Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 1
Why Quality Matters Marketing Is More Than Advertising
A Guide for The Rest of Us
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 2
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leah Goold-Haws, founder and Creative Director of LGH, started her industry pursuit as a graphic designer more than 15 years ago. Since then, she has been brought on to help grow and expand advertising agencies and marketing firms and further de-fined her creative edge and approach.
After a run as Creative Director of a marketing and advertising firm in Northern Cali-fornia, Leah seized an opportunity to branch out on her own and, in January 2011, opened LGH Marketing/Strategy. Having developed a reputation for strong creative solutions and comprehensive strategies, Leah led LGH to attract city and county organizations, as well as professional firms and non-profit organizations who are seri-ous about committing to a solid marketing platform. Her focus is to assist clients in understanding the need for an overarching strategy, then developing and implement-ing creative marketing solutions to achieve their goals. She can be reached at [email protected]
ABOUT LGH MARKETING/STRATEGY
LGH is a boutique marketing strategy and creative advertising firm based in Redding, (far) Northern California. Found-ed under the guiding principle that Marketing Without Strategy is Meaningless, our goal is to work with individuals, businesses and organizations who can appreciate the need of a comprehensive strategy for their marketing efforts. Noting our guiding philosophy, we seek to settle the increasingly common misunderstanding that piecemeal services like a design on a business card, or a new logo are not alone to be considered “marketing.”
LGH Marketing/Strategy is a full service advertising and marketing firm specializing in both new interactive and social media, web development, television commercials, print collateral, graphic design and comprehensive marketing strat-egies. LGH has worked with numerous county and civic organizations to develop county-wide initiatives and outreach plans. LGH has demonstrated fluency in guiding seemingly disparate groups in achieving a common goal, and devel-oping partnerships that benefit all parties involved. See examples at www.lghmarketstrategy.com.
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 3
! Contents
PART I: What’s your brand story?
KnoW yourself
KnoW your Customer
CheCK yourself
define your Gaols
identify your WeaKnesses
Celebrate your strenGths
PART II: What do your ads sell?
enCouraGe brand advoCaCy
be a resourCe
be your best experienCe
WorKsheet
ContaCt
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 4
PART I: What’s your brand story?
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 5
KnoW yourself
You started your business to make a difference, right? Whether you wanted to provide service better than the competition, or offer customers lower prices than they could find elsewhere, or maybe you wanted to have more control over your work life - somewhere along the line you made a decision to do something that people can respect.
Many times - especially in the midst of cash flow problems, negative feedback, and wearing all the hats necessary to run a business - it’s easy to lose sight of what those motivations were. Continually revisit your original reasons for starting a business. While some of those ideas evolve and morph over time, staying true to your intentions will help you craft a remark-able presence.
To succeed… find something to hold on to,
something to motivate you, something to inspire you.
- Tony Dorsett
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 6
KnoW your Customers
Research, research, research! As much as you may want to sell your goods/services to EVERYBODY, the fact is, you are diluting your efforts. The more you are able to target your ideal primary and secondary markets, the better off your marketing and promotions campaigns will be.
Find out the demographics - age, income level, education, gender, marital status, number of children, etc. And equally important, find out some psychodemographics - religious afiililation, political sub-scription, likes, hobbies, interests, etc.
Know where they hang out - in person and online. Are they Star-bucks people, or are they local coffee shop patrons? Do they mo-tor bike or ride mountain bikes? The more information you have, the better you can make your offer, and the more loyal your clients will be to you.
If you’ve heard this
story before, don’t
stop me, because I’d
like to hear it again.
- Groucho Marx
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 7
CheCK yourself
Quite possibly the best way to make sure you are staying true to your brand is by spying on your employees. Step away from the office, place a call to your business and disguise your voice. Are your employees being helpful? Friendly? How do they handle a difficult or misinformed customer? Doing exercises like this will help you truly understand what your customers, or potential custom-
There was once a boy who walked into a store and asked the proprietor if he could use his phone. “Why certainly,” the store owner replied.
The boy dialed a number and said to the person on the other end, “I’m calling you to offer you the services of the best yard boy in town.”
“Well, to tell you the truth,” replied the person on the other end, “we feel we already have the best yard boy in town.”
