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Welcome To My Den
This is the new, improved and reincarnated Dunn's Den. This blog is about marketing, advertising, social media and the goings on in my local community; from MY VIEW!
I look forward to connecting with you!
This is a repost from our friends over at Blankstage Productions. I hope you enjoy!
Blank Stage Productions has teamed up with the social media marketing wizards of “SONARconnects” to form a powerful 1-2 punch social media punch.
In this video meet Scott and Brent as they discuss the alliance and past projects they have developed for clients.
Clients who want professional video combined with a killer social media marketing strategy can come here to get their marketing efforts off the ground. This team takes the stress off of marketing so that the business owner can focus back on their business and building relationships with their customers.
Everyone is doing business online, and starting to use social media to market themselves and no one knows and understands this more then SONARconnects. SONARconnects is skilled in developing on-going, engaging social media conversations and building followers and fans for their clients. This strategy has lead countless success stories for Scott Dunn and his team.
“What is sad is the bushiness who spends thousands of dollars on a state-of-the art website, only to have a horrible video represent themselves. To many people think video is video. Brent and his team use improv and their stable of screenwriters to develop content and engaging video concepts for our clients.”
- Scott Dunn, President of SONARconnects
“This is exciting. Scott and his team have developed powerful, on-going social media strategies that continue to get results for clients. This is a powerful distribution component to our commercial video clients. In addition to connecting their content for TV we can now leverage social media to create buzz, creditability and ultimately more customers. Scott does a terrific job in narrowing down with the client a marketing strategy that makes the most sense.
- Brent Brooks, Owner of Blank Stage Productions
For years Scott ran the North Fulton Chamber of Commerce meetings. There he got to understand what it takes for a business and business owner to succeed. He learned the best techniques in developing one’s “USP” or unique selling proposition.
Brent has worked in the entertainment industry for years. He has developed 3 Indie films, runs screenwriting and acting classes. Brent loves nothing more then developing a professional video product that works.
Scott Dunn: results@sonarconnects.com
Brent Brooks: Brent@blankstageproductions.com
I don’t know about you, but I am constantly amazed at the number of “Social Media Experts” out there. I know, I know, I have written about this in the past and you probably don’t wan’t me to beat a dead horse.
So I will not! Instead, I will talk about a new Facebook policy and why experience does matter.
The other day Facebook delivered a new policy to all you fan/like page/b.s. page owners. In a nutshell, the new rule is: You have to have 10,000 fans on your page or an account rep to select your custom FBML pages, the elements of custom landing pages, to open when someone clicks on your facebook profile. If you would like to see the post, click on the highlighted Facebook and it will take you to there.
Why is this new policy potentially damaging to all but the big boys? Simple. How many fans does your page have right now? Well Scott I actually have under 10,000 fans but I will call Facebook and get an account rep assigned to me and go on my merry way. Really? Not so fast. Currently, to have an account rep assigned to you from Facebook you must spend approximately $200,000.00 per year. See where I am going with this?
So why does experience matter in social media? Here is why. We have gone through every change with Facebook since the beginning. How many of the so-called experts pulled all nighters to secure a custom url? How many of them navigated through the roadblocks called change when fan pages usurped groups? How many of them have gone through multiple design lay out changes? I can tell you from talking with them, not very many.
How does this new Facebook policy affect our clients? Not at all. Did I say not at all? From the beginning, we found alternate solutions to fan pages. We realized early on that fan pages were created by Facebook to make money, not necessarily to help business owners.
Now don’t get me wrong. Did we come under fire from the “Social Media Experts”? You better believe it. (And now the so called experts are scratching their head trying to figure out their next move. Don’t worry Facebook will tell them.) Did our clients call us up daily asking why we did not create a fan page for them because they were told by an employee Facebook says this is the correct way? YES!! Did it cost us a few accounts along the way? It sure did.
Anyway, back to experience. Yes experience plays a huge role in any decision-making process, but critical thinking plays an even larger role. Oh yeah and so does courage. The courage to stand for what you believe. Social Media is still in its infancy. Just because the “experts” say this is the way things must be done, this is not always the case.
Stop right now and think about your social media strategy. Are the so called experts driving the results you want? Are they even aware of the changes Facebook made? What impact have they made on your company?
Success in business is about standing out, not fitting in. Definitely and repeatedly that applies in the social media field as well!
Here’s the marketing outrage of the year. The Port Authority of New Jersey and New York has changed the name of the new signature building at the 9/11 terrorist strike from “The Freedom Tower” to “WTC I.”
