Repetition, repetition, repetition. The message needs to remain the same. Keep your brand in tact.

Some businesses go insane when it comes to branding.

The only font we use is size 14 Arial Bold in color #367286

Here’s the thing. Small businesses don’t need to worry about this as much as say Nike does, and we all prove this point every day.

Think about a local restaurant that you drive by every single day. Every single day you drive by this place.  You  may even have driven by it for the past 15 years! And yet, you’ve never ever stopped.

Maybe it’s not a restaurant. Who knows? It doesn’t matter. But you know what I’m talking about, right? There’s that place that has maybe piqued your interest on occasion, maybe even daily, but you’ve never take the time to stop and check it out.

The thing is, they did what they were told. This is what all the books on marketing say about branding through repetition. The sign never changes. The branding is always the same. So if brand consistency is the key, we would have stopped after driving by the first 60, or so, times. I’ve now driven by 6000 times and still haven’t stopped.

This is a small business mistake. Your brand and branding is 100% absolutely important, but sometimes small businesses need to shake it up!

Branding for big business is even more important. Over the years, big brands have written their stories. It might be a story of trust, or customer service, or great taste, or quality engineering. It resonates with us. We all know what many of the big brands stand for.

If you’re a small business looking to grow, you can stop fretting about the traditional big-business rules of  branding. I’m waiting for this restaurant to surprise me. Six thousand brand repetitions and I’m still bored. And I don’t mean throwing snowballs at my car, or paying someone to stand outside and shake a sign. I want you to find a way to disrupt my image of your brand; because right now, you’re just the boring little restaurant I know nothing about. I know your physical logo inside and out. On a moments notice, I can conjure up your logo, its color, and the font you use instantly. That part of the branding has done its job.

But I want a shake-up.

I want this to happen through my friends and your friends. I want you to create buzz. I want to hear your story told and retold, or I want you to create a new one. In a nutshell, I’m begging you to kick me when I’m not expecting it, please.

This morning, I stumbled over to our local classifieds website and saw a sponsored (paid) advertisement along the top banner for an “upscale spa 4 men.”

I kid you not. Somebody’s advertising budget paid for this ad. I wish I could make this stuff up.

What interested me about the ad was the tiny thumbnail photo that went along with the ad. I couldn’t make out what it was. So my curiosity got the best of me, and I clicked through.

Upon clicking through the ad, I gagged a little bit. As I realized, the picture was a closeup of a half-shaved man’s nipple. I don’t know about this. But what I do know, is that it’s not a pretty picture.

OK, let’s have a little discussion about this.

The Problem:

I’m happy your spa offers the services to deal with the sometimes rather gruesome task of manscaping a manzilla, but I’m confused at to just exactly what’s upscale about this?

Sure, your spa may have some leather chairs. You might even have flat screen TV’s for me to watch the ball game. But I’m not seeing it.

It seems to me that we’re mixing two very different messages here.

If you’re promoting and adverting your “Upscale Spa,” and using this photo to do it, you’re totally missing the mark.

The headline doesn’t fit. There’s nothing upscale about the half-shaved gorilla nipple photo.

One Simple Solution:

Rewrite the Headline.

If this is the route you’re set on taking, it could actually work. It could tell a story. It could have actually produced a return on your investment. Instead, we have two very mixed, off-the-mark messages.

Make a story out of the hairy chested man.

Make it fun! Add a little humor to it.

How about something like:

“Living with Big Foot? We can help – The Perfect Father’s Day Gift!”

More Solutions:

According to the 2007 bestselling book, “Made to Stick,” by Dan & Chip Heath, for a message to be “sticky” it needs to make use of the following traits for SUCCESs.

Simple: The message needs to be clear and concise. Upscale Spa 4 Men. Good enough. It’s simple, but it’s incorrect. Better would be, “Hairy Men Rejoice With Opening of New Local Spa!”

Unexpected: There’s no doubt it’s unexpected. The problem is it’s the wrong type of unexpectedness. In this case, we might say something like, “Bet you didn’t expect see a close-up photo of a half-shaven hairy nipple from an upscale spa did ya?.”

Concrete: We want our messages to tap into the senses of our readers. This does, but again, there’s a disconnect here between the senses we’re trying to tap into.

Credible: Messages need to be credible. This is upscale? According to whom?