The little boy then said, “I really called because I want you to have the most beautiful yard on your street, and I want you to feel a sense of pride whenever you see it.”
“I must say,” was the response, “we do feel a sense of pride whenever we look at our lawn.”
“Well, if that’s the case,” said the little boy, “congratu-lations. I’m really happy for you.” He then hung up the phone and handed it back to the store owner.
“Young man,” the owner exclaimed. “I couldn’t help but to overhear your conversation, and I must say, with an attitude like that, you’ll have no trouble getting a job one day as a yard boy.”
“Oh, I’m already a yard boy,” the boy proclaimed. “In fact, I’m the yard boy for the people I just called. I was just checking up on myself.”
Source: Taken from Guerrilla Marketing Remix
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 8
define your Goals
Now that you remember your reasons for venturing out, it’s time for you to revisit, or begin composing, your core values. Many businesses focus on low prices or great customer service as the extent of their values. And those are great places to start, but it’s not enough to have good prices, or a friendly voice on the phone. Who are you as a leader? What do you want your workplace culture to look like?
Goals in writing are dreams with
deadlines. - Brian Tracy
How to Set AcHievAble GoAlS
Unwritten goals are falsities. If you don’t write something down, you don’t have to take personal responsibility if it doesn’t get fulfilled. Always put your goals in writing, in multiple places if you can (index cards, notebooks, etc.) and make an effort to review your goals every day.
Be specific. Never word a goal with vague terms like “some” or “a little bit”, or “more”. Be specific! How much money do you want to make this month? How many new customers?
Keep them simple. A goal is not the entire story of your ideal life. Want to give an awsome presentation? Retire at 50? Simple wins.
maKe it significant. These are your reasons for being in business. More money is part of every entrepreneur’s dream, but what else drives, motivates or inspires you? Write it down.
maKe it measUraBle. What gets measured, gets done, says the adage. Define your goals in terms of height, weight, dollars, inches, or hours. Then measure your progress until you achieve your desired outcome.
map it oUt. After you state your specific desired outcomes, you will notice the gap between where you are and where you want to be. And you will also naturally start to piece together how you can bridge that gap by setting and fulfilling achievable goals.
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 9
identify your WeaKnesses opportunities
T hough we are often loath to admit, we all have weaknesses - both professionally and personally. And as a sole proprietor, or one who runs a small business, those identities often overlap, so don’t make too many distinctions.
But the term weakness has tremendously negative connotations, so let’s instead call them areas of pportunity.
This approach may sound a little new-agey, but don’t overthink it. Because as business owners, as the person who is responsible not only for your own livelihood, but that of your employees, you must abide by a sometimes unnatural level of optimism. If you aren’t continually looking for new opportunities or ways to improve whatever it is you do, then you can never expect to achieve your version of success.
How do you handle stress? How can you improve your customer service? What can you streamline to make your visitors’ experience better? How do you fare in the marketplace? What are you offering that isn’t doing much good, or what do you not offer that you can capitalize on?
To help you identify your opportunitirees, let’s look at a common model, DRIVE:
DRIVE is an approach to problem solving and analysis that can be used as part of process improvement.
the scope of the problem the criteria by which success will be measured and agree the deliverables and success factors`
the current situation, understand the background, identify and collect information, including perfor-mance, identify problem areas, improvements and “quick wins”
improvements or solutions to the problem, required changes to enable and sustain the improve-ments
check that the improvements will bring about benefits that meet the defined success criteria, priori-tise and pilot the improvements
plan the implementation of the solutions and improvements, agree and implement them, plan a review, gather feedback and review
DEFINE
REVIEW
IDENTIFY
VERIFY
ExECUTE
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 10
Celebrate your strenGths
If you just got a terriffic review or write-up in a newspaper or magazine, do you think it’s okay to promote it amongst your fans? (Hint: of course it is!)
Many times, business owners will fail to properly promote themselves - maybe out of a sense of austerity or martyr-dom, and usually to their demise. People don’t want a mediocre, average experience.
They want a great experience.
If your business thrives on being a place where you know your customers by name, then celebrate it. If you have the most knowledgeable staff, celebrate it. While identifying weaknesses is a good practice, also remember to build on what you do well.
