Dr Richard Norris author of ‘Hoof it!’ offers advice on marketing your business
In this short clip, Dr Richard Norris explains why SMEs need an offer and how to reach their target market.
Dr Richard Norris has also written a book, Hoof It!, Seven Key Lessons on Your Journey of Success. The book is a charming and imaginative business and life parable centred around Vic, an orphaned wildebeest, who must endure the challenges and dangers of his first migration. The book is written in the parable format to appeal to school children.
How to Pick a Web Designer
Richard Quick from MailRight (www.mailright.co.uk) and Speak to Rich (www.speaktorich.com) offers business owners advice on how to pick a web designer. Podcast recorded in Glasgow on 2 June 2011.
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How to Find Quality Sales Leads Every Week
Scot McRae from McRae & Company (www.mcraeandcompany.co.uk) gives an overview of the revolutionary new LeadFormix lead generation technology and how it enables companies to accurately identify 90% of all visitors to their most important lead generation asset, the company website. Podcast recorded in Edinburgh on 28 April 11.
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Social Media Strategy and Planning by Mike McGrail
Mike McGrail from The BIG Partnership (www.bigpartnership.co.uk) discusses the importance of social media strategy and planning. Podcast recorded in Edinburgh on 9 March 2011.
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Alastair Mowat on Erronerous Drinks Marketing
On the 9 December 2010 at Centotre, Edinburgh, Alastair Mowat gave an entertaining account of his time as Marketing Director at Scottish & Newcastle (S&N). Below is a transcript of Alastair’s talk.
I hazard a guess that most of you feel, given more time in the day, you could handle marketing pretty well off your own bat. My topic today, erroneous marketing, may prove how right you are. In my 12 years (1982-1994) at the helm of marketing, I made plenty of errors, and it may be helpful for you to learn from them.
Mistake number one, Amstel lager
In the wake of Becks Bier growing volumes, we decided S&N could easily handle another premium lager. We picked Amstel and went forth with the tag line:
“The lager the Dutch wished to keep to themselves.”
The British consumer wholeheartedly agreed with that view, and after just two months I had to withdraw the product from our Managed Houses (pubs and bars).
Where did we go wrong?
- Half-hearted advertising.
- We failed to win the hearts and minds of the salesmen.
- Licensees felt we were doing well enough with Becks Bier.
- We were complacent and conceited.
Incidentally, Amstel, after several false starts, has its place on some UK bar counters now.
Mistake number two, Coors Export
Later on, I was persuaded to look for an American product. We chose Coors which enjoyed, at that time in the USA, a sincere cult following.
American beer was adjudged by many Brits as weak and washy! In fact, most lager in America was at least 5%, so the bias was strangely inaccurate. Budweiser had launched unsuccessfully while Australian lagers were making impressive ground. It was a gamble, but S&N had to improve its lager portfolio.
Ironically, I helped to re-design the Bush Bottle, but that’s another story. We’d have gone with Bush, if they had been prepared to grant us both the on-trade (pubs and bars) and off-trade (off licences and supermarkets). So it was Coors it had to be.
- I wanted to introduce Coors in a can (the famous Silver Bullet) but failed to convince my board. They wanted draught lager.
- The liquid was an export lager, which did initially do well in research against other premium lagers.
- This time we were ready with TV and all the expensive paraphernalia of an national launch. The reps and drivers attended cinemas all over the country. Speeches were made endlessly by me and a lively American called Marizenala. Actors from the USA TV sitcom Cheers took part in our TV advertising.
- We struggled to gain 100,000 barrels in our first year. Despite high endeavour, we eventually shuddered to a halt.
What went wrong?
- We tried too hard and launched in a hurry.
- We failed to pick the right name. Silver Bullet has an association with guns, violence, etc. Would have been excellent in the off-trade (off-licences and supermarkets).
- The off-trade would have been an easier market for us and less expensive.
