Is Nature a Marketing Guru?

Distance Education Helps You Get Ahead

CanadianMedsWorld.com

Technology rules. Yeah, for about five minutes--then natural instincts take over. Are you stupid enough to fight Mamma Nature? Well go ahead and rewrite the rules if you can, cause the Big Mamma knows one thing. She’s tried and tested it all. And if you want to play by her kooky rules, she is willing to teach you a thing or two.

The question is, are you willing to learn?

Do You Pay in Advance?
Have you noticed how big a brand Red Bull is today? Or how insignificant their advertising is? Red Bull shuns print advertising and has never done a triple back flip on a web campaign. Yet, it has found roots in over 50 countries. And has cemented its loyalty in the fickle land of teenagers.

So what’s Red Bull’s big secret?

It’s called GIVING.

Their marketing strategy was simple. They enticed students with free cases of Red Bull, if they threw a party. Guess how many students need an excuse to have a party? With a simple act of giving away free cases to the right target audience in the right universities, Red Bull became a very rich Red Bull.

Yet Where Are Most Marketing Plans Aimed?
Too often marketing is aimed solely at GETTING. Look at all those marketing plans, those many advertisements blaring away on the radio and TV. It’s get, get -- all the time!

Yet, nature pooh poohs the stuff. Putting a carrot (not cart) before the horse, nature works on the giving part first. In its own little marketing and advertising way, a flower works contrary to most marketers. Using the bait of colour and nectar, it draws the bees, knowing full well that its very existence depends on giving bees what they want first, so the bees will carry their pollen.

Wander down the supermarket aisle and you’ll see what I mean. Fifty thousand brands stare at you, screaming at you to buy them. Then a little ol’ lady offers you a sample of a product. Fifteen seconds into your tasting session, she gives you another sample. Then, for no apparent reason, a bottle or two of the product finds itself in your cart. Were you sold? You betcha!

Giving works for a simple reason. Nature hates imbalance. If the deer get faster, so do the cheetahs. It’s a classic system to keep things in balance. Which effectively means that to create an imbalance in marketing in your favor, you’ve got to give first.

Are You Ready To Do the 1-2-3 and Cha-Cha-Cha?
Do you play the dating game? Or do you rush in to conquer most of the time? Mamma Nature knows that haste makes waste. Yet marketers think nothing of blowing squillions of dollars on various hare-brained, get-rich-quick schemes that achieve far less than their potential.

Here's an example. Harley Davidson has been to hog hell and back. Just in time to save its bacon, it decided to work on the cha-cha-cha instead of the wham, bam method. The reward has manifested itself in thousands of die-hard Harley fans that would go all the way on their Harleys. Even today, despite being in an enviable position, Harley still finds time to wine and dine its customers while thumbing its nose at traditional media.

Another good example of cha-cha-cha marketing is how the British operated in the 19th century. Instead of slamming their way into conquering new lands, they went as traders. Whether history likes it or not, they maximized their potential in a systematic and natural marketing manner.

What Happens When Nature Goofs Up
Even nature loses out when it fails to obey its own rules. As long as it sticks to its spring, summer, autumn, winter routine, we go along with the "relationship." Yet every time it does the 60-second prime time TV spot on us, we absolutely hate it. Oh sure, there’s great colour, drama and pizzazz in a whirling tornado, but there’s zero empathy and a whole lot of defiance.

Turn on the music, move those feet. This isn’t some behemoth CRM program we’re talking about. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but flowers arouse less suspicion. Do the cha-cha-cha and the getting to know your customer. It’s cheaper, it follows steps, and it works.

Is Your Target Audience "Everyone?"
Nature would laugh at you and laugh heartily. Are you setting yourself up for disaster or what? Even a pimple-ridden 13 year old knows exactly who her knight in shining armor is. While the concept of being in the company of 20 gorgeous men would set her eyes alight, her brain knows better.

Yet most businesses horrify the heck out of Nature. In an apparent suicidal move, they go after a general audience in order to maximize their returns. Some of the biggest brands today are built on single-minded focus. Mercedes, Volvo, Rolex, McDonalds, Red Bull and Playboy all have a clearly defined target audience.

If you doubt it, take a look at a wild dog attack on a National Geographic broadcast. Have you noticed the focus and strategy of their attack? They single out the prey and go after it in a pre-defined relay system. It gets results, and isn’t that what you want?

Gotta Keep on Dancing
When was the last time your heart stopped beating? And isn’t that good, because if it did, you’d be taking harp lessons in a big hurry. Nature doesn’t stop its marketing campaign and neither should you. The first thing businesses do when the economy takes a downturn is pull the plug on marketing. Fat good that’s going to do you! That’s like telling your heart to work at half the heart beats when things aren’t good.

