EFFECT[ive] Marketing…Connecting Real-Life Businesses with their Online Market

[This entry was first published at HubPages.com.]

If you were born in the U.S. before, say, 1982, you surely remember the wrinkliest, purpliest spokescharacters ever unleashed on the American public: the Claymated California Raisins. The transformation of the Raisins characters into cultural icons has often been presented (even as a business–school case study) as a testament to the success of the ad campaign. But very few know how the tale actually ended, and therein lies a valuable lesson for the contemporary marketing landscape.

The California Raisin Advisory Board had succeeded, a good ten years before anyone had heard the term, in crafting what we know today as a viral hit—of a pop–culture–shaking magnitude. Of course, without YouTube, it took $80 million a year over two years to create and maintain it.

So what did they really get for their eighty million dollars?

Well, in the first year of the campaign, 1987, the Advisory Board logged a 10% jump in U.S. raisin sales. That year, Post Cereals, anticipating that the ad push would boost sales of their Raisin Bran cereal, bought up more raisins. By about 10% of the previous year’s U.S. sales.

The rest of that year? Sales were flat.

And the second year of the campaign, when the nation was gripped by California Raisins fever? Flat again. Not even the previous year’s 10% bump, as Post, seeing no increase in Raisin Bran sales as a result of the ad blitz, had returned to their previous purchase level.

Just two short years after the animated Raisins had begun their assault on American consumers, the campaign had burned through eighty million dollars, countless people had “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” on a permanent playback loop in their heads, and a cottage merchandising industry had made a fortune off licensed California Raisin products. But sales of actual raisins had remained as flat as a dried grape…and the California Raisin Advisory Board was history—bankrupt and out of business.

So how is it that, today as then, this campaign is widely considered a tremendous advertising success story?

The California Raisins campaign generated a ton of noise—in today’s terms, it went viral in a big way. And it seems to be human nature to mistake noise for results. Rather than looking deeper, at the measurable results of the campaign, we’re content to interpret the level of noise, the media and consumer attention a campaign receives, as the measure of its success.

So when you’re setting up a marketing campaign, know your goals. It’s hard to know whether you’ve succeeded if you haven’t set out what success will look like.

Next, measure your progress toward those goals.

And then? Be prepared to act on the information those measurements give you—adjust the campaign’s focus, fine–tune it, even drop it if that’s the best course.

We’re not arguing that virality (viralness? viralosity?) is a bad thing. As long as the attention it draws to your brand or product is positive, viral is good. Viral boosts your profile and your visibility.

But if you stop to congratulate yourself after your roller–skating–monkey video gets its millionth hit and don’t bother looking at whether that popularity has boosted sales of the product it’s tied to, then you’re just a higher–profile, more visible business with the same sales you had before.

Consider the very funny spots that California diary farmers have been running for a few years—”Great Milk Comes from Happy Cows.” Funny enough to hold your attention? Probably. But really—do they make you want to check the milk label when you’re grocery shopping to see which brand comes from California? Not likely. Over twenty years later, it seems no one (at least in California) has learned their lesson.

Are you looking to create noise, or are you looking to create sales?

Marketing isn’t just for marketers any more (not that it ever really was). It’s a crucial core task for everyone in every level of every operation in every industry. So isn’t about time we drop the “marketing–speak”?

Often, jargon, the shorthand language subset peculiar to a particular profession or industry, serves a valuable purpose: it allows practitioners to communicate efficiently with their peers where otherwise they’d have to fall back on the lengthy terminology or phrases that that jargon fills in for. It allows medical professionals to say “stat” instead of “I need you to drop what you’re doing and come right away” (by which time the patient could already be a goner), and computer experts to use terms like API, CMOS, DDR and POP3 instead of, well…who really knows what those guys are talking about?

But too much of the time, jargon is simply used to demonstrate to outsiders that the jargonistas are part of an elite group, a secret club that wants you to know that you can’t play in their treehouse. And since you obviously aren’t one of them, you need to hire them because they know stuff you don’t.

IMHO (See? I can use jargon, too!), that’s definitely the case in the marketing industry—traditional and traditionally–trained marketers work in an arena where quantification is difficult, often impossible, and where keeping the flow of billable hours going often depends more on maintaining the impression of producing results than on actual results.

“Benefit segmentation,” “AIO,” “positioning,” “CPM.” The seemingly limitless lexicon of terms like these certainly has actual meaning and value among marketing professionals, but when they come out from behind the closed doors of the war room and toss them around in front of clients or the public, it’s not only not done for efficiency or clarity of communication, it actually impedes communication.

But “branding”? That one is different. That one just makes my skin crawl. And I hear it all day, every day. I’m sure you do, too.

