marketing-physics

[marketing-physics]

Now you can read the book!

It took awhile but I'm excited to announce the publication of my first book "Marketing Physics - A Memoir of Fear, Loathing and Laughs in Silicon Valley Tech Marketing." It's available in paperback and digital on Amazon.

What's it about? Well, I'm glad you asked! Beyond being about 292 pages, here's what you can expect!

Many people struggle to choose a career. A handful regrettably end up as astronauts, baseball players, or movie stars. But the real celebrities? They become high-tech marketers. In this (hopefully) hilarious and poignant memoir of Silicon Valley from the 1980s right up to 2025, I chronicle my 37-plus-year career from simple program coordinator to what should have been Chief Marketing Officer. (But I'm not bitter, as you’ll read in Chapter 17.) Yes, we marketers had it all in those golden years of tech’s rapid evolution from microprocessors to e-commerce to artificial intelligence and beyond: World travel. Celebrity hobnobbing. Consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol for the sole purpose of improving corporate profits. What more could you ask for? Well… This book has something for everyone—tech buffs, armchair historians, marketers, and anyone who enjoys a good laugh. Venture with me as I recount stories about legendary companies including MIPS, Silicon Graphics, Seagate and Microsoft. Crack open the spine for the fun and the excitement; stay for the glamour and the expense accounts. For no extra charge, I include 37 marketing tips throughout the book packed with lessons I learned along the way. See? Now you can write the purchase of this book off as a business expense!

[marketing-physics]

Craveable Foods and Marketing

Need some Taco Bell Nacho Fries? You probably don’t need them but you may really want them. As we dive deeper into the NFL postseason, we couch potatoes will be inundated with TV commercials urging us to get pizzas, burgers, chips and a whole plethora of presumably craveable and conceptually addictive foods.

A recent article by Kim Severson in the New York Times In the Ozempic Age, has ‘craveable’ food lost its power,  Severson talks about how the food industry began marketing food in a way to position it as deliciously addictive. She references a Lays Potato Chip commercial from the 1960s featuring Bert Lahr as the devil (the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz) who offers the chip to Bert Lahr as a regular person betting that he can’t eat just one. The tag line is “You can eat a million of them, but you can’t eat just one.” (Watch the commercial here.)

Severson cites a variety of other “addictive” food products that were presented as being irresistible. But now, new drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro that are designed to eliminate food cravings are focusing attention on food addiction.

Does this concern the food industry? Apparently not everyone, though some say it could change the way Americans eat and how companies market foods. Severson quotes Marion Nestle (interesting last name for a food craving article citation) who says this convergence of medicines represents an “existential threat” to the food industry. Then Severson cites Steve Siegelman at marketing firm Ketchum who states that, back in the 1960s, “it didn’t even occur to anybody that wanting more chips could be bad.” Siegelman says that positioning food as craveable or irresistible is falling out of favor for consumer marketing but remains strong as a business-to-business (B2B) marketing tactic, at least in the food industry.

Perhaps these new medications will work for some in terms of reducing constant thoughts about eating. Perhaps some of us, when watching commercials designed to induce us to order burgers from Wendy's, McDonalds and Burger King or “healthy” food from Chipotle, will instead go to the fridge and grab an apple. I know I at least try to go for nuts or popcorn – perhaps healthier.

One other factor that Severson doesn’t mention in her article is the impact of home food delivery services like GrubHub or Uber Eats. I mean, it’s one thing to sit on your couch and have a craving for something from Taco Bell or your local burger joint and then realizing you have to put on your shoes and get in your car and drive there to pick it up versus grabbing your phone and ordering it for delivery and just get up to answer the door.

I’m not one who uses food delivery much but, on one recent night, my wife and I were with our son and his girlfriend, and our son had a craving for Taco Bell, which was only about a two minute walk from the hotel we were staying at. All of a sudden, Taco Bell sounded really good to all of us. He ordered it online and was there and back again in five minutes.

I guess the ultimate challenge is that these commercials make the food look good, triggering our residual knowledge that, boy it sure tastes good.

What will you be craving during the football playoffs? What will you end up doing? What do you think was the most effective commercial. Let me know!

[marketing-physics]

So, You Have a “Unique” Appointment Setting Service???

(I say this with the kindest possible tone) To all of you SDRs/BDRs out there trying to interest me in your "innovative" and "one of a kind" appointment setting and lead generation services, please note: 1) I get probably 3-5 emails/LinkedIn requests A DAY offering this exact type of "unique service." In fact, many of them are verbatim the same. 2) Asking to get "15 minutes" on my calendar to talk shows no sensitivity to my time, interests or needs, or displays any creativity on your part. It's sloppy and lazy. I hate to say it but, if I were your boss and that's the best you could do, you'd be looking for a new job, pronto.

And maybe this approach is exactly why I think you'd be so unsuccessful working for my company. If I’m never going to take a meeting with you, why would I expect my prospects to take a meeting? When you're trying to sell to me, it's not about what you want but about what I need. And you cannot possibly know what I need. We haven't met. Instead of thinking about yourself, offer me some value! An infographic, a case study, a piece of content...something, anything that shows you're thinking about my company and our needs and that you have something unique to offer me. If you don't have any useful content to share with me, talk to your marketing department as they're letting you down. Our SDRs have eBooks, blog posts and other content to offer while they’re prospecting as they establish themselves as subject matter experts. I will NEVER randomly spend 15 minutes of my time with someone whose only research effort has been to search for marketing titles on Sales Navigator. If you want to be a successful BDR/SDR, you'll have to do better than that.

[marketing-physics]

Brands Supporting Social Distancing

At this time, many of us are cloistered in our homes observing “shelter in place” (SIP) orders. As I write this, I believe it is day 11 in the bay area. I expect we’ll have at least another month. My wife and I are blessed that we’re still both healthy and have our jobs. Not only that, we work for good companies that truly value their employees and communities. We were quickly advised not to go into our offices and stay at home, in my case even before the SIP order went into effect.

