Jack Deal Business Consulting, Aptos and Santa Cruz, California 95066; 831-457-8806

What if Obama picks Joe Biden? about 4 hours ago from web
What if McCain picks Carly Fiorina? about 4 hours ago from web
These smaller businesses that once were located at a specific physical location now locate themselves at a specific location online. about 4 hours ago from web
Increasingly many small businesses and professionals are realizing it is not necessary for them to have a physical presence. about 4 hours ago from web
Cash flow-wise the office and store rental numbers don't match; hence the old adage 'working to pay rent'. The business model is flawed. about 5 hours ago from web
Being too small means one can't squeeze out enough margin and ultimately profit, the lifeblood of any business. about 5 hours ago from web
And most small retail spaces are too small for service businesses like restaurants or beauty salons. about 5 hours ago from web
Janitorial and cleaning, up. Employees and office help, up. This means that a smaller retail store must sell higher ticket items... about 5 hours ago from web
Meals at work are up. Childcare, up. Business attire, up. Utilities, up. Furnishings and decor, up. about 5 hours ago from web
Or not going to any store and buying what they want online. about 5 hours ago from web
Some customers in some markets may have to choose between going to Your Store and going to Wal-Mart. about 5 hours ago from web
Commuting costs to and from work are up. Gas is up. about 5 hours ago from web
Triple Net, maintenance, parking fees and other fees associated with commercial rentals are up. about 5 hours ago from web

Hand-Carved, Hand-Painted African Canes - $19

These hand-carved African canes are a wonderful way to express your African culture or love of Africa. You can hang these on your wall as a painted piece of African artwork, or you can use them as walking sticks for durable support and an authentic look nobody else has. Each cane is individually hand-made, so each design is unique and totally one-of-a-kind. Each is approx. 37" tall. Made in Kenya.

Find more ways to accent your home with African art. Click Here

Find hundreds of other African products including African clothing, African jewelry, and African health and beauty products at www.africaimports.com

Have a question? Pick up the phone and call us toll-free: 1-800-500-6120

Interesting sites:

All Access Technology www.allaccesstech.com

Precision Laser Engraving www.lasergrl.com

Huboi Architecture www.huboi.com

Stay in the Pink www.stayinthepink.com

Shannon Grissom Contemporary Artist www.shannongrissom.com

DLG Printing www.dlgprinting.com

Nelson Staffing www.nelsonstaffing.com

PDC Pages www.pdcpages.com

PostNet www.postnet.com

MJM Computers www.sanbenito.com

W8LESS www.W8LESSROTORS.com

Dragon Paw Designs www.dragonpawsdesign.com

B & R Farms www.brfarms.com

ADZ Online Store www.adzonlinestore.com

Helen's Photography www.helensphotography.com

Homespun Harbor Ltd. www.homespunharbor.com

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

PPC Tips for Success: Building a Winning Account Structure Speaker: Addie Conner, CourseAdvisor, Inc. Creating a successful paid search (PPC) campaign depends on a variety of elements, from keyword research all the way to informed evaluation of the leads you've generated. But one of the most important "big picture" aspects of your PPC campaign is your initial account structure: organize it well, and you'll reap the benefits of positive results. Organize it poorly, and your campaign is sunk. Whether you're starting from scratch, expanding an existing campaign, or have just inherited someone else's PPC campaign, building the proper account structure at the outset is critical. In this webcast, we'll look at PPC account structure -- why it's important, what factors you should consider before you get started, and how you can go about developing a structure that's right for your campaign. In this webcast you'll learn: How quality score factors into your account structure When to use multiple accounts in your campaign What the search engines see - and why it's important to know What to consider when evaluating automated tools Addie Conner is Director of Search Marketing for CourseAdvisor, Inc.

Sponsored by:

This webcast is sponsored by Marin Software, which provides an enterprise-class search management application to larger advertisers and agencies. Marin Search MarketerTM addresses the workflow, analysis and optimization needs of professional search marketers, saving time and improving financial performance. Marin deploys rapidly, with no charges to destination URLs, with pay-as-you-go pricing and no fees. Marin offers a 30-day, full-featured free trial and is designed for marketers spending $50,000 and more per month on paid search. For more information, please visit www.marinsoftware.com

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are in business or are a professional, you probably have a website or are thinking about creating one.  A website can be a powerful marketing tool if used correctly. 

