Dunn's Den of Knowledge.

A blog about advertising, marketing, social media and how they affect your business!

Archive for April, 2008

Who gives a rip what business you’re in?

Posted by Scott Dunn on April 28, 2008

It’s important to have at least a general idea of what business you’re in, so you’ll know where to look for it in the yellow pages.  But if you want to grow and prosper, you should dig deeper. What do people need and what are they buying?  If you don’t know this, your “business” can pass you by. 

My elevator speech is “I am a marketing guy and I teach marketing and advertising at Georgia State. I help clients find out ‘who cares?’ what they do and act accordingly.”

 Let’s put it this way—what are you selling, as opposed to what are they buying?  Some examples:

  • Black and Decker sells little machines that goes round and round and they call them drills.  But people don’t need a drill.  They need holes.
  • Barnes & Noble says— right on their logo—they are booksellers.  But people don’t eat books, they read them.  B&N is in the reading business, and they make it easy and enjoyable for people to come in and read.  They’ll buy later.
  • Ask a professor what business your college is in.  He’ll say, “Education.” But what they hope to get is educated alumni—the kind that gives money back.
  • Do you like Starbucks Coffee? It ranks 21st.   But when was the last time you said, “Let’s meet at Starbucks”?   Are they in the coffee—or the meeting business?

Free yourself from definition tyranny. Join the customer in his never-ending quest to find a better use for your product.

                                                                                                                                             George Lemmond

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Are you a motorist or a pedestrian?

Posted by Scott Dunn on April 22, 2008

Today’s blog is written by George Lemmond.  He will be writing exerts for Dunn’s Den of Knowledge from time to time and we are excited to have him on our team!  Thank you, George, and I look forward to your writings:)))  Please respond to George’s post, and let us both know what you think. 

“Segmentation” has always been a worthy goal of marketers. It’s a good way to target your customers, so you don’t waste your time going after people who don’t like you anyway.

It makes sense to know who might buy your product.  Rich people or poor? Young vs. old, farmers or city-dwellers? College grads, illiterates, parsons or felons?  It’s useful to put them into big buckets. That makes your media and promotion efforts efficient.

The fad now is “psychographics”—the art of grouping people into lifestyles. Psychologists have sliced up the population into many pieces, like—-Early Achievers, Stay-at-Homers, Front-runners, Bookworms, and Deadenders.

The problem is it pigeonholes people into static stereotypes.  Once you’re a  trend buster, always a trend buster.  But people change roles and attitudes daily, even hourly.  Are you same person at eight as at five? Monday as Saturday? At a ball game as in a traffic jam?

I ask my students whether they are a motorist or a pedestrian. Most think awhile, then choose the one which best fits them.  (They thought I was analyzing their inner selves.) But after discussion they all agree that the right answer is, “BOTH—it depends!” And there are times they are a cyclist or an equestrian. Sometimes they’re even motionless.

Psychographics can be interesting, maybe useful. But it becomes psychobabble when it replaces common sense. Wouldn’t be better if you would segment your product according to the benefit it bestows, and let the customers self-select across all artificial lines?  What do you think?     George Lemmond

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What is Social Media and how can I use it in my Business?

Posted by Scott Dunn on April 20, 2008

This blog is a follow up to my speech last week at the Greater North Fulton Business Expo.  Thank you to all those who attended not only the Expo, but my speech.  The Expo was a huge success and I would like to personally thank all the committee members and volunteers.  Thank you!!!

An overview of my speech is this:  ”Social media describes the on-line technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other.”  Wikipedia says social media is about utilizing technology to communicate, connect, join a conversation and/or a community and it is about collecting and categorizing.  Most importantly though, social media is about change!

What it is not is a message channel to bombard me with messages or ads that I do not care about.  It is not about pitching me. It is about building a relationship with me utilizing mediums I CHOOSE.  It’s not about the application.  The application is useless if you do not find value in it and ultimately, use it.  Determine what it is you want to accomplish, then choose the application that helps you accomplish your goal.  

Social media allows us the ability to collaborate on a global scale with like minded people.  You don’t believe me?  Then why is it that the last time you purchased something on-line you took the time to read the comments about the item?  I don’t know you and you don’t know me….right?  

It allows me, the consumer, to communicate directly with a corporation.  If I like your product or service, I will communicate it.   If I do not like a product or service, I will communicate that as well. Social media makes me the R&D arm of any company.  Is your company willing to join the conversation?  

Lastly, don’t let the pendulum swing too far.  Daily I pick up the paper and read that another company is taking large percentages of their ad budget and putting it into social media.  That is fine as long as you continue to use traditional mediums and integrate social media with them.  Also, don’t try to be the jack of all trades.  Pick a handful of applications.  You don’t have to use every single social media application just because you receive an invite.

Some of the barriers companies face with social media are: cost of development when joining a site, losing control of what is being expressed, scalability and the time commitment it takes to converse.  If you want to develop a relationship, it takes time.

For a list of twenty-five social media sites to explore, click HERE.  This guide not only gives you the hyper-link to each site, but provides you page views with a short synapses of each application.

As usual, I look forward to your comments and questions. Take the social media challenge and join a conversation, with me or someone around the world! 

On  a side note today 4/22/08 I received an email to the link below. HMMMMM  coincidence?  I think not.  How many of these same C’s did I cover in my lecture?  Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/5jl98z

 

 

 

Posted in Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »