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Author: Kylie Fennell

Delivering on your brand – when little things become BIG things

Kylie Fennell

Never underestimate the effect the little things can have on your business and your brand.

As a marketer I talk a lot about living up to your brand promise.

I strongly believe that no amount of advertising, promotion or social media content will help you get or keep customers if other parts of your business are letting your brand promise down.

So what do I mean by brand promise?

Brand promise often starts with the words you use to describe your business and its unique selling proposition or point of difference.

This brand promise is often reflected in a tagline or slogan. To give you an example, I know a real estate agent whose tagline (and by default his brand promise) is something like ‘excellence in customer service’.

While it’s not the most unique or powerful tagline, it’s not a disaster…except for the fact that my personal experience dealing with that agent led me to believe he had terrible customer service.

The short version is that we had put a signed contract in to buy a property listed with him and waited to hear back with the vendor’s response – we never heard back.

On contacting him he advised us he actually accepted a contract from another buyer (for a similar amount we were offering) and hadn’t bothered coming back to us for further negotiation. Ethically it’s very questionable, but more to the point, he did not live up to his brand promise.

Brand promise goes further than the tagline. The reality is that everything you and your ‘business’ does and represents contributes to how your brand is perceived and whether people want to buy from you.

To illustrate my point let’s use a fictional widget store and assume you’re in the market to buy a particular widget. So you type into google the widget name and your city and you find a stockist, but its 50km away.

You click on their website and confirm they sell that widget – you need this widget desperately so you ring the number listed to check if it’s in stock before driving to the store.

The number goes to a recording where you are prompted to press 1 for X and 2 for Y or hold to be transferred to a helpful team member. You are kept on hold for 10 minutes, listening to bad piped music before being transferred to an outsourced call centre overseas.

The person you speak to is very friendly, though a little hard to understand. They tell you they can’t access the inventory for the store so will transfer you to the store manager. You’re on hold again for another 10 minutes before you’re accidentally cut off.

You give up on the phone call and figure you’ll drive out to the store anyway. It’s 8am on a Wednesday and you have to bundle up the kids in the car (master 2 and miss 4) but you really need that widget. You try to double check the opening hours online but the hours aren’t listed.

You drive to the store and discover there’s no parking nearby. You and the kids have to walk a few blocks before getting to the store and finding out that they don’t open until 10am on a Wednesday (it’s just gone 9am).

You really need that widget so you and the kids sit down outside the grimy looking front door. It’s the height of summer and everyone is hot.

Finally a pimply 16 year old turns up at 10.05am barely gives you a nod and unlocks the store.

You go inside the store only to be told that the air conditioner is on the blink. You enquire about the widget but the retail assistant shrugs and says he’ll have to check the computer and it will take at least 10 minutes for the system to boot.

You go and look for the widget yourself but the aisles aren’t labelled and you feel like you’re looking for a needle in a haystack. You finally find where they should be on the shelf but notice that there’s none left.

The retail assistant finally gets onto the system and tells you that the widgets are on order and were supposed to be in yesterday but haven’t arrived yet. He’s unable to give you an estimated delivery date.

When pushed he tells you that they are actually at the distribution centre, which happens to be in your home suburb. You ask whether you can pay for the widget now and pick it up from the distribution centre. He says “no that’s against policy and it has to be delivered to the store first”.

You ask whether you can pay an additional charge for it to be delivered instead to your house, and you guessed it, he says “No that’s against store policy”. You ask him to check with the store manager and he says you have to send an email via the Contact Us form on the website.

You walk out of the store in disgust; screaming, hot, tired and hungry kids in tow and no closer to getting your widget.

So how are you feeling about this organisation and brand? I suspect you wouldn’t be a fan.

Now you might think that my story is far fetched…it’s not…I personally have experienced nearly all of this on one day at a multinational store. That being said, it only takes one or two of these missteps to damage your brand.

Whether it’s your website, hotline, parking, cleaning, customer service, point of sale system, air conditioning, punctionality – every single one of them presents an opportunity to enhance or damage your brand – every one of them is a moment of truth for your business.

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Teachers are awesome (well at least the awesome ones)

Kylie Fennell

There was a time when I wanted to be a teacher. I’ve ‘kind of’ done it a few times. I taught English in Japan, I have worked as a Business Trainer in tertiary education but I have to be honest I know it’s not the same as being a teacher.

I have to say it, teachers are awesome. Well the awesome ones are!

You don’t know an awesome teacher until you meet one, but trust me you’ll know.

My son had a brilliant kindy teacher and his prep school teacher is spectacular – patience of a saint and while she is lots of fun, she also has boundaries in place. I couldn’t have asked for a better teacher for my son.

Sure we all remember the not so good teachers – the ones that threw chalkdusters at your head, put us on ‘scab’ duty (that is, pick up garbage in the playground in your lunch break), but you’ll NEVER FORGET the awesome ones.

I remember my kindy teacher Mrs Widseth very fondly – she taught me in my first year of school. To be honest I can’t remember much other than she was really good to me and for me.

Mrs McBeath was my drama teacher as well as our Year Teacher all the way through high school. Love your work Mrs McBeath!

