Amazon, Your New Diapers Smell Like Poo

By John San Filippo, jmsb@johnsanfilippo.com

www.johnsanfilippo.com

Subscribe: www.tinyurl.com/jmsbblog

 

I want to take this opportunity to thank Jeff Bezos. Jeff, you make my job so easy. Every time I’m looking for a what-not-to-do example of brand management, along you come with your next hair-brained idea.

My very first blog was about Amazon and its ridiculous brand extension strategy. For anyone unfamiliar with this term, here’s the Wikipedia definition:

Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category. The new product is called a spin-off. Organizations use this strategy to increase and leverage brand equity. An example of a brand extension is Jello gelatin creating Jello pudding.

Extending one’s brand can make a lot of sense – and a lot of money. Using the example above, the leap from gelatin to pudding is a short one, so it makes sense to people.

 

Then there’s Amazon. Amazon seems to think it can be successful with any product or service just by stamping an Amazon label on it. When I wrote my previous blog on Amazon and brand extension, the company had just introduced the Fire Phone. I predicted that the Fire Phone would be a fiery flop – and it was. When a consumer wants a new phone, there’s no way Amazon can compete with Apple or Samsung for top-of-mind positioning.

 

That didn’t stop Amazon from introducing the Fire Stick, which appears to be a Google Chromecast knock-off. Amazon expects you to believe that they’re now experts in television viewing experiences.

 

Just when I thought I’d seen it all (or smelled it all, as the case may be), along comes the news that Amazon is getting into the disposable diaper business. Yes, you read this correctly and it’s not an Internet prank. Amazon has slapped its brand label on your baby’s butt – as long as you’re an Amazon Prime member, that is.

 

It’s true. Along with video streaming and free shipping on some items (whatever those two have to do with each other), your Amazon Prime membership now includes the privilege of buying Amazon diapers. Non-members will still need to find their diapers elsewhere.

 

It’s hard for me to even imagine the strategy session that resulted in this brilliant idea. Let’s see. We’ve already turned our bookstore into a big flea market. We’re trying to keep up with Google and Microsoft in the cloud computing business. We’re also-rans in a wide array of consumer electronic items. How can we screw this brand up even further? That’s it! Diapers!!

 

How should Amazon have extended its brand? I said years ago that they should have opened brick-and-mortar bookstores. An observation I made just the other day convinced me I was right.

 

My seven-year-old granddaughter is an exceptional reader and, unlike me at that age, she actually enjoys reading. When she needs a new book, does she say, “Nanu, log me onto iBooks,” or, “Nanu, bring up the Amazon website on your computer”? No, she says, “Nanu, can we go to Barnes & Noble?” Can we go to Barnes & Noble? That's a great user experience.

 

Banks and credit unions continue to build branches, and they’re not alone. Brick and mortar is making a comeback. You heard it here first.

 

But is there a lesson in all this for financial technology companies? I think the lesson is universal. The only thing that drives crazy brand extension is greed. So the simple lesson is: Don’t be greedy. Among the many other problems that greed causes, it will screw up your brand. And in the end, your brand is really all you have.

 

That is all.

 

WTH Is the Diff Between a Product Sheet, a Case Study and a White Paper?

By John San Filippo, jmsb@johnsanfilippo.com 

www.johnsanfilippo.com 

Subscribe: www.tinyurl.com/jmsbblog 

 

We’ve already established that content marketing is a pretty important thing. You can read my thoughts on the topic here, as well as here. With the holiday slow-down inevitably upon us, it’s a good time to take inventory of your content pieces, make sure everything is up to date, and most important of all, see if you’re missing anything you need.

 

Implicit in this last step is an understanding of how each content piece is supposed to function – what purpose it serves. So today I’m going to discuss three common marketing documents and where they fit in your content arsenal.

 

Product Sheets

 

Call it a product sheet, a product brief, a product slick, a brochure. Whatever you call it in your organization, I’m talking about a document dedicated to describing a single product.

 

My rule of thumb: Every product should have a product sheet. It doesn’t make sense to me to tell a prospect that our product is important enough for you to buy, but not important enough to justify one stinkin’ page of copy.

