Psychological Marketing Insights » competition

Setting Yourself Apart

Sarah — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:52:46 +0000

I just saw a new Burger King commercial that piqued my interest. Now, often times you will notice that companies such as McDonald’s and Burger King or Coke and Pepsi compete on how their products taste. You will hear them quote the most recent survey saying that 9 out of 10 consumers preferred the taste of their product over their competitors. Or you will hear them compete on price and try to win out in the price war (which by the way no one ever really wins).

Well, as a consumer it doesn’t take long to catch on that both of them are making the exact same claims and that oddly enough most of their survey data sounds the same as well. So after years of competing on taste Burger King came up with a clever turn.

They are competing on size.

Now, don’t get me wrong, they are not the first to think of this. Hardee’s has done this on many occasions. What I found clever was the way they did it. They had 2 guys trying to figure out where to go for lunch. One suggests Burger King and the other balks at the idea and suggests McDonald’s instead claiming, “I have these tiny hands.” The implication of manliness being tied to the size of the burger one eats is quite obvious.

Now, the key thing here is what Burger King did, knowing that in reality that the competition on taste is old and most consumers are tired of the claims. Burger King created a new category.

Now, I’m sure most of us don’t have the marketing budget of Burger King or McDonald’s so how does this translate into our businesses? There are “stale mate” competitions in most industries. So, one can either keep attempting to win out in an endless p***ing contest, or one can create an entirely new category to compete in and blow the competition away.

My secret’s out…race against the clock

Sarah — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:39:57 +0000

Okay, who told? I have narrowed it down to 2 suspects. My older brother Adlai and my husband Matt were the only possible culprits…and since Adlai is currently in Uganda working on an adoption, me thinks it was my sneaky husband.

So what big secret did someone let out of the bag? Just my kryptonite, that’s all. No biggie there, right?

Okay, here’s the story. We all know that I am a self confessed competition junkie, right? It doesn’t matter what it is, cards, board games, sports, who can eat/drink the most, or whatever. If you propose a competition I am in. Well, early on in life my sweet, protective brother Adlai learned that he could get me to do whatever he wanted simply by phrasing it as such: “Sarah, can you go get me XYZ?”…pause for dramatic effect…”I’ll time you.”

Now, you may not think that phrase is all that effective, but for someone who loves competition, especially with herself, and especially competition that involves speed, well you’ve got a winning combination.

When I made the mistake of telling my wonderful loving husband Matt my weakness he laughed and laughed. And then he figured out how to use it in our business. (Leave it to Matt to figure out a way to force me to be productive.) He even went so far as to install a timer on my desktop so that I could time myself on projects. Of course, he added the part of, “Now be quick, but don’t hurry.” (Which is a good practice for all of us. When you hurry you make mistakes. When you are quick you are just fast.)

So how do I know that someone told? Well, I had just sat down for my late morning perusal of my emails when the following popped up on my screen.

Now, I love The Limited. I think they have great clothes, but have never really looked at their jewelry. So what do you think I did after receiving this email telling me that I only had 2 hours to shop? I of course dropped everything and found myself looking for a new necklace. I don’t even wear very much jewelry! Fortunately, the timer on my desktop dinged and brought me back to reality, telling me that my email time was over and it was time to move on to the next project. Otherwise who knows what kind of damage to my wallet and my schedule I could have done.

Now, in all seriousness, this was a great tactic by The Limited, not just for speed and competition junkies like myself, but for humans in general. When giving a promotion or sale it is always a good idea to give a deadline, and the shorter the deadline the better. We were all trained at an early age to adhere to time deadlines. (Can you say ISTEP? I know that I wasn’t the only one that started working ahead…) So use deadlines to add a sense of urgency to your offers, and to make it a little more fun for some of us.

Now, I have to go. I’m about to beat my personal best for time spent writing a blog.

-Sarah

Who is following up with your clients?

Sarah — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:37:53 +0000

I have heard many a business person say, “I just don’t understand why my customers chose to business with someone else. I did everything right.” I then ask them, “When was the last time your customer heard from you? “ The answer is then usually, “Well, umm….errrr.”

The relationship between a customer and a business is much like a dating relationship. That is why I like to call the type of marketing that I do “relationship marketing.”

There are certain things that you don’t do on the first date…and if you do, you may be risking the relationship down the road. There are also certain things that you should do if you want to cultivate the relationship. For example, a phone call now and then to say you are thinking of them. A thoughtful note from time to time. An unexpected gift.

Your relationship with your customer can be cultivated in much the same way. And if you aren’t doing it, your competition may be. Just like when you start a new romance, if you aren’t showing them enough attention, someone else may very well be.

Of course there is a right way to do this. Your customers don’t want you to be showing up in their email and in their mail box every day saying, “BUY FROM ME, PLEASE! I’M DESPERATE FOR A SALE!!” Just like you wouldn’t want to call your new romance every single hour of the day and overwhelm them with emails/notes. Smothering is never a good idea if you want to come across as someone of value. After all, if you are too readily available you must not be much of a prize, right?

So what is the right amount? Well, it all depends on the type of customers you have, but a good rule of thumb is that your customers need to be hearing from you, at the very least, every month. Your top customers should hear from you every week in some form or fashion. I suggest that you touch base with them throughout the month in various forms of media.

A follow-up marketing calendar for a month might look like this:

Week 1- Ezine article

Week 2- Ezine article and postcard/greeting card in the mail

Week 3- Ezine article and phone call/voicemail to touch base

Week 4- Ezine article and Newsletter (can be either print or email)

Now, that is a total of 7 touches for a month. You may have more or less, depending upon the type of clients you have on your list. You may be saying, “Wow, that is an awful lot of work.” But let me ask you this…if you don’t follow up with them, is your competition? You may not know until it is already too late.