Barry Feig's Hot Button Marketing Blog

Do I have a New Fan Who Happens to be President Elect?

I won't say who I voted for, but Donald Trump proved the effectiveness of my book, Hot Button Marketing. Here's how he used the principles and insights of Hot Button Marketing, the Revised Edition. I can't say if he read it, but I receive many calls from politicians who read my books. 

If you have read my books, you know that President elect Trump selected my #1 Hot Button, based on years of interviewing consumers. 

That Hot Button is Control. But what is control. Take away control and what do you get? Fear. And President elect Trump preyed on our fears.

Based on almost a thousand interviews around the world, most people think their lives are out of control. They feel they are one step away from the soup line. That's a real fear. They may have had jobs, but they have little control over being hired or fired and losing heath care. Because of this, they have little confidence over their finances and health.

People don't feel that that they have control of their and their family's destiny. They are living paycheck to paycheck, thanks to what they consider poor minorities and minorities in general taking money from them. Many are aggressively anti minority because they don't have any control over these minorities. Yes, they are afraid of them.

They feel that Trump, via his toughness and brand can put their world back together. Yes, a great many people may have called him the Anti Christ, but voters saw him as the anti Clinton, the anti establishment. The way to a true rebirth. 

So what is control? Control is reassurance. Control is the absence of change. Change is exciting when initiated by us. Threatening when done to us

Successful change and innovation is how well the new product (Trump, the brand) conforms to current consumer mindsets. To say our mindsets are in an upset state is to say it mildly. Trump hit that big time. Trump’s control was reassurance for consumer mindsets. He knew and blasted away at how well his brand conforms to current consumer mind. 

He knew he had to sell his brand the way consumer WANTED it to be sold

He was right.

Barry

(To see more on Hot Button Marketing, click the link below)

https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Button-Marketing-Emotional-Buttons-ebook/dp/B00YQLZM8O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478728888&sr=8-1&keywords=barry+Feig

Getting around twisty curves and making money.

The path to engineering a successful product or advertising campaign is rarely a linear affair. Like a movie, it is a series of evolving, sequential events that build upon each other. It is a winding road, full of twists, sharp turns, bumps and potential roadblocks. Since each twist in one department impacts another, inelastic approaches to product achievement that preempt change usually lead to less than optimum finalities.

The job of the product developer is to manage evolution and change, almost planning for a chaotic
environment.

It's also important to win the hearts and minds of top management. And the surest way to do that is to create products that are in-sync and furthers the company's current equities, which may change every week.

My next post is how to make the most of that fragile momentwhen a manager first plots a new product development and turns it into reality.

 

Supersales Me! What you may not see can create major business.

The most important part of sales and new product development is something you can't see, you can't feel and you can't taste. You can't even factor it in a spread sheet -- buyer perception of your product. It's about how your product relates to his or her lifestyle and self image.

This all-important product attribute is the one you can't photograph but can control. The way you want your product to be perceived by the buyer should be determined while the product and sales plan is in the developmental stages, not after. In fact, when you change your basic product positioning strategy, you are essentially creating a new product in the consumer mind.

One of the reasons most product work goes awry is because marketers try to separate the perception from the reality of the product features in the testing stages. To consumers they are one and the same. The perception is the reality. If consumers feel that the product tastes or performs differently to them, then it DOES taste differently. It DOES  perform differently. We can put a taste in the consumer's mouth and a glow on his or her face just as surely as we can attach a label to a bottle.

Despite what a great deal of research suggests, consumers want to believe your new product works. Give them a basis for believing.  This can be a sensual tie-in, something they can see, smell, feel or hear.  Give them the excitement of discovery. Show them something they can show-off to theirfriends.  They want to think your product will help them do something a little bit faster, better or cheaper than they could do it before.  They want to believe that your new frozen dinner will rival a restaurant meal even if, intellectually, they know that it won't.

Even an apparent consumer negative can be turned into a positive when we create a positive fantasy around it. Lightly flavored seltzers have been around since the sixties. Smart marketers learned how to position their product as a clean, upscale and natural alternative to sugarladen sodas. Same product, but it was the altering of consumer perceptions of what is refreshing that made it work  in the marketplace.

