The Five and Dime

Almost every ad agency in the world subscribes to the USP—the Unique Selling Proposition. What they typically tell their clients is we need to find the one thing that makes your company unique in all of the world, and that is the message that we are going to extoll in all of our advertising for you. The idea is that this USP will make you stand out from your competitors and give you the advantage.

There is a huge problem with this scenario: most companies don’t actually have a real unique selling proposition. There are a few…Apple Computers has their retail stores with the Genius Bar and so far they are the only computer company that I know of that offers a service like this; WalMart uses size to their advantage and beats up their suppliers to offer the lowest prices; and cell phone companies come out with new technology temporarily allowing them to offer something unique.

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My next seminar will be in Monroe, Wisconsin on November 1st for the Green County Entrepreneur & Inventors group sponsored by Green County Development Corporation. The topic will be Marketing 101-1/2, basic marketing plus a little bit more.

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When a retailer thinks outside the box it sometimes takes him outside the store. Brian Banks at LifeStyles Furniture in Moline is placing leather furniture at the Quad City International Airport for travelers to use. We like working with Brian because he lets us do some really fun work. Read the press release…

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Recently I gave a presentation to the Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce about writing your own marketing plan. During the presentation a question came up about pricing. Although pricing of products and services typically is part of the business plan, it can also be an important marketing strategy. Sometimes by raising your prices you can actually increase your business. As any marketer knows, it is all about perceptions and your higher pricing often helps convince of higher quality.

I then mentioned a strategy of “marking it up to mark it down.” The thought process in this strategy is that if you have a higher list price it allows you to mark it down (sales, coupons, etc.) and still get your margins. (Obviously this is more for a retail/consumer product environment than for a service or B2B account.) I then spoke briefly about the psychology of “getting a deal” and how consumers feel good about that process. Even if they could have purchased a competitor’s product of a better quality for less money, the idea of getting a deal trumps the comparison shopping.

Later, I received an email from Carol Smith at Just Fare Market (www.justfare.org). She asked an interesting question on whether the strategy “to mark it up to mark it down” was ethical. I asked her to elaborate:

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This is part of a Chamber class in Fond du Lac. It’s simply a list of things you can do to market/promote your business. Feel free to add to it!

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Lastest television commercial that we created for the Ad Diner. That’s me saying, “hey, don’t make him mad” (the one being referred to as a “pinhead.”) www.AdDiner.com

(This is part three of a series. Read part one and part two.)

One of the things that I emphasize with students is that their ability to listen will serve them well in the advertising world. Many times my best ideas aren’t even my own, I just listen intently and take what the clients say and give it back to them. Most of the time they don’t realize what they are saying. And I think it is a fair statement that we polish the idea a little bit.

One of the best slogans we ever created for a client was the phrase “Know Your Worth” for Royal Neighbors of America. RNA is an insurance company that specializes in marketing to women and has a long history. They were the first insurance company to even offer insurance to women (hard to imagine that there was a time when women couldn’t buy insurance), they were also very involved in the women’s suffrage movement, working to give women in the U.S. the right to vote. They grew very big over these early years and kind of rode that success for years to come.

The phrase “know your worth” wasn’t our invention. It actually was a line buried within a paragraph on their website. It took an astute designer (Holly Stine) to see that line and think that it could be a defining phrase for the company. (Which also shows that it doesn’t matter what your title is, a designer can come up with good copy, a copywriter can have good graphic ideas.)

Unfortunately, after three presidents and four marketing directors within a two year period, the fourth marketing director decided to ditch the “Know Your Worth” slogan. That’s too bad, but often new marketing directors feel it is more important to make their mark and they can’t do that with someone else’s ideas.

The dog house in front of Companion Animal Care in Fond du Lac.

(This is part two of a series. Part one can be read here.)

We’re currently working with an animal hospital in Fond du Lac. One of their problems is awareness. We’re addressing part of that awareness problem with some innovative marketing programs that are literally getting prospects to walk in the door. But one of their problems is that people don’t know where they are located, even though they’ve been located on a very recognizable street for many years. (And Fond du Lac isn’t that big of a place.)

Their monument sign was fine and out near the street where it could be seen easily. Do they need more signage or something different?

I suggested creating a landmark out front that people would notice. We narrowed it down to two different ideas. A pond with a large sculpture of a dog peeing into the pond (you know, a dog version of the cherub statue peeing fountain.) Or building a structure. The structure won out. And what would that structure be? Well a dog house, of course.

They had already hired a talented artist, Therese Randall, to paint murals in their building. She returned to turn the dog house into a piece of illustrative art. Now if anyone asks them for directions, they can say they are “in the place with the big yellow doghouse out front.”