Dogs, Cats, Kids and Their Parents!

In over twenty years of targeting products and services to kids, I have also frequently been assigned the task of marketing to dogs and cats. The similarities and differences are not only interesting, they are often amusing. As it turns out there are far more similarities than differences.

As those of you who market toys likely know, the relationship between mom and her kids changes radically from pregnancy up through adulthood. I have worked with mothers on the Gerber brand who were vehement about what they allowed on the bottoms and in the bellies of their little darlings. Then, five years later I successfully marketed Totino’s Pizza Snacks and Bagel Bites for them to feed their kids after school. Go figure that.

While the stages along the way remained the same — baby, infant, toddler on up through tweens and teens — they have all matured greatly in recent years. I can recall when Barbie was a valid brand up through twelve or so. Now even the American Girls Collection is well below that in spite of a significant positioning effort to the contrary. Unlike boys, girls and their parents, dogs and cats have a very different relationship pathway with their parents.

While the fundamental nature of dogs and cats is different from kids, they are alike in that their parents treat all pets with a great deal of care in their initial stages of ownership. I can say with confidence, the abundance of love showered on both kids and all animals is essentially the same in its intensity. The difference is that the parents of pets seem to get even more attached and more protective about their care and feeding as they age. I don’t think dogs and cats will ever experience the joys of noshing on a Totino’s pepperoni pizza. Yes, the parent of an eight-year-old kid is far more careful about what they feed their pets than they are what they feed their kids. I can only guess this phenomenon exists because of the relatively helpless nature of pets as opposed to kids as they mature.

In recent months, I have become aware of the sensitive nature of the “home alone” phenomenon. It is generally accepted, and easy to understand, that you would never leave a child home alone. Guess what? There are twelve million small dogs in the US that are left at home alone and while that is not generally thought of as a terrible thing, their owners suffer tremendous guilt. These people love their dogs as much as parents love their kids, and due to circumstance are forced to leave them at home alone inside the house on a regular basis. They love the dog far too much to find it a new home and at the same time hate the fact that they leave it alone. This phenomenon is what I call a marketing opportunity.

So, next time you are store-checking toys, I recommend you consider driving to the nearest PETCO. The first thing you will notice is that pet marketers are no less thorough in providing products to accommodate pets than are toy marketers as featured in the kids department at your local Target. In fact, the categories are titled very much the same. Food, hair care, skin care, medical care, yes, toys too and most of them are segmented into appropriate age groups…just like kids.

The opportunity here is not in the products you will find, but in the characterization of their benefits, attributes and other positioning elements in their selling propositions. Pet owners see their pets very much in the same way the parents of kids do. They look for toys that allow them to participate in the play as well as toys that will entertain the animal without them having to supervise. They are concerned about the safety of the toy as well as how much “play value” is in it for the animal. And, there are toys that are used to educate. All of this should sound very familiar.

My advice is that you go from product to product and study the copy and graphics that are used to communicate. You will discover that many are similar to those used in the children’s toy category but you will also find new perfectly appropriate ways to characterize kids products that have been effective at stimulating purchase to pet owners.

A few years ago, I found the words “Outrageous Flavor” on a dog treat and used it successfully on a nationally branded kids cereal. It functioned successfully as a remarkable trigger, and scored very well in volumetric research. Good luck.

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

America’s Marketing Makeover…What An Experience!

About three months ago we picked a small business in Cleveland, Georgia to do what we titled Americas Marketing Makeover. This would all be documented on “The Big Biz Show”, a well-established two-hour daily TV/radio simulcast, hosted by Bob “Sully” Sullivan. Though it is broadcast on a secondary cable network, it is received in a little over 38 million households. The announcement of the makeover, selection of the winner, the progression of the makeover and its finale were all documented in twelve broadcasts. The final broadcast, ten days ago, chronicled the entire effort and can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/KChambersPULL?feature=mhum.

I suggest you consider watching it as it is truly entertaining. I am particularly proud of it but not for the reason you may think.

As you watch it you will become aware of the nature of the business I picked. It was Precious Memories, Private Pet Cremations. If you are like most, just reading that will have you crack a smile or possibly break into a giggle. That giggle is exactly why I made this choice. Private Pet Cremations becomes even more curious when you meet its owner Ricky Farmer. Ricky is a “salt of the earth” Southerner with a heavy Georgian accent to match.

As we worked our way through the project, I became aware of the special nature of Ricky. In time, I developed a great deal of respect for this man who loves animals beyond anything I have seen. Ricky would tell you he got into the business because he felt that animals were not receiving the respect they deserved, even after death. The project soon became a labor of love, and a breakthrough was just ahead for me.

