A man channeling Wild Bill Hickok charged into the bank as if he was chasing a party of renegade Apaches. He marched past the receptionist, by two other loan officers and sat down in the chair in front of my desk without being asked.

He had long gray hair tied back in a ponytail, a mustache and a little goatee that came to a point below his chin.

“Wanna’ get a loan,” he said and slid a brochure across the desk in my direction.

 He wore a suede jacket with fringed leather dangling from the sleeves and granny glasses like John Lennon used to wear.

 I picked up the brochure and opened it to the first page. It was one of those cattle deals that were the darlings of the investment world in the eighties.

 They were disguised as investments in cattle ranching, but in reality were created for the tax credits that sprang from a loophole in the IRS code. CPAs and tax attorneys were cranking these things out by the truckload and taking a tasty piece of the action as the General Partners.

 I’d read dozens of them. Some made financial sense; most did not.

 “How much you want to invest?” I asked.

 “Fifty thousand,” he said and spun a business card through the air as if he were dealing poker at Caesar’s Palace. It landed on the business plan.

 “And how much of a tax credit are you going to get, Mister…” I picked up the card and read his name; “Blasedell?”

 “Thirty grand.”

 I looked up at him waiting for him to address the disparity.

 He looked back.

 My desk phone rang. I let my secretary pick it up.

 “Seems like you’re going to come out on the short end of this deal,” I said.

 “How do you figure?” He said.

 I glanced across the lobby of the bank. It was a Friday afternoon and the line of customers waiting to see a teller was backed up all the way to the front door.

 I looked back at Blasedell. “Well, if you invest fifty-thousand and are only going to get a thirty-thousand dollar tax credit, you’re twenty-thousand upside down on the deal.”

 Wild Bill sprang forward in his chair like a horizontal jack-in-the-box. “It’s not my fifty-thousand Mister Bank Vice President, it’s yours.” He sat back in the chair with a devilish grin and patted his goatee with the index finger of his right hand.

I wasn’t sure if he was really missing this many brain cells, or was pulling my leg. “That’s true,” I said. “But you have to pay the loan back.”

 He shot forward again. “You banker guys are supposed to be smarter than this.”

 “Smarter than what, Mr. Blasedell?”

 “Sebastian,” he said. “My friends call me SB.”

 I nodded.

 He sat back.

“Let’s say, my credit is A plus. And let’s say I’m willing to move a couple hundred thousand in deposits into your bank here. And let’s say you approve my loan.”

 “Go on,” I said. The deposit balances had my interest.

 “If it’s a line of credit, I would only have to make monthly interest payments, right?”

 I nodded.

 “Payments of around $300 a month, right?”

 I ran a quick interest rate calculation in my head and nodded.

 “Twelve payments of $300 is $3,600, but I would get a tax write off this year of $30,000!”

 He couldn’t contain his smile and now tapped his goatee rapidly with his index finger as if it were coming unglued and he was making sure it stuck to his chin.

 “But at the end of the twelve months the fifty-thousand would come due,” I said.

 Then the penny dropped.

 “Yes, but that’s next year and by then they will have sold the cattle and I’ll have the fifty-thousand to repay the loan.”

 The actual business side of these cattle tax shelters were notoriously shabby.  Few of them returned anything to the investor but the tax credit, which was usually much larger than what Wild Bill was getting. Beyond that, the key question was the track record and viability of the General Partners – would they actually buy the cattle, then sell them and return funds to the investors. Some might. Many would not.

 “Have you researched the track record of the General Partners?” I said. “Or how many of these cattle deals have they done that have paid off?”

“Got it from my brother-in-law. Friend of his is a CPA.”

“Tell you what, Mister Blasedell, you do some homework on the people that put this shelter together. See if they have put other deals like this together, and if so, how well they paid out. And then do a little homework on these kinds of shelters in general. And if you still want the loan, come back and see me.”

 The tapping of the goatee stopped. “You don’t trust me?” He said.

 “I don’t know you, Mister Blasedell. But the last article I read on cattle-based tax shelters said that 76.2% of them did not generate any cash flow other than the tax credit itself.”

 The goatee again. Tap, tap, tap. “Seventy-six percent,” he said.