- As we ground to halt at 120,000 barrels in our second year, our company lost heart. By this time we were under take over rumours.
- Our timing was wrong.
- We were in an educational role and we underestimated the time it would all take.
Coors now has a brewery at Tadcaster in England – what goes around, comes around.
Mistake number three, Starbrite
Ever heard of the brand? I doubt it, as we tested the brand in the North East of England. It was a fusion of beer and lager – well that was the general idea. A lager beer that was aimed directly at the young aspirational market. Newcastle had a reputation for partying and clubbing and this was to be a breakthrough. 4% alcohol by volume, bright, cheery and that word I am loathe to use in drink advertising: refreshing.
It bombed, why?
- Too early for the market.
- At that time, club goers favourites were Snakebite, Blast Away (Diamond White and Castaway), premium lagers such as Pils and Carlsberg Special.
- Drinking bottle by the neck was popular, draught tap was not wanted.
- Cider was on tap, but was popular due to Snakebite and was up to 8% by volume.
- We didn’t explain the virtues of the product well enough.
The lessons learned
I have not told you all our failures. Our stout, ‘Heavy Bevy’, McEwan’s Low Alcohol lager were also unsuccessful. God knows how I lasted 13 years. We must have done some things better, when I come to think of it, but here’s some of the lessons we learned from the failures.
- In new developments, travel quietly and cautiously and learn how the consumer reacts. Research can’t reveal everything.
- It’s no sin to adjust one’s marketing attack.
- Carry one’s natural ambassadors with you. In our case, breweries, salesmen and bar staff.
- Watch the weight of burden the salesmen has in his portfolio.
- Check and check again the quality of the liquid.
- Avoid conceit and complacency.
- Make sure the concept is understandable to the normal punter.
- Don’t exaggerate the forecast or the net profit.
- Your competitors will be ready to copy if you are successful.
- Claim the heart and respect of your target consumer. That’s what great brands achieve.
- Word of mouth is the most efficient and reassuring vote of confidence that can develop the halo effect.
The fun in marketing
Finally, I would like to end on a cheerful note and turn to the fun in marketing.
- The men and women who make it in marketing are generally amusing, have an up beat tempo and like partying.
- It’s usually three to six months before you are found out. By then you may have moved on to another brand.
- If you have a modicum of sense, marketing is a balistic caper.
- In my day, plenty of travelling about the country, especially to the hand-picked advertising and design agencies in London. Useful for weekend breaks, much of it on expenses. The MP’s copied us lot.
- Sponsorship could be a lot of joy. Whether the arts, charities or sports. Free seats, mingling with the great and the good.
- And if you were really lucky, trips abroad to conferences and the like.
- As the great Sinatra put it. We did it our way.
I would like to end on a more cheerful note
Achieving Your True Potential
Gail Bryden from Your True Potential (www.yourtruepotential.co.uk) offers advice on achieving your potential during uncertain times. Podcast recorded in Edinburgh on 9 March 2010.
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Speaking to Market Your Business by Moria M Beaton
Moira M Beaton from Moira M Beaton (www.moirambeaton.com) offers advice on speaking effectively to market your business. Podcast recorded in Edinburgh on 25 March 2010.
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Ten Google SEO Tips
Martin Jordan from leading digital agency Equator (www.eqtr.com) offers ten Search Engine Optimisation tips to help improve your website’s ranking on Google and other search platforms. Podcast recorded in Glasgow on 1 December 2009.
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‘Does Your Marketing Sell’ by Ian Moore
Introduction
This book is essential reading for anyone who works in the marketing industry or anyone in business who wishes to maximise their company’s marketing efforts. This book is also recommend for any entrepreneur who doesn’t have a marketing background and is looking to work with a marketing or advertising agency for the first time.
This book provides a good grounding in what to be aware of in creating effective marketing materials. Whether it’s a brochure, leaflet, mailer, website or Yellow Pages advert. Even if you are not actually producing the materials yourself, it will give guidance to ensure that you don’t buy poorly conceived materials from a so called ‘expert’.
