Put Away the Smoke and Mirrors

“Smoke and mirrors.” “Dog and pony show.” “Image is everything.” These phrases, which are deeply embedded in the vernacular and philosophy of old-school marketing firms, may appear on the surface as nothing more than harmless – if hackneyed – corporate speak. However, these seemingly innocuous clichés actually betray one of traditional marketing's dirtiest secrets. Once the clever headlines, catchy taglines and glamorous images are stripped away, all that’s left at the core is fluff, spin, deception and the art of inventing meaning where there is none. Even they don’t believe their own hype. Yet these are the very same people to whom business owners and decision makers have entrusted their livelihood for decades. Who’s to say the interactions you have with your followers can’t be meaningful?At its heart, your business shares the same goal with every other: to grow, thrive and compete successfully in your market niche. In order to do this, you must engage your customers and build a community around your brand. With old marketing, the relationship between seller and consumer has always taken place at arm’s length, using traditional media channels that rely on flash and frequency, that require a tremendous investment to outshine and outspend the competition. However, who’s to say your relationships with your customers can’t be personal? Who’s to say the interactions you have with your followers can’t be meaningful? The answer: No one who values your success over their own bottom line.

Leading by example

We tend to take established brands for granted, assuming the secret to their success lies in their ability to pour unlimited resources into every available advertising medium to broadcast slick, highly polished messages of self-promotion. However, a closer look at some of today’s most recognizable names reveals a different story. Let’s start with Amazon. If you think about it, there is nothing inherently glamorous about an online bookstore. Yet Amazon has managed to create a following so pervasive that it catapulted from an upstart dot-com to one of the world’s most powerful e-commerce megabrands, all without ever relying on pricey TV and magazine ads. “Advertising is the tax you pay for unremarkable thinking.” How did they do it? The answer is not smoke and mirrors. They did not trick anyone into drinking the Amazon Kool-Aid. Rather they committed themselves and their budget to creating a better shopping experience by developing more intuitive technology, stronger distribution networks and more competitive shipping deals. These are genuine and distinct advantages from which their customers benefit each and every time they interact with the brand, thus solidifying Amazon’s reputation for ease of use, low prices and quality service. Another brand that has risen to the top of its category by flying in the face of traditional marketing wisdom is Geek Squad. As founder Robert Stephens explained at Advertising Age’s 2007 IDEA Conference, “Advertising is the tax you pay for unremarkable thinking.” Instead, by taking a creative approach to what he himself calls an innately “boring business,” he has transformed his one-man show into a corporation that employs more than 17,000 nationwide. In an interview with Inc. magazine, Stephens explained his low-budget strategy:

Without spending any money on marketing, we were able to get people talking about Geek Squad by tapping into themes and archetypes people already understood. We embraced the fact that we were geeks, and we dressed all of our employees like 1960s NASA technicians, since NASA is a symbol of problem solving, teamwork and impossible tasks…In our early years, we found that more than 90 percent of people found us through word of mouth.

In fact, he credits his initial lack of monetary resources with forcing him to work harder, to be more innovative, to dig deeper, to develop an original and authentic approach that has differentiated Geek Squad from all other competitors:

At the crossroads of marketing and meaning

So where do these two concepts intersect for you? It lies in the fundamentals. Your business – let alone your category – would not exist if there were not a legitimate need for your product or service among some segment of the population. There is a community out there that is receptive to your message, that is waiting to be wowed with a newer, better way of doing things. Furthermore, your company would not be here today if at some time someone somewhere hadn’t felt passionately enough about whatever it is you do to risk everything to get that company off the ground. It’s time to reignite that passion and convey it in a way that inspires others. Make a conscious decision to be better, to be different. Resolve to enhance your usefulness; commit yourself to unrelenting innovation; make sure you are delivering a premium experience to your customer; then tell people about it in a genuine and compelling way. And that’s where you’ll need help. But you don’t need just any old traditional agency; you need a partner who shares your belief in what you have to offer and your passion for why you do what you do better than anyone else. You need experts that can show you how to communicate this to your audience in a real and honest way, using available technologies to build community among your customers and keep them actively engaged to the point where they include you as part of their identity. When you have something meaningful to say, and you say it with conviction, people will listen. No smoke and mirrors required.