Emotional: We want our messages to appeal to the emotions of who we’re trying to attract. For example, “Tired of people thinking they’ve spotted Big Foot when they see you on the beach? Come visit our spa, we can help.”

Stories: The most powerful messages are built around stories. Remember Jared from Subway? That’s the perfect example of a sticky message built around a story. Fat guy loses weight eating fast food. P.S. It’s simple, unexpected, credible, concrete, emotional…etc.

For example, here we might say,”Meet Bob. Bob is very hairy man. So hairy that when Bob removes his shirt people mistake Bob for a wild animal. You can see before and after pictures of Bob below. If you’re like Bob, we can help.”

But if you’re really sold on the whole upscale thing, make it upscale! This ad won’t appeal to the affluent one bit.

——————————————————————

P.S. Here’s something new and a simple request for you.

If you like this post, or know someone who might benefit from reading what I’m saying, please pass it along. You can easily do so by using the buttons below.

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Thanks,
Noah

I remember years ago, I had heard the story of Elisha Graves Otis. Otis invented the first safety elevator back in 1850.

Have you ever been inside an elevator and wondered what would happen if the supporting cable broke? Well, before Otis came along, it would come crashing to the ground. Thanks to Otis we don’t have to worry about that anymore.

Otis had a chance to demonstrate his invention at the New York World Fair in 1853. As the crowd looked on to Otis standing on an open elevator platform, he requested the single supporting cable be cut.

As the crowd gasped in shock, Otis’s assistant chopped the cable with his axe. The elevator fell only a few inches before coming to a stop. After the demonstration, Otis never had to worry about proving his point to sell his product again.

The following video reminds me of modern-day demonstration as powerful as the safety elevator demonstration.

It’s a classic sales and marketing message that’s repeated in nearly every book on the subject.

If your product or service is the best, prove it.

If your product does something better than your competitors, prove it.

If you truly believe in what you’re selling, prove it.

As I started doing my research, and carefully mapping out all the places I  wanted to check out, there was one place that started to show up more and more.

That place was Hot Doug’s.

Hot Doug’s, also known as the The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium is the premier hot dog restaurant of Chicago. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure we could debate for hours over who has the best hot dogs or deep dish pizza, but Hot Doug’s just keeps appearing in all the right places.

For example, one of my favorite food celebrities, Anthony Bourdain, named it one of the “Top 13 Places to Eat Before You Die.”

This is coming from a guy who’s been to nearly every nook and cranny of the planet looking for something good to eat. Bourdain wants you to try Hot Doug’s before you die! That’s a pretty strong referral.

When my wife and I decided we would venture to Hot Doug’s, we learned that this place was a bit of an anomaly.

For example, it’s not in the heart of Chicago. Our GPS showed it was about a 20 minute drive from our hotel on the magnificent mile, not exactly walking distance.

We also learned that we’d have to get there early. How early? Between 9:30am and 10:00am at the latest. Seriously…for Hot Dogs?? On a Friday morning?? Yup.

Heather was skeptical of  my planned hot dog pilgrimage. She’s not a hard-core connoisseur of the encased meats, but being the great wife she is, she was ready to go at 9:00 am.

We got in the car and followed the GPS’s directions. As we approached, we got our first glimpse of Hot Doug’s. It looked dark and closed (which it was). There was no line outside. Had Doug’s gone out of business?

And then we turned the corner.

Sure enough, there were loads of people already lined up all the way down the block to Hot Doug’s.

The kicker about Doug’s is that this isn’t your typical tourist hotspot. It’s far enough off the beaten track that you don’t have to deal with buses full of senior citizens. The line includes a mix of tourist and locals.

We were shocked at how many people, waiting in line, were local residents of the area. Imagine that. A local business not relying on the tourism industry.

Shortly after 10:30am, the line started moving…slowly.

Something about entering the doors of Doug’s was like entering the secret garden. It was a pivotal moment in my life.

As we entered, we saw Doug taking orders. It’s been noted that Doug looks like a hot dog and, in a weird way, he kinda does. They’ve even put his face on the logo.

We finally reached Doug and our moment of glory. When Doug realized we were Canadian’s, he told us how much he loved Canada and that he owned a cottage out on the East Coast.

I can’t remember exactly what we ordered, but I know they were two classic “dogs”

The Chicago-Style Hot Dog with all the trimmings: ’nuff said… for a buck seventy-five’

There were some specialty dogs as well.