Extracts of this book are available on Google Books, so there is no excuse for not reading at least some of it to see if you like it. The author Ian Moore is a excellent authority of the subject of marketing. Having originally started as salesman in seventies, then working as copywriter for top London marketing agencies, then starting his own successful agency Blue-Chip Marketing in the nineties. Over the decades Mr Moore has worked for household names such as: Kimberly-Clark, Cadbury, Lloyds TSB, Reebok, Scottish and Newcastle, Walkers Crisps and Warburtons.
The author has a strong affinity with advertising legend David Ogilvy (who also worked as a salesman before entering the advertising industry). Both men are copywriters and believe in benefit driven headlines and copy. Ultimately, they believe that salesmanship will create a higher response and sales compared to marketing that is simply showmanship, or showing off.
The book is structured around Mr Moore’s personal take on the famous selling technique AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action). This has been developed from his decades of experience. NEWAIDA is Mr Moore’s trademark for courses and workshops that takes the AIDA concept a stage further and more relevant for business today.
While it would be unfair and unethical of me to simply reveal all the concepts in the book on this blog, I will give an overview to whet you appetite. Let’s start with what this book can help you achieve (taken from the back cover).
Get four times as many customers to ready your adverts
Double the response rates to your mailers
Triple the uptake of your promotional offers
Employ the seven most powerful ways to gain attention
Write with the 100 most persuasive selling words
The missing ingredient
So why does one piece of marketing succeed where another fails? What is it that causes almost 20 times as many people to respond to one message than to another? Just how do you make your marketing sell?
It seems there’s a paradox. What well-intentioned marketers think they should do to make their marketing sell often doesn’t work. And that’s because they get salesmanship confused with showmanship.
Salesmanship is the missing ingredient in making your marketing sell. Salesmanship is the quiet skills of empathy and perception. These skills are often abandoned in modern marketing communications.
Very often advertising for big brands is arty or creative and doesn’t engage the majority of the audience. You might find an TV advert funny, but won’t remember the product. Very often the reader will be confused by the advert and not bother to read it, or solve the ‘riddle’. Adverts that capture the readers attention and appeal to them on the desired level, will resonate and be more successful.
I’ve always made it a golden rule never to propose anything – ranging from a rough idea for single advert to a complex multifaceted campaign – unless we could justify why we believed it would sell. If we couldn’t explain how it would engage the customer to achieve the desired outcome, it didn’t get presented. When you apply this discipline to your proposals, you find – magically – that the words of explanation come out in the simple language of salesmanship.
Navigation
Navigation is the first step in NEWAIDA. This chapter sets out principles in helping your customer to know what to think about and to create the desired reaction. If a customer doesn’t know what to do or think about within a few seconds they won’t engage with the marketing material and won’t go any further.
Ease
If the customer perceives your marketing to have too many hurdles they will fail to respond. This is very relevant where success of the campaign is dependant on the number of responses received. Making your marketing easy to use and engage will increase the number of responses. Supermarkets are filled with promotions, discount vouchers or competitions. Their success will depend on how easy it is for the customer to firstly participate, and secondly, if they perceive it as a good deal. If the promotion fails to do this, the response will be poor.
Wording
Since Mr Moore is a copywriter, it’s understandable why he has added this third topic to the AIDA concept. This is perhaps the most important subject of all. The key thing here is to write in your customer’s language.
Good salespeople are taught to speak the language of their customers. This is known as matching is used to build pace and rapport, by mirroring and complementing aspects of the other person. When you match, you show that you are willing to enter the other person’s model of the world – intuitively, they feel more at easy with you.