We’re fortunate that we can still go out for walks while others on the sidewalks stay a healthy distance away as we wave to each other and wish each other the best.

We can get take-away food from restaurants and our favorite Peets Coffee. We’re trying to help them stay in business by ordering take-away. We’re maintaining the appropriate six feet or more from their staff when we pick up our items.

About every four or five days, I go to my local Nob Hill grocery store. There I find brave men and women who are stocking shelves and ringing up and bagging my groceries. Sure, there’s no toilet paper to be found (fortunately, not an issue for us) and they were out of eggs and some meats for a short while. However, we are soooooo blessed that most of the shelves have food and there is an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables. I don’t know how our fresh food supply chain is still able to pull this off given the current situation but God bless them and everyone that grows, packages, ships, distributes and markets our food.

And thank you to the brands that are able to find a way to encourage and cheer us at this time. I appreciate the cleverness of McDonalds, Audi, VW, Coca Cola and others that have figured out a way to bring us a smile and help us to focus at this time on simple but important things, as discussed in this article on CNN.com.

To be sure, it’s a very challenging time to be a marketer. There’s no guidebook for this. That said, too often we see things that are tone-deaf or even worse. I’m sure there’s probably now hundreds of posts on LinkedIn from people who exclaim that now is not the time to try to sell to them as they’re focused on caring for someone who’s ill or they themselves might be sick. Certainly, buying some not-currently-necessary-product isn’t relevant right now. Where we can, we try to find ways to make our solution helpful in the present time. That works for some products and solutions but not others.

For those that ask me for advice, I counsel them to be thoughtful, compassionate and human. If they’re not sure about an email or social post they’re composing, I suggest they read it to someone else – often ideally someone that doesn’t work with them – for a different perspective. I find my wife has very keen insight if something’s tone-deaf or inappropriate as she often sees things from a different vantage point.

It’s even challenging to know how to open and close an email these days. What’s appropriate? Somethings obviously are not such as “Have a great day!” There was an interesting article on this topic in the SF Chronicle yesterday. It doesn’t provide a definitive answer, but it was helpful in making me think about what I write.

So, for now, take care.

[marketing-physics]

The Bullwhip Effect: The #ChickenSandwichWars and the Supply Chain

What is the Bullwhip Effect and what does it have to do with the best chicken sandwich? Not long ago, many of us witnessed a social media phenomenon when Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen introduced a new chicken sandwich. Things got out of hand when Chick-Fil-A responded resulting in a huge social media battle that became known as the #ChickenSandwichWars.

Chicken Sandwich Wars, You Say?

For those of you that may have missed this, back on August 12th Popeyes introduced a new fried chicken sandwich with brioche bun, pickles and sauce and issued the delicious looking tweet shown above on the left.

According to Reuters, this launch went generally unnoticed until Chick-Fil-A, not to be outdone, issued a reply by tweeting Chick-Fil-A’s fried chicken sandwich recipe as “the original.” (The tweet on the right.) Chick-Fil-A would have been better off leaving it alone as Popeye’s responded with another tweet that effectively put Chick-Fil-A (at least in terms of social media activity) out in the pasture with their famous cows.

In all, the back-and-forth of social media netted Popeyes a bunch of free publicity. How much? According to the Reuters article, Apex Marketing Group estimated that the social media response earned the equivalent of more than $23 million of ad exposure for Popeyes.

It also created a big problem for Popeyes – they had a run on chicken sandwiches that spread across the country and, ultimately, they ran out of them. Restaurants posted signs such as “Be back soon.” Even weeks after the storm.

So, What’s This Bullwhip Effect?

For most people this social media war was the end of the story. But, as an interesting article in Freight Waves by Brian Aoaeh points out, the social media frenzy  just scratched the surface. This run on Popeyes’ chicken sandwiches created huge supply chain problems due to what’s known as the “Bullwhip Effect.”

According to Wikipedia, the bullwhip effect is a distribution channel phenomenon in which forecasts yield or lead to supply chain inefficiencies. It refers to increasing swings in inventory in response to shifts in customer demand as one moves further up the supply chain. The concept first appeared in Jay Forrester's Industrial Dynamics (published in 1961) and thus it is also known as the Forester effect. The Bullwhip Effect was named for the way the amplitude of a whip increases down its length. The further from the originating signal, the greater the distortion of the wave pattern. It’s a supply chain where demand forecasts create supply chain inefficiencies.

The Freight Waves article does a great job in describing what happened to Popeyes with this run on chicken sandwiches. It lists the ingredients for the sandwich (chicken, bun, pickles, sauce) and then poses the question of what’s involved in making all of those ingredients. Each of these ingredients take time to produce and forecasting demand requires planning. Chickens have to be eggs then hatched, matured and processed. Wheat has to be grown, milled and made into buns. Cucumbers have to be grown and pickled. Sauce requires eggs, oils and other ingredients. The supply chain can’t simply push a magic button and instantly produce an unlimited supply of these ingredients and deliver them to each restaurant. It takes time to adjust supply.

The problem for Popeyes is that they couldn’t predict this spike in demand. There’s no way they could have known that a run-of-the-mill tweet would lead to a social media frenzy and garner 87,000+ Retweets and 325,000+ Likes on Twitter (as of the last time I checked and that doesn’t include all of the other tweets associated with #ChickenSandwichWars). There’s no way their supply chain could quickly respond to this, so they ran out of chicken sandwiches.

Aoaeh states “The discrepancy between the instantaneous nature of demand for, and consumption of, the sandwich and the amount of time that it takes upstream suppliers to produce the chicken, eggs, flour, pickles, mayo and oil required to make the sandwich is what leads to the bullwhip effect.”

So, Popeyes probably increased orders but it takes time for the supply chain to respond. And keep in mind, their suppliers have multiple customers to attend to as well. They’re not going to short McDonalds or Burger King just because Popeyes needs more supplies.

