We train twice a week. Once a month we train extremely hard and are rewarded with a pizza dinner at our HQ. We order pizza from one of the local pizzerias and bring it in for all of us to enjoy.

We order approximately 20 pizza’s of all different varieties. Usually the bill is between $300 – $450, depending on how many firefighters train (somewhere between 25 – 40).

All the pizzerias in our area promote themselves on their boxes. All the pizzerias also have a coupon on the box that says something like “Cut out and collect 10 of these and get a free cheese pizza”.

A cheese pizza, out here, has a price of $12.00. If we were to order 20 pizza’s, at an average cost of $18.00, then we would have to pay $360.00. If we were to cut out the coupons and “turn them in”, the pizzeria would only get $336.00 (plus the two free cheese pizza’s) – the next time that we would order from them.

Last week, after one of our hard training sessions, we ordered from a pizzeria. When we brought them in (we pick them up), the pizzeria had marked “VOID” on each of the coupons on the box.

Not only did that pizzeria lose the fire department as a client for the rest of their existence, they also lost business from all the firefighters who were in attendance (and of course, whomever they told about this).

To “save” $24, the pizzeria gave up $336.00; as well as all the other catering opportunities that may have been presented to it through the course of the following year.

THINK before you do something rash like this. A cheese pizza COSTS no more then $4.00 (I am told that it is really less then $3.00), but, to be fair, let’s say it is $4.00.

For $8.00, this local pizzeria lost at least, AT LEAST, $1,000 worth of business from the department AS WELL AS all the firefighters who will no longer go there. Was it worth it?

Yes today’s economy sucks – but does that mean that you will change your “business model” when large orders come in? Will you give a discount AND void any special offers? Do you tell your clients this in advance?

The economy DOES suck, but, you must keep your current clients and not, in any way, jeopardize or put at risk the opportunity to lose them. Think before you act.

There are five legs (I believe) in marketing that support your sales and brand. In no particular order, they are:

Advertising
Promotions
Social Media
Merchandising
Public Relations

Here is how I define each:

Advertising: TV, magazine, newspaper, web. This can be static ads or video ads, on TV or on the web.

Promotions: The easiest way to define this is “Buy two xx’s and get one x free”; “Test drive this car and get a $500 gift card”; or “Send in five box tops and get a free sample”. You want to promote your product or brand and usually this is done by couponing or free giveaways or whatever kind of promotion that you think will get someone to sample OR LEARN ABOUT your product.

Social Media: Funny – this is still being defined out there – is it advertising? No because we are not forced to go to your Facebook page and therefore are not advertised to. Is it Public Relations? Absolutely, but, the customers that go there aren’t looking to be “pitched”, they are going there to be informed about non-pitch subjects. Is it Promotions? It’s certainly going in that direction where Facebook pages are now giving out “free” samples. Is it Merchandising? You could say it kinda is, because of the video’s that can be watched about your product. Obviously, this still has a long way to go. [Which leads to blogs or blogzines or whatever name they're gong to be called this week. Are they part of Social Media or Public Relations? Some people think that blogs are with promotions because they "promote" your product.]

Merchandising: End caps, in-store signage, sampling stations and everything else that you see in brick-n-mortar stores. Is advertising on a web page merchandising, since web pages are become more and more our brick-n-mortar stores?

Public Relations: News releases, press tours, and everything else that is required to get someone else to write or talk about you on TV, Radio, magazine, newspaper, blog, etc.

These five legs should make up your marketing strategy on a consistent basis. Can your brand survive if you only do one or two legs? Of course it can. Some would say it is weaker because you aren’t doing all five legs, especially if you are an agency that does one of the legs that you are not doing.

Are some legs stronger then another? Absolutely. A 30 second spot during the Super Bowl blows away an end-cap at your local hardware store – for brand recognition, but, what about for sales?

Which leads you to: Do I need that Super Bowl ad? No, you don’t – that end-cap may be exactly what you need.

Just be sure to always research each of the legs when you are building your marketing plan and you will discover how important it is to do or not do that Super Bowl ad.

It got me to thinking – in today’s economy how much disposable income is out there? When or where is the tipping point for individuals, the world over, to say “You know, maybe I shouldn’t buy that Pepsi Max this week and pay my water bill instead?” (Or baby formula or rice or whatever.)

NOTE: There is a whole public relations conversation on how well the American Political Machine spins the “Recovery” on a weekly basis – reminds me of the sales manager saying to the CEO every week “Even though we haven’t sold anything this year, we are doing great!”

