins are teaching it’s customers about wine and holding wine tasting evenings. Apple hold workshops in their stores to educate people about their new purchase. Big brands, I know, but perhaps we could learn a thing or two about how sophisticated the customer relationship has become.

It’s not just about selling product anymore nor, is it just about making the sale. In a world where it costs ten times more to go out and get a new customer, getting people to buy into your brand, feel part of the customer experience and be provided with services that add value is fundamental.

There is an interesting article on the BBC news website. It’s an overview about how the current economic climate is affecting small businesses on the high street here in the UK. Go to the following link to read more:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7656423.stm

Static messaging to customers and prospects is so obvious these days and unfortunately all too common. The second shift we need to make is away from bland fantasy to dynamic, involving communications were the emphasis is on the tangible customer experience not just looking pretty!

Thankfully some people are asking questions. One of my clients recently did a little research with their main customer base (those they had a strong, close relationship with.) They asked how many of them opened the direct mail they sent through. Not one opened it and they went straight into the recycling bin. No wonder it wasn’t working, all it was doing was messaging…telling people rather than involving. 

Now they send emailers as newsletters with interactive video content and podcasts as an alternative. Increase in sales…..on average 15%. Cost literally £’s.

Just an idea!

In a competitive environment and in a market place scrabbling for business to survive, now is the right time to review our approach to marketing. Not in a complex, sophisticated way, just a shift to a different level. Timing is fundamental but a long hard look at what you’re doing and answering a few key questions wouldn’t go amiss. I suspect one of the most crucial points is how do we create a tangible difference to our customer experience? And, what is holding us back?

Over the next six days I’ll talk about a shift we need to be considering. Lets start with the first one;

Marketing initiated by targeted messages to a passive prospect and customer list isn’t sustainable anymore. A movement to new ideas being adopted or created together with customers is the way forward. Encouraging your customers/prospects to be actively involved in your business is a far more interactive, engaging experience than being told what they can have, when and where. It just doesn’t wash with them anymore.

It involves getting up close and personal with customers, something that could be extremely uncomfortable for some of us. Marketing is a creative process, your customers could be more creative than you but suddenly we are in a place where such things are being demanded. It is possible to throw the old marketing rule book out and use ideas that are different, personal, disrupting and just boldly bizarre. 

Being in touch, jointly designing new products/solutions/services with customers seems to be a ‘no brainer’ and is critical to not just developing great businesses but is crucial to pulling a business out of the ‘bog’ of despair, ritual and dullness. 

Try it, it could provide you with an opportunity to do things now that you have only previously talked about!

Random acts of kindness often cost nothing but can create huge value in your business. It’s demonstrated no better than this quote by Ann Herbert, Margaret M. Pavel and Mayumi Oda in their book “Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty:”

“Anything we do randomly and frequently

starts to make it’s own sense

and changes the world into itself

Anything you want there to be more of

do it randomly

Don’t wait for reasons”

Simple, significant goodwill with your customer portfolio.

I know I’ve been banging on about customer service recently but it really bugs me when companies get the basics wrong. Sometime ago we humans created the internet. About ten years ago, mainstream companies started to really build sites for their customers so they’ve been around a while now. We should understand that around 72% of people looking for new products and services use the internet to search for suppliers, that’s why we all have contact pages; so people can make email enquiries and as switched on business people we can respond.

Not so solicitors it seems. It’s really passed them by or perhaps it’s just here in Exeter! I’ve contacted two major solicitors firms recently via their contacts page and have received sod all! Yep, nothing apart from one automated response.

Not responding is the equivalent of letting your phone ring over and over again. What is the point of spending thousands of pounds on a website when you can’t even do the basics of returning enquiries from your contacts page?

Hartnell’s and Michelmore’s you should be ashamed of your customer service. As usual the business went elsewhere. I could go on about competitive advantage and lost business but I think I’ve made the point…get the basics wrong and it won’t be long before business is seriously affected in the long term.

Rant and rave over…..