Marketing Misfires & Masterpieces

I love playing the “what if” game.

• What if Brian Epstein hadn’t discovered and championed the Beatles? Would we have ever heard of them?
• What if Janet Marie Smith had not pushed back at the architects at HOK Sport?  Would Oriole Park at Camden Yards have ever been built? If not, what would have happened to the 18 other city ballparks influenced by this marvelous prototype?
• What if Steve Jobs was not head of Apple? Would we still live in a world of gray, boring computers, cell phones designed by wireless carriers, and a music industry that was racing toward irrelevance before iTunes?

The answer to the last question is: probably.

But with Apple …. the world is a brighter, more energetic place

Long denigrated by PC-lovers in the business community, Apple recently passed Microsoft in market value, a major passing of the torch.

Not bad for a company that Michael Dell suggested close up shop in 1997 and return the money to shareholders. “Today, Dell is worth barely a tenth as much as the Mac maker,” CNET says.

Zigging where others zag

Fortunately for us, Apple has been a game-changer in every field it enters. It really does “think different.”

As PC World put it: “Before the iMac, personal computer enclosures were stuck in a design rut. Most manufacturers produced beige or gray metal boxes, each designed as a merely functional piece of equipment instead of an aesthetically pleasing creative tool. The iMac’s design shattered the status quo with its preference for gentle curves over harsh corners, and for vibrant color over dull neutrality.

“Apple even coined a new term, “Bondi blue”–a blue-green hue named after Australia’s Bondi Beach shoreline–to describe the color of its new machine. Combined with an ice-white pinstripe pattern, the color scheme create (sic) a stunning enclosure theretofore unseen in the PC world.”

Steve Jobs, the man behind the magic, is a visionary who makes his expectations clear.

“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them,” he said, describing Mac OS X’s Aqua user interface in Fortune magazine.

Some stunning successes in a number of categories:

iMac: PC World says: This computer was “arguably the most influential desktop computer of the last decade.” Enough said.

iPod: Launched in 2001, this personal jukebox sold over 20 million in just over five years. Since October 2004, the iPod line has dominated digital music player sales in the United States, with over 90% of the market for hard drive-based players and over 70% of the market for all types of players

iPad: Has sold over 2 million in the first two months. Whew!

iTunes: Sells 25% of all music sold in the US, and has sold over 10 billion songs.

iPhone: First available in June 29, 2007, the phone turned the cellular world upside down.  As Wired says, Apple changed the relationship between manufacturers and wireless carriers. Instead of the carrier dictating what the phone would be like, Apple took the lead, introducing a brand new device that took the world by storm and changed the way cell phones are used.

Apple Stores: After working unsuccessfully with a number of national chains, Apple started its own retail stores in 2001. Some experts laughed at its hubris, saying retail would be its Waterloo.

“I give [Apple] two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake,” retail consultant David Goldstein said in Fortune.

Wrong! Apples sales from the beginning have been staggering, and in 2007, Fortune called Apple “America’s Best Retailer.” Seven years after the first two stores opened, Apple’s average revenue per store in the quarter reached $7.1 million, up 48% from a year earlier,” says Mac Daily News. Take that, David Goldstein. Wonder how his other predictions are going.

Apple makes errors, too

While I’ve been using Apple equipment since 1985, I’ve had some problems along the way.  A laptop’s hard drive died after very little use. And a G5 tower computer I used experienced 4 major system crashes and 24 kernal panics, including seven in the last four days of the computer’s life.

Because Apple techs could not fix the problem, I  wrote Steve Jobs and offered to swap computers with him. Steve did not reply, but Apple did.

So the company is not perfect. But think about what life would be like without Apple: boring,  gray, and lifeless. Thank God for Apple!

Jim Murphy’s Law: A driven visionary like Steve Jobs is worth 10,000 soulless CEOs whose only  goal is to pump up their company’s quarterly stock price.