Why? Because the word “freedom” makes it hard to sell, they say. They are trying to find tenants for the 1776 foot office/monument, and its tough sledding. But the rumor has it that China has popped for about three floors. Did China insist on the change? Why should they object? Are they afraid of the word? Or of the concept?
To me, “WTC I” invokes sad memories. It makes me think of bad, past days. Dark days of heroism, grief, and, yes, terrorists. But “Freedom” is inspirational and looks forward to days of light, progress and joy.
The old Twin Towers were not a raging success. I don’t think their occupancy was ever that great; I don’t know why. Maybe the new building will have a curse on it, and be hard to rent no matter what name it bears. If I were a salesman for the project, I know I’d rather be selling freedom than a tombstone.
There will be a brief chapter in my new textbook called “Courageous Marketing.” It will cover brands that survived the recession by plowing forward. It will describe the guts of taking uncertain paths. It will honor those who are single minded, despite pressure to diversify. It will not include the chicken-hearted politically correct sycophants like the Port Authority of New Jersey and New York.
The climate these days is to decry the greedy capitalists. The ones who make profits on the backs of the needy unfortunates. But they’re the ones who take risks for freedom, the brave people who aren’t afraid to step up with pride and say, “This is what I stand for. Want a piece of it?”
In the musical “Oklahoma” a guy went to Kansas City and declared that everything’s up-to-date there. “They’ve gone as fer as they can go,” he sang. “I counted twenty gas buggies goin’ by themselves— when I put my eye into a bell telephone, a strange woman started into talk—You can turn the radiator on whenever you want some heat..What next? What next?”
So, have we “gone as fer as we can go?Should we close the patent office because everything has been invented?
Fast forward a hundred years from 1909 A Wharton School nationwide survey says that the most innovative advances in just the past thirty years are—no surprises—-
The internet
PCs and Laptops
Cell phones
Email
It’s hard to imagine that communication and information can go much farther. It seems to me that we are nearly to a point where–
All information is available everywhere,
right now,
free,
and everybody is connected!
Maybe we’ll have chips implanted at birth that will think for you and enable you to transmit your thoughts without talking or writing. And the symphony hall will reside in your inner ear.
Progress doesn’t ratchet back. It’s different than trends, where most of them fall and reverse through their own weight. We’ll never go back to no cell phones; they’ll be replaced with something better. Technological progress will be incremental, until a great leap forward will shatter the status quo.
By 2039 we’ll look back on 2009 as a dark, barely literate year. Cancer may be cured, energy solved with nuclear fusion, poverty gone. Maybe, I hope, we’ll finally be out of debt and enjoying the cool of the evening, wondering what climate change was all about.
Back to Kansas City.What innovative changes can small businesses do to survive the recession of 2009 (plus?) so their heirs will have the chance to be rich and proud in 2039
Here’s a starter list:
Assume survival, rather than slow death.
Concentrate on the essence of your brand, not the add-ons.
Advertise loudly and wisely.
Nourish relationships, one at a time.
Pick and groom your successor.
Watch your market change, then change faster.
The visitor in the musical found that
“They went an’ built a sky scraper seven stories tall
About as high as a building orta grow.
Everything’s like a dream in Kansas City
It’s better than a magic lantern show.”
Change happens.Recessions happen. If you want, good times and a magic lantern are about to happen.
Ok, ok, ok, I get it. We are in the midst of one of the biggest recessions in the last 20 plus years, according to the media. Everyday I look at my RSS feeds, my google page or the news. It is all doom and gloom. Personally, I am tired of it and believe now is the best time to be in and grow a small business. Yes, I know fear sells and yes I know media companies are in it to make money, but come on people. Give me a break. Can’t I have just a little bit of good news sprinkled in with the doom and gloom?
As someone who is participating in the American Dream via entreprenuership, I am always looking for ways to improve, stengthen and grow my business. So instead of focusing on the doom and gloom, I am focusing on the positives. The positives of a good recession for a small business owner, in my mind, are as follows:
1) Invest in your infrasturcture.
Small businesses by nature are set up to run lean and mean. We do not have access to millions and millions of dollars from ponzi/hocus pocus fianancing, so we must be practical with our resources. In good times this means sales reps don’t want to “waste their time with us” and in down times we can pick up equipment for pennies on the dollar. Now is the time to purchase the equipment you want but could never justify the cost. If you are buying used equipment, MAKE SURE you purchase a service contract. You will sleep better at night.