We see Wal-Mart and Target marketing to the masses saying “Lowest Prices” and “Affordable” and so on. They’re trying to get those people that are watching their budget to save more money by shopping at their location.

Prices are rising all over the world ($3.00 for a bottle of water, $5.00 for a can of Red Bull, $2.00 for a “snack” bag of chips, etc. All these prices having doubled in the past year.)

Some stores may offer a can of Red Bull for $.25 less then another, but, still, because of the economic times, pricing has risen.

Eventually, market segments are going to start to decline, small or large, but, declination will start to occur more rapidly as jobs become more scare and cost of living rises while salaries remain the same.

Someone will step into this market and capture a huge percentage. Someone will offer a very low cost solution to the many high-cost offerings that are out there.

How much longer can a world sustain a water bottling company at $3.00 a bottle when the cost is less then $.10? It can’t. Whomever offers the pricing back at $1.00 is going to own the market. Yes, margins will go from 40% to 10%, but, look at the soda business where margins are less then 1%.

The world has reached a tipping point where unsustainablity of market prices cannot continue. Either companies will go under or they will have to reduce pricing to meet the needs of the worlds individuals as they tighten their belts.

Remember the movie “Mr. Mom”? Where the real mom advertises the drop in pricing for tuna so that the people can afford the product?

I believe that this will be occurring soon.

I fall on one side of this argument and that is that Print Advertising is dead (okay, on life-support which it is hard to see a recovery from anytime soon – maybe a better description would be a Coma).

We all agree that the internet has done considerable damage (or impact) to print advertising. Why should I wait for my daily or monthlies of magazines or newspapers when I can find out what was written 24 hours or 30 days in advance?

Okay, I’ll give you the argument that you need a magazine on the beach or possibly on a plane (if you can’t afford or connect to their WiFi) or even the subway. But, what percentage of the market is that – 2%, maybe 3%?

Even if the creative were outstanding and the brand was incredible and the ad said “If you can read this, you get a free car in the next hour”, the market penetration would still be minimal at best – even with email, text, twitter, and phone. The individual still has to “get to the location” of the free car so the damage would not be that great (don’t get me wrong, you would still have a riot at the location – but that’s the point, the brand would be built because of the riots, not because of the free car giveaway).

Print advertising will never be the same, because the market will never be the same. The market is the internet and mobile, not paper and rags. Sadly, we continue to see magazines and papers try and stay alive by believing that the people want this. They don’t.

In closing, it is going to be the countries that have never invested in magazine/print (like China, Eastern Asia, Africa, South America), where many lessons are going to be taught on how to gain the biggest bang for the buck – again, specifically in mobile.

Good luck.

Remember, at 100%, it will be five months from now and the market will have passed you by. If potential customers are asking about your service/product and you have 80% of the messaging finished, or whatever, don’t say “I’ll get you back in a month when it is finished”, because they will have moved on. Give them what they want.

Just had to vent. Sorry for the short entry today.

Meeting with a client the other day – a start-up – about their packaging.

The client has produced a product – from mock-up, to prototype, to actually having it manufactured, and now was ready to start selling it locally on store shelves.

He and I both had confidence that it would be picked up and sold, and that he would be profitable. He could have put it in plastic zip-lock bags and sold a million of these items.

But, thank god, he came into contact with me, and we started discussing long-term aspirations; from where does he want the company in a year (over $800K in sales), to where he wants it in 10 years (Fortune 500); what kind of a company/brand does he want to found (U.S. famous) and if he wants to sell the company (no). And so forth and so on.

We eventually got to the nitty-gritty of the product. From licensing to future employee’s.

And that is when we both discovered a serious flaw in his product line. He hadn’t thought about the packaging (he had a local design firm doing mock-ups, designs, etc.) and didn’t consider it to be that important. He already had orders for the product, so, he had money in the bank (he thought) – amy old packaging would do.

I wasn’t concerned (too much) about the design and lay-out, but, I did start to ask him some questions that he needed to have answers to that related to the packaging (as well as his overall business model).

1. Returns? How was he going to handle these.
2. Warranty? Was he going to offer one (even though, by law, he had too), but, for how long.
3. UPC tracking (every product in the U.S. needs a UPC if they are hoping to have it scanned and charged to the consumer – most stores have scanners and tellers at the check-out line don’t/can’t enter the products number by hand).
4. Extension of the product (for various other uses) – each one needed a different UPC.
5. Software to track the product numbers.
6. Packaging of the product – in bulk (how will they be shipped, etc.).
7. How easily can the product be used on the store shelf – does it fit a typical store shelf? Can it be hung? What if a client wants some to be hung and some to be sitting on a shelf?
8. Trademark, patent, and copyright claims on the packaging.
9. Users guide.
10. etc.