Your first consideration is to have your website fit in and be a part of you marketing strategy.   You and your company have a strategy whether it is informal, formal, written or simply by "default;" that is, reactive rather than strategic.   

Clearly if your website does not match up to your marketing strategy and plan there will be a disconnect. 

If your website is "disconnected" from your marketing plan you will join the millions of business owners and professionals that have static websites that are more like newspaper or magazine ads. 

This old school approach is becoming very old school.   Those companies and individuals that are leveraging web technologies for marketing are gaining strong competitive advantages even in regional and local markets. 

But as the saying goes, without a map or plan you can end up anywhere and anywhere is not smart business, especially in marketing.   

What do you want your site to do?   Maybe sell a product, relay information, generate an inquiry, set an appointment, request more info; the possibilities are endless. 

That is why you need to decide first what you want your site to do and it should be a solid business decision, in fact one of your most important business decisions.   

After you determine you goals, you should assess how appropriate is your site in meeting those goals.   Who is your target market?   What are your target market's demographics and interests?

In web sales and marketing terms you want to look for the conversion or next step from your target audience.   If your product or service is low consideration such as a product sold directly through e-commerce, then your conversion would be a direct sale. 

If your product or service is high consideration, such a kitchen remodel or roof, your conversion may be a phone call, inquiry, email, appointment or in-person visit. 

If you have no site, determine your budget first and then your timeline.  If you have a site that needs to be updated and upgraded, also determine your budget and timeline. 

Unfortunately many older websites cannot be upgraded or made search engine friendly and you may have to start again.

Before doing anything, look carefully at the keywords and keyword phrases that your viewers will use to find you.   Make sure these keywords are 'loaded' on your site, especially your homepage.   

Viewers find your site through keywords and keyword phrases; if these keywords are not on your site how will they find you? 

You can pay for ads and pay-per-clicks, the big advantage being you can target your audience.  Don't forget that more and more search engine algorithms are tending toward fresh original content also known as organic search engine results.

The good news is that your "organic" content is permanent, or at least until you remove it.   Unlike a paid ad that goes away when you stop paying for it, organic content lives on indefinitely making it an excellent value for your marketing dollar. 

An important fact to remember is that if you don't update your site regularly the search engines stop making spider and crawler house calls to your site.   If your goal is to attract the search engines then you must update your content regularly.

Use promotional interviews, promotional articles, quotes, blogs, links, backlinks and anything else you can to create content and make the search engines take notice.  It's all about your content.    

Make sure your site, especially your homepage, is full of your logo and brand.   If you have neither, develop them.   Remember that many expensive logos and brands don't work and you don't have to spend a fortune to get a good one.

If your site is new, you need to optimize it for search engine accessibility.  This is known as search engine optimization or SEO.   If your site has been up for some time and has lots of content, SEO will be less effective but still may be of value.

Search Engine Marketing or SEM is a more comprehensive marketing strategy plan than SEO.   SEM usually implies paid marketing but increasingly free marketing has become very effective depending on the market or space your company is in. 

Don't forget your site's look and feel which should match your company's look and feel.  If you sell luxury boats you don't want your site looking like you are CraigsList. 

Conversely, if you sell discounted goods from China you don't want your site to look and feel like Macy's website. 

Clearly some content is better than other content and remember that your content should parallel your marketing plan.   But don't forget that even minimal content is now better than no content. 

"There may be talk of recession and consumers may be less susceptible to advertising than they used to be, but consumers are still human," says Julia Hyde of Creative Search Media in Scotts Valley, California, "and the science of psychology will still make them spend their hard earned money. The goal is to persuade them to spend it with you."   

The bad news is technology is allowing your competitors the same access to web marketing as you have.   

The good news for you is hopefully they haven't heard about it yet.

Advertisements:

Are you content where you are with your company's "lowered expectations"?  Read my business article "The Business Analysis: Why Your Company's Future May Depend on It" on my reseach blog at www.jddeal.com. Deal Business Consulting at 831-457-8806.

Wingwalkers Baking Company www.wingwalkersbakingcompany.com bakes delicious cinnamon roll, coffee and cream, walnut and ginger and coco-choco chip cookies.  Distributorship inquiries welcome.