According to Aoaeh, there were other problems that were created by the bullwhip effect:

· Other menu items were being ignored because everyone wanted the chicken sandwich. As such, ingredients for the other sandwiches may have gone to waste.

·  If you’re geared up to make 25 sandwiches an hour and all of a sudden demand is 200 an hour – even if you have the ingredients to make them – the staff/operations aren’t likely set up to handle that level of demand. This leads to…

· An exhausted and demoralized staff who a) can’t keep up with demand and b) likely have dozens to hundreds of unhappy customers screaming at them.

Does the Bullwhip Effect Happen in Other Supply Chains, Like Fresh Produce?

As noted above, it takes a while to produce a cucumber that can be turned into a pickle. You would expect that demand for pickles would be fairly consistent from year-to-year and month-to-month. There’s no way to accurately predict a run on pickles.

So let’s take a look at celery? According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, California produces 80 percent of the nation’s celery. The report states “Unlike lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower, there has never been a fast increase in celery production.” People eat celery sticks, put celery in Thanksgiving turkey stuffing and use celery in salads at about the same rate from year-to-year. Not very exciting.

Well, not very exciting until people discovered the health benefits of celery juice.

According to Future Market Insights, “The juice extracted from the celery is considered to be highly nutritious with essential vitamins, acids and nutrients. Furthermore, celery juices are anticipated to be beneficial in controlling blood pressure, fighting with cancer, neutralizing acidity, treating inflammation as well as post workout drink. Celery juices when added with other juice types can be considered as dynamic health drink for its rich health benefits.”

As a result, all of a sudden in 2019, people can’t get enough celery. The problem is, the growers didn’t expect this spike in demand and, since you can’t simply snap your fingers and make instant celery, prices skyrocketed. According to the USDA, the price for a carton of celery went from $20 in January to over $60 in April 2019…it tripled. In April of 2018, a carton of celery sold for $8 to $12 per carton.

An article in The Packer goes into more detail and attributes this wild spike in demand to a health guru:

Tim Ross, director of regional sales for Duda Farm Fresh Foods, Salinas, Calif., said April 4 that demand has been fueled by a popular personality touting the benefits of celery juice.

So-called “medical medium” Anthony William in May is set to publish a book, “Celery Juice: The Most Powerful Medicine of Our Time Healing Millions Worldwide.”

“We’re being told to be prepared because he’s already on the top seller list with preorders (of the book),” Ross said.

Some consumers are actually buying celery by the case, Ross said, following William’s advice to drink 16 ounces of celery juice each morning on an empty stomach.

So, what will growers do in response? They’ll plant more celery, of course.

But, the Future Market Insights article also states that, what may ultimately restrain the demand for the global celery juices market is: the side effects associated in some cases with the celery juices. The skin problems occur due to the presence of a substance called psoralen present in the celery juices, which might affect the demand of celery juices. Furthermore, in some of the cases recorded in the recent year consumption of celery juices by particular individuals have excessively lowered the blood pressure posing serious health hazards, which is expected to negatively popularize the product, restraining the demand of the global celery juices market.

Most likely, the increase in demand will be met with an increase in supply to the point of oversupply, leading to decreasing prices and, ultimately, food waste when there’s a glut of celery on the market.

And that is the bullwhip effect for the fresh food supply chain.

[marketing-physics]

You Had Me at Hello

Probably the most famous line from the film, Jerry Maguire is “You had me at hello.”

Dale Carnegie, in his famous book How to Win Friends and Influence People, claimed that “A person's name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.”

As a graduate of Dale Carnegie training, I have tried my best to prove that to be true. When I go to the grocery store, deli or restaurant and see an employee with their name badge, I try to address them by– and remember – their name. It’s not easy but I have found that it is noted and appreciated and shows respect for the people we interact with every day, and often take for granted.

CAN YOU SAY HELLO?

Recently, however, I’ve found that many of us can’t even get to the basics of saying “hello,” let alone call someone by name.

I’ve been fortunate to have a job where I can bring my dog to work. Well, if you bring your dog to work, you need to take your dog for a walk, right? So, after lunch, I put the leash on my little Cavalier King Charles/Papillon mix, Cali, and we head out for a 25 minute walk around the block. What I’ve discovered is a bit disturbing to me.

After lunch, there are often dozens of other people out for walks. As I pass them by, I smile and say “hello” to as many as possible. What I’ve discovered is:

·         Most people look down or away to avoid eye contact.

·         A few look straight ahead as if they didn’t even see me. (For some reason, this bothers me more than the people that avert their eyes.)

·         A few, a very few, respond with hello or some form of acknowledgement.

I now make it a practice to go on a walk after lunch every day, even without the dog, and I’ve found that it’s even worse when I don’t have my dog with me. I guess she’s more popular than I am!

So that this isn’t completely bleak, I can report that I’ve made a couple of “friends” while out on my walk. One woman would smile and say “Hello” or “Happy Friday” as she passed me, and I’d respond in kind. After a number of incidences of this, one day I stopped and introduced myself and mentioned to her that she was the friendliest and happiest person out walking. I found out her name is Yi.

Another friendly person I met was a man named Russell. He would smile and say hello as he passed by and one day when I was walking Cali he stopped and asked me her name. He thought it was nice that I was able to bring my dog to work and he and I spoke for a few minutes about his dog, who had passed away not long ago.

I then mentioned to him now nice it was that he took the time to say hello and how so many people just ignore each other as we’re out walking. He said he’d noticed that too and wished it wasn’t so.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Based on my experiences walking after lunch, I’ve drawn the following conclusions:

1.       Some people are simply shy and uncomfortable and I need to be considerate of that.

2.       Regardless, I try to make eye contact and when someone looks at me, I am sure to say “hello.”

I hope that, by doing so, I may bring a little bit of humanity to what can be a lonely world.

What’s your experience with this? Are you someone who says “hello” or someone who looks away? What efforts have you made to make the world a bit more friendly?

