Is Your Marketing Just Dust In The Wind?

We’re all our own little media companies now, aren’t we?

We don’t need no stinken TV, Radio, Billboard or Newspaper. We don’t have to pay to reach people.

Nah, amigo; we can do it for FREE.  And that’s always the right way to go, right?

We can send out coupons and price offers as many times as we want and when it doesn’t work we blame the tech stuff; we rarely ask to investigate it deeply.

We just look for a reason it failed such as:

ü  The tech kid we hired didn't send it out on time

ü  It’s the economy

ü  The offer was higher than my competitor

ü  It’s the economy

ü  The audience gets bombarded with stuff, only 10% opened it

ü  It’s the economy

Yet, we can print our own newspapers, create our own TV commercials and stream them via the net to our audience. We can make our own pod casts and send them to our audience to get them to listen to our message.  We can search engine optimize till we are blue in the face; we can Google + our friends and set up our sites, blogs and communications for mobile.  

And most of you have, but guess what? IT DIDN'T MAKE YOUR REGISTER RING.

We can even send out customized messages to micro segments, (very small niche markets. An example of this micro segment might be non athletic kids who are more into tech than sports to get them to bowl in a Hi Tech league only for kids who are into tech).

Yup, you’re your own little media company and perhaps you have been doing some or many of the above mentioned strategies.  Then why hasn't your business really, really improved. Maybe being your own media company isn’t enough.  Very clearly, IT IS NOT.

IT IS ABOUT THE MESSAGE.

Always has been and always will be.  It is about your brand (in the old days this was called “image”) and how it makes people feel. Do they get all nostalgic and feel happy when they think of your center and fondly remember the happy times they had there as a kid or is it merely dust in the wind? Perhaps the mention of your center conjures up nothing. No positive feelings. No negative feelings. Just apathy. Pure sucky apathy – he’s the toughest competitor you face

And that is the worst place to be.

Because getting people off of their apathy to do anything when they don’t know if it will make them feel good is a difficult task at best. Proprietors all over the country tell me how hard it is to get people to just open play bowl at 9pm, let alone league bowl.

My father would come from work at about 630, have a cup of coffee, eat dinner, shower, get his bowling duds on and go bowling at 9pm. Often he would come home at 1am or 2am feeling “happy.”  Not drunk or even close to it. He was just happy that he chose to spend his time at a place that made him feel glad all over.

And then this phenomenon disappeared.  "Hey what happened? Where did it go?", we proclaim.  Too late.  You missed the changing message.

Sure it was a different time. A different economy and a different demographic society, but the one clear and decipherable fact was that HE Liked It Enough and It Resonated With Him Enough That He Was OK With Bowling At 9pm.  

The brand of the bowling center (the experience) made him happy.

What message are you putting out there? What do people remember or think about when they hear your bowling center’s name or is merely dust in the wind that blows in one ear and out the other.

Message for today You have all the high tech tools you need to reach people; to build your brand identity and to tell stories about your business that makes a human connection

Or are you going to sit there tonight and just send me another freaking coupon for Cosmic Bowl?  

A Classic Customer Experience

While visiting my client today, one of the managers at one of the bowling centers in this chain told me a story about a customer that had  literally snapped my head around and had me exclaiming, “No way, no way, no way.”

Here is the story.

A woman and several children come in around 330pm or so on a weekday and ask about a special that starts at 7pm.  

The assistant manager very pleasantly told her that leagues will be forming soon and that the particular special she had in mind would not start until 7pm.

She seemed satisfied with that and said she would return. All very pleasant so far, right?

So she and her kids come back promptly at 7pm and she gets a lane, house balls, shoes and is ready to go.

Now here is where it gets good

When the group is finished bowling, it just so happens that the manager was behind the desk and he was preparing to cash the woman out, when she piped up and said…

“Ya know I was here at 330pm and because the special didn't start until 7pm, I had to take the kids out to eat and that cost me $30 bucks. I THINK YOU SHOULD TAKE THAT OFF MY BOWLING BILL!!”

The manager was totally unprepared for this, but after composing himself, said in a most professional way, 

"Madam, I understand how you feel, but it was your choice to take your group out to eat, not mine, so I really can’t take your food costs off of your bowling bill. I hope you understand.”

The woman paid the FULL bill and left.  I wonder if she will come back or if the center really wants her and her group back. 

What do you think?

20 Types of People Who Don't Love Bowling

“Cause I can't make you love me if you don't. You can't make your heart feel something it won’t.” Bonnie Raitt

You can’t make every customer or prospect love you, your service, your business, the whole deal. some people just won’t get or want what you are selling. What are you going to do?.

Find out who they are and don’t waste money on them. Here’s  twenty (20) types of people who, I think, do not  love us.

