Rewiring the Web for Commerce.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Twitch Point Planning is a communications planning process whereby a company understands, maps and manipulates consumers closer to a sale. How does one do that? On a device, with creative prompts, and smart motivating landing content.

A prospective client has a multi-million dollar business selling maintenance parts and equipment; everything from paper towels and generators to lock washers. Like Thomas’s Register, sales gained traction when they moved to a catalog business; providing easy access to skillions of parts, SKU numbers, pictures, sizes and discounts.

Along came the Web. Now the company has moved the catalog online, automating a good deal of the process. Online there are two default customer care tools: search and pop-up chat apps. A great many of visitors to a site, however, already know what they are after. They have a shopping list. But what of the remaining visitors who have a need but aren’t sure what they want? Customers for whom typing a lengthy description in a chat box is not optimal? They are more apt to go to a box store or a distributor for a talk with a SME (subject matter expert). Visitors who fall into this category are likely to twitch away. Buh-bye.

Here we need an app to keep them on the site. Not an app that asks why they are leaving, what we did wrong or, God forbid, provides a customer sat survey. Something that moves them closer to a sale. In their new book Multiscreen Marketing: 7 Things You Need to Know to Reach Your Consumers, Natasha Hritzuk and Kelly Jones, suggest start with the consumer not the technology. I’m certain with five well bracketed questions and a decision tree, a customer can be brought to the brink of a buying solution, even when they are not sure of a part name. And that is how we rewire the web for commerce. Understand, map and manipulate on your own site. Thoughts?

 

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Rewiring the Web for Commerce.

By
Steve Poppe
-
0

Twitch Point Planning is a communications planning process whereby a company understands, maps and manipulates consumers closer to a sale. How does one do that?  On a devices, with creative prompts, and smart motivating landing content.

A prospective client has a multi-million dollar business selling maintenance parts and equipment; everything from paper towels and generators to lock washers. Like Thomas’s Register, sales gained traction when they moved to a catalog business; providing easy access to skillions of parts, SKU numbers, pictures, sizes and discounts.

Along came the Web. Now the company has moved the catalog online, automating a good deal of the process. Online there are two default customer care tools: search and pop-up chat apps. A great many of visitors to a site, however, already know what they are after. They have a shopping list. But what of the remaining visitors who have a need but aren’t sure what they want?  Customers for whom typing a lengthy description in a chat box is not optimal?  They are more apt to go to a box store or a distributor for a talk with a SME (subject matter expert). Visitors who fall into this category are likely to twitch away. Buh-bye.

Here we need an app to keep them on the site. Not an app that asks why they are leaving, what we did wrong or, God forbid, provides a customer sat survey. Something that moves them closer to a sale. In their new book Multiscreen Marketing: 7 Things You Need to Know to Reach Your Consumers, Natasha Hritzuk and Kelly Jones, suggest start with the consumer not the technology.  I’m certain with five well bracketed questions and a decision tree, a customer can be brought to the brink of a buying solution, even when they are not sure of a part name. And that is how we rewire the web for commerce. Understand, map and manipulate on your own site. Thoughts?

El Sears and the Demo Wave.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was in the hospital this weekend visiting my mom who had broken her thumb. In the next bed was a Salvadoran woman with diabetes and asthma. She spoke a little English but when the dietician came in to explain healthy eating, an interpreter was needed.  From the bits and pieces I could put together, the woman was a single, 40ish house cleaner, somewhat overweight but not obese. (I know, I’m nosey.) Not sure of her education level, but clearly she needed some help with diet. Diabetes and steroids (for asthma) don’t go well together.

As I was thinking about this patient it dawned on me how my El Sears idea, for a Spanish language national chain store, would fit into this woman’s life.  I’ve posted this idea a number of times before.  In one part of El Sears might be a healthcare department where non-English speaking people and children can get healthcare information, e.g., diet, etc.  I don’t see them dispensing healthcare, though with the proliferation of the doc-in-the-box concept, they certainly could.  El Sears might offer banking services, insurance products, tax filing and other important specialty items – all with a Latin and Spanish bent. The possibilities are endless, if you think about it.

The demographics are such that this underserved/bodega-served part of the U.S. will be quite massive (30% by 2050, according to Pew Research). It is not if, it is when this will happen. Sears has the ability to do this better than most – better than a start-up.  They should start converting stores now. And ride that demographic wave.

Peace.

Healthcare Claims. And Proof.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Claim and proof is a common discussion here at What’s the Idea?  Too much marketing is about claim and not enough about proof.  Get the claim right and prove it in an organized brand-centric manner and you will be a successful brand manager.

If you are a student of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) you know that the claim is “better healthcare for Americans.”  With first year enrollment complete the proof counting has begun. Pro ACA people are looking for positive proof, anti-ACA peeps are looking for proof that care is worse. As we near mid-term elections the dems are going to be looking far and wide to tame all of the anti-sentiment about the roll out and the act itself.

Here are some of the pro proofs shared today:

–          8 million Americans have signed up for insurance.

–          128 million Americas with pre-existing health conditions are no longer in danger of losing their coverage

–          105 million Americans do not have to worry about losing their lifetime cap on benefits

–          8 million older Americans have saved $10B because of lower prescription drugs

One could argue that these figures are not explicit examples of healthcare improvement, e.g., lower flu numbers, reduced incidents of diabetes and improved cardiac outcomes, but it certainly implies such.

In the claim and proof marketing world, the ACA has only just begun its proof phase.  The group with the best, most compelling proof will win. Should be interesting.

Peace.

