Why is it that big companies tend to keep their customers at arm’s length? Instead of taking suggestions, a lot of times companies get cocky and decide what their customers want instead of asking what their customers want. This can create major problems, as we’ve seen before.

On the other hand, there are some companies making great strides to not only connect with their customers, but to involve their customers.

One perfect example of this is My Starbucks Idea, an online forum where Starbucks customers can suggest ways to improve their “Starbucks experience,” as the company likes to say. Starbucks then lists all the ideas that come from their customers. Even if you don’t submit an idea, you have the sense that Starbucks cares.

The same goes for Keurig. Here is another company that is catering to the customer, with great results. Last week, I talked about the I³ qualities apparent in Keurig’s single-cup brewer. Since this company is an intriguing case (and since not much has been written up about them yet on the blogosphere), I wanted to spend one more week looking at Keurig’s next innovation – or, I should say, innovations – keeping in mind that all of these innovations came from customer suggestions.

• Larger Brewer: One of Keurig’s weaknesses is size. Currently, you can only brew, at most, 12 oz. at a time. For someone who tends to order “Venti” sizes, or for someone who merely wants to fill their travel mug with one K-cup, this is a problem. Not to worry, says Keurig, who is rumored to be working on a brewer to accommodate.
   
• Strong Alliances: Keurig recently announced a partnership with Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. This is a win/win for Keurig as well as for these companies – customers who only drink DD/Starbucks coffee can now enjoy it in K-cup form, thereby increasing business for both parties. In fact, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz revealed that “more than 80 percent of current Starbucks customers in the U.S. do not yet own a single-cup brewer,” so this allegiance is bound to bring strong business to Keurig (as well as make Starbucks customers very happy).
   
• Environmentally-Friendly: In my last post, I brought up the troubling thought about the amount of waste generated, throwing out all those K-cups. What you may not know is that Keurig has already come up with a solution. They’ve introduced a product called My K-Cup – letting people reuse a single pod with the coffee of their choice – which especially makes their greener customers happy.
   
• Other Instant Beverage Ideas: Keurig has already branched out into the hot chocolate and hot apple cider realm, so what’s next on the docket? Here’s just a few for starters: lattes, cappuccinos, soup, Airborne, and yes, even infant formula. It’s as if the list keeps going. Soon the question will no longer be:
  “WHAT can I get in a K-cup?” — but — “What CAN’T I get in a K-cup?”

So what does Keurig – and all of their innovation – teach those of us who are not in the coffee business? Keurig teaches us that to truly be an I³ business, you must continue to go full-speed-ahead into your market, while never losing focus of your customer base. Keurig and Starbucks teach us that it’s not enough to acknowledge the customer, but to involve the customer.

This seems like a no-brainer, but I’m still amazed at how many companies take their customers’ suggestions for granted. Keurig (and Starbucks, for that matter) has made it their business to give their customers what they want, and it’s paid off. Big time.

• What else do you think we can learn from this ever-growing, ever-innovating world of coffee?
• Have you seen a payoff in your company by listening to your customers’ requests?
• Have you ever been on the other side – have you suggested something to a company, to see them follow through? How did this affect your relationship to the company?
• How are you involving your customers in the trajectory of your business?

It just dawned on me the other day: the Keurig coffee system is everywhere. In my home, in my office, in my clients’ offices, at the gas station, in the convenience store, at the mall – everywhere! It seems that wherever I am, I can look up and see a Keurig single-cup brewing station beckoning me to brew a cup.

Perhaps you’ve experienced this phenomenon. Maybe you could even look up from your computer right this second to glance at a Keurig coffee maker (it wouldn’t surprise me).

But what I want to know is: When did all this happen? When did a seemingly niche-market coffee maker become ubiquitous?

Sometimes in the business world, an idea is so well-anticipated that it’s an instant smash (most anything by Apple, for instance). Other times, you have a product that’s more of a “stealth hit.” The Keurig is just such a stealth hit – slowly creeping its way into our lives and suddenly ruling the coffee world. That’s not hyperbole, either. I truly believe that the Keurig is redefining how we consume coffee, and this is something to pay attention to (especially if you’re selling coffee).