You have to develop your brand. You need to protect your  brand. You’ve got to brand your brand. And when you brand your brand, you’ll be branding. Does anyone really know what it means? Am I the only one who’s sick of it?

So, at risk of life and limb and my shot at membership in the Marketing Illuminati, I’m about to reveal a secret guarded jealously for generations by black–robed monks (or at least guys in vested suits).

“Branding” is another word for reputation.

That’s it. That’s the big secret. Your brand is your reputation (or if you’re stuck in the 90s, your rep). Is it important to develop and protect your business’s reputation? Absolutely. Your reputation is everything. And focusing on it, guarding it jealously, proactively improving it by diligently, patiently improving your level of service and your connection to and communication with your customers, and your awareness of and reaction to what’s being said about you on the Web, is the single best strategy for growing your business over the long haul.

But please—can you do all that without calling it “branding”?

And the next time a marketer or salesperson starts tossing out terms you don’t know, politely stop them and ask them to start from the beginning in plain English. If they can’t do it, kick them out or run away. And if they talk about branding, you have my permission to hurt them.

Marketing is about drawing customers into your business. What will they find when they get there? And what will they tell their friends?

Just about a year ago, I was retained by a local franchisee for a popular national restaurant company to boost catering sales in his operation.

One of the first recommendations I made to the client was that he beef up his on-premise dining and kitchen operations – as a long-term restaurant professional, it didn’t take more than a visit or two to his flagship operation to see that there were some glaring deficiencies in service, cleanliness, food consistency and level of customer service. I offered the client a comprehensive list of recommendations on how I thought he needed to tighten up his operation in preparation for dealing with increased catering sales. He implemented exactly none of my suggestions.

Our marketing strategy was well-organized, and the initial catering push was moderately successful…with an effect that was entirely predictable: catering deliveries were disorganized and late or  incomplete; billing mistakes were common; on-premise service and food quality suffered because staff spent mornings running around trying to figure out how to get catering orders together instead of preparing for the lunch rush; and the operation came across as unprofessional and inept to nearly everyone.

So the initial push worked just well enough to upset not just present catering and on-premise customers but new ones as well, and the franchisee very quickly saw his numbers start falling off again. And, needless to say, our relationship didn’t end on the best of terms; I was frustrated with him, and he thought I hadn’t done my job.

The moral of the story?

Even the best-executed marketing strategy will bite you in the butt if your operation isn’t ready for its impact.

If your operation isn’t running in showcase mode, with every facet sparkling and prepared to impress every customer, all the time and energy you’ve invested in your marketing efforts will simply yield a greater number of customers who will be unimpressed with your operation – and will go out and tell the world what they found.

Step one of your strategic marketing plan has to be internal: look at your operation – from your customers’ point of view - and make some cold, harsh, honest judgments on where it’s lacking and what needs to change for it to be ready to sell itself and create customers who are your best advertisers. And if you can’t trust yourself to look at your business objectively, ask your customers. They’ll be grateful that you thought enough of them to ask, and they will give you their honest input.

People are talking about your business online. Do you know what they’re saying about you? And if they’re not talking about you, it’s time to get them started.

A quick Google search today yielded the following list of sites that post consumer reviews of local businesses in my stomping ground, the greater metropolitan Indianapolis (Indiana, USA) area (this is just a partial list):

· Google.com
· Yelp.com
· InsiderPages.com
· Local.Yahoo.com
· Cityguide.AOL.com
· MojoPages.com
· IndianapolisLocal.com
· Indianapolis.Citysearch.com
· JudysBook.com
· 46240.net (Works for most, if not all, zipcodes nationwide.)
· Merchantcircle.com
· Planetpages.com
· Yellowbook.com
· Yellowpages.com
· Citysearch.com
(Yes, some of these sites access the same database, but they still represent multiple sites people can choose to go to for that information.)
· My3Cents.com
· TheIndyChannel.com
· WTHR.com
· WISHTV.com
· IndyStar.com

Now, it goes without saying that some of these sites are used by a whole lot of people. That’s a lot of potential customer reviews of your business, and a lot of people to read them. A lot of places for your customers to tell others how great your business is to deal with – or a lot of places where they can talk about how you let them down.

You’ve probably heard of the “Social Web”; these sites are a prime example of that phenomenon, of people using the Web to make a connection to others with a similar interest, to express their feelings about their experiences with local businesses. In this scenario, it’s no longer the World Wide Web, but the Locally Focused Web that’s connecting people and allowing them to gush – or vent – about your business.