 

Of course, like all others, this rule has an exception. If your product has a base module and a bunch of optional add-on modules, it makes sense to explain the entire suite in a single document. Imaging systems are a good example of this. Remember, the whole idea is to make your products easy to understand for prospects. And in any event, every product still gets mentioned somewhere in your marketing materials.

 

The Big Mistake: The most common mistake with product sheets is the copywriter who provides too much information. Stop the TMI! A product sheet isn’t supposed to tell everything there is to tell about a product. On the contrary, the product sheet should merely pique interest – it should raise questions and spark a conversation with the salesperson.

 

Case Studies

 

I love case studies. Out of all the content types you can produce, case studies create the most emotional connection with their readers. That's because a case study represents a peer telling a reader how he or she addressed a situation.

 

Sure, anyone reading a case study knows it’s just another marketing document created by some company trying to pimp its products. On the other hand, the reader also knows that one of his peers was willing to put his name on the line to endorse the product.

 

That carries a lot of weight.

 

The case study format is fairly simple: 

1. Describe the problem.
2. Explain how it was solved.
3. Detail the results in quantifiable terms.

If you have happy customers, you have plenty of case study source material.

 

The Big Mistakes: There are two common case study mistakes. The first is adding a bunch of marketing fluff. For example, instead of saying, “Last National Bank achieved a 10-percent reduction in operating costs,” you might be tempted to say, “Last National Bank achieved a 10-percent reduction in operating costs because our product is so freaking great.”

 

People get that your product is so freaking great. They understand that’s why you’re writing a case study about it. You don’t need to beat them over the head with it. Step back out of the way and let your customers tell their own stories.

 

The other common mistake is multiple case studies that tell the same story. I’m all for more than one case study on the same product – as long as each one tells a unique story in terms of problems solved and results achieved. Otherwise, you’re just going to bore your readers telling the same story over and over again.

 

White Papers

 

Why do we write white papers? To establish thought leadership, right?

 

Whatever.

 

The Big Mistake: Yes, I’m starting this section with The Big Mistake.

 

If you’re only writing white papers for the lofty goal of establishing thought leadership – i.e., you’re not writing them with the willful intent to market your product – you’re missing the boat.

 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying there’s no value in thought leadership. What I’m saying is that you need to put some effort into deciding exactly what direction you want to lead that thought. Or put more bluntly, you need an ulterior motive.

 

I’ve found that white papers are especially useful in two situations. The first is when there’s some broad misunderstanding or lack of knowledge out in the marketplace.

 

For example, document management (DM) systems and enterprise content management (ECM) systems both compete for an FI’s imaging dollars. ECM systems are much more robust, but they’re also typically more expensive. Do you know the difference between DM and ECM? If you’d read the white paper I created when I was at Jack Henry, you would. My paper explained the difference, but in a way that clearly pointed the reader toward ECM (JHA’s product).

 

Another great use of a white paper is to espouse the features that make your product unique, but in a very generic way – in other words, to highlight your key competitive differentiators without telling anyone that’s what you’re doing.

 

For example, suppose the key differentiators of your product are “less filling” and “tastes great.” You might write a white paper explaining why anyone shopping for a product in your product class should only consider products that are less filling and taste great. You sound neutral in the white paper, but the logic inevitably leads the reader to your product, and only your product.

 

If any of this doesn’t make sense, please feel free to drop me a note. I’d love to hear from you.

 

That is all.

 

  

There Must Be 50 Ways to Run a Tradeshow ... 50 Ways to Run a Tradeshow

By John San Filippo, jmsb@johnsanfilippo.com
www.johnsanfilippo.com
Subscribe: www.tinyurl.com/jmsbblog


As a follow-up to last week’s post on tradeshow success,
I thought I’d offer a lighter take in honor of Thanksgiving.
Feel free to sing along to the tune of that Paul Simon classic.
Happy Thanksgiving all!

The problem is all inside your head.
I tell you so.
The answer is easy. Let me
Tell you what I know.
I'd like to help you make your
Tradeshow presence grow.
There must be fifty ways
To run a tradeshow.

It all depends on how you’re hoping
To be viewed.
Please don’t be crude or lewd or rude.
You must be forever shrewd.
If you go without a plan,
You will certainly be screwed.
There must be fifty ways
To run a tradeshow.
Fifty ways to run a tradeshow.

