CharlieMoger.com

Marketing and advertising advice for owner-operated businesses

Supermarket Hostages

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Being handcuffed to a shopping cart isn’t the best way to build trust. But, that’s how customers feel about so-called supermarket loyal shopper cards. That’s because the premise of the cards violates a basic principal of attraction marketing.

Two-thirds of a typical supermarket’s business is done by 20% of its customers, according to the Food Marketing Institute. In the years since loyalty cards first premiered in 1979, that ratio has stayed about the same. Retailers’ intention of building more volume from more customers has resulted in just getting roughly the same volume from the same customers at a discount–to the retailer.Continue Reading

Stronger than dirt

3485364Cresting the peak of Mt. Madison, part of New Hampshire’s Presidential Range, I discovered a timeless truth: climbing one mountain reveals  the next one. This truth applies equally to web development: mastering one technology reveals the next to be learned.

Ajax is the next mountain in web development. Remember the internet before Flash? Quicktime? Ajax promises another leap forward, delivering a more dynamic web experience. When that promise is fulfilled, what we see today will seem as clunky as your first 300 baud modem.Continue Reading

Wider Web Watching

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My 13 year-old son burst from boy’s sizes to men’s in one summer. In the blink of an eye he sprout like  prize-winning produce at the county fair. Online video consumption experienced that kind of growth spurt in the last year. The kind of video being consumed is provides a clue on how you can tap the power in this trend.

Eighty-four percent of consumers surveyed recently by Advertising.com said their viewing of online video in the last year either increased or stayed the same. The survey reported the most viewed category was news clips (49%) followed by music videos (47%) and movie trailers (33%). TV programming and user-generated video accounted for 26% and 21% respectively.

Before you can influence consumers, you have to get their attention. Attracting that attention boils down to saying something interesting to THEM. News clips were the top viewed category because we feel connected to news. Meanwhile, network television programs ported to the web only edged out user-generated video by 5%.

Get the point?

Your customers want it real and it better really relate to them. Lucky for you, getting video online is easier than ever. With a meager investment, you can establish relationship with customers face-to-face.
Yes, production values are a factor–but not the most important factor.

Good now beats perfect later.

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Foundational Truths

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"But most important of all, the truth, that dangerous stuff,
became beautiful and more precious."     —John Steinbeck

If you and I are going to build a relationship, you should know where I’m coming from. We all have guiding principals, foundational truths. These are mine:

Before you can influence, you have to attract. To attract you have to offer something of genuine value to the recipient. Continued attraction is a measure of value-transfer. Value-transfer happens when your message gives the recipient something relevant, prompting them to ask:

Can I use this?
Does this seem genuine? Real?
Can I do it? Have it? Be it?

Yesses make deposits in the first bank of TRUST. Trust diminishes resistance. Influencing behavior has less to do with persuasion than overcoming an innate resistance to taking action. Action leads to conversion.

These truths are the foundation of MogerMedia’s creative messaging philosophy. I don’t need to work hard looking for examples of these principals at work; they pop up unprompted often enough. I focus instead on understanding application of these principles and bridging the gap between you and the consumer.

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