The Professional Touch Quality Auto Body Repair, Serving Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz since 1985, 203 - B Mt. Hermon Rd, Scotts Valley Karl Ryan owner www.proftouch.com

Jungletraders furniture, masks, statues from ancient African hardwoods like Rhodesian Teak and Lebombo Hardwood located at 5400 Scotts Valley Drive Suite B, Scotts Valley, CA  www.jungletraders.com

Cruz'n Cellular 266 Mt. Hermon Road Q, Scotts Valley, CA 831-430-0663 Verizon,  AT&T, T-Mobile Sprint-Nextel, Sirius Radio, Metro, Unlocking Sevices and Payments.  Sales, service and cell phone consulting. 

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You Tube Marketing Video (Santa Cruz )

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 04:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Public Relations

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Marketing Online or Internet Marketing

Reply to: serv-6726914@raigslist.org
Date: 2008-05-08, 6:05AM PDT

You might have a solid traditional marketing plan and are doing all the right things efficiently and effectively. Yet quarter after quarter you are noticing that as benefits diminish costs rise. You might find yourself beginning to ask questions like "If no one uses phone books what good is a Yellow Pages ad?" Clearly the new marketing frontier is online and across vertical and horizontal markets companies are using the Internet to promote their products and services as well as find new prospects and potential customers. New technologies are allowing smaller companies to compete in new marketplaces. To see how an online marketing can fit your company's strategy reply to this ad or contact JD Deal Online Marketing and Zuniweb.com at 831-457-8806.

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 672691

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 07:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Advertise Online or Online Advertising

Reply to: serv-672676869@list.org
Date: 2008-05-08, 5:45AM PDT

Radio, TV, and print advertising keep costing more with declining results. Humans under 30 don't use phone books and besides in five years phone books will be obsolete; look at the bright side, a least no more expensive Yellow Pages ads. So just how will your potential customers and prospects find you without newspapers and phone books? Why is online advertising booming and newspapers are downsizing? This isn't a trickle trend it's a tsunami. Use online advertising to leverage your marketing budget and improve your marketing ROI Return on Investment. To see how online advertising can best fit your marketing strategy contact JD Deal Online Marketing and Zuniweb.com at 831-457-8806 or reply to this ad. Be sure to include your URL or website address with your online advertising inquiry.

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 672676

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 07:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Logo and Logos

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Creative Marketing Collateral

Reply to: serv-64@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-05-06, 11:00AM PDT


Let's face it, your look and feel is sad and tired. You need an update and an upgrade. You need a new look and feel; maybe even a new you. In today's modern world being yesterday is so very yesterday. The bad news is that like your granma said now is not the time to be shy. The good news is technology and leveraging that technology can take you from vintage to fringe even if you are shy. Besides, what's to like about looking like everyone else? Reply to this ad or contact JD Deal Online Marketing and Zuniweb.com at 831-457-8806 or jddeal@jddeal.com.

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 670

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Marketing Plan and Marketing Plan Development

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 08:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mission Statement, Slogans and Business Development

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 07:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You Tube Marketing Video

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Free Online Marketing Review

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

• Location: Santa Cruz
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A promotional interview is a written interview conducted over a short period of time.   The clear advantage of this type of interview is questions can be customized and careful reflection and consideration given prior to answering each question. 

This means the interviewee is not under immediate pressure and has time to carefully think through her or his answers.

The promotional interview showcases you as an expert in your field or industry.  It also gives a superb venue to promote the benefits of your products and services, promote your skills and capabilities as well as promote specific or branded products and services.

Clearly you don't want to write, publish or distribute your own interview; interviewing yourself is tantamount to doing a self-serving commercial.   For the interview to have credibility it needs to be promoted by someone other than yourself, your mate or your employee.

A good promotional interview is crafted to create a positive impression of you and your business.   Because you control the content you can also use the interview to assist in upgrading your "look and feel" or image campaigns.   

Think about the types of questions your prospects, customers and clients will want to know about your products and services. 

While a good promotional interview can be similar to a FAQ or Frequently Asked Question, it is fundamentally different.   A FAQ is often based on nuts and bolts issues about your products and services.   Topics such as how to use your website are better addressed in a FAQ format.