You just pack up the booth, Ruth.
Hop on the plane, Dwayne.
Call up the press, Jess,
And have a great show.

You set up a meet, Pete.
Work until dawn, Shawn.
Lock up when you leave, Steve,
And have a great show.

Don’t Screw Up Your Tradeshow: 3 Lessons from BAI Retail Delivery

By John San Filippo, jmsb@johnsanfilippo.com
www.johnsanfilippo.com
Subscribe: www.tinyurl.com/jmsbblog

Are you tired of tradeshows eating up your marketing budget with little to no apparent return? Do you think it’s a waste of time to have your employees manning your booth when they could be doing real work? Is your travel budget out of control? Be honest. Do you think tradeshows just suck?

I’ll be brutally honest. The problem isn’t tradeshows. The problem is you. If your entire tradeshow “strategy” is making sure that your booth is set up and that cardboard-cutout employees are positioned in the booth in case a prospect comes by, you’re right – tradeshows suck.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. I just got back from covering BAI Retail Delivery in Chicago for CU Times. While there, I was reminded of three simple ways that you can assure success at most any tradeshow.

1. Have a Plan!

That seems simple enough, doesn’t it? Have a plan. Obvious, right?

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to the sales manager at a reasonably well-known fintech company. We’ll call it Company A.

Knowing that Company A had exhibited at Retail Delivery in the past, I asked whether they’d be there this year, as well. The sales manager told me no. He said that every year, he reviewed the attendee list and sent salespeople to Retail Delivery who had prospects attending. But for the most part, the salespeople never caught up with the prospects they were looking for. So, reasoned the sales manager, why bother?

While at Retail Delivery, I found myself at a bar (Would it be better if I said it was a juice bar?) with a group that included a top salesman from Company B, a competitor of Company A. I asked the salesman from Company B whether he was having a good show. No, he said, he was having a great show.

How could that be?

The salesman explained that when he got the attendee list, he started calling prospects for appointments. By the time he got to Retail Delivery, his calendar was booked solid. He got to speak to just about everybody on his list.

Let that sink in for a minute. Company A trusted blind luck and as a result found no value in Retail Delivery. Company B had a plan – a pretty simple plan – and it paid off big time. Need I say more?

2. Engage the Media

As soon as my name was added to the media list, my inbox was flooded with invitations to speak with representatives from various companies. I spoke with people from companies you’d probably recognize, like Fiserv (for a story that hasn’t been published yet) and Malauzi Software (for a story you can read here).

Clearly I didn’t have time to talk to everyone I would’ve wanted to, but I did interview a representative from a company I’d not heard much about. It’s an online and mobile banking company called Backbase. Apparently big in Europe, they claim to have solved the omnichannel conundrum. (You can read more about Backbase here.)

What’s my point? Sure, there’s a lot of competition for the attention of every journalist at a tradeshow, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to reach out. You never know if you’ll catch some reporter’s eye. And guess what else. I saved all those emails. If I ever need a source for a particular topic, I’ll check those emails first.

3. Differentiate Yourself

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Marketing is all about differentiation. That’s another no-brainer, but most people seem to forget about differentiation when they’re getting ready for a tradeshow.

What do I mean by differentiation? Here’s a simple example. At Retail Delivery, there was a reception in the expo hall both nights. The first night, online banking provider Q2 gave away soft pretzels in their booth. The second night, they had draught beer.

Am I trying to imply that anyone’s online banking decision would be swayed by a pretzel? Of course not. However, a month from now, if someone asked you to name an online banking provider you saw at Retail Delivery, I think there’s a decent chance you’d think of the beer and pretzel company first. That’s not bad brand reinforcement.

On the other hand, I think you can go too far with differentiation. There was another exhibitor that had a magician in its booth. He was great. In fact, he was so great, I got his business card. But he was also so great, I completely forgot the company he represented. His greatness overshadowed their message, at least for me. Oops.

Why I’m Right

Back in 1999, Las Vegas played host to the 20^th annual COMDEX computer show. It was the most amazing event I ever attended. It occupied the entire Las Vegas Convention Center, the entire Sands Convention Center, all of the meeting rooms at the Las Vegas Hilton, and three gigantic temporary buildings in the convention center parking lot.

