Kelly Anne
“It’s the economy stupid.”
The iconic campaign slogan was created by James Carville, Bill Clinton’s campaign chairman in his successful ousting of George H. W. Bush in the 1992 presidential election.
Bush’s popularity had soared to 90% in March of 1991, shortly after the invasion of Iraq. But by the Summer of 1992, with the country trying to emerge from a post war recession, a stunning reversal had taken place with a whopping 64% of the country disapproving of the President.
Carville (known as the Ragin’ Cajun because of his generational Louisiana roots) hung the anemic economy around the neck of George H.W. Bush like a hangman’s noose invigorating his staff with,
“It’s the economy stupid.”
And it was.
And Bush lost.
Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump’s brilliant campaign manager, who engineered the greatest upset in American political history, should have coined another slogan, but as she hasn’t done so yet I’ll do so here:
“It’s the questions stupid.”
Let me explain.
Over the Summer of 2016, the upbeat Conway repeatedly asserted that Trump was going to win.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/kellyanne-conway-hillary-clinton-stop-180137847.html
I mean, what else would a campaign manager say, right?
But Kellyanne had more to say about the coming Trump victory. She maintained that there was a “Hidden Trump Voter”– some segment of the population that wouldn’t answer survey questions from polling companies honestly. They had been embarrassed to admit that they were going to vote for Trump, but they were going to vote for him.
Main stream media pundits laughed at her, made snide condescending remarks and touted poll after poll that showed that Hillary Clinton would be the next President of the United States.
“For some time now, Donald Trump’s advisers have sought to explain why he’s trailing Hillary Clinton in the polls by arguing that there’s a sizable group of people out there who will vote for him on election day but are too embarrassed to admit this to pollsters.”
The author of this all too typical article spent the rest of the piece laughing at Kellyanne’s naivety and wishful thinking
Perhaps they had forgotten that Kellyanne was the owner of a successful political polling firm when she became Donald Trump’s campaign manager—the operative word is successful.
It is astonishing how often major national polling firms make predictions about political races that turn out to be dead wrong. I mean how do these people keep clients?
Frank Luntz, the high profile Republican pollster tweeted on November 8, 2016: “Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States.”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/the-worst-political-predictions-of-2016-214555
Hey Frank, wake up and smell the ballots.
For days after the election, Luntz and other pundits and pollsters came up with myriad of reasons why the polls and predictions had been wrong.
But none seemed to fully understand what Kellyanne Conway did:
CORRECT WORDING IS CRITICAL IF ONE IS GOING TO GET AN HONEST ANSWER TO A SURVEY QUESTION.
This is true in political polling and it is true in marketing surveys.
Doctor Shaw walks into his clinic. On his way to his office, he passes his office manager, Cindy.
“Good morning, Cindy. How are you doing this morning?”
“Fine, doctor Shaw. Just fine.”
Except Cindy is not fine. She had a fight with her boyfriend last night and she’s hung over. “Fine” is a social answer to the question. As were the answers given by a segment of potential voters in the 2016 Presidential election.
Creating survey questions is both an art and a science.
Survey questions must be created in such a way as to bypass “social communication machinery” and get to the guts of the matter.
There is technology on how to do it. Do it incorrectly, and the answers will be wrong, your marketing buttons will be wrong and your sales and income will suffer.
Do it right and the angels sing.
I’ve been creating survey questions for businesses in virtually every industry sector imaginable for more than 25 years.
So, yeah, I’ve written a few survey questions, questions that get honest answers and buttons that can be used for successful marketing campaigns.
If your marketing isn’t quite doing its job, you might want to give us a call.
“We are having our best year ever!! On pace for a 50% growth in revenue! You did a great job for us and we are pumped!” CB President
Best,
Bruce
President & CEO
On Target Research
ontargetresearch.com
818-397-1401
Protein Bar story
The definition of aficionado is: a person who is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about an activity, subject, or pastime: aficionados of the finest wines.
Synonyms include: connoisseur, expert, authority, specialist,
pundit, enthusiast, devotee.
