Kenny Hyder - Marketing Consultant

The 4 P’s in the Age of Google

2010-08-05T18:37:53Z

Between email spam, pop-up ad’s, and phishing attacks, it feels like the days of genuine marketing are long gone. On the internet, it seems as if marketers have taken an “anything goes” approach to getting their product in your face. These unfortunate by-products of our mass exodus to online immersion have given marketers a bad name. What many don’t realize is, the websites and brands online that you love and trust have simply mastered the basics of Marketing 101.

The 4 P’s

The four p’s of marketing are the pillars of what a good marketing strategy should built on. They stand for: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Good marketing realizes the essence of each of these concepts at their core, and applies them to their unique contexts. As we rapidly evolve into an internet centric culture it’s important that we understand fundamental concepts as these in our online contexts.

Product

There is no marketing without product. Many understand the product side of the marketing equation, but it isn’t as one dimensional as it is often demonstrated to be. Clearly stated: your product is either some physical thing that you are selling, or a service that you offer. Understanding that you need a product before you go to market is trivial, what isn’t obvious is the effort that is required to substantiate yourself from your competition. Your product is the foundation and the cornerstone of your business; it’s what your business is built on, and what holds it together.

So many internet start-ups today launch a product or service really quickly, and then bust their asses trying to market themselves to everyone and anyone thinking that just the right mix of magical marketing is going to get them “there”. Marketing is important, but marketing, sales, exposure, nothing can help you if you don’t spend enough time making your product great.

The majority of your time, money, and focus should always be spent on developing, improving, and expanding your product. Companies that have longevity in the marketplace are notorious for improving their product, expanding their offering, and developing new products. There is no other way.

Price

In the world online, it seems like things are either free, or way over-priced. We seem to have lost the science and psychology of pricing as marketers. We either are making things free so people will like us and spread our free products around to as many people as virtually possible, or we are overtly greedy with our over-pricing and thoughts of how rich we might get.

There has to be a happy medium. Ever wonder why almost everything you buy ends in .95 or .99? Because it works! The simple side to pricing is figuring out how much it cost you to make your product, and figuring out a price point that allows you to remain profitable and in business. But taking it further, how much exactly will your customers pay? How much is too much? Are you making too little a profit?

Just like you test metrics on your websites to determine what buttons work better, what copy performs better, you should test your pricing models as well.

Place

Before the era of internet marketing, the “Place” part of the equation meant finding stores that would carry your product, where your product was located on the shelf and getting your product to be physically visible. Today, most of us have our one niche of online marketing that we are comfortable with, and we push our products there. We are good at this, and have success. But there are SO many avenues online to expand your visibility it’s hard to keep up.

People tend to stick to their comfort zone, but if you’re looking to expand and grow your business it’s time to look in a different place. Why continue to stick to SEO, PPC, and Social Media? What about display advertising, lead gen, or email marketing? Most online businesses are only in one or two “places” to moderate success, why not go somewhere new and expand? God forbid we actually get our product into a physical store.

Promotion

As marketers, we are all very familiar with the promotion part of the equation. What I find interesting about the 4 P’s is, promotion is listed last. I think the ease with which we can promote things these days gets us over excited about the process. To the point where we even begin promotion before we have the product.

Promotion is obviously an important and critical step, not to be diminished. But as marketers, I think we need to be reminded not how to promote, but how not to promote. Our over-zealousness tends to lead us to do things that are downright annoying when it comes to the promotion process. Maybe it’s because we just get so excited about our products that we want to do everything we can to get them out there, maybe it’s because we’re marketers and it’s in our blood.

The thing to remember is, over-zealous, cheap promotion isn’t helpful, and isn’t making your product look good. Promotion is about looking good and making your product look good. Auto-tweets, spam emails, phishing attacks, and begging people doesn’t make you or your product look good.

There are many places, and many ways to promote your products; just be sure that you look good when you’re doing it. Stay Classy.

Photo Credit: Leo Reynolds

Descriptive Marketing

2010-06-16T08:01:25Z

My wife is a writer/editor for a company that publishes reference books and research materials. On top of cooking dinner, doing the laundry, and cleaning the house, she also serves as my personal editor, which comes in handy when you run your own consulting business. Despite this, we often get into debates about grammar and whether or not commonly used phrases are proper English. My wife favors a descriptive philosophy of the English language. In her words:

In a descriptive philosophy of English, the language is described as it is used rather than how certain authorities prescribe it should be. In a prescriptive philosophy, the rules dictate the language. For example, our generation often says: “I’m gonna” rather than: “I’m going to” — a prescriptive grammarian would deem this incorrect, whereas a descriptive grammarian would not ascribe any right or wrong to its usage but rather would accept the language as it is spoken and adhere to the belief that language largely dictates the rules.