2) Invest in your people.
Let’s face it. The most important thing in any business is your client base. Right after that, it is your people. Now is the perfect time to not only train your people, but also recruit new employes. The recession will end and when it does, are your people better, the same or worse for the experience? How many jobs can one employee perform and are they fully trained on that new piece of equipment? Are they cross-trained in two to three other positions? What were your biggest employee headaches over the last few years? Now is the time to solve them. Recruit, recruit, recruit. The best hires I have ever made were people that took six months to a year to recruit. Now is the best time to find new employees so you do not have to make knee jerk reactions when you do have to hire. Most everyone will at least sit down for a cup of coffee and start a conversation. Call all the people who did not want to talk to you for the last two years and meet with them. You will be amazed at what you find out about a person…like are they really worth all the hype?
3) Invest in your customers.
This is THE most important thing that any small business can do. What can you do, right here right now, to strengthen a relationship with one of your customers? Find something in your business that you can use to help them. It does not necessarily have to be a product or service that is fee based. A tremendous value add you can provide is education. What is happening in your industry that will affect your customers? Take the time now to build trust and help your clients prepare for the future. Note, I did not say this is a sales call for you to peddle your wares.
4) Build NEW alliances.
Stop reading this blog, pick up the phone right now and call someone. Anyone. Build a new relationship with someone outside of your current network. You are on every social media sight known to man, so pick up the phone and put a voice to that face. The more people who know you, the easier it is for them to refer you.
This “recession” will end. What you do right now right here, today will pave the road for your success in the future.
One of ways stores and companies try to find their strongest positioning is by asking people what they want. And of course that’s good. But they should look hard at the results of their research.
As I said earlier, you can’t wish a position, you have to earn it.
Many studies confirm that “Service” is what customers want, so OK, says the store or a manufacturer, we’ll say that’s what we give. But “Under-service” and “No
If your selected position is “Service,” it will fail. Call us and we’ll find a better one for
The promise of service is fraught with danger, embodied with every employee, tested with every encounter. The worst sin of marketers is to not deliver what is promised. If they fall short, they have broken a trusted relationship.
I can think of two companies that could proclaim good service as their claim to fame: Nordstrom and Ritz-Carlton. ? They deliver it every day. It is part of their culture. Can you think of any more?
So until a company is known for its service and they live it, they should talk about something else.
“Lowest Price” is also a losing positioning. There can only be one lowest price player in every category. Wal*Mart owns that game. If you go that route, be ready to get undercut.
The same is “Value.” That word is worthless, the king of vagueness.
I’m certainly not saying that “Service” is bad; it should be pursued and treasured.
Once a company delivers it, unbroken, for about five years, then it could be shouted from the roof.
I was with an ad agency that had a hotel client. We sold them a “Service” strategy and created a campaign, “If it’s not your mother, it must be us.” Their service was
lousier than their positioning.
“Service” is a cop out. It’s like trying to invoke motherhood. “When your argument is weak, shout louder,” said the debate coach. You must think smarter. We can do better.
They pledged a free can of their soda for every American if a new album—
“Chinese Democracy” by Axl Rose”— would be released by the end of the year. They didn’t think that would happen, but it did. So Dr. Pepper told their fans to go to their website within 24 hours for a coupon redeemable for their treat.
But the site crashed, and customers tell of being blocked for four hours from the site and from a customer service phone line.
The album’s lawyers sent on irate letter to the soft drink maker, complaining about its “appalling failure to make good on a promise it made to the American public.”
Dr, Pepper broke the most important rule of branding: ALWAYS DELIVER!
·Screw with the product. Little incremental reductions of quality add up to blandness.
·Don’t thank users, take them for granted. (You should remind them how grateful you are to be treasured by them.)
·Be scarce.Don’t produce enough, have holes on the shelf.
Will this glitch be end of Dr. Pepper? No, but it’s certainly not good for it. It’s a little chink in their brand loyalty. A brand should be your friend, one you can count on, every time.
A brand is nothing more that a promise.It’s a pledge of future quality, based on past consistent delivery.
I tried to think why Dr. Pepper goofed. I guess they didn’t plan for success. They didn’t think through the consequences—what would happen if the promotion works too well?
If I’m in charge of keeping a brand’s flame (and future) alive, I should worry a lot. What could go wrong here? Will there be unintended consequences if it succeeds?
After I worry enough, then I should err on the side of victory.