There are pizza aficionados, hand gun aficionados, aficionados of bourbon, bottled water, daffodils, fine writing instruments, NFL quarterbacks, and just about any category or commodity you can think of.
Me? I’m a fan of hand guns, daffodils and high-end roller ball pens.
But as the definition includes someone who is “very knowledgeable” I couldn’t really call myself an aficionado of any of those things.
I am, however, an aficionado of… protein bars.
I know, I know, but stay with me.
It started back in the 90s when I read The Zone by Dr. Barry Sears. The book, which literally sold millions of copies, promoted a diet that consisted of 40% carbohydrates and 30% each of protein and fat. The Zone Diet came to be known as 40-30-30.
The program also included two properly balanced snacks during the day and Dr. Sears promoted his Zone Perfect protein bars to fill the need for those snacks.
I operated on that diet for some time (lost some weight) and got accustomed to protein bars as snacks.
As time moved on and I began researching matters of diet and health, I came to understand the truly destructive nature of sugar on the human body. I knew sugar was not good for you, but man…
“Make no mistake about it refined sugar is a deadly poison. Corrupt to the extreme this poison is noxious to the human body even in relatively small amounts…
It is also a highly addictive substance, which gives reason for classifying it as a drug rather than a food.
https://cassingram.com/destructive-nature-refined-sugar-metabolic-poison/””
You probably knew that, but I hadn’t fully understood the extent of damage sugar does to the body. Armed with this perspective and noting that The Zone bars were rather high in sugar, I began looking for protein bars that contained a good amount of protein, had a low amount of sugar, tasted good and, ideally, had organic ingredients.
I would scan the protein bar shelves at Whole Foods or wherever I was shopping examining any new bar that hit the shelves.
And there were many over the years: Cliff, Atkins, Kind, Think Thin, Quest, GoMacro, Power Bar, Epic, Luna, Rise, Perfect Bar, Raw Rev, Nature Valley, RX Bar, Pro Bar, Larabar, Vega, Balance bar, Bullet Proof, to name a few.
The categories also expanded: Organic, plant-based protein, high protein, low protein, low-sugar, meat-based bars, women’s bars, superfood bars, collagen protein, whey protein.
The protein bar section of health food markets grew from a little section at the checkout section to entire isles.
I tested many that seemed to have potential and finally settled on one bar that fit my requirements: the Raw Rev peanut butter Glo bar. It’s about 90% organic, fifteen grams of protein, just two grams of sugar and it is delicious (rawrev.com)
But I never stop looking.
So a few days ago, I was doing some research on protein and protein bars and I stumbled across the latest development in protein powder and protein bars which is…Ta Da, cricket protein powder.
I kid you not.
Digging a little deeper, I find that:
Crickets have more iron than spinach.
More calcium than milk.
Almost three times the protein of beef.
Twice the protein of chicken.
More vitamin B12 than salmon or beef.
Nine times more Omega’s than wild salmon.
Here are some eye-popping nutritional charts.
Protein: Crickets vs Beef.
Amino Acids: Crickets vs Beef
Omegas: Crickets vs Beef.
https://naakbar.com/blogs/articles/why-you-should-eat-insect-cricket-versus-beef
Fascinating.
Crickets for human consumption are raised on a growing number of cricket farms, dry roasted and milled into a fine powder or flower for use in protein bars, smoothies, on cereal, etc.
The industry is just beginning to take off.
“Over the last 3 to 4 years more than 25 edible insects startups have launched in the United States and Canada.
One new company, called all things bugs, sold 10,000 pounds of cricket powder in 2014. It’s been estimated that the edible cricket industry will be worth more than $360 million in the next five years.”
https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/cricket-protein-powders-market.asp
Marketing Cricket Protein
Fascinated by this new (to me) protein powder platform I was interested in how it was being marketed.
There is a cricket protein bar (which I haven’t tried yet) called EXO, but I was interested in the broader field: how are the current manufactures marketing cricket protein powder.