[marketing-physics]

Victoria: Hospitality Done Right

So often these days we become numb to service and hospitality. Either we come to expect mediocrity or we’re dumbfounded when exceptional service or experience is provided.

Last year my wife and I visited Victoria, British Columbia and our experience was eye-opening. It was refreshing, recharging and rejuvenating. Why? Because, presumably with a lot of forethought, it is one of the most gracious and stunning places you can visit. And, what makes it so is a wonderful combination of its beauty and its people.

First off, Canadians are well known to be among the friendliest and kindest people in the world. That said, Victorians take it to a new level. For example, let’s take “crossing the street”. Try standing at a crosswalk in New York or San Francisco and you can wait for minutes before people will stop to let you cross. In Victoria, as you approach the crosswalk, cars in all directions stop. If you were cruel, you could almost make a game of it. Step forward…make them all wait. Step back and then lurch forward again as you watch the cars pump their brakes. And the drivers are smiling while they wait for you to cross.

Another thing I noticed as my wife and I rode the bus to and from Butchart Gardens, people thank the bus driver when they exit the bus – all the time. What was even stranger (embarrassing moment here), I was boarding the bus and decided I needed to use the restroom so I asked when the bus was leaving and the driver said “now”…and then he said, go ahead, I’ll wait for you. I was stunned. Imagine that happening in the USA? Not likely.

How about the restaurants? Not only is the food first rate (with lots of variety), the servers are actually friendly, all the time! And they are skilled at their jobs. While this was not universally the case, with most of the servers we met with we left having felt like we made a friend. We interacted with a human being who felt the same about us. They told us their name, we told them ours.

Then there’s the well-conceived beauty of the city and neighboring areas. Every light post has hanging baskets of beautiful blooming flowers. This isn’t by accident, of course, hence its nickname “The Garden City”. Each basket looks like it’s attended to on a daily basis. And you won’t find trash on the ground either. The residents of this city take pride in it and it shows.

What’s the lesson? Well, I guess I would say I was inspired by seeing what’s possible at a grand scale such as this. If an entire city can practice grace and hospitality and treasure and tend to beauty, why can’t I? Can’t I also tend to flowers for others to enjoy, pick up trash, stop at a crosswalk for a pedestrian or be gracious to a customer or a waiter? It’s just that, in Victoria, everyone seems to think this way.

If you go, be sure to:

Visit the downtown and walk up and down each block exploring the stores and restaurants. Also walk around the harbor and watch the seaplanes take off and land.

Go to Butchart Gardens (but early in the morning or later in the day).

Take the hop-on-hop-off bus and visit the Castle which is a fascinating narrative of life in Victoria over the last century-plus.

Go zip-lining. This requires taking a bus or renting a car but it’s well worth it for the excitement and the fun of getting to know your guides – to whom you’re entrusting your life.

[marketing-physics]

Those Dreaded Two Words: Pledge Drive

I’m a huge fan of NPR and I contribute annually to my local NPR station, KQED in San Francisco. They do a terrific job – except for three times a year where for about two or three weeks they put on their pledge drive.

Agony. Frustration. Disappointment.

I understand why they need to raise money and, as said, I’m a member. But why they handle pledge drives the way they do boggles my mind. Every hour during the day, from twenty minutes after the hour to thirty minutes after the hour and from fifty minutes to the top of the hour, they interrupt really good programming for ten minutes of redundant banality. A testimonial followed by people repeating essentially the same script about how important public radio is, offering gifts for subscribing and why we need to contribute…over and over again.

I do what I suspect most people do: turn off my radio for ten minutes or switch to another station.

What purpose does it serve to promote the pledge drive when I suspect most people are turning it off.

Proof point is that this current fall pledge drive has yet to meet its goals so they’re extending it.

What makes matters worse is that they’re interrupting regular programming. I’m missing 20 minutes an hour of insightful, thought provoking material – material that NPR and KQED invested a lot of time and money into developing and producing.  I feel like I’m being ripped off. After all, I contributed to that programming in a small way.

Another public radio station in my area, KFJC, a community college radio station, does it a different (and in my opinion) better way. During their pledge drive, they prepare clever and entertaining one minute commercials. Now the styles of these likely aren’t a fit for NPR/KQED because they sometimes sing the commercial or their rather oddly and occasionally rudely humorous. But, the point is that they’re entertaining and I listen to them – rather than turning the radio off.

Why not have a local or NPR personality record one minute commercials reminding people why they listen to or value NPR and public broadcasting. NPR, in fact, does something like this with some of their national news correspondents. They’re interesting and insightful and they actually offer (to me) some emotional impact.

Try it once KQED I implore you. I’m tired of trying to schedule my out-of-town trips around your pledge drives.

(But even if you don’t, I promise I’ll keep renewing my membership – just not during one of the pledge drives.)

[marketing-physics]

Successful Branding

Earlier this week there was a great blog on The Ten Pillars of Successful Branding written by Stephen Houraghan and posted by Marketo. It struck a chord with me. 

In today’s data-driven marketing world, the concept of branding is often forgotten or back-burnered.  Companies, especially in technology, focus on product features and technology which creates a muddle marketplace where all solutions sound about the same. (If you aren’t sure about your company, try checking a couple of your major competitors and swap your name in for theirs and see if the message still works.)

Many people equate brand with a logo but it is so much more than that.  In my career, I’ve found that marketers that really understand and execute on branding can quickly differentiate themselves from the competition. (And that also applies to your personal brand by the way.) As such, I think this blog is a well-written overview of what branding is all about.  I would encourage any marketer to review this blog and park it in part of your marketing brain.