 “And two-tenth,” I said.

He stood and took the brochure off of my desk. “Much obliged,” he said, and walked out of the bank with a little less bounce in his step than when he’d come in, but twenty thousand to the upside no matter how you sliced it.

I confess to a little literary license in the dialogue, but not the perspective of the customer. As a banker in the San Francisco Bay Area and later in Beverly Hills, I reviewed countless loan requests; for everything from a family trip to Antarctica, to an investment in a new Indy car.  But several were from customers who had an idea for a new business or a new product or service and wanted to borrow start-up capital.

It is a testament to the imagination of the human mind that people can dream up the some of the most creative solutions to market opportunities. Some dazzling in their brilliance, others… eh, not so much.

 But a common mis-step in such requests was a lack initial market research. How big is the market? Who are the competitors? Is there a 900 pound gorilla in the field? If so, who is it? Why are they the leader?

 How does market leader promote their brand? What “buttons” do they push in their advertising? Do they have a market position and if so, do they utilize it in their marketing? What PR do they do? And, after this kind of research, is there an element of this market you can grab? What is it?

Key…what makes your product different – really different, unique. And what words and phrases should be used to communicate these benefits to the prospective public?

This kind of research is a key initial step in the research work we do at On Target in addition to surveys. Without it, the client is marketing blind – they may be saying the same thing as the competition, without mentioning anything that distinguishes them.

 They may be trying to take a position that is already taken, which results in wasted advertising dollars.

If Wild Bill, had come into my office when I was a banker with some solid market research, (and his credit checked out), I might well have made that loan (and gotten the $200,000 deposit)

We have conducted research for clients that they took to potential investors and helped secure investments.

“It has been a few months since you performed the market research work for us, so I write this with a very good appreciation of the benefits of the work. In launching our new company, I considered one of the most important things we would do is brand and position the company. Your work to help us get into the minds of our customers and prospects really pinpointed – with precision – what our brand should represent. And the rest fell in place from there. “

MD EVP

Even before surveys are done, we can conduct extensive market research that will help guide your forward progress.

Call for a quote.

Best,

Bruce

Bruce Wiseman

President & CEO

On Target Research

www.ontargetresearch.com

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

1-818-397-1401

A few words about TRUST.

I was talking to a friend who was trying to help a contact of his who was a professional athlete. The athlete needed some professional financial help but didn’t know who to trust.

Indeed, professional athletes have lost between five hundred thousand and a billion dollars having hired financial managers who turned out to be criminal. And the media makes sure you know every dirty detail. Big names. Big money. It makes the press orgasmic.

So, this athlete didn’t know where to turn because the profession had such a bad name.

But then, it’s not just professional athletes.

Big name entertainment celebrities are a prime target. Here are some examples from just the last year.

Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber: $100,000

Liv Tyler:  $214,000

Ben Stiller: $250,000

Kiefer Sutherland: $869,000

Uma Thurman: $1 million.

Sting: $9.8 million over 15 years

Elton John: $29 million

Robert De Niro: $88 million

Billy Joel: $90 million

If you are interested the details, they can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/2we5fkcz ,

And here’s a headline from just a couple of days ago:

“Lawyer Sentenced For Blowing Millions Of Clients’ Money On Vegas Gambling Spree.”  https://tinyurl.com/ywzf63vj

This is a subject I know well having founded and run a financial management company for entertainers in Los Angeles for years with my partner Kevin Burke. (We also handled a couple of pro athletes). In fact, I did a number of interviews for LA radio stations when Kareem Abdul Jabbar sued his business manager for $50+ million for mishandling his money.

Both publics (professional athletes and entertainers) need to have someone they can trust handling their money and other financial affairs while they are off shooting a film or TV show or traveling from city to city for a sports event. Also, many of these folks are professionals at what they do, but are not familiar with the world of taxes, investments and financial management.

These high-profile publics bring their (substantial) financial affairs to those they TRUST.

Caring for someone else’s money and other assets is a deeply important responsibility and violating that trust, as in the examples above, is a treasonous betrayal. But if you do a good job, you solidify that TRUST and news spreads?