Think about it. Surveys tells us that 73% of coffee in the US is made at home. That’s not news. And Starbucks has thrived in spite of this. However, consumers want what they want, the way they want it, inexpensively – and they want their coffee fast! In hard economic times, superfluous trips to Starbucks are the first to go. Keurig couldn’t have stealthily cornered the market at a better time.

Still not convinced? While in-home coffee maker sales have grown only 1% annually over the last 7-10 years, 2010 total revenue for Keurig brewers hit $330.8 million – a 67% gain over 2009. Developed in 1998, these single-cup coffee systems are now in 7% of households (and this doesn’t include all those offices with these coffee makers – 200,000 office installations in 2010 alone). This is incredible growth for a product introduced 15 years ago!

In fact, Keurig (which, it should be noted, was bought out by Green Mountain Coffee Company in 2006) is staking such a claim on the coffee industry that even Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks are producing K-cups for the brewers. That’s right – the coffee giants are teaming up with the little guy – who, by all accounts, doesn’t appear to be so little any more.

This type of success begs the obvious question:
What did Keurig do right?

That’s actually easier to answer than you might think. You see, Keurig is a near-perfect example of an I³ Value Proposition in action (see related post), and therein lies its success:

• The Keurig is Innovative: The Keurig entrepreneurs took a few simple ideas – that every cup of coffee should be fresh, and that everyone should choose what type of coffee they want, whenever they want – and made it happen in a clearly innovative way. The innovation was in the engineering to make these objectives easily attainable.
   
• The Keurig is Indispensable: With 2.5 million Keurig beverages made each day, I think we can safely conclude that the K-cup is indispensable to its owners – a part of their everyday lives.
   
• The Keurig is Inspirational: Keurig has come up with the type of product that consumers (and business professionals) are consistently interested in – even after using it day in and day out. I can easily marvel out loud at a Keurig in action, in any office – and have those around me join in. This is after we’ve all seen it do its thing hundreds of times. It’s still a “wow!”

So what’s next? We know they’ve made a great product, as well as countless great cups of coffee – but what will this niche coffee giant come up with next? Also – isn’t there an environmental concern with all those K-cups?

More thoughts on that next time…

Meanwhile:

• Is Keurig just dominating in-home coffee maker sales – or will it begin to impact Starbucks and other destination shops?
• How else do you think Keurig has changed the coffee business in the last ten years?
• Do you use a single-cup brewing system at home or at the office?
• What other “I³” ideas do you see cornering their markets?

Recently, there’s been lots of news covering Research in Motion, the Canadian-based company behind Blackberry. Although Blackberry has entered the lexicon as a standard reference to smart phones – frequently referred to in movies, TV shows, etc. – the reality is that for the last five years, Blackberry has been losing market share, and losing its position as the definer of email-enabled phones to iPhones and Android.

What must be particularly galling to Research in Motion, more so than the iPhone’s success – which was a truly groundbreaking product (which RIM tried to imitate with their touch product) – is the onslaught of Android, coming at the market from a completely different angle and making major headway. All in all, it has not been a good couple of years for Research in Motion.

So, what’s the lesson here for us?

Well, there are a couple. One is that when trends start shifting, you have to look down the road to see what’s really going on, and what you might need to do to respond.

The fundamental problem with the iPhone being better than the Blackberry was that it wasn’t really better, at least by many measures. Some people prefer a physical keyboard. Some people thought (and for a while it was quite true) that for corporate networks, Blackberry email had much more advanced security than Apple’s initial offering, and more so than Google’s Android system.

Where Research in Motion dropped the ball for Blackberry, however, was not looking at the trajectory of things. What was happening was that people were taking to the touch model very easily, and so that became a major new trend. Secondly and perhaps more importantly, they were looking at the empowerment of a large screen. Third, consumers become almost instantly enamored with having an almost infinite array of creative applications at their fingertips. So in many ways, the App Store and all the things related to customizing your experience were what set apart the iPhone, and later Android-based phones.