By 2004, COMDEX had vanished. What happened, and how did it happen so quickly? IMHO, the Internet happened. Exhibitors and attendees alike reasoned that there was no point in attending big tradeshows when the Web provided such a great conduit for product information. It was all right there at everyone’s fingertips, right?

Remember how video conferencing was supposed to eliminate your travel budget? Didn’t happen, did it? The same is true with tradeshows. People are finally starting to realize that there’s just no substitute for live human interaction. Tradeshows are making a comeback. It’s up to you whether they’re a smart investment or a stupid waste of money.

That is all.

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Omnichannel

by John San Filippo, jmsb@johnsanfilippo.com 
www.johnsanfilippo.com 
Subscribe: www.tinyurl.com/jmsbblog

I’m sitting in a Chili’s Too at DFW with about three hours to kill, so how better to kill them than by writing a short blog? I’m on my way to Chicago – where I hear it’s about six degrees – for the BAI Retail Delivery Show. I’m on assignment for Credit Union Times.

As I sit here sipping my ninth iced tea, I wonder what the buzz will be about at RDS this year. Last year in Denver, it was omnichannel. It was everywhere. You couldn’t take three steps without tripping over omnichannel. I actually wondered whether presenters were incentivized to use the term, because they all did, and many of them used it even when it wasn’t appropriate.

I feared that if attendees heard the term omnichannel overused and misused as much as they did, they might get confused and, worse, might think omnichannel isn’t important. That would be tragic, because IMHO omnichannel is extremely important.

Do you know the difference between multichannel and omnichannel? Sure you do, but for the benefit of the next ignorant guy that clicks this link, I’ll explain it anyway.

Multichannel, as the names suggests, is having a presence in multiple delivery channels – ATMs, online banking, mobile, etc. Omnichannel extends that idea beyond a mere presence in all available channels. Omnichannel is about providing a consistent, transparent and whenever possible, continuous user experience across all those channels. By continuous, I’m referring to the ability for a consumer to leave off in one channel and finish up the transaction via another channel.

In other words, regardless of the channel, a consumer always knows he’s dealing with your FI because it always looks the same, feels the same, and works the same.

Hmm. That sounds an awful lot like smart branding, doesn’t it?

So, again IMHO, omnichannel is actually nothing more than the convergence of great technology and great branding. To that I would add: It’s about time! When you address every issue, at least in part, as a branding issue, only good things will happen. The emergence of omnichannel is an ideal case in point.

That is all.

Apple Pay vs CurrentC: A Battle of Brand Extensions

by John San Filippo, jmsb@johnsanfilippo.com
www.johnsanfilippo.com

Subscribe: www.tinyurl.com/jmsbblog

When I was but a lad, I went to a seminar (yes, a real, live event that I actually had to leave the house for) put on by Bob Bly. I checked Amazon and Bly hasn’t published a book on copywriting in a few years, but back when I was starting out, he was the crown prince of freelance copywriting.

One story he told has always stuck with me. This may be a BS story he concocted just to make a point, but he told us of a fellow copywriter who, to be as frugal as possible, did his own landscaping, home maintenance, etc. Being as tight as he was with his money, he couldn’t understand why he didn’t have more of it. Bly’s answer was obvious. The guy was spending too much time saving money and not enough time making money. The lesson was: Do what you’re good at and let other people do what they’re good at. Easy enough, right?

I’ve applied this rule time after time in the ensuing years, and it’s always served me well. Sure, I did my own brakes one time and built myself a PC once, but those were mostly just to say I did it. Generally speaking, I let the experts do what the experts are trained to do. However, it was only in the last couple of years that I realized all this is really just a lesson in brand extension.

(Click here to read my previous post on Amazon’s insanely goofy brand extension strategy.)

If my own brand is all about providing top-notch marketing and writing services to fintech companies, I’m truly stupid if I attempt to extend my brand into, say, landscaping – even if I’m only providing those services to myself. I need to stay focused on great marketing and writing, and let the gardener mow the lawn.

So what do lawn mowers have to do with mobile payments? Funny you should ask.