Now, let me switch gears a moment and share some additional information about TRUST that I have gleaned from many years owning and managing a market research and survey company.

Money managers, of course, are not the only profession from which customers seek trust. In fact, it is the most important quality that shoppers look for when buying a product or service – everything from a BMW to new false teeth. This is validated in survey after survey. The buyer wants to know, wants to trust, that the business will deliver what’s promised.

And, let’s face it, this is not headline news in the New York Times.

Of course, some CEOs know to promote this fact. That’s why testimonials are so important, and why companies seek online reviews. If others bought your product and they trust you, then….

It was marketing great Al Ries who clarified the point in an essay about why PR should precede marketing.

“To get something from nothing, you need the validity that only third-party endorsements can bring.”

This, of course, is the purpose of online reviews and the speaks to the tremendous value of customer testimonials. Indeed, Eyewear Digital claims that using video testimonials on landing pages can increase conversions by up to 80%, especially when they include customer voices.

Eighty percent!

Corral one of your best customers.  Film him or her talking about how you delivered a great product just as you promised. Place it on your website so visitors see (and hear) it immediately. And get it out broadly and watch your sales flourish.

Promoting price can be effective but is sometimes overdone.  I have had clients that focused their marketing materials almost exclusively on price until they saw the results of surveys that showed what their clients considered the most important reasonFor shopping with them. Price can be important, depending on the product or service. No question. But believe it or not, based on having conducted thousands of surveys, price is often the third or fourth most important attribute of what is being sold.

So, whether you are a butcher, a baker or candle stick maker or care for the financial affairs of the rich and famous, use third party endorsement to let your prospects know you deliver a great product just as promised.

Trust is earned. Once you have it, make sure it’s known and promoted.

I wrote this article because a friend who was trying to help another reminded me of what happens when trust is gone. The examples are from the two areas of my business life where trust has been a cornerstone (financial/investment consulting and surveys as the foundation of marketing.)

Since I promoted using third party endorsement, here are a few  comments from people who use my financial services or read my writing on such or have used my survey company.

“Your observations are so refreshing (to the point of chilling) in correctly targeting the key elements and developments! What a bracing antidote to the murky misdirection’s of the news media”

Tom H Business owner

“Scary and frankly shocking… but this is the first time that I got a full understanding of what is going on in the “underworld” of finances.”

Patrick V Business owner

Bruce,

I want to thank you and your team for the amazing survey On Target performed for Energy Professionals. 

We have been using your survey results for our website, all of our marketing materials, our training for our sales reps and for the foundation of all our company communications.  One of the results we have achieved using this information was our highest ever sales last month.

Your services are very valuable, and we will be back for more surveys.

Sincerely yours,

Jim M Business owner

Best,

Bruce Wiseman

President & CEO

On Target Research

www.ontargetresearch.com

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

1-818-397-1401

The sheriff had been accused of stealing $50,000 dollars of silver and hiding it under the foundation of the Happy House Brothel. There are 16 counties in Nevada. 10 of them permit brothels, and this was one of them.

(Note: this is a true story with only some items changed “to protect the innocent”).

Politics is bloodsport, even at the local level and the case of Sheriff Jerimiah Brown was a disturbing example. Someone had set the sheriff up, and while he was able to prove his innocence, the fact that the case had even gotten to court was a PR flap of magnitude and the press feasted. The real culprit and the reason for placing the silver under the bordello were never discovered.

Sheriff Brown’s term ended shortly thereafter, and he retired.
Fast forward 4 years and it was time for the election of the Sheriff’s office. And… you guessed it, Jerimiah Brown decided to run again.

On Target Research was retained to conduct political surveys for former Sheriff Brown.

He may have been a good sheriff, but his understanding of PR, of public opinion, was abysmal. He was convinced that given that he had been found innocent in court, the community’s opinion of him was that of a good sheriff.

Our surveys of the voting public in that community showed that not to be the case. Yes, people remembered him. They remembered that “He had something to do with that whorehouse.”

The results of the survey were among the worst I had ever seen. I presented the results in the best light I could, but there was no hiding the basic truth of the matter. As I wanted to provide a solution- oriented recommendation, I studied the surveys in depth and came up with a PR program to handle the negative public opinion, which in fact, happened to be false.

