Friday, January 22, 2010

Looking for the "Right" Solution



The problem with marketing at high tech companies is that most of the marketers are engineers who think “marketing” sounds like fun. They are not genetic marketers. They were not "born to be marketers." In many cases, they do not even have a “recessive marketing gene.” These are the people who make up the marketing organizations at most technology companies (Apple being a notable exception) and the marketing working groups of most technology trade groups.

About three years ago, I was working with a sister organization who wanted to co-market 1394 with the 1394TA. They wanted to run an ad in the CES Show Daily to build traffic to their booth. I introduced them to one of the most creative people I know to help them create an ad that would "pop." If they were going to entice people to leave the Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung booths to see their demo, the ad would need to grab attention and create curiosity. 


This sister organization looked at a bunch of concepts from the creative company and migrated as a body to the least interesting ads presented. Anything truly creative made them uncomfortable. Their “engineering mind” kept raising doubts. They were second-guessing themselves to death. In the end, they selected the one concept that looked the most like all other ads in the magazine. Literally, when I picked up the magazine at the show to look for the ad, I flipped past it twice before I found it. It looked so much like every other ad, it was almost camouflaged.

It was at that moment that I had an epiphany. One reason why engineers make such mediocre marketers is because they are looking for the “correct” solution. The solution cannot be one that just feels right. It cannot be something that you just know is right but cannot explain why it is right. That “correct” solution must be the one that everyone else is doing. That is the criteria by which print ads are so often measured. 


With training, I have found that engineering marketers can be extremely creative, but this has to be nurtured. It will not emerge if they are left to their engineering training and logic.
 

James Snider is a Global Marketing professional, responsible for developing the 3.4 billion dollar 1394/FireWire market. James spent 16 years in marketing with 7 years working at "for profit" companies, 8 years as executive director of a non-profit and the past year as an independent global business development consultant.  www.linkedin.com/in/jamessnider

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Stretching the Creative Muscle


After the "Cowboy" ad, I convinced the marketing group that what they had been doing was pure folly.  They simply were not solving a single problem.  They were spending money for no benefit...and to the contrary....they were spending money to hurt their cause by clogging up the voicemail of their sales team with customers who should be going to the distributors for samples.


 Since we knew who our target audience was and since that target audience was fairly small, it made better sense to go directly to the customer with our promotion.  Our sales staff kept asking for some sort of "leave behind" to build goodwill with their customers.  Our competition was always bringing trinkets to the customer.  We rarely did.


We went to work on developing a giveaway that would be unique, desirable, and used in the office.  A frisbee or stress relief "desktop toy" is pretty boring and usually goes home with a customer (or in the trash a day or two later) and does not stay at the office.  Our first effort was a "flashcard" flashlight which is essentially a flat flashlight about the size of a playing card but much thicker.  This was a decent first effort.  It was unique, not very expensive, useful (everyone needs a flashlight), and had plenty of surface area for a sales message.  It was just not very popular.


The group was now starting to think creatively. We'd just not stretched the creative muscle adequately...yet.

James Snider is a Global Marketing professional, responsible for developing the 3.4 billion dollar 1394/FireWire market. James spent 16 years in marketing with 7 years working at "for profit" companies, 8 years as executive director of a non-profit and the past year as an independent global business development consultant.  www.linkedin.com/in/jamessnider

Friday, January 15, 2010

The Cure was Worse than the Disease


The “Be the Cowboy not the Cow” idea was not ground breaking. It was not brilliant, but it was a big step in the right direction. We did something that stood out. The message, however, was lost on almost everyone. Our Asian counterparts did not understand it at all. They changed the headline to “One World, One Cable.” To our European associates, the message came across as “Be a Redneck…” They shrugged their shoulders and swallowed their embarrassment.

Our competitors Photoshopped the ad and changed the headline to read, “Where there are cows and cowboys, there is always a lot of fertilizer…”

However, a larger problem surfaced.  

After the ad hit EETimes, I received a phone call from one of the sales reps I knew pretty well.  He complained that he hated it when we ran ads.  "Every time an ad shows up in a magazine, my phone starts ringing off the wall.  My voicemail fills up with requests for pricing and samples from garage shops who will probably not be in business next month.  At best, they will buy a few samples to play with.  I don't have time to mess around with these people!  I meet my sales targets by serving the needs of my tier one customers.  You guys in Dallas are killing me with these ads!"

I quickly took this information to the marketing group. Unimpressed, they responded, "Yeah. The sales people tell us that every time we run an ad." 

They knew this already, but failed to see the problem.  I was reminded of something one of my marketing professors told us, "No person should ever work as a marketer until they have worked in sales.  You do not understand what the sales person is dealing with until you have done their job."

I finally succeeded in killing ads altogether and began to work with the group to come up with different promotion methods.  "Be the Cowboy, Not the Cow" looked like a failure at first, but what happened over the next few weeks showed that it was actually a game changer for this group.  It marked a turning point. The team started to get the idea that they did not have to go with the same old boring stuff. It was time to get creative. We turned our attention to some of the most creative marketing being done in the industry.  

James Snider is a Global Marketing professional, responsible for developing the 3.4 billion dollar 1394/FireWire market. James spent 16 years in marketing with 7 years working at "for profit" companies, 8 years as executive director of a non-profit and the past year as an independent global business development consultant.  www.linkedin.com/in/jamessnider

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A Game Changer


After several meetings with the ad agency, we finally convinced them that we wanted something more than the same boring ads. They were trying to be a little creative but were holding back. After showing us several ad concepts which were marginally better than previous efforts, they pulled out one last mock-up. It was an image of a 1394 cable lassoing the world. The headline was “Be the Cowboy, Not the Cow”.

The room was silent. A stunned silence.

I liked it. I did not love it, but I at least felt like we were doing something different. Something that would stand out. Something that would get attention. Something with some punch.

Be the leader not the led. Be the one making things happen, not the one to whom things are happening. You have a choice, you can lead and be at the top of the food chain or you can be passive, not make a decisive step to add 1394, become part of the herd and eventually get eaten.

The idea was growing on me. It was quirky and a little risky (the message was a little convoluted) but it was a far cry from “the same ol’ same ol’.” My boss and I said almost in unison, “I like that one.”

The ad agency responded, “We were not serious. You wanted something ‘out there’ so we brought this as a joke.”

But we wanted and we got it. It was not destined to go down as a major marketing success for my employer, but it was a game changer. What we learned with this ad campaign changed the way this group of "engineers turned marketers" would see promotion for the rest of our time together.


James Snider is a Global Marketing professional, responsible for developing the 3.4 billion dollar 1394/FireWire market. James spent 16 years in marketing with 7 years working at "for profit" companies, 8 years as executive director of a non-profit and the past year as an independent global business development consultant.  www.linkedin.com/in/jamessnider