Archive for Marketing
The idea is not unique as it’s been done by Improv Everywhere to perfection, but it is unique to the Jewish community and was performed brilliantly by NCSY to promote the upcoming NCSY Auction to raise money for Jewish Youth.
It is a breath of fresh air for promoting a non-profit endeavor. As of this posting it was viewed more then 10,000 times on YouTube. I imagine that the cost to do this promotion was close to zero and has and will continue to make a greater impact the expensive advertisements. Kudos to NCSY for thinking out of the box and will be great to see more of these types of marketing campaigns. Enjoy the video below.
No-Risk Leverage for All Your Marketing Activities
Posted by: | CommentsOne simple way to gain quick leverage in your marketing is to focus the right message to the right customer. Consistently.
I know that sounds very obvious, but look around you and at your own company: Is it done?
A useful tactic is to create a handful of customer profiles, or ‘sketches’ of different types of customers. You can then articulate the right messages to the right people in the right way at the right time.
How do you create customer profiles? Use the following three questions as your guide:
- What are the REASONS that people buy your type of product or service? What are their desired results? Make sure you understand the logical reasons as well as the emotional and psychological satisfactions people want.
- When people think about your products and services, what are some common CONCERNS they have? Assumptions they make? Misconceptions? Fears? Worries? Questions?
- The third question helps you add dimension to your answers to the first two.
Think of factors such as geography, age, past experience, price range, how they found you, marital status and so on. Which of these or similar factors may influence either the REASONS someone would want to buy from you and or the CONCERNS they are likely to have (beliefs, worldview) about buying your products and services?
Once you’ve answered these questions, you should be able to create four or five common customer profiles.
Now that you have the profiles:
- It’s likely that one or two of them represent more value for your company than the others. The old 80-20 rule. Separate those out for special attention.
- For each profile, but especially for the one or two that represent significant opportunity, ask: How can we optimize our marketing and sales processes to better appeal to the hearts and minds of customers within this profile?
Let me know your results.
Reply if you have any questions.
Finally, answer a short survey and get a free 15 minute consultation as a thank you: http://www.dovgordon.biz/more-customers.html
Dov Gordon
+972-2-992-0396
What is the statute of limitations on calling a product “New”?
Posted by: | CommentsWhat is the statute of limitations on calling a product “new” in Israel? In our last post on this subject about 5 months ago we talked about a package of tissues. This time we are talking about a “bowl of soup” which has become a staple of start-up offices everywhere. Problem is, as you can see in the pic below, they are still marketing this product as Chadash when it has been around in the very same packaging for the last 2-3 years! Come on guys! Change the marketing message. Do you think anyone buys this product because it says it’s new? The only thing that it makes us think is that it must be old!
This video below is being used to campaign for the legalization of marijuana in Israel.
Brilliant marketing? Not a chance! The assumption being made is that the reality for Holocaust survivors is so bad that it is a crime to not let them smoke pot in order to make their lives more livable. There is no doubt in my mind that whoever thought this was a good idea was smoking something…
How to demo your start-up or product
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We talked in the last post about raising money and how it's like dating. Well just like when you go on a date you want to make sure you shower, brush your teeth, and wear clean clothing, so too there are things you should know about preparing yourself before you present to a potential investor. Actually you should do the things above as well, but also you should make sure you have a proper presentation or demo ready to show. Now there are a lot of "rules" about what works and what investors want to see and a lot really depends on who you are presenting to and what level you are in your start-up.
In this excellent TechCrunch post which is largely about an email Jason Calacanis sent out, is a must read. As with most TechCrunch posts you can learn even more by reading the comments.
Below are the first 3 of 10 of the suggestions Jason makes, but make sure you click this link to read the whole post!
1. Show your product within the first 60 seconds
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Most folks start their presentations with information like the size of
the market they are tackling (tens of billions, we only need 1%!),
their inflated corporate bios, the philosophical approach they’re
taking, and boring Powerpoint graphics explaining some convoluted workflow of their product.
The longer it takes for you to show your product, the worse your
product is. Folks who have a kick-ass product don’t spend five or ten
minutes “setting the stage” or “giving the background.” Folks with
killer products CAN’T WAIT to show you their product. Their demos start
with their homepage and quickly jump into the users experience. If a
picture tells a thousand stories, then a product demo tells a million.
Show your product immediately, and if you don’t have a product to show don’t take the meeting.