First consider carefully the thrust of the interview and what you would like for it to accomplish.  Use written questions and written answers.  If you aren't good with words, have your interviewer help you edit and refine your answers.  

A sloppy, error ridden interview is worse than no interview.  

The words and editing are important but what is most important are the ideas, concepts and abstractions you relay.   Try to map out or write down your ideas and concepts before the interview.  Try to stick to the bigger picture unless for good reasons the interview is focused on a narrow subject area.  

Don't forget to look at your online marketing keywords and even "long strings" to add to the interview.  A skilled interviewer can work keywords and phrases into the interview text.  

When the interview is published and distributed, these keyword and phrases will be picked up by the search engines and help you with your marketing search term domination campaigns.  

Put the finished interview on your website, newsletter or blog.   Put it anywhere you can and don't forget to give the byline to the interviewer so that anyone that reads it will know you didn't do it yourself.

Print hard copies off your website or a third party website to hand out in your office or store, mail out hard copies with invoices or include the interview in your media and public relations packet.  

A good promotional interview can create mass media interest in you and your company; reporters and interviewers will not only find human interest hooks in a good interview but the interview also provides them with background detail meaning less work. 

Mass media reporters are under great deadline pressures and anything you can do to help them is a plus.

As with all of your marketing collateral and materials think about the conversion or next step.  Do you want your target market to phone, email, or stop by your office or store?  

Remember that a good promotional interview generates interest and should give the reader a clear indication of how they can follow up with you on that interest.      

Simply put, a good promotional interview can become a very powerful addition to your marketing tool chest.

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 03:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sarah and her husband Sam run a construction supply company.   They have put their life savings into their store and have stocked it with a deep and wide inventory of tools and supplies.   Great care and planning went into their layout and merchandising and it is an impressive store.   

From a business model perspective their business should be booming.   The demographics are good, the location good with a local and regional prospect base that creates steady demand.   Things should be good but they aren't. 

Unfortunately Sarah and Sam have seen their income level off and even slowly decline.   At first they rationalized that they were still building their business; the old 'it will take three years to make a profit' ploy.  Baloney.   Three years?  How about 20 years?

But Sarah and Sam did their homework.  They even have in their office a business plan they made before opening their store.   They work 60 hours a week, remain upbeat, treat their employees well, pay all their taxes and remain optimistic that things will improve. 

Sam and Sarah's problem is they have a regional business that is only marketed locally.   Each and every day there are prospects in their regional marketplace that need what Sarah and Sam have to offer but do not know Sarah and Sam are there.  

These prospects end up buying from competitors or going out of the region.  

Lately Sarah and Sam have been noticing their take home pay is shrinking.   Even though each work 60 hours a week they are finding that they are having trouble making personal ends meet and in fact have increased their credit card debt.  

Sarah and Sam did everything right and they should be benefiting from their efforts but at this point they can only see more of the same.   In their early forties, Sarah and Sam are horrified about the possibility of working for the next 20 plus years just to pay their bills; they certainly did not start their business anticipating that it would only break even.  

Sarah and Sam had an initial marketing plan that was a good initially but was never updated or upgraded.    Each day they stress and strain over the few customers that do walk into their store.  

Sam actually is a pretty good 'closer' and of the real prospects they encounter Sam closes one out of two for a pretty good closing ratio. 

The problem is they just don't have enough prospects so they have to work harder for everything they get.   The sad part is they are in a niche market or "space" with great potential not only locally but regionally, but they are only getting local prospects. 

Several months back they became a bit desperate and started placing ads on TV and in the newspaper.   They 'think' they got some business off the ads but aren't sure because they didn't find out how the prospect heard about them.    Lesson number one in marketing is if you can't measure it, it doesn't exist.
  
If you ask Sarah about her marketing plan she will pull up their website on her laptop and proudly show it off.  

It is a nice site; good graphics that are well laid out with clear and intuitive page designs.   Sarah said that since they were in the construction "look and feel" business it was critical they have a slick, graphically well designed site.   And they do. 

But Google and Yahoo don't measure graphics and design.   The fact that the website and marketing collateral is weak and ineffective has not occurred to them yet.   They are both proud and defensive over what they have created.   