Sources:

http://www.amazon.com/Ballpark-Camden-Yards-Building-American/dp/0684800489

http://www.baseballpilgrimages.com/american/baltimore.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriole_Park_at_Camden_Yards

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2006/03/70512?currentPage=2#ixzz0qN0jpIPr

http://www.pcworld.com/article/149878/eight_ways_the_imac_changed_computing.html

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone#ixzz0qMIF47iw

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20006003-56.html

http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/17310

http://webtint.net/articles/apple-design-a-history

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/business/media/02apple.html

http://www.applematters.com/article/itunes-inspires-changes-in-music-industry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes

http://www.macworld.com/article/57233/2007/04/ipodmilestone.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod

http://www.businessinsider.com/itunes-now-25-of-all-music-sold-2009-8

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/02/25itunes.html

http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/17310

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/03/19/8402321/index.htm

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Nothing is sacred in this country. Except money.

And while businesses have historically wrapped themselves in patriotism to make a larger profit, what the soda industry is doing in Philadelphia has hit a new low.

The soda makers have banded together to promote not a more perfect union – but a better way for them to inflict more calories on an already obese population.

And their print ads … on paper reminiscent of that used in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution … and in typography not seen in these parts in 200 years … harken back to the days of real revolution and real inequities.

Tom Paine, who wrote “Common Sense” in 1776, calling for independence from British Rule, would be turning over in his grave. These really are the times that try our souls.

Soda lobby has no shame

If they were writing the Constitution today, this is what the Philly Jobs. Not Taxes. people would say:

We the lobbyists of the soda industry, in order to make more money, will spend as much as we can to speak against the beverage tax so we can continue to make Americans more obese than ever before.

Obviously, no one wants to lose jobs. Nor has anyone yet proven jobs will be lost if the soda tax is exacted.

But let’s throw some facts into this picture for a change and see what effects soft drinks really have on our society. And what price we all are paying for them.

Eye-opening numbers

• Soft drinks account for about 7% of all the calories ingested in the U.S and up to 10% for  children.  They now are “the number one food consumed in the American diet,” says the  book  ”The Fattening of America.”
• We Americans consume over 50 gallons of soda a year. Some estimate the total is as much as  57 gallons.
• Two-thirds of Americans now meet the government’s definition of being overweight, and one in five is obese.
• 40% of our young women and 20% of our young men weigh too much to enlist in the military.
• Our consumption of soda, says Mark Bitman in the New York Times, appears to be an important  factor in the rise of childhood obesity and in diabetes.

Even Inquirer columnist bitter Buzz Bissinger, who hasn’t said one nice thing about Philly’s Mayor Michael Nutter since he began his column, was shocked to learn that a 20-ounce bottle of Mountain Dew contained 19 teaspoons or packets of sugar.

As a result, even Bissinger is leaning toward the mayor’s efforts to tax soda

Now let’s look at the real price
these soda calories are costing us:

According to a Duke University Hospital Medical Center analysis …

“obese workers filed twice the number of workers’ compensation claims, had seven times higher medical costs from those claims and lost 13 times more days of work from work injury or work illness than did nonobese workers.”

Check that number again: obese workers
had seven times higher medical costs

So let’s worry about jobs. But let’s also worry about what these sodas are really costing all of us. In lives cut short. In ever-rising medical bills. In a quality of life that can be miserable with diabetes.

And let’s think about this: how much money is this soda lobby spending on newspapers, radio and TV ads?

Interestingly, the domain name, NoPhillyBevTax.com, is privately registered with Domains by Proxy in Scottsdale AR, so it’s impossible to tell who is behind the site.

But do you think this high-profile and very expensive marketing campaign is really about jobs … or about the profits these companies are making selling empty calories in a bottle?

The soda lobby was so worried that sodas might be taxed at two cents per ounce that it brought an all-out ad blitz to Philly.

Obviously, the beverage industry, which poured $18 million into a campaign to defeat a proposal in health care reform to tax sodas, is desperate to maintain the status quo in cities across the country.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, beverage industry advocates say comparisons to the tobacco industry are unfair.

“You can’t put soda in even the same universe as tobacco. Tobacco kills. You can be a healthy person and enjoy a soft drink, and people get that,” said Kevin Keane, senior vice president of public affairs for the American Beverage Association.

True. And people who enjoy “a cigarette” probably are OK, too.

