Branding Isn’t Just For The Huge, Deep-Pocketed National Brands.
Here’s A Six-Step Plan For Beating Goliath At His Own Game.
Written by Rich Harshaw.
NO ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES ALLOWED ON THE BEACH.
The sign must have blended into the background as my kids and I walked out of our condo toward the beach in Oceanside, California a few years ago while vacationing there for spring break. I never even noticed it. But my nine-year-old son certainly saw it. And apparently, for some reason, it got some gears spinning in his head—and spawned an interesting set of questions:
Nine-Year-Old Son: “How come you’re not allowed to have alcohol on the beach?”
Me: “Because it makes people do stupid things; besides, glass bottles might break and cut people’s feet.”
Nine-Year-Old Son: “Oh. (pause; thinking) Have you ever drunk beer before?”
That question’s not as off-kilter as you might think. See, as a lifelong Mormon, I don’t drink alcohol of any kind, and I never have—not even once. Well, almost.
I had to fess up to my son. I told him about the time when I was about ten or eleven years old and the kid next door pilfered a pilsner from his dad’s garage fridge and asked me if I wanted to have a little fun. Not drinking it—throwing it. He shook it up and down a few times, chucked it as high as he could into the sky, and we both watched in delight as it exploded on his driveway about ten feet in front of us. But then, in movie-like slow motion, a single drop of suds hurtled toward my face… and before I could turn away, it landed square in my mouth. My first and only drink of beer.
As I related this story to my son, he immediately—and bizarrely—wanted to know more.
Nine-Year-Old Son: “What brand was it?”
Me: “Er, uh. Actually, now that you mention it, it was Michelob.”
Nine-Year-Old Son: (sounding disappointed) “Michelob? Never heard of it. Did they have Bud Light back then?”
Me: (dumbfounded) “Well, I don’t really know. I guess they probably did have Bud Light back then.”
Nine-Year-Old Son: “Did it have drinkability?”
Me: (speechless)
I still can’t believe it. He asked me if Bud Light had stinkin’ drinkability. How is it even possible that a nine-year-old kid who does not drink beer, who does not watch TV programs that run beer commercials, who comes from a family that doesn’t drink beer… how is it possible that he not only knows a very specific brand of beer—Bud Light—but also knows of the specific attribute of that beer—drinkability?
Survey says: Simple. Anheuser-Busch spends seventeen quad-zillion dollars a year to pound their brand and their product attributes deep into the cerebellum of every man, woman, and child on the planet.
Here’s the really funny part: you can achieve that same kind of astonishing, you-can-run-but-you-can’t-hide branding for your company, too. No, really. I’m serious.
First of all, you have to realize that because Anheuser-Busch is trying to reach every man and woman (and, ostensibly, every nine-year-old) in the country, they are forced to spend the really big bucks. They spend a fortune on store displays. They spend gobs of cash on ballpark and arena signs. They back up the Brink’s truck for hundreds of millions of impressions on TV, radio, and online. And at the end of the day, it works for them.
But stop and think about that for a minute. Let’s say you’re an average forty-five-year-old guy like me that watches football on TV, enjoys a modest amount of network and cable television, and does an average amount of magazine reading, radio listening, online surfing, ballpark attendance, and so forth. Here’s the salient question: How many impressions per year do you think I—as an individual—get for Bud Light in a year? In other words, how many times do I see/hear their commercial, see their product displayed at the grocery store, or see their signs at ballparks or elsewhere around town? Ten times? Fifty? 100? 500?
I don’t know either. But let’s assume for a minute it’s somewhere in the 50 to 100 times range. Here’s an interesting question for you, and your contractor marketing: is it cost effective for you to put your message in front of YOUR TARGETED PROSPECTS’ faces 50 to 100 times a year? In many cases that I see, the answer is a resounding YES.
Take the case of a company in Colorado I recently spoke to that sells (yawn) copiers and copier service. They currently have absolutely no marketing program whatsoever, and instead rely entirely on a couple of sales guys. During the consultation, I found out that the average customer was worth $400 in gross margin per month; that’s almost $5,000 a year—in gross profit! Further probing revealed that there were between 1,000 and 2,000 companies in the geographic area they serviced that were sufficiently large to provide that $5,000 a year (or more) profitability.
See, unlike Bud Light, you don’t need tens of millions of customers to make a ton of money. All you have to do is know exactly who you are trying to sell to, laser focus on them, and then pummel the living daylights out of them with your marketing message… just like Bud does to the masses. I call this micro-branding.
Let’s take a look at how the Colorado copier company could micro-brand itself:
Step 1: Make A List – Get a list of all the companies that are a good prospect for what they sell. They probably already have the list—it’s the same one their sales guys have been badgering for years. If not, either purchase the list from a list broker (like Monopolize Your Marketplace), or do some research online and figure it out. If that’s too much effort for them, then they deserve to fail. Regardless, they’d need to put some effort into combing through the list to make sure they have the right address, the right contact information, and as many email addresses as possible. Let’s assume they come up with a list of 1,000 companies and 1,500 contacts (owing to multiple contacts at some companies).
