Posts Tagged ‘location’

Two factors comprise the market potential for any product or service – demand and attachment.  Demand is about quantity – how many people want what you sell.  Attachment is about quality, how much do people want what you sell.

There are some products and services for which there is obvious demand.  For example, almost everyone needs a grocery store, a cell phone and the occasional cup of coffee. Universal demand creates extraordinary opportunity.  But universal demand also spawns burgeoning supply and intense competition.  The harsh reality is, in virtually every sector, supply exceeds demand in a way that isn’t cyclical.  We’ve crashed full speed, head first into a world where we have more stuff to sell than people want to buy.  And yet, a number of companies in highly contested categories are growing dramatically, even exponentially.  How do they do that? What’s their secret?

Attachment

Their secret is attachment.  Attachment is about how much your prospects and customers value the product or service you provide.  It’s about the extent to which you improve their lives.  And at the highest level, it’s about how your product or service defines or supports your customer’s aspiration and self-image.

There are five fundamental value platforms – what you might think of as the five basic reasons that any customer is motivated to make any purchase.  They are:

• Price/Value
• Location/Convenience
• Quality/Functionality
• Style/Status
• Experience/Lifestyle

The platforms of Price/Value and Location/Convenience are rational platforms and very seldom create much attachment.  If a Walmart customer discovers that Target has a lower price on laundry detergent this week, that Walmart customer will probably hot-foot it over to Target and load up.  She’s not attached to Walmart, she’s attached to the low price, which is relatively easy to replicate.

At the other end of the spectrum, a Nordstrom’s shopper who is motivated by Style/Status or Experience/Lifestyle is unlikely to darken the door of JC Penney, even if JC Penney has the same item at a lower price.  Style/Status and Experience/Lifestyle are emotional platforms.  They have the potential to invoke powerful feelings and create strong attachment which are almost impossible to replicate.

Effect of Attachment

Let’s think about the effect of attachment in one of the categories with universal demand, grocery stores.  Have you ever met a customer of Trader Joe’s?  They are borderline rabid.  Given half a chance, they’ll regale you (endlessly) of their Trader Joe’s favorites:  Two Buck Chuck, Green Papaya Salad, Mango Butter or Chili Feta.  To say these folks are attached to Trader Joe’s might be the understatement of the century.  And that attachment translates directly into revenue.  Think about this:  According to Fortune Magazine, Trader Joe’s averages $1,750.00 per square foot in sales.  That’s more than double the sales per square foot of competitor, Whole Foods Market.

Now let’s turn our attention ro cell phones.  Ever try to pry an iPhone out of the hands of an Apple fanatic?  That’s attachment in every sense of the word, attachment that has led to astonishing growth for Apple.  Since being released in 2007, well over 100 million iPhones have been sold and Apple has become the most valuable tech company on the planet.

Attachment means your product has become an essential, even indispensable, part of your customer’s life.  When that happens, you have a shot at exponential growth that few can match with, let alone surpass!

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Tagged as: active garage, attachment, convenience, demand, experience, Good business great life, Jack Hayhow, lifestyle, location, price, status, style, supply, target, trader joes, value, walmart, whole foods

Gap did it next to their flagship 5th Avenue location in New York.  Method did it in San Francisco’s Union Square shopping district. (Method, those funny teardrop-shaped bottles of good eco-friendly soaps and cleaners found at stores like Target and Whole Foods).  You’re likely most familiar with Boo! – The Halloween Store that ‘pops up’ every fall.  Right – now I know you’re with me.  Pop-up stores are seemingly everywhere these days, and if retailers can enjoy success with these temporary locations, why not B2B-focused organizations?

The beauty of a pop-up office is the ability for a growing company to take full advantage of high-visibility retail space, making a high-impact presentation and increasing exposure to prospective customers in a particular market. Think of it as your booth at a 90-day-long trade show.

Last November, BusinessWeek did a story on pop-up stores and interviewed Erik Joule, Levi Strauss’ Sr. VP of Merchandising. “Success is exposure.” Erik said.  His Levi’s ‘workshop’ pop-up space in Manhattan reportedly draws 3,000 visitors each week.  Procter & Gamble apparently enjoyed similar success with their pop-up initiative, drawing some 14,000 visitors in just ten days!