But most people smoke a lot more than that. And people who drink approximately one can of soda a day gain about one extra lb. a month.

The weight goes on almost silently with sugary soda

In a couple of years, just drinking that one soda a day can take you from fit to fat.

No wonder the beverage industry offered to fund $10 million in “healthy eating and recreation programs in Philadelphia over the next two years.”

It knows the handwriting is on the wall. And all the demonstrations to influence politicians and the public that sugar is good for you will eventually be ineffective.

Just as members of the financial industry hoped their misinformation about the housing crisis wouldn’t catch up with them until after they retired, the beverage industry is marking time.

They’re pooh-poohing links to obesity and diabetes the same way Joe Camel and the tobacco industry insisted there was no link to cancer. How did that work out?

They know that eventually Americans will see through these short-sighted efforts to help make more and more of us obese and diabetic.

But for now, it’s business as usual. And this expensive campaign is using the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, two of the greatest documents ever written, to sell more sugar water. What a farce.

As Ben Franklin put it, half a truth is often a great lie.

Jim Murphy’s Law: When soda lobbyists pour millions of dollars into a campaign to save their profits, they’re not doing it for you. They’re doing it to you.

Sources:
www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/weekinreview/14bittman.html

books.google.com/books?id=3AVILqBT_tUC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=%22the+number+one+food+consumed+in+the+American+diet.%22&source=bl&ots=yvzkg5EuNk&sig=Fe1_c9djTVqmmPsJf5anyzyCIE0&hl=en&ei=PePzS5CoDoT58Abzm9nADg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22the%20number%20one%20food%20consumed%20in%20the%20American%20diet.%22&f=false

www.dukehealth.org/health_library/news/10044

www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20100521_Council_decides_not_to_vote_on_sweet-drink_tax.html#ixzz0pWhySq45

www.philly.com/philly/opinion/95203434.html

www.emedexpert.com/tips/soft-drinks.shtml

www.savephillyjobs.com

www.isdndata.com/whois.php?domain=NOPHILLYBEVTAX.ORG

http://who.godaddy.com/WhoIs.aspx?domain=nophillybevtax.com&prog_id=godaddy

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It seems like only yesterday that the Phillies players were snappy, surly and snotty.

They complained about the manager, pointed fingers and were generally an unlikable bunch.

Then everything changed in July 2006.

From whiners to winners

First third baseman David Bell was traded on July 28. Two days later, super-cool, I-won’t-run-anywhere-near-a-wall-rightfielder Bobby Abreu was sent off to the Yankees

Some fans complained that the Phillies were trading a great star. But super-successful general manager Pat Gillick knew what he was doing.

He was changing attitudes. And direction.

Before the Abreu trade, the Phillies’ record was 49-54. After it, the team went 36-23.

Adding by subtraction

By getting rid of veteran bitchers and malcontents, Gillick made it possible for young stars like Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins to set a new tone in the clubhouse.

And they did.

Gone was the super-cool, I-don’t-care-about–the-fans-attitude. In was a more personable, more emotional hard-nosed team that hotly contests every game.

And the fans responded. With the exciting late-season success in 2006, average attendance jumped from 32,905 in 2005 to 33,356 in 2006 and kept rising.

The Phillies passed 3 million in attendance in 2007, and 3.8 million in 2009.

This year, after 23 games, they’re first in attendance in Major League Baseball with 103.7% of seats sold.

They have sold out Citizens Bank Park 65 straight times, reached a million fans faster than ever before, and are averaging 45,114 fans, the highest in baseball.

Nice guys finish first

Of course, the Phillies’ winning record in recent years helps. But the players’ attitudes also make it easier to root for them.

The days of crybabies like Billy Wagner, Rheal Cormier and others are long gone, thank God.

In their place are people like Ryan Howard, a $19 million dollar man who comes early to spring training so he can improve his fielding; Chase Utley, the always-thinking professional who is leading the National League in all-star votes by far at this moment; and effervescent Jimmy Rollins, whose prediction years ago that the Phillies were the team to beat became true.

Today, the Phillies seem to be having fun while playing winning baseball. During a Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce program at Citizens Bank Park right before the season opened, pitchers Ryan Madsen and Joe Blanton, center fielder Shane Victorino and shortstop Jimmy Rollins answered questions for about 30 minutes.