Whether or not she is right or wrong about this is an ongoing debate in our household — however, I believe that the idea of prescriptive vs. descriptive philosophies has ramifications in other areas as well. In my world this means marketing.

Marketing, whether online or off, ought to be thought of as descriptive in this same sense. Your marketing should be defined by the needs and opportunities presented from your customer base.

Chevrolet vs. Chevy

Recently, Chevrolet told its employees that they were to no longer to use the word “Chevy” in an attempt to consolidate their brand. I am not going to even try to understand their thinking on this decision. All I can come up with is “WTF?”

Not only has Chevrolet been using “Chevy” to brand themselves for years, “Chevy” is a part of its customers’ vernacular. I can’t remember the last time I heard someone refer to their Chevy as a “Chevrolet.” It just doesn’t feel right. From a number of standpoints, a case can easily be made for Chevrolet to employ the use of “Chevy” as strong branding tool:

It has less syllables and is easier to pronounce and spell
It’s a nickname, which often indicates a term of endearment
It has been heavily saturated into pop-culture, including various songs

Someone obviously caught on to these things back in 1957 when they started incorporating “Chevy” branding into their television advertisement campaigns, and the two names have been synonymous ever since.

Prescription for Failure

Someone clearly forgot to remind the corporate executives at Chevrolet of the old idiom “If it ain’t broke, don’t try and fix it.” Rather than continuing to run with “Chevy” and capitalizing on the familiar and trusted brand that its customers have embraced, the company is choosing to prescribe a marketing strategy that is contrary to its own success. This is a clear and obvious mistake on Chevy’s part because they are trying to conform to a rule they think ought to exist.

When there are no physical, legal, or moral ramifications to breaking a rule, why would anyone choose to continue to adhere? Especially when abiding by that rule means serious detriment to your revenue stream, reputation, or any other measure of success?

Rules Are Meant to be Broken

While there are not necessarily rules that dictate the do’s and don’ts of marketing, there does seem to be a correlation of tactics and methods used. The concept of “descriptive marketing” would say that we ought to use any method or tactic that makes it easier or better for us to market our products/services, rather than following a set method that has been predefined. While this makes sense in theory, I don’t always see it put to use in practice. I see people blindly follow rules set out by Google, not knowing the real consequences or rewards of breaking them. People following a “code of conduct” online, because “spamming” is bad and annoying — but what if it made you more money? Droves of readers follow the advice of bloggers they’ve never even met rather than doing their own testing, prodding, and problem solving. If we are fine with using the phrase “I’m gonna” because it facilitates our speech, even though it may be prescriptively incorrect, what limits us from pushing the envelope in our work, lives, and other areas?

Imagine what your conversations would look like without descriptive colloquialisms; now conversely, imagine how big your horizons could be broadened if you began to think descriptively about your marketing, branding, and vision casting. Maybe it’s time to start thinking differently. I know I’m gonna.

Photo Credit: the_munificent_sasquatch, z5, voteprime

10 Things I Learned from 10,000 Tweets

2010-06-14T08:29:33Z

10. Twitter can be a HUGE waste of time

Like most things online, you can waste hours of your time on twitter if you’re not careful. I’ve learned that when I need to get something done, I have to close TweetDeck.

9. Spam accounts have no value

Like most of you, I too have done my share of testing and experimenting with various types of spam accounts on twitter. Other than one account which will remain anonymous, none of my other attempts have had any long term value.

8. There is no need for paid tools

Unless you are running complex campaigns with multiple users for corporate accounts, or managing multiple accounts for clients, there is no need to pay for any twitter tools. A single user/brand can do everything they need with all of the free tools available.

7. Whining doesn’t help

Don’t like the new update twitter released? Too bad, all our tweets are belong to twitter. We want to use twitter, then we get to play by twitter’s rules, whining won’t help.

6. People are likely to retweet you if you talk about them

Might sound obvious, but the only times I’ve been retweeted by the A-listers is when I said something nice, or linked to them. Want some attention? You have to be the first one to do the back scratching.