What they assumed was a good web strategy in actuality is nothing more than posting a static website.   A simple keyword string test shows that they are not on the search engines and cannot be easily found on the web; hence the almost total dependence on walk in and drive by traffic.  And newspaper ads.  

Instead of strategizing on how to capture market share they have ended up simply reacting to the marketplace.  

And so there they go, day after day, weekend after weekend, month after month.   If they make a bigger sale they feel that things are at a tipping point and ready to go their way. 

But they have seen slight sales spikes come and go before.  They cannot understand that maybe their plan isn't working or working as well as it should. 

It's not that Sarah and Sam are bad people or stupid people.   In fact, in their industry they are competent and do 95% of their business as well as anyone in their industry.     

Except for one thing: Sarah and Sam forgot to upgrade and update their search engine marketing plan.

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 03:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

'Touch points' can be defined as those customer contacts that are critical to your sales process and sales cycle.   An easy way to determine these touch points is to map out, flow chart or whiteboard your sales process from first customer contact through completed sale to ongoing follow up.   

Some sales cycles can take many months and may involve many different types of touch points.   Each step in the process is required to advance to the next step and all steps point to the conclusion of a successful sale.   

These types of sales are known as "high consideration" sales because the customer or client requires time and consideration before purchasing.   And a number of different touch points. 

Other sales cycles are immediate, emotional or impulse buys and require only one touch point.   This type of sale would be a 'low consideration' sale. 

These purchases are often based on emotion and impulse and require little or no viewer analysis or information gathering.   Shoppers buy because they want to buy. 

Examples of high consideration sales would be kitchen remodels, purchasing a new car or putting in a permaculture landscape.   Examples of low consideration sales would be the purchase of books, clothes and food.      

The marketing strategies for high and low consideration sales are very different.   In a kitchen remodel the 'goal' or 'next step' might be to generate a phone call, email or an in store visit.   

The goal for a low consideration sale such as discount designer clothes would be to generate enough interest and appeal to induce an immediate sale.   Shoppers for low consideration items rarely come back for a second visit; there are just too many options for them to consider them all. 

In the high consideration sale it is the next step or next action that determines the web strategy.  In the kitchen remodel enough information may be presented to pique the viewer's interest and generate a phone inquiry or visit to a showroom.   The important point is the goal is simply to generate a phone call or in store visit, not to close the sale. 

All strategies have their plusses and minuses.   One of the negative sides of high consideration sales is that viewers are often researching information and are not in an immediate position to buy.   Determining which viewers are curious and which are serious should be a part of your sales and prospecting process.   

In many situations it might also be good strategy to figure out how to move or convert the curious into the serious.  It all comes to down to touch points and how they are leveraged.   

Clearly the biggest problem with low consideration sales is they are everywhere.   That is why it is so important to make the best case for low consideration products and services and hold nothing back because once the shopper or viewer leaves your site they most likely will not return.   Many low consideration sales have only one chance to 'close the deal.' 

Incentives can also be used to help motivate viewers to take immediate action.   In high consideration sales, it may be a white paper, promotional article or informational article that is of great interest to the viewer; this can be especially effective if your information can be directly tied in with a major benefit of doing business with your company.   

The curious eventually convert to the serious when they feel they have enough information to proceed with their purchase.   And do business with you when they feel comfortable and confident in your product or service.

For low consideration sales, the incentives need to be immediate and of value to the viewer.   These incentives could be an additional discount or free gift with each purchase.   

As with any marketing strategy the end result must be continually in focus.   Each step in the sales process should have its own strategy so the sales process moves along.   By carefully matching your web content to your sales touch points you can improve your bottom line sales results.

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In business, not much happens until a transaction is agreed upon. The strategy of how to make these transactions occur is called marketing. The techniques and procedures for closing the sale is called sales.

Without sales, there is no business.

The successful business is always looking at ways to improve the strategy and process.  Successful businesses become students of their markets which is important because the very way transactions occur is changing.

In the "commoditized" age, we focus on price and differentiation. Unless you are a monopoly, some combination of price and benefits are the dynamics in the marketing and sales process today.

But just below the surface, we begin to see smart customers are getting smarter all the time. Smart customers are value conscious when spending their money.

This increased awareness and knowledge has changed the fundamentals of selling.

Value-hungry consumers know they will have a higher potential return on their investment if they can establish a good rapport with the vendor or seller.