They ribbed each other, joked with fans and generally seemed to enjoy the interaction. That was a real change from the earlier Boors of Summer who played in Philly.

The Phillies’ transformation from nasty to nice was never more evident than on a July Sunday afternoon in 2007 at Denver’s Coors Field – almost one year after Abreu was traded.

When a sudden squall and extremely high winds trapped several ground crew members underneath the blowing tarpaulin, the Phillies ran to the rescue.

In the old days, the players wouldn’t have even noticed the problem. This Phillies team did, and responded without thinking. They did the right thing and fans around the country noticed.

A good team is fun to watch. A good team with a great attitude is a marketers’ dream. And for the Phillies, it’s definitely paying off.

Jim Murphy’s Law: The only thing more contagious than enthusiasm is the lack of it — in baseball and marketing.

Sources:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance

http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/nl/CitizensBankPark.htm

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/phil_sheridan/5235341.html?&subscribe=y&listID=1431#ixzz0oyooa9xg

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/67834962.html#axzz0oz6mRYCG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULvTcXmo_MA

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As a child, one of my favorite games was “20 Questions.”

The goal: to uncover the identity of the person, place or thing the other person had in mind. The method: you simply asked relevant questions.

If you got 20 “No” answers, you lost and the other participant won.

If you got “Yes” answers, you could keep digging until you figured out the answer … or gave up.

It was great practice for later jobs in my life as a freelance reporter for local newspapers, in public relations, corporate communications, advertising copywriting, magazine writing, and more.

In fact, Journalism 101 teaches you to find out the who, what, when, where, how and why, and quickly provide that information to readers, listeners and viewers. It’s a method that works in every medium, online and offline.

Questions are door-openers and problem-solvers

Asking questions is also a great way to learn about people, to network, and to solve problems.

When I was at Devon Direct, a client asked us to help reduce its “churn rate” or number of customers who were defecting to competitors right before its 30-day money-back guarantee expired.

We started by asking customer service to tell us the top questions its representatives received at the company’s 800 number. At first, no one knew. They hadn’t categorized customer concerns that way.

Once marketing was able to pinpoint the most important problem areas, we were quickly able to address those questions with customers before they moved on to a competitor.

By communicating with them in letters, postcards and e-mails, we reduced the company’s churn rate by 50%, a huge money-saver and profit-booster.

I first learned the importance of good questions after reading an autobiography by Lee Iacocca, who helped revive Chrysler Corporation in the 1980s.

You can’t fix what you don’t understand

When Iacocca took over the poorly managed company, he asked Gerald Greenwald, a top exec who later headed United Air Lines, to solve Chrysler’s horrendous warranty problem, which were costing up to $350 million a year.

Greenwald asked for a list of the top ten warranty problems, “with someone’s name next to each one, and a specific plan for correcting the deficiencies and reducing the costs.”

Amazingly, the company’s system did not provide that information. No wonder Chrysler was hemorrhaging money.

When I start work with a new client, I routinely do a marketing analysis that includes about 60 questions. For a specific creative assignment, I ask close to 40.

All are designed to shed light on what the company does, where it’s strong, where it’s vulnerable, and what its unique selling proposition is.

As a Chinese Proverb puts is: One who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.

Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz said it another way: You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.

Jim Murphy’s Law: Ask good questions and you’ll get some great answers

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Iacocca

http://books.google.com/books?id=UrUDoIDN2voC&pg=PA179&lpg=PA179&dq=Iacocca+%2B+warranty+problems+Chrysler&source=bl&ots=LSQro__CmX&sig=Ia8tgGK5wgxYkvoyNDejmmljZjw&hl=en&ei=fxLzS7ymKYmY8QSwoZjNDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://www.enotalone.com/authors.php?aid=1217

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_questions.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naguib_Mahfouz

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If you do something wrong today, chances are it will live on the Internet forever as part of your permanent digital record.

But companies are different. If they make a mistake, they just throw money at the problem, change their names and start all over again with a new identity.

It’s as if they get a new beginning under the “Brand Protection Program.”

