My Favorite Store That I Haven't Bought a Thing From (Yet)

Story time at the WesterBlog. Gather 'round ...

I run. Not real well but I run nonetheless. On Wednesdays I run with a group of triathalonians and ironmen. It's something of a brutal self abuse regimen. I run because I can't work out in any other way. I'm uncoordinated and have been banned from most sports involving a ball and I would rather drink paint thinner than sit in a weight room.

I digress! I also like running because I can think about things like ... my blog posting. For reasons like this running has become more and more important to me. Recently my old running shoes started cutting my Achilles. So I brilliantly surmised that it was new shoe time.

My favorite shoe store now is Running Wild here in Coralville. I say 'now' because did I go there when my shoes first gave out? No. I'm a cheap SOB and I went to Kohl's for $35 Nikes. They looked cool. But they started squeaking and squishing when I ran. I returned them but the other pair did the same thing. Basically, these shoes suck and you would be hard pressed to call the staff at Kohl's helpful on resolving the matter. So my shoes suck and I decide to just wear them until I've gotten my $35 out of them (it's been a couple of weeks -- I think I'm almost there).

Around this same time my wife got me a running hat for Father's Day from Running Wild. In the bag was an invite to their Sunday morning runs. A group meets at the store and runs as much as 16 miles or so. They've got maps, water along the route, and bagels and juice at the end in the store. But that's where the magic happens. That's where I got to hear their expert staff sell shoes.

"Well, these are my old shoes ..."
"Ah ... I see. It looks like you're right handed ..."
"Yes"
"... and you run on the outside of your foot."

All of that by looking at the old shoe! Maybe this isn't reading tea leaves like I think it is but compared with my Kohl's experience ...

"These shoes make a weird sound."
"Did you try on another pair?"
"Yeah. They make the sound too."
"Uhhh ... I don't know what to tell you."
"Can you recommend another pair?"
"I don't usually work in this department. Sorry."

Compared to that it was like hearing a mystic tell the future. (Instead of reading palms he was reading feet!) I made a decision then and there that this would be my new favorite shoe store and my replacement 'new' shoes would come from here very soon. This experience showed me that expert advice is worth paying full price for. It is also a perfect case study for how to add value to the customer experience.

And how about that weekly run? I'm sure that's a decent-sized amount of money and labor for a small business. Water, bagels, juice, opening the store up at 7:00 a.m. But it got me to the store and let me see something that you can't put on a sign that you can see from the highway. Ironically they have a sign in the window that I have seen from the highway that says 'Expert Advice' but never paid attention to it but when I witnessed it in person ... Wow.

There's not copy to describe something like that. It's something you have to experience. Because, at the end of the day, that's what you're buying from a store like Running Wild. Not shoes or running gear but the experience of getting these commodities from a learned expert. Bravo.

The Real Front Lines of the Customer Experience

Seth Godin makes a great point about receptionists. It pays to make every step of a customer's experience remarkable. Receptionists are your advance team who make impressions on your clients very early in the sales process. Sometimes this interaction is enough to make or break the whole relationship.

Another way to look at it: think about the other items on the front lines of your customer experience -- business cards, letterhead, packaging, and the like. Do you spend as much time and careful consideration making sure your receptionist is as unique and personal as your business card? And I'm not talking about someone with the basic social skills to work at Any Office USA. I'm talking about someone with personality and funk who embodies what it's like to be in business with you.

Virtual Ad Space

Want to reach the gamer audience? Microsoft-owned Massive Incorporated has it figured out: sell ad space in the virtual universes of video games. The above screenshot from the game "Anarchy Online" illustrates the point beautifully. If you're promoting Batman Begins, why buy a generic billboard on the freeway where you speak to the questionably interested masses when you could buy a VG billboard with it's targeted (and lucrative) demographic? Impressive. With new media you can always drill deeper ...

Size Doesn't Matter

The first stone thrown at my previous Monster Trade Show post is always, "Yeah, well they're Monster," the detractor says with emphasis on the company name that conjures a giant Philistine of a corporation. And I have a follow up to this implication that we should all remember from David & Goliath: Size doesn't matter. That's what I reminded myself as I was standing there staring at their both like some sort of brand stalker.

At the end of the day, the magical part of what was happening at that booth had nothing to do with how big a company Monster is. Sure the war chest helps launch an effort like that but they have something more important and more rare than money -- acceptance of BIG ideas. These big ideas yield remarkable results. And you don't have to be Monster-sized to yield remarkable results.

A company of one has the capability of producing a trade show presence like Monster's. Careful now, I don't mean literally a 20' x 40' island booth with t-shirts, parties, and limos. I mean a trade show strategy that, at its own scale, is remarkable and keeps the show buzzing in its own way. All you need is acceptance of some big (and perhaps even crazy) ideas to help your idea stick in the minds of the attendees.

Remarkability defies size.

Case in point, a recent favorite of mine was a small company that put a new spin on the ubiquitous iPod giveaway. They had about twenty of them stacked up at their booth inviting salacious glances from passersby. But the real magic came not from the Pyramid-o-Pod but rather from what you had to do to get one.

In your bag of conference goodies was a button. Nothing fancy just a plain ol' button with the company name on it and their new slogan. With the button came instructions to wear this throughout the conference because they would have their reps walking around and at certain times their boss back at the booth would call one of these reps on their cell phone. Upon receiving the call, the rep was instructed to give an iPod to the first person they saw with the button on.

