On Tested Advertising Methods

I recently finished reading Tested Advertising Method (Fifth Edition) by John Caples, revised by Fred E. Hahn.

Below are excerpts from the book that summarize the key points presented by the authors:

1) “Caples’  Three-Step Approach To Creativity: 1) Capture the prospect’s attention. Nothing happens unless something in your mailing, or your commercial makes the prospect stop long enough to pay attention to what you say next. 2) Maintain the prospect’s interest. Keep the ad, mailing, or commercial focused on the prospect, on what he or she will get out of using your product or service. 3) Move the prospect to favorable action. Unless enough “prospects” are transformed into “customers,” your ad has failed, no matter how creative. That’s why you don’t stop with A/I/A (Attention, Interest/Action), but continue right on with testing.”

2) “Caples’ Three-Step Approach to Testing: 1) Accept nothing as true about what works best in advertising until it has been objectively – What Caples called “scientifically” – tested. 2) Build upon everything you learn from testing to create an ever-stronger system that you return to with each new project. 3) Treat every ad as an ongoing test of what has been learned before. When something new works better – or something old stops working – be ready to admit you were wrong about what you thought you “knew.” But don’t just accept it. Find out why and apply it the next time.”

3) “…There are four important qualities that a good headline may possess. They are: 1) Self-Interest 2) News 3) Curiosity 4) Quick, easy way”

4) “The most frequent reason for unsuccessful advertising is advertisers who are so full of their own accomplishments that they forger to tell us why we should buy.”

5) “Here are some of the things you should notice about the various Reader’s Digest openings: 1) They are fact-packed. 2) They are telegraphic. 3) They are specific. 4) They have few adjectives. 5) They arouse curiosity.”

6) “By its attention value it (drama) can make a small advertising appropriation do the work of a large appropriation.”

7) “Thomas E. Dewey: The advertising profession is an integral part of the life of a free nation. It has helped create markets where markets did not previously exist. It has not merely sold products which the public wanted. It has sold products which the public did not know it wanted. More important still, it has made possible the only free method for the large scale manufacture of goods on a mass basis.”

8) “Three well-known and often neglected aids to pulling power are: 1) Short paragraphs, 2) Short sentences, 3) Short words.”

9) “Advertising can never become completely accurate, however because of the human element involved – in advertising you are dealing with the minds and the emotions of human beings, and these will always be, to a certain extent, unstable and unmeasurable. That is why it is necessary to test, test, test – to test copy, media, position in publications, seasonal variation, and time of day in broadcast advertising.”

10) “Test everything. Doubt everything. Be interested in theories, but don’t spend a large sum of money on a theory without spending a little money to test it first.”

11) “Four important factors in every advertising campaign” 1) Copy – what you say in your advertisements. This includes the appeal used and the method of expressing that appeal. 2) Media – which magazines, newspapers, broadcasting facilities, or other media you select to carry your message to the public. 3) Position – what position your advertisements occupy in publications; which day of the week or what time of day you select for your broadcast messages. 4) Season – in which months of the year you run most of your advertising.”

12) “It (testing) enables you to keep your finger on the public pulse. It enables you to sense trends in advance. It enables you to separate the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats, the winning ideas from the duds. It enables you to multiply the results you get from the dollars you spend in advertising.”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Test Advertising Methods

On CIO Wisdom

I just finished reading CIO Wisdom – Best Practices from Silicon Valley’s Leading IT expert by Dean Lane.

This book is a collection of articles on topics of concern and relevance for not only CIOs by IT leaders at large. These articles are written by various authors, which ensures varied perspectives – based on their experiences. Topics range to include the people, process and technology aspects of the profession. To mention a few: Communications, IT Organization, Governance, Architecture, Strategic Outsourcing,  IT Infrastructure Management and Execution etc.

What sets this book apart is the breadth of topics covered in terms of applicability and importance to overall success of the IT organizations. While at a first glance the articles may seem disparate, there are a number of key themes/messages that emerge. Each topic is discussed enough to give the reader a basic and clear understanding, but given the book’s breadth, once cannot expect each topic to be covered in full depth. The later would require many volumes.

