Throughout my career, I have worked hard, gotten lucky, and been blessed on many occasions. I have worked for large and small companies, had both wonderful and horrible bosses, and managed some pretty incredible people. No matter the circumstances, industry, work environment, or financial position, there are three guiding principles I have developed that have served me well. Call them secrets to my success, undeniable truths of the working world, or common sense; either way, I live by these principles every day, and you can benefit from them, too.

1. Document everything. You have absolutely no idea how many times I’ve save my own keister by making sure I have everything in writing. So many of our colleagues rely on in-person conversations and phone calls to get the job done. I do the same thing, but I always follow up “offline” conversations with “online” documentation of the conversations. The best way to capture the information is by sending an email with the conversation highlights. Not only is it “on the record,” but it’s also time stamped. As we’ve discussed before, adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it, so sometimes when the pressure is on some people like to throw others under the bus. If you happen to be the unlucky recipient of that behavior, you can get in a lot of trouble if you can’t back up what you know is correct. Document, document, document.
2. Assume nothing. Never assume your colleagues instinctually understand what you’re saying. Also never assume they have the same level of knowledge on a subject as you do. Don’t be afraid to “take it from the top” and give your coworkers full context on a subject, project, or initiative. Most people love the recap, even if they’ve been involved from the beginning, and it helps to level-set the expectation of those who may be coming late into the conversation. You can give a full recap in just a few minutes, and it helps to make you look like the thought leader. The downstream benefits are infinitely higher than the minor effort required on the front end.
3. Think like a lawyer. This goes hand-in-hand with the “document everything” axiom. I’ve worked for several companies that are either highly regulated and/or have undergone intense government scrutiny. These experiences have given me a very unique perspective on how to act, react, respond, and communicate. The casual email or IM you send to your pal in accounting may very well turn up in your HR file in the future, through no fault of your own. The phone call you fielded from a reporter, where you provided some informal comments you assumed were off the record (remember to assume nothing) can end up on the home page of Fox News the very next day. Talking trash about your boss to a trusted colleague could be accidentally overheard by someone else and cost you your job. WWLD: What Would Legal Do?

These sound simple enough, but you’ll find they are actually quite difficult to incorporate into your everyday working life. Take the time and effort, and you will not be sorry. You can trust me on this. (This is the only time I will encourage you to ignore the “assume nothing” axiom.)

We spoke last week about Netflix’s disastrous decision to raise service fees so they could put the needs of their stockholders over the needs of their customers. History will prove this was a dramatic turning point for an industry-leading, well-regarded company with brand loyalty that rivaled Apple.

Bank of America has decided to take a similar swan dive with their customers by charging a $5 monthly fee when B of A customers use their debit card. Seriously?  The same company that gladly accepted $45 billion in taxpayer bailout money in 2009 has decided to reward millions of those people by making them pay to access their own money. Like Netflix, there is an assumption that people will still continue to use the service at the same rate, only now the company will be able to collect fees from the activity. Spoiler Alert: not only will millions of B of A customers no longer use their ATMs, but millions more will also decide to take their hard-earned money elsewhere. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to realize that’s exactly what is going to happen.

I have been a Bank of America customer for almost 20 years, but that will soon come to an end. Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it. When the chips are down and a company decides to punish the very customers who gave them success, they no longer deserve my loyalty or my money.

Close your eyes and listen carefully… do you hear that? That’s the giant sucking sound of millions of customers walking away.

For those of you familiar with this column, you know I’m not the brightest guy in the world. However, I have learned a few things along the way. One lesson in particular that stuck in my head was the understanding that increasing the cost of an activity will decrease the number of people engaged in that activity. Another thing I’ve learned is that when you piss off people, it’s really hard to unpiss them. Who’s learned this lately? Our friends at Netflix.

Most of you know that Netflix recently raised their rates as much as 60% on their customers, all with the intention of providing a better experience and improved service. I’m not really sure how you can reward your loyal customers by raising prices, but perhaps the folks at Netflix are just smarter than I am. Then again, perhaps they are not. As a consequence of their careless decision to punish their customers, they have also managed to piss them off. The results are accordingly predictable:

• Since announcing the price increase, Netflix has lost or will lose as many as 2 million customers.
• Although the price hike was intended to accommodate the needs of its shareholders, who demanded higher stock prices, Netflix stock has dropped 50% over the past month and 65% since it’s all-time high in mid-July.
• The rosiest estimate shows that Netflix’s profit increase as a result of the price increase will be… exactly zero.
• At the same time, Netflix has been eviscerated in the press and by its customer base. Almost all goodwill and loyalty has forever evaporated, and its competitors are salivating at the chance to topple the big dog.

That’s a lot of bad things for absolutely no payoff. I’m sure if executive management had the chance to do it again, they would have reconsidered such a fatal decision, but unfortunately it’s too late. You can’t unring a bell, put the toothpaste back in the tube, or unpiss off your customers.