5. You don’t own anything on twitter

Remember that awesome link that your friend tweeted at you about a month ago about that thing? Yeah, try finding it now. Oh, what’s that? You can’t? That’s right, that’s because it belongs to the twitter goblin! If something you think you might want to reference later comes across your twitter feed, put it somewhere safe. ie. not on twitter, lest it be lost forever.

4. Need something? Just ask.

One of my favorite things about twitter is that I can ask virtually any question and get an answer within minutes. Traveling and need to know where to eat? Want to know the name of the soundtrack from your favorite video game from the 80’s? Best tool to use? Link to that one YouTube video with that one creepy karate guy? Somebody is sure to know, it’s like a personal answering service!

3. Twitter CAN make you money

Not by spamming, and not by sponsored tweets, but twitter is a great way to easily connect with new people you don’t know. More connections = more opportunities = money. I’m not saying that there is a direct correlation, but I have certainly picked up new clients and made money because of connections I’ve made via twitter.

2. Shut up once in awhile

As someone who has now written 10,000 tweets, I understand how addicting it is to always be the one saying something. But there is a lot to gain from just quieting down and watching every once in awhile. Sometimes I just watch a conversation rather than getting involved. There is great value in observation, you don’t always have to be a participant.

1. Twitter has no value

The value is in the people that you meet. No amount of followers, no custom background design, and no amount of retweets are going to replace the conversations you’ve had and the people you’ve met. The value is in relationships and will continue to be no matter what social platform we transplant ourselves to in the future.

Social Media: A Waste of Your Time?

2010-04-27T09:14:22Z

Who was the first person you spoke to IRL (in real life) this morning? What did you talk about? Now, can you remember the first thing you read when you logged into Facebook?

If you’re like me, you have spent WAY too much time on countless social media sites over the past 2–3 years, obsessing over what your profile looked like, what your “friends” were up to, stalking pictures, and reading the never ending fire-hose of information from social news sites.

Good & Bad Investments

Any financial consultant will tell you that as you continue to add capital to an investment, the potential payoff increases exponentially over a period of time. As you continue to add to your investments, they begin to work harder for you. Also, any investment that doesn’t have a probability of a higher return than the capital invested would be considered a bad investment.

It is up to you how you spend your time. What baffles me are the crowds of people who complain about “not having enough time” but continue to make poor decisions with where they invest their time. Over the past few years I have done my share of time wasting online. As a night owl, I have logged more hours than most on YouTube, Wikipedia, Reddit, and numerous others. But choosing to waste time, and wasting time because of ignorance are completely different.

Social Media: The Time Suck

I am a fan of most popular social media sites, and frequent them often. Some of them have helped make me and my clients tens of thousands of dollars if not more. They are often entertaining and can sometimes be useful. But aimless activity in social media is the death of your time investments.

Everyone that works online should understand their goals with each social media site they invest time into. If you are spending time on any social site with no defined purpose, you are not going to get any real value out of your time invested in that site. Understanding begets focus begets success.

Good Investments in Social Media

One saying that my dad used to say is: “The Jack of all trades is the master of none.” Like most things, this holds true for social media as well. You simply can’t dominate Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, Delicious, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Flickr all by yourself. For your sanity and success you have to choose your spots.

What is the expected value for each social site you invest time into? If your goals are to build relationships and connect with people, the expected value in Reddit is likely 0. Understanding why you’re getting involved will not only help you set your goals, but also help you set your focus priority.

Trim the Fat

Once you have a clear understanding of your goals for social media and the sites you are going to use to help you reach them, it’s time to adjust your workflow. Remember, wasting time on purpose is a hobby, wasting time because of ignorance is inexcusable.

Some social media marketers suggest that a workflow for social media can take as little as 60 minutes per day. Setting up and refining a process will help keep you on track and stop you from wondering off into the far corners of the internet. Remember, this is work, you can play later.

Reap the Rewards

Refine your time spent on social media sites to focused attention and I’m betting you get hours back out of each day. In addition, the time you do spend will actually produce results, rather than remaining stagnant and unremarkable.

Continue to add and invest time into these refined processes and strategies, and eventually your momentum will begin to work for you. Like a good financial investment, time well spent in social media will eventually begin to snowball, and time you spend will have more and more affect in the end. Rather than having your efforts dispersed because your efforts were spread too thin, and your focus unrealized, more time spent will begin to mean bigger payoffs.