The closer, physically, your product is to the competition, the more you have to play these "head games" with the consumer by creating a perceptual point of difference in the consumer's mind. 

Here are some perceptual head-starts to get a jump on the competition.

THE EXCITEMENT OF DISCOVERY:  Add the element of serendipity to the consumer's life. Allow consumers to feel they've discovered something in the supermarket.  Cook up new uses for your product. Avon's Skin So Soft has evolved from a so-so moisturizer to a bug deterrent. So much for analytical studies into definitive consumer behavior.

Come back for another hot button in the next two weeks, or buy the revised Kindle book "Hot Button Marketing" by clicking on it.

 

Stupid Marketing Trick for the Weekend

Actual Subject Line of of an e-mail I received:

"Save thousands with unnecessary auto repairs."

Yeah, I guess that's much better than paying for repairs you really need.

STUPID MARKETING TRICKS (and some smart ones too).

Please submit your stupid marketing tricks to me for publication.

Okay, we're going to change the direction of this blog. Here I am waiting for my plane which is now delayed for the fifth time.

Perfect time to write a blog.

It is now 10 hours since my flight was supposed to leave. I just got back from giving a speech in China. The entire flight took 11 hours. But this is from Newark to New Mexico. Four hours, but really 10. Anyway, I'm reading the papers. looking for an available outlet for my computer and I realize that marketers do some really stupid things. For instance, the lady across from me has a Cingular phone. Only Cingular used to be AT&T before AT&T became Lucent and changed back to AT&T. So now Cingular is AT&T. Again. Bestill my beating heart, especially since my Dad has no idea who he has a contract with.

And then, of course, Sprint made the front pages by firing its customers. Really... if they complained too much, Sprint sent their noisiest customers notes saying. "we don't want your business" But did they get penalized for breaking the contracts too early,  like us commoners? Of course not. I gave up my first- born to sever my contract with a cellular "provider."  I gave up on Sprint a long ago, when I wanted a new phone. They said, "No you're too good a customer, you don't get one." Oh.

As I have often stated, The emotional appeal is where the money is. Hot button marketing is marketing to an emotional need. Let’s take water. People are going to bars and ordering Evian on the rocks. The rocks of course are made with tapwater. And did you know that Evian spelled backwards is Naïve.  One of the more popular waters is Aquafina. Do you know where it is bottled? At your local reservoir. So is Dasani, from the people who bottle the sugar water known as Coca Cola. Both speak about their amazing filtering processes that leach out bad tasting, (implied) bad for-you-minerals. But Dasani brags that they add minerals to make water taste to taste something like ... well...water.

Haagen Dazs is made in Hoboken, NJ. Do you know why it is called Haagen Dazs. Because it sounds nice. That's a good marketing trick. If they called their ice cream Hoboken's Best, that would be bad.

Just one more marketing trick. We have love affairs with our sports teams. We wear their jerseys and root for transient millionaires who don't give a damn about us. But we spend big money to wear their tee shirts. We don't root for a team as much as we root for a logo.

As Seinfield said...we're cheering laundry.

Please submit your favorite Stupid Marketing Tricks.

Next piece: American Airlines.

Become a Hot Button Marketer

If you are an advertising agency or marketing consultant, please e-mail me for what you need to be a "Hot Button Marketing Firm" with a "Certified Endorsement." Companies will pay you for your agency pitch. Otherwise, please enjoy this blog.

The Secret to New Product Success Revealed!

The Five Minute Guide to New Product Success

New product development and brand positioning doesn't have to be a slow tedious process like in most companies. It should be exciting and vibrant as you search for new ways to
develop business opportunities and new strategies to open up the consumer's skeptical heart.

One of the reasons the process takes so long and is fraught with failure is that companies come up with a product they can make and try to sell it to someone. That's backwards.

The best way is to find what people want to buy and thenmake it for them. There are many situations where a company needs to develop new products to keep machinery moving or to rid a company of surplus products. Perhaps you want to develop a flanking brand or enter a new category. These can -- and should be -- consumer driven too.

Whatever the reason for your new product hunt, your job is to create something that people want to buy. Here's how to do it. Quickly and efficiently.