We could have ordered such amazing specialties like the

Ostrich Sausage with Cumin Mustard Cream, Tabasco Olives, and Aged Piave Cheese

or maybe Doug’s

Bacon and Jalapeno Duck Sausage with Blood Orange Dijonnaise and Goat Cheese

possibly even The Elvis, a Polish Sausage: Smoked and savory – just like the King

or maybe even a

Spicy Beef Hot Link with Coca-Cola BBQ Sauce and Pepper-Jack Cheese.

I know for sure we had Doug’s Friday specialty with french fries fried in Duck Fat. I can’t remember exactly which specialty dogs we tried, but here’s what matters.

Hot Doug’s serves only one thing and they do it better than anyone else on the planet, hot dogs. They do it so well, they don’t struggle for business. Hot Doug’s will never be hurting for business.

Doug works from 10:30-4:00 Monday through Saturday. If you want a hot dog at 4:15 in the afternoon, you’ll have to go elsewhere. Doug has closed.

Doug doesn’t jump around and try all types of new things. He doesn’t latch on to fads in the hopes of making a few extra bucks.

He doesn’t add burgers to the menu so he can capture the attention of the folks who feel like a burger.

He doesn’t add pizza to the menu to try to compete with the all the new pizza joints opening up, but if you’re looking to try a rattlesnake sausage Hot Doug’s will occasionally carry it.

He doesn’t even need to advertise or spend extra dollars on marketing. His fans do that for him.

Oh – and as I mentioned above.. Doug’s actually working. He greets every customer with a smile. Doug will take the time to tell you why putting ketchup on a hot dog is a sin. Doug will tell you about his cottage on the East Coast. Doug will tell you that a large fry is probably too much, and you’ll be fine with a small-size order. Doug is a linchpin. Doug is indispensable.

So why is your business trying to please everyone?

How can you possibly do anything, even half way decently, if you’re trying to please every person’s likes and dislikes?

What if you just try pleasing a small number of people who love what you have to offer and do it so well, they will wait over an hour for what you have to offer?

What if you do ONE thing so well that your business or service is something people want, need, and will try before they die?

Now I have 12 more places left to eat before I die.

The Problem:
Many businesses, who are  jumping on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon, are gauging success based on having a large number of followers.

More is better is what we’ve been lead to believe. I’m not sure why that is.

I’m not claiming to be a social media expert. There’s more than enough of those to go around and new ones popping up daily. For me, it boils down to good ole basic marketing.

I met with a client recently who asked if I could help him get 10,000 followers on Twitter.

“Sure” I said. “But there’s no point in paying me for that. Here’s how you do it.”

1) Follow tons of people that don’t really care about who you are or what you do. Wait a bit, weed out those who don’t follow you back, and repeat the process.

2) Continue the process until you have 10,000 followers.

It can actually be done fairly quickly. I estimated it could probably be done in under two weeks. Maybe faster. I don’t know.

The problem is that absolutely nothing has been accomplished and zero value has been gained.

Sure, it might be a great little bragging tool at your next business meeting.
Your company might even throw a party, maybe order some pizza, and call it a social media success!

The Solution:

More valuable than all of this is a small, tightly focused group of customers (and even prospective customers) who want to hear from you.

They want to follow you. They want to check out your Facebook page. They want your email blasts. They want to engage in discussion and social dialogue with you!

If your list of customers and interested followers number only a measly 100 people, who are eagerly awaiting communication and social dialogue with you, rejoice! That’s what you call a social media success.

One hundred focused and engaged followers is a far more valuable asset than losing your 100 best in a giant crowd of 10,000 unknowns.

New marketing tools have a way of making us think that bigger is better. That isn’t the case. We’re getting back to fundamentals here.

Focus on the 100 and treat them well.

A comment Sally made really stuck with me. Sally mentioned that our attention spans are roughly the same length as a goldfish’s.

A goldfish.

“The addictive nature of web browsing can leave you with an attention span of nine seconds — the same as a goldfish.” ~ BBC News

Think about that for a moment.

Think about the way you surf the web and jump from site to site.

Think about how you look at Facebook everyday. Within seconds, we have a pretty decent glimpse at the lives of hundreds of friends.

Think about your online habits. How you get your news online. Do you skim headlines and scroll through articles?

Now take a moment and think about how these habits we’ve developed online have influenced our habits in the offline world.

