Your Strategy Is Your Business

At the Bowling Summit this week in San Antonio, TX I had an opportunity to sit through a social media session or two. What struck me was the single mindedness and sometimes seemingly, frantic need to be “noticed, opened, clicked, engaged” as a measure of your marketing success. 

I always thought it was  ultimately to have someone buy something from me. 

It was all great stuff and I picked up a few nuggets from the speakers vast knowledge. But, and it’s a big but, no one got down to the strategy of it all. Oh sure they talked about segments and defining your target, but basic strategy was just a whisper in the dark.  And I think that’s where we all fall into the “tactic trap.”   

Instead of really spending time on defining strategy, we go right to the “to do lists” of fliers, announcements, Facebook postings, tweets and emails.  All relevant stuff, but NOT the foundation of your business. 

Your strategy is your business.  

Most proprietors will tell you their targets are families and they are a family oriented business and then spend an inordinate amount of time and money trying to attract the 18 to 34 yr segment during weekday nights.  Maybe they should spend that effort trying to perfect their “family products."  You think?

Your master strategy is to decide who you are now and who you want to be (providing that new position is  not only viable, but credible.  More importantly, what is your Unique Selling proposition and why should I buy from you vs. someone else.

It’s OK to be a traditional bowling “alley."  It’s OK to be a Family Entertainment Center.  It's OK to be whoever you want, as long as you have customers willing to buy "YOUR UNIQUE" products.

But it’s not OK to try to be something to everybody.

So here’s my take on strategy, specifically related to your summer marketing needs. In fact, here are your choices:

1.             You can market last year’s products to your existing market (winter and summer customers).    I.e. Adult child programs to existing kids leagues

2.            You can market new products to your existing market (winter and summer customers.    I.e.  Go to a baseball game at end of summer.    I.e.  Get a gift certificate for a  high performance bowling ball

3.            You can market last year’s products to new customers.    I.e. Adult child program to church youth group.

4.            You can market new products to new customers.  I.e.   Fundraiser league to church youth groups.

Once you define your strategy or any combination thereof, you can begin to clearly define your products; get as specific as possible on WHO is the target and then develop your communications; of which social media is just ONE part.  Your challenge is to develop the most efficient communication strategy that meets your objectives.

Most of all, keep reminding yourself that your strategy is your business.  Maybe even "tweet" about it :)

A Blog is Not a Dead Bug on Your Windshield

A couple of day ago I was at a friend's house when he and I began talking about our respective blogs. His granddaughter a precocious child of 6 years old, said, "Whats a blog, it sounds like a dead bug."  After we all had a good laugh, I said to myself, "Self, out of the mouths of babes, comes truth.

Yes, Megan, some blogs really are dead bugs on a windshield; some lose the reader in about 30 seconds and some are so inconsistently posted that they look like a static web page.

But here you are facing another Superbowl weekend, struggling to come up with a great offer in the face of [past failure.  the responses I get are as follows

• "Whatever we tried, it didn't work. people stay home on Superbowl and have their parties at home."
• "Nobody is coming out. we've tried for 6 years and get no more than 6 lanes going."
• In the face of all the money we spent, I'd sooner just close at 5pm, go home and watch the game with my family."
• And on and on

Here's what I hear when proprietors tel me that, "Fred, no matter how much we cut the price or offer free food, NOBODY comes and we have NO other ideas.

So in the light of that here are some ideas to sell a Superbowl party at your center:

1. Sell the party and the bowling as an out of home experience that wont leave your home in disarray because your buddies messed up your sofa or couch spilled salsa, chicken wing sauce or beer spillage. and worse, with a very aggravated wife.
2. if you are not into football and could care less about the Superbowl  then come on out to happy Lanes, we're having an anti Superbowl party
3. Free touch football game in the parking lot when you come to our Superbowl party and get free pizza, chicken wings and soft drinks when you donate to XYZ local charity $10 or more.  Bowling is regular price

OK i know you can think of other stuff to promote, but the only way you're gonna get this out is with a blog to your list and the 5 key elements your blog must have are as follow:

1. A Great Headline  that draws me in. Words like "Warning, This could be your house!!!" And a corresponding picture of a house with salsa and guacamole and beer stains all over
2. Content that sets up a proposition; "IF this happens then this will happen.  and of course what happens is bad
3. Set up the solution to the problem.  Your solution IS our product and or your place of business which can solve that problem, Demonstrate it  with a story about a customer. A "story" is one or two SHORT PARAGRAPHS.
4. Tell the customer what action he or she should take and by what date.  Provide sense of urgency.  Reserve by February 1st and "save $10 on your bowling." or "get FREE shoe rentals"
5. Summarize the deal/offer and end with a catchy phrase or funny little joke.  "if the Superbowlniks in your family drive you crazy, come on out to Happy lanes and have a SUPER TIME with people like you...without the stress

"Innovate. Create. Focus"...and the solution will appear. 

