10 Ideas for Small Biz Marketing in the New Year

I spend a lot of time at hockey rinks serving as taxi driver, equipment manager, and cheerleader for my 11-year-old goalie, Ethan. Recently, hockey took us to a goalie camp in the Atlanta area. Besides Ethan having a good experience at the camp, I ran across an interesting article in the Gwinnett Business Journal. It was a list of 10 small business trends for 2012. Marketing advice is plentiful, even if not always useful. However, I thought the 10 items on the list was excellent food for thought. The ideas may not be a perfect fit for every small business, but they can be taken as a challenge to refresh approaches taken to marketing in the coming year.

Below are 3 highlights from the list. The complete list can be viewed here.

• Listen to customers differently. Take advantage of social media for listening, but face-to-face communication remains vital.

• Offer bigger value propositions. Be able to clearly articulate your point of difference and why someone should buy from you.

• Identify and pursue new growth opportunities. Whether it is new products or new customer segments, how can you expand your footprint?

Here is hoping that 2012 is your best yet, professionally and personally.

Prediction as the Future of Customer Engagement

Engagement with customers is the Holy Grail pursued by marketers today. Awareness is not enough- quality interactions have gained favor over exposure and repetition as goals of marketing communications. Understanding this trend is easy; how to make customer engagement happen is much more elusive. How can people be persuaded to invest time and interest in your brand?

One solution to the engagement challenge is prediction. No, not marketers predicting buyer behavior using sophisticated modeling techniques. I mean consumers predicting future outcomes, doing it in the form of games. An example of the harnessing the power of prediction as an engagement tool can be found in a game being tested by The Tennessean, a Gannett newspaper. Nashville-based Consensus Point developed Football Futures, a stock market-style game in which players predict outcomes of future events and buy units (with points, not money) based on their level of confidence that the event will occur as predicted.

The goal of Football Futures is to amass points to maximize net worth with the potential to win prizes. Whether it is whether LSU or Alabama will win the BCS Championship Game, Norv Turner will be fired as head coach of the San Diego Chargers, or Tim Tebow will win more games as a starting QB than Cam Newton, Football Futures enables players to express their views and potentially parlay their opinions into prizes.

If there is one thing for which there is no shortage where sports are concerned, it is opinions about what should or will happen. Football Futures gives players an outlet to have a voice in the discussions that surround sporting events and stories. More importantly for The Tennessean, it draws people to its website and encourages them to spend time engaged with the site. The possibilities for using prediction-style games to engage consumers seem limitless. Politics, popular culture, and other sports are obvious prospects for themes for other games like Football Futures down the road.

Engagement does not occur because a marketer wishes it; people must be willing to commit to interaction. What better way to invite engagement than to ask the simple question “What do you think?” As we move toward the fresh start of a new year, it is a timely reminder that marketing relationships must be customer-centered. The voice of the customer must be heard, and it is up to marketers to provide platforms for making it possible.

Tim Tebow on Branding

I am at the same time amused and confused by the polarization created by Tim Tebow. The Denver Broncos quarterback was a college football superstar at the University of Florida, but many experts felt his style of play was not suited to the pro game. Then, there is the issue of Tebow’s faith and the prominent role it has in his words and actions. It is too much for some people to bear who want sports to be devoid of any aspects of faith. His story continues to evolve as he has gone from third-string to the starting QB, leading the Broncos to seven wins in the last eight games. While many people are ecstatic about Tebow’s emergence as an NFL QB, it seems that many others cannot wait for him to fail.

This blog is not about sports; I will not be breaking down Tebow’s strengths and weaknesses on the field. However, I cannot help but see a teaching moment that relates to how businesses should view branding. Like him or hate him, Tim Tebow is grounded in values that define his purpose and meaning. To this point, he does not seem to have been affected by the trappings of the celebrity lifestyle lived by star pro athletes. His personal brand has remained consistent as his professional career has taken off.

Marketers can learn from Tim Tebow what branding is… and is not. Branding is a never ending pursuit- there really is no such thing as a “branding campaign” as that implies a beginning and end. Branding entails identifying and articulating meaning- the purpose, values, and core beliefs that drive day-to-day and long-term business decisions. A great brand remains true to purpose, values, and core beliefs even though economic conditions, technology trends, and customer tastes are evolving.

Marketing is important- research, design, advertising, and selling are vital to a firm’s success. But, branding transcends all of those activities. Without a great brand, marketing is little more than a functional area in an organization. The brand brings life and energy. Time will tell if Tim Tebow is a great “product” in terms of a successful NFL quarterback. But, it is clear that brand Tebow is on solid ground, which will serve him well far beyond his playing days.

Can You Teach an Old Brand New Tricks?

I am a rather nostalgic guy- like many people I am drawn to the past. Things like retro architecture of baseball stadiums, classic ad campaigns, and branding from days gone by remind us of the past. To this day, I laugh when I think of the Calgon laundry detergent commercial in which a Chinese dry cleaners owner claims his cleaning formula is an “ancient Chinese secret” but his wife exposes him as a fraud… Calgon is his secret!

Another brand from the past that is at a crossroads in its history is Duck Head. The apparel brand has a heritage that dates back to 1865. However, the brand actually disappeared from the market when its owner, Goody’s Family Clothing, went out of business in 2009. The brand has been licensed by Eagle Dry Goods of Nashville (where the company originated) and returned to market. The obvious question now is whether Duck Head will succeed in connecting with men like me who wore the brand as a teen and young adult as well as capture the attention of that same market today.

For a brand with a heritage story like Duck Head, there are two key criteria that it will have to meet in order to gain traction in the market: 1) Be relevant to its target market and 2) differentiate the brand from the myriad of apparel options that men have. Relevance will be easier to establish with “alumni” who are familiar with Duck Head and wore its products in the past.

For the young male market, achieving relevance will be more challenging. It will take more than having a Facebook page and Twitter feed to be “cool.” Duck Head must figure out how to integrate the brand with young males’ lifestyles. For example, linking the brand with a Southern tradition like college football is a strategy that could raise consciousness of Duck Head among young males. Differentiation will be even more challenging- Duck Head must create a niche related to its relevance. Perhaps it is tapping the Southern traditions theme, or it can be done through linking the brand with a greater aim, as it has done with Soles 4 Souls, a charity that donates gently used shoes to people in need.

The bottom line question for a consumer in Duck Head’s target market is “Why should I buy your brand?” Right now, Duck Head is just another brand vying for attention. It must succeed in working its way into the lifestyles of the audience it seeks to reach. The nostalgia buff in me hopes Duck Head succeeds- I am ready to buy. The marketer in me is more skeptical, but if the brand can leverage its heritage to be a lifestyle brand it will prove that you can teach an old brand new tricks.

The Tennessean - "Can Duck Head Rise Again?"