For example, last time we focused on the friendly sounding Ally Bank and Alli, which changed their names from GMAC Bank and Xenical respectively … and may not be all that amiable.

But there are many more companies that have changed their names because of past problems, and few consumers are the wiser. Here are some:

AirTran – aka ValuJet

When low-cost air carrier ValuJet flight 592 crashed into the Everglades on May 11, 1996, killing 110 people, its future looked bleak.

Even though ValuJet resumed flying three months later, it was with just 15 jets, says Wikipedia, down from 52 before the crash. And it had a badly damaged reputation.

Reports that the Atlanta office of the Federal Aviation Administration had tried grounding the airline before the fatal crash, and that the Department of Defense would not use it to fly military personnel didn’t help.

So ValuJet merged with “the much smaller Airways Corporation, parent of AirTran Airways,” says Wikipedia. Although ValuJet was the senior partner, the new company carried the AirTran name “and the tarnished ValuJet name passed into aviation history.”

The good news is that since then, a list of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft turns up no crashes for AirTran.

Altria – aka Philip Morris Companies

The letter “A” is certainly a popular choice for companies that are rebranding.

This corporate name change, made in 2003, seems to have been a calculated effort by Philip Morris to distance the corporation’s other operating companies, like Kraft and General Foods, from the stain of tobacco.

“Holding the company as a whole responsible for its role in tobacco-related death and disease will thus become more difficult,” says a 2003 article in the American Journal of Public Health.

Altria sounds warm and fuzzy, hinting of altruism. But many of its profitable tobacco products cause suffering and death.

A brand change that may have substance …

XFINITY – aka Comcast

This recent rebranding of Comcast’s offerings has been widely criticized … but may actually be meaningful.

To hype its claim of “more HD, more speed, more choice and more control,” Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, is rolling out this new hipper brand.

As part of this rebranding, the New York Times reports, Comcast is growing its video on demand (VOD) library from 2,000 movies to 11,000. Comcast says its on-demand library is approaching 20,000 titles.

Full Disclosure: I’m a Comcast subscriber who’s experienced numerous problems over the years. But I’ve also received courteous and usually responsive customer service. I enjoy its VOD feature, have accessed my favorite TV series online, and generally been pleased.

To me, XFINITY suggests infinity. I hope the rebranding actually means improved offerings and better service. And I, for one, am giving Comcast the benefit of the doubt.

Jim Murphy’s Law: People can’t easily change their names to improve their reputations. Corporations can … and do.

Sources:

http://www.famousnamechanges.net/html/corporate.htm

http://money.aol.com/special/companies-that-have-vanished

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ValuJet_Flight_592

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ValuJet_Airlines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_commercial_aircraft

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2003-01-27-altria_x.htm

http://www.neatorama.com/2009/09/10/companies-renamed-to-hide-from-bad-reputations

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447789

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/comcast-expands-on-demand-movie-offerings

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In today’s throwaway society, brands with bad reputations get tossed out as quickly as old chewing gum wrappers.

Powered by a barrage of expensive marketing, they then reappear in a new form  – pure and unblemished – their old reputations quietly sent to the “brand protection program.”

However, people like me with long memories – who feel you should know the back-story on these “brands gone bad” – keep bringing their real identities back to life.

Some current brands and their former identities …

Ally Bank – aka GMAC Bank:

On its Web site, Ally Bank’s “Straightforward Banking” page says it does not hide behind confusing jargon and fine print. Great. Except it  forgets to say it was GMAC Bank before, and that its parent company got a huge bailout from the U.S. Government estimated to be over $6 billion.

Under “the Ally Difference,” its Web site cautions: “Always be sure to check their fine print before choosing the right product for you.”

That I agree with.

Alli – aka  Xenical

When Xenical (generic name orlistat) first appeared in 1999, it was expected to be a huge winner in the fight against obesity.

Unfortunately, what the New York Daily News called its “stinky side effects” of “more frequent stools that may be hard to control” … and what others refer to as “anal leakage” … hurt sales of the prescription product.

So, GlaxoSmithKline, which now produces the drug, came out with a half-strength, over-the- counter version and a new friendlier name: Alli (or alli).