It is not only "How can I get more out of the company," but also "What solutions can you bring me today and in the future?"

Repeated contacts are needed to establish this relationship as trust does not come quickly. The contacts should be part of your marketing plan.

Fragmentation in the marketplace is continuing as the competition gets smarter too. Competitors are constantly looking for the competitive edge that will allow them to find their niche.   

Price has become a primary concern -- usually falling in the very top priorities. Customers want to get to price early and sales professionals want to get to price last.  Clearly the concept is that the more value demonstrated the higher the price. 

Profitability is the name of the game. If you work on commission and you give your commission away in the negotiation process, what have you gained?

It either generates profit or brings other benefits. If it does neither, then it hurts the business.

Sales potential is shifting from the immediate sale to a series of ongoing long-term sales. Although initial profits may be lower, the longer-term approach allows for increased profitability by stabilizing sales and  lowering the cost of sales.

Organization provides a structure so return is maximized. The problem is usually one of balance. Regimented organizations are usually less productive in the newer business environment.

Organizationally diffused businesses often waste resources.

The wisdom of developing one's individual strategy to be adaptable and responsive will provide a key competitive advantage.

Adaptability and responsiveness are key skills for tomorrow's salesperson. The nature of the market shows no mercy.

Enthusiasm must be generated by the customer. Good employees prefer to work in a business with enthusiastic customers.

It has become clear that the sales process of tomorrow will require more and deeper skills than are required today.

Gone is the door-to-door peddler. Now the sales process requires greater coordination.

The individual salesperson must possess an array of tools and skills and know how to use them wisely. For those salespeople that can bring those kinds of skills to the marketplace the rewards are well worth the trip.

One benefit is clear: they may prove to be the highest compensated employees in the company.

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 03:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Non-dairy creamer or NDC has to rank as the greatest marketing coup of all time.   There really isn't another scam that can quite match up to it's simplicity, beauty and power. 

All other great marketing scams descend linearly in some manner directly from NDC.
 
From every marketing standpoint non-dairy creamer makes sense.  From the consumer' standpoint it is a big fake out but since the consumer is paying the tab he can do what he likes.  Did anyone say visualized fake out?
 
The premise is many fat folks like to put fatty cream in their coffee or tea or even drink it straight up in the bathroom. 

Some water it down and call it half and half so they will feel half as guilty when they guzzle it.  But they aren't fooling themselves and therein resides the problem.
 
To confuse everyone the experts call it lactose intolerant but it still means one's insides not being able to handle cow products. 

As a community service and kind gesture to humanity, these savvy marketers want to save the allergic, guilty and obese from the evils of lactose intolerant consumption.
 
In other words, they saw a market and jumped right in.
 
Think of these dynamics and do a mental role play: one coffee or tea lover can't use cream because they are hypersensitive to dairy products or weigh 480 pounds or most likely both.
 
This depressed and distraught individual takes a small container of non-dairy creamer and picks it up examining it carefully.  Actually it could be the half gallon size since even the big cartons look alike.
  
What, you didn't know you could buy a half gallon economy carton of NDC?   And just what rock have you been living under all this time?
   
Visualize this happening in a restaurant while also looking wistfully at a bowl of those little tiny containers marked 'Half n' Half' and not being able to participate so to speak.  

Envision that the doctor told you the day before that one more half and half and you would start to grow an udder.   Now visualize NDC.
    
NDC looks and feels just the same.  It's very important to pass that look and feel test so that a bona fide marketing coup is possible.   

Without that look and feel there is little credibility; consumers aren't that stupid, right?   Pass the look and feel test and the marketing possibilities become very interesting.
 
Let's not even get into the saccharin analogy and consider that all those NDC chemicals might indeed cause metabolic disturbances with a subsequent weight gain. 

For the self esteem of millions it is best not to mention that consuming NDC actually might cause weight gain by causing trauma to the gastrointestinal tract.
 
The really important point is that non-dairy creamer does not taste or smell like cream but folks pour it in their cups anyway...chemicals and all.   Why?  Let's look at the real reasons.
 
We use NDC because some marketer says it looks like cream if we visualize it while stirring our coffee; go ahead, be bold and visualize it turning white.   And it actually does, or at least sort of does. 