CIO Wisdom is a recommended read for any IT leader seeking to gain a broader understanding of the IT organization it’s challenges and opportunities.

Below are excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1- “In each business and historical phase, the position of CIO can be seen as a mirror of the broader environment.”

2- “For many years, successful CIOs have been business strategists, capable of translating the value of technology in terms that can be understood by the business leaders of the institutions. Now that skill set is being externalized…The new CIO must be an entrepreneur, a matrix manager of teams that do not report to IT and may not even belong to the company, an architect and e-business visionary, an evangelist, a relentless recruiter, a mentor, and an expert in psychology as well as the implementation of (constant) change management.”

3- “The CIO is a mirror of the institutions…The CIO is a mirror of a global economy…The CIO is at the center of our cultural crossroads…The CIO is a change agent for business processes and cultural norms…The CIO is a mentor and a leader…The CIO is the gatekeeper of the company’s intellectual assets and operational resources.”

4- “The first 90 days is the most important period in your CIO career at a new company…Focus on three major projects: a tactical plan to address time-critical issues and decisions, an IT organizational analysis with recommendations, and an IT strategic plan for the next two years…Establish a strong rapport with management during this time-frame, as you will need management support to implement your recommendations.”

5- “I believe, however, that there are five especially important fundamentals that a CIO needs to be cognizant of, regardless of the current focus. If internalized by IT staff, these fundamentals can dramatically transform a technology-centric IT organization into a business-focused one, almost without effort: passion, humility, openness, clarity, agility.”

6- “Technology by itself can never make a business more agile, but the right IT people applying the right technology at the right time can.”

7- “How to make yourself a better communicator: assess yourself, know your audience, set and manage expectations, insist on accountability, be aware of the political environment.”

8- “You can have an immediate impact in the area of training by utilizing internal resources to increase an employee’s knowledge about the processes or issues facing a company. By reserving the first half-hour of staff meetings for training…you can enable the most knowledgeable person associated with a ggiven process to provide 30 minutes of useful instruction.”

9- “More than one book has made reference to the following four elements, which must be present for communication to be possible: Message – An idea, concept, or som other form of notification. Transmitter – Someone or something that originates and sends the message. Receiver – Someone or something that gets the message. Medium – The means or vehicle by which the message is sent.”

10- “…Although published plans and strategic roadmaps are useful, planning skills and the capability for strategic thinking have the most significant value to the CIO, both personally and within the IT organization.”

11- “It is important for a CIO to have a philosophy around budgeting…Some philosophies that you may see include: Budgeting is a necessary evil…The budget is the Bible…The budget is a guide…The budget is an opportunity to influence change and support overall corporate direction…this is the most effective in our opinion.”

12- “IT marketing is the art of appropriately setting expectations between customer and service provider such that both entities enjoy a mutually beneficial economic relationship.”

13- “Jim Hackett: “The popular notions of the last decade were for companies to become customer-centered. Theories abounded that if you paid attention to what your customer wanted, you couldn’t go wrong. But the truth is that customers often ask you to do wrong things, not because they’re difficult to deal with but because they just don’t know better. The distinction is moving from customer-focused to user-centered, and the ability to understand the users of their products is a cultural shift that corporations have to make.”"

14- “Once IT’s marketing advocate is identified, the lifecycle…borrowed from sound CRM best practices should be applied. In short, the plan is to engage, transact, fulfill, service, and report.”

15- “Good metrics should be used to guide the development of strategic objectives, narrow investment opportunities to minimize wasted capital, and continually evaluate status to ensure that progress is being made.”

16- “Although it may sound trite, in all of our years combined, we have learned to never fear a negative result of discovery. Such a discovery represents the opportunity you were seeking in instituting this discipline by which you will make change for the better.”

17- “Facts are the fundamental entities that an organization deals with…Data is integrated, ordered facts…Information is ordered data…Knowledge is ordered information within the context of experience in similar situations…Understanding is organized knowledge…Enabled intuition.”

