All You Need Is A Good Idea!

MY FAVORITE VIDEO (SO FAR) OF 2009

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, this is a blog devoted to marketing ideas. But occasionally I come across an idea, that while it has little to do with promoting a product, is just so brilliant I feel compelled to share it.

A palindrome, as you know, reads the same backwards as forward. Some words that are themselves palindromes include, TOOT, POP, and RACECAR. Longer examples are:  A man, a plan, a canal – Panama! And Napoleon’s “Able was I ere I saw Elba”.

The following video is a palindrome. It reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite. This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen…forward and backward.

This video was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled "u @ 50" by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it. I can’t imagine what the first prize winner was.

A GLOW-IN-THE-DARK DOG

Once a year, the New York Times magazine section salutes the year in ideas. As they put it, they have hunted eclectically, though not without discrimination, for noteworthy notions of 2009. The most clever, important, silly and just plain weird innovations.

And once a year, I salute the section.

The ideas they cover range from the finding that empty beer bottles make better weapons to waste tracking to the kitchen sink that puts out fires. But since this is a blog about marketing ideas my favorite is headlined, “The advertisement that watches you.” It tells of a poster in a bus shelter in Berlin sponsored by Amnesty International. It showed a couple, with the man having his arm around his girlfriend or wife. But if no one in the shelter was looking at the poster, the image changed; now the man was raising his fist as if to strike the woman. (There is a slight lag in the switch, so you can notice that the poster was changing its image.) It used a camera and face-tracking software, to demonstrate what may happen when nobody is looking.

It was designed by Jung von Matt, a firm that bills itself as being in the business of “attention warfare” (love it/hate them).

Take a look at the poster, and all the other ideas in the magazine. It’s more stimulating than a double latte extra shot Grande.

THE MADDER THE BETTER

The above is a recent ad for Ireland. The slogan is, “Innovation comes naturally,” and the headline is “Step-by-step logic will only take your business so far. Maybe it’s time for a leap.”

I had seen the ad a while ago, and thought it would make a good blog post someday, since it is a sentiment with which I completely agree. But I hesitated using it, since I thought it might make too brief a post, and would perhaps be repetitive rather than insightful.

Then I saw an interview in The Wall Street Journal with Michael O’Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair, the Irish no-frills airline. His philosophy brings to life the kind of thinking that makes the ad for Ireland credible. And his beliefs are worth paying close attention to.

Turns out Ryanair carried more international passengers last year than any other airline in the world. But you don’t get there only by lowering costs, because then anyone could do it. You do it with a good idea; in this case, the basic positioning that differentiates you, and from which everything else follows. In Mr. O’Leary’s analysis, “air transport …is a commodity. It’s not some life-changing sexual experience, which is what the other high-fare airlines have tried to convince you that it is.”

How do you bring that to marketing life? “You have to come at it (cost cutting) with some imagination and some passion.” Then came the words I want you to memorize…or at least write down: We do that by having an open, enthusiastic culture that encourages people to come up with wacky ideas—the madder the better.

Do you have a strategy that differentiates you from your competitors? Do you encourage your people—and yourself—to come up with crazy ideas?

Maybe it’s time for your leap.

LEARN FROM SCROOGE

Glad to see that Disney is using the whole carcass. Sounds a little brutal I know, but what it means, as I talk about in my book,  is that once you have your good idea, spend some time figuring out what else you can do with it. Very often there are some very inexpensive ways to extend the power of your original idea. Lots of advertisers are doing it today with YouTube and iPhone apps. If, for example, you create an app that ties-in with your campaign, it can be very effective, especially if it is not blatantly commercial. (Actually, to me, only if it is not blatantly commercial.)

Here’s one example that caught my eye. The Scrooge tip calculator.

As it says on the app page, “Use the Scrooge Tip calculator to help you decide what to tip! Enter the amount of your bill, then select one of the four tip levels depending on your mood. Whether your mood is “Scroogey”, “Christmas Spirit” or somewhere in between, this app will determine the tip amount. If you are feeling between average and stingy, you can use the slider to set the tip accordingly.”

It is entertaining, functional, and ties-in seamlessly with Disney’s A Christmas Carol. And it’s free! (Yes, they could have charged for it. But do you think the revenue they might have received would have come close to the “profits” they will get from the extensive word of mouth and downloads and conversations they will get by giving the app away?)

So next time you get your good idea, and you are finished celebrating, try to devise some other uses for your concept. Figure out how to do relevant tie-ins. If it’s really a good idea, it will be easier than you imagine.

What do you think?

THE MOST EFFECTIVE SIGN OF THE YEAR

 

I noticed this sign near the Port Authority bus station in New York, and had to take a picture. I am not even sure if the City recognized the power of the sign, or just thought they were providing directions. But to me it was a brilliant piece of marketing.

Put up the usual sign “No Parking. Tow Away Zone,” people have seen (and ignored) forever, and it does nothing. It is invisible (seen it for so long, I don’t even notice it anymore), and non-threatening (basically, just information). It is abstract (what’s the penalty?) and it is imprecise (what are the odds?).

But remind me, clearly and simply, of the hassle involved if I do get towed…the distance, the wait, the bureaucracy, the expense, the time wasted, the utter aggravation…and I will pass that spot by in a second.

The point is that sometimes a good idea does not rely on the cleverness of the message. The thought itself can be straightforward, if it is unexpected and attention getting. Make it readily understood, so that the impression it conjures up is vivid and persuasive.

What do you think?

FIVE DOLLARS A FOOT

I had a Subway Buffalo Chicken foot long yesterday. Scooped out, toasted, with cheese, and every vegetable they had behind the counter. Then doused with ranch dressing.

I meant to save half the sandwich for today, but this blog is not about my appetite. It is about the amazing Subway pricing. That entire sandwich cost me five bucks. And for someone stronger willed than I, it would have made two days of lunches.