With correct envisioning we can see we have something in our coffee and the odds are it has to be cream, right?
 
Of course, what else could it be?  By using the principles of envisioning and visualization and marketing scam theory we have very adroitly just faked ourselves out.  Congratulations!
  
Even if you happen to be one of those literalists that see everything as it is you can trick your auto-suggestion cognition into actually knowing it is not cream but think you're happy about it anyway!  The human mind is a very powerful thing. 

In the end we all must acknowledge the real service contribution NDC makes to modern society; we need all the help we can get.
   
So the next time you have coffee visualize yourself pouring non-dairy creamer chemicals into your cup.   Visualize pouring some chemicals that may in fact be dairy derivatives causing irreversible damage to your metabolism resulting in sudden weight gain.
 
The marketers and engineers are certainly planning it that way and they are working around the clock to develop new and innovative products like NDC that further allow  you to fool yourself.   You know the ancient Chinese saying; there is no fool like one who fools himself.
  
So why do they do it?  They do it because they can just as you do it because you can.  Instead of being a real man or woman and drinking your coffee black you have to dump stuff in and make it appear to be something it isn't.
  
But like the ancient Chinese also said, once a fool always a fool.

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sally and Jim are a nice couple.   30 years ago they started a business that they continue to run today.  Moderately successful, they pay the bills and have employees do the daily routine work.   

They have nice stores and all their employees smile and say 'good morning' and 'have a nice day.'   They have a very expensive website that does what it's supposed to do and covers the obligatories such as Site Map, About Us and Contact Us, though they seldom if ever get any requests for information.   

Their logo is artfully designed and the text they use on their website and other marketing collateral is scrubbed, spellchecked and sanitized.  Like all of their marketing efforts, their website is well done but ineffective.   All the marketing pieces are there but nothing happens.   Sally and Jim did everything by the book and now are getting the unexpected book results.      

Still, Jim vigorously defends their decision to do everything just right except the part about the desired results.   From the beginning they budgeted 3.75% of their gross sales to marketing.   They printed up media packets, marketing promos and slick handouts for their in store customers.   But nobody noticed the handouts.   Nobody cared. 

And nobody notices their website except to say 'that's nice'.    Their website takes no risks and makes no statement except that which is the usual and the customary.   Jim's rationale for putting all these ho hum traditional pieces in place was 'if everyone else is doing it, there must be something to it.'   Precisely the reason for not doing it but after 30 years Jim is still making the conversion from employee to entrepreneur.   

After 30 years Jim and Sally would like to sell off their stores but they are asking a high price with less than average sales.   Nobody is buying.   Jim and Sally are getting a little bit worried now and that checklist comfort zone they had sat in for so many years doesn't look so comfortable anymore.    The real icing on this upside down retirement cake is they are ready to exit their business but have no exit strategy.  Uh-oh. 

Jim and Sally's problem is and has been no one knows they are there.   Their management and marketing is safe, traditional and ineffective.   It does not stand out so it is not noticed.   They talk about great customer service, high quality and cheap prices; in other words, they say exactly what their unimaginative competitors all say.   So when new prospects are looking at Jim and Sally's industry for products and services, all the players appear to be the same because they all present the same image.   It's coin flip time. 

Although 'professional', their marketing is limp as it does not generate interest or 'buzz'.   Strong on structure and function; weak on message and appeal.

Jim and Sally started out with the marketing checklist strategy that has plagued them for many years.  Jim thought that as they went down the marketing list and could check off items on the list, the marketing would then become successful.  The checklist was the plan or rather completing the checklist was the plan.   Jim was never actually told this by anyone; Jim made this assumption all on his own. 

Later Jim learned that simply having a website, brochure or sales presentation is not enough.  "Take one of our brochures and be sure to check out our super well constructed website."   Right.  Will do.

Jim and Sally had an opportunity to get their company message out and to generate community and online interest.    Instead, they laid a marketing egg.  Too bad for their company.   By trying to look 'professional' they made themselves appear to be dull, which they are; 'we'll be safe and do it like everybody else.'   

Jim and Sally will continue to justify their lackluster marketing results by saying the big improvement is somewhere just around the corner.   In the end they will most likely cash out with a whimper for their many years of self deception.  No one will cheer.  The numbers aren't there; the numbers were never there.   Sally and Jim will go down with the ship. 