With an understanding of your goals, some focus, and a plan, anyone can plan and start an effective social media campaign.

Photo Credit: steve.grosbois

You Don’t Know Jack About Branding

2010-04-23T18:09:20Z

Paul Rand. Does that name ring a bell? How about Saul Bass, Henry Steiner, or Lindon Leader? If you googled it, you already failed.

Today there is a lot of talk about branding. As more people are realizing that you need to put some real marketing behind your business, they look to “branding” as a silver bullet to polish off their efforts. While branding is not the end all be all play to a marketing strategy, it is the cornerstone, and it is important.

You Reap What You Sow

As online professionals turn for help with branding needs and education, they are forgetting one thing: crap in, crap out. Looking to your favorite social media site as a study in branding is like trying to develop an ear for music by hanging out in a high school parking lot.

Internet brands are full of life, color, cheer, and excitement; but when it’s longevity you’re after, these qualities are thin and fleeting. What most don’t understand is, internet brands are created to capture today’s audience, to spark this week’s conversation. While some may disagree, when was the last time you were on MySpace, 43things, orkut, friendfeed, Xanga, or bebo? Not to mention the countless sites that have long since closed doors.

Is this what you aspire to? To have your brand rise to the top, just to slowly decline until you are eventually forgotten about and replaced by the newer, shinier version of you?

Learn From The Pros

Like any discipline, students should look to the masters. If you’re my age, several of the brands above have been around your whole life, and their branding consistent with minor changes for decades. This is the mark of a master.

Calling Card

Wikipedia defines “Brand” as: “a name, sign, symbol, slogan or anything that is used to identify and distinguish a specific product, service, or business.” In other words, your calling card. When you look at the logos depicted above, you relate to each one not only with a recognition of who they are, but with a feeling.

Likewise, you want your customers to relate to you. Your brand, your brand image, should convey an emotional response to your audience rather than just serve as a marker for you are. Your brand isn’t your name-tag, it’s your identity.

4 P’s

Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. At the epicenter of the venn diagram of the 4 P’s is your brand. Your brand should be able to establish and make your audience feel good about each of these 4 things in one consolidated message. The 4 P’s are essential building blocks to establishing your brand identity, and your branding is your representative.

Consistency

Consistency is key. Establishing trust, authority, and community are difficult enough one time around, don’t shoot yourself in the foot with multiple re-brands, complete re-designs, or 180’s with your offering. Take the time, get it right the first time, and all of your efforts will be consolidated down the road.

Any sudden changes or sporadic moves make customers question stability. If changes need to be made, better to boil the frog slowly.

Get Rich Slowly

By now, most are weary of the ability to “get rich quick” or the numerous “make money online” schemes that are out there. Building and growing a business into a trusted brand is a slow and arduous process that takes lots of time, with many hard fought battles. But as it is written: “Good things come to those who wait.”

Are You Penny Wise And Pound Foolish?

2010-04-23T11:15:13Z

In today’s competitive landscape of internet marketing, we are surrounded by incredible talent in every arena. SEO’s, copywriters, PPC professionals, affiliate marketers, and social media marketers are sprouting up everywhere; and they’re getting better at honing their craft.

While your average SEO might be able to rank for terms related to your business, does he/she understand what happens next? This was brought to my attention recently over dinner with a client prospect, who was expecting that all I would do is get them to rank for terms, and then send in the invoices. While this would make my job unquantifiably easier, it wouldn’t make me a very effective marketer.

While you do want “the right tool for the right job”, this doesn’t mean that internet marketing consultants aren’t responsible for delivering good integrated tactics that support a comprehensive marketing plan. The job of an SEO isn’t just to get rankings, much like the job of a copywriter isn’t just to write an article, or a social media marketer to make something hit a front page.

Unfortunately, I think that the internet has enabled people to become highly skilled in a single area, but completely ignorant of others. It has become common for the self-start internet marketer to have no clue about marketing basics like market saturation or ROI. We have bred a generation of online marketers that are penny wise yet pound foolish.

Over dinner, my prospective client was very pleased to hear that rankings were just the beginning of a consulting campaign. The SEO that he was working with previously had set his expectation that getting his site ranking was the goal (A Fortune 500, mind you). As I explained that working through optimizing keyword selection, bounce rates, and conversions were all part of the process, I began to wonder how many companies, even large ones were working with marketers that were only doing half of their job?

