The Marketing Reality Gap

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.  ~Einstein

Having a great handle on your buyers' reality is one of the most important aspects of great marketing. When we remain objective, seeing our markets in the truth of the present, we focus on customers' perceptions today. The problem is, staying objective and in reality isn't a natural thing for many of us. Human nature gets in our way. For example...

Humans can be passionate. It's really easy to let our passion shade our objectivity. I especially have to watch myself around this one. I'm a passionate person, and proud of it. When I believe in something, I'm like a puppy with a ragdoll. I will not let go. I get excited, energized and ready to take the world by storm. That passion fuels my creativity - which is a really good thing. Unless I step so far into my own passionate beliefs that I lose my objectivity about my customers' reality.  Our passion for our products, technology, services and more can create blinders to our customers' truths. That's when we lose sight of what really matters in our markets. 

A herd mentality also makes it tough to remain objective. We tend to adopt the beliefs and perspectives of those around us - in our business and our personal lives. It's how we form societies, friendships, business cultures and families. The more we interact with others and their beliefs, the easier it is to mind-meld with them. Sooner or later, we can lose our objective focus.  That's especially true in business - where we tend to be programmed with the corporate legends about which customers are smart, which are a pain in the you know what, which value sells and so much more....all based on our past experiences - not today's reality. 

Humans learn - and that messes with our objective view of reality.  We learn from others and our own experiences.  This is the biggest challenge to seeing reality around. We learn from that bad experience with a certain market - and we decide we can't be successful there. Even if the market shifts toward us - we don't see the opportunity objectively. We see it for what it was, not is.  That's true of almost every human belief  - those beliefs are based on yesterday's news, not today's reality.

Hanging onto the Customers' Reality

So how do we stay in our reality given the human condition -and the very bold reality that we are all Humans in Business? Here are tips I recommend to clients. 

Spend time in the real world. The bottom line is that what our buyers believe IS our reality, whether we like it or not. So go into the real world often and listen closely. It doesn’t really matter what any of us vendors think – what matters is what our buyers believe. Talk to people outside of your company, outside of your partners and channels or your best customers.  Get outside your comfort zone of familiar folks who tell you the same things over and over again - they've drunk your koolaid right along with you! Go look for some fresh perspectives - new prospects, folks outside of your market, that potential buyer who didn't buy from you. Ask them about their perspectives...and get ready for a strong dose of reality.  Only from our customers' reality can we create compelling buying propositions for our audiences. 

Shoot those Sacred Cows. Challenge everything you believe, ask questions, debate those big beliefs that you automatically follow.  If you have a belief you hang on to for dear life, or a belief that you push away and refuse to evaluate - you're probably dealing with a gravity-ridden sacred cow. Don’t just follow the strategy you defined a year ago, believe that positioning story is still all powerful. Ask yourself "What is true today-and tomorrow."  Sacred Cows keep us stuck in our past. Shoot 'em dead and step up to today - and tomorrow's truth. 

Be contrary.  If you're in a team environment, have a debate. Have part of the team defend the status quo viewpoint. Then have some other folks defend different perspectives that are contrary to that status quo. Appoint some neutral referees if you have a peppy team, and start the conversation. The objective is to explore every possible aspect, from all the angles. The more we push the envelopes of the status quo - the more opportunities we uncover. 

We all lose our objectivity. That's part of being human.

The question is - are you willing to make the effort it takes to remain in your buyer's reality? It's not that difficult to do - it does take a shift in your own behaviors. First, agree to cast aside your own business legends and beliefs.  Then, step into your buyers' world, focus on understanding their experience and their perceptions. Once you do that - you can move forward with their beliefs as the core of your business focus.  

Always remember - it's ALL about them.  Now more than ever! 

Three Cheers for Marketing Innovation

I love great marketing.  I especially love great marketing that shows Zero Gravity thinking - mapping innovative value to real-time buyer needs. After all, the formula for business growth doesn't have to be difficult. It's really quite simple.

When we provide distinct value that our buyers need (to solve a problem or improve their world)  - our business will grow.

Here, here to businesses who are following that simple formula in today's world. For example:

Best Buy has always been one of my favorite Zero Gravity businesses. I've written about their innovation before.

