Category: Marketing Insight

Packaging

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

 

What does great packaging look like?

Chances are you will have to package your widget for your start up. Or at least something in your new business.  I often ask people the best packaging they have ever seen. Coming from a consumer goods background I get a lot of varied answers, but never do I get the answer I propose the be the ultimate.

The banana:

Easy opening, but only when it’s ripe

Consume straight from packaging

Changes color from green to yellow as it nears its zenith

Quality of each unit verified by packaging

Built in ‘used by date’ indictor – packaging changes color

Category defining

Gives off product fragrance

Ergonomic design & handling

Childproof

Protects interior

Biodegradable

 

Oh, I nearly forgot, good for slipping enemies in a car chase.

 

What can you learn from Nature?

How would nature package your product?

Take Note…

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Take Note…

of your personal spending, every cent.

of what people talking about in your circle of friends.

of the shape of consumer durables. Round or square.

of large company spin to defend their market practices.

of newly busy places.

of places now calm.

of defunct retail outlets.

of what is now automated.

of what is now manual.

of what is now electronic.

This is your world. Take note.

Notice the word ‘OF’… Derived. Coming from. Causation.

These are your developing opportunities. Consider the insights from these bundles. They’re interactive.  Decipher the links and you’ll find a business or ways to improve yours.

Mobile Phones – Apples with Apples?

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

A friend has started selling mobile phone plans. Network marketing, selling person to person. First of all hats off to anyone, doing something to bootstrap a business, learn new skills. The differentiator for this business is price. They do it cheaper because it is a personal selling organization. So he gave me the pitch which I was happy to listen to. Told me I would save a few bucks a month (Ok), and that the more people he or we get on the plans the cheaper it gets and we all get rich and live happily ever after.

 

 

So it is not remarkable, but valid. He lost me when he gave me the pricing, and it was cheaper…

 

He lost me when I heard the magic words….. You get $250 worth of calls for $50 (not exact, but you get the gist)

When quizzed on why they used this pricing structure the answer was.

“It is so you can compare apples with apples”. 

I heard, “We just do what everyone else does”.

All mobile service providers use this type of chicanery. Pricing structures, $50 for $250 worth of calls… very average marketing. Do they really think consumers can’t see through this? They want you to be able to compare apples with apples. Maybe you want a banana? (to my Australian readers, no pun intended)

Maybe people just want some honesty and integrity?

Here’s a novel idea… You pay $50 and get $50 worth of calls. This is the fact…How can it not be? Right now consumers put up with it, only because there is no alternative. Apples with apples…I want some bananas.

So I told him, here is the word from the street…. Me, a person with a mobile advising you, a person selling mobile plans, what I would like to see. How about this; $50 gets you 360 minutes of talking time. X number of texts. No connection fees. You’re already connected, right? No tricks. How about you send a free text any time to your provider and they text you back to advise how much talking time you have left?

Strategic Positioning – Authenticity

Tag line – ‘No tricks’

He answered, “They have the structures I am just selling what they have to build my business”.  

If it was me, I’d be changing the game, finding out if his direct marketing firm ‘get it’, if they want to be change agents.

Right, now there’s a massive opportunity out there for a mobile service provider who cuts the chicanery and calls it as it is. (no pun intended, again!) Provides a price structure that people can understand. Maybe consumers won’t be as price sensitive if they can trust their service provider?

Don’t just accept an industry maxim. If you don’t like it, I’m sure others don’t. Change it.

Can Marketing Save The World?

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Marketing is quite possibly the most powerful tool in the world. A powerful force not limited to the following examples…

 

Bottled Water

Sells for twice the price of petrol, or you can get it free from a tap…. This stuff falls out of the sky! (Bottled water is often worse quality than the tap version)

     Nike Air

Made people believe that $300 running shoes are better than an $80 version. Yes, you will be like Mike!

 

   Hermes Handbags

 

Start at over $5000 and can sell for over $200,000.

 

I’m sure you can think of many examples where consumer purchase decisions could never be justified rationally.

Why, are examples of such prowess are becoming rare? Because most big companies have lost their Mojo. They don’t get it anymore.

Corporate leaders must communicate the rationale behind strategy. The numbers have to back it up. You see, upon failure there’s a back up. They can point to all the hard data, research, product superiority and price competitiveness. If plans don’t work out, they can shift the blame and explain how the world changed. It’s too hard to justify an emotional based strategy in a boardroom. Qualitative justifications can’t compete with a rational argument in today’s corporate environment.

This presents a problem for large companies, as only with true emotional influence is the power of marketing unleashed. And the system does not currently allow for emotional decision making. It is much better to control the emotional side of the equation. To influence the intangible is to win.The most powerful forces of the mind are emotion and instinct. Quantitative assessment of risk has only been around a couple of thousand years. This was evidenced in Peter Bernsteins book; Against the Gods – The Amazing Story of Risk. 

If marketing can be so emotive and then it can do much good for our world. And we need this.

Few marketers understand the true laws of this art. They are hard to follow in a complex world, impossible to follow in a large corporation. Maybe the power of marketing can be unleashed to solve problems like environmental degradation. If you are a marketer out there who “gets it”, please use your power for good.

Be Offensive

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Are you offending someone? Is your new start up offensive?

 

It can be a really good idea to offend a group of people. Not just for the fun of it, it needs to be offensive for a reason. That reason needs to be that it makes it perfectly suited to someone else. When you’re offensive you have a higher probability of being noticed, just because….

 

You also have a higher probability of premium pricing and finding loyalty.

 

By the way, offensive doesn’t mean illegal or immoral, just something someone might hate.

Walk

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

When is the last time you walked somewhere? You see more when you walk, the world moves in slow motion. You become closer to your environment. Speed is the enemy of insight.

tortoise            Slow down, see more.

Cut New Ground

Posted on by Steve Sammartino
  • Drive a different route to work
  • Take public transport
  • Shop somewhere different
  • Go people watching
  • Go somewhere you have never been
  • Reverse the order of daily tasks
  • Change your reading habits
  • Pretend you’re poor for a week
  • Pretend you’re rich for a week
  • Buy something you’ve never bought before
  • Make something you always buy
  • Do the opposite of what you do now

New environs create new thinking. Entrepreneurs need an open mind. What can you do to open yours?