Hit The Demand Button

When I first began studying marketing, I was taught about the importance of satisfying consumer needs. But in reality, all consumers REALLY need is food, clothing, shelter and maybe a little sexual appreciation (so to speak). These basic physiological needs, once satisfied, would then lead our human species to satisfy more psychological needs such as self actualization, self esteem, achievement, etc. etc. etc.

As the years rolled on, I realized that satisfying needs wasn't quite as important as recognizing what people "demanded."

Well, think about it.

People need to lose weight, but they demand a Big Mac. People need to get exercise, but they demand a 72" 3-D LED TV to sit in front of and veg out. People want to have fun, but they demand something "different that they know for a long time."

And that's why they like bowling. They already KNOW what bowling is. They even think they know how to bowl. They have done it since the first bowling birthday party they attended. They did it, as a teenager, on a date; or as part of a group who conducted a fundraiser; or as a company employee who attended a holiday bowling party or team building event and THEY LIKED IT...but not enough to keep doing it.

Why is that? Was it because it wasn't different enough each week? Or it was not challenging enough? Or it was it too challenging?

Whatever the need or the reason, does it really matter?

What matters is finding the "demand button" and pushing it hard. Here's the button I haven't seen many proprietors hit in a long time.

This button is the demand for "belonging" to a group, or to "be part of something."

What compelling offer can you develop that hits these demand buttons?

Now do the Fred thing: Develop. Implement on a small scale. Measure. Modify. Repeat.

The New Normal - Part Two

I think this recession is going to last a while.

Even though productivity per worker has increased, we have less workers. The middle class worker who produced regular 'boring" stuff is now finding that stuff mechanized, out sourced or limited to the lowest cost producer. And its hard to differentiate paper clips, toothpicks and other boring stuff and sell it at higher prices.

So good bye to the middle class worker of "boring stuff" In fact, since this recession started, we have lost 8,000,000 jobs. And we are seeing a net replacement of just about 80,000. Do the math. It will take us 100 months or 8 1/3rd years to get back to where we were. Think it can't happen. It happened in Japan. They lost a whole decade

Stimulus, protectionism, spending cuts, tax incentives, etc is NOT going to fix this problem. But you can if you view this as an opportunity to be faster, better, smarter, and OFFER A GREAT ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIENCE.

Because if it is not great and I can live without you or get it less expensive somewhere else, guess what happens to you. "Bye, bye, Miss American Pie!"

Do something different than cutting prices... a couple of ideas

1. Train your employees to deliver great service. Yeah, yeah you may think you do this, but do you do it with every new employee; or every month; and do you make this a VALUE that your center must ALWAYS uphold?
   
2. Make sure your center is clean, clean and clean. Outside where the cigarette butts are; lights that are out in the parking lot, or corners in the bathrooms that haven't been cleaned for years.
   
3. Build relationships with your customers via facebook, emails etc that prove to them that you are concerned. "Here's some suggestions about kids Halloween safety, health tips, where to get flu shots, spending for vacations and fun. And oh yes, add some coupons for "family entertainment savings"
4. Ask your league bowlers for company party referrals and reward them
5. Go visit the businesses in town YOURSELF, build relationships with them and invite them in for free parties ( on those nights where you are trying to fill holes or build open play)

So stop trying to treat this recession like the others.
Because it is not.

It is the NEW Normal.
Part Two

The New Normal - Part One

How many people watch television and listen to classical music from their television?.

That's how "niched" we have become. Sometimes there are less than 100 people who comprise a unique segment." Perhaps that is a bit of an exaggeration, but it is no different than mass marketers trying to be individual marketers.

No different than when a marketer tries to be all things to all people with the same product. That's why Glow Bowl, COSMIC BOWL (and all the other "doo hickey" names for music, lights and bowling) is a unique product that appeals to a highly defined segment that we have the ability to market this weekend night product.