Related specifically to item 5 “Positioning”, I was discussing this topic with one of my employees this past week.  Positioning is becoming a lost art but is absolutely critical for marketing success.  I find it particularly fascinating because positioning is really about the psychology of marketing and how you register in the target audiences’ mind.  Way back when I was doing my undergrad work (shortly after the invention of printing presses), I read a book called Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.  It was the perhaps most influential book I read in college. Although it was first written in 1981 and is now somewhat dated, the overall content is still good and I would encourage all marketers to get a copy and read it (and ask your boss if you can expense it). One of its main points is that most people can only remember two brands, maybe three. If you’re not one of the top three, you’re losing market share.  (Think Monster/Red Bull or Coke/Pepsi and who else makes cola???) 

One trick related to this is that you can, with clever marketing, re-define a market where you are one of the top two. I did this at a SaaS company about 15 years ago where we created two camps (SaaS and on-premises software) and then we lumped all of our competition into the software category and pummeled them as a group rather than try to take them on one-by-one.  This helped us overcome our market position (probably number four or five) and claim that there were only two categories of this software (instead of five, etc.) and conceptually elevating us to the number two position. This helped buyers reframe their buying decision and get us a seat at the table, which (to me) is really the job of marketing. We could say something like “take any of the on-premises solutions – they’re all the same – and compare them to what we offer with the benefits of a SaaS solution (standardization, faster deployment, more scalability, lower cost, etc.)”. Option A or option B.  It worked.

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (by the same authors) is also a good read.

Again, both books are a bit long in the tooth. They got a few “predictions” wrong but, on the whole, they were spot on and these are often considered pillars of marketing theory. I try to reread them every few years.  And they’re both quick and easy reads.

You can find the blog post here.

[marketing-physics]

The Art of the Pitch - A Visit to the State Fair (with thanks to NPR)

When I was a kid, and well into my thirties, one of my favorite things to do during the summer was visit the county fair. Held each summer, the Santa Clara County Fair was (at the time) a massive assault on the senses.  It had all sorts of fatty foods that you’d never eat anywhere else, carnival rides, topiary displays, pigs, goats and other livestock and so much more – all in a setting that created a unique combination of sights, sounds and smells.  

But my favorite place to visit was the marketplace pavilion – you know, the building where people are hawking all sorts of weird tools, gizmos and other items you would never consider buying. It was kind of like the “World of Ronco” with potato peelers, steak knives, garden tools, weird food makers and odd kinds of jewelry and clothing.  It was fun to walk around and try to figure out which was the weirdest item on display.

But the items themselves paled in comparison to the people pitching them. These people had their routines down cold. It was a type of salesmanship you wouldn’t really find any place else besides the fair (or 2am TV).

NPR recently did a story The Art Of The Pitch: Vendors Hawk Items At The Ohio State Fair where two of its reporters headed out to the fair to learn the secret art of selling people things they don’t think they need.  They spoke with a vendor pitching a tomato peeler. (Yes, tomato, not potato.)  That vendor said that the hardest part is getting people to stop for a moment. The art of grabbing someone's attention is called the hook.  (Today we practice this from our trade show booths, it’s not easy…believe me, I’ve worked enough technology trade shows to know.)

Another vendor claims that closing the sale is the hardest part but they have strategies for that too. The vendor says: The best close is asking for the money. I'll ask you three questions. Is this product better than one you have now? Usually, they say yeah. And then I always ask them this defensively and always back up and put my palms up. If you bought this today, would you use it? I mean, not everybody needs a new shower head.

This routine actually flips the burden from the vendor by putting the prospect on the defensive, almost guilting you into a purchase.

The reporters point out how this is such a completely different environment for selling: A lot of the selling we're used to is cerebral. You go to amazon.com. You carefully compare the products. You read the reviews, get the lowest price. But the sensory overload of a state fair short-circuits the logical mind. You eat things you would never normally eat. You play carnival games you know you cannot win.  And you buy a potato peeler for the thrill of it.

If you are fortunate enough to have a state or county fair near you and have never experienced this wild world of carnival selling, give it a shot sometime. You never know when you might need to peel a tomato.

As to my experience working trade show booths and trying to get people’s attention, I can offer you two clues for hooks.  First, be passionate and perhaps a bit zany. Prospects are used to looking at bored sales people who ask mundane questions like “Would you like to hear about our X software?”.  (Um, not particularly.) At a recent trade show, we were hawking a virtual assistant solution (imagine Siri for business websites) .  We decided to name our Virtual Assistant “Ted” so that we could ask people walking by “Have you met my friend Ted?”.  (A play on the TV show “How I Met Your Mother”.)  That worked about half the time (for the people that got the reference).  The second one is that a sincere smile works more often than you think.

Next show though I may try the tomato peeler.

[marketing-physics]

Pringles: Remember When We Thought They Were Made of Sawdust?

I remember first trying Pringles potato chips when I was in high school. I think they came in one flavor – potato as I recall – and we all thought they were made out of sawdust or compressed potato fiberboard.  I figured they were a fad and went back to my BBQ Lays Potato chips.  But Pringles, originally introduced by Proctor and Gamble in 1967, has prospered.  The product went national  in the US in 1975 and is now the fourth most popular snack brand and available in well over 100 countries.

I think what made Pringles popular was the packaging, a cardboard tube that originally came with a pop-top, the lack of grease, and the flavors.  I didn’t realize how many flavors – at least 40 of them – are now available. Some, like wasabi, prawn cocktail and jalapeno are available only in specific countries. My wife and I were at the store recently and found a whole bunch of ones we’d never seen before so, of course, we had to try them!   Here’s our take on what we got with a potato chip rating (best of five):

Kickin’ Chickin Tacos (from the “Food Truck” collection): Tastes surprisingly like chicken tacos with less grease and mess.  I would have these again though I wonder what they had to do to find the combination of chemicals to recreate the flavor.****

Tortilla Ranch: These were made to simulate ground up tortilla chips with the common ranch flavor.  Mostly interesting due to the texture. Not as good as regular tortilla chips and not likely to hold up to dipping in salsa very well. **

Memphis BBQ: It had a bit of a different flavor than your traditional BBQ potato chips and actually tasted a bit like BBQ meat.***

Cheeseburger (also from the “Food Truck” collection) : Was hesitant about this one as it says online that this flavor was once recalled due to it causing food poisoning – but that was a few years ago. I’m hoping these aren’t that old! I saved them for last thinking this would be a WOW experience as cheeseburgers can have so many flavors.  Turns out this cheeseburger was mostly dill pickles. *

So, the winner is “Kickin’ Chicken Tacos”.