Seven deadly sins of marketing communications:
1. Hyperbole (exaggerated and bold claims that over promise and usually under deliver).
2. Cliches (example “The sky’s the limit!” any business can make these claims and they are usually meaningless).
3. Platitudes (meaningless headlines posing a something significant. Also, a competitor could also claim eg, ‘We’re the fastest)
4. Word play
5. Riddles
6. Writer’s fog (a formula to ensure the copy is not too dense with jargon, impersonal and verbose).
7. Designeritis (the design of the marketing taking priority of message and content. Gratuitous use of graphics).
Trade press advertising is viewed as rather unglamorous, and I assume that it was assigned to the agency’s most junior and inexperienced copywriters. Maybe these guys had never done a sales call in a corner shop, or been to a presentation at the likes of Asda head office. Whatever their excuse, it showed in their soapbox style presumptuously aimed at some great unseen yet miraculously enthralled crowd.
More practical copywriting advice
Write to a person and not to a crowd. Try to find the right tone. Make it businesslike yet friendly in tone. Keep it to the point. Make it fit consumption at any level, managing director to office junior.
When writing copy use two ‘you’s for every ‘we’
The reading age of the average supermarket shopper is 11.
Use the language of the people, avoid words with Latin or Old French origins. Avoid jargon also.
The brain is designed to hear language. We train our brains to convert it back into sounds when we read. Writing should be treated not as the written word, but as the spoken word. And surely this means a simple, conversational style.
Don’t use full points on headlines, magazines and newspapers don’t.
Imagery
The author does offer some advice on any images used in marketing by explaining that the visuals should do something useful: to enhance and dramatize recognition for your customer – of their need, or the category, or your product. Use it to dramatize the proposition.
Avoid what the author calls the ‘irrelevant simile’ – they prove nothing. For example, a blue-chip company wants to communicate ‘flexibility’ and uses an image a gymnast. Avoid this, people think it’s the analogous item that is being advertised.
From here on in the author gives insights and advice on approaching the classic AIDA selling concept. Below I have quoted key points from these chapters.
Attention
Adverts with benefits in their headlines are read by four times as many people as ads with no benefits in their headlines. For profitable attention, you need a benefit.
Make your advert newsworthy eg. ‘new improved’, ‘new advanced formula’. Use sensory language to engage the mind, such as the ‘The Inch War’ for Ryvita.
Interest
Key tips:
1. Write for the interested customer.
2. Seek out first-time buyers.
3. Key question: “Am I treating my customer as if they’re already interested?”
Content always beats form. A company newsletter can sometimes appear boastful and selfish. An internal staff one packed with stories and pics about them will be a success – because it’s about its customers (the staff).
Desire
You can’t make your customers need your product, but you find out whether they want it. The communication task, then, is to help them realize that they do.
Use layered delivery. In sales letter you should be able to just read the sub heads to understand the content of the letter.
There’s no such thing as long or short copy only enough copy. Give the customer a stream of relevant, interesting facts and benefits and they’ll stay with you.
The book ‘Positioning’ by Ries and Trout supports the theory that if you can’t get into your customer’s mind first, your best bet is to do it by reference to something they already understand and believe.
Action
1. Help your customer to say ‘yes’
2. Offer ‘carrots’ and incentives to encourage customers to respond to your marketing
3. Set a two dates for an offer deadline, date one big prize, date two smaller prize
4. Use the ‘mop-up’ technique to prompt lasped subscribers or customers who have failed to respond
Finally
I should add that this book is a pleasure to read, as it’s well-written and packed with real life examples and anecdotes to back up the author’s points. The review above is just some of the highlights, there is obviously more content in the book. I would recommend reading it once through, then dipping into chapters every now an then to refresh your memory and inspire you to create or ‘buy’ more effective marketing materials for your company. Read reviews on Amazon.
Only Memory Affects Behaviour
Andrew Forbes from The Rhetorical Company (www.rhetoric.co.uk) offers advice on speaking in public and how to get your audience to remember and act on what you say. Podcast recorded in Edinburgh on 30 July 2009.
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