Look down the road at where your competitors are going. This is especially true in a highly-competitive market, and particularly if you are a leader in a category. Do not be dismissive of what the new competitor’s bringing to the table. Instead, ask yourself, What really changes, if I could fast-forward where they’re taking this? What is possible? What has been impossible for us, but maybe is possible for this new model – and can we adapt? Can we “join in”?

Without asking those questions – and it’s not likely that RIM’s executive suite were asking those questions, because that’s what happens when you’re on top – it’s easy to look down your nose at everything else that’s coming. It’s easy to only see the deficiencies of those players, missing where their strengths could develop, given enough time.

Given that this was Apple and later, Google, entering the market, it was arrogant to be dismissive of their ability to hammer away at a potential advantage, and make it the actual point of differentiation of their value proposition.

Apple didn’t just represent email, but functionally – from a user interface point of view – better email, and not just phone, but equal phone capabilities. The iPhone doesn’t just have download-able widgets – which Blackberry already had in some interesting little applications – but formed an entire ecosystem of completely flexible applications, that would not feel like, look like, or function like everything else that was previously available.

It was truly groundbreaking stuff, which of course is Apple’s strength. For all of us not competing against an Apple-caliber corporation, there still is a lesson to be learned about really “fast-forwarding” your competitors’ advantages to Where does that leave us – one-, three-, five years from now?

What’s a 1 Pager?

A “1 Pager,” also known as a cut sheet or a data sheet, is a [not surprisingly] single page of basic information about your company and product, that is usually sent in advance of, or “left behind” after a sales call.

The reason it’s important is not so much because anyone ever reads it. Nicely printed collateral in a sharp looking folder doesn’t really matter much anymore – most of your prospects will probably get their info from your website instead.

So what’s the point?

Developing the 1 Pager, more than other collateral, lets you capture your value proposition and the supporting details, while limiting you to the front and back of a single slice of paper. The challenge – and the value – of the 1 Pager is in narrowing down what you want to say to fit on one piece of paper.

As I’ve talked about in an earlier post, “Simplify for Understanding,” a lot of the time, less really is more. Jerry Seinfeld joked he could spend hours getting a punchline from 8 words to 5 words. It’s easier to write 10 pages than one really good page, because it forces you to be tight and succinct on what you want to say.

The real power is not in the 1 Pager, but in “zeroing in” on the essence of your message, without all the extra words, cutting straight to the bottom line.

Crafting a 1 Pager

The format of a 1 Pager is up to you or whomever designs your marketing collateral, but the structure should be something like:

• Company name and logo
• Tagline
• Your one or two sentence Value Prop statement, which is really a modified version of your Offering Concept Statement, adapted for use outside of your organization
• Features and benefits of your offering, to your prospective customer
• Some sort of proof statement – not a full blown case study, but a quote or example from a past/current customer
• Some sort of chart emphasizing your value proposition in I³ terms – what’s new about your offering, how it’s truly useful to your prospect, and what’s exciting about it for them.

You might end up with a 1 Pager that is actually a powerful piece of collateral, that you want to use as the basis for your website, in training your salespeople, and so on… but the real value is not in the document itself. The real value is in the process of nailing down what you really want your prospects to know – focusing and simplifying that message until it’s “short and sweet,” and being able to communicate that message efficiently and effectively.

If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t much matter which direction you take the organization. Objectives are necessary in order to have a clear and clean cut view of where the organization is going.

There are strategic and tactical objectives, which document the future of the firm or a specific market roll-out. They should be built around concept of messaging must be central, so both strategic and tactical objectives support the validation, communication and execution of the product’s Value Proposition– representing a set of promises that your target market will agree is innovative, indispensable and inspiring.

Strategic objectives are the high-level goals that drive strategy and long-term direction. These include corporate goals (which lay out the major, grand-scheme plans of the organization), financial goals (the key financial metrics that drive the firm’s success), and market impact goals (the key metrics that will allow you to measure your position or success in the marketplace, such as market share, markets served, number of customers, etc.)

Tactical objectives aren’t tasks, per se, but are more immediately tangible than strategic objectives. They reflect the key areas of project management, overall efficiency and time management, and translate easily into “to-do list” items for your Action Plan, and benchmarks for your timeline.