If people like it, why has no one extended the product? It's basic marketing 101. Not brain surgery. Some people have gone to BIG SCREENS inside the center and over the lanes with some amazing results.

But what else can we do to that product? Create 3D Bowling!! Major consumer product manufacturers and retailers are marketing this product. We can get in on the ground swell! Maybe there is even a tie in promotional opportunity for us!!


Do It Now. Buy The 3-D Screens; Integrate then Communicate.

Budget and Fund the communication about this great new product. Allocate at least 8% of your purchase price for advertising, social networking, PR and street marketing.

Other products like BINGO BOWL have an amazing appeal to seniors in Mid Western, and Western cities and towns. Casino bowl on the East coast uses the appeals of Atlantic City or Foxwood's, (works every where except at centers in South Jersey, Philadelphia or any place within 50 miles of either Foxwood's or Atlantic City.)

The segments get smaller; the niches get more defined and pretty soon we are marketing to just individuals. Thankfully, social media allows us to market to a segment as small as "one."

This is how specific it gets. This is the new challenge. This is the new normal.
Part one.

7 Ways To Get The Toothpaste Back In The Tube

I heard a P&G Senior Product Manager once say, "Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's hard to get it back." What he was referring to was the fact that once customers left one of his brands and went to a competitive brand, it was hard to bring them back to the brand. Real hard.

In thinking about our league bowlers who didn't come back this year, we can go through a litany of "things we might try." Here are a few ideas, in no particular order.

1. Invite them into the center for an open house and let them bowl for free
2. Send them a couple of free game passes and hope they will come in ...one of these days.
3. Create a new league called, "The C'mon Backs." Offer them lower prices, specials on food and drink and belly dancers.
4. Put them all on your email list and bury them in an email blast at least once a week.
5. Develop a learn to bowl better program for the lower average bowlers and invite them back to improve their skills. Maybe even for free!
6. Create an adult child program with these dropouts and get them to bowl on the weekends with their children.
7. Build a newsletter just for dropouts and build relationships with them over the next year; create special offers, contests, chances to get bowling equipment and to come in and bowl for free.
8. Forget about them and move on to newer targets.

I have tried all of these strategies at one point or another (well,maybe not the belly dancers) in my career with varying success. If you want to find out which one might work for your center, why not send a questionnaire to your dropouts and ask them to fill it out.

Ask them to rank these ideas; rephrase the 8th one, however! Or call 50 of them, your self, and ask them. Nothing like getting it first hand from the horse's mouth; that way you will be dealing with facts. (There's an idea.)

Or you could just try one and see how it goes. Less scientific of course, but at least you will be doing something.

Or you could just look for another tube of toothpaste.

Why bother?

Most retailers want to believe that if they reduce price and advertise the reduced price,customers will flock to their doors. After all the product is on "sale" and consumers respond, almost in a Pavlovian manner, by taking out their wallets.

Or do they?

In the mattress industry, furniture industry and appliance industry, there almost always seems to be a sale going on. So it goes for cars, clothes, shoes, pillows and bed linen, towels, toiletries, groceries, health clubs, spa treatments, telephone calling plans, computers and peripheral equipment, televisions and stereos, fast food restaurants. The list goes on and on.

Its probably harder to find a consumer industry that isn't on sale lately. But very few do it like the bowling industry. We put our product on sale and only tell the customers who were going to come there anyway.

Some of us tell them by placing a flier on the main customer service area desk. Sometimes we will even make an announcement. Others send out an email, like its direct mail. And still others don't even have a flier; they just tell their employees and hope their employees remember and tell the customer.

Its harsh to say this. I know, but why bother having a sale and not telling any one?

Yes, I know its expensive to advertise. But what if instead of cutting your price and giving up that revenue, you spent that money and invested it in media. Sure Internet stuff is important. Its contemporary. It's inexpensive. It's a dream...yet less than 15% of your customers even bother to open your email. That means 6 out of 7 people don't even want to look at what you are sending them. Don't take it personally. How many times have YOU said, "I get so many %#%E#^^ emails, i just trash 'em!!!!