Don’t settle!

Cross pollinate, I’m confused to see SEO’s sitting in SEO panels all day at conferences. Shouldn’t you know this stuff already? Go check out a PPC panel, or learn about reputation management, why drone out on the same stuff that you breathe daily? Or, go even further — go check out a conference that you’ve never been to! Go read something by Dale Carnegie or Zig Ziglar rather than buying the latest SEO Book.

Likewise, if you’re looking to hire — ask questions about your consultant. Do they seem to have a good marketing sense? Or are they just looking to implement some tactics to get a few quick results for you? I’m not saying that they should be an “All In One” solution to your marketing, we all specialize in our specific areas for a reason, but the best are well rounded.

Photo Credit: seeveeaar

Only Some Marketers Are Liars

2010-04-10T05:40:41Z

I’d like to clarify a few myth’s that I think have been widely spread. In the land of online marketing there are many techniques and tactics used to improve the performance of a website, drive traffic, and grow an online business. In the scheme of marketing as a whole, online marketing is relatively new and it’s practices still evolving.

However, this does not in anyway give validity to the notion that any tactic used by a marketer online isn’t “real” or directly measurable in any way. I’ve heard a number of times now, from people who have some idea that online marketing is a sort of “soft marketing” technique, used to indirectly market brands and businesses. All Search Engine Marketers, Social Media Marketers, and Online Brand Management professionals provide valuable services with measurable results. These are real marketing tactics, that drive real and definable results, not part of some soft marketing campaign.

SEO is Not Soft Marketing

Surprisingly, there seem to be a large number of people out there who seem to think that SEO is some sort of soft marketing technique. I think this is due to the fact that there are now so many fly-by-night “SEO’s” making cold call phone calls to business owners trying to pitch SEO services, and not explaining exactly what type of results they will deliver, or how they will get the work done.

Clarification

SEO is cold, hard, and directly measurable. Any SEO who is worth a grain of salt will measure the results of the campaign he/she is working on. Rankings equal traffic equal conversions equal cash. SEO equals ROI.

Social Media is Not Soft Marketing

It is a little more understandable that people would think that social media marketing falls into the realm of soft marketing, but it doesn’t. Sure marketing for social media may increase your “brand awareness”, but SMM isn’t a big guessing game when it comes to results for businesses and websites.

Clarification

The guys who do it best will tell you, social media marketing is a great way to drive traffic and links to your site. AND it isn’t just about setting up a twitter page that looks like your website. There are tons of other ways to market for social media that can drive large quantities of relevant users to your website.

Brand Management is Not Soft Marketing

Out of the three, by FAR brand management is the one that gets hammered the most as a soft marketing scheme. I think this can mostly be blamed on the fact that the majority of people just don’t understand what brand management is. And when you have something that isn’t widely understood, confusion spreads.

Clarification

Plainly, brand management is when you use various marketing devices to increase the image of a brand. Michael Jordan, as we all know, was largely sponsored by Nike which in turn helped them create one of the strongest, most recognizable brands in the world. Little do most know, he actually preferred Adidas. This was STRONG brand management move on Nike’s part. Not a “soft” attempt to “increase brand awareness.”

I have been apart of several search campaigns where the goal was to push negative results for a brand query off of the first page. If a query for your company’s product returns a listing with an affiliate site with a title tag of “DON’T BUY [PRODUCT NAME]”, as a way to entice clicks — you probably want to get that off the first page.

Brand management is an important part of many businesses marketing strategy that involves clear and defined goals with measurable results. Just like the saying “It pays to advertise.”

Don’t Be Fooled

All marketing campaigns, online or offline, are created equal. Businesses need to make money to make it, and it’s the job of the marketer to help them get more business and make more money. Not all marketing campaigns are successful, but they are all measurable.

Photo Credit: Express MonoRail

You Don’t Want To Choose

2010-02-20T03:00:56Z

Let’s face it: you don’t like to make decisions. It’s ok, I don’t either. The problem is everyone in the world thinks we do! We are constantly bombarded with choices, options, and decisions to make about everything we do and everything we buy, but are these choices what we really want or need?