Are You Looking For Bowlers In All The Wrong Places?

The answer is either yes or no and my guess is YES. Otherwise league bowlers across the country would be growing, not atrophying.

I mean if 72 million people bowl and 2+ million bowl in a league, you must be looking in the wrong places to get new people…cause after all these years, you would have had more by now, right?

On the other hand, maybe you are finding them, but you are losing more each year then you are replacing.  But that is a whole other blog or chapter or even a book. 

Here’s what I think is going on in a lot of centers across the country. You and or someone on your staff comes up with a new idea for a league or you “borrow it” from some other center, whatever, that’s cool.

And then you build a flyer, homemade perhaps, even a little funky; you put it on the service desk and send it out as an email. Maybe, you even get some people in the center to talk to existing customers about it like this: “Hey, want to join our new league?  No? Whatever!  It’s not my business.”

What happens?  4 out of 5 times, you come up with a zero.

So the next time you come up with a great idea, guess what you do? The Same Thing!!!  And Guess What You Get? The Same Results!!

Fred Rule #112: Stop Looking To Existing League Bowlers Or Random Open Play Bowlers (Everybody Is Not A Target) To Form Your New Leagues. 

How many league bowlers really want to join a second league?  And how many open play bowlers want to make a commitment for a bazillion weeks? Even 12 weeks sounds like a lot to them!

.

First, decide when you are going to build a program? (OK Tuesday at 9 pm).

Second decide who is available for that slot (People who are probably single between the ages of 18 and 34).

Third, is there a commonality you can identify? (Retail workers, restaurant workers, auto dealers, school teachers, people who like to party and drink, shift workers, people who have tattoos)  OK let’s go with tattoo people.

Fourth, how do I reach them?  (Go to a popular tattoo parlor in town and find out if the owner has a data based and would he be willing to email his customers for more business. If he isn't brain damaged, his answer will be a resounding YES.

Fifth, create an absolutely irresistible offer (Get $100 gift certificate for bowling during our winter session, X# of weeks and get your first beverage included in the price. It’s not A FREE beverage, it is included and YES you can do this. It is legal in every state because the customer is buying the drink).

Sixth, email your customers who are 18 to 34 years old (Oh I forgot, you may not have ages; never mind – just put it up on your site –)  Don’t want to be emailing Mom with two 8 year olds about tattoos do you?  If you have a blog, then blog about the popularity of tattoos in the 21^st century, talk about the history of tattoos and then make your offer at the end of the blog; with a suggestion that it is for people over 18 or whatever your state laws mandate.

Seventh, distribute on college campuses, retail stores, and local restaurants.

Eighth, make sure Tattoo dude sends out several emails or postcards. Offer to pay for at least half of the cost of mailing.

Ninth, train staff to ask your late night Friday and Saturday bowlers about joining the tattoo league.

Tenth, find someone you or your staff knows who is into tattoos and offer them $100 tattoo gift certificate for every two teams they bring to the program.

And that’s how to look for bowlers in all the RIGHT PLACES!   

Starbucks Marketing Sucks

Starbucks finally figured out that there are lots of people who don’t like their “dark roasted” coffee, but instead, prefer a milder blend.  So now Starbucks has finally introduced “Blonde” roast to satisfy those who prefer a non Starbucks taste. (Bold, bitter and burnt!!)

I’m no super genius, but I have hated Starbucks coffee for years because it was TOO strong and TOO bitter. And I know I wasn't the only one out there.  Lots of people told me the same thing 

But if you wanted more quantitative data, all you had to do was go to several airports around he country and see the number of people in line for a Starbucks coffee vs. those people in line for a Dunkin Donuts' coffee.  DD had almost  twice as many people in line as Starbucks.   

So why did it take them so long to figure this out? Several answers are possible.