Step 2: Allowable Cost Per Sale – This is massively important: they have to figure out how much they are willing to spend on marketing for each new customer acquired. If you figure the average customer is worth $5,000 GP a year and stays on board as a customer for three years, that’s a $15,000 lifetime value per customer. If this were you, how much of that $15k would YOU be willing to spend on marketing? Remember, we’re talking gross margin here—not total sales. In my book, 10% is a no brainer. Heck, I’d even go 20%. Or stated differently—if I handed you $15,000 in cash, would you be willing to pay me $1,500 for it? How about $3,000? Uh, yes.
Step 3: Set The Overall Budget – Okay, so we’ll spend $1,500 per new customer on marketing. The next question I have for the Colorado Copier guy is “How many new customers to you want?” Let’s say their answer is fifteen new customers a year. That equates to a gross profit of $225,000 (over three years) and a marketing budget of $22,500 to $45,000 (to be spent over the course of one year).
Step 4: Decide What To Spend The Budget On – Now we’re cooking! Let’s cut that budget somewhere in the middle—say $36,000, or $3,000 a month. In a business-to-business environment, I always favor a postcard and email campaign. Not just because they’re cheap, but for postcards, they also pack a wallop, especially if they’re written properly (see step 5). If we spent fifty cents per postcard on 1,500 prospects, that would cost us $750 every time we sent out a batch. $36,000 a year (total budget) divided by $750 per batch means we could send forty-eight postcards per year per prospect. Yowza! Then let’s throw on top of that another two email sends per month (twenty-four total) and we’re talking a grand total of seventy-two contacts per year. That’s Bud Light territory. Can anyone say “drinkability?”!!!
Step 4.5: Hedge Your Bet If Necessary – Not willing to spend $36,000 on something unproven like this? No sweat. Don’t fall to temptation and downsize to one mailer a month instead of two. Instead, cut the number of contacts from 1,500 to 750. That’ll only run $18,000 for the year. Still too rich for your blood? How about 250 prospects for the year for $6,000? Sure our results will also be cut by 5/6—but who cares? The idea is to prove the concept, then roll it out bigger later. Iron-clad marketing rule #1: Never risk more of a budget than you can afford to lose. Same thing goes here. Rule #2: When in doubt, lower the number of prospects, not the frequency of contact.
Step 5: Killer Copy – Using the Monopolize Your Marketplace Methodology for writing killer marketing pieces, they could create well-articulated, powerfully stated, identity-based headlines and copy that look great and sell even better. If they’re going to send forty-eight in one year, they’d better come up with a good fifteen to twenty unique cards to minimize repeats. Same thing for emails. Integrating some of that info (and look and feel) into their website would also be helpful. The messaging should focus on why this copier company is better and different and better than who they’re currently using. The cards should administer consistent doses of case studies, social proof, evidence, and thought-provoking headlines to wear down the prospects. In a nice way, of course!
Step 6: Let Gravity Do Its Job – Now it’s as simple as throwing the marketing pieces out there six times a month and letting nature run its course. Through the principle of “Accelerated Discontentment,” the prospects that are ready to buy right now will raise their hands immediately, and those who still don’t recognize enough pain with their current copier situation will be constantly reminded and educated where to find greener pastures. Every week another chink in their current vendors’ armor would be exposed. This works like gravity—the pull of this kind of persistent pounding is absolutely inescapable. It’s only a matter of time.
Look at what we’ve accomplished in this scenario. We’ve unleashed a Bud Light-caliber assault on 1,500 people. And not just any people—people who can change our world, financially speaking. Those 1,500 have no idea that they are the only 1,500 people on the list. They don’t know that the rest of the world isn’t also getting soaked with our messages. And they don’t care. And neither do we. We just want those 1,500 to know who we are (a la Bud Light) and why they should buy from us (Drinkability).
This same scenario could probably be re-jiggered a bit and used for your company. You don’t HAVE to use direct mail to contact prospects (although it’s a good idea in B2B environments). You could use radio, television, magazines, newspapers, and email in extremely small, targeted cells to pummel your target market. A mattress store could pummel the 2,200 people that listen to 102.9 FM every morning from seven to nine AM. A closet organizer company could pummel all 6,500 residents of a senior housing community every week with a newspaper ad. The donut shop could pummel the 500 nearest businesses with mailers. Having trouble figuring it out for your company? Email me and ask.
Ultimately, I told my son that Bud Light did not have drinkability back when I was a kid. It’s a more recent development. And now, a few years later, they’ve already moved on to something else.
Nine-Year-Old Son: (still not satisfied) “What about Michelob, Dad? Did it have drinkability?”
Me: “No, son, but I can tell you this for sure. People say that beer tastes like horse pee. I’ve never drank horse pee before… but based on the one drop of beer I’ve had, I’d have to say those people are probably right.”
Nine-Year-Old Son: “Hey look, a seashell.”
Me: (silently) “Ah… Nine-year-olds.”
© 2014 – 2016, Rich Harshaw. All rights reserved.