To help with this research, I came across an extensive survey conducted by the University of Michigan in April of 2016: Crickets as Food. They did face-to-face surveys, online surveys and a focus group (my kind of people).
The surveys revealed that the primary “objection/s” to crickets as food was what people considered the bugs would taste like and what they categorized as the “Ick” factor – “It grosses me out.”
The main positive attribute – “hot button” – in the survey was the strong nutritional profile of cricket powder.
Not a surprise.
There were two manufacturers of cricket protein powder that I looked into: Jiminy and Crik. And this is the point of the article: how two different companies, selling the same product, could approach the marketing of their product so differently – one using the exact right button and the other, the exact wrong button.
Jiminy (super cool name for a brand of cricket protein powder) pushed the nutritional value of cricket protein powder. They used all of key nutritional facts noted above and handled the taste issue with the fact that cricket protein powder has a mild nutty taste and comes unflavored and in Dutch chocolate and vanilla bean.
Crik on the other hand sticks the prospect’s nose right in the “Ick” factor. Their approach is, “What’s the big deal, you’re already eating a bunch of bugs even if you don’t know it. So just add crickets to your meals.”
Then it gives examples showing bugs in rice and in a pizza. Check it out.
“You’re already eating bugs anyway!
“Believe it or not, it’s true.
“This is because they’re in almost everything you eat.
“It’s next to impossible to keep bugs out of our food chain. Right from the second crops start to grow in fields, there are all kinds of creatures living in amongst them, and when it comes time to harvest many of the smaller ones like insects don’t get out of the way and end up in our food….
For example:
Just one cup of rice can contain up to 3 whole insects
“The tomato sauce used in one regular sized pizza can have up to 30 fly eggs or 2 whole maggots.
The flour used to make the dough for that same pizza can have 1900 visible insect fragments in there.”
https://criknutrition.com/pages/why-cricket-protein-powder
While Jiminy is focused on the powerful nutritional benefits that the survey revealed was the top reason people will eat food made with cricket flower, the Crik people position their brand with fly eggs and maggots.
Positioning makes the unfamiliar familiar by tying it to something already in the mind. If you want your audience to have a favorable opinion of your product, you position it with things people like, or maybe a popular celebrity.’
Of course, the opposite is true.
Crik is positioning its brand with maggots and fly eggs.
Hello???
Both of these companies are reasonably new, and I don’t know their stats, but all things being equal, from a marketing prospective, Jiminy is the superior brand and should do well.
Crik will have to stop shooting itself in the foot.
Me? I’m going to go find the cricket powder protein bar and give it a try.
I’ll keep you posted.
“…I had On Target do a series of surveys for my business prior to advertising and revising my website. The surveyed buttons were completely spot-on and when I use them and other information gotten from the surveys to communicate to potential clients, I get many positive responses and sales. I had all the artwork designed around the surveyed buttons and it’s been quite magical — these are still working as well today as they were when I originally got the surveys done. I appreciate the care and detail that went into the product that Bruce and On Target gave me” — Thank you!” JY Owner
Best,
Bruce
Bruce Wiseman
President & CEO
On Target Research
ontargetresearch.com
818-397-1401
JEFF BEZOS IS A PAUPER
The Information Age has created its share of billionaires: Jeff Bezos ($130 B), Bill Gates ($90 B), Mark Zuckerberg ($71 B), Larry Ellison ($58.5B), Michael Dell ($22.7B,) to name a handful.
And why not. They created a historic revolution in global communication and a titanic shift in commerce.
I mean it wasn’t that long ago that the Pony Express, was carrying mail from St. Joseph Missouri to Sacramento (about 1,800 miles) at the blistering pace of 10 days from start to finish. A stunning achievement for the time.
Buffalo Billy Cody joined the Pony Express at age 15
Today, you click the “send icon”. The communication arrives in a matter of seconds.