Keep objectives as clear and specific as possible. Use time-bound targets that are as measurable as possible. For example: Sell 100,000 units by May of 20xx for revenue of $$$ million.

IT Industry research leader, Gartner, Inc. comments on the importance of tying goals to actionable strategy and results: “Aspiring ‘to be the market leader’ or ‘to be seen by our clients and partners in their success’ is admirable, but lacks the specificity and clear linkage to action and measurable results to propel go-to-market efforts.”

Do you know where you’re going? Have you established major strategic objectives as well as tangible tactical objectives? Are these goals clear, specific, and measurable?

As you formulate and refine your value proposition, the best thing you can do for it is to simplify. There are few practical steps will help you get to the “pearl of great price” of your offering, and really let it shine. By this, I mean highlighting and not hiding the true main point (the net-net “goodness”) that proves most compelling to prospects.

Simplify by reducing the number of features or benefits in your story. Obviously, don’t reduce the actual features that make up your offering, but do reduce the number of features you communicate. Even this may seem counter-intuitive, in that it is easy to feel that “more is more.” However, given the crowded marketplace and ever increasing levels of market noise, it is a strategic imperative to deliver a simply understood story to your market.

I find that the more complex the product, the less effective it is to deliver the proverbial “fire hose” of information to an already overwhelmed audience. The point of reducing the number of features communicated is twofold: to force you to evaluate which features really matter to prospects, and to enable you to deliver those points more clearly.

Simplify by reducing the number of words you use to communicate a feature. Use simpler language such as “this means…” and “this doesn’t mean…” to frame key points. There is a time and place to introduce the twenty-page PDF with detailed schematics and charts… it just isn’t at the front end of the communication and sales process.

Simplify by reducing the use of jargon and dense wording. I don’t mean language that’s simplistic or condescending— I do mean language understood by a non-technical executive who understands business terms and concepts.

Finally, simplify by reducing the number and depth of slides in your PowerPoint presentation. The old adage of “tell them what you’re going to tell them; tell them; then tell them what you told them” is a simple and still effective way to approach any presentation. The middle part is where many business product and services companies fall into their own snare of complexity.

PowerPoint is a wonderful tool to capture and share new ideas—and is also a collector of “dust balls” of too many ideas and details. We’ve all sat through (or given) one-hour PowerPoint talks that left everyone, including the speaker, more confused than when the talk began. You can clarify and simplify any presentation (or document) by taking this simplification test:

• Can I capture my essential offering in one slide? You can state your Value Proposition (using the Offering Concept Statement) and add a few short clarifying bullets—but that’s it!
• Can I describe what my product does in one slide of less than 50 words (adding up all the bullets)?
• Can I describe, on one slide, what our product/service brings to the market that is new, useful and exciting (your offering’s I3 dimensions)?
• Can I describe, on one slide, what in our company’s history points to our distinct ability to deliver this specific value proposition (credibility from your corporate foundation)?
• Can I describe, on one slide, a way of looking at our offering financially that is compelling—emphasizing a key financial benefit or dynamic unique to your offering (Cost Effectiveness from your Corporate Foundation)?
• Can I describe, on one slide, what in our present people, processes and resources points to our distinct ability to deliver this specific value proposition (Capability from your Corporate Foundation)?

Be direct. Be clear. In short—keep it short. Your prospects will appreciate it and understand your story better as a result.

“Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing.”
—Seth Godin, author, “Purple Cow”

Product excellence and possessing stellar sales teams are “givens” in today’s B2B world. Existing business literature and marketing “science” have created a global economy in which product and sales excellence are now considered the baseline or “table stakes” for business—the minimum for companies to enter the game.

In a world where most players are aware of the baseline for competition, you need to meet that baseline level of performance to simply close the first deal or attract any market interest at all. Promises of excellent customer service or product excellence, by themselves, just don’t cut it as differentiators, even if you are strong in those areas (as demonstrated in the video in my last post). They’re the foundation of good business, but think about it<— you lay the foundation of a building, and what do you have?

A well-fortified hole in the ground.

You don’t stop there, of course— you keep building on that foundation. It’s what you do above the ground—beyond the minimum prerequisites of good customer service and basic functionality —that people notice.