Of course these are generalities and written with a bit of tongue in cheek approach, but in center after center, I don’t see these people bowling.  And if 150,000 miles a year on a plane and speaking to lots of people people isn't a good sample... well I may be wrong,

1.    People who drive high end foreign cars and wear tennis or golf sweaters; may come to company party
    or kids birthday party and maybe a rainy day event, but don’t count on them.

2.     People who have second homes “up north,” “at the beach” or “in the mountains” or “down south.

3.     People who travel (planes or trains) more than two days a week.

4.     People who live in houses on cul de sacs.

5.     People who are runners and enter at least two marathons per year.

6.     People who are more interested in getting their kids into soccer, lacrosse and

        basketball rather than bowling.

7.     People who eat out at French restaurants frequently.

8.     People who buy their groceries at “Whole Foods”

9.     People who have bought or are contemplating buying an all-electric vehicle

10.  People who have two jobs. Or three.

11.   People who are serious about  “their (I.e art, antique, sculpture) collections”

12.     People who are very involved in organizations like PTA, K of C,  Rotary, Church, Synagogue, Temple
       or Mosque.

13.     People who wake up before 6am to go to work.

14.     People that live in “downtown areas” in major cities.

15.     Young couples with babies between the ages of 6 months to three years old

16.     People who  camp out and hike more than 25% of their weekends

17.     People who are obsessed with video games.

18.     People who don’t have 9 to 5 jobs, but work 7 days a week from offices or homes

19.     People who have never played a team sport, either in middle school, high school.or college.

20.     People who take winter vacations to major league Caribbean resorts or ski in Park City, Vail or Switzerland.

  

Now of course these are generalities, but if you know who buys from you, you should also know who won’t buy from you?

What do you think?

Do You Understand Your Customers, Really?

The number one worry we hear from our clients today is this: “the business is moving so fast; sometimes I can’t keep up and I need to understand my customer better, but it's getting harder, not easier.”

Why is this feeling becoming more omnipresent than ever?

1.         Customers are less loyal and far less trusting than they used to be. This is especially true in industries whose reputations suffered during the financial crisis—including banking, pharmaceuticals, energy, airlines and media. But even if you're in an unrelated industry, you’re likely to feel some of the same effect.
2.        Consumers have more power than ever before, thanks to social media, easy on-line comparison-shopping, and a proliferation of choices.
3.           Customer diversity continues to increase, putting a premium on micro-segmentation and deep customer insight.
4.          By increasing the noise-to-data ratio, the data deluge occasioned by the Internet can actually make it harder to understand your customers.
5.          Economic uncertainty and data overload confuse customers as well, making them less interested in products than in flexible, adaptive solutions.

To get close to this more demanding customer, you really need to get inside his or her head. Here are four ways to do that: 

1.           Stand in your customer’s shoes. The next time you have opine play going, whether it be the weekend or weekday, get a lane and two or three other people and bowl, listening to the people on either side of you.
2.          Try to understand your customer’s full range of choices, as well as his or her system of  how they make their entertainment decisions  This exercise will also deepen your understanding of competitors and help you better anticipate their moves.
3.         Attach yourself to a customer. Watch a customer come into the center, get a lane and begin to bowl. Jot down what they do; how they implement “their unique experience.”  If you can’t exactly put yourself through a customer experience, try role-playing exercises at all points of the customer’s experience with your company.
4.         Lean forward and anticipate.  Focus on what customers will want tomorrow, as Steve Jobs and Richard Branson did so exquisitely.  Try to envision different futures and then explore how underlying market shifts may affect your customers.  Try to set up and answer lots of "What If" questions.

Remember that sometimes you need to get out of your own way to really understand your customers.

Psychologists know, for example, that you’re likely to listen for problems that fit your own offerings, and to discount others. That can cause you to miss important opportunities, or to get blindsided later.

So, try to listen with a third ear what your customers are saying to you.  If you can truly hear them, they’ll tell you all you need to know

Pick Yourself

You have blogged. You have emailed. You have face booked, and heavens forbid, even spent some money on some cable TV and now you are sitting around waiting for the consumer to pick you.

And you just know that because you sent them a great communication, a great offer, used testimonials,  even had a guarantee and a sense of urgency to take it, they will come in and bowl.

You followed all the rules and now you are waiting for the customer to pick you.

“Pick me, pick me”, you cry. “I am a better value. I am more fun. I even promise to give you a bounce back coupon when you return.  I’ll even give you discount food specials and beer specials and I’ll get my son/daughter to hand wax your car while you are bowling.”

And you wait to be picked.

But not much happens.  You get discouraged and pull back saying, ‘Well we tried it and it didn’t work.” You even get up on your haunches and say, “Ah, you can’t even give it away in the summer.”

Know what the problem is?  Know why your message didn’t resonate with your market?

Simple, you were counting on them to pick you.

