Tennis is dead.  No one cares about it anymore.  That’s what ESPN columnist, Bill Simmons, opined on June 16th, just before the start of this year’s Wimbledon. “If I guaranteed you that the 2008 Wimbledon men’s final would be the best match of the past 20 years would you watch it?”

I love it when über-confident journalists make fools of themselves.

Ratings for Sunday morning’s match reached all time highs or shot dramatically up in the U.S., England, Spain and Switzerland.  Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer thrilled the audience with what’s being called the best Wimbledon final of all time.  I’ve never seen miraculous shots, comebacks, near injury & heart displayed so consistently by both players.

How can a company position itself to survive disaster and then capitalize when the good stuff finally happens?  How does a sport like tennis keep its pulse going when the Bill Simmonses of the world declare it dead? How does a booming business keep its sight set on the message that really connects them to their customers before they end up on a journey to the land of lean?

Lean years arrive no matter how carefully we plan.  Harley Davidson, major-league baseball, Kodak, McDonald’s, Starbucks, the NBA; they’ve all choked on hard times and bad decisions.  Our knee-jerk, shock value media culture frenzies around the blood in the water, hoping to be the first to predict the future.  Only the future continually resists our straining efforts to predict it.

For all of the stupid suggestions he made to revive tennis (make it louder, sexier, and shorter, for our diminutive attention spans), the enduring message that has sold tennis for over a century slipped right through his fingers.  For one player “to dominate, it’s completely conceivable. And boring.” “We’ll never see anything like Borg-McEnroe again.”

Tennis has always needed at least two athletes so masterful, no one could predict the outcome, and the match between them was guaranteed to cause eyes to dart back and forth across the tv screen for hours.  In the 70’s and 80’s it was Borg – McEnroe – Connors.  The 90’s didn’t have quite the rivalry, but Nike got their advertising right when they had Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi playing impromptu tennis in the streets of New York.  And it just turns out that both Nadal and Federer wear their shoes, so hmmm…

In the meantime, tennis pros continue giving lessons to kids.  Junior tennis competitions stoke the rivalries of the future.  Tennis tournaments keep negotiating television contracts and corporate sponsorships to ensure that the tradition of their sport continues.  They eagerly wait to capitalize on the arrival of the next Williams’ sisters, Chris Evert – Martina Navratilova, Magic Johnson – Larry Bird (oops, sorry, wrong sport). 

Later this weekend I watched the U.S. Olympic trials and marveled as athletes qualified, others faltered, and unexpected heroes emerged to pursue their dreams in Beijing.  Suddenly a women’s hurdler came from nowhere to annihilate the 100m hurdles field and qualify after never having won an event as a junior.  As if primed for her next business seminar she reflected on her long, unlikely journey, “Winning all the time is not important.  It’s staying in the game.”  I hope tennis ...and Bill Simmons were paying attention.

Read About Peter Nevland

While until recently most full-length features by name directors posted to YouTube haven't exactly been legit, this new section of the site is a sanctioned showcase dedicated to airing films by top indie filmmakers from around the globe. Many of the films have been shown at international film festivals, while others will be receiving their world debut. Every Friday, four new films are posted.

Current offerings include the Miranda July short Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody? and The Danish Poet, which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Next time someone sends you a video of a dancing monkey/laughing baby, hit delete and watch one of these instead.

(from trendcentral)

Read About Ray Seggern

With a growing rate of 50%, the online advertising market in Spain, matches Italy, on being one of the most, fastest growing markets in Europe. The other online markets in UK, Germany and France have grown 38% in 2007.

The investments in search engines and graphic advertising in the first three countries mentioned are close to €4,090 Million 2006 to €5,700 Million in 2007, according to Ad Ex Report, presented by IAB Europe and PwC in Interact Congress.