1.   They simply didn't have their ear to the ground and didn't speak to non Starbucks customers.  “Who Knew?”

2.  They knew but didn't think the market was big enough for this new product to scale.  “We didn't think we could make money at this!”

3.  We didn't want to corrupt our brand which stood for dark, bold, strong coffee.  “We were protecting our brand, maybe?”

4.  Our sales have fallen because of Dunkin Donuts and MacDonald’s selling breakfast coffee and our share was eroded so we had to do something. It seems like Blonde Roast is a good idea to try and get more market share.”   “We were losing money, what could we do?”

You know why they didn't introduce this product earlier?

The answer, I believe, is “pure arrogance.” 

“Starbucks products are the best,” management probably thought, “why do we have to change?  Let the customer learn to like our existing products.”

Take note that you are not treating your customer the same way nor ignoring his wishes for new products.  They have been telling us about “wanting 6 to 8 week leagues”, and we have been telling you for a couple of years now!!

Are you listening to your customer?

Its OK To Ask For Directions. Really.

Seth Godin, in one of his recent blogs was talking about starting projects and getting stuff done.  His main point was: “Not enough people believe they are capable of productive initiative.” 

And that’s kind of a sad conclusion that he comes to and while I deeply respect my hero, Seth, I kind of disagree with him. I think people sometimes believe they are more capable than they actually are; if not why do so many restaurants fail? Why do so many new products fail?

Maybe it’s because so many people get into new products or new services or new businesses without really doing their homework and planning their plan.  In fact, they all too often will answer questions about the business with such hackneyed expressions as: “That’s a no brainer” or “Oh, I can do that, it's a slam dunk.”  Or worse, “Easy, it's a done deal.”

Yikes. What is happening here?

Are our egos so frail that we cannot admit that we can’t say what we don’t know nor can we even ask for assistance? No, in some instances we would rather go down with the ship then ask for help… or directions.

If you are capable of productive initiative and have covered as many bases as you can and feel confident, then go do it.

But if you’re not, at least ask for directions. 

Or you can always call me. That’s what I do. Help provide input, direction and planning expertise. 

"What If We Did...."

Going on vacation is not what it used to be. Even if it is for a few days.  Before cellphones, computers, text messages and other 21st century communication technology, we simply called our clients or faxed them a brief note that went something like this:

"We'll be on vacation the week of ____ and if you have any questions, please call   ________.  We'll be checking in almost every day so if you need us, please leave a message with (name of assistant) and we'll get back to you as soon as possible"

And off we went.

Not so simple anymore. The expectations to always be connected and always available are paramount. And when you are not, there is an element of "what-the-heck, where-is-he-frustration" that sets in.  This does not make for good communications, happy customers, clients or business partners.

Now when we go on vacation, we are never really disconnected, no more than if we we were in our office. Only now we sit under an umbrella,  drinking some silly drink with a parasol in it,  working.

It's the "New American Vacation."

I wonder what would happen if everyone in the country put their cellphones down for one minute every day.  No talking. No texting. No emailing. There would be absolutely no communication and total silence. It would be a one minute vacation every day.

What would you do during that one minute?  Here are some random ideas?

1. forget to turn off your phone
2. wait for it to end
3. think of something new
4. think of something old
5. remember something to do
6. pray
7. laugh
8. smile
9. cry
10. scowl
11. smile
12. blow your nose
13. cough
14. write
15. eat
16. drink
17. go to the bathroom
18. cut your finger nails
19. read
20. drive
21. work on computer
22. listen to radio, i pod, i pad
23. watch TV, computer
24. run
25. jump
26. walk
27. skip
28. do math problems
29. spell something
30. meditate
31. do yoga
32. take your pulse

Would you think about the business for that one minute with no distractions?  Would you find another 14 minutes to have no interruptions;  no communications and just clear out your head to think about "what if we did...."

And then after the first month, you find 30 minutes a day.  I'll bet you would get some breakthroughs.  For those of you non believers who say, "Who has the time for a half hour a day?" I humbly say, "My friend, if you don't have the time, then you have no priorities!"

But back to the question, what WOULD you do with that one minute, or fifteen minutes or thirty minutes?  

Is Your Marketing Like Your Bathrooms?

Years ago, when I was the chief marketing officer for a large bowling chain I was sitting in a management meeting when the subject of business building ideas came up. As we took our turns around the table to discuss and offer our ideas, I made the statement that “Everything Is Marketing!”