But customers are not buying. GlaxoSmithKline reportedly spent $150 million to promote Alli the first year, says the New York Daily News. “But just $125 million worth of the drug was sold in 2007, according to figures compiled by the pharmaceutical market research group IMS Health.” Sales in 2008 were estimated to be somewhat better.

For some people the drug works. But “anal leakage” doesn’t seem to be a consumer-friendly side effect (aka “treatment effect”) to me.

Full disclosure: When I was a copy creative director  for Devon Direct, my company was involved in a pitch for the Xenical business. The winning agency got around the bad side effects in a creative way. In their TV ads, they didn’t name the product, so they didn’t have to list the side effects.  But it was difficult for people to ask for a product without knowing its name. So this strategy didn’t really work all that well.

More on Brands Gone Bad next time.

Jim Murphy’s Law: When a brand sounds like it’s your best friend, it probably isn’t!

Sources:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-11/gmac-executive-pay-packages-questioned-by-tarp-oversight-panel.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMAC

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2009-05-15-ally-gmac-bank_N.htm

http://www.ally.com/high-yield-cd/?CP=ppc110171&gclid=COzxjuCXu6ECFZdL5QodtBX2-w

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2008/06/12/2008-06-12_diet_drug_alli_has_slim_sales.html#ixzz0n4QRHnCf

http://medicalconsumers.org/2001/12/01/how-to-read-a-prescription-drug-ad

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19587389

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If there’s one word to describe how many of us respond to marketing messages today, it’s the “S” word. We are skeptical.

And no wonder. There are lots of liars out there trying to take our money. And as we know from nursery rhymes:. “Liar Liar, Pants on Fire.”

Former Phillie and self-styled stock guru Lenny Dykstra, who the New York Daily News says is “accused of lying and duping business partners, bouncing checks and ignoring court orders for payment,” and jailed financier Bernard Madoff, who defrauded investors of  some $65 billion,  are notorious names that come quickly to mind.

But there are many more.

Major banks in the news. Huge investment companies. Tyco. MCI. Enron. And the list goes on.

Lying is rampant today. In resumes. In sales. In marketing.

Why should I believe you?

As consumers, we want proof that companies can do what they say. We want marketers to be credible.

Unfortunately, some devious companies simply make up numbers to overcome our skepticism.

Kenneth Rice, the former CEO of Enron Broadband Services (not to be confused with equally disgraced Enron founder Kenneth Lay), told jurors at his fraud and conspiracy trial: “We chose to lie about the capabilities of the network so that would take away the credibility issue.”

Nice. If you don’t have the technology, just make up some earnings numbers so people will believe you and your stock price will jump $15 a share.

Fortunately, these liars got caught. Rice pleaded guilty. Lay was found guilty on ten charges, but died before sentencing. Too bad.

But there are ways to build a case that your company is one of the good guys. How? With evidence, just the way a lawyer does in court.

You build credibility with …

• Strong money-back satisfaction guarantees
• Dramatic case studies
• Lists of important customers who use your product or service
• Third-party endorsements
• Testimonials from clients
• Industry awards and recognition
• Favorable news articles
• Important statistics
• Celebrity endorsers
• White papers by recognized authorities
• Powerful demonstrations of your unique selling proposition

Trust is essential in B2B Marketing

Building trust and overcoming doubt is even more important in B2B or Business-to-Business marketing.

Making a bad decision on a vendor or contractor can be a career-ender. So companies want to know your track record, who your clients are and how quickly you solve problems before they hire you. They have to.

Every company I talk to claims they have the best people.  But talk is cheap. You have to prove that excellence.

For one growing printing company, I worked with years ago, we dutifully included copy in a capabilities brochure that said, “we routinely complete programs others say are impossible.”

But we backed that up with compelling evidence that included important statistics, like the number of pieces mailed (over 177 million) an impressive client list, and customer testimonials that said the company reduced their monthly fulfillment costs by 50%, saved another $600,000 annually and “was an extension of their marketing department.”

Pretty powerful stuff. And it worked.

Federal Express has an easier time demonstrating how incredible its employees are. They simply have to recount the story Tom Peters told in “Thriving on Chaos.”