2. The best products take less than five minutes to demo
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The greatest tech products over the past 10 years would take no more than five minutes each to demo. For example:
a) Larry and Sergey could demo Google search in less than five
minutes. Here’s a box, type something in and you get a huge reward.
b) Steve Jobs could demo the iPod in less than five minutes. Plug it
in, put in your CDs and it syncs your music. Turn it on and use the
wheel to select what songs you want to listen to.
c) Chris DeWolfe could demo MySpace in less than five minutes. Sign
up, fill out your profile, and add your friends. For bonus points add
some widgets to your page.
I think you get the idea: the better the product the LESS time it
takes to demo. If your product demo takes more than five minutes to
demo, it probably sucks. All the tiny little features that matter to
you are of course important–God is in the details–however, when
presenting your company, you don’t have to show them. Larry and Sergey
wouldn’t open up the advanced search tab and the list of operators you
can use in Google during a demo.
Steve Jobs does take the demo details to a fairly detailed level,
but you and I are not Steve Jobs. There is only one Steve Jobs and
there is only one Apple. You’re never going to build something as cool
as Steve, and as such there is no need for you to talk about your
product for five or ten minutes.
3. Leave people wanting more.
——————————————-
If you take my advice in point two, then folks should be either blown
away or intrigued by your core product. If they are not somewhere in
that spectrum, you need to rebuild your core product.
When I pitched Mahalo to investors, I had five sheets of paper with
different search results on each. I put them on a table and said which
one is the best. Obviously I knew my result was the best, and that
simple demonstration lead to MASSIVE discussion: how was the page
built? how long did it take to build? what would it cost to make that
page? how often do you need to update it? how can you scale that
business? how many pages can you create before it breaks even?
It’s best for folks to discover the merits of your product for
themselves, and it’s up to you to make such a compelling core product
that they are intrigued enough to explore it.
Viral Marketing: Download your free book, The Idea Virus, by Seth Godin
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Seth Godin is priceless. He is always giving away free advice from his blog and free books you can download, like this one called Unleashing The IdeaVirus. The best way to have your product our business succeed is having it spread like a virus. Quickly and penetrating everyone it comes in contact with. Is your new product viral? How can you make it viral? Read this book and move to the head of the class. Read this blog post for an example on how Seth got this book read by millions of people in a real life example of what he teaches you in his book.
GotChicken.org? Finally some innovation with online fundraising!
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So I was reading a Jerusalem Focused magazine and I saw an add for GotChicken.org and a contest to enter to win an iPod. What attracted me was the logo and the name GotChicken.org. Obviously it's a play on the "Got Milk" campaign but I am fully for taking something that works and adapting it to your needs w/o breaking the law of course.
So I went to the site and sure enough it was a non-profit collecting money to give chickens (and other foods) to the poor for Shabbos. I was pleasantly surprised at how clean and modern the site looked as well as how simple it was to learn more about the organization, see the haskamos they had, as well as make a donation.
They even have a heart breaking story at the right place which you can read below:
The story behind our organization is sad but unfortunately it is not
a unique one. One Friday night after eating his Shabbos meal, Aaron a
young American man who was studying in Israel went to visit his Israeli
neighbor. As the man opened the door to welcome his visitor Aaron could
tell something was amiss. His host worked as a Rebbe in a local Yeshiva
and as far as anyone knew was doing okay financially. But Aaron was
surprised to hear the Rabbis’ children asking him for food. After all
it was Friday night. And who wasn’t full on Friday night?
With
the children crying ‘Abba Give us something to eat’ Aaron asked whether
it was perhaps better if he should come back another time. The Rabbi
shook his head no and told him to have a seat. ‘Children’, he said, ‘We
now are doing a great Mitzva of having guests and it’s not the right
time to eat. Tomorrow we will eat.’ As the Rabbi put his children to
bed Aaron opened the cabinets and was shocked to see them completely
empty! The fridge and freezer were bare too!
There
would be no food to eat tomorrow. The Rabbi would simply have to make
up another excuse so that his children would not realize their own
unfortunate plight!
This was the first of many
families to follow. Secretly they received 100 shekel week after week
in the discreet manner that has become synonymous with KMYH and has
remained the modus operandi for all future donations. Whereas many
families would have no way of purchasing chicken or other basic
necessities for Shabbos and Yom Tov, it is now a very real option. Can
you imagine a family that must remain Parve through Shabbos because
they lack the necessary funds to buy a proper meal? We can!
All in all I am very impressed and it is a good example at being catchy, memorable, innovative and also a great combination of offline and online marketing.