And it doesn't

 work that way any more

What you did was to institute a TACTICAL CAMPAIGN; a one shot silver bullet that you thought would work regardless of the odds. And then you backed off; never to do it again. Of course, it didn't work. You had no frequency.

Lost in the maddening crowd of “pick me, pick me, pick me” that consumers hear daily, did you really expect your market to block out all the other noise they hear, immediately text their friends and tell them to plan on bowling at Happy Lanes this Saturday night? 

Yeah, you did.

Its Time You Picked Yourself.

Its time you promoted your bowling center on a consistent basis. and not just in April and August.

Its time you made the commitment to understand that you can break through the clutter with more frequency, consistency and a STRATEGIC APPROACH to your marketing.

Its time your customer or prospect knows who you are, the reputation of your center, the kudos you have gotten in the community, the monies you have raised for charities, the self esteem of children in youth leagues you have helped to build, the number of happy birthday parties you have successfully hosted and so much more.

Its time the customer knows about all of the physically and mentally challenged kids and adults that bowl at your center?

Its time the customer knows about the little leagues you sponsor or the “Clean Up After Hurricane Sandy” campaign you were involved in.

Its time the customer knows of your PASSION for bowling!!

You can’t get the customer to pick you if he doesn't KNOW you and, more importantly, if you don’t pick yourself to be constantly out there telling people why you are a better choice.

Absent this information, people will make NO choice.

Think about it, would you go to an accountant whose service was called, “Flash & Dash Accountants Inc?”  Would you rent a convertible in Florida without testing if the top went up and DOWN?

Yet you expect your data base to respond, en masse, because you sent them an email, a Facebook post and a twitter message?

Bottom line, if you want to be picked, pick yourself.  Then consistently and STRATEGICALLY demonstrate that Happy Lanes really is a happy place to go. 

Be strategic. Be consistent. Be frequent.

Be the PASSION you feel…and they will come.

Go Away Big Ego. Go Away

My father once told me that if I wanted to grow I should do one thing every day that I was afraid to do.  Now, he didn't mean that if I was afraid to jump off the roof of our eight story building I should do it, but rather he meant I should be able to meet and accept the challenge of change or as the pundits would say today, "get out of your comfort zone.”

So I have attempted to do that, especially as it pertains to my professional career – always looking for ways to overcome marketing challenges – even creating challenges to overcome.

As I look at the landscape of the bowling industry, I note that for the last 15 days, 13 bowling centers around the country have closed. Some of them because of a “land sale”, but others because they just didn't keep up with the times or their market “circle” changed and they didn't change with it.

It happens to all industries that are “older”.  But the ones who recognized the change, recognized what they needed to do to maintain revenues, margins and profits.

Unfortunately, in many cases, the ego of the proprietor (or for that matter anyone who owns any business) gets in the way.  A few good years of success and all of a sudden, they become the smartest person in the universe. 

And that’s too bad because that’s exactly when they stop listening to the customer.

Here’s an example. Bowling Center X has been profitable and strong for over 25 years.  All of a sudden, the proprietor notices his lineage and food and beverage sales are going down.

His reaction?  Cut prices on bowling and run some food “combo specials” The results?  For a few months, it seems like the problem had been alleviated, only to resurface a bit later. 

Problem is, the proprietor didn't recognize the real problem.   For several years, his customers have been telling him that his “prices on food and quality of food were a bad value. No reaction except to say, "They've been saying that every year.”

What he should have done was to look at his food quality with an eye towards increasing it, changing his menu and adding contemporary items like “wraps”, jalapeno poppers, Cesar salads, Cobb salads and several different kinds of burgers; really juicy and mouthwatering (not the frozen kind - one – taste – fits – all- palates) along with examining his presentation of the food. 

He would have done this if only he would have asked someone; even a fellow proprietor to help him analyze the problem.  But he couldn't. His ego wouldn't let him admit that he didn't know what to do. If he had looked at the decline in open play bowling and the decline in food sales on the same days, you would have to ask the question “why?” and that would have led to a whole series of assumptions that could be rationally tested.

One assumption could have been, "my food sales are down because not enough people are coming to bowl, but are they not coming because my food quality/value is wrong? And I know food quality and value, today, is more important and competitive than ever.  After all, my customers eat at Fridays  Applebees and other similar restaurants. Is my food quality as good as this competition? 

Instead he did what he always did…and you know the rest of the sentence.

What Are You Going To Do To Increase sales This Month?

Answers I have received from proprietors around the country range from:

1.      “Not much, it’s the summer; you can’t get em to bowl even if you give it away.”

2.      “I’m going to work my butt off to build relationships with fundraising groups, companies, day cares, day camps and build my ‘kids bowl free program’ so I can prepare for fall starting in June.”

3.      “I’ll try to build some short season leagues and runs some price specials…like I have in the past, but I don’t expect much.”