The planet doesn’t stop rotating, the trees don’t stop growing and the fish don’t stop swimming. Yet in an absolute violation of the most basic law of nature, we stop and start like some trainee driver.

There Ain’t No One Like Me!
Nature doesn’t brand-extend. It creates something and then it throws away the mould. When it creates a product, it makes sure that product thrives, grows and multiplies. It adds colour, shape and size for a bountiful variety, but brand extension is a no-no.

Yet look at some of the biggies out there. They put out their brands and then put their names on everything from computers to soap. Dove still stands for soap with 1/4th moisturising cream. Yet, in the supermarket, Dove tries to take on the full force of nature by brand-extending.

Does it work? Yes and no. People have too much clutter in their heads already. To add to that clutter is asking for trouble. Our brains identify with one object when we are given a name.

From Nokia to Chimpanzee
When I say Nokia, you say mobile phone. Yet Nokia sold everything from gumboots to computers -- even TV sets. Then one day it dawned on them that they could conquer the world with a brand name that stood for one thing and one thing alone.

Sure a chimpanzee and a baboon are both monkeys, but they’re essentially different products. You won’t find a chimpanzee light or a chimpanzee diet in the species. They’re either chimps or they’re baboons! Besides, their unique brand name allows you to identify them with zero confusion every time! Uniqueness is your brand’s birthright. Use it well.

Here are some "Au Naturel" guidelines to business and marketing strategy:

1) Pay in Advance: First you shall sow, and then you shall reap. And you must sow in fertile ground not on rocky soil. Give, and you shall receive. Does this all sound familiar? Are you giving away anything worthwhile on your website, through your advertising, in your brochures?

2) Do the dance one step at a time: You’ll just make a fool of yourself if you don’t build up your reputation with your customers. Give them the best you possibly can. When nature puts on a beautiful butterfly, it starts with a worm.

3) Put on the glasses: Get focus in your life because Nature will make sure you pay big time if you don’t. Sure you can get business, but think of what’s possible if you focus. A little focus right now reaps long-term rewards. It’s your choice.

4) She’s only happy when she’s dancing: Is that a Bryan Adams song? Or is Nature telling us what we should be doing? She’s on the floor. Go on and boogie.

5) And then there was one: Is your fingerprint different? Is your iris different? Do you have a clone? Nature doesn’t think it works in real life. Why do you think differently?

6) And finally: Take off your headphones and look at what nature is saying.

It’s showing you the colour of money!

By Sean D'Souza, http://www.psychotactics.com/

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Making Mad Money on eBay

The Care And Feeding Of Your Future, Without The Soap Opera Drama And Trauma

One day in the early 1990's Diana Duyser of Hollywood, Fla. made herself a grilled- cheese sandwich. Then she gazed down at the brown skillet marks on the bread: "I saw a face looking up at me; it was the Virgin Mary staring back. I was in total shock," she later told reporters. Diana held on to the sandwich for 10 years — then sold it on eBay for $28,000.

The most frequent way eBay makes the news is from such reports of goofy or bizarre items that sell on the site, often at prices that astound. Their numbers are legion, with some items becoming legendary to the point of entering folk culture. Though it is a subjective issue, by some estimates the blue-ribbon winners in this category were the breast implants of a former stripper, a certain Ms. Tawny Peaks. Previously, Peaks made news in 1998 when accused of assaulting a gentleman by hitting him with her breasts.

The victim claimed whiplash because her implants "were like cement blocks." This 'trial' took place on TV in The Peoples Court, the presiding 'judge' Ed Koch, former mayor of New York, rejected the suit, ruling the assets soft, therefore non lethal. In 1999, Peaks got married and had the implants removed. After six years of languishing on a shelf, Tawny had an idea: she decided to autograph her implants and auction them off on eBay. On Feb. 25, 2005, The Golden Palace, an Internet casino, bought them for $16,777. Previously, the Golden Palace had purchased on eBay the notorious Virgin Mary cheese sandwich, a haunted walking stick ($65, 000,) and the "mystery envelope?" ($7,600.) More recently the company bought a Britney Spears half-eaten egg salad sandwich and a William Shatner kidney stone.

At first glance it might seem that the folks at Golden Palace have more money than sense — a lot more money. But do they really? The publicity garnered from purchasing these ridiculous items is much better than simply spending money on traditional advertising. Nor did Peaks' implants reach $16, 777 with just a single bid; clearly, separating the lunatic-fringe bidders, there were other entrepreneurs who had the same idea. In short, there is a market for the strange, weird, bizarre, ridiculous and unimaginable on eBay. EBay's home for the absurd is the "Weird Stuff" category that breaks down into three sub-categories: "Slightly Unusual," "Really Weird," "Totally Bizarre." A recent check showed about 12,000 auctions in the three sub-categories. Regardless of where they're placed, the sales vary widely in weirdness, from redundant ads for "miracle diet pills" to " Secret Information From Outer Space." The "Buy It Now" sales outnumber auctions as they allow sellers with redundant copies of popular items to re-list quickly.