What does this mean for you as a business owner or manager? Well, a couple of things: first, it means you’re probably being talked about behind your back – unless you make a habit of searching sites like these for mentions of your business’s name (and, while you’re at it, your competitors*). This talk may be favorable, or it may be negative – and if it’s negative, out there where anyone in the world who knows your name can find it, you can bet it’s hurting your business. Marketers have known, and research has confirmed, for decades that consumers place a high level of trust in endorsements, and criticism, from “people like them” – in this case, people who have an internet connection and an interest in your business.

Next, it means that if you’re not being talked about, your marketing efforts, whatever form they take, aren’t working. The online conversation offers a good snapshot of how people feel about your business. And if no one’s talking about it, then they either don’t know you’re there or you haven’t made a strong enough impression, positive or negative, to compel them to bang out a quick review.

And finally, all this cyberchatter means you have an opportunity to connect with your customers and future customers for free – if you just take a little time to find the conversations, participate in the conversations (many of these sites allow a business owner – or anyone – to post a reply or comment to a review), or even start a conversation about your business: all you need to do is talk to some of your most loyal customers and politely ask them, since they clearly feel very strongly about your business, if they’d consider doing you a favor by typing out a two-sentence review of your operation on Google or any of the multitude of other sites. After all, it’s not really cheating, or lying, if they’re really your customers and they really have positive things to say about your business.

As an example, one of the local network television affiliates’ sites listed above is presently running their annual “Best Of” contest, with at least thirty categories. Three of my clients fit into one of those categories; two are actually being voted for but aren’t in the top ten yet, and the third could be listed but isn’t. In all three cases, the clients, the owners of the businesses, were unaware of the contest. Wouldn’t it be a shame to miss out on a free-promotion opportunity this good – especially if, with an investment of nothing but a little effort, you could boast of being one of the Ten Best in your field in the fourteenth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. for an entire year? How much is that kind of publicity worth?

Will this boost your customer counts overnight? Not likely. But devoting, say, half an hour a week – maybe when you first roll out of bed or into your office – to monitoring and participating in the local online consumer chatter is a free and pretty easy strategy that holds a lot of potential for enhancing your marketing efforts in the long run.

* I’m sure I shouldn’t admit it, but there’s a certain satisfaction in coming across a snarky review of a competitor (or a former client or employer you had a falling-out with). And no, I would never post them myself. It’s just not sporting. It’s much more fun to see what misery they’ve visited on total strangers.

Our local cable television/internet/telephone company has been running a TV spot to showcase to their business customers how effective advertising with them is: a car-dealership manager (a real customer, as they say, “not an actor”) brags that everywhere he goes around town, people see him and sing his commercial’s jingle for him. That, he says in no uncertain terms, is how he knows advertising with, let’s say, Acme Cablevision works for him.

Really? That’s the landmark? Not increased sales, or increased traffic, or even increased phone calls, but the number of people who can sing his little ditty?

Let’s ignore for a moment the fact that I believe that all traditional advertising, air and print, for all companies, in almost all circumstances, is unnecessary – and unnecessarily costly. Which I do. Because it is.

Does this businessman really gauge the success of his TV ad by how many people have memorized his jingle? Does that equate to business success? I believe so. And it’s not just small, local businesses that make this mistake; it’s been common in advertising for generations to focus on the memorability of a thirty- or sixty-second spot, as if the ability to simply blunt-object some string of characters into the public’s brains somehow equates to money in the bank. Remember the gerbils/hamsters/chipmunks launched into a wall out of a cannon in a SuperBowl ad years ago? Sure you do. PETA does. Remember the company that ran it? Not unless you’re with PETA. They folded within months of that ad’s first airing.

Advertising is a marketing activity. The goal of all marketing activities is to bring in more business – more sales, bigger sales, sales from new revenue streams, new customers, repeat customers, any of the above, all of the above. And marketing is a core business activity. Just like any other core element of your business, like inventory or labor, if cost > return, it’s a bad deal.

If you decide traditional advertising is a worthwhile investment for your operation, then go into it for the right reasons, from the right perspective, and with the right point.

Any business owner who’s managed to survive to his or her fourteenth birthday knows this. It’s pretty obvious.

But once we dive into the day-to-day grind of overseeing and operating our business, any thoughts of marketing strategy are pretty much the first things out the window. And what’s left, day by day, is just the implicit hope that customers will come, that, even though nothing’s changed from yesterday, potential customers will see the business differently today.

Well, they won’t. In fact, they won’t see our businesses at all if we don’t force ourselves to set aside time to work up a simple strategic plan and then force ourselves to devote time every day to implementing it, monitoring results, and modifying our approach.

Marketing your business is a core activity. In fact, marketing your business is your business. Think of everything you do (that isn’t accounting) as part of your investment in marketing. It all works toward bringing in and building sales.

If you don’t devote time to it, who’s going to?

And if you don’t take charge of marketing your business, who are you going to blame when it doesn’t grow?