Still, the accomplishments of the titans of the industrial revolution, which pre-dated the digital entrepreneurs by more than 100 years, were no less colossal for their time and – something that may surprise you – made fortunes that dwarf today’s tech giants. Even Jeff Bezos who now tops the Forbes list of the richest people on the planet with a net worth of $130 billion is a pauper compared to the industrial giants ($338 billion for John D. Rockefeller, $310 billion for Andrew Carnegie and $188 billion for Henry Ford – all in adjusted current dollars.
Not to diminish the eye-watering global impact of the digital age, the earlier generation of industrialists made their money the old-fashioned way, they built things. Try constructing a railroad over the Sierra Nevada mountains, or building an assembly line that would manufacture 15 million cars and turn a country that traveled by horseback into a nation of drivers – which, depending on your viewpoint, may or may not be a good thing.
Still, Ford was a manufacturing genius. He created an entire empire that had not existed previously. The information highway was created by programmers sitting at a desk writing code, the nation’s highways came into being largely as a result of a kid raised on a farm that had a passion for engines.
Henry Ford
“I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one – and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.”
As brilliant a businessman as he was, Ford’s reliance on market research was…eh… less than passionate. In 1909, he said:
“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”
A hundred and nine years later the company’s attitude regarding market research has changed drastically and the Ford Motor Company now generates $156 billion a year in revenue.
How drastically?
A recent industry article revealed Ford’s heavy reliance on surveys and Market research.
“Ford conducts market research online and in person, refining and creating new data-gathering processes that influence product development and marketing campaigns. The company engages consumers through moderated clinics and through one-on-one interviews before vehicles reach market.
“’ We’re heavily influenced by market research,’” said Gordon Platto, Ford chief designer…”’You go to market research with an open mind to understand what the customers are looking for.’”
The article goes on to make the point that “…different cultures demand different approaches,” and that, “Market research helps determine the appropriate message.” – Source
Knowing the attitudes, likes, dislikes and “buttons” of your unique public is critical to marketing and sales. A couple of years ago, we conducted research and surveys for a Chinese electronics company that was introducing a new mobile phone brand to Mexico – Oppo.
The company had been very successful in China, but they had the wisdom to understand that what was important to users of mobile phones in China might very well – probably would be – different than mobile phone users in Mexico.
I am not at liberty to share the details of the survey, but can say that the results of the survey were uniquely… Mexican.
Knowing what your public thinks is valuable about what you sell is the essence of a good survey and that includes knowing exactly who your public is.
One example was a solar energy company that was sending out promotional fliers to homes in the zip codes around their office. This was continued until it was pointed out that roughly 30% of the residents in the area were renters who would be disinclined to spend thousands of dollars improving someone else’s house.
Seems obvious but it had to be pointed out and a homeowner’s list purchased.
Surveying your customers is usually quite simple. But when we conduct surveys of prospects, it is critical that we survey your real prospects.
We want decision makers.
When we conducted surveys for a company that sold telecom systems to correctional facilities (pay phones for inmate use), we surveyed the sheriffs and wardens who signed the purchase orders, of course – not the inmates who use the phones.
Sometimes you have to go an extra mile to survey the right public.
We surveyed 150 judges on the subject of bail bonds for an insurance company who provides the bonds.
We’ve surveyed the marketing directors of the 7 largest oil companies in the world for an advertising agency.
We took on a job to survey the CFOs of independent telecom companies for a provider of customer billing services. But it turned out the CFOs weren’t the decision makers for this product, the CEOs were. And CEOs were next to impossible to get to the phone for the survey.
What to do?
We went to an industry convention where we found and surveyed several CEOs.
We did the same for a survey of Orthopedic surgeons.
One unique survey that can identify and help you remove blocks to your sales line is what we call the “no close” survey. We survey the people who were interested, reached but didn’t buy.
Why didn’t they buy?
We first conducted these surveys for big advertising agencies in New York. Their campaigns often run into the millions. So, when they pitch a prospective client and it doesn’t close, they want to know why.
Did the sale go to another firm?
If so, who and why?
We would call the former prospective client, engage them in a meaningful conversation and find out why they didn’t go with our client.
We have done this now for a variety of clients.