Catering to eBay's absurd auction buyers, while perhaps lacking in dignity, can be profitable. However, competition is fierce: on a recent check of the 12,000 sales in the 'Weird' categories, less than 10 percent had garnered bids. Given that nowadays most eBay buyers are savvy enough to bid at the last minute, the seller still needs a "hook" to succeed with the absurd. That generally translates into crossover appeal. Here we will attempt by example to offer some ideas of what works and what doesn't for eBay sellers who are, depending on your viewpoint, shameless, courageous or creative enough to try it.

Don't Mention Money
EBay has no problem with crass auctions, as long as they stay within company rules and federal laws. Sellers cannot conduct raffles, lotteries or games of chance and the mention of cash is forbidden (although a box full of "dead presidents" of different denominations passes muster somehow.) In one interesting case, however, the "cash" rule does not apply. At 14,000 to the dollar, Iraqi dinars are basically worthless currency, not traded on the world market. Nevertheless, one Power Seller offers large sums of it in multiple sales, all drawing bids, all containing pages of argument on how someday things will settle down in Iraq, the oil will flow, the currency will be revalued, etc., making the buyer rich. It's a sort of "the South will rise again" argument on an international scale, with successful results, at least for the moment.

Mystery Auctions
Mystery auctions are perhaps the most popular theme among eBay's "Weird" categories. EBay "one-cent wonder" sellers, for instance, have found new life through this avenue. Buyers had been shying away from sellers who offer items at pennies and make their profit by slamming the buyer with excessive shipping fees. But buyers do not seem to be able to resist bidding on the unknown, especially if it's labeled a "gift." In order to convert profits into serious money however, sellers often combine the allure of "mystery" with the crossover appeal of "gifts," love, sex, greed, the fascination with the grotesque and absurd, and an interesting story, plausible or otherwise. In a recent instance over the holiday season a seller offered in Dutch auction, a "mystery holiday gift," nicely gift wrapped at the more than moderate price of 6 cents. Shipping, however, came in at $8.50. Doing the math, a seller could buy any sort of trinket at closeout or 99-cent store, buy boxes and wrapping in quantity, and turn a profit of $4 or $5 with each sale.

The Love Connection
Love in all its permutations is frequently offered on eBay, sometimes with mixed results. In February an auction was posted with an image of a provocatively dress woman offering to be somebody's "Personal MySpace Girlfriend." The description stated: "I will add to your profile and send you messages. Also, I will answer all your emails and send you profiles for all your friends to see." The love in this case was conditional — "up to two weeks," and the auction was taken down by eBay. On the other hand, the offer of "unconditional love" for a perfect romantic Valentine's Day in New York City, complete with a Godinger Shannon crystal coach and several mystery gifts, sold for $263. Love lost can also pay dividends, particularly when combined with mystery or heartbreak. "My ex-wife cheated on me and now it's time for payback," touted the header on another recent eBay auction.

The sale was accompanied by a photo of the ex in lingerie. "I'm not auctioning her, the photo is just to arouse curiosity," we were advised, then told it was a mystery auction of something his former wife loved, with hints accompanying each $100 in bids. The mystery item, apparently a designer garment, sold for $405. Another ad had the header: "He Left Us For My Best Friend," and was accompanied by the photo of the cad holding an infant. The seller tells us she was seduced and abandoned and was now selling off the dad's belongings in a "mystery auction" format. The seller had more than 100 feedbacks, all previous sales being mystery auctions, with mediocre positive feedback. This did not prevent 40 bids and a selling price of $250. Love-loss prevention also does well on the site as male chastity belts are hot sellers in the $250 to $500 range, and for the lovelorn, inflatable female blow up dolls never fail to draw bids.

The Whimsical, Creative and Odd
Sometimes, it's worth just listing something to see if it will work, because you just never know what will happen, and if there's low over-head, why not try? One seller attracted 33 bids for a pack of cigarettes he was currently smoking, until eBay pulled the sale with 15 hours left. In another off-beat auction, a pair of brothers who are musicians offer to write an original song, on any topic and deliver it by e-mail or snail mail. The listing is accompanied by a photo of two handsome young men. Judging by the number of feedbacks, this gambit works. One enterprising vendor auctioned off a piece of toast supposedly bearing the image of Britney Spears' bald head. Granted, it sold for just $1, but considering the initial investment, that's not a bad return. In another case, given the unusually mild, snow-free early winter in the Northeast, Mary Walker of Loveland, Co. thought it would be fun to auction off three snowballs made from the 4 feet of snow dumped on the Colorado Front Range in early January. Three days and 100 bids later, the snowballs sold for $200 to Chris Hansen, a Connecticut firefighter, who bought them for his three teenage daughters.