Case #1

You’re at the grocery store buying some soup because you’re sick You go to the soup aisle to decide which type of soup suits your palette. After five minutes pass, you realize that you’re staring aimlessly at all of the choices! There are hundreds of soups! You decide on clam chowder because it’s your favorite, but there are 3 different variations from each of the 4 different brands. You end up grabbing the one that you decide has the prettiest label because, how else are you to decide? You also grab some chicken noodle just for good measure.

In this case, it’s great to have a variety of choice for those with different appetites, but anyone who has been to the grocery store (especially if you’re not a regular shopper) can identify with standing in the aisle, gazing off into never-never land at all of the countless choices for any number of different products.

Case #2

Despite the recession, life has been good to you and you decide its time to get yourself a new whip. You have your sight set on something sporty, so you decide to check out the new Bugatti Veyron, the $1.7m price tag is merely a drop in the bucket for a baller like you.

As you configure your Bugatti on the website before heading over to the dealer, you realize you have a whopping 29 color combinations to choose from! How on earth will you ever decide which one is perfect for you? Do you like the white on soft silver, or the white silver on grey silver better? Camera one, camera two. CHOOSE NOW!

I don’t know about all of you, but I’ve bought 3 new cars in my adult life — 2 of them there was one color available on the lot, and 1 of them I chose between 2 colors. Both mine and my wife’s car right now are grey, because that’s what they had, and we both like the color we got. Simple.

Et cetera

How many more scenarios like this are there? What are we going to eat for dinner, what movie do you want to watch, what kind of cell plan to get, where do you invest your money, and on forever.

Psychologist Barry Schwartz said: “If everything is possible, you don’t have freedom — you have paralysis.” This statement brings a whole new meaning to the cliché “Less is more.”

When choice is given to the individual at infinite detail, it creates chaos. As marketers it is our job to look for ways to expand our markets and often this results in more options, more choice, and ultimately more decisions for the end user. The problem is, when we leave decision in the hands of the customer, we take it out of the hands of the expert.

When Nike launched their “NIKEiD” campaign that allowed buyers to design and purchase their own custom shoe, it got major attention. I personally know several people that jumped on the opportunity to design their very own shoes right away. As a result of this campaign, I have seen some of the ugliest shoes EVER to come from a major shoe brand. What was previously handled by a professional, the design, is now a series of options and choices for the untrained consumer; and the result is potentially catastrophic.

Less Really IS More

Like it or not, all clichés are cliché for a reason. There is something powerful about simplicity. It’s why all Apple computers are silver and all iPods are either black or white. It’s why gas stations offer 87, 89, and 91 octane gasoline. It’s why 70% of users in the US prefer Google to other search engines.

Simplicity, and removing extraneous choice strengthens the offer of any product and/or service by putting the focus on what’s really important. Most people think they want all of the choice to themselves; but when it comes down to it, they find it much easier to choose between clam chowder or chicken noodle, than having to sift through a hundred different soups.

Would You Brush Off Michael Jordan?

2010-02-10T17:13:08Z

In the land of opportunity entrepreneurs, marketers, and just plain smart people are constantly looking for the thing that can give them an edge, an upper hand to their competition so they can dominate the market. But, if you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything — would you capture it or just let it slip?

Last night as I was surfing YouTube, I came across an extremely interesting Michael Jordan interview, that I think can serve as a valuable lesson to anyone in marketing, branding, or any related field:

Now it doesn’t take an avid sports fan to realize the GIANT opportunity that Adidas passed up by not giving MJ a contract. I like MJ’s humility in not indulging in “what if’s” — but I would venture to say that if they hadn’t made this mistake, it’s quite possible that Adidas and not Nike would be worlds leading supplier of athletic shoes. Considering that Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player of all time and one of the most iconic and popular athletes ever, I don’t think these “what if’s” are too far out of reach.

This poses the question: would you brush off Michael Jordan just like Adidas did? Surely Adidas had good reasons at the time for the decisions they made, even though it may seem un-fathomable to us today. What opportunities are you missing out on because they aren’t a part of your plan or strategy? Are you afraid to “gamble” on new opportunities or investments for fear of losing? Can you afford to not make any mistakes and potentially pass up something that could transform you or your business in a way that you couldn’t possibly foresee?

Adidas made the mistake of denying MJ a contract even though he wanted to sign with them because they didn’t feel it was right for their brand. Well sounds like it was the perfect time to make it part of their brand. Remember that your brand strategy is a guideline, not a rulebook. If opportunity knocks and you don’t open the door, well there’s not much hope for you then, is there?

