Smart Marketing

Marketing lessons from Best Buy's Richard Schulze

Yesterday, I spoke at the American Association of Microbusinesses' annual small business expo. My two seminars were titled  The Basic Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses and The Advanced Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses.

One of the real highlights for me was attending the opening session where Richard Schulze, founder and charman of Best Buy, was the featured speaker. Among the marketing lessons I took away from him were:

• Branding independence can grow the overall brand - Mr. Schulze talked about how Best Buy has formed partnerships with other distinguished brands including Magnolia Home Theatre and Geek Squad in an effort to build the overall quality of the Best Buy brand. Independent branding efforts, that support auxiliary brands, can oftentimes strengthen the umbrella brand.
  
• Keep one ear tuned ot your customers - Early on, one of the  Best Buy stores (which was actually named The Sound of Music at the time) was hit by a tornado. The store management held a distressed tent sale for all the merchandise and that sale was a pivotal point in the corporate history. During the sale, management came to realize that customers were looking for brand name merchandise at significantly lower prices. This came to be the core positioning of the Best Buy brand over time. Without that valuable customer feedback generated during the Tornado Sale, this positioning never would have been revealed.
  
• Hire strong people, including consultants - Mr. Schulze talked about the value of hiring smart people, not only within the organization, but also outside consultants who can bring a fresh perspective to a company's problems. If you're ever looking for a fresh marketing perspective to your company's problems, give my marketing site a visit.

Tips from a marketing headhunter

For some time now, I've admired Harry Joiner, a first-rate Marketing Headhunter and fellow blogger.

He has a high sense of ethics and has a very pithy way of stating the honest truth. I invited him to respond to 5 burning questions  in the minds of marketing recruits and here's what he had to say:

1) What are the top 5 things you look for in a person for any marketing job?

Business orientation.  Marketing candidates need to be able to think holistically about business.  They need to understand that marketing is a means to an end -- not an end unto itself.  No margin, no mission.

Humility.  If you have a massive ego, forget it.  I don't say this because I can't handle people with big egos.  I say this because marketing people with big egos always think they know better than their customers.  That's "death" in the marketing business.

People skills.  I do my job on the phone, which means that I am effectively blind.  Minus the corn rows, there's no difference between me and Stevie Wonder.  Therefore, if you aren't warm and empathic on the phone, then it's hard for me to imagine that you will be warm and empathic in person.  People, including my clients, want to do business with people they like, and they always do a phone screen before bringing a person in for an interview.  So relax and have fun.  Otherwise, you are wasting your time.  See the paradox?  Have fun or your dead!

An inquisitive nature.  Look, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I have gotten by on my obsessive compulsive desire to learn.  Marketing is way too dynamic a field to be stagnant.  So, if you think you can skate by on the "Four Ps" you are wrong.  Learn.  Keep learning.  We are just in the top of the second inning of this Internet thing, and it promises to completely change not only marketing -- but the way we think about marketing.  Don't get attached to any one marketing model of one-size-fits-all way of thinking.  See note on Humility.

A track record of accomplishment.  You can't talk your way out of problems you behave yourself into.  If you have job hopped, or if you have not been promoted, or whatever, then no amount of my God-given sales talent is going to help you land a job.  If you hate your marketing job, stick it out until you generate a sensible alternative for yourself. Nobody wants to hire a diva or a baby.

2) Which, in your opinion, is more important - people skills or book smarts?

People skills.  I graduated from a really good international business program back in 1992. While there, I was required to take a class on business information technology.  How relevant do you think that material is today?  I rest my case.  The one, very major exception to this lies in the area of financial literacy (see my comment on "business orientation" above).

3) What are some qualities you find to be turn-offs for marketing candidates you're trying to place?

There are essentially two kinds of mistakes:  Mistakes of the head, and mistakes of the heart.  Mistakes of the head are foolish, unintended blunders like spilling marinara sauce on your shirt at lunch.  Mistakes of the heart are meant to deceive oneself and others.  Lying on a resume is a very common example.  If a candidate makes a mistake of the head in the interview process, it can be overcome.  In fact, sometimes it humanizes and endears the candidate to the client.  I've seen it happen.  However, if it comes out during the interview process that you are a prideful, greedy, envious, wrathful, lustful, gluttonous, or slothful person, then forget it.  I can't help you.  Moreover, you've got bigger problems than my not being able to help you get a job.

4) How can students best position themselves to potential employers so they stand out from the crowd?

This goes back to having a great track record of accomplishment.  Be a do-er.  Take stretch assignments.  Don't be afraid to fail (see note on humility).  Speak at conferences and trade shows.  Blog. Establish some evidence that you are a thought leader and a team player. Take another look at the list of five things, and then devise ways to establish clear evidence that you possess those five traits.

5) How do you find the candidates you are trying to place in jobs?

