I was talking with a colleague today about the magic of Trader’s. Here’s how they make billions:
1. they target a consumer that cares a great deal about what they buy at the supermarket. As a result, their customers are more loyal, and more important, are willing to drive farther to get there. This means they can have smaller, lower-rent locations (and fewer of them) which drives up sales per square foot and profits.
2. These customers are big mouths. They sneeze. When they serve something from Trader’s they brag about, they tell the story of the store. This drives down advertising costs.
3. Most of what they sell is private label. Now that they have scale, they are able to negotiate great prices from their suppliers, and more important, encourage/force their suppliers to make unique items, or organic foods, or foods of higher quality for the money. All of this is a virtuous cycle. The key mantra is that Trader’s finds foods for its customers, NOT customers for its foods.
I think these three steps are viable for a wide range of businesses and sectors. One example to stretch your thinking: the TED conference. It’s in a remote location, one that’s probably a bit cheaper than some. People who care are happy to shlep. And they love to talk about it. And because the audience is so focused, the speakers come for free, further enhancing the cycle. If it works for supermarkets and high-end business conferences, where else does it work?
May 19, 2006
So, Tom Cruise devoted the last year of his life to promoting a movie that will be #1 in the US for exactly 14 days.
To be replaced by another movie, even more hyped than Cruise’s, that may just triumph for three weeks instead of two.
Lulu.com just released a study of bestselling books. It turns out that in the last forty years, the length of stay of a typical bestseller at #1 is down by more than 85%. In other words, bestsellers used to be bestsellers for seven times as long as they are now.
That’s an awe-inspiring figure.
Why?
Because the base of the pyramid is so much bigger (ten times as many books published every year, at least) you would expect that the winners would win bigger and longer to make it worth the journey. Not so.
And awe-inspiring because the effort necessary to get to #1 is far greater than it used to be. From co-op (bribes) to retailers for shelf-space and advertising to the extensive touring and cross promotion that’s necessary, it’s a lot more work and a lot more risk to get there.
Now, we’re seeing authors building permission assets and timing all their promotion so they can be #1 on Amazon for an hour—an hour! Allen Drury had a #1 bestseller for a year.
Of course, it’s not just movies and books. Just about any style-based business (and what business is no longer style based?) sees the same phenomenon. The lesson I draw is this:
If your marketing strategy requires you to hit #1 in order to succeed, you probably need a new marketing strategy.
Years ago, my grandmother would take my sisters and me on a day-long tour of New York’s transport system. We’d ride the bus, the subway, even the Roosevelt Island Tramway.
Here’s what my day was like:
I missed the express train into the city by less than ten seconds. Missed the shuttle to Times Square by twenty seconds. After my photo shoot, got lucky and caught the 1 train a minute after i got to the station. Unfortunately, it was going south and I wanted to go north. Got off at the next station, no tunnel to switch directions, so I had to leave the subway, cross the street and pay again to enter. Missed the northbound train by less than twenty seconds.
Destination: 79th Street.
Train gets stuck at 72nd, door won’t shut. I get out, run seven blocks in the rain. Step in a puddle up to my knee. Miss getting hit by a Lexus by about an inch. Got to my uptown meeting just in time, Leave my uptown meeting, see an empty cab in the pouring rain. As I go to open the door, a guy opens the door on the other side and steals my cab. I walk the seven blocks in the rain, no cabs. Got to the 72nd street station just in time to see the express train pull out.
Lucky for me, the Roosevelt Island Tram is broken.
This is apropos of nothing, of course, but I thought I’d get all cat blog on you and share my day.
[unedited]
dear sir or lady,
i have an ostrich farm in singapore.
i need to be more up to date with ostrich world.
therefore, i need all bookes related to the ostrich for the following purposes:
1. chicken breeding
2. farming
3. establishment the farm and construction
4.nutrition
5.health
6. video CD for all subjects
and so on…
i need complete package. price is not important.
please send your complete offer as soon as possible
best regards
morfi
May 18, 2006
If you’re over 40, you need to ask yourself the question, "did you have a CB radio?"
Millions of Americans did. It was a classic craze disguised as a trend. CB radio made everyone into a broadcaster. CB radio allowed millions of people to communicate with each other–strangers and friends. CB radio changed the social network and the way we connect. CB radio even inspired a movie. And then it went away, right back to the truckers who brought it to us.
Geocities was CB radio. Geocities allowed anyone to build a free website. It grew fast and then boom. Same with online greeting cards. Email, on the other hand, was not CB radio. Email, on the other hand, really did change (almost) everything.
And what about blogs? Are blogs CB radio or are they email?