Spain has 4.5% share of the market, just above Greece (1.5%). Above Spain are Austria (5.2%) Italy (6.7%), Finland (7.5%) France (8.8%), Belgium (9.1%) Poland (10%), Germany (11.6%), Sweden (13.3%), Denmark (14.3%), UK (15.3%), Norwegian (15.6%) and the Low Countries (18.5%)
 

Read About Luis Lopez

What's the biggest mistake businesses make in their advertising?
They don't live up to their promises. The customer comes in with expectations set by the ads, and leaves disappointed. Not only did the advertiser waste his money, he's actually damaged his image in the minds of people who are now much less likely to become customers.  No amount of advertising will overcome a bad customer experience.

What's the biggest contribution to bad customer experiences?
Bad customer service. The question most companies fail to address is, “How do you assure a consistent level of service?” So-called excellent customer service is dependent upon the mood and attitude of whoever is on the sales floor on a given day. The challenge is in replicating the highest level of service every day. How can you make that repeatable and teachable?
The sad part is that most companies believe they are doing the things they're promising. They really do believe that they have “the best service in town.” If they could only see through the customer's eyes, they’d realize it simply isn’t true.

What's the solution?
Manage the buying environment – the world inside your doors. Create an experience so compelling that the customer doesn't even notice the service. Start by creating distractions to keep the customer entertained and engaged. Most customers don’t mind waiting when they perceive the wait as part of the experience. Keep in mind that anyone below the age of thirty grew up in a multimedia world. Can you use flat screen monitors to display an entertainment loop? Do you have old photographs of the early days of your company or your community? Control the sensory conditions of your environment. What can you do to involve all of the customers' senses? Does your store smell fresh – or funny? What’s the sound of your business? Loud and chaotic, or tranquil and soothing. Either is okay, as long as it’s intended to fit the temperament of your customers. The right selection of music can set a particular mood. A random selection can set your customer’s teeth on edge.

Big companies have an advantage, don't they?
No. Most big companies are slow and unwieldy. It’s difficult for them to change quickly in response to sudden shifts in the business landscape. And when they do decide to make a change, typically all of the locations have to go along, for the sake of conformity. On a local level, this makes them vulnerable to a more nimble small business owner who can humanize and personalize the buying experience to suit the customers in the area.

How much of this is in your new book?
All of it and then some. But, I decided to do something new and different from my other books. Rather than putting together a bunch of essay type chapters, I wrote a business fable, similar to “The One Minute Manager” and “Fish!” It’s a story about a failing family-owned business struggling to survive in the shadow of a big-box retailer. By the end of the book, the reader has learned methods for managing the customer experience that are adaptable to any business.

What will people take away from How To Fight The Big Boys And Win?
Specifically, three things: First of all, they’ll gain a clear understanding of the “Personal Experience Factor” –the PEF - and how it applies in their businesses. Secondly, they’ll be shown three ways to trigger positive word-of-mouth. Third, I’ll share multiple low-cost examples of ways to improve the PEF that they can apply to their own businesses when they return home.
 

Read About Ray Seggern

Three, to be exact.  

Chapters 44, 58, and 59 in Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads discuss in great detail what it takes to create an effective long-term branding campaign on radio and/or TV.

In essence, sleep is the great eraser of memory – in order for yours to be the business that customers think of first and foremost when needing your product or service, they must come in contact with your ad approximately three times per week.  In the advertising business, it’s called a “Frequency” of 3.

As a Wizard of Ads partner, I work day-in and day-out using this rule with my own clients, to great success.  Yet it was only recently that I became the puppet rather than the puppeteer:

In the last ten years, the population of greater metropolitan Phoenix (AZ) has grown from 1.3 million to 3.8 million.  There are literally thousands of realtors, but only one who has had the smarts to make a valley-wide impact.

As an independent realtor, Russell Shaw started advertising approximately five years ago with what had to have been the most miniscule of budgets.  Instead of pouring his money into newspaper advertising (the traditional media of realtors nationwide), he chose television, which can be expensive.  But Russell was smart.  He figured out that the best use of his budget was to buy one ad per night during the 5 o’clock news hour.  Every single night, that one ad would air at the same time.  And since folks tend to have a favorite local news network, he was repeatedly planting that seed in the same minds.

