David Young | Branding Blog - Marketing Advice and Advertising Strategy for Local Business Owners

Relief for Cement Burn: Why I Still Live in a Small Town

Half the time, I hide the fact that I still live in the town I grew up in. Mostly, to save conversation time for more important things. (Yes, it takes me almost 3 hours to get to the airport...no, we have no Starbucks...yes, Cabela's is headquartered here...that's why you've heard of Sidney - with an "i" - not the one in Australia.)

Sometimes when someone asks where I live, I'll simply respond, "Sidney" and leave off the Nebraska part. It makes me instantly more interesting. ;-)

What about Cement Burn?" you ask. I'm getting to it.

Last week, while working on what my dad used to call an "over-do-it-yourself" project, I made the amateur mistake of applying a showerful of grout with the assistance of my bare hands. Doh!

Portland cement (the active ingredient in grout) burns you with a strong alkaline pH level. You won't notice the burn until it's too late. By supper time, my hands were red. By bed time, I had about 5 sores that were burning like a soldering iron was resting gently on the surface of my skin. (20 years in radio taught me what that feels like too.) I didn't sleep much that night. In fact I spent the night Googling for remedies for this particular brand of stupidity.

Next morning, I decided to cash in all my life-lines in an effort to find relief for my hands. I texted my sister, the doctor. Waited a few minutes. No response back. I went over to my neighborhood Safeway in search of some kind of "emulsifying" lotion that was recommended on a web site. I asked the pharmacist there about it. He recommended finding some Johnson and Johnson First Aid Cream, which Safeway no longer carried. He suggested that one of the local pharmacies might have some.

I drove over to my pharmacy, Western Drug. I didn't go there first because Safeway was more convenient, at 4 blocks away. You see, Western Drug is clean across town from here...almost 15 blocks, with 2 stop signs and 2 traffic lights between here and there. You city-dwellers laugh, go ahead.

I walked in and started looking for "First Aid Cream." Tom Birner (the pharmacist who owns the place) asked me what I needed and then told me that Johnson and Johnson had discontinued the stuff years ago. He asked what the problem is and I told him. "Wait right here," he said as he disappeared into the back.

He returned carrying this medicine bottle with a hand-written label that simply said, "Western Lotion."

"We've got a lot of construction workers that swear by this stuff. We've been making it in batches for as long as I can remember. It's got a lot of ingredients...antiseptic plus witch-hazel plus (a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember) and it's in a glycerin base. Just keep it on your hands and you'll be fine."

He didn't charge me because he only had half a bottle on hand and someone in the office had used a bit. I'd have gladly paid anything for relief. 

Sounds like snake oil, eh? Well, it worked! My hands were still raw, but feeling much better. I applied that stuff 6 or 8 times that day, a few times overnight and I was on the road to recovery.

Western Drug has been in Sidney for about 120 years. In the early part of the 20th century they even operated out of a tent in the middle of the street while a new building was built. Joel Birner, Tom's dad, bought the place in the mid-1960s. He was our pharmacist when I was a kid and he was a good friend and client of my dad's radio stations. I don't know if the Western Lotion recipe pre-dates Joel or not.

Bottom line is you'll never find this stuff or anything like it at your Walgreens, Wal-Mart, or other corpo-box store. But, in my little town, the local pharmacy still cares, still has the recipe and is carrying on in the shadow of the giants...even though they are way across town.

P.S. My sister finally called. When I told her about the lotion, she wanted to get the recipe because she's had patients who could use it. She practices in an even smaller town, way up north in the Sandhills.

P.P.S. Right now, Western Drug doesn't have a web site. If you want some of this stuff, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do.

Prosound: On-Hold Messaging for Smart Business Owners

We launched a new client web site last week for ProsoundUSA.com, a company that specializes in improving the phone experience of your customers. Instead of just providing "on-hold messages" and those automated attendant systems that we've all come to hate, ProsoundUSA owner Chester Hull makes it his business to learn about yours BEFORE attempting to tell you what your message should be.

In fact, he takes it one step further and will evaluate how your living, breathing, real-life staff is doing on the phones. His phone evaluation service costs just $149 and if it saves just one sale, would be worth it to most businesses. Followups include not only his message writing and production, but customized phone etiquette training for your staff.

I don't normally gush like this about clients, but Chester is a kindred soul to those of us who believe that building a brand is more than just a cool logo and a funny ad. Chester knows that a brand is built only at that place where the customer's world intersects with the business's world. The phones are often the very first point of contact.

If delivering an outstanding experience to your callers is important to your business, Prosound is your first stop. Take a listen to his on-hold message samples and you'll understand how he's different. And, be sure to subscribe to Chester's on-hold marketing blog, he's got a lot to say about your phones.

About the web site...