Think about it: Let’s say your business is a Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) company, and you’re launching a software development and testing application focused on growing technology companies.  You’re based in, say, Dallas, but you desperately need exposure to – and presence in – Silicon Valley in order for your new product to succeed. You also know that University Avenue in Palo Alto or Castro Street in Mountain View, for example, are both hotbeds of Valley activity – with everyone from Googlers to Facebookers to VCs constantly rushing along these thoroughfares to coffee/lunch/dinner meetings.  These are the exact folks you need to reach, and ideally you’d like to have a company presence with proximity to one of these two areas.  Here’s how I’d go about this:

1. Location. Find a small, high visibility vacant storefront on one of these streets and arrange for a temporary lease (with an option to extend if possible). With luck, I might be able to negotiate down to 50% of the market lease rate.  I might also consider reaching out to the local Chamber of Commerce, whose goal is to have zero vacant spaces in these busy areas and who might offer leverage during negotiations with the landlord.
2. Strategy. I’ll work with a retail design professional to create my ‘storefront’ for maximum impact. (A local art college would be a good place to start, given they typically employ ‘working’ faculty.) Ideally, I’d want to have an open, inviting area for all passers-by, perhaps with large monitors looping mini-commercials of my new product.
3. Move in. Gather one or two of my Dallas team, hop on a plane, and ‘move in’ to the new location. I might also consider bringing on a local sales rock-star with a solid track record of winning SaaS deals in the Valley to help with lead generation.
4. Marketing. With the location and team in place, we’ll need lots of PR for the new pop-up shop. Enter social media: Facebook page. Press release. TechCrunch story.  Tweets galore.  I think you get the picture.
5. Launch! Now to invite as many folks as we can find to our launch party (yes, with cocktails), barking on the street if I have to.  We’ll schedule and host regular interactive lunch-n-learn product demos, offering something a bit higher-end than pizza for lunch.  The door is always open, presenting a standing invitation for all puzzled-looking pedestrians to come on in.

Right now is a particularly good time to consider a pop-up office. Despite the recent corner-turning of the economy, most cities’ central business districts still have plenty of empty storefronts and ground-level offices. Aside from taking long walks through central business districts of prospective cities (which you should do), there are several online resources available to help find available retail spaces for lease; a couple that immediately come to mind are Rofo and Pop Up Insider.

Imagine your delight in giving directions to a prospect: “We’ve taken over the old Kenneth Cole location – you know, at the corner of Fifth and Main?” Oooh…was that a light bulb I just saw illuminating above your head?

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Tagged as: active garage, Business Strategy, data center trust, dct, launch, location, mark watley, marketing, pop up office, retail office, retail store, sales, temporary office

Just as in the world of Real Estate it is all about “location, location, location”; in the world of marketing it is all about “consistency, consistency, consistency”.

In conjunction with a sound brand strategy, you need a clear and concise message that resonates with your customers. These messages need to be integrated across your brand and into every customer touch point.  Now, you don’t need to use the same words over and over. However, each communication needs to reinforce the key messages that have been developed to support the brand.  It is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts – when the brand is consistently conveyed across multiple touch points, the customer is left with a clear understanding of what the company, product, service, or solution is and how it solves their problem. Simply put, they know what your brand is about.

Unfortunately, as marketers we often get bored with the messages we’ve developed.  We’ve spent hours fine-tuning them and testing them.  Finally, our campaigns launch and the messages are out there, but by that time they feel old and stale to us.  There is a difference between a “fresh” message (with unique language, a clever play on words, a connection to a current event) and a “different” message (not aligned with strategy, not related to existing messages, different for the sake of being different).  Research shows that it takes anywhere from five to nine impressions for an individual to actually internalize a marketing message.  That means they need to see it over and over again.  Not the same words, but the same idea supported by the same brand.

For example, an article in a trade publication mentions the company and their new product; the customer sees an online banner ad, they click on it, and get to a landing page with a compelling offer; they do a Google search to see what else comes up and there is a link to your latest white paper; at an industry tradeshow the company has a booth and is hosting a panel discussion…and the story continues.  With consistent use of key messages across multiple touch-points your customers comes away with the sense that your company is worth their consideration.

Now you have a place to start engaging and driving purchase decisions.  This model holds true for consumer and business marketing.  People are people, whether they are buying high-end mission-critical software or a new plasma HDTV for their living room.  They have a problem.  Through your consistent messages, you have convinced them to consider your product or service as they evaluate their options.  You still have to convince them that your product or solution is really the only one that really addresses all their needs – from technical specifications to user support, maintenance and financing (again, these apply to consumer and business purchases.)

Again, consistency is key.  Your customers need to see and feel that your company is honest and trustworthy.  If there is a disconnect between what you say and what they experience, you will lose the sale, and worse, probably the customer.  So, while consistency in messaging is important…consistency in execution is critical, too.  Both pieces of this puzzle need to be addressed in order for the whole thing to work.  If you only focus on the messaging, then your experience will fall flat.  If you don’t explain your differences and benefits, then you won’t get the chance to display your stellar experience.  No matter how you look at it, consistency is the key to growing you brand and your business

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Tagged as: active garage, Brand, brand strategy, Branding, Communication, Consistency, customer, engagement, financing, laura lowell, location, Maintenance, purchases, technical specifications, Trust