As we were wrapping up Ricky’s project, we were also wrapping up two other projects for corporate clients. Both of these projects were under significant senior management scrutiny, which put a great deal of pressure on my clients. Over the period of a couple of weeks, success was evident on all three projects. While creating success is common in my business, for the first time I was impressed with the personal impact it had on the people we work for. It began when Ricky shared how our work had literally changed his life and that of others who worked with him. It continued as my two corporate clients shared the personal impact that their success was having on them.

Having all three of these projects mature at the same time, I became aware of the personal nature of what is at stake for those who we work with. It’s not just an attempt at growing their business. Lives are altered and careers are at sake. For whatever reason, this personal impact has escaped me for years. I’m sure this will alter the care with which I conduct my business in the future. If you watch the video, you will meet Ricky in person and get a sense of what I experienced first hand. I am now fully aware that what I do is very personal and more than ever before I am now present to how much I love what I do.

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

MARKETING IN HOLLYWOOD IS MISSING IN ACTION

This blog is a direct response to the April 4 Hollywood Reporter article by Peter Bart. It is titled, “In Hollywood, the Glass is Gaffe Full." In it, Peter characterizes the senior executives in the film industry as being locked in a general fear of failure. From my perspective, Peter’s article is pretty much correct in as far as it goes. I will take it a bit further. To read Peter’s article go to:

http://www.variety.com/article/vr1118034799.com 

My experience in the world of film marketing is limited but I can promise that successfully marketing a film is no different than marketing cat litter, cooking sauce or any other product or service. The film market is a service industry that grew up with a lot of bad habits, and remains committed to hanging on to most of them.

From a pure marketing point of view, I see two ways to improve the process. It is a common practice to place responsibility for the Key Art (print materials) and the Trailers (video materials) in the hands of two separate groups. Instead it needs to be integrated and driven by one cohesive Selling Proposition. Having said that, I am sure that every marketing executive in the film industry is sure his marketing is fully integrated…it is not.

Back in the early days of film marketing, the One Sheet and other printed materials were considered critical because they would get reproduced in various sizes and posted all over town. At that time the trailer was more of a production function and the goal was simply to develop one that stimulated interest. The effect of this history is that there are creative groups around Hollywood who produce one or the other but rarely both. This separation internally and externally guarantees an incohesive environment. Marketing 101 says, develop a Selling Proposition that resonates to your target audience and ensure that message is present in all advertising and promotion materials.

Today film marketing is very different in that the printed materials are far less effective and the trailer is now absolutely critical. With a boost from the Internet, I can review trailers on my iPhone in seconds. What we have then, are senior executives instructing junior managers to hire the best outside creatives to develop POWERFUL trailers. It’s easy to develop a POWERFUL trailer. Have you noticed they are all melodramatic hype from start to finish these days? The idea of creating and communicating a Unique Selling Proposition targeted to the correct audience is non-existent.

Here then is the problem. Now, more than ever before, the film industry is subjected to heavy word-of-mouth promotion. That would be a dream come true in the categories I market in, but it’s a marketing tool that needs to be handled with skill.

The marketing goal for the film industry should be to identify all of the target users appropriate for the film and create a Unique Selling Proposition that they find compelling. Secondarily, and of almost equal importance is, never drive an inappropriate target consumer into the theater. Those people are not your friend, they are your enemy and you don’t want them viewing your film.

The operating state of all humans is, “What’s wrong here?" If they don’t love the film, they will be even more enthusiastic about spreading the bad word than if they liked it. It would take a very sophisticated piece of research to identify how many people you lose when you drive one person inappropriately to a film. If film executives had that statistic, they might stop developing POWERFUL trailers and experience a great deal more success.

So, Mr. Peter Bart. To my mind, the senior executives in the film industry have good reason to be afraid. The likelihood is that as our electronic information driven society continues to advance, it will likely get worse.

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

FREE, A Celebrity Endorsement

I have been working for several weeks on the repositioning of Ricky Farmer’s business, Precious Memories, Private Pet Cremations. He is the winner of the America’s Marketing Makeover contest on the Big Biz Show. I am the giver of the now somewhat well known makeover. You can follow it on the CBS Radio network as well as syndicated TV stations across America.

  

The reason I selected this business is simply because I thought it is unusual and sensitive enough to create viewer interest. I was right. I’m told ratings are up.

