Observe, the real power of social media. Never neglect your product! (BTW – Customer Service is a product featured!!!)

As with any marketing course, we study the 4 Ps (product, price, promotion, and place.) During the study of promotion, we go over a concept worth review beyond my classroom: The AIDA model.

The AIDA model is an action-oriented promotion model and the letters stand for

Real World Application
The next time your company runs a promotion (and I mean any kind of promotion including magazine ads, handouts, brochures, commercials, signs…anything), remember AIDA and ask yourself these questions:

1. Does my promotional item get attention?
2. Does it hold interest?
3. Does it make the potential buyer crave the product or service?
4. Is it clear on how/where to buy the product?

Address each of these questions for each promotional piece. Note that #4 is often overlooked, minimized, or forgotten.  Don’t underestimate the power of telling your prospect of exactly how to buy.

Promotion is an important part of the marketing pie. There are three primary objectives to promotion:

1. Informing – Running a promotion that makes potential customers aware of your products and/or services.
2. Persuading – Running a promotion that makes people interested in trying the product. (They are already aware, but now it is time to buy)
3. Reminding – Running a promotion to reinforce your brand, reminding people who already buy that you are around.

Do you have an upcoming promotion you are working on?  Are you clear on the objective?  If not, it is time to become clear.  Advertising without a strategy or objectives is just a waste of money.

For those who have been reading my blog, you know #1 – I haven’t posted in a long time, and #2 I have blogged a few times about a marketing assignment that I make my students do call “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” Basically, they round up good marketing examples, bad marketing examples, and ugly marketing examples and bring them to class to share.

This year was my first year to teach a class during the Super Bowl, and the commercials were a big topic of conversation. After listening to my students’ picks and explanations, here are my personal picks for Super Bowl Ads 2013:

The Good

“Farmer”

Way to go Dodge Ram, you got my attention. This commercial silenced family rooms across America on Super Bowl night. I have to give them big Kudos for getting my intense attention.

However, I do feel it is also worth mentioning that I brand reject Dodge. So, while this was an amazing example of promotion for a product, it in no way could overcome my previous bad experience with my ownership of a Dodge Dakota. I point this out so that all of you small business people reading this can take note: it is always important to put the quality of your product as a top priority. I am scarred for life over a truck that would stall out while driving down the road and put me in danger, a truck that even Dodge mechanics could not fix after thousands of dollars spent trying.

The Bad

“The Next Big Thing”

Seriously Samsung? Why not show us how cool the product actually is instead of making us watch this junk? Makes me think maybe your phone just isn’t that cool.

The Ugly

“Perfect Match”

I think almost everyone thought this should win the prize for ultra ugly Super Bowl commercial, my students sure did. It got to a point where I wouldn’t let students show it any more, I think it is the sound effects that do me in.

However, what is the promotional objective of this ad?

This ad’s objective was to get people talking about it, and mission accomplished. I have heard more people, including face-to-face conversations, TV hosts, radio hosts, and a ton of online mentions, talking about this ad. So this might be another case of so bad, it’s good. They made a commercial so bad, people just can’t stop talking about it. Well played GoDaddy!

Today, I will share a personal story that I believe has value in the business world.

As a kid, I was super skinny and had all the dumb nicknames that kids come up with to go along with it. (Skinifer, string bean, toothpick, etc.)  I stayed pretty thin well into adulthood, then, some things started happening, slowly but surely I began a transformation.  In my late twenties, all those candy bar sales as a teacher started to catch up with me. (+10 pounds)  Next, I went from a very active and physical job to a desk job. (+15 pounds) Then I had a baby. (+10 pounds) And another baby. (+15 pounds)

As you have figured out by now, those nicknames no longer apply.  The interesting thing is that I didn’t really see myself too differently.  I kept telling myself “you needed some meat on your bones” and “you’re tall, the extra weight doesn’t matter and is hardly noticeable.”  As time went on, I kept on with the lies. Now also might be a good time to mention the family history of diabetes and heart disease.  I lied to myself about that stuff too.

Occasionally, I would have moments of wanting to lose weight.  I tried my share of fad diets.  I have been a member of Weight Watchers several times only to fail at that too.  I finally decided that I was just getting older and my body was different now; this is how things will be.

Finally, the moment of truth came.  Going through another moment of wanting to try something else to lose some weight, I signed up for the Louisville YMCA Weight Loss program .  In the 3 ^rd class, we did a body fat test.  Those few brief moments changed my life.  I had never heard that horrible “O word” used to describe me. At first I didn’t believe it, but as the days went on and I looked up a ton of information online about body fat, I knew it was true.  I was now obese.

This news made me start taking the class very seriously.  I started writing down everything I ate and exercising.  My eating was atrocious.  Most days I was consuming over 100 grams of fat.  My weekends were worse.  From Friday night until Sunday night, I used to consume about 350 grams of fat and well over 12,000 calories. I had no idea I was eating so much.  Even when I thought I was making healthy choices at restaurants by getting a salad, most of the salads I got were terrible in terms of calories and fat.

The diet was just part of it, I needed to start exercising regularly.  This was hard.  I’m not super enthusiastic about working out, it was a slow start.  As weeks went on in the program, I learned that my intensity of my workouts really mattered.  I had to learn how to exercise to get my heart rate up to a certain level.  I was shocked at how much this has helped with my efforts.  No one had talked to me about heart rate before.

I have now been in the YMCA program for almost 3 months.  I have lost 10 pounds (equal to the two 5 pounds bags of potatoes pictured above) and will run in my first race ever on Thanksgiving morning.  It has been slow going, but I now feel so much better.

So what does this have to do with business? Here’s the answer:

Blinders are bad.  I wore blinders when it came to my weight and physical condition.  I have worked with so many business owners who wear blinders when it comes to their businesses.

Take the blinders off!  Sometimes we like looking at what used to be 10 years ago, we still see ourselves in that light.  However, viewing the present as the past isn’t healthy.  We have to see what is really there and what is really going on around us.

Don’t let blinders kill your business.

This fancy marketing term basically means the way you decide to set your business apart from your competitors, or what makes you special. This fairly basic idea can make a huge impact on your business.  Unfortunately, many small businesses neglect this concept. In an effort to help you with this idea, here are some more specific ways to differentiate your company:

1. Add features to your product to stand out from a competitor.
2. Offer special delivery options.
3. Offer customer training or consulting for your product as an add-on to purchasing.
4. Have the most competent or friendly or responsive…. (you get the picture) customer service personnel.
5. Develop a unique delivery method.
6. Create an unusual atmosphere for your clients. (A great example of this is Lynn’s Paradise Cafe in Louisville, KY)
7. Host events at your business.

Hopefully, this list will get you thinking about ways to differentiate yourself in the marketplace.