Create a an inventory of hypothetical product ideas and possible product positionings. This is not that hard, even for left brained  people. As a marketer -- especially if you're a new products marketer -- you think of ideas all the time. Your mind is always on overdrive. Just allow your mind to relax and keep a note pad with you. You can even set up a brainstorming session with your people.

The strongest ideas -- a judgment call at first -- should be developed  into actual full color ads. (Don't go to your advertising agency for this -- they never do it right and it's too expensive....you can e-mail me to do it...hint hint.) You now have the backbone of your new product development plan in place. Pretty quick, isn't it?

Take these out to a local mall that has a consumer research facility. Have the staff buttonhole consumers and show them the concepts. Never allow respondents to read the concepts -- a great many people are embarrassed over their reading ability and many won't be able to comprehend the message. Instead, read them aloud as you show your concepts. Watch for your respondent's reactions. I'm not going to denigrate your intelligence by furnishing you with questions to ask. Your naturally marketing savvy should take care of that. The main
purpose of the mall intercepts is to get red flags about your concepts so you can change them accordingly.

Once you've made your changes, take your ads out to interactive groups(focus groups) in whatever market you're selling in. Yes, I know, I often say that focus groups are the most misused research tool in marketing today and I'm not going to take that back. But your goal is going to be different than in most groups. You're not going to ask consumers what they
want. You're going to show them what you can make. You're going to makeyour respondents react to your concepts. Each group should be a microcosm of the shopping experience.

After these groups, lick your wounds and modify your concepts. Throw out the bombs. Modify the ones that received lukewarm interest. Add new concepts based entirely on the reactions from he first group.

Then show them to new groups of consumers in a different area of the country(wherever you hope to sell your product).

Revise the inventory.

Show the revised concepts again. If your concepts were good you'll have awinner.

Guaranteed.

Here's how the whole workflow process for a typical (and almost always successful) new product works. Note that everything can be condensed into a much more concentrated time frame depending on your needs and goals.

FIRST WAVE: BROAD OPPORTUNITY ASSESSMENT

Initial concept development and ideation. One-on-one interviews, two focus groups. OBJECTIVE: Identify broadscale areas that have potential

Week 1: Start-up meeting, business recap, ideation

Week 2 : Creative review.

Week 3: Advertising concepts completed.

Week 4: CONSUMER REACTION

One-on-one interviews to eliminate red flags and get a preliminary reading of market and assessment of concepts.

After consumer reaction, refine concepts.

CONSUMER REACTION

Week 5: Review findings;

Begin refinement of probes in selected opportunity area; delete and add to inventory. Discuss areas to pursue, areas to stay away from.

SECOND WAVE: CREATIVE AND PRODUCT REEVALUATION

OBJECTIVE: Identify broadscale areas that have potential. Expand on areas that have merit. Further define areas of opportunity.

Week 6: Review of new and revised probes.

Week 7: CONSUMER REACTION

Week 8 : MID-PROJECT REVIEW

Review all concepts that received negative reaction as well as positive reaction. Work with R & D to fulfill successful products/concepts.

Week 9: Modify concepts, add to inventory if needed.

THIRD WAVE: ADDITIONAL CREATIVE MODIFICATION,EVALUATION AND REFINEMENT

OBJECTIVE: Continue evolutionary process, identify hot and cold areas. Zero in on strongest concepts.

WEEK 10: CONSUMER REACTION

Optimization of strongest concepts. Consumers can compare tangible aspects of products, packaging and positioning for concept fulfillment.

FOURTH WAVE (FINAL): CONCEPT VERIFICATION

OBJECTIVE: Verify and optimize all products/positionings, names, products,communications impact and key sensory performance characteristics. Fine tune all work to answer any questions concerning products strengths and positioning. the specific consumer hot buttons and target market. Optimize concepts and purchase triggers. Develop broad scale user profiles and define strength of market.

WEEK 12: CONSUMER REACTION

The results? You're Ready to execute the strategy and product or place the products and concepts into quantitative tests. You now have products, positioning, key product benefits,consumer purchase stimuli needed, target market definition, key communications.

And five minutes is all this article took you to read.

COMING SOON; MY FREE E-BOOK ON NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND BRAND POSITIONINGS. PLEASE E-MAIL ME AT [email protected] FOR A COPY.