The results: Everybody was wearing the button all of the time! Plus, you wanted to be near this company's reps on the off chance that if they got the call you'd get the iPod (you should win some type of a marketing award for inventing a scheme that makes a consumer want to be near a sales rep). Finally, it created an 'active' buzz around this company and their presence at the show. To put it another way: they had it "goin' on." Simple and remarkable. Who can't make a few hundred buttons and buy some iPods?

The Point? Size doesn't matter. Remarkability trumps all. You have the power to be like Monster et al. if you open yourself up to the permeation of BIG ideas that your marketers are probably trying to sell you on for something or other right now.

P.S. I often speak of remarkability and to not feel like a hack, I have to plug Seth Godin's book Purple Cow which defines the concept of building remarkability into your business plan. If you do one thing for me (besides reading this blog), read this book!

The Monster That Ate the Trade Show

Recently I attended the national conference for SHRM, the Society of Human Resource Managers. A big player at this large conference was Monster.com. Given this audience's relevance to them, it was no surprise that they decided to own the show.

I had planned to summarize their strategy for you here but I found an article from Exhibitor Online that explains in great detail their Monster trade show strategy first established at SHRM a couple years ago. (Just change New Orleans to DC and you'd basically have this year's show.)

A top notch strategy by a top notch (and innovative) outfit.

I love trade shows for a couple of different reasons ...

1. They're like marketing amusement parks
2. They generate new leads and business but they also ...
   
3. Provide important opportunities for brand interaction

It's this last point that gets to be sticky for Ricky ROI. You know the guy I'm talking about. The one at the end of the conference room table that questions trade shows all the time because of the sticker shock. Then you have to get into metrics that sell him on lead acquisition cost, etc.

Really, I think that lead acquisition can only be part of your objective at a trade show. There's something else at play on the trade show floor. It's several brands fighting for position in the already crowded real-estate of a consumer's mind. But at the end of the day, I think you've got to be there. (The caveat of course is that this is a relevant show to your audience, etc. A relationship that Monster has found with SHRM -- it just fits.) At some big industry shows you have to attend simply for perception. It tells your customer that you're a player in this market too.

After you make your case to Ricky ROI and you are resolved to attend, he will next try to flank you at the size and scope of your booth. "Just do a 10' x 10,'" he says, waxing budget management. I have a different axiom at this point: If you are going to go -- then GO! Once you've made the investment in a trade show, upping your real-estate is really a nominal expense and can beef up the perception of your company.

Finally, be like Monster. By that I mean, don't treat a trade show on your calendar like a meeting that you'll be attending. Treat it like an event or complex marketing campaign that you need to plan every detail of. Pre-show, on-site, off-site, post-show -- everything. Their simple act of sending limos to the airport to take arriving attendees to the conference hotels was a stroke of genius. With that they became my personal concierge for this show and were quickly on their way to owning the hearts and minds of many attendees.

After the personal experience one has interacting with a brand at a trade show (fun at the booth with giveaways and product demos, at off-site parties and functions, or even riding in their limos), I have all sorts of positive associations with Monster that Yahoo HotJobs and Career Builder will have a tough time un-doing.

The Point? Trade shows rock. Are they expensive: Hell yes. You can bleed money at these things. But if carefully strategized, you can knock the ball out of the park and get real results (for Ricky ROI) and brand equity (immeasurable -- sorry Ricky) that aren't possible with any other media.

P.S. I'm on a trade show bent. Please email me any great books about trade show marketing. They have to exist but none come to mind. It seems like a sort of bastard channel. I know there are mags like Exhibitor but I'm wondering if there is some book that is the cornerstone of this complex media.

The Internet Can Do Anything!! (Even Save Screech's House)

By even pointing this out, I realize that I'm being part of the problem but I like this story in a guilty pleasure kind of way.

You see the bank is foreclosing on Screech from "Saved by the Bell"'s house. What's Screech doing about it? Selling t-shirts on a website at $15 a pop to save his digs ($20 gets you one autographed by Screech himself). He is gonna have to move a lot of shirts to hit the $250,000 he needs but I don't want to underestimate the power of Screech's fame. Plus all of the recent press can't be hurting his cause. Actually that's what rockets this little fundraiser from gimmick to remarkable.

The Point? This little parable illustrates a simple point: If Screech can use the internet to move the needle for his cause, you can too. I feel dirty for even saying it but 'Think like Screech.' (By the way that little axiom doesn't apply to anything else in life!)

Words on Work

Recently I got an info kit from the ad agency Energy BBDO. In the prospectus it contained a remarkable bit of copy that sums up the value of creating advertising for a client and I can't get it out of my head:

The Work. The Work. The Work. - In the tradition of all BBDO offices, we are dedicated to producing work that meets a high standard of creative excellence. After all, the work is where the brand meets the consumer. It touches their hearts and minds. And it is what leads to the sale.

Remarkable. I've been doing this for several years and I've never heard the urgency and importance of advertising summed up quite so eloquently as that second sentence. It's "where the brand meets the consumer."

The Point? Remember that your advertising campaigns are on the front lines with your customer. Pretty simple when you think about it.