Walker posted the auction as a joke, and at first refused to accept Hansen's money, but the firefighter insisted and Walker was stuck trying to figure out how to get the snowballs to Connecticut intact. In other instances, just going for the grotesque or "freak of nature" works. For example, in this category, there are two-headed stuffed chickens, currently garnering $550 with eight bids, but two heads is not always better than one. Imitation shrunken heads made of goat hair and skin seem to be popular too as these listings are also drawing bids.

Biblical Proportions
A "Jesus" search among the Weird categories nets an appalling assortment. Apparently inspired by the success of the Virgin Mary cheese sandwich, sellers are offering images of Jesus on rocks, frying pans, photos of cloud formations and just about anything else you can imagine, because, oddly enough, people bid on them. In one of the few intentionally humorous sales found, a header read "Grilled Cheese Sandwich Looks Nothing At All Like Jesus." The description noted, "Looks remarkably like a grilled cheese sandwich." But then, even at 99 cents and free shipping it attracted no bidders. One recent religious relic, a priest's last-right's kit, however, sold for $36.99, showing there's always a market for the unusual, especially when it is the real thing.

Celebrities
It goes without saying that any item even claimed to have been touched by a celebrity can bring in the bucks, though some types of items sell better than others. The catch is getting your hands on, say, the hand-written letter from Anna Nicole Smith that just sold for $488. Usually, the celeb items fall into the more obscure arena, as is the case with a fork claimed to have been used by the former rapper Vanilla Ice that's still languishing with one bid of 99 cents.


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Marketing to Moms

7 Habits of Business Success

Most of the best businesses and products for moms come from moms themselves. Your experience as a mom should help you identify with your customers, but realize not all moms are the same. How you market to them may be as important as the product or service you offer.

For business owners, the $1.6 trillion "Mommy Market" is well worth pursuing. In the book Trillion Dollar Moms, Maria Bailey and Bonnie Ulman teach you how to take advantage of this lucrative market. They describe three generations of moms: baby boomer moms, Gen X moms and Millennial new moms. If your company is still marketing to soccer moms, you're missing two-thirds of the mom market.

Their book examines how recent generational shifts have impacted the buying behaviors of today's mothers and moms-to-be. Moms today want high quality and are proud to admit when they get a good price. That's part of why you're seeing more designer items at stores like Target and K-Mart. Most moms surveyed by Bailey and Ulman say they feel advertising is not geared toward them and many feel that advertising is offensive.

With all of that in mind, here are some tips for appealing to this key demographic.

• Focus on networks. When marketing to moms, you need to take advantage of the networks they build. Moms love to talk about what they're buying, so if you have a good product or message, the word will spread. Virtually all new moms join some sort of play group or support group, so it's wise to get your message across to these members.
  
  
• Embrace technology. Never before have so many moms researched a product or service online. Moms don't have time to go to stores to shop around, nor do they want to bring their kids to the store if they don't have to. A good website and high search rankings are essential to being found and reviewed by the mommy market. Ideally, moms should be able to easily purchase your product online.
  
  
• Offer education. Moms use the internet to educate themselves. Offer valuable content that moms can reference as a way to bring them to your site. Moms spend more time online than they do in front of a TV.
  
  
• Save them time. Moms will all agree they need more time. Focus on the time savings benefits of your product or service, and it'll score points with moms. Moms are expert multi-taskers and crave the ability to do more in less time.
  
  
• Get to the point. Tied to lack of time, moms want marketing that gets to the point. Offer free shipping or a quick deal, but don't ask moms to spend time reading about your product or service. If you're offering a discount, show the price they'll pay. Don't ask moms to figure out what 10 percent off will be. If you have a product, show a picture; don't give a lengthy description.
  
  
• Market to the individual. Yes, we're all moms, but we're also different. Some moms stay at home, some work at home, and some work away from home. Be careful that your marketing message doesn't make a blanket statement that would leave someone out. Don't assume all moms are home watching Oprah.

Want more information on marketing to moms? There's a Marketing2Moms course offered by Moms in Business. It's a 16-week e-mail course that'll help you understand and market to today's mom. Marketing to moms is becoming somewhat of a science. It's surprisingly well researched and has very concrete solutions. With moms holding the purse strings of household budgets across the country, make sure you're sending the right message.

Lisa Druxman is Entrepreneur.com's "Mompreneur" columnist and the founder and CEO of fitness franchise, Stroller Strides. Druxman is also a nationally recognized speaker and author, and is considered an expert in thefield of fitness, particularly pre- and postnatal fitness. For more information on how to launch or grow your Mommy Owned Business, e-mail her about her Mommy Owned Business Academy atlisa@strollerstrides.com.

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