If you want to venture out and try some of these exciting flavors, here’s some additional trivia for you:

Calorie-wise, they compare about the same as potato chips and other salty snacks for 1 ounce:

Pringles: 150 calories

Potato chips: 152 calories

Wheat Thins: 150 calories

Sunchips Garden Salsa: 140 calories

Their consistent saddle shape is mathematically known as a hyperbolic paraboloid? Me neither.

They were originally known as "Pringles Newfangled Potato Chips", but other snack manufacturers objected, saying Pringles failed to meet the definition of a potato "chip". The US Food and Drug Administration weighed in on the matter, and in 1975, they ruled Pringles could only use the word "chip" in their product name within the following phrase: "potato chips made from dried potatoes". Faced with such an unpalatable appellation, Pringles eventually opted to rename their product potato "crisps" instead of chips. This later led to other issues in the United Kingdom, where the term potato "crisps" refers to the product Americans call potato "chips". (Source: Wikipedia)

There are several theories behind the origin of the name "Pringles". One theory refers to Mark Pringle, who filed a US Patent 2,286,644 titled "Method and Apparatus for Processing Potatoes" on 5 March 1937. Pringle's work was cited by Procter & Gamble (P&G) in filing their own patent for improving the taste of dehydrated processed potatoes. Another theory suggested two Procter advertising employees lived on Pringle Drive in Finneytown (north of Cincinnati, Ohio), and the name paired well with potato. Another theory says that P&G chose the Pringles name from a Cincinnati telephone book. (Source: Wikipedia)

The brand is now owned by Kellogg’s which paid $2.7 billion (yes, BILLION) for the brand in 2012.

It’s nice to have the variety in my lunch box.  Much as I love Wheat Thins, it gets a bit boring having the same old salty snack every day. What flavors have you tried?

[marketing-physics]

The Oakland A’s Hit a Home Run

The sewers back up. The clubhouse floods.  Yes, the Oakland Coliseum, constructed in 1966 and home of the Oakland A’s since 1968, is not the crown jewel of ballparks.  In fact, it generally ranks last of the 30 Major League Baseball stadiums for fan experience and is the only stadium that still hosts both football and baseball – though that will change with the imminent departure of the Oakland Raiders.

Though the team has finished in last place in their division each of the last two years, the A’s have a small but loyal fan base. But the fans’ patience has been tested in recent years. A small market team whose owners have been reluctant to spend money on big stars, the A’s have also been threatening to move out of Oakland to greener pastures leaving their fans to wonder what the future holds.

Now, all of that has changed.

This past fall, the majority owner, John Fisher, bought out the minority owner and managing partner, Lew Wolff, and installed a new president, Dave Kaval. Kaval, who was and remains president of the San Jose Earthquakes, brings a new attitude to the A’s – and a future as well.  Kaval was successful in building the new Avaya Stadium for the Earthquakes and has committed to announcing a new stadium site for the A’s – in Oakland – this year.

Kaval is evidently also a savvy marketer and realized he needed to reconnect the fans with the team. He changed the teams marketing slogan from “Green Collar Baseball” to “Rooted in Oakland” to emphasize the team’s commitment to the city and its fans. He also has weekly “office hours” where fans can come by and share ideas.  He apparently listens to those ideas and, in fact, has implemented some of them.  As a result, while the massive cement Coliseum structure still merits its nickname of the Oakland Mausoleum, the fan experience has definitely taken a turn for the better.

I went to opening night on April 3 and arrived about two hours before game time.  I ventured out to the plaza between the Coliseum and the adjacent Oracle Arena.  Now renamed the Champions Pavilion, it boasts between eight and sixteen food trucks, a turf area, picnic tables, big screen TV for watching the game (if you want), a ping pong table, DJ and other amenities.  The vibe was great and my smoked chicken sandwich was pretty darned good as well.  

The team has also decided to embrace its rich legacy, stretching back to when the team was in Philadelphia, and refurbished the restaurant and bar area as Shibe Park Tavern, with memorabilia from the old Philadelphia stadium. There’s also more visible references to stars from previous years – from pictures on the walls of the park to references to former players in the between innings’ video entertainment.    And, on opening night, the team renamed the field “Rickey Henderson Field” in honor of probably the greatest player to play for the Oakland A’s and also acknowledged the late broadcaster Bill King, who will enter the Hall of Fame this year, with a commemorative plaque.  All very nice touches and meant to reconnect the team to its fans.

Did these efforts make a difference?

Absolutely!  There was more energy and the always enthusiastic fans in the right field bleachers seemed even more supercharged. The near capacity crowd seemed ready and willing to re-embrace their team and they were rewarded with a solid victory in a well-played game on a beautiful spring night.

And, they even LOWERED the beer prices!

Caps off to Kaval and the team.  They probably won’t go to the World Series this year but they are building for the future, both with the players and the experience. Here’s hoping they find a great spot for their new ballpark and can grow their fan base in the coming years.

Let’s go Oak-land!

[marketing-physics]

Let’s Market Love and Kindness in 2017

As we exit 2016 and head into the new year, I was wondering what was something that could really stand a better job of marketing.  I decided that the thing we need to do a better job promoting as we leave a divisive year is unity, humility, kindness and love.  Let’s think about how we can promote love and unselfishness.  Let’s think about how we can put others’ needs ahead of our own. Let’s consider how we can be a small miracle in someone else’s life, even if just for a moment.

Let us:

Not text while we’re driving because that message is not worth putting another person’s life at risk – let alone our own life.