One positioning element I introduced to Ricky’s selling proposition is the endorsement. I did so with good reason. It’s based on an insight we discovered a little over a year ago. One of the exercises we do when working on creating new selling propositions is to take the strongest of each communication element and force consumers to choose between them based on how important each is to them. You may want to check this out with your sales message because chances are you are not taking advantage. If your competition is doing so, you are likely suffering. The good news is that the reverse is also true.

While doing the exercise, we typically include brand names, sub-brand names, generic descriptors, benefits, attribute drivers, key graphics, endorsements and so on. What we discovered is that consistently among the strongest elements are the benefit and the endorsement. This is contrary to the popular belief. If you were able to poll 100 brand, marketers most would say the brand name, sub-brand name or a key attributes are the most important. My experience is that I have not seen that in well over fifty projects where we have conducted the exercise.

My initial thought was to ask Ricky to solicit testimonials from ten of his clients. He did so and they were great. After thinning them out we selected three that we have included in his selling proposition. During the process, I remember thinking several times that it would be great if Ricky had worked with a celebrity who would write a testimonial but never perused it given his business resides in Cleveland, Georgia. Cleveland is approximately seventy miles outside of Atlanta. Here comes the breakthrough.

On another project, one of my sons was working with a famous quote from Buddha. He was considering using it as an inspirational element. It suddenly occurred to me, that if properly used, a famous quote might be a great way to convey a meaningful and relevant thought by a famous source. A quick call to our attorneys and we realized that all those well-known quotes are considered “public domain”. Moving forward, we found these three that seemed appropriate for the business of “Private Pet Cremations.” Which one would you use?

1) The value of a society is based upon its kindness to animals. -Albert Schweitzer

2) The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. –Gandhi

3) The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man. –Charles Darwin

I thought number three was far and away the best but we chose number one. Number three was eliminated because the majority of our team were concerned that Darwin would be viewed negatively in that part of the world. Chalk it up to a fear of religious intolerance. I guess it is possible but I loved what he said. I guess what is most important here is that the cover of Ricky’s brochure will contain the Schweitzer quote so he has what can be considered a celebrity third party endorsement and it will cost him nothing.

Now, go Google “famous quotes your category” and see if you can put a celebrity to work for you. Good luck!

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

The second biggest challenge in life is...

Last summer, I was asked to speak at the Penn Club in Manhattan and gladly accepted. It is the alumni club for the University of Pennsylvania, one of the eight Ivy League colleges located in Northeastern United States. As time went on and the committee that was in charge of such things shared my book “Pull”, they decided to expand the event to include all Ivy League college clubs. As a graduate of Arizona State University whose heritage and prestige pale by comparison, I was rightfully flattered.

As the time to appear approached, I decided that the speech I have been giving was solid but wanted to add more power to it to increase its perceived significance. To do so, I created four of what I refer to as bold statements. Each was designed to stimulate thinking and lead into a marketing distinction that I would further detail for the audience. In retrospect, I felt they all worked well and am working to strengthen them further. One, however seemed to have a great deal of impact and I share it here.

I was cruising along about half way through the seventy minutes I had allocated for the session when I said,” It may well be that the second biggest challenge in life, staying alive being the first, is staying relevant. It was easy to see that the audience was waiting for me to explain this one. In retrospect, I think this statement is not only accurate; I think it is also critically important to the well-being of you and your business.

Earlier in the speech I had recommended that there is extraordinary value in treating your Selling Proposition (sales message) as if it is a personal conversation between you and your customer. It is in fact so, and the “second biggest challenge” statement I made was designed to apply to their products or services. The analogy worked and they got it easily.

In life we watch people get old and assume that age, over time, has made them irrelevant. Nothing could be more inaccurate. Inactivity, not age, is what makes them irrelevant to those around them. Activity that is aimed at creating “what’s next” has worked for my hero, Hugh Hefner and he is well into his eighties. Many may argue the significance of his influence but few would argue his relevance. There are others of course. It is clearly a matter of choice and growing old has nothing to do with it.

Your product or service in your category is no different. If you are constantly looking at and creating “what’s next” for your category, others will be at the effect of what you have done. If you sit and admire your success, others will create “what’s next” and you will be at the effect of what they have done. That I can promise is painful compared to the joy and success of being the one doing the creating.

The issue here is that most marketers’ sit on the success they create. Inherent in that inaction is that everything is somehow just fine until it no longer is. My experience is that it is very difficult to get a successful marketer to create what’s next in the face of success. Can you see that this guarantees failure?

The more I think of this, I am going to remove the “It may well be” from this statement. It hereafter will be, “The second biggest challenge in life, staying alive being the first, is staying relevant.” Feel free to pass it on.