These givens are the “infrastructure” of current business practices, which serve to elevate the importance of strategic messaging to a higher plane.

The entire organization and its culture must center upon the message of the company and its product. While at first blush, this might sound like a dangerous disregard for those fundamental, “real” aspects of business value— quality, features and support— it actually affirms these attributes.

By pulling the entire organization together around the message the company wants to communicate, “disconnects” in quality, features and support become even more evident and urgent. As champion NASCAR crew chief Ray Evernham put it, “Everyone should feel as if his signature is on the finished product.”

• So, what should the business product or services vendor do?
• How do you make messaging— the communication of value to the marketplace— an integrative process (vs. simply another functional process)?
• How do you build your go-to-market process and plan around your messaging?

My friend Kathie posted the following on her Facebook page and I just wanted to share it here. It’s made the rounds and you may have seen it – but’s it is worth a second look.

(The comedian is C.K. Louis, who’s material is usually a lot more “blue” than this bit).

However, this take on modern life highlights just how demanding our consumer-driven world really is.

Marketers beware – bring your “A” game.

It’s a music video! It’s an iPhone ad! It’s… well, the internet-dwellers aren’t quite sure what it is, but this somewhat-enigmatic YouTube video features the band Atomic Tom performing a catchy tune on a New York City train… entirely on their iPhones!

My last post promised that this one would look at an example of clever marketing. “But!” you might exclaim, “We don’t even know if that video IS marketing?!”

Well… maybe…

We’re not certain who was really behind the video– whether it was, as claimed, just the band and friends producing it independently, or if Apple was stealthily involved – but either way, it was definitely marketing. Furthermore, it was good marketing, for both the band and the iPhone.

That is the power of subtle marketing. It’s being clever, not depending on brute force – really just using a simple idea and executing it well.

Atomic Tom certainly got quite a lot of publicity from this stunt, including nearly four million views on YouTube, appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live (view full episode), the Today Show, and on FastCompany.com, among others, but the iPhone got its fair share of the spotlight from this as well.

A recent article at techdirt.com asked if the video was “A publicity stunt or viral ad – or just a band connecting with fans?” Now let’s assume, for the moment, that Apple did sponsor this. The bigger question, or the bigger observation to be made here, that might be more beneficial to marketers it this: Apple– by stepping out of the way and not putting their brand front and center – but making this appear to be an organic happenstance– gets much more mileage out of it than if they put together a professional or polished-looking video touting their wares.

Of course, they’re very good at doing “polished”, as anyone who’s seen the recent Macbook Air commercials on TV or online knows. Tight, focused, and beautiful, is something Apple does particularly well. Gritty, real-world, and natural, however, is something, (if, in fact they’ve actually sponsored this activity,) – it would appear – they’ve also done equally well. Both are important.

The difference is, the first is something that you can throw money and professionalism at. If you put enough resources behind coming up with a professional-looking video, you will get a professional-looking video. But coming up with something that looks organic, natural, and spontaneous, is much harder to do. You have to be careful that you’re not too polished, where people start doubting that what you’ve done is organic and real. People who can do THIS well, will connect to their audiences at a much more visceral and meaningful level.

It comes down to understanding your audience. In this case, the subtle point is how cool (yes, I am old enough to think saying “cool” is cool) these phones are. So instead of just saying how desirable and versatile they are– “we have a million apps!” – they show you a drum, a piano, a guitar, and a bass guitar happening on these phones, so you just know how versatile they are, without them waving big arrows saying “look at me!”

The only way you can pull that off, is if you’re really in tune with your audience. You have to really understand what will actually make them interested in what you have to say, and then you have to say it in a way that isn’t in their face. This is especially true the more youth-oriented your pitch becomes – they just don’t want to be sold.

Making something that will “go viral” is a subtle art, and you can’t just dial in “viral” and expect results on demand (notwithstanding the many companies who claim to be able to do just that). Very few organizations, companies, or agencies have been able to do that consistently, and it’s hard to do! A brainstorming session might yield five or twenty seemingly good viral ideas, but only a fraction (if any) will actually catch on and join the ranks of “Internet sensations.”

