Marketing

A while back I reported on the situation some local small businesses face, when their businesses get negative reviews on review sites.

Review sites can be very useful from the consumer’s standpoint, because they give valuable input. There’s no doubt they are more popular than ever.

Taken to extremes, or when inaccurate, online reviews can be devastating to small businesses with retail outlets, such as restaurants, shops, dry cleaners, beauty salons, repair facilities and more. It becomes the business owner’s fear … that someone, possibly a competitor, will have it in for them and set about trashing their reputation online.

This past week saw some interesting news on that front, so I’d like to update you:

(1) First comes the news that Yelp, one of the largest review sites, will soon begin to allow small businesses to correct inaccurate reviews and otherwise comment on them. According to the New York Times’ Bits blog, there will be some after-the-fact editorial oversight, to make sure the proprietors’ comments do not turn into arguments, or disparage the reviewers.

(2) Then there is the report that Google is experimenting with displaying ratings right in the search results — see image above. (Reported originally here). read more

Lately, we’ve been talking a lot about  generating substantial “Added Value” to keep customers loyal and improve margins.

Originally meaning “The contribution of the factors of production, i.e., land, labour and capital goods, to raising the value of a product out of commodity status”, “adding value” has become language that is bandied about daily.

Now the meaning has broadened.  It includes pretty much anything we do, whether we spend time or money, that we can potentially charge for. “What’s the value add?” we ask.

Last week, at one of the courses I teach middle managers at our local University, I said, “We all talk about adding value all the time, so tell me, what is value anyway?” Well, not a lot of hands went up.

Although we use the term “added value” all the time, we still can’t define it.

Game theory (here’s a good article about  Barry Nalebuff you might like to read) gives a great definition of added value that we can use every day.  “Added Value is total value MINUS the value without us. In effect, what you get is what you bring to others.”

read more

Create eye-catching messages that attract rather than annoy possible customers. Here are some low-cost ways.

1. Since movement always attracts attention, add an outside banner or sign on a pole that moves with the wind. It will stand out from the static messages around it. Or install a window sign or display that turns, to show a different side, moves up and down, or changes color.

2. Become known for displaying a catchy saying in the same place. Make it visible to pedestrians or motorists so they get in the habit of looking for your new message. One day your sign might pose a question, the next day, display the answer. Pick themes related to your kind of product or service. A beauty salon, for example, could have hair-related advice and quotes plus sayings on beauty and women’s humor.

3. Aren’t we are all voyeurs? We like to eavesdrop or see each other in action, especially in fun, odd, inspiring, humorous or other human situations. Create your own “reality TV” show. Video local notables (the mayor, popular civic figures, well-known local authors, sports columnist, etc.) and other attention-getting people using or discussing your product/service.

read more

You can do a lot with this technology called RSS, even if you don’t know a thing about it.

You may not be aware of it, but you consume content via RSS everyday. RSS technology is the plumbing that runs a great deal of blog, search, and application content.

With just a basic understanding of the tools, you can aggregate, filter and automate the creation of all kinds of content to use on your website.

One of my favorite RSS tricks is to use it to create dynamic content for web pages.

Let’s say you want to track and publish all the positive mentions of your business in the press. Here’s one very simple, and by the way free, method of doing this:

read more

Is a great idea enough to launch a successful business? Probably not, says Wharton professor of management David Hsu.  “There’s no one-to-one relationship between a good idea and a good business,” he says. “A good business can result from a mediocre idea. If you have a unique idea, it can be the basis of a valuable business, but not necessarily.”

Hsu notes that many successful businesses were born of mundane ideas. Big-box stores such as Home Depot, Office Depot, Target or Wal-Mart, for example. “It’s not clear why aggregating one-stop shopping with value-added services is a great idea.” He says that passing on savings on a large scale with high-volume sales is not that revolutionary. But today’s successful big-box stores had the resources to establish themselves. And once established, they appealed to consumers.

“Between a mediocre idea and a successful business plan is action-ability,” says Hsu.  It’s a question of which assets you control that could give you a leg up.  “If I have access to some engineering talent or some input to favorable rates – say I know people in distribution and can get a good deal, for example – then I will have an advantage. And then I get patents to prevent you from copying me. This is the dominant way it happens.” But what if an idea does not involve proprietary technology?  What if, for example, you want to launch an online community for professionals? “How will I succeed with this mundane idea that I have no way of protecting?” asks Hsu.  “Execute faster, and have access to resources that give me an advantage.”

read more

Virgin America sounds racy (”Let’s have fun”). Johnson & Johnson seems safe (”They seem like reliable neighbors”). How do you feel about Xcyte? It takes a second to grasp that it’s pronounced the same as “excite.”

That’s a dangerous moment for the company, according to a recent study. As you name your products and company consider these findings by psychologists Norbert Schwarz and Hyunjin Son. All names carry a personality. Unfamiliar words are foreboding. If they are hard to pronounce they are perceived as more risky.

In a study students read a list of made-up food additive names, all involving 12 characters. They ranged from the easier-to-pronounce “Magnalroxate” to the difficult “Hnegripitrom.” As you anticipated Hnegripitrom was rated high risk.

read more

A lot about marketing has changed over the last few years. Most notably, marketers don’t control the message the way they once did. What was once a megaphone for broadcasting has become a walkie-talkie for facilitating conversations.

These times call for strategies that allow businesses to understand and participate in conversations with customer communities, market with total transparency, and take a proactive rather than reactive stance in creating the brand voice.

Several entirely new tactics are in order to ensure a companies’ reputation and service remains in tact at all times.

Monitoring the brand online

Setting up radars and listening stations to pick up the slightest hint of negative buzz can help a company address an issue before it grows. Even simple tools such as Google Alerts and search.twitter.com can keep you in the real-time loop.

read more

I recently spent a day visiting Zappos – the largest online shoe company that is especially well-known for their great customer service, corporate culture, and almost magical speed when fulfilling orders. As I toured the campus and met with some of the leaders, I was struck by a number of features at the core of the company’s culture. Here are a few that caught my eye…

#1: Celebrating Visitors
As I took the tour of the headquarters, I was taken to a special room called the “VIP Room” where I was asked to wear a king’s crown and pose for a photograph. The Polaroid was then placed on the wall among thousands of other photographs. I suspect Zappos was keeping Polaroid in business for quite some time. My lesson here, visitors are worth celebrating (especially if they travel from NYC to Henderson, NV to visit).
read more