The other day I got asked about mistakes I’ve made professionally and what I’ve learned from them. And to be perfectly honest, I kind of froze. My mind suddenly went on a massive “find all” scan only to come up with vague recollections of moments when the blood drained from my body with the certain knowledge that my life as I knew it was over. Because of the situation, I came up with an answer but the question continued to haunt me – both because I think it was a question I should know and because I couldn’t understand why I didn’t.
As with most things you’re trying to remember, a specific example came to me within ten minutes of leaving the conversation. And with some small amount of relief, it was something from very early in my career. Specifically, within the first year-plus of starting work, my bosses all got laid off and I was left to act as Production Manager for my agency. Now, I have to give credit because my boss had very generously been training me on the basics of print production, which in retrospect may have also been my downfall. Without going into great detail, I was scared of missing a deadline so I pushed an ad that wouldn’t print well. Fortunately for me, my now ex-boss had become my outside printer and he caught my error before it went to print. On the reprint of the never-released ad he wrote a message I quote here by heart, “there’s never enough time to do it right, there’s always enough time to do it over.” He was right and I learned some valuable lessons which include: when over your head – ask for help; and when you think you don’t have time, take five minutes to collect yourself and re-approach the problem … you might have more options than you think.
So I was feeling a bit better; I wasn’t in complete denial. But the question still remained, why hadn’t I remembered this or any of the other times it had happened in the past? Not to be political, but I was flashing on when G. W. Bush was asked what if any mistakes he had made and he couldn’t answer. I did not want to be that person that so lacked introspection or accountability that they wouldn’t admit fault and learn from mistakes.
Then it occurred to me. The reason I wasn’t remembering the error was that I’d learned from it and moved on. The lessons learned had become so much a part of who I am and how I work that I’d forgotten how I came to know them. Instead of being upset that I couldn’t remember, I was happy that my brain chose to focus on the positive rather than being dragged down by the negative. Which isn’t to say that I should forget the experience or the feeling; they act as a powerful incentive to never make that mistake (or any other) again. However, a certain amount of mental denial isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
It’s an old saying that we should learn from our mistakes and that’s absolutely true. However, we need to also remember to apply the lessons and move beyond the fear lest we lose the nerve to act. It applies to the individual and, as someone who has managed, it’s a good thing to remember when it comes to managees who mess up. Making mistakes doesn’t mean we’re bad, it just means we’re human. It’s if we have the capacity to learn and apply the lessons that is the ultimate test and opportunity. And for me, coming to recognize that is yet another valuable lesson learned.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Selling in the Age of Austerity
Who would have thought it just two years ago that the US economy would be in near freefall. Seems like just yesterday people were buying houses they couldn’t afford, unconcerned about the thousands of dollars in debt rolling over on their credit cards and freely purchasing the next latest gadget on a near daily basis.
Yet here we sit in a time of recession with the news of the day filled with which major companies had layoffs and which banks are on the verge of failing. With unemployment at 8% and growing, consumers have finally woken up to the reality that spending has consequences and money doesn’t grow on trees. People have tightened their belts and are delaying gratification even when the word sale is applied. And even more significantly, they feel good about themselves for doing it.
We’ve entered an age of austerity.
So what’s a marketer to do? Sell austerity itself.
Well, maybe not literally, that would be tough. But you can sell that feeling people get when they make smart choices. It’s about saving money in the long run with products that last longer or save on the need for other products. Light bulbs are the perfect example: buy the more expensive eco-blub and save long term while saving the planet.
People without money aren’t going to buy no matter what. But people with incomes still need products, and now more than ever they need/want a reason to buy. If feeling good about ourselves comes from NOT opening the purse strings, we need to make a compelling reason that it will feel better if we do. Now I’m not saying this will work for a Tiffany bracelet or Juicy jeans, but detergent, clothing, cleaning products, etc. have a chance.
Advertising has always been about giving the people what they want. For the last several years what they wanted was bragging rights about having the new/latest toy. Today, bragging rights are about getting the best/smartest deal. Selling isn’t impossible as long as we recognize that the drivers have changed drastically and people are still looking for a reason to feel good about their purchase.
Yet here we sit in a time of recession with the news of the day filled with which major companies had layoffs and which banks are on the verge of failing. With unemployment at 8% and growing, consumers have finally woken up to the reality that spending has consequences and money doesn’t grow on trees. People have tightened their belts and are delaying gratification even when the word sale is applied. And even more significantly, they feel good about themselves for doing it.
We’ve entered an age of austerity.
So what’s a marketer to do? Sell austerity itself.
Well, maybe not literally, that would be tough. But you can sell that feeling people get when they make smart choices. It’s about saving money in the long run with products that last longer or save on the need for other products. Light bulbs are the perfect example: buy the more expensive eco-blub and save long term while saving the planet.
