In their seminal marketing book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!, Al Ries and Jack Trout argue against the concept of line extension—which is exactly what Daniel is trying to do with his products. The “law” is this: trying to introduce new products under your established brand is almost impossible to make work.

Once you’re in the consumer’s head with one product, it’s hard to get into their head with another.

Example:

When Xerox was the god of the copier world, they decided to start selling computers. The huh? going through your head right now is testament to the fact they failed miserably. They were known for copiers, but computers? No way. They spent millions trying to establish themselves as a computer manufacturer. Whoops. (By the way, IBM tried to sell copiers; it worked about as well as Xerox’s idea to sell computers.)

Would you buy a DVD player from Nike? Probably not. I know, that’s extreme, but would you buy a soft drink with the swoosh on it? History says no.

Did you know A1-Steak sauce spent $18 million dollars on A1-Poultry sauce? Yeah, I’m not using it on my chicken these days either.

On the other hand we have Amazon that started out in books and has successfully extended their brand to include almost everything in the known universe.

So why did it work with Amazon and not with the other examples noted above? We’ll explore that next time and talk about whether Daniel (our 12-year-old entrepreneur) is going to succeed or not with his plan of line extension.

Also in this series:

• 10 Marketing Lessons from a 12-year-old Entrepreneur
• What’s Your Passion?
• 5 Tips for Becoming an Expert at Your Craft
• 5 Ways to Stay Motivated
• Get Them in Your Gravity Well
• Grass Roots Marketing
• What is Your Product Worth?
• How to Market Your Product
• Business Card Marketing
• Yellow Page Advertising: Waste? Or Found Wanting?
• Yellow Pages, Revisited

Tags: HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, Law of Line extension, Marketing 101, marketing lessons

I visited with a friend who manages an independent bookstore last week. As he toured me around the newly-expanded store, I noted the absence of rack upon rack of music CDs that populate most [Christian] bookstores.

“Why don’t you sell more CDs?”

My friend explained:

• CDs are expensive to stock
• People download individual songs from their home computers to MP3 players instead of purchasing entire CDs
• Customers can create custom CDs right in the store

“Custom CDs? How does that work?”

He explained that customers can listen to thousands of albums from the kiosk in the store, click the tunes they want to purchase, and a custom CD is burned right then and there and pops out of the kiosk, ready for the customer to purchase.

How convenient! It reminds me of photo kiosks, where you plug in your storage device and a few minutes later, you walk out with professionally-printed photos.

This innovative combination of digital and in-store products illustrates Marketing Lesson #7: Make it easy for customers to purchase your product.

Our 12-year-old entrepreneur, the custom pen-making Daniel, does just that with his clean, easy-to-navigate Web site, Pens By Daniel.

• His home page contains a series of descriptive navigation buttons, so you know how to find exactly what you’re looking for.
• Daniel’s home page pictures him, hard at work. Visitors feel an instant connection with the master craftsman.
• Click on any of the navigation buttons and you’re redirected to a page that showcases Daniel’s pens and displays thumbnail images of each pen style (which you can click on to view full-size). A slideshow helps you efficiently scroll through all your purchasing options.
• Each image includes a PayPal button, so when you find a product you want to purchase, you are re-directed to Daniel’s shopping cart.
• As an added bonus, we learn that Daniel supports breast cancer research; a page on his site showcases a special pink pen. Daniel donates 33 percent of the profits of each pen sold to the Susan G Komen For the Cure foundation.
• If you’re still confused about how to order, Daniel includes a separate page that explains multiple ways to order, and yet another page that includes contact information.

If a 12-year-old can do it, so can you.

• What product or service do you sell (or want to sell)?
• What steps are you going to take this week to make your customers’ shopping experience easy, convenient, and rewarding?

Let’s share ideas, folks. Put your #1 goal for the week in writing, right here in our Comments area. Next week, tell us what you’ve done to meet that goal.

Also in this series:

• 10 Marketing Lessons from a 12-year-old Entrepreneur
• What’s Your Passion?
• 5 Tips for Becoming an Expert at Your Craft
• 5 Ways to Stay Motivated
• Get Them in Your Gravity Well
• Grass Roots Marketing
• What is Your Product Worth?
• How to Market Your Product
• Business Card Marketing
• Yellow Page Advertising: Waste? Or Found Wanting?

Tags: HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, marketing lessons, Pens By Daniel

How much do you spend on yellow page advertising per month? If you’re in the $0.00 - $0.00 range, it’s dollars well spent. Anything over zero dollars? A colossal waste of money.

Back in the mid 90s I learned about a study that showed 60%-82% of the people who go to the yellow pages already knew the company they wanted to call. They just didn’t know the phone number. This meant up to 82% of the time, money spent on a yellow page age was wasted. I told my clients that in addition to the wasted money, in the yellow pages they were paying to be smack dab next to their competitors. I’d also point out they weren’t creating any new customers with the money, only making themselves available to people who already knew about them.