First, let me say for the record that payments have always been mobile. Cash is mobile. Credit cards are mobile. But of course, we’re talking about device-centric mobile payments. That’s a whole new ball game. And because it’s new, somebody needs to extend their brand into this space to fill the void. Should it be Apple and its partners, or should it be the retailer consortium known as the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX)?

First let’s look at MCX, which really has no brand of its own. However, its big backers – CVS, Best Buy, and Walmart, for example – do have well-established brands. What do they all have in common? They’re all retailers. Beyond the fact that they’re all retailers, they have no experience in payments and payment systems, nor do they have any experience in developing consumer technology products. This all raises a giant brand extension red flag for me.

On the other hand, we have Apple, a company whose entire brand centers around making the human experience cooler through technology. From what I can tell, Apple Pay does exactly that. And while one might argue that Apple has no experience in payments, the same can’t be said for Apple’s partners in this endeavor – partners like Visa and MasterCard, along with hundreds of banks and credit unions. In other words, Apple Pay seems like a very logical extension of the Apple brand.

The folks at MCX have been pretty tight-lipped about the specifics, so speculation about potential technical issues has run rampant. Will transactions be settled one at a time via ACH, much like an uncoupled debit card? Will consumers need to preload their CurrentC account? Will consumers need a separate instance of CurrentC on their phone for each retailer? If yes to these last two questions, will all CurrentC instances share a common balance?

These are questions for another time, and probably for someone else’s blog. In the meantime, from a purely brand-oriented perspective, Apple Pay seems to be the obvious frontrunner in the mobile payments race. Walmart should stick to what it does best: selling stuff for dirt cheap and providing fodder for websites like this.

That is all.

SEO Ate My Press Release!

by John San Filippo, jmsb@johnsanfilippo.com
Subscribe: www.tinyurl.com/jmsbblog

Back in the day, you wrote a press release, issued it, and hoped for one of four possible outcomes:

• An editor or reporter would be so dazzled by your press release that they’d decide to develop it into a full story. (I had a dream this happened to me once.)
• Your press release would fit with some larger story and be incorporated therein.
• Your press release would establish your company and its executives as subject matter experts, increasing their chances of being interviewed later on a similar topic.
• A trade publication would distill your press release down to a few key sentences and use the distilled version as sidebar filler in an upcoming edition.

(All of these outcomes are good – and still viable – although some are clearly more advantageous than others.)

Then along came the Internet. And just as with so many other areas of endeavor, the Internet was very disruptive for the press release business. Just not necessarily in a good way.

 As the Internet exploded, the need for content likewise exploded. However, content budgets didn’t necessarily explode in similar fashion. This made press releases very attractive. Free content written by established industry leaders. Suddenly, press releases were appearing everywhere online.

That’s still a good thing, right?

Somewhere along the way, this caught the attention of the search-engine optimization (SEO) crowd. (For the uninitiated, SEO means “optimizing” your content and its online presentation to increase its chances of being found by someone via Google, Bing, etc.) The first thing you know, old Jed’s a millionaire … wait. That’s not it. The first thing you know, press releases shifted from a PR activity to an SEO activity.

Those SEO sneaksters unleashed their craftiness on press releases and it seemed like press releases would never be the same. Press releases started being written for computers instead of people. Arguments erupted over the proper keyword density for press releases. They became jam-packed with links designed to drive website traffic. In short, they kind of sucked.

Thankfully (IMHO), the big search engines frown on SEO. They want to help you find content because it’s relevant, not because somebody gamed the system with excessive keywords and links. Even more thankfully, those search engine peeps are smart enough to do something about it. In the last year or so, Google has changed its algorithms (that’s a euphemism for search-engine voodoo) to identify and filter out bogus press releases.

So that brings us full circle to writing press releases for actual people – your audience – instead of computers. Don’t get me wrong. It’s still smart to create your press releases with the Googlized world in mind.

For example, use common terminology in favor of your own internal terminology. Personal financial management, or PFM, is a pretty common term, right? Well, at my former employer, for reasons unclear, they chose to call it online financial management, or OFM. What do you think that did for people Googling for PFM? Not much.

The point is, you want people to find your press releases, and you want people to read your press releases. So write your damned press releases for people, not computers.

That is all.