Needless to say, the other department heads, in typical corporate man style, put on their defensive shield and interpreted this statement as a “power grab.”

I was shocked, and no doubt naive, about how they took that statement.  I could have cared less about a power grab or becoming the President of the company. I was doing what I loved and whatever would come of that, well; my merits would speak for themselves. So I did what I could to first explain my statement and then to calm their inherent insecurities.

What I said went something like this:

“Hey guys, if you will sit back and give me a few minutes to discuss this with you, I think you will understand what I was saying is the present and future not only of our business, but all businesses.”

I watched as they stared at me with arms folded across their chests and hands over their mouths.  Their collective body language could have stopped, the great orator, Daniel Webster, in his tracks.

“You see the customer votes with his feet. If we put out a bowling product where the lanes are not consistent or the pinsetter has too many stops or the food is cold and the beer is warm or the house balls are all cracked or the roof leaks or the parking lot is not well lit or our people have no customer sensitivity skills or the bathrooms have old and cracked urinals, sinks and graffiti riddled stalls, THE CUSTOMER IS NOT COMING BACK…EVER.  Because all of the items (and probably more) that I just mentioned are the components of our product.”

Silence.

No one said anything and I watched as their arms started to unfold and the hands over their mouths came down and one manager (of our facilities) said,  “So that makes me a marketing guy right?” I said “No, you’re still an A1 facilities manager, but if you look at what you do as being a vital part of what the customer buys, the experience, the time or whatever you want to call it, I hope you see why I said everything is marketing. He kind of leaned in, smiled at me and started nodding his head and I saw the light go on. I think he got it.

Years later, after the company was sold and I started my own kaploe marketing group, I was pretty much able to tell which new clients and potential clients were successful just by going into their bathrooms.

If it sparkled, if the corners were clean, if the flushes worked automatically and the tiles and sinks and toilet seats were first rate and spotless and the hand drier was NOT broken and the bathroom stalls were clean and the toilet paper was easy to get out and full and the ceiling tiles were clean, I knew that this new client or potential client had a passion for making sure he was delivering a great experience.

And whether he consciously knew it or not, he was able to demonstrate that the total experience was his product.  And all of the elements of that comprised the product were the result of his marketing…understanding what the consumer wants and expects and gives it to them in an exciting, entertaining and “WOW” way.

18 years later, the tell tale sign of clean bathrooms still tells me what kind of a marketing mindset a proprietor has and how strong her passion is for continually developing and marketing new and improved products.

And that is why to this day, I still say, “Marketing Is Everything.”

5 Web Based Services to Save You Time

Bowling center owners, family entertainment centers and other entertainment venue owners who are using social media, often need some help.  Fortunately help is here.

These time-saving tools and services make social media easier and more effective. Taking advantage of these tools can mean the different between having time to make social media marketing work for your business or not.

So here are my five favorite web-based services that are being used by some savvy entertainment venues as well as other small businesses to keep their time commitment in check, while leveraging the power of social media. Some have similar features so it’s best to try them out and see what works best for you before deciding which to use.

• Shortstack (www.shortstack.com) is a service that helps businesses design a better looking Facebook page and customize it with such things as contests, forms, videos and more.  The service is free for pages that have up to 2,000 “likes.” Beyond that, a tiered pricing system kicks in.

• Buffer (www.bufferapp.com) is a great way to schedule your social media activity. The service lets you add posts and tweets to your “buffer” from anywhere and have them automatically distributed throughout the day.  By keeping your buffer topped off with content, you can be assured of having a fresh social media presence for an entire week or more.

• Postling (www.postling.com) was designed with small business users in mind and provides easy-to-use tools, alerts and insights that will help you get the most out of social media marketing. Postling lets you publish to all of the major social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, Tumblr and Flickr and schedule your posts in advance.  It also pulls comments from all of your social media sites into one place which saves a lot of time and effort for responding.

• TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com), which is owned by Twitter, is a “dashboard” from which you can manage a variety of social media. It allows you to monitor and manage unlimited accounts, schedule tweets to suit your audience and filter content to focus on what matters to you the most.

• HootSuite (www.hootsuite.com) is similar to TweetDeck and lets you manage all of your social media accounts on a single dashboard.  This is a good solution if more than one person at your business posts to your social media accounts.

Please review these time saving sites. Its the answer to the "I don't have any time for all this social media stuff" scream!!