When we came to the Users Guide, he stated the product was self-explanatory.

I brought up the old thermometer issue – when you buy one, do you use it orally or rectally – and most thermometers are used one way or the other, but not both. He understood that this may be an issue, as ALL customers must be assumed to be “not the brightest” and build the product packaging and internal components with that thought in mind.

 I just want to mention that when you are going to market with a product, make sure that you hire a firm that knows packaging, knows how to build all the components, will ask all the right questions needed to make sure that your product meets all the local and federal laws, AND appeals to the mass audience. I’m not just talking about the design of the packaging (how it looks on the shelf), but, all the other items inside and on the packaging that a) appeals to your market, and b) protects you from lawsuits and misunderstandings.

Was helping a start-up client put together the copy for the packaging of a new product of theirs.  They sent me pictures of the packaging, as well as their first draft.

It was beautiful packaging, a full four colors, glossy, that folded out (like a book) so when opened, the product was stareing the buyer right in the face, beautiful.

I had to ask them how much the packaging was costing compared to the product (percentage). I had to ask, because throughout my career, as well as your own I’m sure, you have to constantly measure your cost of goods vs. your margin vs. product retail price.  How much more money could you make if you can continuously lower your cost of goods (like packaging), thus increasing your margin, and thus making the retail price acceptable to the world.

The beautiful packaging would certainly impress the retail buyer. I am no so sure about the end consumer, since they won’t fully see it’s “beauty” until after they buy it (and packaging is one of the first AND last lines in purchase intent).

I’m sure that they are going to go ahead and use the impressive heavy beautiful packaging (as they are a start-up and this is how start-ups think). But, I bet, within a year, they will either have an alternative or outright different package – one that is simple and cheap.

Apple computer is the only one who can afford to have expensive packaging and that’s because the consumer pays for it.

Had surgery the other day. Nothing serious, just a walk-in/walk-out of a few hours.

Came into the hospital, filled out all the paperwork, and was escorted to the waiting room by an administrator who was professional and enjoyable.

In the waiting room, had a great conversation with the nurse and receptionist there (this is a hospital – you go nowhere without someone from the hospital being in front of you).

Was called in to the surgery room, met a great nurse and had a great conversation with her as we went through the procedure (as well as the doctor – but, he was not part of the hospital, he was my doctor who came in to do the procedure).

My doctor left after the procedure and the nurse and I continued to talk – I had to wait about 10 minutes to make sure that I was okay after the surgery.

The nurse filled out all the paperwork for me, telling me what and what not to do, what I can and cannot eat, how much medicine I should take, etc. This was all written on a piece of paper, with the top area for signatures and the bottom with all the instructions. 

Then, the unbelievable happened, the nurse took out a pair of scissors and cut the bottom half of the paper off and handed it to me.

No, the paper wasn’t a tear sheet.  No, it wasn’t a separate piece of paper. It was the second half of paper and cut.

An experience that was nerve wracking and stressful, ending with a nurse cutting a piece of paper in half with all the instructions on it. What a reminder that hospitals are run by people who don’t care about their patients.

Terrible marketing as well as bad operations. In fact, the nurse apologized for cutting the paper in half.

Does your business do something like this? Have you gone down the lowest level of your business and seen how it interacts with the customer?

I was so embarrassed for them - especially for the nurse having to apologize.

Do you go to market when the product is 100% viable? When the rate-of-return analysis says it is time to go to market? Or when your Product Manager says “we need to go to market now”?

It is all of this, and none of it (and I know, I am repeating myself from a few months ago – but, I have too).

You will NEVER know when the right time is to launch a product. If you wait for all the above to occur, then, you will be to late. If you don’t consider all of the above, then, you may be too early.

If you are ANY kind of successful marketer, then, you will KNOW when to go to market AND you will hear the appropriate people in your organization saying that you need to launch now. Both must occur to some degree – you will not go to market if the product manager says the product isn’t finished. (And, please note, there is a BIG difference between the product “not ready yet” compared to the product “is not finished”. One completes the MRD (marketing requirements document), the other doesn’t.)

So, again, if your instinct says go to market and others in your organization say it also, then, GO TO MARKET!!!