John writes in and wants to know why I don’t think much of focus groups.
A properly run focus group is great. The purpose? To help you focus.
Not to find out if an idea is any good. Not to get the data you need to sell your boss on an idea.
No!
Focus groups are very bad at that. Groupthink is a problem, for one. Second, you’ve got a weird cross section of largely self-selected people, the kind of people willing to sit in a room with bad lighting to make a few bucks.
What focus groups can do for you is give you a visceral, personal, unscientific reaction to little brainstorms. They can help you push something farther and farther to see what grabs people. But the goal isn’t to do a vote or a census. Any time your focus group results include percentages, you’ve wasted an afternoon.
May 8, 2006
…when you don’t know what to write.
Ads are expensive. Full page color ads, especially so. So are landing pages, when you count the cost of the traffic.
So, here’s one, an insert in my New York Times from Alyse Myers, SVP of the NY Times.
Dear New York Times Subscriber,
You’ve probably heard about our great new rewards program called TimesPoints. This free program gives you exciting new opportunities to …
and on and on for five paragraphs.
Or, this one from Wilson Audio, which sells $50,000 stereo speakers. From the top:
of tweeters and truth
There isn’t a marketer alive, who, when asked what they most desire, won’t tell you: a simple message.
I’m not making this up. I would reprint the entire ad but you would have to flee in pain. Here’s the last line:
To say that our new speaker is worthy of your attention because it boasts this or that tweeter would be, at the very least, a half truth. And that’s the whole truth.
Oh.
If you don’t know what to say, don’t say anything.
If you don’t have an ad worth reading and acting upon, don’t run it.
May 6, 2006
Alex Krupp asks about the McDonald’s redesign.
Sure looks like Starbucks. Will it work?
The other day, I walked into a Dunkin Donuts to buy a friend a muffin. There, in the center of the store, were six or eight seniors, clearly having been there for at least an hour. They were sitting in those classic DD plastic chairs, the kind that don’t move, and they were really enjoying themselves.
They had plenty of options, options that were virtually the same price or possibly even cheaper, but they like it there. Because that’s how it’s always been.
The challenge McDonald’s faces is not to be like Starbucks. Why? Because Starbucks is already like Starbucks. The challenge is to to tell a story to the existing McDonald’s fan, a story that combines fresh and comfortable with the stuff they’ve always liked and trusted (the place is cheap, and it feels cheap, which makes it easier to bring the baseball team…)
The question, and I don’t know the answer, is how does a regular feel when she steps into the new store? Better? Worse? Good enough to bring a friend next time?
Good for them for trying something. Now, if they test and measure, we’ll see…
okay, some people don’t like analogies.
I was deep into conversation with someone the other day. He was smart, well informed and totally lost as I tried to explain something to him.
I realized that every single time I used an analogy, he didn’t "get it." Instead, he started talking about the example in the analogy instead of the concept I was trying to get across.
Fortunately, I realized it and switched gears. The conversation was saved.
Marketing, at its core, is about teaching somebody something that they didn’t know. More and more often, we use analogies to teach abstract concepts to prospects. It’s essential to remember that some people aren’t wired that way. Yes, your shampoo may be as fresh as a daisy, but if I don’t think that way and I don’t like daisies…
The June 1 seminar is now ready for signups. First come, first served, 12 slots. Seminars: The tiny whiteboard seminar.
I’ll post the other seminar next week. Hope to see you there.
May 5, 2006
It might be more than just semantics. Disney Destinations Marketing has a new department:
Customer Managed Relationships
Here’s the quote from them that Tim shared with me, "CMR is our version of CRM – just a slight nuance regarding our philosophy that our guests invite us into their lives and ultimately manage our presence/relationship with them."
But first, the good news. Wendy shares the following note from LLBean:
Dear Customer,
During a recent visit to LLBean.com, you indicated that you’d like to receive email updates on products, sales and special offers. Because you previously expressed a preference not to receive our Email Newsletter, we want to ensure that it is welcome in your home.
Please confirm that you would like to subscribe to the Email Newsletter, either by replying to this email at LLBeanNewsletter@llbean.com or by clicking the link below. Thank you in advance for your response.
And then Mike takes us right back down and sends us the photo above. What about you, are you "non elite"?
Jay Grieves points out that average is a little deceptive.
Outliers can change everything. One Bill Gates raises the average net worth of people at a conference by a whole bunch. Or as Zig Ziglar says, one foot in ice water and one foot in nearly boiling water means that on average, you’re just fine.
The secret of thinking about average is to pick the right group. When you have a true bell curve, then you can start to figure out which slice you want.
May 3, 2006
Authentic storytelling, the lie that works best. Steve Strucely points us to: Nearly All Sodas Sales to Schools to End – Yahoo! News. What do the distributors get? Well, for starters, they make more money on a bottle of water than a Coke. Second, and far better, is they earn the goodwill and trust of an entire generation.