The message in Russell’s ads is acceptable; Russell himself is annoying.  I’m talking a syrupy delivery with a nasal voice quality that has caused me to dash for the remote more times than I can count.  I can hurry all I want to and switch channels, but guess what?  Over the last five years, Russell has slowly re-invested his profit into buying the same ad on all the other networks.  Apparently I can run, but I can’t hide.  I’ve come to hate the Russell Shaw ads.

So the other day I was talking with a friend who’s thinking of moving to Phoenix.  At one point during the conversation she said, “What I really need is a good realtor.”

My response?  “Well, there’s Russell Shaw…”

Hoisted on my own petard.

Points to remember:

1.  Buy smart advertising that will get you the most Frequency.  Even if all you can afford is a monthly postcard, make the message smart and keep sending the regular postcard out to the same group of people.  Embed your message into their brain then wait for their moment of need.

2.  Re-invest your growing revenue into an expansion of advertising.  If you’ve achieved maximum impact with your current mode of advertising, don’t abandon it – add on to it.  Russell Shaw is the perfect example of giving a small ad budget the power of a jackhammer.

3.  If people think your ads are annoying, that’s not a bad thing.  If you get calls and emails saying that your ad is annoying (ads in poor taste are another matter altogether), it means you’re making an impact.  And that ain’t bad.  Would you rather have an ad that leaves people remembering who you are and what you do, or a middle-of-the-road ad that the brain ignores altogether?  I’ll take annoying any day.

When you have advertising constraints, go for Frequency – done right, it hits the mark every time.

Read About Michele Miller

You recently became a Wizard of Ads Partner after 6 years of performing around the world, how is it going?
Actually, Ray, I’m surprised at how easy the transition has been.  Working with clients to grow their businesses is a lot like the time I’ve spent on the road finding ways to connect with concert audiences and inspire kids in my writing workshops.  I try to find out what it is that business owners really care about and show them how to communicate that to their potential customers. 

That doesn’t sound like the answer of a wild and untamed performance poet…
Thanks, I think. I was an engineer at Motorola before I started touring and performing my writing for a living.  So it’s not like I don’t know how to be logical, organized and on topic.  You’d be surprised at the lessons you can learn from most successful performers, or at least, their managers.

So what kind of secrets are you going to share with people in Nashville?
That it’s foolhardy to instantly dismiss all of the crazy, little ideas that come into your head to pursue.  Companies have made and lost fortunes as a result of doing things outside the box.  I’m going to tell people how to access those ideas and when they shouldn’t pursue them.  It’s not like they’re all good.

And are you going to be throwing in any of your “Spoken Groove” as a performance?
I bet I can find a piece or two that fit and help spice things up.  Plus, I’m going to be introducing all the speakers, so I’ll have to find a way to make that interesting as well.

So you’re not going to be confined to just your speaking time?
Outside the box, baby, outside the box.  Did you think this was supposed to be a typical, boring seminar? 

Read About Ray Seggern

You've been called a dangerous strategist. Why is that?
Most marketing consultants start with the way things are, and try to find an appropriate message. Very often I'll recommend a slight alteration in the function of the business, perhaps in the way they interact with customers, and advertise that. We call it business topology – applying the techniques of one industry to another non-related industry. Sometimes these ideas are considered radical or edgy.  If it scares you, imagine what it's going to do to your competator.  Those ideas can get you a bit of a reputation.  I try to come up with ideas that change the business landscape...changing the color of your business card won't do that. 

And yet, your messaging is highly memorable.
Ask people, "What makes you most angry about this business category? Really? Would you be interested in learning about a company that doesn't do that?"  Alter your business slightly to offer a solution. When you say “We don't do that thing you hate,” it's much easier to get attention. Those 50-foot inflatable gorillas are desperate attempts to get attention by people who have nothing to say.