4.      “Are you kidding? I’m closing 4 days a week.”

5.      “Going to work on my social media and get it up to snuff so I’ll be better able to communicate with my various target audiences.”

6.      “I guess the same as I have always done.”

If you identify with any of these statements, I hope it is either #2 or #5. Any other statement in the above is not very bold and in this day and age, you need to be bold, you need to be wiser and you need to not have fear of failure.

I always used to look at summer, and still do, as a time to experiment, to try new ideas, to go after different targets with different products and to see if there were any motivational buttons that I could tap into and at worse learn from.

Many years ago, I tried a gift certificate program for Moms. Each Mom would get a $50 portrait gift certificate to a Sears store for a family portrait/photo shoot by a professional photographer. 

The idea bombed…in the summer.  

But the feedback we got was great so when October came, I rolled out a Christmas Portrait League, ready for Christmas cards or gift giving.

Boom!!  Home run.

The product and target were right, but the timing was off.

So now I ask you what are you going to do to increase sales this month?

What kinds of programs can you try this summer to learn from and build more meaningful programs in the fall?

Here are five ideas to get yo started thinking.:

1.      Maybe work on your social media and build your brand. Build your brand by showing the culture of your center, the staff, the owners, explain what your values are and how much you are involved with the community.

2.      Learn how to do split testing of offers where one part of your list gets offer #1 and the second part of the list gets offer #2. Then test the winning offer against a 3rd offer.

3.      Start one new short season league in mid June either targeted to adult child or families

4.      Introduce one new twist to your cosmic bowling. Whether it is a free pizza when 5 people show up (on ONE specific weekend) or a chance to win a $50 gift card to Best Buy for anyone who comes to Cosmic Bowling on ONE specific weekend. Send these emails out Thursday night for the Friday and Saturday night sessions

5.      Host a FREE Company party event and invite companies in to bowl for free after work, and then make sure you have a 4 to 8 week “league of their own” program ready to offer them. Maybe every other week.

…Or anything else you feel like. Just don’t sit on your apathy all summer. 

And besides, golf really isn't that much fun.  As mark Twain once said, “Golf is an activity that’ spoils a perfectly good walk in the park.”J

Every Picture Tells A story

I love the emails I get that have a subject line like “You have been chosen to gain access to $2407 per day software.”  Most people are wise to these deals and skip over them, but a few will open them; me being one of them. Why?  Because i like to examine and analyze the simplicity, almost genius, of the systematic selling process they propose.  We should all be as good as these “digital marketers” in getting people to convert to “SALES.”

First, they have a catchy headline that gets a certain percentage of the people into it, at least to click to open it.

Second, they start with a story about how HE, the pitchman, grew up eating used snicker candy bar wrappers for breakfast, sleeping in a shopping cart under the bridge and finally magically and mysteriously meets someone, “the angel” who helped turn his life around.  Now I’m all for angels and miracles and that sort of thing, but where does a homeless guy living under the bridge meet a multi millionaire software Internet marketing guru? OK, I’ll let that pass.

Third, the angel teaches him his Internet marketing tricks and gives him his secret software, “the recipe” which helps make the homeless guy rich; cut and fade away to pictures of his mansion, swimming pool, Maserati and vacation homes with a happy smiling family.  

Now don’t you want that, you know the picture he methodically and painstakingly painted? 

Of course you do and HE wants to give it to you for the ridiculously low price of $97!!

Fourth, so you click on the offer and you buy it, wishing and hoping that this $97 purchase will turn you into a millionaire.

Fifth, when you buy the software, HE comes back on and says, ya know this software is good, but if you buy my upgrade for just $125, you’ll make money faster. Click you’re in.

Sixth, now for the next upgrade, HE then offers you a turbo boost, rocket propelled, jet fueled way to make it happen almost instantly. Click, you do it again.

And finally you look at your bill, you just dropped over $490 on this yet to be seen, and proven software.

All this with 100% money back guarantee. Sold. Closed. You’re all in.

Moments later the software arrives and you dig in. From here its any body’s guess. Will this work?  Won’t it work?  Who knows? No doubt the 7 people who gave you testimonials swore that it changed their life forever.  and you want to be number 8.

But all this is irrelevant because you bought it. You bought the story. You bought the dream; the eternal promise of happiness. 

Now maybe bowling can’t deliver a “total lifetime” dream of happiness and massive wealth so you'll never worry about money again, but it can deliver wholesome family fun, entertainment, escape, achievement, teamwork and many other good things - we all speak about, but rarely communicate to our prospects and customers- all at a relatively affordable price.

Where is your promise to customers and prospects? All I see are price specials? What “dream” are you trying to get them to believe in that you can actually deliver? 

Because if you don’t have a story and a passionate promise; you don’t have even a tiny share of today’s customers’ hearts and minds.