“Put Yourself In My Shoes”

How many times have you used that phrase or something like it? I tend to use it a lot.  Sadly, it seems I use it more and more these days. What if everyone did business with that phrase in mind?

When you sit down to develop the marketing strategy for a show or event, you need to get into your customers head.  What will they think? How will they perceive my message?  What will make them buy?  You have to put on your customers hat.  Remember, you may not be your own customer.  Just because you think they will see your message, doesn’t mean they will.  For example, if you plan to buy out of home advertising, where are the best locations for your customer to see it? I once had a boss who wanted billboards placed along the route he took.  He said his customers take the same route.  Our marketing research did not gel with his thought process.  We saw no increase in sales. Maybe he just wanted to see his own billboards.

The phrase “put yourself in my shoes” gets used the most when it comes to customer service.  I tend to use it all the time with customer “no” service people on the phone.  When you put your policies and procedures together for the customer experience, do you think about how the customer will deal with it?  If you answer “who gives a crap” then you are not putting yourself in their shoes. Just because it looks good on paper doesn’t make it so. Listening to our customers is what sells.  Next time you want to cut something that will affect your customers experience, put yourself in their shoes.

Marketing In 2009 Is Cool!

As a marketer and advertiser I think 2009 is going to be cool.  You might be saying; is he still drunk from New Years?  No, I really do think the new year is going to ring in new ways to market and we have a great opportunity to be a part of it.  With the New Year and a tanking economy we need to have a new way of thinking.  We are going to see  new ways to market our shows and events.  All the technology is here for us to play with.

Digital marketing is going to increase this year.  As more people go to social networks, websites, blogs, etc… to receive their information, we as marketers will follow. As you start marketing in these areas I ask two things of you; 1) be creative; 2) don’t get caught up in advertising that does not work such as banner ads.  You dictate how to market your product not the sales reps selling you ads.

You know how in sci-fi and cartoon movies they have outdoor signs that talk, well its for real now.  You will see this type of out-of-home advertising rise in 2009.  Not only can it talk to you but it has technology that can tell if you are male or female, black or white, etc…  With this technology you can market directly to your demo. 

A friend of mine walked around our New Years Eve party showing everyone the bar code app he has on his mobile phone.  He said it came with the phone.  With his phone, he scanned the bar code on a bottle of wine.  His phone then mapped out where he could buy the bottle of wine and which store had the best price.  This technology is call QR codes.  I wrote about QR codes back in November http://joelewi.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/qr-codes-with-mobile-marketing/.  Take this technology to our business.  How about putting old marketing with new marketing?  Go back to fliers and posters to market shows except put bar codes on them.  This way a customer could scan the code, see where to buy tickets, and even get a discount. 

I could go on and on with all the new ways of marketing we have before us.  As marketers, we can be creative again.  We have the opportunity to show the bean counters that we are worth something.  I am psyched for 2009, are you?