I was reminded of all this by an article in BusinessWeek, by Matthew Boyle. He talks about how the 3.8 billion in sales generated nationwide by the $5 footlong alone placed it among the top 10 fast-food brands in the U.S. And how it all started five years ago with Stuart Frankel, who owned two small Subway shops in Miami.

Among many interesting facts, the one that best fits this blog is how, “A huge company can wake up and eventually seize on a good idea.” (For all you CFO types, please note that profit margins didn’t decline, thanks to the overall boost in volume and the increased productivity of the staff.)

Sure, the company knows the campaign will eventually run out of steam. Boston Market, Domino’s and KFC have launched similar deals. And one Subway franchisee is now offering footlongs for $4. But this unquestionably demonstrates the strength of a good idea to build business.

And your latest good idea is…?

 

A GOOD PRESENTATION NEEDS A GOOD I.D.E.A.

When you’re preparing for a presentation you undoubtedly have Googled “How to give a good speech.” And you have gotten useful, though often contradictory advice. Use PowerPoint/don’t use PowerPoint. Use images/Use type only. No more than three, four, six words on a slide.

Those are all, though, just the mechanics of the presentation. The essence of a memorable presentation is the idea. And for a successful presentation, all you need is a good I.D.E.A.

·      Inspire

·      Demonstrate

·      Educate

·      Amuse

Inspire: Get people keyed up. Make them so enthusiastic, they can’t wait to get out of the auditorium and start doing amazing things. Make certain they understand the advantage of doing/buying what you are presenting.

Demonstrate: Tell a story. Give examples of what you are talking about. Use relevant case histories. It’s “Show and Tell” time.

Educate: Be a teacher. The audience is your class, you are the professor, or why would they be listening to you? They want to learn. Your job is to teach.

Amuse: Humor makes even the dullest subject interesting. Don’t be monotonous or boring. Avoid jokes that are dated, or have no relevance to your point. If you are uncomfortable with humor, than create your own “Top ten reasons” list, or something else your listeners knows they are supposed to laugh at.

There you have it. Four simple points to help make your next presentation a little better.

Get the I.D.E.A?

 

ONE CONCEPT. FIVE GOOD IDEAS.

I am not certain why selling snacks in smaller, individual packages and then charging more for the convenience works, but it seems to. I am thinking particularly of the rash of 100-calorie serving size products available, from Nabisco’s 100-calorie pack of Mister Salty milk chocolate covered pretzels to Pepperidge Farms 100 calorie pouch of chocolate chunk dark chocolate cookies. Indeed a good idea, though I would personally hesitate to pay a premium for basically allowing a company to subdivide their products for me, when I could easily do it myself.

Others must share that reluctance, which brings about good idea number two: Ziploc has come out with snack-sized plastic storage bags, and is labeling them “Perfect for 100 calorie snacks.”

Good idea number three is the food examples and nutritional information they provide for snacks you may want to pack. Some choices they suggest are 28 grapes, 17 dry roasted peanuts, ¾ oz. Cheddar cheese and 25 jellybeans. (They call them 100-calorie snacks; I call it spillage.)

Related good idea number four? It comes from Honey Nut Cheerios, which packs a small insert into the Ziploc package, and gives “heart healthy” reasons to pack them, along with the amount to put in the bag.

Finally, good idea number five. The Cheerios insert includes a dollar off coupon, to really promote a purchase.

What’s going on currently that you can opt in on and market? I don’t just mean putting orange and black jellybeans into a small sack for Halloween. Think outside the bag. Any trend you have noticed that you could cash in on?

Free eyeglass loops because you read that people are taking off their glasses more often due to eyestrain from computer fatigue? Special sale on plastic paint containers, because the tendency is for more and more people to paint rooms themselves, and have no idea how to protect and store left over paint?

Think about it.

LinkedOut

Though I am a member of LinkedIn, my slogan for them always has been, “Many have joined. Few know why.” And I don’t Tweet or Facebook. Maybe I am just in the wrong generation, or lazy, or not wise enough to understand how to fully utilize these tools. Or maybe these social media tools will go the way of Friendster and MySpace.

But…I did visit my LinkedIn Groups to spread the word about a free offer a client was making. Where I found this site  and this video of an interview with Seth Godin. (If it weren’t for Seth and Zappos, I would post a lot less often.) It was clear, insightful, and, to use his word, remarkable.

Enjoy. And if it makes you want to buy one of his many books, remember where you found out about it.

BET YOU HAVE A CAN OF THIS AT HOME

How would you like to manufacture a product found in almost 80 percent of American homes? (It is not the microwave, TV or telephone.)

It is the ubiquitous can of WD-40, the product with at least 2,000 uses, most of them discovered by the users themselves.

Why am I telling you this, since if that were the sort of information you wanted, you would be visiting a do-it-yourself/home repair blog? Well, I don’t care what blogs you visit, you probably have a can of WD-40 sitting around that you actually use.

And the specific relevance is a quote from John S. Barry, the executive who masterminded the spread of this product. In a recent article in the New York Times, (O.K., sad to say, it was an obituary) they used a quote from Forbes magazine: “We may appear to be a manufacturing company, but in fact we are a marketing company.”

A great way of thinking, and here are some of the things he did to make it work.

• Changed the name of the company to the WD-40 Company.
• Emphasized free samples
• Refused to let others package it under their own label
• Pushed to get it into supermarkets, for impulse purchases

So, which are you? A manufacturing company, a service business, a wholesaler, a retail store, a re-seller?  Better to think of yourself, at least partially, as a marketing company, if you want prospects to have heard of you.

And I'd love to hear your favorite use of WD-40. (Mine is the basic squeak eliminator.)