Marketing - Three Hidden Ingredients

Steal These Ideas! is a book by Steve Cone that says this in the first chapter:

“A successful marketing campaign must have three essential ingredients:

1. excitement
2. news
3. a compelling call to action

If pressed to pick my all-time favorite ad, it would be one placed by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the famous early-twentieth century polar explorer. In 1913, Shackleton placed a very brief announcement in several London newspapers for volunteers for his upcoming South Pole expedition. He hoped to attract fifty to seventy-five inquiries. Five thousand hearty souls responded to:

MEN WANTED for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.

–Sir Ernest Shackleton

All three elements for promotional success: excitement, news, and a compelling call to action were wrapped up in just twenty-six words. No need to add a single syllable.”

Most Network Marketers would love to get five thousand inquiries even though we realize we only need the few souls with “action” as their middle name–only a few brave men and women. Some will get the money, and glory, and everything that goes with winning because they will “either be dead on the side of the mountain or at the top.” Don’t sugar coat the message when giving the call to action!

Brand Building

Before talking about Brands we ask this question–what is a building? We can learn a lot from just looking at buildings. What is the function of a building? If you look at all the buildings in New York City–why are they still there?

The answer may surprise you but the answer is this: They make money or a return on investment. The quick answers would be things like: shelter, convenience, location, etc. Buildings provide a lot of things to the occupants but some slums provide these same things. In fact, some tour guides in NY will tell you quickly that the World Trade Center Complex was a boondoggle and should not have been built. The building in Times Square, where the ball comes down on New Year’s Eve, is empty. The building supports the electronic signs that earn several million dollars per year. Why do many formerly booming cities now look like ghost towns (unlike New York)? Why do some mayors spend tax money to build the infrastructure where they, and their friends, live instead of where it makes sense?

Many people go to New York to live because that’s where they can earn money, fame, etc. Many people don’t go to New York to find a building (place to live). It’s somewhat similar to why people risked their lives to come to a New World (opportunity and freedom).

People can have branding success for a lot of reasons because branding is about relationships. For example, buzz can make a product successful for a short period of time (it’s called a fad) if a solid foundation is not laid.

According to Don and Heidi Schultz in their book, Brand Babble, the key ingredients in branding are:

1. Make sure your “to be branded” product or service is based on a solid business model and a sound business proposition.
2. Confirm that your product or service differentiates itself from competitors with a meaningful value proposition. Slogans and jingles are fine, but, they generally won’t pay the rent.
3. Make sure the brand delivers what is truly important to customers and doesn’t run counter to common sense.

Network Marketing is simply a word-of-mouth business model. It’s a vehicle that gets a company from point A to point B and can get successful distributors “Life on their Terms.”

Oklahoma Sooners Versus Boise State

There is a great “Life” lesson to be learned from Boise State if you are from Oklahoma (like me) or if you are from any great football state. As Oklahoman’s know, Boise State defeated the Sooners, 43-42 (in overtime) in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl January 1st in Glendale. If you missed that game you missed a great lesson about life. Sooners should not feel bad about this great game. Probably one of the best they have played over the years.

I’ve seen a lot of games and I was never more proud of OU than I was in the Boise State game. Also, even though we lost, I have never enjoyed a game more (if you missed the game too bad). Perhaps this quote from the Sooner website sums up why Boise State won the game: “We went 13-0 and beat everyone on our schedule, said quarterback Jared Zabransky, selected the offensive MVP after completing 19 of 29 passes for 262 yards and three touchdowns. We deserve a chance at the national title.”

Jared Zabransky has the kind of “heart” that we all wish we had when it comes to the game of life.

Mark Twain gives us this admonition: “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Jared knows (in his heart) that he is great and that he’s going to win–so should you. So-called “experts” don’t know much. If you like to watch the news, you begin to notice that experts are all saying the same thing (they are like parrots). Sometimes you begin to wonder: “Who’s making this stuff up?”

“It would have been easy to give up on us with a minute left, but we had a lot of magic left,” Zabransky said.

Jared has the spirit you need to do network marketing because only those who quit lose. Over the years, I’ve heard various leaders say a favorite saying to new recruits, “You’ll quit on me before I quit on you.”  Don’t say that to people unless you mean it. Never, never, never, quit!

How Does Your Network Marketing Company Treat People?

Mark Hughes in his book, BUZZMARKETING, talks about how companies treat their employees. How companies treat people is a very important part of picking the right company because it has a lot to do with your success as a Distributor.

“Today, competitive advantage is often defined by your employees, their innovations, and their ability to turn ideas into reality. A buzz culture can attract and retain forward thinkers.

Using the secrets of buzzmarketing to get consumers evangelizing about your brand begins with getting employees to evangelize about your brand. Getting your employees to evangelize about your brand is more important. After all, if your employees aren’t evangelizing for you…do you think consumers will? When surveying your own employees (and you should), ask them if they would go out of their way to recommend your product to a friend. Anything less than 100 percent signals trouble.

Remember those statistics: Companies that distinguish themselves by the way they hire, train, and treat their employees experience growth rates from 60 to 300 percent higher than their competitors and experience a return on assets from 150 to 300 percent higher than their competitors. Using the secrets of buzzmarketing with your employees saves you marketing dollars, and accelerates your growth.”

We all know that the face of the company is the face (voice) of the employee that you get on the phone when you call the Corporate Office. As a Distributor, you sure don’t want to lose all of the effort you put into recruiting someone just to have them call Corporate and decide that this company is not for them.

So, if you decide to join a company you can do yourself a favor by calling their customer support number and checking for a “friendly” response, and a “positive” attitude about the company.

Buzz Marketing

Mark Hughes has written an interesting book called BUZZMARKETING that talks about the buttons you push to get buzz and even free media coverage. Of course, word-of-mouth marketing is the most powerful form of marketing (the reason for Network Marketing as a viable business model). Mark Hughes was a major player in the development of the half.com website that was sold to eBay for $300 million approximately six months after the launch.

Mark says this about customer surveys: “Throw out every question except for two. All other questions are meaningless data dung.”

1. How did you first hear about us? This tracks word-of-mouth percentage and marketing effectiveness.
2. Would you go out of your way to recommend our product to a friend?

“Notice the deliberate wording. It doesn’t simply ask, ‘Would you recommend to a friend?’ But rather, would you go out of your way to recommend to a friend. A subtle but important distinction. A distinction measuring customer evangelism–or buzz.”

I have to agree with Mark about this survey because if people won’t “go out of their way” to recommend your products you have a problem. Perhaps it would be difficult to market a product that you wouldn’t have a very strong desire to recommend to your friends.