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Aggressive Small Business Marketing & Advertising
Big thoughts, ideas and how-tos for aggressive, fast-growth businesses and the entrepreneurs who fuel them.
How To Relaunch A Product Or Service
Posted by Michael Cage on Tuesday, March 30, 2004From Harvard Business School via BusinessPundit comes this article about turning around a product or service.
I'd change #4 to "Have a dominant share of advertising with an acceptable ROI." For a company like Colgate-Palmolive, maybe it's not an issue. For the small and midsize businesses I work with, advertising for the sake of advertising is about as dumb as dumb can get... and all too common a business practice. On the other hand, closely tracked direct response advertising with a good ROI they can never get enough of.
Jeff Himmel, chairman of the Himmel Group, which has rebuilt such brands as Ovaltine and Lavoris, outlined the "Twelve Musts" in product turnarounds: 1. Point of difference. Will consumers buy this product instead of another brand? 2. Unique selling proposition. Does the product tell a unique story? 3. Make the brand stand out. 4. Dominant share of advertising. 5. Frequency of advertising. Make sure the message about your product is repeated over and over to the public. 6. Listen to the consumer, and then listen again more carefully. 7. Produce creative advertising that strikes a chord with the consumer. 8. Control commercial production costs. (He tends to only spend about $2,000 producing a commercial.) 9. Use your money to place ads, not make ads, and get a dominant share of advertising. 10. Live in a state of perpetual paranoia and always know what your competitors are doing. 11. Consider the X factors about your product. For example, does it have an existing distribution, or will it have to be created from scratch? 12. Have discipline to follow all the points on this list.There are 1 comments, add your own!
Business Disaster - “Yes (Wo)Man Incest”
Posted by Michael Cage on Tuesday, March 30, 2004The always excellent A Penny For... tipped me off to a blog by Mark Cuban, the wildly successful owner of the Dallas Mavericks (among other things.) He did an excellent post about The Passion of Business and the Business of Passion. Well worth a read. There is one thing in particular I want to comment on:
When that happens, you have done your homework and are confident in your position, and when I don't listen, raise your voice. Figuratively, literally, I don't care. I don't see decibels as a sign of disrespect. I see fear to communicate a needed message to me as a sign of disrespect.
As an entrepreneur becomes more and more successful, the people you surround yourself with become that much more important. Being able to get an objective opinion -- particularly when it differs from yours -- it an outright necessity. Without it, you can suffer from what I call "Yes-(wo)man Incest." Basically, this means not getting in fresh ideas and insights on how to maintain and adapt your business because everyone is busy in a contest to exclaim how fabulous you are. The results ain't pretty.
What Cuban talks about must be factored into hiring, and it is also one of the best reasons to cultivate a Mastermind Group (a la Napoleon Hill in the classic Think And Grow Rich.) I'll give the 5 second summary -- a Mastermind is a group of people with complimentary skills and goals who get together to bat around ideas and help each other on a regular basis. I'm involved with several, and there is nothing more valuable in my business life or my evolution as an entrepreneur.
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