Brand Autopsy

Todd Sattersten clued me in on a book about differentiation from Youngme Moon, a Harvard Business School professor. Yes, the business book landscape is littered with oodles of books on differentiation but Youngme's book is ... different.

You'll notice early on in "DIFFERENT: Escaping the Competitive Herd" that Youngme's writing style is more casual teaching than charismatic pontificating or hardcore drill-downs. It's an enjoyable read with approachable and actionable lessons.

For a preview of the book, watch this well-produced trailer...

PROMO Magazine recently published an article I wrote about the natural laws that govern word of mouth marketing. To understand these natural laws, we need to revisit basic physics.

In school we learned about Isaac Newton’s three natural laws of motion. These laws explain how and why objects move. These laws can also explain how and why word of mouth marketing can move brands from being unknown to well known.

Law of Inertia
Newton’s first law of motion tells us an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion. This law of inertia applies directly to word of mouth marketing because conversation at rest tends to stay at rest while conversation in action tends to stay in action. If a company does nothing to encourage people to talk, no one will talk.

Law of Acceleration
With Newton’s first law, we learned a force is required to spark momentum. Newton’s second law, the law of acceleration, explains how much force is required to spark movement. The larger an object is, the more force needed to move the object. Conversely, the smaller the object, the less force needed to move the object.

The correlation to word of mouth marketing is simple. The larger a brand is, the more marketing muscle needed to generate conversations about the brand. On the other hand, the smaller the brand, the less marketing muscle needed to spark conversations about the brand.

The Law of Reaction
Newton’s third law of motion tells us for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. There is a parallel natural law that governs word of mouth marketing as it relates to delivering great customer service. This marketing law states: for every action by a customer, there should be a genuine and appropriate reaction from a business. These appropriate reactions take the form of a response, a rescue attempt, or a relaying of information from a company to an individual customer.

>> READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

For a deeper dive into how physics principles correlate to marketing, read David Bowman's informative series of posts.

Georges Doriot is known for being one of the first venture capitalists in America. He was also a Harvard Business School professor and part of his legacy is this chewy quote, certain to motivate any entrepreneur...

"Someone, somewhere, is making a product that will make your product obsolete." ––Georges Doriot

The other day we looked at the advice from the founders of 37signals who write in their book, REWORK, “Emulate drug dealers. Make your product so good, so addictive, so 'can't miss’ that giving customers a small, free taste makes them come back with cash in hand.”

We also shared some more business wisdom from drug dealers on surpassing customer expectations, wholesale buying strategies, and selecting profitable customers.

If this idea of emulating drug dealers has you intrigued, reacquaint yourself with a vintage Brand Autopsy post sharing business lessons learned from the movie about a Harlem drug lord from the early 1970s, AMERICAN GANGTSER.

American Gangster synopsis:
Following the death of his employer and mentor, Bumpy Johnson, Frank Lucas establishes himself as the number one importer of heroin in the Harlem district of Manhattan. He does so by buying heroin directly from the source in South East Asia and he comes up with a unique way of importing the drugs into the United States. As a result, his product is superior to what is currently available on the street and his prices are lower. His alliance with the New York Mafia ensures his position. It is also the story of a dedicated and honest policeman, Richie Roberts, who heads up a joint narcotics task force with the Federal government. Based on a true story. [SOURCE]

LESSON ONE
Mentors Matter

In the book REWORK, the authors, Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson (co-founders of 37signals) recommend emulating drug dealers by offering free samples to customers. Drug dealers, as Jason and David point out, know by giving away free samples of a “product so good” and “so addictive,” customers will “come back with cash in hand.”

Businesses, according to the authors, shouldn’t “be afraid to give a little away for free” so long as they are confident in the products/services they sell. As cited in the book, ice cream shops confidently give away free samples knowing it will most likely result in a sale. Car dealers do the same by allowing potential buyers to test drive a car before buying it.

Why stop at emulating drug dealers by only giving away free samples?

Businesses have a lot more to learn from the business practices of drug dealers. From procurement of product to acquiring customers to satisfying customers, the parallels between a well-run drug dealing operation and a successful business run thick.

This is territory we’ve covered on the Brand Autopsy blog. In early 2004, we ran a 7-part series on “Street Corner Selling” which shared drug dealing business lessons from Bruce Jacobs' book, DEALING CRACK.