Pretty much the same right?

We can click through channels on TV like it’s nobody’s business.

So what’s the big deal with being a goldfish?

Well, nothing really. This post doesn’t really apply to the goldfish.  (most have swam away already)

This post is really intended for the fisherman (business owners, marketers, advertisers, etc.).

You can’t just stick your line in the water and expect to catch some fish anymore. Next time you’re working on a promotion, advertisement, or message for your business, think about the goldfish.

P.S. You can read Sally’s take on the goldfish here.

The phone rings and, within first 10 seconds, you know it’s a business call. They don’t care about you, they care about the sale.

A real estate agent tells you about a house the same way he writes the ad for the newspaper - 2 bedroom, 2 bath, new fireplace, granite countertops, fenced yard.

He’s just going through the motions; hammer the sign into the lawn, write the ad, open house on Sunday.

A car salesman walks, talks, acts like the stereotypical car salesman. He’s always got to “present” your offer to the manager. You think you’re negotiating a major deal – he’s laughing at you in the next room.

Did you really believe you saved three grand on that new SUV because of your super negotiating skills?

You walk into the furniture shop, and you’re swarmed by commission-ready vampires.

You think they care if you buy the flower print ottoman? Do you really believe that it’s actually on sale – and he’s “willing” to do even better on the price?

It’s all business.

We knew it all along, but we chose to accept it. We have stereotyped these people because we believed there was nothing else we could do about it. Therefore, we cope by making light of the situation.

All of a sudden, these tools exist, and we choose not to accept it anymore. All of a sudden, we’ve lost our sense of humour.

Lie to us and we tell our 400 friends on Facebook. Please understand that 400 friends on Facebook can snowball into thousands of people in seconds.

Provide horrible service at your restaurant, and instantly we can Tweet to 2500 people about it.

Tell us the house is a great deal, even though you know it isn’t, by hiding the fact that it needs 20k in repairs. People will retaliate by starting a blog exposing the lies.

Here’s the flip-side. Actually, I’d be willing to say rather than this being the flip-side, this is the only side that matters, going forward.

Be real.

Be honest and truthful with us and we’ll tell our 400 friends on Facebook. Please understand that 400 friends on Facebook can snowball into thousands of people in seconds.

Provide amazing service at your restaurant, and instantly we can Tweet 2500 people about it.

Tell us honestly that you believe a house is a great deal, but warn us it’s going to need 20k in repairs, and we’ll start a blog to share our great experience.

Get it?

I was anxiously awaiting the books release. So on launch day, I ordered a copy on my Kindle. I took a quick peak, which turned into reading a few pages, which then snowballed into reading the entire book in one sitting.

Rework represents the new rules of business from the guys who are walking the walk and not just writing books. The CEO, Jason Fried, started 37Signals as a small web development company back in 1999. As of today, the company has created  on-line tools such as Basecamp, Campfire, Highrise, and many others. 37Signals now has over three-million customers worldwide. Not such a small web development company anymore are they?

To me, this book solidifies many of the assumptions I’ve carried for a long time. Those spending time learning the concepts and theories in business school might be wasting their time. Learning in-depth concepts and theories maybe outdated and may not work as well anymore.

Mark Cuban’s quote represents that pretty clearly. He says,

“If given a choice between investing in someone who has read REWORK or has an MBA, I’m investing in REWORK every time. A must read for every entrepreneur.”
-Mark Cuban, co-founder HDNet, owner of the Dallas Mavericks”

I tend to agree with Cuban here. So Mark, if you’re looking for someone…. drop me an email

It’s a fast and enjoyable read, and I highly recommended it to anyone with an interest in working for themselves or starting a business.

I wanted to say it’s a great read for anyone with an interest in entrepreneurship, but David and Jason say, “enough with entrepreneurs!”

They suggest we should retire that term immediatley. They say that the term entrepreneur is loaded with baggage and smells like a member’s-only club. They continue to say, “everyone should be encouraged to start his/her own business, not just some rare breed that self-identifies as an entrepreneur.”

If you’ve ever wanted to start your own business, but you’re worried that you don’t have the business savvy of an MBA graduate, this just might be your ticket. This could be the tool that  provides you with more real-world applicable business knowledge than an MBA, and you can acquire it in just under two hours for about $10 bucks.

Buy it. It’s worth it.