Bottom line, I told them the yellow pages is a PHONE BOOK, not an advertising medium. But all those arguments are ancient these days. Aren’t they? I certainly hope so. I hope everyone realizes those arguments don’t matter anymore ’cause of this little invention called the Internet. And this little software company called Google.

Why would I take 2-5 minutes to look up a phone number in the yellow pages when I can type a company name into my Web browser and have their number in less than one second? But take a look through a recent copy of the yellow pages. Evidently some people still think it’s a wise place to spend their dollars.

Recently a stack of yellow pages was dropped off under my neighborhood mailbox. There sat sixteen yellow pages, ready for my neighbors and I to pick up. Two days later, still there. A week later, still there, a little wet. Three weeks later, all sixteen still there.

Do you use the yellow pages? If you do, you’re in the minority.

Let your fingers do the walking? Huh uh. The fingers these days are on the keyboard.

Also in this series:

• 10 Marketing Lessons from a 12-year-old Entrepreneur
• What’s Your Passion?
• 5 Tips for Becoming an Expert at Your Craft
• 5 Ways to Stay Motivated
• Get Them in Your Gravity Well
• Grass Roots Marketing
• What is Your Product Worth?
• How to Market Your Product
• Business Card Marketing

Tags: essential marketing, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, marketing lessons, yellow pages advertising

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met at conferences who moan, “Ohhh, I forgot to get business cards made!”

They smack themselves upside the head for not having the foresight to bring along those tiny–yet essential—pieces of cardstock to exchange with everyone they meet.

If you’re just starting out and can’t afford fancy-dancy, custom-designed business cards, create your own. Microsoft provides free, downloadable templates for the design-challenged.

Buy business card stock at your local office supply store, and print those puppies on your own inkjet or laser printer.

Or head to VistaPrint and customize a card using one of their many templates. They’ll even print ‘em and mail ‘em to you.

What info should you include on your business card?
Some people prescribe to the “less is better” method; others like the “more is better” method. Just remember, whatever information you print on your card, it has to look cool and be easy to read (please, no 6-point type!)

Items you can include:

• Graphic logo that brands you/your business (I recommend spending a little extra to include a colorful, eye-catching logo; I hired a graphic designer to create my logo)
• Business name
• Business tagline
• Your name
• Your title (or a descriptor of what you do)
• Your photo
• Website(s)
• Business address
• Phone number(s)
• Fax
• e-mail address

And on the back…
You don’t have to squish everything on one side of your card – it usually doesn’t cost much extra to get cards printed on both sides. The back of your card can include any of the above info, or:

• Images of your product(s)
• Bulleted list of your primary services
• Yearly calendar
• Photo of you (make sure it’s professional-quality)
• Inspiring thoughts

Card Sizes & Shapes

• Print your business cards the standard size. From time to time, people give me oversized cards, and I can’t fit them in my business card pages without folding them. This is irritating, and I usually end up throwing them away.
• Print the copy horizontally, instead of vertically. It’s okay to put a vertical image on the back of your card, but the writing on the front should go horizontally across the long side of the card. Again, for folks who organize their cards in business card pages, or in a Rolodex, it’s much easier to access and read the information when it’s in standard format.

Laura’s Super Secret Strategy for organizing business cards
When I attend conferences, I bring along several sheets of Avery Business Card Pages. Each clear sheet (made to fit in a 3-ring binder) holds 20 standard-sized business cards.

Whenever someone hands me their card, I write notes to myself on the back of the card to remind me of who the person is and where/when we met, and I slip the card immediately into the card page. When I get home, I slip the full card sheets into a binder and label each sheet with the name of the conference.

Whenever I need to contact someone I met, their information is at my fingertips.

Also in this series:

• 10 Marketing Lessons from a 12-year-old Entrepreneur
• What’s Your Passion?
• 5 Tips for Becoming an Expert at Your Craft
• 5 Ways to Stay Motivated
• Get Them in Your Gravity Well
• Grass Roots Marketing
• What is Your Product Worth?
• How to Market Your Product

Tags: business card marketing, Business Cards, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, marketing lessons

What, exactly, is marketing?

I was a panelist at a writers’ conference marketing seminar when someone tossed that question at me. I gazed at the sea of 300+ faces and my mind went utterly blank.

“Uh…marketing is all the stuff you do to help you sell your product or services,” I stammered.

Not an academy award-winning performance by any standards. And the marketing theorists would shoot me for being so simplistic. But I’m a strong believer that simpler is better, so let’s set aside the theoretical jargon and talk trash.

“All the stuff.” What does that include? Lots of stuff, as it happens, but let’s home in on just one:

Focus on your customer. If you forget everything else, remember to always, always, always focus on your customer.

• What does your customer need? Want?
• What will delight your customer?
• What will surprise him or her?

If you think in terms of what’s going to make your customer happy (and not what you can get out of selling your product), the rest of the stuff tends to fall into place.