The Strange Zone Is Calling You

Earlier today I posted on Facebook a little ditty about getting into your “strange zone”.  By strange zone I do not mean weird, freaky or far out zone, I meant different, almost a “discomfort zone” if you will.

It seems to me that, as I visit centers around the country, one overriding characteristic of successful centers and their owners or managers stands out

That is the characteristic of getting out of their comfort zone (CZ).  Now supposedly we all work and work and work just so we can live in a little more comfort, have a few more niceties and feel comfortable. That’s built into our DNA. We all want that.

But we all don’t want is to have our zone change, to get out of that comfort zone. And that’s the point; our comfort zones HOLD US Back. In this zone, things are predictable; we’re happy to stay there.  Unfortunately in this zone, learning, progress and innovation tend to stop. Change in this zone doesn't happen. We just say “NO” or look for reasons why something new won’t work.

We NEED the “strange zone”.  We need the place where the forest is dark; where the path sort of ends; and where the waters get murky. We need to understand that by putting ourselves in a strange zone, we will take our business and our lives to a higher level

So how do you get comfortable being “DIS-comfortable”? 

Here are four ways that might help

1.    It isn't about success vs. failure. It’s about not viewing it as an either or situation because if you do, you’ll never move out of the CZ.  Some failure can be expected, but out of that “trying, eventually will come success. Understand that ALL results are good and learning comes from experience

2.     In the land of the “strange, everything is new and maybe a little frightening. Whether you like it or not, vagueness, fuzziness is omnipresent. Get used to it and don’t panic; it will get clear soon.

3.    Have you been smoking your own tabaccy? If you stay inside your bubble, you’ll lose perspective; your vision will get dimmed and you will eventually “settle for the easiest result.” DON’T DO IT. This is a prescription for failure.  Keep challenging your own perspective; reach out and ask other people business people what they see.  Read different kinds of books or go to different kinds of movies or go someplace you’ve never been before right in your home town area.

4.    Fall on your face and smile. The fear of failure (or sometimes of success) stops us from doing anything.   Sometimes looking stupid or making a mistake is the best thing that can happen to us, because it gives us a new perspective; a perspective that we couldn't get just by sitting in our office in our bowling center in our town.

So for 2013, challenge yourself to gain a new perspective, to take some chances and not be married to “there’s only one way to do this task" mantra”

OR the real killer mantra, “WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IT THAT WAY!

For 2013, be a little strange…and enjoy!

5 Tips To Increase Your Facebook Fan Engagement

While I receive tons of emails from centers across the country, mostly I receive “sales fliers” from centers across the planet which, unfortunately are being blocked, not read or worse deteriorating any brand equity you may have built.

So…….considering that Facebook now consumes allot of the planets time, I wanted to share these statistics with you; information so you can understand the importance of managing this very important communication tool as well as providing some basic question and answers about Facebook you can implement right now.

Here Are Some Facts about Facebook You May Not Have Known

1. One in every nine people on Earth is on Facebook ( This number is calculated by dividing the planets 6.94 billion people by Facebook’s 750 million users).

2. People spend 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

3. Each Facebook user spends on average 15 hours and 33 minutes a month on the site.

4. More than 250 million people access Facebook through their mobile devices.

5. More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook.

6. 30 billion pieces of content is shared on Facebook each month.

7. 300,000 users helped translate Facebook into 70 languages.

8. People on Facebook install 20 million “Apps” every day.

Questions I Have Been Asked and Answers (Based On Research by Buddy Media 2012).

Q: How Often Should We Post? A:  Posting one or two times a day produces 40% higher user engagement level.

Q: What Is the Best Day to Post On Facebook? A: Publish on Wednesday and Sundays and get an 8% above average fan engagement level.

Q: What Is Best Time to Post On Facebook? A: Best to post at times when fans are not at work and between the hours of 8pm and 7am which receive 20% more fan engagement.

Q: How Frequently, Over the Course of A week, Should We Post? A: Posting one to four times a week produces a 71% higher user engagement than five or more posts.

Q: How Long Should My Posts Be?  A: Posts with less than 80 characters receive 66% higher engagement.  Very concise posts, less than 40 characters, generate the highest engagement (86% higher).  Moreover those posts with the words “$ off” and “coupons” had a 55% and 39% higher engagement rate, respectively.  The words “sale” and “% off” receive the lowest fan engagement.

Please print this and post near your computer.  Thank You.