So, in effect, you take the competitor's behavior into your strategy?
Of course. No business operates in a vacuum If you change something about your business, make it diametrically opposed to your competitor's core business to keep him from making the same change. If a competitor is “the home of the six dollar haircut,” my client becomes the place which "fixes six dollar haircuts."

Your topic for the Boom Your Business seminar is "The Pendulum." What's that?
It's a presentation that Roy Williams developed from Strauss and Howe's book, Generations. The Pendulum describes predictable social changes. Its use goes far beyond marketing. Its fun information about the way we all look at the world.  If you know what you're looking for, you'll begin to see the patterns in human behavior. I love that “Ah HA” moment when the patterns become obvious.

Everybody thinks they have a book in them. Do you?
Yes, and my book on marketing strategy is actually working it's way out. I'm in the process of editing the rough draft, and hope to have it completed later this fall.
 

Read About Ray Seggern

I was invited to give an "after dinner speech" at the Camden Tennessee Chamber of Commerce. As usual I opened with a couple of funny stories then began my speech from my book How to Get Big Results From a Small Ad Budget.  I opened with the story below, and It got a big laugh, which helped me get off to a very good start.

A man and his wife were going to spend a week in Florida. The only problem was their schedules caused them to take different flights. The man ended up in Florida one day before his wife. He gets checked in and goes to his room to find that the have a computer and Internet. He types an email to his wife but mistakenly sends it to someone else just by typing 1 letter wrong.

A lady in Houston Texas just got back from her husband's funeral. She pulls up her email expecting emails from loved ones. She screams at the one:

Subject: To my dearest wife.

Hello. I know you did not expect to hear from me but they have computers here to send emails to love ones. I'm all checked in and everything. I'm looking forward to your arrival tomorrow.

PS. it's FREAKING hot down here!!!


 I had three points, and this was my intro:

"I wrote an ASB article titled, "Are We Headed For Stagflation?" In it I said:

The small business owner must do some things they don't want to do to cope with these difficult times coming.

1. One thing that we can do is: make more $'s than we spend. 

2. Build better relationships with customers.
 
3. The small business owner can't do anything much about world events but there is something he/she can do. Every week for 3-5 hours take off your running the business hat and put on your marketing the business hat".

Michele Miller, co-author of The Soccer Mom Myth and Marketing to Women, and a brilliant Wizard of Ads Partner, wrote me and said, “It's an excellent article, Clay!  One thing I think you could do to parlay that article out, is to take each of the 3 points you make and write an article on that point alone."

I did, and it became three chapters in my book.

An unexpected thing happened in Camden Tennessee though. This next part I meant to be serious, but the audience started chuckiling then laughing, then the roared when I finished. I said, "Boy, I must have hit a nerve here."  I am thankful to the business owners in Camden Tennessee as they helped me to find some humor in a serious situation.

The point I was making was about better customer relationships. Here is what I said:

"Things to do to build Better Customer Relationships:


1.    Send a nice hand-written thank you note. Nothing beats this for building better customer relationships.

2.    Sit down with a pencil and paper and think of five of your favorite businesses. The ones you just love to buy from. Next try to analyze what is you like about that place. Next, figure a way to treat your customers like that! It sounds corny but "do unto others like you would want them to do to you".

3.    Remember their name and that of their family members if possible.

4.    Have a database that includes their birthday. Send them a happy birthday card.

NEXT is the part where they laughed:

5.    Always speak in a positive way about positive things when in polite conversation with your customers.

Leave out the bad economy, employees that don't do a good job. How hard it is to find good help.
The high price of gas. Your divorce, your bankruptcy, your kids on drugs, the employee you fired for stealing, your pastor that was having an affair with the church secretary, and the high taxes you must pay.

I concluded with:

My Dad always said, Boy, "If you ain't got nothin' good to say about somethin' then keep you mouth shut."

I believe good humor always has a ring of truth to it.

Whether you think it's funny or very serious; it's true.



 

Read About Clay Campbell