Brad Feld has a great post about the first 25,000. This is the CB radio audience. Every once in a while, (more on the web than ever before anywhere else) the CB radio guys find something that gets bigger and more permanent. The art is in distinguishing one from the other, and investing early (your time, not just your money) in the platforms that are more likely to reach everyone else.
Tell me again what RSS is?
The one thing that’s certain about your marketing plan, your products, hey, even your life is that it won’t turn out the way you planned.
Given this proven truth, doesn’t it make sense to spend most of your time building flexibility into whatever you’re building?
It’s a lot easier to change your mind in advance… doing it when you have to is painful–especially if you have to persuade a team. The most flexible plans have the need (and ability) to change built right in.
May 17, 2006
Mara, a really extraordinary young lady, sent me a powerpoint that says it’s from the Dalai Lama. (no surprise when Lance Long points out it’s not really from the Dalai himself).
Of course, I read it like a marketer. (Replace ‘loved one’ with customer and you get the idea… the rest of the substitions are up to you–or just let it make your day). Good advice:
1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s: Respect for self, Respect for others and Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
May 16, 2006
That’s how much the typical family in the US spends on telecommunications. It’s certainly one of the highest discretionary items in a typical budget, and it’s particularly surprising given that long distance is a fraction of what it used to be.
So, David Troup points us to Helio, a phone/toy for teenagers and those that think like them (the phone, with built in music and video capability, is primarily sold at record stores, at least in NY). I give them credit for tapping into a desire that consumers are already voting for with their dollars. Is it a killer app for geezers like me? Nope. And that may be exactly why it works.
Michael Cader wonders:
— Why do you want your booth so crowded that I can’t walk through it?
Why do you want people to walk through, grab something, and get the heck
out?
— If I am standing in line waiting for an author/event, is anyone
talking to me or occupying my time with a useful message?
— Does your booth say anything about where to find the person I’m
looking for? Your publicity people, store events people, sales people,
rights people, and executives all the look the same. They dress the
same, and they’re mixed throughout the booth. How hard do I have to work
to meet someone I don’t know?
— Just as important, how hard do I have to work in your booth (and with
your takeaways) to discover something other than the obvious about your
list? Does your booth say anything besides, "We are a book publisher and
these are some of our big fall titles" or "proud publisher of these 37
imprints"?
— Once again, just as important, does your booth say anything about why
you’re at the show, and who you want to meet, and what you want to do
with them?
— Do you have a Wal-mart "greeter" to welcome me to your booth and
transmit a message to me before I leave? Do have welcome or exit signs
in your aisles that tell me anything?
— What’s the message behind all the stuff you’re giving away? And why
have giveaways become the dominant theme of everyone’s booth? Are those
giveaways really helping your business, and do they mean anything next
to all the other giveaways that everyone else has? Are they attracting
the people you want to meet at the show? And are there any twists or
alternatives that might work better?
— Can you introduce scarcity to the giveaway process to
make your items more valuable, or surprising, or memorable? What if did
business in the morning and gave things away in the afternoon. What if
you had espresso and donuts at the beginning of the day instead of wine
and cheese at the end. What if your booth looked different every day?
It’s not always the stories that we tell to prospects and consumers that matter. It’s often the stories we tell ourselves.
In talking with companies that are unhappy with the way they are growing, I find two common themes (and one a little less often):
- A belief that they deserve more attention. That their product or their service is so good and so beneficial and so fairly priced that the story they tell and the way they tell it shouldn’t matter. I don’t think this is arrogance… I think it is a natural byproduct of hard work and high pressure.
- A lack of authenticity. This is almost the flip side of the first, but, surprisingly, it often shows up at the same time. This is the feeling that you don’t have to tell the truth, that it’s "just marketing." Talk to someone at a company on a mission–Southwest or JetBlue or Acumen Fund and you’ll hear the same story, told with desire and belief and honesty. These are people on a mission to really do something. Contrast that with someone who wants to know the ROI on a monthly basis from a blog–they’re busy doing the math, not living the story.
- The third trait, which shows up a bit less often, is the marketer who doesn’t believe that she deserves success. This is the self-critical marketer who is being brutally honest–and is frustrated at the state of her market and of her product. The obvious but often difficult solution is to either change the product, change the story or get a new gig. The wrong but most common response is to just be frustrated.
You’ve certainly met people who have all three things taken care of. They approach a marketplace or a consumer with an appropriate amount of humility. They tell a story that is true, that they believe, that they live. And they do it with confidence, knowing that the story they are telling is bound to benefit most of the people who hear it.
The fascinating thing is that all three of these items happen before the consumer is even involved. They are internal and they’re under your control, direction or influence.