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How to Pick a Fruitful Marketing Strategy: Three Juicy Takeaways from Walmart’s “Picked by Farmers" Campaign

Recently, Walmart has launched a series of video spots they call “Picked by Farmers, Guaranteed by Us,” featuring the farmers who grow and supply their produce. Each of these vignettes focuses on one individual farmer and one specific variety of fruit or vegetable. Additionally, each spot is centered around one of three themes: the personal story of the farmer and his experience working with Walmart (“Growers’ Stories”), helpful tips for how to select, store and prepare a particular type of produce (“Tips from the Farm”) or Walmart’s money-back guarantee. At first glance, these spots seem rather simplistic. There’s no trendy music, no rail-thin models indulging in the products, no Hollywood-worthy camera tricks or special effects. After all, we’re not selling iPads or BMWs here. But delve below the surface, and you’ll discover true marketing genius at work. Let’s look at the three core principles that make this campaign powerfully effective and how you can apply the same concepts to your own marketing strategy:

1. Serve before you sell.

Of course, these spots are designed to sell produce. As Walmart continues to take a bigger bite out of the grocery market with the aggressive expansion of its “Neighborhood Market” and “Walmart Express” concept stores throughout the country, they need to make sure that consumers think of them as their go-to destination not only for tires and diapers but also for tomatoes and dairy products. However, in the “Tips from the Farm” series, Walmart eschews using an overt sales message in favor of providing valuable, relevant information to their customers to help them make better buying decisions. For shoppers, there’s nothing more frustrating than spending their hard-earned dollars on fresh fruits and vegetables only to get home and find that their watermelon has no taste or their tomatoes have a mushy texture. With this understanding in mind, Walmart offers helpful tips on how to select, store and use these items to help their customers make the most of their grocery budgets (Don’t wash your strawberries until you’re ready to use them! Don’t put your tomatoes in the refrigerator! Pick an avocado with a firmness similar to the palm of your hand!). And who better to give this advice than the farmers who have dedicated their lives to understanding everything there is to know about these crops? To apply this principle to your own marketing strategy, think about your area of expertise and how you can put your inside knowledge to work to help your customers. For example, let’s say you own a home renovation business. Any homeowner who has undertaken a remodeling project knows how quickly all of the choices they must make can become overwhelming. Give these potential clients a hand by producing a series of videos that explain the advantages and disadvantages of different materials for countertops or flooring or showcase trends in lighting and other decorative fixtures. You’ll likely find that by dishing out a little free advice, you can earn major trust points with potential customers.

2. Be human.

One of the criticisms most often launched against Walmart is that it’s a big, unfeeling corporate giant with no face and no heart. But the Growers’ Stories spots show us that behind the Goliath, there are many Davids, and when we buy watermelons from Walmart, we’re actually buying them from third-generation farmer Jack Wallace in Edinburg, Texas. And we’re buying tomatoes from Scott Rush in Florida and strawberries from Mike Ferro in Oxnard, California. These are honest, hard-working Americans who care deeply about putting a quality product on your dinner table. The lesson here is this: Branding is important, always. But your company must be more than a brand. It must be human through and through. Whenever possible, you should remind your customers that they’re working with a team of people who are passionate about what they do, driven to exceed expectations and honestly apologetic if and when mistakes are made.

3. Counteract your brand’s vulnerabilities.

To sell anything – whether it’s a tomato or a tablet or a total kitchen remodel – you first must overcome the psychological objections of your customer. The current trend among foodies is the local food movement, which is focused on buying and using fresh, locally sourced ingredients. As cited previously, one of Walmart’s biggest branding challenges is their perception as the enemy of Main Street and the nemesis of the Mom-and-Pop. Therefore, Walmart is the antithesis of all things local, right? Not necessarily. As their Growers’ Story spot on tomatoes demonstrates, Walmart partners with small farmers around the country to distribute locally grown produce to nearby stores. And, in the end, if a customer is not satisfied with the quality of the produce, they can get their money back. The combined effect of these two messages is that Walmart has implicitly defended itself against a commonly held negative perception about its brand while negating any risk for customers in giving their products a try. What can you take away from this approach? Every brand has its weaknesses. While you don’t want to explicitly acknowledge these vulnerabilities, at every step along the way in the sales process, you should be aware of the red flags and concerns that might be giving your customer pause, and proactively counteract those inhibitions by providing  helpful (and true!) information that will help them make a confident buying decision.

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