One of the speakers at The Art Of Marketing conference, in Toronto, this past Tuesday, was Sally Hogshead. Her presentation was brilliant and amazingly executed. She’s one of those presenters who can keep the audience actively engaged, and she did it in one of the most unique ways I’ve ever seen – she offered shots of Jägermeister.

Photos by Sheila Goldgrab, www.leadership-gold.com

Sally was looking for “Jägermeister virgins.” Those are people who have never tasted the cult classic better known as “Jager”. Sally’s goal wasn’t to get the audience all ‘liquor’ed’ up in the hope that we might enjoy her presentation more, instead she was proving a point. Jägermeister is a brand that sells close to a 100 million bottles a year and most people don’t like it. In fact,  most people despise the taste of Jäger.

Since none of us like it, why the heck are we buying and drinking it at such an alarming rate? The reason we drink it is we’re fascinated by it –  hence the title of Sally’s new book “Fascinate.” (which I plan to read as soon as I can)

I can remember the rumors from back in High School, (all of which Sally mentioned) in ”It’s made of  Elk’s Blood,” “It’s got drugs in it,” etc. All of which are false by the way.

The real truth here is that this is the primary reason we continue to consume massive amounts of this stuff. Even though it tastes bad, we’re fascinated by it, and there is a trigger of fascination in play that’s influencing our decisions.

Sally says there are seven Triggers that are used to fascinate us and trigger a response or desired action from us, like buying something; Ta-da.

The seven triggers are:

• Mystique – Jägger is made of Elk’s blood and contains hallucinogens – McDonald’s Secret Sauce – The KFC Secret Recipe – That’s mystique.
• Power – We’re fascinated and influenced by people of power and control. Power is the ability to motivate but also create fear. To me, power is seen in the people and leaders who challenge the status quo. They rise up and say, “wait a minute, why do that when you could be doing this?” Everyone else is doing “that.” It’s the top film critic who motivates us to go see this movie over another. That is power.
• Lust – The seduction of pleasure! I want that now! The giant big mac on the billboard, as the perfect hamburger, is almost irresistible and we can taste it.  The dipping of strawberries into oozing milk chocolate. That’s lust.
• Alarm – “Only 20 copies left……Order now” “You’ve got to call in the next 90 minutes if you want all 743 knives for only three easy payments of $19.95.” That’s alarm.
• Trust – Sally gave the example of Toyota for trust. Trust is the hardest trigger to use properly. The entire brand of Toyota for over 100 years was built using trust. Trust of quality, trust of safety, trust they were doing things right. Now it’s broken. That “was” trust.
• Vice – Sally mentioned the story of Tiger and the temptation of the forbidden fruit. He  was obviously fascinated enough that he grabbed it, multiple times. We’re tempted by the vice trigger constantly, and that’s the reason we’re so fascinated by the Tiger saga. That’s  vice.
• Prestige -  Think of expensive watches or fine champagne like Dom Perignon. Of course, it’s not just expensive and luxury items to create prestige. It’s also present when Lance Armstrong wins another race , or  when Visa runs comeback story ads during the Olympics.  Success – the finish line – the accomplishment. That’s prestige.

Everyone of us naturally use these triggers within our personalities. Sally has provided a test you can take to see which triggers you naturally use to trigger fascination. Take the “F-Test” now.

Thanks Sally for a great presentation!

Little did I know, that person would be mother. I found out that this week that she had started her own blog called “The Mustard Chronicles.”

A friend on Twitter summed it up nicely by saying,  “your mom wanting to blog – the ultimate compliment to you.”

I’m honored and thrilled if I have helped inspire her.

Maybe it’s the fact she’s my mother that I find her first few posts rather funny? Maybe it’s because I know the voice behind the words so well? Either way, I think a blog is a great way to use your voice and express yourself.

Should you start a blog? Maybe.

Does it matter if anyone is listening or not? I would say “no.”

The best listener when you start is your first one. When you have one, then it’s time to find the second. Far too often we get caught up  looking for the “quick fix.” We want lots of traffic, big email lists and large subscriber numbers.

We want to know people are listening and we’re not just wasting our own time.

But this is the wrong approach. Focus on finding the first follower and if you’re doing something remarkable the rest will follow. If you’ve got something that you want to say, then there’s a good chance someone in the world is willing to listen.

Check out TheMustardChronicles.com and let her know what you think.