Open the door for someone else even if it means they may get in line ahead of us.

Address the clerk at the grocery store or the barista at the coffee place by their first name because they deserve that courtesy as much as we do.

Be aware that there are many living around us – in our own community – that may be lacking food or shelter and give to them as we are able.

Take the time to visit people that are sick or shut-ins.

Remember to thank our veterans who so willingly and graciously gave their time and risked their lives to defend us.

Be considerate of others who may have different views than we do.

Stop at a yellow light instead of running it.  Two minutes to wait isn’t worth the risk.

Bring someone a gift, be it a flower, cup of coffee or something else, just because.

Take the time to tell our spouse, our kids, our friends that we love and cherish them.

Volunteer to help in the community and to serve others.

Remember that the world is not about us but about loving those around us.

Many years ago I read Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People. It includes a number of suggestions, including at least one referenced above. I encourage to you read the book but, in the meantime, I encourage you to try just one of his tips which I reference above: address people by their name.  It makes a huge difference. Try it when you go to a store, when you’re at a restaurant, when you’re at Starbucks, when you check into a hotel. Take the time to notice the name on the badge and instead of staring at your phone or off into space, instead say “Hi Bob (or Sue or Hamid). How are you today?” while you look them in the eye.  You’ll be amazed the reaction you’ll get.  (It’s a good one, trust me.)

You may just make a small but important difference in their day and send 2017 off in a positive direction.

[marketing-physics]

Social Media Done Right?

What do you do when you don’t have any good news to share but you have to share something?  Well, if you’re the Arizona Diamondbacks and you’re down 16-1 after 5 innings against the Boston Red Sox, you post the image above.  Pretty clever right?  Well, it isn’t just me that thinks so, check out some of the other comments below.

The Diamondbacks have done some clever marketing this year. When Justin Timberlake challenged people to come up with their own version of “Can’t Stop the Feeling” the Diamondbacks came up with their version.

Nice stuff!

On CBS Sports.

Comments on CNET.

On Complex.

[marketing-physics]

Sex and Coffee

If that headline got your attention then I’m as guilty as one of the newest generation of coffeehouses sprouting up across the country.  

Coffee is big business. Americans spend over $21 per week on the stuff – that’s over $1000 per year on lattes, mochas, espressos and Frappuccinos.  

Starbucks alone has over 11,000 shops in the United States – that’s about 33% market share. Then there’s Dunkin’ Donuts, Tim Horton’s, Costa Coffee and Panera Bread rounding out the top five.  And don’t forget McDonald’s, if you just want a simple cup of Joe, they sell coffee too. And then there’s the regional coffee shops of which my favorite, Peets, sits at number twelve in the overall rankings.  (Read the statistics.)   Plus you have the local places that often have a loyal following.

Simply put, it has to be difficult to stand out, compete and differentiate in the coffeehouse industry.

We love our coffee but where do we get it and why?

Maybe you pick Starbucks because you’re a member of their loyalty program. Maybe you shun the chains because you’re an individualist that doesn’t want to feed the pockets of corporate America.

I generally opt for convenience for my morning cup of coffee and my afternoon double espresso. That usually means the (free) office espresso machine.  But, when I’m traveling, I go for whatever’s closest. So, on a recent trip to Scottsdale, Arizona, to visit my son and catch some Spring Training baseball I was thrilled to see a new espresso place opened directly across the street from my hotel called Bikini Beans Espresso.  I mentioned it to my son, not really thinking twice about the name.  He said “yeah, the baristas wear bikinis…but the coffee’s supposedly not very good.”

Challenge accepted!

I mean, this blog is all about marketing, right? This called for intensive research. I could be onto the latest trend!

So, despite the fact (or maybe because) I would embarrass my son by visiting Bikini Beans Espresso,  the next morning I ventured across the street and walked up to the counter.  There I was promptly greeted by a lovely young lady in a bikini who welcomed me and asked what I’d like.  After much careful rehearsal and intense focus on her eyes, I asked for a double espresso which another lovely young lady in an even skimpier bikini went off to prepare.

Meanwhile, business at the drive through was brisk.  (Yes, you guessed it, lots of men in cars who also urgently needed their caffeine fix – uh huh).

I paid for my drink (about the same cost as at Starbucks) and minute or two later, I was handed my espresso.  Somewhat to my surprise, it was quite good. (I want you to know I wanted to make sure this was not a fluke so I repeated my quality analysis again the next day with the same results from start to finish.)

Was Bikini Beans Espresso on Scottsdale Road impacting the business of the two Starbucks within a half-mile of the place or the Dutch Bros. about a mile down the road? (I guess not. The Dutch Bros. had a drive through line that averaged about 10 cars at a time and, quite frankly, the service there was far worse.)

What does it say about us when we’ve achieved the Hooters-ization of coffee? Do we really need girls in bikinis to drag us away from Starbucks? Will people start drinking coffee just to spend a couple of minutes with a thong wearing barista?

Probably not. Maybe it’s just a local fad that will fade away….

Not so fast.

It turns out that Scottsdale isn’t the only place these types of businesses have sprung up.  In fact, in Spokane, Washington, there are topless baristas which is apparently alarming some of the locals who want the city council to take action. And, elsewhere in Washington, at least, it’s not just women. There are topless men coffeehouses too including one called “Banana Hammock” (I kid you not.) (Watch a video or read more.)  This is causing a lot of controversy folks!  

Sure sex sells but, if we start with smiling faces then progress to bikinis and then to topless, what will be get to next? (Hopefully rhetorical question.)  And, where else could we manage to get the staff to undress? We’ve got bars and coffeehouses (un)covered now.  Maybe Burger King could finally gain the upper hand on McDonald’s?  Could Macy’s better compete with Amazon? Could this approach revive Denny’s?  (And how do you interview candidates for these positions???)