18- “Project success is a function of RS^2 and VEC^3,  RS^2 is {Resource, Scope, Schedule}. VEC^3 is {VxExC1xC2xC3}, where V=Vested interest (that is, aligning the vested interests of key stakeholders), E=Ego (that is, understanding the values and culture of stakeholders), C1=Communication and alignment with executive management, C2=Communication and alignment with your peers, C3=Communication and alignment with all doers (implementers).”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

CIO Wisdom

On Positioning

I recently finished reading the book Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

This is a classic in the marketing field. The authors define positioning as “a new approach to communication…But positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect.”

The book then goes on to present the concept of positioning, and the associated challenges and opportunities. What sets this book apart is the plethora of examples that are provided from a variety of industries (both services and products) that illustrate both how position can and should be used, and how it shouldn’t be.

Finally the authors extend the concept of positioning and show how it can be applied to one’s self and career. In addition how one can start a positioning program for a business.

A very insightful and educational book –  a must read in the business arena and particularly the marketing field.

Below are some key excerpts from this book:

1) “Positioning is an organized system for finding a window in the mind. It is based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time and under the right circumstance.”

2) “Leaders should use their short-term flexibility to assure themselves of a stable long-term future. As a matter of fact, the marketing leader is usually the one who moves the ladder into the mind with his or her brand nailed to the one and only rung.”

3) “This is the classic mistake made by the leader. The illusion that the power of the product is derived from the power of the organization. It’s just the reverse. The power of the organization is derived from the power of the product, the position that the product owns in the prospect’s mind.”

4) “But today in the product arena and in the political arena, you have to have a position. There are too many competitors out there. You can’t win by not making enemies, by being everything to everybody. To win in today’s competitive environment, you have to go out and make friends, carve out a specific niche in the market. Even if you lose a few doing so.”

5) “With a good name your positioning job is going to be a lot easier.”

6) “A name is a rubber band. It will stretch, but not beyond a certain point. Furthermore, the more you stretch a name, the weaker it becomes.”

7) “The lesson here is that a succesfull positioning program requires a major long-term commitment by the people in charge.”

8) “The solution to a positioning problem is usually found in the prospect’s mind, not in the product.”

9) “Positioning yourself and your career…Define yourself…Make mistakes…Make sure your name is right…Avoid the no-name trap…Avoid the line-extension trap…Find a horse to ride…The first horse to ride is your company…The second horse to ride is your boss…The third horse to ride is a friend…The fourth horse to ride is an idea…The fifth horse to ride is faith…The sixth horse to ride is yourself.”

10) “Positioning your business…What position do you own?…What position do you want to own?…Whom must you outgun?…Do you have enough money?…Can you stick it out?…Do you match your position?…The role of the outsider…What the outsider doesn’t supply.”

11) “Playing the positioning game…You must understand the roles of words…You must know how words affect people…You must be careful of change…You need vision…You need courage…You need objectivity…You need simplicity…You need subtlety…You must be willing to sacrifice…You need a global outlook…What you don’t need.”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Positioning

On Selling The Invisible

I just finished reading the book Selling The Invisible by Harry Beckwith. As Harvey Mackay notes on the cover “The one book on marketing I’d have if I could have just one. A CLASSIC.” This books changes the way we think about marketing: “It begins with an understanding of the distinctive characteristics of services – their invisibility and intangibility – and of the unique nature of service prospects and users – their fear, their limited time, their sometimes illogical ways of making decisions, and their most important drives and needs”. Harry then goes on to discuss a number of fundamental topics: surveying and research, planning, positioning and focus, pricing, branding, communicating and selling, nurturing and keeping clients etc.

