CharlieMoger.com

This is appreciation? PROMO FAIL

ADM-BankFail2

Running errands Saturday morning, I saw this scene unfolding in a bank parking lot. Morbid curiosity got the best of me and we pulled in to get a closer look.

Customer Appreciation Day

There was no signage explaining what was going on (or inviting people to participate). So, I had to get out of the car and ask the lone employee manning the folding table what was going on.

“It’s customer appreciation day, would you please sign in?” he told me with well scripted enthusiasm. Sign in? To be appreciated?

ADM-BankFail1 I don’t think so. There was one kid jumping incessantly, a guy waiting to do chair massages, and a pop-up tent way on the other side of the parking lot with cold drinks, popcorn and lots of brochures about bank services–more chances to be appreciated, no doubt.

Appreciating customers is wise business practice. Doing it in a hot parking lot, disconnected from your branding message is beyond lame. It is, as my kids say, FAIL.

Appreciation is a practice, not an event

Customer appreciation isn’t something you do, it’s the way you are. How quickly do you respond? Do you get it right the first time? Are customer expectations exceeded, or merely satisfied?

ADM-BankFail3 This is a pass-fail test and your customer grades your work. Having to tell customers you appreciate them probably means you don’t understand what appreciation looks like to them. Tune into the customer’s felt need. Go beyond satisfaction regularly. Being thankful is so much better than just saying it.

A moonwalk in a bank parking lot doesn’t enrich my experience of the bank; there’s no benefit. They might as well have rented an inflatable pink gorilla instead and put it on the roof with a sign reading, “we want you to think we appreciate you.”

Everyday is customer appreciation day. Lose a few and you’ll find them even easier to appreciate.

By the way: I blotted out the bank’s name and faces of those involved in the promotion. I’m sure they’ll appreciate that.

Everybody’s gotta have a schtick

The kitchen door flew open with a smack. I bounded in, every watt of seventh grade enthusiasm burning bright. I couldn’t wait to tell mom my big news: I was signed up for the big annual talent show at school.

There was a catch: I had no demonstrable talent. Couldn’t dance. Didn’t have musical ability. Wasn’t athletic. What burned deep inside, though, was my 12-year old lifelong ambition of being a stand-up comedian.

Mom looked back at me with a veneer of loving support barely concealing her more seasoned sense of terror at what would happen when I stepped into the spotlight’s fire armed with nothing but jokes taken from the back of Boy’s Life.

“That’s terrific. What’s your gimmic?” she asked me. “Everybody’s gotta have a schtick, Charlie. What’s yours?”

Unbridled enthusiasm dragged me in a runaway gallop to my first lesson in marketing. Thankfully, the teacher was there. We worked for two weeks, amassing a five-minute set of jokes with a schtick I was born to wield.

momnme Today is Barbara Lane’s 76th birthday. That schtick thing is just one of many lessons about business, marketing and life she’s taught me along the way. Everyone should be so blessed to have someone like her standing just off stage.

The night of the talent show, I strode into the spotlight and stole show. My schtick? What else? Jokes about my mom, the woman with “so many candles on her cake it looked like a prairie fire.”

Happy birthday, mom. I can still hear your applause above all the rest.

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Ronald, The Jets, and The Sharks

BurgerRumble One side is right, one isn’t. Only, you’re not quite sure which is which. West Side Story was compelling because we could see both sides’ prejudices. The jets. The sharks. Both wrong. Both right. Just neither at the same time. There’s a three-way burger rumble shaping up between McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. Just like West Side Story, there are generous servings of right and wrong to go around.

The turf: Angus. Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s say McDonald’s crossed the line. McDonald’s, claims they’re just following their value proposition into Angus burgers.

Fight on your opponent’s terms and it’s an even bet you’ll lose. McDonald’s is doing what they do and they’re doing it big. Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, meanwhile, are being who they are–clever and snarky. All three are stepping out–though, only one of them has the guns to pull it off.

Since McDonald’s rolled out their Angus burgers, sales at the Golden Arches are up 2.6% in July, according to The Wall Street Journal. Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, both owned by CKE, report sales are off 3.65% in the four weeks ending August 10th. Up is good. Down is bad. But, is this sales differential a matter of Angus?

BigMac McDonald’s Big Angus burger is $3.99. You’ll pay $3.49-3.99 at Hardee’s and Carl’s for their 1/3 pound of Angus. CKE sees, in this moment of price parity, a chance to take a bite out of McDonald’s value provider perception. There’s a problem: McDonald’s owns “value” in the minds of customers like hot owns ouch. Looks like CKE is coming to this gun fight with a butter knife.

Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. aren’t content to just fight it out for Angus. They’re taking direct aim at McDonald’s signature product, offering a cash rebate: Try a Big Mac. If you like it better than the new “Big Carl,” CKE will pay you. Compare the Big Mac? Good luck with that. Better still, ask Pepsi about taste challenges. Ronald’s packing the heat of emotional connection; we all have car loads of family memories under his Golden Arches.

Challenging a competitor’s long-held perceptual ground by inviting your customers sample them is more foolish than gutsy. Chances are, you’ll only further entrench the competitor’s position and weaken your own. Worse still, it’s nya-nya thumb-sucking; unless you send the other guy home in a bag, you’ll sound petty and small. Ronald continues standing tall.

McDonald’s banner billows atop value mountain. CKE, meanwhile, is equally secure atop big burger mountain–it’s really more of a hill. So, what’s CKE doing? Coming off their hill to wage an up-hill attack on McD’s mountain.

CKE probably isn’t fighting to win, but instead Marketing Outrageously to “draft” McDonald’s; gaining sales as a result of marketing lift from their bodacious attack. More likely, the draft benefit will ultimately go to McDonald’s by virtue of girth. As a result, what CKE is really tagging is niche turf.

West Side Story’s turf battle ends with one hero laying dead on the playground, others standing in humbled silence. Both sides loose. This Angus rumble won’t wind up in a mortal climax, but it will leave two of the three players bloodied for no lasting gain. I’m betting Ronald won’t be one of them. He’s got a rocket in his pocket.

2020 mobile advertising prognostications

What will mobile advertising look like in 2020? A new report from OgilvyOne and messaging company Acision predicts mobile advertising in 11 years will be far more personalized as users exercise control over the types of messages they see, and when, on their handheld devices. Read more at Online Media Daily.