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 11
PART II: What do your ads sell?
“The reason you haven’t felt it is because it doesn’t exist. What you call love was invented by guys like
me, to sell nylons.”
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 12
experienCe > produCt = true
When I asked (Zappos CEO Tony) Hsieh what Zappos stands for, he never mentioned the
physical products that Zappos sells—shoes
and clothes.
Instead, he answered “happiness.”
Legendary entrepre-neur Richard Branson was once asked, “What does Virgin stand for?”
He could have an-swered “a great mu-sic store” or “a great airline,” but instead
he answered with one word—”fun.”
Source: Quotes taken from a Forbes Article
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 13
enCouraGe brand advoCaCy
Once you start getting some meaningful feedback (at this point, it should be 99% positive feedback, right?!), you need to let the world know! But here’s the kicker - there’s only so much self-promotion your clients want to hear from you. This is where testimonials come in.
If your customers truly do love you and do think you’re amazing and do think your’e so smart, then let them tell the world. A sales pitch from a busi-ness is nowhere near as powerful as a word-of-mouth referral from a satisfied client/customer.
Enchant people with a good experience, and let them tell the story.
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 14
be a resourCe
When it comes down to it, most consumers really just want a couple things: to feel like they’ve gotten a great deal, and to feel like they’ve been taken care of. That’s it. Think about a time when you went to the hardware store looking for a specific tool, and they didn’t have it in stock. You’ve probably experienced the situation handled one of two ways: either you were told the item is not in stock, and good luck to
you, or you were told it is not in stock, and the sales-person offered an alternative part, or referred you to a trusted salesperson at a competing store. This is powerful: when you put the customer first, and place their needs before your bottom line, you have built a level of trust, and you can be sure that customer will return.
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 15
Be Your Best Experience
Gandhi said “If we could change ourselves, the tenden-cies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ... We need not wait to see what others do.” So what does this mean for your business?
It means change starts with you. Right now. Everywhere.
Use your own personal experiences, good and bad, for crafting the best experience for your customers. Think about good experiences you’ve had, and understand why you felt positive about them. Do the same for negative ex-periences, and work to make sure that doesn’t happen with you or your company. You must craft the version of excellence you wish to have.
Now, get off your hiney and make things happen!
5 tipS to creAte An AmAzinG cuStomer experience
Create a Customer serviCe vision. Much like creating a vision statement to direct the organization, you should also create a clear and compelling “customer service vision” that describes the level of service your organization aspires to deliver.
exCeed Customer expeCtations. Show a relentless commitment to exceeding, not just meeting, expectations. Customers can’t tell you how to exceed their expectations, but they know it when they see it, they remember, and they tell their friends.
Create superior Customer value. Focus on creating superior value for your customers, and they will love you. This means know your competitors, technologies, and alternatives available. Match your offerings to your target customers better than anyone else.
train every employee to be a Customer serviCe Champion. Empower employees with the tools, training, equipment and sup-port they must have to deliver excellent service consistently. Re-ward and praise those who deliver, and deal quickly with any em-ployee who does not embrace the service values.
destroy barriers to delivering superior serviCe. Look at all systems, policies, procedures, reports and rules. Wipe out any-thing that creates roadblocks or frustrations in the effort to delight and amaze the customer. Remember, it’s about them, not you.
Remarkable doesn’t
mean remarkable to you.
It means remarkable to me.
Am I going to make a
remark about it?
- Seth Godin
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 16
What are some of the brands (businesses) you admire? _______________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What are some of the brands you currently use already? ____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What Would be the benefits of co-branding With another business? ___________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why might your customers appreciate co-branding? _________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Who are your local competitors? ___________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Who are your online competitors? __________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What do you do differently than your competition? _________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What does your business do uniquely to others? _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
do you have a core (niche) market that supports you? _______________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
do your customers feel part of a “tribe”? ___________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Get learned up
Why Quality Matters: A Guide for The Rest of Us 17
SBDC at Shasta [email protected]
LGH Marketing/Strategyleah@lghmarketstrategy.comwww.lghmarketstrategy.com530.410.1182
still looKinG for some ansWers?