Take care of your customers, or they will take care of you, one way or the other.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that marketing is a lot harder than many people give it credit for. Doing good marketing is even harder. So take my advice when I say this: the message you convey to your audience is a) vitally important, b) very difficult to target, and c) extremely challenging to get right. If you don’t understand a), b), and c), you’ll be relegated to d) crappy sales, poor marketing materials, and unrealized potential. Is there any hope?

Of course there is. C’mon… you know I’m an optimist…

Like everything else, messaging takes a solid plan and good execution. If you have a lot of different customer-facing teams in your organization, you want to make sure everyone is saying the same thing, and in the same way. Your best bet is to create a Core Messaging Platform, a systematic, strategic document that accomplishes several important tasks:

1. Centralizes your messaging in one location so that everyone in your company is literally on the same page.
2. Defines, shapes and drives all of the outbound communication for your products and services.
3. Consists of a series of overarching messages, high-level/benefit-based core messages, and supporting messages that elaborate on key ideas.

If you take the time and effort to create this “one-stop shop” for your messaging needs, you’ll be amazed at how much easier and more effective your communication efforts are.

There are a million different ways to conduct a competitive analysis, but instead of focusing on the nitty-gritty details I’d like to give you some advice from the 35,000 foot level…

• SWOT your competitors – no, I’m not advocating violence. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Analyze them, and yourself. You’ll gain remarkable insight into how you match up. You may find that you aren’t focused in the right areas, or there’s an oversaturation in a market or, if you’re lucky, that there’s an untapped area of the market just waiting to be cultivated.
• Focus on your strengths and differentiators – once you have an understanding of what you and your competitors do, you can more accurately refine your strategy to maximize your strengths while exploiting the other guy’s weaknesses.
• Good understanding = short cycles – a solid competitive understanding is essential for moving quickly and staying ahead. When it comes to business, you’re either ahead or you’re behind. In the immortal words of Ricky Bobby, “if you ain’t first, you’re last.”

You get the idea. A SWOT analysis is one of the big secrets to unlocking your company’s true potential. Like most marketing activities, they aren’t easy, but they are definitely worthwhile. If you need help, contact me and we can come up with a solid strategy.

Have you heard of the expression “all news is good news”? In a nutshell, it’s a school of thought about promotion contending that, no matter what is written about you, as long as you’re being written about, it’s a good thing. Is this true?

Not even close.

In the old days (like 10 years ago), this may have been a more accurate adage, considering that most people still got their news from traditional sources like newspapers, radio, and TV. Today, with the bewildering amount of information choices, everybody has a voice, and everyone is their own network. Heck, even a chucklehead like me can have a forum and an audience for all of my mundane thoughts.

With all of these sources, it’s easy for a company to get a lot of bad press, especially if they create a poor product or don’t utilize marketing/PR. A popular blog can influence a devoted follower, who happens to be the director of a TV show, who suddenly pumps it out to millions of people. Problem is, a huge portion of the new media sources are unreliable, biased, and potentially untrue. If someone’s got an axe to grind against you, they can’t generate a lot of ink, but none of it may be good. That’s a problem. Another pitfall occurs if you try to control the message by either generating your own content and creating a corporate shill, or by moderating others on your company blog. People don’t like the idea of having their thoughts policed, and will inevitably lash out against you and your company.

So what can you do to a) get good ink, and b) avoid bad ink? Answer: not much. Just kidding. You can keep the good ahead of the bad by treating your constituents right: produce a quality product, engage in honorable business practices, provide a quality experience, maintain your professionalism, and constantly dazzle your customers. You can also build and maintain friendly relations with people in the press and blogosphere, creating allies that are willing to say good things about you.

If you like my advice, feel free to spread the good word with one of the bookmarks below. Spread the love, spread the love.

Regardless of your politics, almost everyone can agree on one thing about President Obama:

He likes to talk. A lot.

We’re currently in the throes of a contentious health care debate. Vociferous town hall meetings, angry Congressman, and new details about the bill are being bled out every day. Obama is trying to assuage concerns about a “public option” by running his own town halls. Unfortunately for him, every time he talks about it, support drops lower and lower. Why?

Instead of focusing on 3-5 main messages that ordinary people can understand, he’s digging deep and talking about arcane elements of the bill that no one, including Congress, understands. Obama has forgotten the cardinal rule of messaging: Keep It Short, Stupid. As long as the message is different every day, and focusing on overly complex issues, he’ll never get traction. If I were advising him, I’d tell him to determine the three most important points, and hammer those suckers home. Stick to one game plan, and don’t let the day-to-day headlines sway you from the goal of selling those key messages.

Bill Shakespeare wrote, “brevity is the soul of wit.” It’s also the soul of a good marketing campaign.

