Wizard of Ads Partners

By Mark Fox, Wizard Academy adjunct professor

I used “Peel the Onion” a couple of years ago with one of my clients. She sells pigs for a living – not exactly rocket science.

“So what issues do you want to work on today in our creative thinking workshop?”

“We need more sales!”
(Never heard that one before)

“Why do you think sales are not growing like you want them to?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Does your competition provide a better product or service?”

“No, in fact even our competition will admit we have the best bloodline and breed of pigs on the market. All of the review magazines rate us number one; in fact, we have the highest customer retention rate in the business: 98%. The 2% of customers that actually leave us leave because they got out of the pig business all together or the owner died!” (FYI – yes, there are pig review magazines out there.)

“Well let’s peel this onion back a little. If you have the best product on the market what is stopping you from getting more market share?”

“Customers just don’t want to switch providers even when they know we can offer them something better.”

“Why?” (keep peeling)

“Well it is the risk of switching to us. The average herd is about a $250,000 investment and they feel the risk in switching is too great. If they switched to us and our herd acquired a disease or something the loss could financially ruin them. They can’t afford that kind of loss.”

“Does this ever happen with your pigs?”

“No never. We have the best breed on the market.”

“Never? Really? Never?”

“No. Never.”

“Then why don’t you eliminate the risk for them? Put your money where your mouth is. If you are so confident that your product is superior and that there is literally no, or at least a very remote risk of illness, why don’t you guarantee potential customers that you will pay the $250,000 if anything happens.

Promise to replace their herd with the herd of their choice if they get sick.”

“No one in the industry offers anything that radical.”

“Why not be the first and dramatically differentiate yourself  then?”

To their credit, and my joy, they implemented this policy. They are quickly gaining market share. I don’t mention the company name at their request; they want to turn the industry on its head before the competition knows what hit them.

From the Editor: Guarantee $250,000! Courage and commitment, are just 2 of the ingredients required if you wish to boom your business.  Do you have them?

About: Mark L. Fox is a leading authority on teaching practical creative thinking techniques for business.

Mark has an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering with an MBA. Having held top management positions in Rocket Science, Aircraft Hydraulics, Engineering Services, Customer Service, Software, and e-Business, Mark has an extremely diversified background. He has held positions ranging from Management and Operations to Sales and Marketing and Research and Development.

Some of Mark’s unique accomplishments include increasing e-business sales 600 percent in one year, receiving NASA’s highest recognition of “Launch Honoree” at the age of 23, and being the youngest person promoted to the position of Chief Engineer on the Space Shuttle program at the age of 31. Mark was also the Chairman of the “orbital debris” committee and an eight-time collegiate “All American” in Marksmanship. Mark also designed and built a 10,000-pound rocket, built his own airplane, and flies hot air balloons.

Business experience.

"Unless you've actually built and operated a successful business yourself, you can't really understand the true concerns of the business owner." - Steve Kaplan

Archetypal Patterns, Part 3
By Roy H. Williams    Hear Memo... 

"For more than a quarter century I’ve made my living dethroning market leaders and setting my clients in their places. And in all those years I’ve never seen a category leader do anything but what they do best. This predictability makes them easy to defeat."

Here's the Pattern: When times are tough and customers are scarce, business owners buckle down and try to become even better at the things they do well. They do this because they trust the Guide pattern, “This has always worked in the past.”

Perhaps you're doing the same.

But following the Guide pattern in a declining market won’t take you where want to go, since staying who you are won’t expand your customer base.

To grow your sales volume you must increase your market share. You must attract those customers who, in the past, have chosen not to do business with you. But those customers won’t make a new decision about your business until you give them new information. As long as you keep doing what you’ve always done (and saying what you've always said,) they’ll keep making the decision they’ve always made.

They’ll keep buying somewhere else.

To grow, you must expand your identity.  Add to your message. Appeal to additional customers.

The Challenge pattern of new circumstances demands that you choose a new Guide pattern.

Leaders usually cling to old Guide patterns in times of stress. This is why challengers often overtake leaders during times of upheaval. The leaders were reluctant to reinvent themselves.

Click to read more ...

"... consists of seeing what everybody has seen... and thinking what nobody has thought." - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, in Irving Good, The Scientist Speculates (1962)

It’s not the size of the idea that counts…

By Anna Gerard, Wizard of Ads Associate

While big business spends millions pondering the next “Big” idea, over in the real world where budgets are leaner it’s the small ideas making the big difference.

If you’re struggling to stand out in a heavily competitive category, tilt your head, change your perspective and do just one small thing different to your competitors.

Need to be inspired?  Get out there in your own market, I bet there are a stack of businesses already making small changes in order to stand out, for the better.

Here’s one example of a business that does it different in my market… It’s a seafood shop that brings “freshness” to the people in a very unique way.

Click to read more ...

Training for Media Professionals. (and Business Owners)

From the dusty Chronicles of Roy H. Williams

USP is one of those terms that I desperately avoid using. Like so many of advertising’s Most Popular Phrases, “Unique Selling Proposition” tends to promise what it cannot deliver. Here’s how the fiasco usually begins:

Ad Pro: “What is true of your company that is not true of your competitors?”

Client: “Blah, blah, blah.”

Ad Pro: “Great! This is what we advertising professionals call a ‘Unique Selling Proposition.’ It’s what we’re going to use to eviscerate your competition and dominate your category.”

Client: “Eviscerate and dominate yes, that’s exactly what we want to do to those evil competitors. And while we’re at it, can we also steal all their customers and drive them into bankruptcy?”

Ad Pro: “Certainly. Because now we have a Strategic Marketing Plan and a USP.”

The client, fully convinced that he does in fact have a Unique Selling Proposition, now expects you to deliver on all those glowing promises you made. After all, didn’t you essentially say that only an idiot would buy from any company other than his? And didn’t you say that Radio (or TV depending on the Ad Pro) was exactly the right medium for his product and that your station reached precisely the right people? Congratulations! You have not only painted yourself into a corner, but you were good enough to supply the paint.

Click to read more ...