Month: February 2018

How 20 Boys Picked the Poorest Sledding Hill

Twenty boys on a winter campout were given three sledding hill options. The camp director told them they could sled on 1. the road by the cabins, 2. the road above the cabins, 3. if they wanted to hike up the hill they could sled on… (dramatic pause) “HAMMERHEAD”. Given the three options, there was only one obvious choice for the boys.

As we marched to Hammerhead we passed the other two sledding roads. Both were much longer, fairly steep and had ample opportunities to build jumps and other challenges. “Hammerhead” was steep but short, with a narrow path so only one boy at a time could sled—in my mind, a lesser option.

If the sledding roads had names like “Annihilation Blizzard”, “Nightmare Tornado” or “Triple Avalanche” I guarantee they’d have a line of boys a mile long to ride them. Instead, they chose a lesser product.

Naming your product may seem like it’s just a creative activity. In reality there needs to be some “science” behind it, as well as a bit of good judgment.

To properly name your product or service you need to understand your buyer. A teenage boy will most likely relate to adventure, danger, and excitement. But is that what his mom wants? Nope. She want a sledding hill named, “Safety Zone”, “Slo-Mo”, or “Momma’s Boy”. Who are you targeting: the boy or the mom or both? Creating a persona will help you understand your buyer and your consumer and what they prefer. Here’s a great model I recommend from  UXPressia.com.

Once you understand your target audience everything you do will be better, not just naming your product, but creating your value proposition, packaging, messaging and all other components of your marketing. It’s not an easy task yet if you put in the time you will find immense benefits that will last a lot longer than a ride down Hammerhead.

Think: Talk with two friends about products they use and what they think of the name.

Thought: “Your parents name you, but they haven’t a clue who you are. Your friends nickname you because they know exactly who you are. You can be born Elvis Presley. But Reg Dwight is not going to make it unless he has this ritual where he becomes Elton John.” —Sting (aka Gordon Sumner)

(NOTE: I’ve discussed naming issues before in this blog as they relate to how NOAA names hurricanes.)

 

 

 

Why did she buy the shower cleaner? The reason may surprise you.

Recently, when conducting research on why people purchased a specific brand of shower cleaner I was shocked at one of the responses from a member of the focus group.

Did she buy it because of the brand name? Did she buy it because the label said “Heavy Duty”? Did she buy it because a friend recommended it?

No, no and no.

She bought it because of something a marketer probably didn’t think of—she wanted a product to use while she’s standing in the shower taking a shower. When I pressed on this question she said, “I’m a busy mom, and my time is precious. If those scrubbing bubbles will clean the shower while I’m washing my hair, I’ll do it.”

I recently read a book by Harvard Business Professor, Clayton Christensen, entitled,  Competing Against Luck, The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice. (Buy it and devour it because it will forever change the way to think about marketing.) FranklinCovey has taken it one step further and created a workshop based on Clayton Christensen’s theories called, Find Out Why. One of the core  premises of the book is that your product development team may be creating products that don’t match the need of the consumer. As a result, your marketing team is promoting the product incorrectly. To find the real reason people like and use your product, you need to interview them and dive deep into why they chose your product over another solution.

The woman from the focus group could’ve used any number of solutions to solve her circumstance of, “I’m a busy mom and need to clean my shower,” including hiring a cleaning service. But her financial situation may not allow her the luxury to do that. Instead, she improvised on something that met her need.

With this information in hand, should someone create a shower cleaner that is designed for this specific purpose? Perhaps create a non-toxic version of the product and market it as such? (I have to admit that I was concerned about the toxicity of the product when I heard her talking.) Regardless, there’s a market for this solution. Don’t believe me? Check these out these posts:

Exhibit A: “Cleaning the shower while taking a shower.” 

Exhibit B: “Cleaning the shower while in it and naked.”

Exhibit C: “What is the easiest way to clean a shower?”

Think: What problem do your clients have and what “work-around” have they discovered? How can you build and market a solution to meet these needs?

Thought: “Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turn into an innovation.”—Dean Kamen

 

Will lemon juice make you invisible?

In 1995 a very mistaken man named McArthur Wheeler thought that if he wiped lemon juice on his face it would make him invisible, after all it is considered invisible ink, right? And logic would suggest that invisible ink would make anything invisible, right?

Wrong. Very, very wrong.

With his lemon juice mask he robbed two banks in Pittsburgh, was quickly identified on security cameras, tracked down, and booked into jail.

The stupidity of this can be explained by something called the Dunning-Kruger effect where people judge themselves as knowing more or being better than they really are.

 

This became very obvious last weekend while skiing with my 14-year old son. I’ve always had a perception that I was a pretty good skier until he said we should try a double-black diamond that I’d never attempted. (For those of you unfamiliar with how ski runs are ranked, “Green Circle” for easiest, “Blue Square” for intermediate, “Black Diamond” for advanced, and “Double-black Diamond” for expert only. I quickly learned that I was a victim of the Dunning-Kruger effect as I slid, fell, and struggled on the hill as my son, and many others, swooshed on by.

The problem is that many of us are blind to our own deficiencies and it’s nearly impossible to know when we’re experiencing this effect, until you’ve already experienced it.

Think: What have you done while developing your marketing strategies that falls into the Dunning-Kruger effect? What will you do to prevent it next time?

Thought: “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.”  —Confucius