Maybe later they will wonder what if they had been more 'bodacious' or more likely they won't wonder at all.   It won't matter either way...they were too late.  They could have done something more imaginative but they didn't dare.   The truth is they didn't even try.

Posted by Jack D. Deal at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Way back when I started my own business, I hung out my own 'shingle'.   One of the first things I did, and one of the smartest, was to have a professional designer do my business cards.  I could have done it cheaper by using business card templates and a quickie print shop, but I didn't. It was one of my very first business decisions and continues to be a very good one.

In the good old days marketing and advertising were the same.  A new business found a location, placed some ads in the local newspaper and then sat back and watched the customer's line up. Well, maybe it didn't work just like that but it was a much simpler marketing world back then.

Advertising wasn't rocket science and it was easy to track the results. The ad was placed, the customers and sales were tracked and the business owner could see if the ad was effective. Many times it was and the business was off.

But not so anymore. Marketing, advertising and sales are increasingly complex and extend across multi media. Steadily over the years owners have been reporting that mass media advertising has become less effective. That is the Return on Investment (ROI) is diminishing.

As the sources of mass media have exploded consumers and prospects are bombarded with ads from every direction. This has made it very difficult for an individual ad to be noticed. Most ads sold in mass media are created by the media themselves. Joe and Sally Business Owner don't have marketing expertise so they leave it up to the 'experts'. The mass media experts are going to focus all their attention on Joe and Sally to get the sale and then proceed to create their ads the fastest and easiest way possible. Since Joe and Sally are marketing ignorant, they don't understand what is happening.

What is happening is the ads are boring, not targeted, safe and almost always ineffective. Not the best way to spend the marketing budget. What happened was Joe and Sally simply did not know so they trusted the media reps. Joe and Sally bought the old line that the purpose of marketing and advertising is to get your name out. The argument is that their media outlet has a target market of 10,000 or a million potential customers for your business. Joe and Sally think this is all too wonderful a deal and it is.

The potential target market numbers are actually meaningless for the owner. Potential target market is a sales tool developed by the media to fool folks like Joe and Sally. Since Joe and Sally don't know, they tend to follow the crowd. What the crowd and media won't tell Joe and Sally is that 'Get My Name Out' doesn't work unless you buy the deluxe monthly package for 15 years. And even that is no guarantee.

Joe and Sally left out one big step in their marketing campaign: how do we know if it works. The media will say that it works if a member of the target market now knows you are in business and what you are selling.

That's fine for the media to rack up numbers but those numbers simply do not translate into sales. Sales occur when a prospect that heard or saw the ad comes in and buys something. Any other scorecard for Joe and Sally's business is meaningless.

As you can see it's a cop out to say radio, TV and newspaper ads are marketing. Joe and Sally are only fooling themselves and hurting their business if they believe that.

There's a more fundamental reason why traditional marketing and advertising doesn't work: the design and attention getting are weak. Commercials and ads simply look and feel like commercials and ads. The consuming public sees this and immediately knows 'this is an ad'.

Shucks, what can poor Joe and Sally do? For starters Joe and Sally can stop whining and get to work. Joe and Sally need to create and execute their very own marketing and sales plan and not rely on some commissioned media sales rep to do it for them. The simplest way is to take their prospect profile or those who buys from them, and shake out the top customer benefit. The initial marketing focus is on creating a sense of urgency for obtaining this benefit.

The ad or 'hook' is then worked into the initial marketing piece. It doesn't have to be flashy or glamorous but it does have to laser beam in on that benefit. Resist the temptation to add a laundry list of benefits to this ad. Once the ad is developed then it is ready for execution. This execution strategy may or may not include mass media, depending on the marketing budget. The smaller the budget the less likely mass media will work.

What is important is that Joe and Sally constantly look for customer feedback on their ad. From this information Joe and Sally can refine or redo their ad. They can also create new ads and look at other customer benefits. The important point is that feedback is constant and the marketing strategy kept flexible.
 
Since Joe and Sally are on a limited budget, they will have to do most of the marketing work themselves. As their business grows they can evolve and expand their marketing plan and contract marketing services.

The good news this puts powerful marketing tools in the hands of ow