The Mother of all Advice.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I’ve been doing business development for over 30 years; trying to help grow organic business from existing clients and add new business by identifying, earning favor and wining new clients. It’s an art, like hitting a baseball. It’s hard to be successful a majority of time.

My mom is a wonderful women but she likes to give advice. Some might say if her gums are moving, the advice is coming.  Advice suggests that someone is doing something wrong.  One school of thought in business development is advice-focused.  Point out things that are fixable, get credit for seeing them, and ask for the solution order. Bad idea. Nobody wants to talk about their flaws, especially with strangers, not unless they are close to fatal. So the better biz/dev approach is to have prospects ask you for advice. And how does that happen?  

First the prospect needs to be aware of you. There needs to be some top-of-mind awareness. Second they need to consider you as a good source of advice. “What have you done for me that makes me believe you can help?”  Third, they need to trust your advice will be sound. And lastly, you need to be easy to reach and available.  Sound like the marketing “steps to a sale” model?  Sure does.

Business development done well is a long term brand build, not a short term direct response transaction.  Most of my clients have come from development over time.  I have shown interest in them and their business over time, offered up insights not advice over time, and become familiar enough so that when the time was right, they called me.

So two nuggets: Do not be an advice-giver and take a long term approach to biz/dev. It is a craft not a transaction. Peace.

Selecting a consultant.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

There are two reasons for the proliferation of single shingle consultants. One, a market is changing drastically and the people who truly understand the change are outnumbered by the number of companies needing answers. It’s a supply and demand thing. My first appreciation of this was in the 90s, prior to mainstream usage of the web, when the lack of open computing protocols created disparate systems bogging down business.  I walked about a trade show called InterOp and every 3rd badge said consultant. Pent up demand, disruption and chaos breed consultants.  This was an environment not unlike today’s digital marketing world.

The other reason for a proliferation of consultants is an excessing of employees.  Consultancies can be face-saving, while one looks for a full-time job.

Technology has impacted both sides of consultant growth. (It always does.) On the one hand, it had caused business disruption… in good exciting ways. It continues to open business, commercial and marketing doors. Many companies want to jump on the bandwagon and participate and need experts for hire. On the bad side, it had replaced lots of jobs.  Many people have been replaced by software and the cloud. If the algo can do your job, it will. Program media buying, for instance, has replaced people buying and selling media for a living.

One way to find out if your consultant is from the disruption school or the excessed school is to look at their client list. And their rate. Also, try to understand what value they bring to an engagement. What do they do for a living — in a few concrete words?  Depending on the stage of business: grow, hold or harvest, that value may differ. But always seek consultants who understand market discontinuities, change and disruption. Peace.

Extracting Gold.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

A friend has a great business idea. It is intended to help businesses sell more, to more, more often at higher prices (thanks Sergio Zyman for the “more” nugget). The fact-finding rigor is wide and deep but also thorough and quite brilliant.  A small component of the business idea — “how” fact-finding occurs — is also really smart. It is agile, contemporary and befitting of today’s social business. More importantly, it may be a potential business unto itself. A huge potential business. All it needs is to be productized, branded and packaged.  We’ll see how it all plays out.

A mentor of mine named Dick Kerr, the world’s first million dollar a year copywriter, once said “The idea to have an idea is sometimes more important than the idea itself.” Yes, he was a tippler. Anyway, his entrepreneurial point was to “do something” and good things will happen. In today’s craft economy one might say “make something” and good things will happen.

Brand planners are sometimes accused of overthink, head-in-the-clouds pattern recognition, and inoperable observations.  But without all of that up front work, the big extraction can’t take place. Call it what you will – I often refer to it as the boil down – the big chucks of gold are there. They are gleaming and waiting to be found. You just have to start doing and making.  Peace.

Getting Credit.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

A couple of years ago I wrote a strategic white pager for Accenture Interactive, having previously met with a planner at Deutsch New York about a bank assignment.  I came to the conclusion that not much intellectual or marketing capital is being spent by banks promoting savings.  Savings, for banks doesn’t put biscuits in the oven. Lending is where banks make da monies. So as contrarian as it was, I suggested taking advantage of low, low consumer trust of banks and a climate in which 7 of every 10 dollars in political ads were banging banks, to recommend telling consumers that finances are best when saved. Not when borrowed.

No one was doing this. No bank was encouraging consumers to save their money. The idea was to become the “savings bank” in a sea of lending banks. Build a story, claim and proof, build a new banking brand position.  And where would people go when they wanted to borrow some cash?  Because we know there will always borrowers be. To the one bank that really cares about its customer finances, the savings bank.  In strategic planning, sometimes by doing one thing you get credit for another. Tink about it (as my Norwegian aunt would have said.)

Peace.

Story Vs. Advice

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The last two evenings I attended events that reminded me of a lesson worth repeating.  Two nights ago I was on a panel before a number of Hofstra masters students. Our answers to many of the instructor’s questions were served up as advice. “Do this.” “I learned that.” “If you__, you can ___.”  This is what you’d expect in a teaching and learning environment.

In the second event, entitled “The Role of Planning Through the Ages” Panel Discussion with Jane Newman, there was a good deal of the same. It was awesome – trust me — but a lot of the knowledge dropped was in the form of teaching.  What I found most fascinating and instructive, however, were the stories. Everyone can remember a story.  Stories that are meaningful to the listener and the teller are best. There are many shitty story-tellers, but few make it far in brand planning.

In my months studying the K12 education space, I learned that broadcasting knowledge is not particularly effective. This applies outside the classroom as well. Embed your advice in a story and watch the cerebral cortex light up.

Peace.

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