How to invent, internet style

A few weeks back, I attended a banking conference in Chicago and had the good fortune to go to a session where I learned about Quirky.com. This is a very cool site on so many levels, but it says something to me about where we are going vis-a-vis product development and marketing. At Quirky, inventors or people with a great idea pitch their ideas. They are asked to write a brief summary of the idea, attach a sketch or photo, and pitch it to the others who frequent the Quirky site as well as market it to their friends on Facebook and Twitter. The idea is out there for comment and voting and the staff at Quirky will also review it. If the idea is chosen, crowd sourcing is used for refining and developing the idea further and judging its marketability. If it selected to go further, Quirky puts the idea out for pre-orders and, if enough are sold, then it goes into production and distribution. The coolest part is that everyone who "influences" or plays a part in the final product receives a percentage of the profits from the sales. If you influenced 5% of the final product, then you get 5% of the profits, in perpetuity.

Crowd sourcing as a model for marketing intrigues me. I'm fascinated by the Quirky model and, in fact, am using it to pitch an idea I had of my own - what I call a Patient Poncho (vote for it here: http://www.quirky.com/ideations/125855). I will be watching to see how the crowd sourcing model might be applied to marketing strategy in the near future. And, hoping that my cool idea gets chosen!

The Changing Consumer

I've had the good fortune to be part of the Marketing and PR professional community since the early 1980's. Back then, only the most forward-thinking companies were dabbling in computers. Most folks were dazzled by the "word processors" that eliminated the need for carbon paper and re-typing. Secretaries (you may remember those) were thrilled.

My first computer had no hard drive, just two floppy disk drives (the big ones that really were floppy!) and I had to switch disks back and forth to load programs and then save them. The screen was an eye-killing amber and I was ecstatic to be one of the few to have one.

Consumers were discovering CD's and walkmans and stereo TV. We reached them through broadcast and print media and direct mail. It was a very one-sided kind of marketing where you cast your net based on some generic demographic data. The only way you knew if you reached your potential customer was if they actually walked through the door and told you so, or happened to answer a telephone survey.

Fast forward 30 years or so and consumers are in a totally different position. They are managing the flow of information they get from advertisers. They decide where, when, how and IF they will receive messages. Traditional media still has its uses but the days of placing an ad in a newspaper to advertise a sale are over.

Today we have to track down the consumer and we must entice her to read, hear or watch our message. We have to understand what motivates her, how busy she is, and we need to know a lot about her. Fortunately, we have loads of data available to tell us that but, frankly, I am a little wary about how long that particular gravy train will be around for us to use. I wonder if consumers will get a little weary of marketers knowing everything about them. It wouldn't take much for them to start shutting the windows we have into their lives.

Of course, we won't go back to the stone age of the 1980s marketing tactics. But the plethora of messaging has its drawbacks. By one estimate, every consumer sees upwards of 5,000 messages daily. Some people put it at much more than that, but it is clear that communication overload is part of our lives. How long will we stand for that? I don't know, but I do think that while today's 20-something has less of an expectation of privacy than the over-50 crowd, I believe there may come a moment when that window does indeed start slamming down on our fingers.

So what will we do then?

Wow, I've just started my own Marketing firm! This will be an adventure, and I look forward to sharing the ups and downs on my blog. When I discovered that my nice, safe corporate job was gone, I decided right away that I would follow my long-held secret wish to create my own future. So, I launched Deppe Communications that very day. Within hours, I had reached out to a number of colleagues to ask for their help. It's amazing, but when you ask people for help they are incredibly responsive!

I have made appointments with a number of people whose opinions I trust and value. I am asking for guidance on starting a business, but also for referrals. By day two, I had my first client! Today is Day 3 of being on my own and I am getting ready to dig in to my first job. I have appointments scheduled for the next two weeks, and I am excited about this opportunity.

This blog will be my way of sharing what I learn and what I know about Marketing. There are so many small businesses out there that cannot afford to hire a marketing person, but need someone to guide them as they work to grow their business. That's my niche. I can provide years of expertise gained at large corporations where I managed all the marketing, PR and communications functions including websites. My specialties are branding and integrated marketing.

I am looking for referrals so if you know of someone who could benefit from 30 years of marketing expertise, I'd appreciate it if you would recommend me, or Email me the referral at kdeppe@comcast.net.

Today's Tip: Keep your website fresh. Make sure you are updating the content at least once a week. Add pictures when you can, but make sure to tag them with a description so the web crawlers will "see" them.

What's Your UVP?

Every organizations I've ever worked for has pretty much had the same Vision statement and it goes something like this:
"We will be the premier (insert industry here) in the region, with the highest level of customer service possible."

Blah. Boring, and useless, if you are really trying to create a vision. How can employees see themselves in that? Lots of companies "strive for excellence" but every time I hear that phrase I think of Yoda ' "Try not. Do, or do not."

Your vision statement really needs to reflect your Unique Value Proposition - your UVP - because otherwise it is just another collection of fancy words. The UVP defines not only who you are as an organization, but what benefit you bring to your customers that they can't get anywhere else. Your UVP should be completely understood by all employees so that they can verbalize to your customers. It should be the underpinning for your entire marketing strategy, as well.