In retrospect, had the coffee or service been bad, no amount of visible flesh will keep the place in business. Sure, Starbucks will continue to sell a bunch of tall, grande and vente drinks.  I’m just wondering why these places don’t make you order in cup sizes.  Would my double espresso have been a B-cup? (Cheap shot.)

[marketing-physics]

What’s in the Box?

Just before Christmas this year, our office receptionist called me and said I had a box at the front desk.  It’s always nice to get things at the holidays so I went to see what it was. It was a cardboard box about a foot square but it was printed to look like it was a wooden crate and said “Mancrates” on the sides.  “Well, that’s different,”  I said.  The receptionist was curious too.

“Let’s open it!”

Upon opening the box I found that inside were two things, a wooden crate and a small pry bar.  Ok….

I removed the wooden crate and started to apply the pry bar to open up the crate. I figured this was a largely ceremonial experience and that it would take me a solid two seconds to open it.

Guess again.

After significant effort, I was able to open the crate. It contained a treasure chest of baseball-related goodies: peanuts, sunflower seeds and some Oakland A’s-branded beer glasses and coaster with the jersey numbers of the Oakland A’s players in the Major League Baseball Hall-of-Fame.  Very clever! And, given that I’m a huge Oakland A’s fan, very personalized!  What a unique and ingenious gift.  I was intrigued.

I had a question about the gift so I went to their website (www.mancrates.com) and the website was just as clever as the gift.  Their MANifesto reads: We believe men deserve better gifts. Gifts that stir a primal craze of chest bumps and cheers, not polite half-smiles. We believe gifts should be just as exciting to give as they are to receive; the gifts of water cooler legend. We are Man Crates, and we do awesome gifts for men.

The company offers a wide variety of Mancrate themes to choose from ranging from grilling, sports, drinking, eating, outdoors and even ammo cans, if you’re into that type of thing.  The website copy is clever and creative, for example, for my baseball-related one, the copy begins with: Only one pastime gives you an excuse to skip work, day-drink, and pretend you're good at math. Baseball is your seasonal obsession, and you're scared of dying because there's a fifty percent chance it'll happen mid-season. If loving baseball is a crime, then you might as well change your name to Pete Rose.

You can even find a Ron Swanson (the man’s man) quote: Fishing relaxes me. It's like yoga, except I still get to kill something.

I wish I could write copy like that for our website!  Nice job on the branding folks!

I found the customer support info and sent them an email and was pleased to get a personal reply within the hour. Nice touch.

I have no idea if there’s enough of a market for gifts like these to keep Mancrates in business but I hope there is…just because I think the ideas and marketing are clever and distinctive. Check them out, especially when searching for a gift for that hard to shop for guy.

[marketing-physics]

Betrayed by a Brand

There are not many brands that I’m deeply loyal to these days, that is, loyal to the point where I am an active and enthusiastic supporter and promoter of their goods or services.  To get to that level, a brand has to go out of its way to distinguish itself.  Their product or service has to be so good that I just can’t wait to tell others about it.

Usually that all turns out good.

Sometimes it turns sour.

There was a new Spanish tapas restaurant in our neighborhood. Privately owned and operated. A family place.  This was exciting in itself as there simply are not a lot of Spanish tapas restaurants around. My wife and I thought the food was fantastic and, because it’s tapas, you can try lots of different things and enjoy a variety of flavors. The paella was wonderful and the sangria fantastic!  The owners were there all the time and waited on the tables. Service was friendly and fast and the prices were reasonable. It wasn’t in a great location (you couldn’t see if from the street) and we were afraid it might go out of business. So…

We posted about it on Facebook. We raved about it on Yelp. I recommended it on a local radio station’s “Cool Secret Place” segment. We took all of our friends there. (And they all loved it.) It was the only place my wife would go back to more than once a month.  We felt a kinship with the place. It was our go-to restaurant.

Then something completely unexpected happened when this appeared in the San Jose Mercury News: Three arrested in alleged indentured servitude scheme at Spanish restaurant.  OH NO!  I’m shocked.  Stunned.

Allegedly, the owners – including the man who had been so gracious and friendly in waiting on us – had  lured six Spanish nationals into indentured servitude at a Saratoga tapas restaurant (and their salon business).  Citing additional details from the Mercury News:

SARATOGA -- On the border of this leafy Silicon Valley suburb of million-dollar homes, chic salons and eateries, one of at least four Spanish human-trafficking victims slept in a coffin-size room with the lights on all night -- to keep the roaches at bay. Another was forbidden to leave the Saratoga beauty salon where she toiled for what authorities say was almost nothing, even though that meant going without food for as long as nine hours. Yet another got blisters on his feet from putting in 60-hour weeks without pay at a tapas restaurant where the owners rake in $35 for a plate of gourmet ham.

Santa Clara County prosecutors Friday charged their alleged oppressors -- a 44-year-old woman and the two men she lived with -- with three felony counts of human trafficking and one count of wage theft in a rare criminal case involving allegations of labor exploitation. Although trafficking in human labor is much more common worldwide than sex trafficking, it rarely surfaces -- particularly in affluent communities like Saratoga and west San Jose.

"People think human trafficking only happens on the east side at shoddy restaurants or sweatshops," prosecutor Paola Estanislao said. "This case is a good reminder it can happen anywhere."

First, I feel horrible for the victims in this situation. No one should have to endure these conditions or treatment. Further, I would have been shocked that this happened at any business in Silicon Valley. But to have it happen at a business in my neighborhood that I not only frequented but actively promoted is like getting hit in the gut. How could a person who looked us in the eye when recommending special food items, who made polite and friendly conversation, who made the restaurant feel like a place we could be so passionate about be so cruel and deceptive? I feel bad for every dollar I spent there to support these people. I feel worse for knowing that some of the people that worked there were dealing with such horrible conditions.

I have no advice to share with you. There was no way of knowing this was going on. If they’re found guilty, I’m glad that they were caught and I hope the people they treated so badly can find a new and better life here.

It just feels like betrayal.