Below are some excerpts that I found particularly insightful:

a) “Your opportunities for growth often lie outside the confines of your current industry description.” – This can be reworded to apply to one’s personal career

b) “In most professional services, you are not selling expertise – because your expertise is assumed, and because your prospect cannot intelligently evaluate your expertise anyway. Instead, you are selling a relationship. And in most cases, that is where you need the most work.”

c) “First, accept the limitations of planning…Second, don’t value planning for its result: the plan…Third, don’t plan your future. Plan your people.”

d) “Positioning (Al Ries and Jack Trout) says: 1) You must position yourself in your prospect’s mind. 2) Your position should be singular: one simple message. 3) Your position must set you apart from your competitors. 4) You must sacrifice. You cannot be all things to all people; you must focus on one thing.”

e) “To succeed spectacularly in a service business, you must get all your ducks in a row. Marketing is just one duck. But it is one very big duck.”

f) “…And for marketing purposes – for the purpose of attracting and keeping business – a service is only what prospects and clients perceive it to be. So “get better reality”: Improve your service quality. But never forget that the prospect and client must perceive that quality.”

g) “Services are human. Their successes depend on the relationships of people…But you can spot some patterns in people. The more you can see the patterns and understand people, the more you will succeed – and this book as written with the hope that it will help you do just that.”

h) “Nothing beats experience, of course, but reading books about others’ experiences comes in a competent second. The risk in learning only from personal experience is that too often, we draw conclusions from too little data – we learn too much from too little. We also tend to credit our company’s successes to everything that went into them…And so we keep repeating things that hurt our business.”

One of the best features of the book is the way its written and structured. Each area is covered through small stories featuring numerous real-life examples. This makes the book very practical and enjoyable to read. All in all, a great book on Marketing and one that is recommended for anyone. We are all in some aspect a marketer of services.

As a final remark, you can follow the author Harry Beckwith’s latest thoughts here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/unthinking .

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Selling The Invisible

On The Discipline of Market Leaders

I just finished reading On The Discipline of Market Leaders by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema. As the title suggests this book is about what sets leading companies apart from the average ones. According to the authors, there are three dimensions along which companies can focus on: cost, innovation, or service. Leading companies are ones that focus all their efforts and resources to excel in one of these dimensions while being average on the others. Operational excellence (cost leadership) is achieved by making the operations of the company as efficient as can be. These are companies such as WalMart that constantly find ways to reduce their Opex and pass these savings to their customers. Their customers are always looking for the lowest price.  Product leadership (innovation) is achieved by continually pushing to the market place new products. These are companies such as Intel which constantly release new products into the marketplace to displace their own products and remain ahead of everyone else. Finally, customer intimacy (service leadership) is achieved by companies that make customer service exceptional. These are companies such as Southwestern airlines which have an extreme focus on their customers and have understood to the nth degree their needs and desires.

The most important concept is that leading companies must never loose focus along the chosen dimension. If they do, companies can quickly loose their leadership position and eventually perish.  The authors do provide numerous examples of companies that have gone on this journey.

A very insightful and highly recommended business/marketing book that brings execution back to its basics. If I had to add/change something in it, it would be to add more details  to the journeys that some companies took from being market leaders to followers. The learnings on the business strategy side through such experience would be very valuable.

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

The Discipline of Market Leaders

On Crossing The Chasm

Recently I finished reading the book: Crossing The Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore. This book offers a true blueprint for companies looking to market and sell innovative high-tech products in a mainstream market.

This blue print begins by segmenting customers into groups with different needs and goals (innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards). These groups do not form a continuous spectrum. Indeed, there are gaps that exist that any company looking to succeed needs to understand and bridge. Once the company identifies the highly specific target segment within a mainstream marketplace, they then proceed to understanding their compelling reasons to buy. Then they must build around the notion of a “whole product” with the aid of partners as required to make that a reality. To further help the customer, the company must clearly define their competition and how they position themselves with respect to them. Finally comes selecting a distribution channel and ensuring that the sales force is empowered to deliver the required results.

From my perspective, this book helps any IT executive understand how to better work with technology vendors. In addition to helping them identify the ones that are indeed there to stay and grow. It also pushes IT executives to make fundamental decisions on where in the consumer spectrum they want to position themselves based on their needs and the risks that they are willing to undertake.

In all a very good and informative read. Despite it being originally written in the 90s the fundamentals of the blueprint still hold true. This is a true bible in the field of technology marketing. On the critiquing side, I would say that this book could have been written in a more concise fashion. It seemed slow at times, when reading it. Also, it would have been great to see updated examples of the principles described which would make it easier to reflect upon from a more recent perspective.

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Crossing the Chasm