Chester hired Wizard of Ads Partner Paul Boomer and I to re-design his old site from the ground up using our Persona-based approach. As Chester will tell you, the effort of putting up a site using this methodology is about 80% under water.

That is, we spent a great deal of time getting to understand Prosound's customers and their motivations...what points of information are important to them and in what order. Only after we understood his business, could we begin to map out pages, sketch out designs and get to the point where most web developers begin their process.

Kinda sounds like the same approach Chester takes, huh?

Here's the "after" shot of Chester's site:

 

And...here's what it looked like before:

Ok...let's roll the credits:

• Persona based web architecture...Dave Young
• Graphic design...Paul Boomer
• Copywriting...Dave Young, Paul Boomer and Chester Hull
• CMS platform...Wordpress MU installation by OM4

Jon Spoelstra, author of "Marketing Outrageously" turns to Fiction

Links: Wizard Academy, Jon Spoelstra on Amazon

Onya Craig! Blimey, I'd forgotten that one!

Finally catching up on some blog reading this weekend and found some brilliant writing on Wizard Tower Chronicle, our upside-downunder site hosted by WOA Partner Craig Arthur.

It looked quite familiar, but I read it all the way through anyway. Here’s a super excerpt:

“The point is this...before anyone will do anything at all, they must go there. They must do that thing in their imagination. Before they buy your jewelry, they must go there in their mind. Before they buy your cars, they must go there. Before they attend your college, you must show them the experience on the visuospatial sketchpad in their brain.”

Bonzer Mate!

Practical Business Applications from Canoeing with Kids

I had a wonderful weekend. My daughters and I canoed part of Nebraska's beautiful Niobrara River Saturday. It was cold. We got pounded by a prairie thunderstorm Friday night just as Rita was coming ashore down in Texas. Saturday night, the storms were even worse. Over 1.5 inches of rain and vicious lightning is an exciting event in a tent. Lying on your back in a sleeping bag while torrents of water pound on the thin wall of the tent and lightning flashes all around make you feel as if you should DO SOMETHING. Anything. It's tempting to panic, or run to the car and head to the Holiday Inn Express you passed 15 miles before the campground. But, we endured. We sang "Amazing Grace" at the top of our lungs and we lived to sing another day.

Reflecting about the canoe trip on the way home, I thought that perhaps there were some lessons to be learned about running a business.

One Captain

There's a reason for a ship (yes, even a canoe) having only one captain. Dad sits in the back of the canoe so he can steer and keep an eye on (manage) the crew and passengers. If he is derelict in his duties, the canoe will invariably end up sideways in the current or stuck on a sandbar. Even if he is just eating some trail mix or snapping a picture.

Instant Gratification

Forget it. It's a canoe, not a bass-boat with a 200-hp outboard. Keep your eye down-river and react BEFORE you get to the splashing water. The splashing water is 3-feet DOWNSTREAM from the rock. The splashing water is reacting to the rock. You must act way before you get to the rock. When you see the signs of the rock (splashing water) make sure you are not headed for it. If you wait until you get to the splashing water, you will already have hit the rock. Ouch.

Don't Panic

OK, we listened to the audio version of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" on our way to the canoe adventure. But it's excellent advice. Someone on the canoe (probably the youngest, most inexperienced person) will panic when the canoe hits the rock. They will also panic when the canoe wobbles because the captain needs to re-adjust his underwear after sitting on the canoe seat for 2 hours. They must be calmed. The panic must not be allowed to dictate direction. The focus must be in getting off the rock (or getting the underwear adjusted) and not on the panickier.

Have Fun

Above all, remember that life and business are just like a canoe trip. If you are always watching for the splashing water, you'll miss the scenery. If you spend too much time on the scenery, you'll never get anywhere. If you are too aggressive about adjusting your underwear, you might tip the canoe and dump the passengers. (fortunately, this didn't happen)  Strive for Balance.

Rearranging Neurons

It's a real thrill watching 76 people re-arrange their neurons. They were under the misguided impression that they were attending another "advertising seminar." I could tell as they filed in that they were guarding pre-conceived notions about copy and schedules mapped into their neural network by years of media reps dripping slow commerce poison into their brains.

The real show is only visible from the platform. Watching the "aha" moments as those preconceived notions get zapped by some Wizard mojo and the neurons reconnect in their proper places. It was a mass chiropractic adjustment of the brain.

The procedure went extremely well. The prognosis is much improved.

Big thanks to Jay and Eileen Austin at Coyote Country 105.3 in McCook for setting up the "seminar". It was a first class affair. Everyone got a free lunch, a personal copy of Craig Arthur's "Making Ads Work" along with a binder of other useful information, and of course 6 hours of the best material the Wizards have to offer.

We had clergy, teachers, bankers, poets, geeks, and all manner of business owners in the room. It was a perfect audience, a perfect setup and a perfect day. I've never experienced a smoother and more professional sound setup. Thank you Jesse and Derek!

