MarketingExperiments Blog: Research-driven optimization, testing, and marketing ideas

I know, I know. Your product is super fantastic. The best in the industry. Perhaps the best ever. In a word – infallible.

Except, well, I don’t know how to break this to you, it’s not. No product is perfect. And not every product is right for every person (while we’re at it, you’re really not that special and there is no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny).

The only challenge is, when you make your offer sound like it’s too good to be true, no one believes you and you’re only shooting yourself in the foot. Let’s look at an extreme example …

Overhyped marketing from the North

According to The Wall Street Journal – Pyongyang Myth-Builders Step It Up – here is some of the official line from the other side of the Northern Limit Line …

About Kim Il Sung, founder of North Korea: He once made a hand grenade from a pine cone to blow up an American tank.

About his son and successor, Kim Jong Il: When he was born, the sky was filled with lightning and thunder, and a rainbow.

About the new leader, Kim Jong Eun: He is ‘an excellent general who displays the extraordinary talent of hitting the center of the target no matter how many times he fires.’

Your product should not have a cult of personality

OK, that’s obviously ridiculous. So your product might not be mythmaking for the Dear Leader, but, I ask you, are some of these lines really any more believable?

Huge Savings! Exclusive Deals! Limited Time Offer!

70% Off! 80% Off! 90% Off! (this will eventually hit 100% off, right?)

Decision Management Solutions research identifies the ultimate real-time predictive marketing solution requirements (and exhale)

Don’t believe the hype

Your own, that is. Because, frankly, nobody else does.

As Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director, MECLABS, has said in Transparent Marketing: How to earn the trust of a skeptical consumer, “While this writer has no desire to demean the work of another professional, the Postmodern Consumer couldn’t care less. He actually despises hype and anything else that insults his intelligence.

“He is armed and dangerous. With a single click, he can terminate a company’s opportunity.”

However …

• If your marketing campaigns (and especially your content marketing) elucidate and don’t obfuscate …
• If in a hype-filled world, you actually live up to Dr. Philip Kotler’s value-focused definition of marketing – “A social and managerial process by which individual groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and exchanging products of value with others” …
• If you help your customers find true value instead of grabbing a quick hit sale before they figure you out …
• And if you focus on serving the customer instead of your own dictatorial ego …

… then I was wrong about you after all.

You really are special.

Related Resources:

The Last Blog Post: How to succeed in an era of Transparent Marketing

Transparent Marketing: A slice of honesty from Domino’s Pizza

Transparent Marketing and Social Media: Twitter and Facebook are the new Woodward and Bernstein

We know from a November 2007 BBMG survey that if products are of equal price and quality, consumers are more likely to buy from companies that:

• Manufacture energy-efficient products

• Promote health and safety benefits

• Support fair labor and trade practices

• Commit to environmentally friendly practices

Those are great differentiators in the present market conditions, but it’s not enough to find success online: You must still attract visitors with a unique Value Proposition and make finding the green and ethical products they came for (or what you want them to buy) fast, easy, and stress-free.

During last week’s free web clinic our optimization experts looked at the homepage of Greenfeet.com. In 1997 they were on the bleeding edge of earth-friendly eCommerce. Now that everyone is on the green bandwagon, Jill Richard wanted advice on how to maintain her advantage.

Director of Optimization Research Jimmy Ellis got right to the point: Jill’s Value Proposition needs to express clearly and succinctly why a visitor should buy from Greenfeet.com instead of somewhere else.

“The page says ‘Things you can do to go green today’,” said Jimmy. “But visitors aren’t coming here to learn how to go green. If I’m shopping for environmentally-friendly products, I’m already green. The site has to help me understand which products to buy. Help me find the best products to suit my needs.”

(To read the entire analysis, see our latest Journal brief here.)

Once a green/ethical product and service provider has attracted a Hunter or Browser with a killer Value Proposition and optimized page elements, they are also well-positioned to charge more, even in the current economy.

The Wall Street Journal recently tested how much difference ethical production makes to consumers when it comes to price point. They showed shoppers coffee and t-shirts, telling one group they were manufactured using “high ethical standards” and another group that “low standards had been used.” A control group was not given any information.

In all tests the shoppers were willing to pay a premium for the ethical choice, and were only willing to buy products manufactured by “unethical methods” if they got a steep discount.

Not sure what to charge, or if you’re charging too much or not enough? Read this eye-opening MarketingExperiments Journal brief on finding the ideal price point.

Conscious consumers willing to pay a premium for products and services that meet their criteria are online right now, hunting and browsing. Test, optimize, and test again to ensure the ones they find and buy are yours.

Millions of households are just saying no to tons of printed catalogues and other direct mail (the average household receives about three catalogues per week according the U.S. Postal Service). According to a Feb. 6, 2008, article in the Washington Post, 18 states now have either do-not-mail lists or legislation pending to set them up.

With more households paying bills online and pitches for credit cards and home equity loans drying up too, postal officials now project they will be $1 billion in the red this year.

But don’t hold your breath waiting for businesses trying to cut costs and maintain profits to set up a rescue foundation for the slakkenpost.

Once businesses discover how to optimize product Landing Pages then lead customers there with effective search, email, and PPC—tracking what they look at and for how long, creating personalized offers, and nurturing a positive relationship instead of a wasteful, negative one—keeping the post office out of debt is probably the least of their worries.

Another plus to dumping the dead tree delivery model is being able to market a business as sensitive and environmentally-conscious.

As I mentioned in my “Green is Good” post in January, 9 out of 10 Americans surveyed by the Bernporad Barnowski Marketing Group said they would describe themselves as a “conscious consumer.” According to BBMG, “Conscious consumers expect companies to do more than make eco-friendly claims. They demand transparency and accountability across every level of business practice.”

86% of those surveyed said when products are of equal price and quality, they are more likely to buy from companies that commit to environmentally-friendly practices.

Companies that invite prospects and customers to shop with them online—saving gas (greenhouse and otherwise), trees, and money—are well positioned to stay ahead in a tight economy.

But be warned; the post office says it will continue to jack up first-class mailing costs every year as they struggle to make up the difference.

Even more reason to learn how to optimize your email campaigns with our upcoming professional certification course.