Now they have a new program that is just too cool. Best Buy is offering to Future_Proof their buyers' technology urchases. what a GREAT idea. We all know that technoogy moves faster and faster. That laptop we bought last year is acient history, and phones change on a weekly basis.

Best Buy has an answer. Their new Buy Back program protects your technology purchases.  For a few dollars, you purchase the Buy Back program when you buy technology at Best Buy (including TVs, phones, laptops, netbooks and more). When it gets a bit aged (say in a year) you can bring it back and get a Buy Back discount from Best Buy - applied to an upgrade.  And don't think they're giving you peanuts.  Best Buy's published valuations are pretty darned fair.  What  a great marketing idea that offers real value to technology buyers - and solves a problem we all experience.

Nationwide Insurance has a new offer that really got me smiling. It's called their Vanishing Deductible program.  It's simple brilliance. Here's how it works.  Sign up for the auto insurance program., and Nationwide will automaticaly reduce your deductible by $100.  Then, for ever year that you drive safely, without a claim, they'll continue to reduce your deductible by $100.  For someone like me, who hasn't had a claim in 10 years, this program is enough to make me look at a new insurance carrier. For that day when something does happen. After all, I should get some kind of reward for safe driving - and the discounts my current insurance provider offers don't shine a candle to the "what if" message of Nationwide. Even though it is a future/potential saving - it surely makes you think, now doesn't it?

Both of these businesses are appealing to our frugality in the new economy.  After all, frugal is the new black.  But these programs also offer real value to buyers - value that is compelling to their markets, and that shows these businesses understand and care about their buyers. Simple genius!

The third cheer goes to Red Baron pizza. If you want a commodity market, pizza has to be it! And there are huge market leaders out there. Yet relatively small Red Baron just introduced a simple little packaging shift that I personally find to be marketing at its finest.

We all know we eat on the run. Our kids eat on the run - if they eat at all.  Enter Red Baron's frozen pizza by the slice. Fresh from the microwave and proclaimed to be as good as a pie from the local pizzeria. Red Baron has also packaged individual deep dish pizzas.They offer a variety of toppings to match any tastebud on the go.

We can argue the healthiness, or lack of, about pizza. And we can debate the goodness of frozen pizza. But let's also admit it - anything you can get a kid to eat is better than nothing. Being able to throw a single slice in the microwave and hand it to them on their way out the door has to be a big value to lots of family buyers. Red Baron mapped their product packaging to that very value and the needs of their most prominent markets - families on the go. 

Hats off to these Zero Gravity businesses - focused on providing the value today's buyers need. That's how businesses grow - in any economy!  Now, where's my pizza.....

A Rebel Rant Reprise

I have a new Kopy Kat in my life - a big FAT one.  So I thought I'd share this again!

Turning Passion into Profits

Rebel's Raving About Plum Willow

Set us Free

Last week I shared a post with you concerning an Internet scam artist named Colin Lewis.   Many of us had known about his scams since the July timeframe,  yet we all stayed silent, mostly. Why?  Because there was an  innocent woman and small children involved at the time -  people who Colin had wooed so masterfully and then abandoned so cruelly here in the states.  We all wanted to give them the chance to recover from Colin's atrocities.

Now that the story is out -  so many are coming forward to say how much better they feel now that they can share the truth. 

Isn't that how it always is?

We sometimes dread stepping up for the truth - especially when it's an unpopular position.  We fret and fear, wonder how people will react and then finally -  when we do step up -  we feel so much better.  What's more -  usually people embrace the truth much better than we expected.

So right now, ask yourself:

•  Is there a truth I'm not sharing- about my business, my value, my customers, my product, my dreams, my life? 
• Is there a truth i'm not willing to see because of the potential downsides and repercussions if I do see it? 

We all are trained to avoid conflict and the ugly situations in our lives. It's all part of being human.   The good news is that we can learn to ditch those gravity beliefs. We can pivot to a passion for the truth in all its crazy forms.  For only from the truth can we  truly grow.

Funny isn't it? In a way our "friend" Colin ( and I use the term friend loosely)  taught us all another lesson -  beyond the obvious ones. Colin reminded us of the value of pursuing and sharing our truth -  in all of its ugly, sometimes painful, often hard to believe forms.