Two Big Levers

In the Advertising Performance Equation, there are two giant factors that will make the difference between a poor-to-middlin' ad campaign and a campaign that will amaze you with its effectiveness.

Unfortunately, you cannot neccesarily count on your advertising reps or your agency for either of these.

First, is the Personal Experience Factor. Others call it the delight factor, or the wow factor or the f'in amazing things you do for your customers. In short, if the ACTUAL customer experience exceeds the expectation created by the campaign, you can likely expect repeat business and referrals. HOWEVER, if the experience delivered by you and your staff fall short of expectations, expect us to tune out your subsequent advertising and tell everyone we know that you're "not all that."

Second, once you get your customer experience tuned up, the Impact Quotient of your message is what will cause us to perk up and pay attention. I'm not talking about the kind of schtick usually spouted by the average car dealer. You can yell to get my attention, but once I figure out it's an ad (and a poorly written and executed ad at that) my B.S. filter kicks in and you never even get to whisper to my pre-frontal cortex where buying decisions are made. It's not as simple as just getting my attention. You must keep it. Ah, now that's the hard part.

If you can wrap your arms around both of these principles, your advertising will exceed your expectations. If you ignore one or the other (or both) the only way to compensate is to spend more money. Lots more. And be prepared to keep spending more, because over time your campaign will diminish in effectiveness as more consumers tune out your ads or figure out your poor experience.

Are persistent sales events symptomatic of corporate greed?

My Wizard of Ads (WOA) Partners and I have a presentation that shows with amazing clarity the profitability of “relational” customers versus “transactional” shoppers. Most retailers believe that traffic is the magic. “Get me enough people and I’ll be fine,” they tell their ad reps.

So then, are SALE events simply traffic-builders? I don’t think so, but I’d sure welcome your opinion as well.

You see, it starts with a focus on profits, not customers. Shareholders scream to the board and CEO that profits shall be forthcoming. The CEO starts screaming down the chain because his bonus is dependent upon the actions of everyone else. The VPs and directors of the different marketing channels scream at the buyers. The buyers scream on down the line until it reaches the sales staff on the retail floor and the operators on the phone banks. Suddenly, there’s no one left to scream at…except the customer. Call in the ad agency…better yet, let’s go direct to the media. “We need screaming SALE ADS! Let’s create some traffic!”

Ah, now we’re talking! TRAFFIC. Lots of folks start coming in because you’ve just told them how willing you are to stab your best customers in the back to cover the greed of those screaming lunatics in the glass towers.

The buyers bought too much because of the screaming. The sales staff didn’t sell enough because all the best showroom space was taken up by the discounted stuff. The loyal relational customer comes in and finds that the merchandise she paid top dollar for last month is now 65% off. She’s fuming. Next time, she’ll wait for the sale.

If the motivation of the company is greed, the result will be persistent sales events.

If a genuine interest in helping the customer is the motivation of the company, there will be no giant sales events (with the possible exception of an annual inventory reduction event to actually get rid of the honest mistakes of the buyers).

The focus will be on enriching the customer experience in all marketing channels and through every contact with the company. Profits will surely follow in the trail of happy customers.

What do you think?

The Apprentice vs. American Hot Rod

I've been kicking back watching marathon editions of American Chopper and American Hot Rod on the Discovery Channel.  It got me thinking about those posers on The Apprentice.

I'd put Paul Teutuls Jr. of OCC or Charles Hutton of Coddington Hot Rods up against any of Donald's wannabes any day.  They both show a great amount of coolness under insane pressure, are good teambuilders and natural leaders.  No MBAs or law degrees. No experience in marketing or administration, but they know how to get things done and get people to do things.

OK, commercial break's over.  Let's see if Boyd pops a blood vessel before the car is built.

Where are your Funk Brothers?

This morning's memo from Roy got me thinking about all of the Funk Brothers I've met at the businesses I've worked with, or been priviledged to meet.  These are the people who are doing the outstanding work behind the scenes to make the folks in the limelight look good.

They're the customer service reps who take it personally when a product fails to meet the customer's expectations. They're the warehousing and shipping associates who take the company's meticulously prepared "core values" statement seriously.

You can usually find a front-line receptionist putting on a good face for the rest of the people behind  the logo who will be credited and rewarded for her performance.

Just like Motown, your business has its own Funk Brothers who are laying down the beat and the groove that makes it so easy for the stars to shine. Make sure you know who these people are and that you give them their just rewards before they leave you. If you're lucky, they'll stay on through retirement because the work of finding a different gig is worse in their mind than just showing up and getting the job done right. But be warned: There are always other business owners out there who are looking to find Funk Brothers of their own. It's hard to train people to work. It's always been easier to hire people who get things done and train them how to get your stuff done.