How do you find your UVP? For heaven's sake, don't ask your employees. They will have all kinds of ideas that sound reasonable but probably don't reflect your UVP. Instead, ask your customers. Ask the customers who left you, and the ones who aren't your customers. Ask why they chose you - or why they didn't. Ask them what it is about your company that makes you different. Ask a lot of them and write down their answers. If you are getting a lot of different answers that will tell you that your brand is not well established in the minds of your customers. It may tell you that your company hasn't distinguished itself yet as having a UVP. Either way, it indicates you have work to do in clarifying that vision.

If you are getting consistent answers, that tells you that your brand is understood. You may not be happy with what the brand is, but at least you know where you are starting from. If the results don't define your company in the same way you do, then you will need to do some gap analysis and figure out how to get there.

Your UVP is out there, somewhere. Finding it is your first step but then you must refine it and make it the basis of all you do whether that's writing a new Vision statement or creating a new ad campaign. Until you know your UVP, you may just be wasting a lot of resources in your marketing.

Clear the Brush from your Marketing Plan

If you work in a corporate setting, like I do, you can get bogged down in what I call "brush." That's the day in, day out stuff we do routinely - newsletters, updating brochures, putting on employee events, flyers, etc. It can take up all your time just keeping up with the regular stuff and before you know it, the plans you had for creating a big, creative and innovative campaign are still sitting on your mental shelf - and they're dusty.

Do you have a strategy for clearing out the brush so you can get to chopping down those big trees? How do you stay focused on the big rocks in your jar - the big ideas that will really bring change to your organization (or client). Here are my top 5:

1. Set aside time in your week to do that. Calendar it. Block it off and protect it the best you can. It can be difficult to be creative on demand, I know, but if you at least make a space in your week to do it, that can help.

2. Make a list of your brush items - and your brush fires. I find that if I clear out the little things, take care of what is suddenly urgent, then I can tackle bigger things. Brush can consume you and keep you from wading through the forest to get to the path you need. Clear it away first.

3. Commit to a time frame for completing your big issues. In essence, by assigning them a place on your task list with a timeframe, you create an accountability. Make it part of your work plan.

4. Talk to your boss and let him know that you have a great idea, but need some time to work on it. If your in box keeps filling up with more brush, you may be able to negotiate with your boss to let some of that slide while you work on the bigger issues. You'll need to win her over, but if your boss buys in to your concept, you can probably get support.

5. Use your time wisely. I don't mean just be efficient in how you use your time, I mean choose the time of day when you are most creative and use that for your big idea work. For example, I am most creative early in the morning. So I try to set aside any writing or proof reading or creative work for that time of the day. By day's end, I'm less creative so I leave Email, invoices, and other less mentally taxing tasks until the end of the day.

Those are my top 5 - I'd like to hear yours!

Did Online Kill Old Media?

It is trite to say that marketing is part art and part science. As marketers, we must use metrics, ROI, behavioral analysis and other scientific, concrete tools to deliver and measure campaigns. But what we do also requires creativity - writing, design, a "gut" feeling for what will work. We have to understand our audiences at both the logical and the psychological level, then figure out how to meet them at both places at once.

CEOs are looking for the results - what did we accomplish, how much did it cost, did we reach our goal. As marketers, we have to put those questions at the top of our lists, too. Where the struggle can come is in focusing only on the immediately measurable results. As we move into the age of online, on demand marketing we gain the ability to have near instant results on our marketing activities. That's an advantage we haven't had before. 

The temptation, of course, is to discard all the traditional media we have used - outdoor, print, tv, radio, etc. - in favor of something that can be precisely measured. But those "softer" and less measurable media have an important place in the marketing mix. They provide the opportunity to tell a more complete message, or to create an emotional response, even to make people think, cry, laugh. That's hard to do in a search engine ad or a 140-character tweet.

Building your brand requires a consistent, multi-faceted approach to explaining who you are and what you stand for. Over and over and over. It cannot be one and done, or you will lose whatever investment you made. Yes, you can definitely build brand through online marketing. And yes, you can do some amazing targeting online to reach out to your prospects and customers. But don't overlook the fact that not everyone is online, that everyone responds to different media in different ways, and that there's no substitute for meeting your customer where they are in that moment when they need your product or service.

Surviving the Herd

There is no handicapped parking in the jungle.

I heard a comedian say this on the XM Radio today and it really struck me. Not just because it was funny - it was - but also because it is true. There's no pass for being different, no leeway for the wildebeest that can't keep up. Run, or die. If you are wounded, surround yourself with the herd for protection. Don't strike off on your own, especially if you are not the fastest or the strongest.

And while I do see the truth in this, I also see the lie. What makes us powerful as marketers is our ability to push beyond the safe and drive our companies into iffy territory. Marketing really must drive the marketing strategy and push those new and scary ideas ahead of ourselves.
CEOs like risk. At least the ones I've known do. But they like a calculated risk with some high level of expectation that success is on the other side of that wooden slat bridge. Yes, we might fall into the deep gorge below, but if we make it across then the rewards will be great.

But if marketing is the wounded member of the herd, then it is highly likely that there will be no protection from the rest of the herd. The herd, of course, is filled with jackals just waiting to tear you to shreds. They eat their own young, and they will have  you for breakfast, too.

I wish I could say that brilliance or creativity or perseverance is the answer, but that is not true. After 25 + years in the trenches, I can honestly say there will always be people - completely unqualified people - who believe in their heart of hearts that they know better than you about which marketing strategy you should follow.
For heaven's sake, ignore them.