When a blizzard in the California Sierras knocked out a telephone line and threatened to cut phone service for several days, a junior telecommunications expert took action.

Without asking permission and using his personal American Express card, he rented a helicopter and had it drop him at the top of the mountain. He then “trudged three-quarters of a mile in chest-deep snow, and fixed the line to get Fed Ex back in business,” Peters says. He’s now a legend at Fed Ex and an example of how Fed Ex people show initiative.

Fed Ex delivers

I’m a firm believer in using Fed Ex for anything essential. Years ago, an agency I worked for switched to a cheaper carrier for one week. After losing six or eight art mechanicals (when they were done by hand, not by computer), we switched back to Fed Ex. And never thought about changing again.

Fed Ex really does deliver on its promise. It’s what you use “when it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”

Jim Murphy’s Law: Don’t just tell me your company is good. Prove it.

Sources:

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/07/08/2009-07-08_strike_three_for_lenny_dykstra_former_met_files_chapter_11_bankruptcy_protection.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/14/AR2006021401874.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Lay

http://books.google.com/books?id=bXuc2Z8ZU6AC&pg=PA352&lpg=PA352&dq=Fedex+telecommunications++%2B+Tom+Peters&source=bl&ots=jijPfgsgVx&sig=cNbbOd3toGsvGgYbMMgKLWFnSEA&hl=en&ei=Ze3YS96jMY6Q8gSMze2MBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false

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As a direct marketer, I love testimonials to help build credibility.

But with the way so many people online now yelp, howl, screech, bitch, moan and trash the subjects they write about, it’s hard to give their comments much weight anymore.

And that’s a shame. Because I love to learn about things I don’t know – restaurants, movies, museums and more – from real-live people.

Online pizza reviews left me puzzled

I first realized how bad the situation was last year when I went looking for the best pizza places in Philly.

WIP radio host Glen Macnow, who visited 43 pizza restaurants in the Philadelphia area in 30 days in his Pizzapalooza, released his ratings for the area’s top pizza places. Since I was looking for great pizza in the center city area, I went to the Web to see what local residents thought about those on the list.

Big mistake. For every review that said a place served the best pizza they ever tasted, there was one from someone who said they wouldn’t serve it to their dog. And that the staff was stupid, fat and ugly.

After checking out reviews at about 10 of these pizza shops, I concluded that most critiques fell into two categories:

One: they were from rational people who duly reported on their experience and described what they liked or found lacking.

Two: they were from people who spewed personal venom, provided little worthwhile information and just wanted to vent against someone.

So, now, rightly or wrongly, I simply discount the vicious reviews that include personal attacks.

Are these people that nasty in real life?

But I wonder: do those people use the same uncivil tone and manner in-person? And will ending anonymity as some sites are now doing increase the level of civility?

I hope so. Because to me, many of these social media sites are becoming increasingly anti-social. The unfortunate result? Less communication and more confusion.

Jim Murphy’s Law: If you are doing reviews online, please stick to the facts and leave out the personal attacks.

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You can walk into any McDonald’s, observe how clean it is and how you’re treated, and quickly determine if it’s well-managed.

Unfortunately, you can’t do that with professional sports teams. There the record of wins and losses tells the story.

And for two once-great franchises, baseball’s Baltimore Orioles and football’s Washington Redskins, those recent records are dismal. Much of their recent decline can be attributed to errors made by owners Peter Angelos and Dan Snyder respectively.

Both thought their previous experience – law and direct mail respectively– endowed them with the godlike ability to run sports franchises and bypass the professionals.  Big mistake.

From champs to chumps

Angelos, who had super General Manager Pat Gillick for three years and two American League Championship Series, did not renew Gillick’s contract after it expired in 1998.

Since then, the Orioles have not had one winning season. Gillick, on the other hand, went on to build World Series winners in Toronto and Philadelphia,  and a division winner in Seattle.

Unhappy Baltimore fans are voting with their seats. Oriole attendance on April 12 of this year was a dismal 9,129, the lowest since beautiful Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992.

The coaching merry-go-round

Dan Snyder, owner of the Redskins, makes a ton of money, and is reported to be worth $1.3 billion.