The truth really does set us free. 

A Reprise: Top 10 Drama Queens

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Gravity Freeze

I picked up my mail last week and saw this cover - yet another "Woe is Me" media proclaimation that drives me nuts. 

 

This kind of media naysaying causes what I call a Gravity Freeze. That's what happens when a powerful group of influencers promote Gravity thinking, consequently Freezing everyone that hears their message in their current beliefs -  like deer in the headlights, waiting to be run over.  In this case,  the media is essentially contributing heavily to the belief that there's little hope for  any forward progress in terms of our economy. Thanks to the continued negative press and coverage - a lot of people are Frozen in Gravity, hopeless as to a recovery of any kind.

I wanted to share  a few facts about our current economic condition. They paint a different picture than the above headline.  I'm not saying we have a recovery. What I am saying is that we have the ability to recover - if we would shift out of the negative 'woe is me' and into a new, forward focused way of thinking and believing.

Why do I believe we have the means to recover? Check out the following facts:

• As of April 2010, US corporations were sitting on $1.6 trillion in cash reserves, a record amount. Even looking at the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index of blue chips -- and stripping out the large cash reserves required by regulators to balance against risk -- the cash on hand number is still huge: $1.1 trillion. To put that in perspective, as a percentage of companies' total market capitalization, that $1.1 trillion held as cash is more than double the ratio seen before the crisis.*

Imagine what half of that stockpile could accomplish toward fueling a recovery - if corporations would choose to focus forward toward growth, instead of being in Graviyt Freeze focused on the pas economic struggles and fear.

• The same goes for private investors. According to a report from Scorpio Partnership, the world’s high-net-worth investors (with $1 million or more) have an extra $10 trillion that they are hoarding instead of sharing with money managers for investment.  These investors do have $16.5 trillion invested with private banks and wealth-management firms - which is up from $14.5 trillion at the end of 2008. That 'up' is largely the result of market gains. But Scorpio, a London consulting firm, says wealthy investors actually have more than $26 trillion that they could be giving the banks and wealth-management firms to manage. “This implies there is approximately $10 trillion of high-net-worth assets that could be advised by banks,” the firm says. “Capturing these assets is the real answer for industry recovery.”**

Now think about the fuel that extra $10 Trillion in assets could bring tio economic growth. Even half of that $10 Trillion would make a huge shift in our economy. Half of the private wealth and half of the corporate stockpiles would change the face of our economy from slow and painful to energized and healthy.

• Now let's look at the shift that's happened in the past years with regard to the distribution of wealth.  In the 1970's, the top one percent of earners in the US accounted for 9% of total earnings.  Today, that same one percent takes in nearly 24% of total earnings.  Read that again everyone. We've shifted so much wealth to the wealthy, that we've dramatically reduced the earnings of middle and lower class workers. 

Imagine the impacts if the majority of the wealthy followed the lead of individuals like Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett? What if they stepped up to their $600 Billion Challenge to donate 50% of their wealth to charity during, or after, their lifetime?  Think what changes that would make in our entire economic system as those less fortunate were empowered thanks to the wealth of that top one percent?

We have the means to recover - a recovery for all of the US. The challenge rests with those who hold the power - the cash - to stimulate that recovery. Until those in control of the fuel step up and change their own status quo thinking and actions - we may just be stuck in the Gravity Freeze.

The problem with that is that those same folks and businesses don't feel the Freeze - they sit back and gnash their teeth about the potential of losing their stockpiles of cash- while others lose their homes, their jobs, their livelihoods and - their lives.

So how do we get those cash hoarders out of their Gravity?  I don't have a good answer for that one. I wish I did. It's unfathomable to me that so few could hold the balance of our economy in their tight fists - watching as those less fortunate suffer because of their fear.

What do you think? How do we break through the Freeze and start the fuel pumping? Any ideas?

_____________

* Source:  ABC News
** Source  Wall Street Journal
*** Source: The New York Times

Gone Campin'

Shadowman and I are going to rest and relax in the Tahoe mountains for the Labor Day weekend.

I'll be back on Tuesday September 7th to beging the final week's contdown until the Lift Off of Defy Gravity on 9/14. 

Have a great holiday weekend!

Rebel Rant: Best Practices = Gravity