Ok, I’m usually a pretty friendly, easy-going guy. But I gotta tell you… there’s a trend in some walks of life that really irks the hell out of me. Let me explain the nature of my consternation with a specific example…

My wife and I are in good shape, and like to exercise regularly. We’ve been members of various gyms over the years, but invariably return to our home gym after a while because of an incredibly annoying, insidious sales technique that most health clubs practice: the open house, followed by the trial membership. This usually takes place once a month, which means that for one week per month there are five times as many people in the gyms, and it’s virtually impossible to find an open exercise machine. What’s worse is that these trial members don’t know how to use the machines, so they take twice as long as they should. And to top it all off, they have no intention of joining the gym, but since it’s free they’ll cheerfully take advantage of the situation.

Bottom line: potential customers are provided the same privileges and accommodations as paying customers, but haven’t had to devote one dime. Conversely, current customers that are paying dues and keeping the doors open are not able to enjoy the services for which they have paid. I call this “screw you” marketing, for the obvious reason.

This is a very dangerous and inefficient practice for several reasons:

1. You piss off your current customer base. Their experience is tarnished and they will most likely abandon the service sooner than they should. In the words of the marketer, this reduces the Lifetime Customer Value significantly. (Here’s one of Aximum’s success stories that focuses on Lifetime Customer Value.)
2. You focus your energies in the wrong places. I imagine the conversion rate for open houses/trial memberships is very low, so it may behoove the gyms to concentrate on activities that collect customers with greater revenue potential and ROI. When you offer something free, you’ll get tons of action, but very little conversion. This is one of those undeniable truths of marketing.
3. You don’t take advantage of repeat/renewed customers. These gyms spend a lot of time, energy, and money on developing the open houses. Curiously, not one ounce of thought or energy has been spent trying to get me to agree to a longer contract, sign up for other services, or anything else that would bring it additional revenue. This glaring deficiency in their marketing communication program shines out like a beacon in the night. If a company has proven, revenue-producing, long-term customers, it’s usually 3-5 times easier to gain additional revenue from them than it is to bleed it from the trick-or-treaters that sign up for the free stuff (sorry… I sounded a little bitter there).

When you’re seeking new customers, remember not to sacrifice your current customer base. If you abandon them, don’t be surprised if they abandon you.

You can see this happening everywhere you turn. Do the terms green, whole grain, sirloin, organic, and hand-crafted sound overly familiar? They should, because they’re everywhere, used for products ranging from food to shampoo to cars. If words or phrases or overused, they (and their associated products) suffer from commoditization. In other words, the message loses its meaning, and all the products in a certain category are perceived by the audience as being the same. Once this happens, customers no longer have brand loyalty, and the only differentiator they care about is price. A great example of this phenomenon is gasoline. How often do you choose gasoline based on additives? Or the ability to eliminate knocks and pings? Chances are you buy your gas based solely on its price. This is commoditization as its worst.

How do you avoid this pitfall? The best thing you can do is create your own Unique Selling Propositions (USP). Every company has strengths and weaknesses. Capitalize on your strengths by developing a messaging strategy that separates you from your competitors. Determine how your products and services can be presented to your audience in a unique, informative, entertaining, and compelling manner. Make sure that you’re clear, concise, and consistent in your application of the message. And above all, take the time to let your USPs develop. Like a flower, marketing is a process that needs a lot attention, a lot of love, and the patience to allow it to come to fruition.

Follow this advice and you’ll be amazed how quickly you can separate yourself from the “me too” herd!

Colonel Sanders was a master of business. He took a product that virtually everyone in the south made for themselves — fried chicken — and decided to sell his own version. The Kentucky Colonel outfit, the secret recipe, the bucket, and his self-promotion all contributed to his uniqueness and aura. However, his true secret to success was a simple philosophy: do one thing and do it right. He made better fried chicken than anyone else, and he focused all his efforts on building the business around his flagship product. His plan was to start small, gain a reputation, and establish a toehold in his local Kentucky community. From there, he wanted to conquer the fried chicken world, and use his market dominance as a springboard for other complementary products. Of course, we all know the rest of the story; his plan worked to perfection and the chicken industry has never been the same.

What’s the lesson that other companies can learn from the Colonel? Determine what your biggest strength is and focus your efforts on that. Perfect your product/service, establish a great reputation, use your revenues to invest in the company, and build your empire. Many companies try to become jacks-of-all-trades, but instead become masters-of-none. This mistake goes back to a previous discussion about market sizing vs. market segementation. It’s better to dominate a small market and branch out into other markets in time, rather than become a bit player in a larger, more competitive market. This approach will focus your internal resources in the places that maximize your profit potential, put your marketing communications plan on a path towards great success, and send a message to competitors that you have your priorities straight.

Don’t let the goatee fool you… Colonel Sanders was a brilliant businessman and a master marketer. Now go out there, focus on the one thing at which you’re best, and fry the competition!