But he’s gone through seven coaches since buying the team in 1999 and seems to think he knows more than the people he employs. The result? The team, legendary winners of three past Super Bowls, has a losing record under his management and last year finished with just four wins and 12 losses.

His teams have floundered, fans are unhappy, and Snyder now is banning negative signs at Redskin games.

Once reportedly the sixth most popular team in the NFL, the Redskins fell to number 17 by 2009.

Losing and lousy management will do that.

Jim Murphy’s Law: Whether it’s marketing or sports, let the pros do their job. You’ll win far more often.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Orioles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Gillick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Orioles”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Redskins”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Washington_Redskins_seasons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Snyder

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What I love about direct marketing is that you can test your strategy, offer or format against that of the company’s marketing director … or CEO … and see who wins.

Why? The campaign’s numbers will clearly tell you what your market responds to. And that’s the only opinion that counts.

But this is not a challenge many marketing people or top execs are anxious to take. They’d rather just tell you what to do.

The thing is, even the top people make mistakes, sometimes doozies. Here are two huge ones.

One big misstep for Nissan

David Halberstam tells a great story in his book, “The Reckoning,” about how Nissan’s President Katsuji Kawamata almost singlehandedly derailed the launch of one of the company’s greatest successes.

After seeing the play “My Fair Lady,” Kawamata became a devoted anglophile. So he decided to name a new Datsun sports car, then being developed for the American market, “The Fair Lady” or “Fairlady.” (I’ve seen both spellings.)

When Yutaka Katayama, President of Nissan Motor Corporation in the U.S.A. and a decided non-favorite back at headquarters in Japan, saw the name on the cars, he was stunned. He knew Americans would never buy a muscle car with such a feminine-sounding name.

Looking for a way to save his job and also get rid of the name, he tore off the Fair Lady symbol and used the car’s production number in advertising: the 240Z.

The first of the legendary Z cars, it also changed Americans’ perception of Japanese cars from cheap and shoddy to stylish and powerful. Road and Track called the 240Z “the most exciting GT in a decade.” The car dominated its category of the Sports Car Club of America for a decade.

In addition, the 240Z’s success may have helped spark the trend away from car names to those with numbers and initials.

But it’s likely the car would have had almost no impact at all as the Fair Lady.

A big Buffet blunder

Few execs own up to any mistakes … much less monumental ones costing $50 million.

But Warren Buffet, the legendary chief executive at Berkshire Hathaway and the world’s second-richest man, is not typical.

In his latest annual letter to shareholders, Buffet offers up “a painful confession,” admitting to causing a “very expensive business fiasco entirely of his own making.”

Wanting to find side products he could offer to millions of loyal GEICO customers – which Berkshire Hathaway owns – Buffet decided GEICO customers were likely to be good credit risks and offered them a GEICO credit card.

“GEICO’s managers, it should be emphasized, were never enthusiastic about my idea,” he wrote. “They warned me that instead of getting the cream of GEICO’s customers we would get the – – – – – well, let’s call it the non-cream. I subtly indicated that I was older and wiser. I was just older.”

The company’s pre-tax losses were $6.3 million before “I finally woke up,” he says. By selling the $98 million portfolio of troubled receivables for 55¢ on the dollar, Berkshire lost an additional $44 million.

Jim Murphy’s Law: No one is right all the time –even Warren Buffet

Sources:

http://ateupwithmotor.com/sports-cars-and-muscle-cars/179-datsun-z-car.html
http://www.gordon-glasgow.org/ClassicRoadster.asp
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Nissan_Z-car
http://ateupwithmotor.com/sports-cars-and-muscle-cars/179-datsun-z-car.html
http://www.hemmings.com/hsx/stories/2006/01/01/hmn_feature17.html
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z7356/Datsun-240Z.aspx
http://www.zhome.com/History/FairladyName.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aDNJOCTpOcMM
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/I-goofed-on-Geico-credit-card-Warren-Buffett/articleshow/5626217.cms
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2009ar/2009ar.pdf
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2718762320100227
http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/27/news/companies/berkshire.geico.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2010030111

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