Trust me, it’s not always price.??In one case, by interviewing the prospect, we found that our client’s presentation was based on this wild-eyed theory devised by a psychologist: the prospect was the “child”, the ad agency was the mother…and that is how they pitched the campaign – really. And they hired us to find out why they didn’t close the sale!??At first, I thought it was some kind of mistake. I called our client’s market research director (big New York ad agency). No, it wasn’t a mistake. Turns out he was a psychologist as well. And you wonder why some of the commercials you see on TV are so bizarre.
The point of all of this?
The world of marketing has changed since the days of Henry Ford. In highly competitive landscapes, surveys of your prospects can provide the key that unlocks your sales lines in a whole new way.
We’ve been conducting surveys for clients large and small for more than a quarter of a century. As you can see, we can usually get through to any public.??If you’d like to discuss what we may be able to do for your marketing and sales lines, feel free to drop me an email or give me a call.
“Working with Bruce was like working with the Roger Federer of Surveys. The questions evoked exactly what our public was thinking. Now with the button and positioning in place our promotions are like an arrow going through tissue paper rather than a fist into a brick wall. Our copy and imagery say exactly what the clientele is thinking and therefore procures more leads.
You served up an ace Bruce. Thank you.” CEO
Best,?Bruce
President & CEO?On Target Research
ontargetresearch.com
818-397-1401
The Marketing Power Of A Negative Mindset
There is marketing magic in harnessing the power of a negative mindset.
It was just such a mindset that Unilever (owner of the Dove brand) found when they conducted an enormous survey of 3,000 women in 10 countries and discovered that only 4% of those surveyed considered themselves beautiful.
Those survey results became the basis for one of the most successful advertising campaigns in history and changed the social construct of what is considered beautiful.
‘By leveraging market research to understand how women perceived their beauty, Dove was able to create viral videos (such as an interview piece with mothers and their daughters who discussed perceptions of female beauty with one another) and a series of commercials (“Evolution,” “Onslaught,” and “Amy”) that deconstructed this perceived norm that beauty is about being skinny and young.”
http://www.inc.com/anna-guerrero/10-most-compelling-ad-campaigns-of-the-decade-and-what-your-brand-can-learn-from.html
The ads were a touch of brilliance.
They celebrated mature women.
And women who are not Heidi Klum gorgeous or pouty-mouthed, supermodel thin.
No. In the ads, they lionized the work-a-day woman or mom with curves and a positive, fun-loving sense of self.
The positioning of Dove with women of “Real Beauty” included an eye-popping commercial that exposed the superficiality of newsstand glamour in a most powerful way.
The transformation in the commercial they titled, Evolution is revealing. Take a look. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hibyAJOSW8U
This and dozens of other commercials validating the beauty of everyday women plus a virally supercharged social media explosion resulted in a dramatic increase in Dove’s sales.
“Dove’s page on Unilever’s Web site says…. In the first six months of the campaign, sales of Dove’s firming products increased 700 percent in Europe and in the United States, sales for the products in the advertisements increased 600 percent in the first two months of the campaign. In 2004, the first year of the campaign, global sales surpassed $1 billion, exceeding company expectations.
Dove’s public relations company built in news coverage for Asia with the Dove “models” appearing in 618 different newspaper clippings with a circulation of 139 million. By the end of 2005, sales in the Asian-Pacific market increased from 19 percent to 26 percent.
https://www.quora.com/Was-Doves-Real-Beauty-Campaign-successful
All based on a survey of their targeted public.
Too cool says I!
Is there a marketing opportunity that we might find for you with a creatively constructed survey?
Our clients say so:
“My business is expanding continuously since the surveys have been done and implemented…the new customers just seem to keep coming day after day. Our business has gone into a higher and much more viable range and at this time is still climbing. ” RQ Owner.
With technology has come a decrease in the cost of surveys. If you would like to get an idea what On Target can do for you, at what cost, give us a call (818-397-1401) or fire off an email to Br***@on**************.com.
I’d like to help you make 2017 a boom year for your company.
Very Best,
Bruce