The point is, that being subtle and clever, really trying to visualize what would be interesting to your target audience, and the willingness to make the subtle and not so obvious point, is something that many marketers have yet to master.

Did Apple? Who knows? Atomic Tom maintains that the idea and production was solely theirs, but Apple is certainly going to try to capitalize on the clip’s success, if they weren’t in on it to begin with.

• How do you connect with your best customers?
• Do you know what makes them tick?
• Have you thought about it for even 15 minutes in the last 30 days?

To be successful, you have to be perceived as valuable. To be perceived as valuable, you have to, in fact, be valuable.

There are three dimensions to that value. The first is that you’re bringing something new to a market that hasn’t seen it before–new in a way that’s meaningful to them. Second, it’s something that is very useful over an extended period of time. That means its not a fad, it’s actually utility over time. Third, for somebody in the field, who appreciates it, it’s a little bit of a “wow!”–it’s exciting.

People want to be excited today by the things they work on. That’s why, if you go to a Williams-Sonoma, the kitchenware place, they’ve got the coolest ice cream scoopers, and garlic presses, and they’ve actually engineered simple things like that, to create a net-new value proposition. They’re creating a net-new experience over things that have been around for hundreds of years! And why is that?

Because the consumer today, whether its a customer buying a consumer product or somebody buying a business service, is actually looking for something that, again, is actually net-new. They want something that does it better, faster, and cheaper than ever before, does it in a way that’s useful, and does it in a way that shows an attention to detail that excites them.

So what gets me cranked is when people try to figure out new ways to solve real problems–new ways to really bring a distinct and special and new value to things. That’s exciting to me. It’s people solving other people’s problems.

This is a way that I can profit if I solve somebody else’s problem. In the old days, when capitalism was basically an extended version of the land barons, people just grabbing things from one another, but that’s not the way it is anymore. You could argue otherwise– watch any conspiracy movie, and you’ll see if somebody invented a way to make an engine that would run on olive oil, the big oil companies would kill them, right? Maybe. (Doubtful, but maybe.) If that sort of thing happens nowadays, it’s the exception rather than the expectation.

But by and large, things work. Apple works, Microsoft works, Starbucks works, because they actually bring something of value to a market that wants that valuable thing. They do it consistently enough, and in a special enough way, that it enables people to really see the value, and be willing to pay a premium for these things.

Therefore, it creates wealth for the people who bring the service or the new offering, and creates a fair exchange–nobody’s putting a gun to your head to buy a $4 Starbucks coffee. Why do you do it? Because you perceive it’s worth more to you to experience that $4 coffee than the $4 in your pocket. It’s a very basic idea, but that excites me, how people figure that out.

Now, there’s another part that excites me. It’s the cleverness of approach. In other words, in the beginning is the offering. It’s what it is–the what you’re offering, to whom, and why they should care. You have a product on a shelf. It’s in a box, it’s on the web, it’s somewhere. But now you have to get that message to as many of the people you need to get to, as cost-effectively as possible. If you make $500 profit on every sale of your thing, but it costs you $800 in advertising to get that one buyer, that is not sustainable. So how do you do that? And that excites me, to see how people cleverly figure out new ways to get to market.

To be successful, you need to find new ways to solve problems, and new and clever ways to get to market.

We’ll look at one such clever approach in the next post!

Just when we thought we had exhausted our creativity with YouTube, up comes this small brand with a truly and literally “out of the box” idea. Bringing to mind those old “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” books that became a fad among young readers in the 90′s, this recent promotional spot from Tipp-Ex (BIC‘s European brand of correctional fluids and tapes) lets viewers interact with the video to change its outcome.

At first, viewers might not realize that the advertisement is interactive, or even that the video they’re watching is an advertisement at all. It starts off as an apparent home video of a two-man camping trip, but their adventure (and unfortunately, their language as well) turns sour when a bear wanders into the campsite. Much to the viewers’ surprise, they are asked to choose what happens next:

Make your choice above (link opens in new window)

Once the viewer makes their choice, they are redirected to a new “YouTube video” (actually a whole-page flash reproduction) in which the man prepares to make the shot, but then lowers his rifle. Instead, he reaches outside of the “video player” and grabs the Tipp-Ex Pocket Mouse correction tape from the banner ad beside it, and uses it to white-out the verb from the video title.