I don’t market On Target as a PR firm, but I have done a great deal of PR work for other hats – a great deal – and I felt the program that I put together for him would have given him a decent shot at winning. No guarantee, but we could have cleaned up the public opinion.

And what was former Sheriff Brown’s response?

“Your survey information is not accurate. That trial was years ago. The town’s folks may not “love” me, but they like me, and they know I am a good sheriff.”

Of course he got his “ass” kicked in the election.

I certainly didn’t go back with an “I told you so.” Nor did he reach back with an “Opps, I should have listened.”

I had one other survey, for a large New York corporation where the Chairman of the firm had a very fixed idea about a service they were going to offer and he repeatedly rejected survey findings that were different than what he had in mind (we did three, as he wouldn’t believe the findings from the first two). The company no longer exists.

Correctly done surveys (correctly worded and correctly tabulated) provide marketing gold for promotional materials as well as PR campaigns. But you have to believe what your prospects tell you?).
We have traveled the planet. We have surveyed everyone from the Marketing Directors of the largest oil companies in the world to people who eat ice cream, television actors, orthopedic surgeons and Russian police.

We know surveys. If you want to boost sales and income, call or email me.

Best,
Bruce

Bruce Wiseman
President & CEO
On Target Research
www.ontargetresearch.com
Br***@**********an.net
1-818-397-1401

I traveled to Russia several times in the 1990s. I conducted surveys for government agencies and was featured on Russian media. This, of course, was during the years when Boris, “Did someone say vodka? Yeltsin was the nation’s President.

It was the last day of the last century, December 31, 1999, when Vladimir Putin became president of Russia. My travels to Moscow and conducting surveys there ended a bit earlier in the 1990s, but I had become somewhat familiar with the government structure there and so continued to follow the exploits of the world’s most famous ex KGB officer.

Putin was always a thug. But as the 21^st century moved on, he became more so: the widely reported death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer (FSB was / is the KGB’s replacement) and one of his political rivals, by radiation poisoning in London, and the murder of opposition journalist, Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow in 2006 are two of the more high-profile killings that made international press. But I have been shocked that despite these political assassinations and hundreds of other unusual instances of dead journalists and opponents, the “Vlad man’s” popularity has remained surprisingly strong throughout. There have been ups and down over the years, but in general, his approval rating has remained strong with the Russian public. Go figure.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the war with Ukraine, Putin’s current popularity is ranging between 85% and 90%. An American President   would “die” for these kind of numbers. At his highest, Ronald Reagan reached 68% approval and “The Donald” hasn’t come close to that.

Not surprisingly, this does not hold true on the world stage where he is generally viewed as a tyrant.

But this is politics. What about consumer products?

When I first went to Russia, most of the “supermarkets” were the size of 7/11s and primarily carried rice, beans and vodka. Today, while not having the retail numbers of the U.S. (actually, no country has the retail activity of the U.S.) they have a $300 billion dollar retail economy. Impressive.

But there are other active retail economies: Canada’s annual retail economy is $70 billion. Health and beauty products are top sellers there. Clothing and athletic wear is big.

We (On Target Research) have an office in Toronto. The place is a ripe destination for a wide range of products and services. We have clients booming there.

But, the biggest potential retail market in North America (outside of the U.S.) is Mexico. The country generates $400 billion in annual retail sales. Jeans, smart phones and beauty and personal care products are all top sellers and booming.

And the country is experimenting a robust economy.

We conducted surveys in Mexico for a Chinese company that was introducing a new tech product. (Not difficult as we have Spanish speaking surveyors if/when needed.)

But then there is all of South America. We can identify consumer need in any of those countries and or survey your product or service in one or more Spanish of the speaking countries. We can research markets and see if you have competitors and if so, how to position your product above them.

If you want to expand, moving into a foreign jurisdiction just might be the answer. We can research and survey in Europe as well.

Let us know where you want to go. We’ll do the rest.

Best,

Bruce

Bruce Wiseman

President & CEO

On Target Research

www.ontargetresearch.com

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

1-818-397-1401

‘