The lessons have held up well. Read for yourself...

Street Corner Selling Curriculum:

Lesson #1: Customer Acquisition
Don’t Act Desperate

Mattel, the makers of Barbie dolls used crowdsourcing to decide which career the next Barbie doll should have. Mattel promoted its online crowdsourcing contest on Facebook, Twitter, and with some regional advertising. The voting choices were: Architect, Anchorwoman, Computer Engineer, Environmentalist, and Surgeon. Over 600,000 votes were cast and the winner was...

Or was it?

Since the voting was open to anyone anywhere, non-Barbie loving fans were able to cast their ballot. Young girls, who are Barbie loving fans, voted overwhelmingly for Anchorwoman Barbie. Other non-Barbie loving fans voted for Computer Engineer Barbie.

The Barbie community voted for the Anchorwoman doll and a well-orchestrated crowd of engineers voted for Computer Engineer Barbie.

To Mattel’s credit, they are following the direction of the crowd and releasing a Computer Engineer Barbie. Mattel is also giving its real community of fans what they want by producing an Anchorwoman Barbie doll.

What if Mattel hadn’t used crowdsourcing but rather, "communitysourcing" to decide what career Barbie should have next? Communitysourcing could have saved Mattel from spending unnecessary time and money addressing the matter.

Perhaps Tom Myerman is onto something when he talks about rethinking crowdsourcing in favor of communitysourcing.

With Foursquare, Gowalla, and other “geo-location apps” becoming the new must-do marketing tool, I hope more businesses follow the lead of an Austin-area Starbucks.

A simple handwritten sign acknowledging the loyalty of a frequent customer is all the marketing needed to earn a gleeful shout-out and a simple photo on Twitter.

It’s so easy for businesses to turn checking-in with Foursquare and Gowalla into a digital discount program, but is it meaningful?

Isn’t it more meaningful, as a customer, to be recognized in a special way from your favorite business than it is to receive a special discount?

As a customer loyal enough to become “mayor” of a business, does that customer need a “Buy 9 Get 1 Free” discount to remain loyal? I hope not. If so, then that “loyal” customer isn’t so loyal.

A simple acknowledgment, as shown above, can go a long way to fortifying a profitable relationship between a frequent customer and a business.

In Purple Cow, Seth Godin wrote about the virtue of baking remarkability into how a business does business. According to Seth, “marketing done right” is when “the marketer changes the product, not the ads.”

The Purple Cow concept states it’s ultimately more meaningful (and less expensive) to bring a remarkably innovative product to market than it is to spend the advertising money necessary to successfully market a boring product.

GreenBox understands the Purple Cow concept. They developed an innovative pizza box that sells itself. This pizza box is not just reusable and recyclable ... it’s also remarkable. The GreenBox breaks down into four serving plates and into a nifty container for leftovers.

Have a look at marketing done right...

NOTE: My company is a WOMMA Member and I work with WOMMA.

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is coming to Austin. On Monday, April 19, WOMMA and the Council of Public Relations Firms (CPRF) will host a MERLOT MONDAY event for marketers involved with new school social media and old school word of mouth marketing.

At the MERLOT MONDAY event, you’ll sip some wine, chat with Austin-area marketers, and learn marketing insights from Jake McKee (Ant’s Eye View), Aaron DeLucia (Porter Novelli), and Liz Arreaga (Mercury Mambo).

In-between the wine sipping and networking, we’ll break into a casual panel discussion about how best to use “social media” and “marketing media” to create a more talkable brand.

Jake will focus more on the importance of enabling/fostering community voices to make a brand more talkable. Aaron will emphasize the need to think about the entire communication cycle from pre-to-wave-to-post in order to increase the longevity of a marketing program designed to get/keep customers talking. And, Liz will discuss how shopper marketing not only makes a brand talkable but also links to driving sales.

You’ll walk away from this event more confident in your knowledge of how to integrate social media and word of mouth programming into a company’s overall marketing mix. You’ll also learn what it takes to unify various media channels to work together to create a talkable brand.

Come join us. The event starts at 5:30 and the super cool HQ of Mercury Mambo on 1107 S. 8th Street (across the street from the HighBall and right behind Gibson Bar -- MAP).