GUESS WHAT? SO DOES YOUR CUSTOMER.

So don't go betting the farm on just ONE medium. Layer your approach. Test various campaigns. Test various offers. Work on it till you get it. Be obsessed.

And if you need professional help, give me a buzz. Its what I do...help proprietors to build revenue.

Just "don't do nuthin!"...please.

Better Questions

It's time we started asking better questions. We have been measuring our business by the same metrics and segmenting our customers by traditional methodologies based on such variables as league play vs open play, frequency of use over the course of a year, age, income, zip code etc.

But we missed something here. Who are these customers? Who are they as people? Not by segmentation definition: age; income; household size, home value; number of children in the household. No, none of that stuff.

Is past performance still valid as a prognosticator of the future? Are the benchmarks we have been using appropriate.

I think the real test of the health of our business is the number of people that come back and spend money with us after two times. Last time I looked, that was about the median number of times the typical open play bowler came to our center in a YEAR.

And while we all have the omnipresent "price special" even these great summer offers have failed to prevent the atrocious open play summer we experienced in North America this year. Why, even with price specials like 25 cent bowling, $1 bowling and FREE bowling, was open play off?

Why? Because consumers did not have enough money? They still went to the movies and to baseball games (both minor league and major league) and vacation travel was even up a bit. But not bowling.

It sure as heck wasn't price. We gave them that. It sure wasn't because they had to wait! We had enough extra lanes open to build a new Giants Stadium!!

Here it is: we just aren't cool any more. There's no media build up of "cosmic bowling", that's already old. There's no Hollywood stars or professional (non bowling) athletes going bowling or viewed going bowling. They're at baseball games, basketball games, US Open, Olympics, Formula One races, Golf, etc. But there are no shots of them going bowling. And if these shots exist why doesn't someone share it with local proprietors.

So here's my solution. Take whatever you can Mr. BPAA and buy a Superbowl spot this year. (Heck, take what you spent on Bowlopolis.) You bought it for Master Lock and it put them on the map. How about doing the same thing for bowling?

The residual effect from the advertising promotion world would carry us for months. The spot would be played and replayed in front of millions of people. It would have to be an edgy spot.

Some of the industry "fuddy duddies" would have to get out of the way. No crash of pins, no kid throwing a ball, no hugging Grandpa and going YAY.

And after the Superbowl, we would be cool...and our centers would be busier.

Which One Are You?

Some of the greatest mistakes entrepreneurs make is in their follow-up efforts with their customers and prospects. You see, most small business owners fit into one of two categories.

1. Those that don't follow up often enough. (99 percent of small business owners don't follow up at all.) When your follow-up is inconsistent and infrequent, you're simply wasting your time and marketing dollars. Your contacts won't remember who you are...and those that do will simply regard you as "the occasional pest."

2. Those that follow up too often. When you send too many messages to your contacts, you are going to be viewed as a mass marketer. In fact, a recent email study shows that 65% of men and 56% of women define spam as "email from a company that I have done business with that comes too often."

So how do you determine the best pace at which to follow up with your clients? Well that's the tricky part. Each group of prospects and customers is going to react to your follow-up differently. So ultimately, you are going to have to "test" your group. But here are some key, follow-up principles to keep in mind:

Follow-up must be consistent.

Send frequent enough messages to keep your name fresh in your contacts' minds.

Send valuable and educational materials as well as your marketing message. What if you sent "Halloween Safety Tips for Kids along with your marketing message and/or coupon for a kids Halloween party? Wouldn't Moms appreciate that and be more likely to trust you? You betcha!!

Your messages, therefore, should be building a relationship with your contacts.

Be personal, be real and a little entertaining.
By following these principles, I have no doubt you will find the follow-up pace that is perfect for you, your customers, and your prospects!

So which one do you want to be?