Any good manufacturer would deep-six a brand that has a 17% approval rating.
Any good retailer would show it the door.
Any good consumer would return it and demand a refund.
Unfortunately, congress is a brand that has tenure. We can’t get rid of it.We can only change its members every two or six years.
The current economic bail-out mess has been described as:
A failed administration, and a failed congress,
bailing out failed businesses that have failed the country,
yet we are assured that it cannot fail!
Our constitution guarantees legislative continuity, but it is silent about competence.
The market is brutal for brands that fail.Over ninety percent of new products and new stores are gone after two years. Here are some reasons why brands fail.One could only wish that our leaders would pay attention:
They don’t stand for anything in particular
They don’t listen
They don’t keep up-to-date
They think they are bullet-proof
They think they are above the laws (of marketing that is)
Ithink that politicians should take Marketing#101. (They obviously skipped Economics and History.) Good marketers live by these rules:
We exist because of our customers and survive at their pleasure
We offer a promise and we keep it
We aren’t the boss
We are trustworthy
We are accountable, right now, every day
We have term limits for our president, for good reason. Why not for congress? Sure, we would give up some experience, but we would gain more from fresh air.
I tell my students that if they want to succeed in marketing they should first go out and sell something. That is a humbling experience.They would learn how to fail—graciously. They would have to experience the real world. Politicians—likewise?
“Public Service” is a noble calling. But where has it gone wrong?
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” French Proverb
“The fundamental things apply, as time goes by.” Composer Herman Hupfeld
In every election time, the “out” candidates call for change. Changes in policy and ethics, but mostly for the people in charge—them replaced by us. (And often with favorable result—good riddance!)
Before we throw the baby out with the bathwater we should consider—
Where exactly are we headed, and as far as we can tell,
What are the unintended consequences?
Students in my advertising classes are certain that my generation (Mad Men) is obsolete. The internet and the ubiquity of social media wipes out all the old beliefs, and the old “rules” are silly. But when the cyber dust settles, what will remain?—
The wreckage of brands with no equity, and Innumerable files of failed ads with no benefits, no reason–why, no human contact.
No matter where technology leads us next, the fundamental things of marketing (and life) will still apply.
The dot-com boom of the ’90s convinced most of us that there is a new ball game in investing—the substance and longevity of new issues were irrelevant. Yes, it changed, to our regret.Now we’re back to sanity.
In marketing we should view change as incremental, not revolutionary. Technology is a tool, not an end.What is the (hidden) worth of a product, and how can technology make it easier to use?
Hamlet said it best— “And makes us rather bear the ills we have. Than fly to others we know not of.”
Students are masters of dazzling power point presentations. Sometimes, somewhere in them is a germ of an insight, a telling fact. But most of the dazzle is blowing in the wind.
I say, beware of change merchants. What are they really selling? If they say, “Hey, buy this product because it is something different, not like the old stuff.”Shouldn’t your reaction be, “All well and good.Now show me why I should believe it.”
Are you giving away the farm when you give away some of your product? Are you giving away your secrets, and not protecting your family’s jewels?
Assuming you are a believer in your product and are proud of it, sampling is the most potent arrow in your marketing quiver.
If a picture is worth a hundred words, then a taste is worth a thousand pictures. One definition of a sample is, “A representative part from a larger whole presented for inspection as evidence of quality.” How could there be a smarter prelude to winning marketing?
Some of the greatest food chains are Wegman’s (Rochester, NY) and Whole Foods.
You can’t get out of one of their stores hungry, because the have fed you with delicious samples.And it’s hard to leave without spending a bundle.
There are many ways, other than eating, to sample your goods:
Barnes Noble wants you to read books, so they make that inviting and easy. They don’t care if you mess up their displays or spill coffee.You will ultimately buy books.
A good car dealer lets you take a car home for the weekend.
A masseuse gives you a free neck rub.
The “spritzer” in Macy’s cosmetics aisle gives you a breath of alluring air.
A financial planner or a marketing consultant gives you a free hour of advice.
A stand-up comedian starts with a chuckle, and preacher invokes hope.
It’s important to note that sampling should not be a preview of the price. It’s a demonstration of the confidence in your product. Don’t compete on price: only Wal*Mart can succeed in that game. Don’t give away too much.
Suppose that you are in a play-off with two others for a new customer, and you are each given thirty seconds.The first two gave good, succinct “elevator speeches.” Then it’s your turn. You announce your name, your brand’s main benefit, and bestow a sample.Guess who wins.