People without money aren’t going to buy no matter what. But people with incomes still need products, and now more than ever they need/want a reason to buy. If feeling good about ourselves comes from NOT opening the purse strings, we need to make a compelling reason that it will feel better if we do. Now I’m not saying this will work for a Tiffany bracelet or Juicy jeans, but detergent, clothing, cleaning products, etc. have a chance.
Advertising has always been about giving the people what they want. For the last several years what they wanted was bragging rights about having the new/latest toy. Today, bragging rights are about getting the best/smartest deal. Selling isn’t impossible as long as we recognize that the drivers have changed drastically and people are still looking for a reason to feel good about their purchase.
The Joy of Research
You can tell a lot about a person by their attitude about research. There are those that think research is useless because depending on how you structure the search you can create the answers you’re searching for – they are the cynics. There are those that think research is an expensive tool that should be used sparingly – they are the optimists. Me, I’m an unabashed research geek that believes there is almost always something to be learned from research and it doesn’t have to be some massive, stilted study to get usable results – I’d like to think I’m the realist.
For those people I would categorize as cynics or optimists, I do understand their points of view but I think they come with one (mostly) incorrect assumption: that the researcher has a bias and therefore any results are what they made them. If you’re truly looking for answers to questions such as “what’s the key selling point,” or “is this something you would buy,” or “what would make this product more valuable to you,” or “what would you need to know in order to consider this” then to not do research is arrogant at worst and stupid at best.
Research doesn’t have to be hard, especially with new options created through the internet. (Think social networks, email chains, user groups, etc.) And it doesn’t have to be expensive. Years ago when I was working on a new business idea I hosted an informal focus group comprised of friends of friends and, for the price of a deli platter I got some good insight and was able to refine some ideas
That said, for research to be worth any time, effort and money (even if it is only a deli platter) there are three mandatory steps that must be followed: clarity regarding the information you’re seeking to learn, screening for the correct audience(s) and an open mind when listening to the results.
Far too often research is launched with a laundry list of topics to cover ranging from price point to packaging. In almost every case when you try to do it all with one study the results are too watered down to find any meaningful data. That’s not to say that focus groups that cover general impressions and reactions to a few specific concepts are worthless, not at all. But if your one true goal is to find out at what price point your product will sell best, then focus on that question so you get the best answer. If you’re clear about what you want/need to learn, you will get the best results.
Additionally, it may sound obvious but audience is key. I’ve done a great deal of work in the high tech world and if there is one consistent marketing error I run into it’s the assumption that the audience for their product(s) is them. The logic goes “I use a computer at work and at home. The people I want to sell to use a computer at work and at home. Therefore, I am the audience.” I’ve got a million stories about confronting this mindset, but probably the best example is from my work at a computer company. I worked in the web group and the men and women there were very smart and talented programmers who created and maintained the consumer website. One day a research company presented a website usability study to the group where they asked people to find particular information on the site. In multiple cases the people sat dumbfounded; unable to find the information requested. My co-workers yelled “scroll down” at the video of these people being confused – only to learn from the researcher that their audience, the very beginning computer user, didn’t know to scroll. In this case, the researchers got their audience right and the learning was great. But had the researchers assumed that audience was who their clients told them, they never would have learned how ineffective their site was or how to improve it. And that mindset is not just in high-tech, it’s everywhere.
Listening. It’s human nature to want to be right or be validated, and as marketers and advertisers we’re no different. (Possibly worse.) But if doing research is only about validating our assumptions, we miss the real potential for learning that could improve our results. Years ago I worked on a product in development that attached to a TV and allowed users to both play games and go out to the internet. (The product was made by a computer company and at that time the installed base for computers in the US was approximately 33%.) Our goal in doing research was to determine a positioning for the product and exactly who the audience would be. We did focus groups with three distinct audiences: confident computer users, beginning computer users and gamers – our thinking was that the product would make for a good/cheap second computer; a cheap/easy first computer, or a game system with internet capabilities. The early returns were not good: it wasn’t right for any of them. As part of the focus groups, we subdivided the participants and had them come up with their own positionings; and for the most part they gave back what we gave them. But there was one group who positioned it as a TV device not a computer, and suddenly I saw the light. Because it was made by a computer company, we (the client, the agency, me) had all unintentionally biased our research into only considering a computer-centric positioning – thus greatly limiting our potential. This group had unwittingly come up with a positioning that both opened up our market to the 99+% of Americans with TVs and made it a progressive add-on product verses a pared down version of an existing product. Everyone I was sitting with behind the glass said “they don’t get it,” when in fact it was dawning on me that we were the ones that didn’t get it. I spent the next several months trying to convince people that we needed to pursue this new positioning, but my pleas fell on deaf ears and the product ultimately got OEMed into kiosks and other similar technologies. And I remain convince to this day that had we listened and really heard what was being said, that product could have had at least partial success.