The learning here is, when you are successful, sit down light up a cigar, pop open a bottle of champagne and take the day off. Its perfectly okay to come in to work the following day, around 11:00 will do. At 2:00, after a self-indulgent lunch, you have two choices. You can continue admiring your success or you can begin working on “what’s next.” I strongly recommend the latter as the former will insure failure in your future.

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

AMERICA’S MARKETING MAKEOVER

On my last blog I introduced you to our winner Ricky Farmer from Cleveland, Georgia. Ricky is the very proud owner of a business titled “Precious Memories”. The generic descriptor that follows closely is Private Pet Cremations. Yes, I picked this business to do a marketing makeover on national TV and radio and now I am in the thick of dealing with it. It is a little more complicated than I anticipated.

First off, I had no idea how the project would alter the life of the owner of the company. Once the announcement was made, the regional media swung into action. They have asked for interviews with Ricky, Sully and myself. So far, Ricky has been great but the attention and the pressure of the show and the media are mounting. Stay tuned.

Ricky is proving to be a great character with his southern accent and blatant honesty. Given his unique business and the nature of the project, I suspect coverage of the makeover will continue as it evolves. 
You can view the show where we introduced Ricky at: http://www.chambersmarketingcentral.com/ 

         

Beyond that, I have been working with Ricky and have found him to be extremely grateful and eager to participate. I exposed him to a long list of positioning elements, selected several I consider appropriate and asked him to respond by working up lists of options for each. I, too, am working on them but want to see what is on his mind and this is a great way to find out. Below is a copy of his Yellow Pages ad, which I am using as a point of departure. It will give you a sense of where he is now.

           

Ricky’s brand name is a communication element that I am not recommending he change. On the other hand, I will be looking at the effect that may be attained if we subordinate the word “Precious” to the word “Memories”. I will consider it after we complete the work on copy.

Ricky’s Generic Descriptor, Private Pet Cremations was where we started. “Pet Cremations” works to define his service but “Private” is not clear. He used it because he wanted to communicate that he never cremates more than one animal at a time. Such is not the case with his competition. Replacing the word “Private” with something more meaningful will be important.

I asked that he develop ideas for a benefit and he nailed it in seconds with “Peace Of Mind”. I am not likely to improve on that.

Ricky is currently working on a new Tag Line, a photograph and is looking for an endorsement. I will share these next week.

This is great fun particularly as I become more and more aware of how significant it is to Ricky. Makes me push for excellence. I love it.

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

THE BIG BIZ SHOW

You may have noticed I’ve been silent for the last few weeks. Here’s why. After beach volleyball, basketball is clearly my favorite second sport. Approximately six weeks ago’ I caught an elbow across my face that broke my nose, gave me two very black eyes and required a bit of surgery. Ten days later, just when it seemed safe to go back on the court, I broke my left hand. It too required surgery to reassemble. While the nose thing did not affect my blog, the loss of my hand did. Yes, I am rethinking my basketball career. Happily, now I am back and with lots to share.

I frequently do guest appearances on radio and TV shows as an “expert” marketing guy. One of my favorite shows is the Big Biz Show, which is a West coast radio/TV simulcast that is broadcast across the US and select foreign countries. It airs daily from 12PM to 2PM. The show is hosted by Bob “Sully” Sullivan and Russ T. Nails, who cover the financial world with a humorous twist. It’s fun and frankly a great place for me to freely express my thoughts and experiences.

A couple of months back, the host Sully asked if I wanted to do anything special. My answer, almost without thinking was, “Let’s do a marketing makeover with a small business.” My thinking was that it will be fun, because I never get to work with small businesses, and I had the idea that if other small businesses could observe the process, we may well stimulate the economy, if only in a small way. Sully jumped all over it. We decided to launch it at the beginning of the year.

For the past three weeks we have been accepting applications from all over the United States. On Wednesday, with me in the studio, we will announce the winner and set the stage for the business transformation that will be covered over the next few months.

To add to the quality of the makeover, I have solicited the help of two very highly respected marketing experts that I frequently work with. They will serve as my coaches.

 My goal was to find a business that fit two criteria: A business owner and a business, both of which have a lot of character… I got lucky. Tomorrow we will introduce the world to Ricky Farmer the proud owner of a pet crematorium in Cleveland, Georgia. Ricky, is a “hoot”. It should be fun to follow.

You can follow Ricky’s marketing makeover on The Big Biz Show. To find out when it airs in your area, go to http://bigbizshow.com/.  We will also post the broadcasts on http://www.chambersmarketingcentral.com/  and I will share what is going on behind the scenes on this blog.

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com