He then asks the viewer to help him rewrite the story, by typing in what they want to see happen, and a new video plays accordingly. Entering “hugs”, “fights”, “paints”, and even, after all that, “shoots” produce very amusing scenes enacted by the man and the bear. According to BIC’s initial press release, there are over 40 different endings to be discovered.

Though not the first to escape the confines of the video player, or mess with the YouTube interface, and interactive advertising is nothing new, the “Tipp-Experience” draws viewers in, and encourages them to interact. It certainly succeeded as a viral video, but what about as an effective product advertisement? There is some question as to whether viewers will remember the product the ad promotes, but seeing the Tipp-Ex correction tape used to allow the viewer to change the plot was innovative, relevant, and memorable.

Perhaps a more valid criticism is that the ad lacks a “call to action“, not providing any info on the company, the product, or where to buy it. (It might have the only banner ad in history to not connect to a sales page.) Besides that and the unnecessary language in the first segment, it has all the makings of a successful digital campaign. As for sales conversion, we have yet to see any results. The campaign is still relatively new. Who knows, we might see a success akin to that of Old Spice.

Gone are the days when companies would simply create a product or service, market it and hope for a successful, profitable outcome. Products and services are now deeply commoditized and consumers are increasingly fickle and hard to please. People don’t just want something to spend their money on; they want solutions. They want something that can satisfy a specific need in a specific way. It is a must for companies and marketers to understand this basic consumer reality.

Innovative, Indispensible, Inspirational.

Innovative, Indispensible, Inspirational. These are the three I’s of an effective Value Proposition. If you want to make your brand work, you’ve got to cater to your target consumers’ needs. We’re not just talking about basic  needs here. A product or service can also satisfy emotional and perhaps even spiritual needs. It all depends on how you position your offering.

Is it innovative? Does your product bring something new to the table? Have you discovered a need nobody thought they had, or are you riding the bandwagon with a me-too offering? Is your offering truly useful/beneficial over time? That is, does it represent a continuous stream of goodness to its owner?  Does your your brand  inspire action or complacency? By answering these questions, among others, you can pinpoint the ideal way to market your product. The next step is to see if the target audience is going to be receptive to the messages you send.

Know thy customer. It is a crucial commandment that must be heeded, if you want your brand messages to come across positively. We  live in an age where information is easily accessible. Especially information about how your product is doing in multiple dimensions besides “unit sales”. Not too long ago, it wasn’t practical to do intensive consumer research, simply because by the time enough information has already been gathered, it  was already be obsolete and useless for brand-building.

The Internet is a great way to find out about your target market and its specific needs. The rise of social media has made it incredibly easy for companies to connect with consumers and find out their current needs. By becoming receptive to your followers or potential buyers, you can have a greater idea of what makes them tick and translate that into your brand. You can raise the power of I3 with the aid of Internet tools.

No brand is immune to competition. Even market leaders have their nemesis, and direct competitors keep a company from having the entire pie for itself. In many cases, competition can actually be mutually beneficial, as it keeps the competing parties from becoming complacent. In always trying to outdo each other, the companies push themselves to improve their brands and the products or services they carry. It is a welcome cycle that not many businesses want to admit (or enjoy).

Competitive analysis begins in much the same way a company would evaluate its own brand. You can examine your competitor’s value proposition in I³ terms based on their marketing claims. Find out exactly what they are saying that gives them an edge from their competition and compare that to your own unique selling points. If both of you are claiming the same thing, you end up canceling each other out on that factor, all other things remaining equal. I call this the overlapping value proposition: two companies making equally valid claims to a differentiator, neutralizing each other in the market on that attribute.

Take for example, Coca Cola and Pepsi. Both of these fizzy drinks are refreshing, affordable, and, for a time, they were actually marketed as health tonics. The Cola Wars are infamous in the marketing world. When it finally hit them that there is no use trying to convince consumers that one brand of soda tastes better than the other, they decided to go with more distinct (and emotional) approaches.