Quality Isn’t an Angle

2010-03-16T07:07:03Z

Simple question:

What separates you from your competition?

If you answered “quality” or some variation thereof, YOU FAIL. In today’s market, where there are more options than ever, everyone expects and demands quality from everyone they do business with. Quality isn’t an edge, it isn’t your selling point, it’s simply the right way to act and not lose business.

Marketing 101 tells you that in order to differentiate yourself from your competitors, you have to offer something to your customers that is different. Godin would say you have to be “remarkable”; I simply like to say you have to have an edge. Being remarkable is great, but it isn’t always necessary to attract business. However, having an edge, offering something your competition doesn’t, is necessary.

As an internet marketing consultant, if my angle was that I provided quality service, what value am I in the eye of any prospective client? All of my competitors provide quality service. OF COURSE I provide quality service, I HAVE TO. My edge is in specific experience I have with competitive verticals, my personality, impressive client portfolio, and other awesomeness.

Now, don’t confuse “quality” with “high-end”. If you’re selling the highest-end product in your market, that’s an angle. But if you say you’re selling the best toolset in your industry, you have to substantiate your claim and prove your edge and worth.

Where to start? It all begins with your brand strategy. How you brand yourself should define what your edge is and how you demonstrate it to people. You should be marketing yourself based on how you differentiate from your competition. Reassuring your product’s or service’s quality is a great thing to do, but not something to hinge your marketing strategy on.

Some Companies that Have an Edge

Outspoken Media

Outspoken Media is the perfect example of a service business that has a clearly defined edge. With the detailed coverage they provide of industry events, thought-provoking commentary, and loud mouthed tweets, there is no doubt that they represent their brands namesake and everyone knows it.

Knowem

The bio on Knowem’s Twitter Profile reads: “*The Original* Prevent Social Media Identity Theft”. Knowem pioneered the idea of username prevention squatting and created an amazing service based around it. Sometimes being the first one in the market gives you enough of an edge to dominate.

BMW

BMW came up with the slogan “The Ultimate Driving Machine” and has been playing that angle for years. Do they make good cars? Absolutely. Do they make cars that are vastly superior to their competitors? No. But because of the edge they have branded themselves with, they have been able to maintain a significant market share even in a declining economy.

Google built it’s business by offering a search engine with a clean interface to a world that was used to Yahoo! Apple built it’s empire by marketing a computer and operating system that was simple, easy to use, and “different”. Remember the “Think different.” campaign? If you can’t differentiate yourself, you have no shot at longevity.

Kenny Hyder - Marketing Consultant

The 4 P’s in the Age of Google

The 4 P’s

Product

Price

Place

Promotion

Photo Credit: Leo Reynolds

Descriptive Marketing

Chevrolet vs. Chevy

Prescription for Failure

Rules Are Meant to be Broken

Photo Credit: the_munificent_sasquatch, z5, voteprime

10 Things I Learned from 10,000 Tweets

10. Twitter can be a HUGE waste of time

9. Spam accounts have no value

8. There is no need for paid tools

7. Whining doesn’t help

6. People are likely to retweet you if you talk about them

5. You don’t own anything on twitter

4. Need something? Just ask.

3. Twitter CAN make you money

2. Shut up once in awhile

1. Twitter has no value

Social Media: A Waste of Your Time?

Good & Bad Investments

Social Media: The Time Suck

Good Investments in Social Media

Trim the Fat

Reap the Rewards

Photo Credit: steve.grosbois

You Don’t Know Jack About Branding

You Reap What You Sow

Learn From The Pros

Calling Card

4 P’s

Consistency

Get Rich Slowly

Are You Penny Wise And Pound Foolish?

Photo Credit: seeveeaar

Only Some Marketers Are Liars

SEO is Not Soft Marketing

Clarification

Social Media is Not Soft Marketing

Clarification

Brand Management is Not Soft Marketing

Clarification

Don’t Be Fooled

Photo Credit: Express MonoRail

You Don’t Want To Choose

Case #1

Case #2

Et cetera

Less Really IS More

Would You Brush Off Michael Jordan?

Quality Isn’t an Angle

What separates you from your competition?

Outspoken Media

Knowem

BMW

Photo Credit: bindermichi