I confess that when we moved out of LA 8 years ago we did not do so because we foresaw the mob insanity that has engulfed the city of late.

Try to get somewhere on time on the 101 or the 405 in the afternoon or breathe the afternoon air on a summer day embraced with LA’s infamous smog.

Oh, it wasn’t all bad. We had a nice place in Toluca Lake, a small community between Burbank and Glendale with its share of celebrity residents. Bob Hope’s place was a couple blocks down the road as was Miley Cirus’ home at the time. In fact, after Ronald Regan married Nancy in 1952 in Studio City, and the after-party was held at William Holden’s home in Toluca Lake.

Entertainers live there because the studios are a stone’s throw. Warner Brothers, Universal, Dream Works, Disney are all just a little more than walking distance.

But celebrity neighbors don’t clean the air or reduce the traffic and so, we moved. We moved to a small community in the Los Padres National Forest about an hour and a half North of LA. The community is called Pine Mountain Club, https://pinemountainclub.net/

My place is at about 6,000 ft. elevation. The air is pristine, the views are stunning, you can see the Milky Way at night. There is wildlife everywhere. And the cost of real estate is about 1/3 of LA prices.

On the wildlife front, there are coyotes, deer, mountain lions but mainly bears. https://tinyurl.com/yt9rwy5t. The community is full of them. Almost everyone who lives here has a bear story. I have a couple, but one instructive.

I’m going to bed one night and my brother, who rents a room from us, says, “There’s a bear in the garage.” I’m like, “What?!” We go down to the garage. I open the door and watch a bear pillaging the salmon in our refrigerator (we have a second frig in the garage).

We shout and honk (with devises that are supposed to scare bears away) and the bear finally leaves. But he (she?) comes back. Sticks his paws under the garage door and lifts. Despite doing a number of things to discourage the bear, he comes back yet again. Food!

Finally, I call a woman up here known as “The Bear Lady.” She comes over and says, “Put a radio in the garage and play it loud and 24/7. The bear thinks there are people in the garage and won’t come in.” The bear has not returned, at least not that we know of. Our frig has no longer been assaulted.

So that’s how to I handled an “food attack” from a black bear.

The property owner’s association puts out regular briefings / warnings. The essence is of which are: We are living in their home. There are existing rules not to harm the bears, but also not to feed them as they will come to rely on food from residents rather than there natural feeding sources.

Here’s the latest. Picture attached: “Bears are out wandering around PMC now and can and have been known to break into cars.  Clean out your vehicles, always have windows up on your vehicle and lock your doors. Do not leave any scented items in your vehicles! Even an empty wrapper from a burger or anything like that will temp them.”

Yes, the bears can open car doors. But you need more than a radio to handle a bear attack on your marketing (I know, the introduction was a little long….but true?

Your marketing program can be attacked in a number of ways. One of which is a competitor attack. A lack of in-depth market research opens this door. We do market and competitor research before we launch a survey program. It is critical and if the client hasn’t closely researched his market including his competitors, they may drive their brand into a head-on positioning collision with the competitor. This can irreparably damage the client’s marketing as the competitor is likely already a known brand in the industry.

Even more basically, the client may not even know the bear exists. A client came to us to conduct surveys for a revolutionary new tech product. Nothing like it, they said. But we conducted our own research. And there it was. Another company had beat them to the punch and they didn’t even know it. Do your research.

I call bear #3 the fixed idea. A PR firm introduced us to a major financial firm on Wall Street. The firm had developed a new technology product for lawyers who dealt with the Security and Exchange Commission. The Chairman of the company had created a special name for the product, but he wanted the name surveyed.

We conducted “intercept” (face to face) surveys at a conference in New York of lawyers who specialized in this work. They hated the name. Hated may be too strong a word, but it’s fair to say the respondents intensely disliked the name.

With decades of survey experience that has included many thousands of surveys done, I’d never seen such dislike of a brand. But the Chairman wasn’t satisfied. He had us conduct surveys of lawyers in Philadelphia and Houston. Same response. He finally pulled the plug on the surveys. The company was subsequently sold.

As I have noted recently, some political surveys have been skewed and have delivered inaccurate results. But that is political tinkering with the surveys. Corporate surveys of customers and or prospects deliver sound results and business owners should listen to them.

The bears up here in the mountains are pretty much under control with the right techniques. Call us and we’ll make sure to keep them out of your marketing.

Best,

Bruce

Bruce Wiseman

President & CEO

On Target Research

www.ontargetresearch.com

Br***@**********an.net

1-818-397-1401