It depends on the job.  I handle searches ranging from $75K / year and up.  The higher the salary range and the more "marquee" the job, the more word-of-mouth and trade press matter.  Think of it this way : Some of my jobs call for talented minor leaguers.  Some of my jobs call for Barry Bonds.  Barry Bonds is not putting his resume on Monster, but the minor leaguer might.  Different horses, different courses.

An student should cover as many bases as he (or she) can, and that means getting his resume into the database of as many recruiters as he can.  Even lousy recruiters sometimes get great search assignments.

 

Microsoft's Marketing Mistake

Admittedly, I'm no IT marketing genius. But Steve Ballmer's words last week about Microsoft's marketing strategies are troublesome to me...as a marketer.

During his speech last week at the People Ready launch, he said "IBM is increasingly a services company...and we are, at the end of the day, a software company."

To me, identifying your business by the products or services it provides is dangerous. It's too limiting and was the same issue buggywhip manufacturers faced over a hundred years ago. Companies like these take a product-focused attutude (a software company) versus one that is more market focused (a company that transforms computers into a person's best friend) and, in doing so, miss out on fundamental marketing opportunities.

Besides, Microsoft offers several products that most of us wouldn't consider software - Internet Explorer, Windows Media, and XBox come to mind.

But maybe I'm overthinking this. If you were Ballmer, would you be comfortable with describing Microsoft as a software business?

   

More on a marketing code of ethics

Recently I posted an entry on Lipe's Code of Marketing Ethics because I am starting to feel that marketers are increasingly bending the truth.

This weekend, I stumbled upon an article called "On Privacy" by Lester Wunderman, the legendary father of Direct Marketing. In it, Wunderman lines out his Consumer's Communications Bill of Rights. Among the choice morsels from this article are:

• Tell me clearly who you are and why you are contacting me.
• Don't pretend you know me personally. You don't know me; you know some things about me.
• Don't assume I want to have a relationship with you.
• Help me budget not only my money, but also my time.
• Don't communicate with me just because you can.

For the full 12 point Bill of Rights, download the On Privacy pdf and keep it handy.

Who is the greatest marketer of all time?

My list includes:

• Al Ries
• Bill Gates
• David Ogilvy
• Phil Kotler and
• Henry Ford.

For more choices, check out the forum at Marketing Profs. You can find at least another 50 choices.

But who is your choice?

Search engine marketing outperforms email marketing

According to Marketing Sherpa, an online marketing and research company, search engine marketing continues to dominate the efforts of online marketing.

The survey, just released by the firm, shows that 52% of marketers report that search performance outperforms other online tactics while 47% of marketers relate that emails to a house list work best.

In my mind the two should work in tandem: search engine marketing working to attract new, qualified buyers to a site, while email marketing working best to enhance a relationship once the buyer opts in for future communications.

For more about search engine marketing, read my article called "How to Successfully Market Your Website".

Is uniqueness a criterion for marketing plans?

Yesterday, in my Marketing Communications class at Augsburg College, I asked the students what made for an attention-getting marketing vehicle. One of their answers surprised me: As long as the marketing tool was new and unique, then they would be more apt to receive its message.

Among the tools that fell into this category of new and unique marketing tools were:

• Product placements
• Movie trailer advertisements (as long as they were done creatively)
• Graffiti advertising
• Moving billboards
• In-store kiosks

Do you agree? Does the fact that a marketing tool is new and unique contribute to the positive attention you give its marketing message?

How to improve your email deliverability

If you (or your company) depends on email marketing to keep in touch with an opt-in marketing list, then you must do all you can to ensure your emails are being delivered.

According to Jupiter Research, as much as 20% of all permission based email messages are mistakenly blocked.

Derek Gehl, the brains now behind the Internet Marketing Center, has come up with a simple list of 3 things you can do to improve the deliverability of your emails.

A great example of vertical marketing

Segway, the manufacturers and marketers of "personal transporters" have just introduced their  Segway Golf Transporter product, a product that focuses on the specific needs of golfers. In pursuing this marketing strategy, the company provides a classic example of a horizontal marketer that turns its attention to specific vertical markets.

Since January 2002, when the company first produced its pre-production models, it marketed the product to society as a whole. However, the challenges with marketing to a broad class of customers that cross over demographic, geographic and psychographic variables, are many. You risk:

• Diluting your message
• Diluting your advantages and
• Diluting your marketing dollars.

Pursuing vertical markets is a logical choice for a company like this. In addition to the golf transporter, the company is also now marketing to police departments. Companies are now beginning to understand that when you vertically market to a population segment you improve the focus of your efforts and messaging.

For example, I have seen the Segway trasporters for a while now, and always wondered why I would need one. However, because I'm an avid golfer, now that I've seen the golf transporter, I've taken a much more avid interest in it. It appeals to me more.

Watch how Segway moves into other vertical markets in the future. I'm convinced they will see the many benefits to vertical marketing and move their entire marketing effort in that direction.

For more information on horizontal vs. vertical marketing, read my article called Vertical Marketing v. Horizontal Marketing; Which is Right for You?