(image from Brand New )

Rather than win a consumer following with proof of taste superiority (a virtual unprovable), the beverage giants decided to woo the market by creating ‘personalities’ for their brand. It is evident in the evolution of their logos. Coca-Cola positions itself as a feel-good drink that encompasses all generations; thus, its logo has remained consistent over the years. Pepsi, on the other hand, keeps reinventing itself as the ‘cool drink.’ It mainly targets youth, which is why it also tends to get popular celebrities and artists to promote its brand.

Despite their difference in marketing approaches, Coke and Pepsi still enjoy a healthy rivalry. They were able to avoid the rut of the overlapping value proposition by re-thinking their challenge in other dimensions. They observed consumers more intently and creatively constructed brand personalities that resonate with their target market. Value proposition don’t have to be tangible or factual – they can simply be a matter of style.

Now and then, we see the Internet blow up with activity. A picture or video spreads across all the social networking sites. This sometimes leads to the creation of spin-offs – inspired pictures and videos which follow the same cycle of viral circulation. In today’s Internet parlance, this is called a ‘meme’. And while many “old horses” from more traditional marketing backgrounds can think of this as just another mind-boggling phenomenon of the Screen Age, others see a potential innovation.

When Old Spice and its advertising agency, Wieden + Kennedy, saw its latest campaign was becoming a viral success, they immediately capitalized on it. Now, not only has the Old Spice Guy, perpetually wrapped in a bath towel and flashing a debonair smile, become a household name; product sales are growing and the company is enjoying a breath of new life in its industry.

What Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy did is a perfect example of making good use of the power of “I3″. They positioned the men’s grooming product line as inspirational; an exciting trend any man would be crazy not to get into. The creative execution was simple and novel – show a good-looking guy seamlessly weaved through women’s fantasy settings, all the while boasting how any man can be like him if they just used some Old Spice body wash. A “net new” (innovative)twist on an old product. Given that cats and dogs and men and women remain interested in each other, this also made the product seem indispensable. Innovative, Indispensable, Inspirational… an I3 Value Proposition.

Interestingly, the ad was first aired on television, often taken as a dying medium for marketing (which it surely isn’t – just changing in how it needs to be used). Soon, however, it started making its way into YouTube and the rest of the Internet. When the hype still wouldn’t die down months after its first showing, the agency decided to further feed the flame with exclusive YouTube videos of the Old Spice Guy, (actor Isaiah Mustafa), addressing various celebrities and online personalities. Not only did this succeed in ‘fleshing out’ the character endorser, the stunt ultimately led to a 107% sales increase. Wearing Old Spice is finally cool again – a seemingly impossible feat just a year or two ago. This is a huge feat for a men’s grooming line that has long been associated with middle-aged men (ahem!). This is all thanks to innovative execution of a globally thought-through marketing campaign.

Are you dismissive of the “new” marketing? Yes, there’s lots of hype and snake-oil… but if a medium can take Old Spice and make it a New Spice – then it IS powerful and must be included in the mix – at least considered.

While driving to a client meeting I looked at my dashboard and noticed the warning light again. I was about 2,000 miles “over” on getting an oil change.

Now, I have always made a habit of taking great care of my cars and 2,000 miles on an oil change on a well maintained car is not going to kill the car. Why haven’t I done it? It has a lot to do with scheduling and the fact that it is going to take an hour out of my life at a critical juncture when I am working on several key projects. And really I have just not been able to do it or maybe it’s that I have not made it a priority to get it done.

So Commerce Bank opened 7 days a week, with late hours all 7 days. Many banks have had to follow them and not close the teller window at 3pm because of some age old operational constraints that are just not true in our electronic age.

So the lesson here is that you need to really rethink – especially in older type industries- whether or not what you accept as a true limitation is a REAL limitation … or is it just an industry habit. 
Maybe, it was a limitation that was born from boundaries that your industry had from years ago that are no longer valid with newer technologies and processes?

Whether you run a bank or local car dealer or a donut shop – have you looked at your business from the perspective of your customers? And do you do it often?