Manizesto

Does product endorsement work?

My first pair of drumsticks were Pro-Mark PW747W Oak 747 Neal Peart wood tips. Why did I buy those? Mostly because Neal Peart’s signature was printed on the side. He’s the world renown drummer for one of my favorite bands; Rush. As a novice drummer, I had no idea what I was looking for in a pair of drumsticks, but hey, Neal uses these ones and look how good he is. I bought four pair.

This is all the Pro-Mark website says about the sticks:

Along with his RUSH, Neil is responsible for writing and performing some of the most adventurous music of the modern rock era.

That’s it. No description of how durable the wood is, how the weight distribution is perfect, or how they are carefully crafted so each stick is perfectly straight (all of which are true). There’s not even a product guarantee or comparison.

In 11 years, I’ve never bought any other kind of sticks, so that product endorsement has turned me into a life long customer.

But not all product endorsements make sense. Take Joe Namath endorsing Pantyhose, for example.

Product endorsements work best when: the consumer is uneducated, there is urgency, people know & trust the endorser, alternative choices don’t stand out, and when the products are low cost (e.g. not a house or car).

Photo by Roboppy

How deep is the river? Seven

The Green River near Moab, Utah, is actually very, very brown. That’s why our guide was telling us not to dive when we went whitewater rafting this weekend.

“I’m going to tell you this now, even though I know one of you is going to ask me again - we cannot tell you how deep the river is. It might be 15 feet deep, it might be two. If you ask me while we’re on the water how deep the river is, I’ll tell you ‘seven’. You’ll ask ‘Seven what? Seven feet? Seven inches? What?’ and I’ll repeat ‘Seven.’ The river depth changes all the time, so do not dive.”

Seven. It’s a useless figure unless you can put it into some context. And as business owners, marketers, friends or relatives, you probably tell people ‘Seven’ more than you think.

Our product is guaranteed.
You are the best.
We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
You are speaking to a manager.
Buy one for as little as…

“Seven” is no good to me. Give me some context and set clear expectations.

Photo by Erritimia

Hypocrite cookies

I don’t like fortune cookies. The just don’t deliver. The name Fortune Cookie tells me I’ll not only be getting a cookie (yum!), but a fortune too (tell me something good will happen). Fortune cookies rarely deliver on these promises. The cookies taste kind of gross compared to most other cookies, and most of the time the “fortunes” are lame. Instead of an amazing or entertaining message, I often see generic proverbs, motivational sentences, or worse yet, advice cookies - “Bring something up from the back burner,” for instance. Don’t tell me what to do, cookie!

In a way, fortune cookies are hypocritical, implying they’ll deliver one thing but delivering something else. Most people go on opening, eating and reading without a second thought. You don’t see people tipping over tables because their cookie had advice instead of a fortune - although I’ve been tempted. And that’s fine, because fortune cookies are free and insignificant to most people. But when someone has skin in the game, there’s an expectation, so you’d better be sure to deliver what you promise - or imply.

Photo by Rockers generation

Why my coach was wrong

“Second place is the first loser,” was my high school wrestling coach’s favorite phrase. He used it whenever he saw someone slacking off or not giving their all. The phrase was meant to plant in our minds the idea that nothing but first place was acceptable. For the most part, it worked. After all, who wants to be a loser?

Second place, though, is actually a great place to be. You don’t see many second-place companies going out of business or many silver medalists quitting their cherished sport. It’s the one’s at the bottom that fail, quit or are forgotten.

Wendy’s is second to McDonald’s by most standards, but no one can claim the chain has not been extremely successful. Wendy’s was also not the company targeted in the now infamous documentary Super Size Me. It’s Wendy’s that is in a much better place to try new, different things that a leader cannot, and they can talk about how they’re the opposite of the leading company. Remember the tag line “It’s waaaay better than fast food, it’s Wendy’s” (read: we’re better than McDonald’s). Plus, second-placers can combine forces with other competitors to try to take out the top dog, which is exactly what Wendy’s just did.

Photo by Word Freak