atkinson advisor

All buying decisions are selfish. They just are. Consumers buy the product that makes them feel better about themselves.

This applies to personal decisions – “I look good in this suit.” – and business products – “The boss is going to notice my good work.” Or it could be, “I’m not going to get in trouble for recommending XYZ Company.”

These decisions don’t involve the features that marketers so often turn to when selling products. “I look good in this suit” doesn’t make reference to the color, the cut, the craftsmanship, etc.

Transforming features to personal benefits is an enormous challenge. Fortunately, researchers have invented a tool to help.

The Benefit Ladder is a process for understanding the personal benefits of your products and services. Here’s how it works:

• Take a feature of your company’s product or service.
• Ask yourself, “What does this do for my customer?”
• And then, “Why does the customer care about that?”
• And then, “Why does the customer care about that?”
• Stay with the process until the answer is, “It makes my customer feel good about herself.”

The personal benefits will be clues to help you develop more relevant and personal messages that connect with customers.

Kudos to Sonia Simone from Copyblogger and Remarkable Communication for introducing us to the benefit ladder.

YOUR TURN: How do you help customers better understand benefits of working with you?

Creating Competitive Advantage by Jaynie L. Smith

Smith’s thesis is just as relevant today as when Creating Competitive Advantage was published in 2006. In fact, it may be even more critical in today’s increasingly competitive environment.

One of Smith’s most important points is that companies often confuse strengths for competitive advantages. They focus on strengths such as integrity and client trust, which are great and essential to business.  However, these strengths are not competitive advantages.  Some of your competitors likely have these strengths.

Her definition of competitive advantage is the “reason people do business with you.”  It’s what your competition doesn’t have, what allows you to close the sale.

A competitive advantage must be quantifiable, i.e. it must have supporting proof points. 

The following statement is not a competitive advantage:  “Our people are the best in the industry.”  However, it become a competitive advantage when you add:  “Our engineers have a minimum experience of 15 years in the business, twice that of our nearest competitor.” It gets even better when you can add the customer into the mix: “Our clients realize a 4x return on investment because our engineers average twice the experience of our nearest competitor.”

Smith cautions the reader, “Remember that competitive advantages are always moving targets.  You have to review your own, and your competitors’, at least quarterly.  Business is a chess game.  You need to think two or three moves ahead if you expect to win.”

YOUR TURN: What book helped you get a competitive edge in business?

Sean Penn recently won an Academy Award for best actor for his role as Harvey Milk in Milk. This is the same actor who launched his career as the infamous stoner Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Penn was brilliant in both roles because he disappeared and let the character enter the story.

The same thing happened with Jamie Foxx in Ray. There are points in the movie when you are not sure if you are watching Ray Charles or Jamie Foxx. The reward was the same: a best supporting actor Oscar.

Contrast this with movies where the actor is clearly miscast for the role. These films are a painful waste of 90 minutes of your life you’ll never get back.

The difference is authenticity. The actor adapts – language, inflections, mannerisms, dialect, etc. – to become the character in the story. He does not impose himself on the character. We believe his story.

Marketing can learn quite a bit from good acting. Today’s consumers are savvy. They appreciate and can spot authenticity. Likewise, they abhor people and brands trying to impose themselves on their worlds – into their stories.

How, then, do companies generate authenticity?

• Respect for and desire to learn the target community’s traditions, language, etc.
• Genuine care and concern for things that a target community cares about
• Desire to start small with knowledge that small roles will lead to much bigger opportunities in the future

Henry Ford once said that people could have any color car they wanted as long it was black.

The car industry has evolved greatly since Mr. Ford’s days. Buyers now have a number of options: color, interiors, electronics, etc.

We have yet to reach a time when auto manufacturers engineer a car from concept to production for just one person.

This example illustrates our evolution from mass production to mass customization to personalization. A vast majority of businesses fall into the first two categories. A group of intrepid businesses –- especially service and ecommerce companies -– are taking the next step toward true personalization, a.k.a. a market of one.

Amazon.com is at the tip of personalization spear. Back in 2000, founder Jeff Bezos said, “If we want to have 20 million customers, then we want to have 20 million ’stores’ … . Our mission is to be the Earth’s most customer-centric company.” Today, the site recognizes returning customers; makes recommendations based on the customer’s purchase history and items similar to ones they are perusing; and encourages two-way dialogue through customer reviews. It’s not an accident that Amazon.com has a high customer-satisfaction rating.

Here are three criteria to help determine whether and how far an organization should pursue personalization.

1. Is personalization a viable strategy for your company? Most companies segment by markets and customize products to those markets. Personalization demands a one-to-one approach that requires a further investment of time and resources.
2. Do you have adequate customer data? A personalization program requires higher level of details and an ability to analyze the impact of customer relations on behaviors.
3. Are you willing to involve the entire organization? Everyone must own a personalized approach to customer relations – not just marketing, not just sales, not just customer service. The goal is relevant, two-way dialogue centered on the customer’s needs. Everyone has to have access to customer information to make this goal achievable.

The Peppers & Rodgers Group are leading scholars and thinkers on personalization. Read more about their work here.

The Dip by Seth Godin

Marketing guru Seth Godin is known for turning concepts on their heads. The Dip, his latest book, takes on the old adage that “winners never quit, and quitters never win.” Godin makes a compelling case that winners do quit, and quitters do win.

According to Godin, every new project starts out exciting and fun. Then it gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point — really hard, and not much fun at all – he calls “the dip.” Godin provides insights for determining whether the dip is a temporary setback, a dead end with no possibility of escape, or a cul-de-sac that will never get better, no matter how hard you try.

Godin’s research reveals that superstars set themselves apart from others by their ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

Godin argues convincingly that winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt until they take on the right dip for the right reasons. Winners realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it.

Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip—they get to the moment of truth and then give up—or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.

Seth Godin’s official website

Marketing has its own set of metrics like any business function. Marketers talk about awareness, market share, lead generation, media hits, etc. The question for CEOs is how these metrics translate help make better business decisions.

Having the marketing team translate its metrics using the following three questions can help bridge the gap between marketing activities and the bottom line:

1. How much business has been gained and at what cost?
2. Is the cost too high or would more business be gained by more investment?
3. Is the balance of cost and investment about right in relation to the return of profitable revenue?