Okay, so I’ve gone on perhaps too long, about the potential of research. Forgive me but as I said above, I really am a geek about research because I believe there is so much to learn and it is so important to selling to understand who we’re selling to and what they think. I’d love to hear any thoughts, opinions, stories you may have – pro or con. Just consider it my mini focus group.
For those people I would categorize as cynics or optimists, I do understand their points of view but I think they come with one (mostly) incorrect assumption: that the researcher has a bias and therefore any results are what they made them. If you’re truly looking for answers to questions such as “what’s the key selling point,” or “is this something you would buy,” or “what would make this product more valuable to you,” or “what would you need to know in order to consider this” then to not do research is arrogant at worst and stupid at best.
Research doesn’t have to be hard, especially with new options created through the internet. (Think social networks, email chains, user groups, etc.) And it doesn’t have to be expensive. Years ago when I was working on a new business idea I hosted an informal focus group comprised of friends of friends and, for the price of a deli platter I got some good insight and was able to refine some ideas
That said, for research to be worth any time, effort and money (even if it is only a deli platter) there are three mandatory steps that must be followed: clarity regarding the information you’re seeking to learn, screening for the correct audience(s) and an open mind when listening to the results.
Far too often research is launched with a laundry list of topics to cover ranging from price point to packaging. In almost every case when you try to do it all with one study the results are too watered down to find any meaningful data. That’s not to say that focus groups that cover general impressions and reactions to a few specific concepts are worthless, not at all. But if your one true goal is to find out at what price point your product will sell best, then focus on that question so you get the best answer. If you’re clear about what you want/need to learn, you will get the best results.
Additionally, it may sound obvious but audience is key. I’ve done a great deal of work in the high tech world and if there is one consistent marketing error I run into it’s the assumption that the audience for their product(s) is them. The logic goes “I use a computer at work and at home. The people I want to sell to use a computer at work and at home. Therefore, I am the audience.” I’ve got a million stories about confronting this mindset, but probably the best example is from my work at a computer company. I worked in the web group and the men and women there were very smart and talented programmers who created and maintained the consumer website. One day a research company presented a website usability study to the group where they asked people to find particular information on the site. In multiple cases the people sat dumbfounded; unable to find the information requested. My co-workers yelled “scroll down” at the video of these people being confused – only to learn from the researcher that their audience, the very beginning computer user, didn’t know to scroll. In this case, the researchers got their audience right and the learning was great. But had the researchers assumed that audience was who their clients told them, they never would have learned how ineffective their site was or how to improve it. And that mindset is not just in high-tech, it’s everywhere.
Listening. It’s human nature to want to be right or be validated, and as marketers and advertisers we’re no different. (Possibly worse.) But if doing research is only about validating our assumptions, we miss the real potential for learning that could improve our results. Years ago I worked on a product in development that attached to a TV and allowed users to both play games and go out to the internet. (The product was made by a computer company and at that time the installed base for computers in the US was approximately 33%.) Our goal in doing research was to determine a positioning for the product and exactly who the audience would be. We did focus groups with three distinct audiences: confident computer users, beginning computer users and gamers – our thinking was that the product would make for a good/cheap second computer; a cheap/easy first computer, or a game system with internet capabilities. The early returns were not good: it wasn’t right for any of them. As part of the focus groups, we subdivided the participants and had them come up with their own positionings; and for the most part they gave back what we gave them. But there was one group who positioned it as a TV device not a computer, and suddenly I saw the light. Because it was made by a computer company, we (the client, the agency, me) had all unintentionally biased our research into only considering a computer-centric positioning – thus greatly limiting our potential. This group had unwittingly come up with a positioning that both opened up our market to the 99+% of Americans with TVs and made it a progressive add-on product verses a pared down version of an existing product. Everyone I was sitting with behind the glass said “they don’t get it,” when in fact it was dawning on me that we were the ones that didn’t get it. I spent the next several months trying to convince people that we needed to pursue this new positioning, but my pleas fell on deaf ears and the product ultimately got OEMed into kiosks and other similar technologies. And I remain convince to this day that had we listened and really heard what was being said, that product could have had at least partial success.
Okay, so I’ve gone on perhaps too long, about the potential of research. Forgive me but as I said above, I really am a geek about research because I believe there is so much to learn and it is so important to selling to understand who we’re selling to and what they think. I’d love to hear any thoughts, opinions, stories you may have – pro or con. Just consider it my mini focus group.
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