An interesting article in Christianity Today points out the importance of focusing on the customer. The article’s title introduces the customer-orientation premise:

“How to Save the Christian Bookstore (Hint: Stop making it so religious).”

What? A non-religious, religious bookstore? Do tell!

Christian bookstores that are thriving are connecting with their customers by becoming “third places”—inviting, comfortable alternatives to home and the workplace.

A bookstore in Bentonville, Arkansas, has 10 TV screens that loop skateboard and snowboard videos with Christian themes, offers free wi-fi and a coffee and smoothie bar. Not only that, the store has a “build your own board” area and sells custom skateboard parts.

Sure, the store sells Bibles, books, and music. But the owner says, “The core is the ministry—changing lives. SKIA is where you can come and be ministered to when the church is closed.”

Focus on your customer.

A California-based Christian bookstore chain caters to the 18- to 30-year-old crowd, selling alternative clothing at its retail stores, as well as wholesale and via the Internet. The stores are located in prime-time teenage hangoutville: malls.

Focus on your customer.

Where’s your marketing focus? Are you obsessed with dreaming up a great brand tagline that’s sure to “wow” your customers? Or are you most concerned with the customers themselves, and their needs?

Focus on your customer, and the other stuff will fall into place. In the next post, we’ll explore more of the “other stuff.”

Source: Crosby, Cindy, “How to Save the Christian Bookstore,” Christianity Today magazine, April 2008.

Also in this series:

• 10 Marketing Lessons from a 12-year-old Entrepreneur
• What’s Your Passion?
• 5 Tips for Becoming an Expert at Your Craft
• 5 Ways to Stay Motivated
• Get Them in Your Gravity Well
• Grass Roots Marketing
• What is Your Product Worth?

Tags: customer service, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, marketing lessons

What is your product worth?

The simple answer: Whatever someone will pay.

The complex answer: The Goldilocks’ price. Not too much, not too little.

When blue jeans were first introduced in Japan the manufacturers wanted to create a market. So they priced the jeans at $5.00 a pair. They were a bargain. They didn’t sell. They took them off the market for a time then reintroduced the jeans at $25.00 a pair. They sold out.The buyers figured at $5 the jeans weren’t worth much. But if they were $25 a pair they must be a must-have item.

You’ve heard the cliché, perception is reality. It’s often true, especially in marketing. Most people understand private labels. Stores contract with a supplier to have a product manufactured, then put their own name on the packing.

Let’s use frozen vegetables, and the Safeway chain of grocery stores as an example. Safeway has their own brand of frozen corn, peas, carrots, etc. Next to Safeway’s brand are the national brands. Which cost more? The national brands, of course. Is the corn in Safeway’s bag or can identical to the corn in the national brand’s bags? Of course. Do the people handing out extra money for the national brand think the national brand’s corn is better? Of course. Is it better? Of course not.

But that’s marketing. That’s figuring out what your product is worth. Some people are willing to pay for the brand name on the packaging.

There isn’t time to go into all the complexities of how to figure out exactly what your price point should be. But to start ask these questions:

Who is my target? Upscale? Then I can charge more. The masses? I’ll need to charge less.

What do people think my product is worth? Take a survey. Ask friends, neighbors, people waiting at the bus stop. Set your price and start selling. The market will quickly tell you with real dollars what your product is worth.

Daniel figured it out, so can you.

Also in this series:

• 10 Marketing Lessons from a 12-year-old Entrepreneur
• What’s Your Passion?
• 5 Tips for Becoming an Expert at Your Craft
• 5 Ways to Stay Motivated
• Get Them in Your Gravity Well
• Grass Roots Marketing

Tags: HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, marketing lessons, price points

Lesson # 4 in Daniel Franklin’s 10 Marketing Lessons is obvious, but it’s often overlooked: Tell everyone about your product. Everyone. Everyone. Everyone! (Yes, I’m repeating myself at the risk of being crude—thank you very much Paul Simon.)

People or companies wanting to promote themselves often focus their energy primarily on mass media—getting the word out through radio, TV, newspaper, the Internet, direct mail, etc., while neglecting their friends, family and neighbors. Why? They think friends and family represent only a small number of people, and what difference can that make? All. The. Difference.

As we talked about earlier, the average person’s influence is 250 people. If your product is strong, those people will tell people who tell people, who tell people …

During the past year a book called The Shack has rocketed up the best-seller list. It’s already sold over 1 million copies. So the publisher must have spent beaucoup bucks promoting it, right? Uh, no.

The book was self-published. And the author’s entire marketing budget was $300. But he told people, who told people, who told people.

To achieve sales success with your company or product do the following: Make a great product. Tell everyone. Everyone.

Also in this series:

• 10 Marketing Lessons from a 12-year-old Entrepreneur
• What’s Your Passion?
• 5 Tips for Becoming an Expert at Your Craft
• 5 Ways to Stay Motivated
• Get Them in Your Gravity Well

Tags: grassroots marketing, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, marketing lessons