The one that I credit the most though for my love of history and English was Mr Gibson. There were times we tested that man’s patience beyond what any normal human being should have endured…but he bore it with a smile and his passion for what he taught was infectious.

He was the person who introduced me to Jane Austen. At the time I bumbled and struggled my way through Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion and while I certainly didn’t fall in love with it straight away (I was 15 so cut me a break here), his perseverance kept me coming back to it in later years.

So whether you’re an English teacher, Prep Teacher or even a Math Teacher, thank you for being awesome!

PS There were heaps of other teachers who were just as awesome to me and I haven’t forget you either…Mr Taylor, Mr McPherson, Miss Rudd, Mr Hickey, Mrs MacPherson, Mrs Preston…the list goes on I promise. Thank you!

Picture of a head

How to make money out of the stuff in your head

Kylie Fennell
These days you can find anything you need to know on the internet – though sometimes it’s hard to sift through the good, the bad and the ugly.
My point is that in an information rich society, marketers and businesses need to keep up – that is, they have to meet the demand for information.
 
Your potential customers want to know everything about your products or services, their features, their benefits, and useful tips they can use, all before they’ve handed over a cent.
 
You can resist all you like but to maintain a competitive edge and convince people to buy from you need to provide valuable content first.
 
More than value, you should be prepared to give away your ‘secret sauce’ recipe (up to a certain point).
 
In one of my previous posts I explained how giving away useful and free content is like the customer tasting a wine sample before buying a whole bottle. You are not giving away the whole bottle, just a sample to entice potential prospects.

It’s important to realise that future prospects are not necessarily your current customers. They may not even be in the market for your products or services at this point in time. What they are looking for is some easy-to-find, relevant information to solve their immediate problem. When they are ready to buy hopefully they’ll come to you – because you were so helpful.
 
Many businesses these days have taken this thirst for information a step further. They’ve realised we’re in a knowledge economy and leveraged this by selling the stuff they have in their head.
 
For example, a make-up artist may have been limited in income by the number of individual clients they could see – but then they started providing make-up tutorial videos for free on their website and even a Youtube channel.
 
All of a sudden they have even more clients. Then it builds to a point where she uses the free tutorials as a teaser for a whole online course she is offering, which she can sell and deliver to thousands of people simultaneously. 
 

Do you have stuff in your head you could sell?

Photo by meo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-head-bust-print-artwork-724994/

 

The olden days – what’s the appeal?

Kylie Fennell

Ever since I can remember I have been obsessed with stories set in historical periods.

The historical period didn’t really matter – as long as it was a different time and place.

My husband would say: “Is that another ‘Olden Days’ story your reading/show your watching?”.

The main attraction for me I think was the (perceived) romanticism or days gone by, kings, queens, costumes and escapism.

In more recent years I’ve leant towards historical fiction and I’m not the only one.

Historical fiction has gained some serious traction in recent years. A few of my favourites include Ken Follet’s Pillars of the Earth set in the Middle Ages and Fall of Giants set in World War I; Philippa Gregory’s Respectable Trade about the slave trade and her Tudor and War of the Roses series; and Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize winning Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, which told the story of Henry VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell.

So what is historical fiction and why is it so appealing?

Generally speaking it is set around historical events or characters, feature language and style that evokes the time period and may confront difficult, or anachronistic, social issues through the plot.

For me the best historical fiction has well-researched facts about the events and characters and these blend seamlessly with the story and fictional elements. I accept that many characters may be invented or some of the known facts may be massaged or embellished but at its core there has to be a level of authenticity.

I love the idea of getting to know another time or place that actually existed but in an engaging and entertaining way that can sometimes only be achieved via fictional elements.

It’s important that I believe the characters could have been real people who lived in that time and could within reason have acted the way portrayed in the story.

I guess the crux of it is that I like non-fiction and history, but I’m a lazy reader and want to entertained.

Judge me if you wish but the Olden Days with a bit of artistic licence is my happy place.

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Customers don’t give a fig about pricing

Kylie Fennell

Your customers don’t actually give a fig about pricing!

More accurately, your ‘ideal’ customers don’t care about it as much as you think they do.
Many business owners, including myself, have spent hours agonising over price.
Women business owners particularly struggle setting their prices and being comfortable with their actual worth.
We ask ourselves: “How much would my customer be willing to pay?”, “Am I too expensive?”, “Am I pricing myself out of the market?”.
You could drive yourself around the bend trying to match your competitor’s pricing, but that is merry-go-round you don’t want to ride on.
For the vast majority of businesses, industries, products and services, your A and B list clients are happy to pay whatever price you’re asking, as long as they’re getting value for money.
Customers only need to be convinced they’re getting what they paid for, that is “It’s worth it” – and the beauty of value and worth is that it’s subjective.
To explain myself, value is in the eyes of the beholder, that is, pricing is directly related to “perceived value”.
As long as the perceived benefits you offer, stack up to the price you’re asking, then the customers you want will be willing to pay it.
The customers that don’t want to pay it, are probably your D-list clients – the ones that are going to be too much trouble to deal with and you don’t want anyway.
The benefits you can offer clients are almost endless but include:
  • Emotional benefits – does the customer feel good or happy buying your product or service
  • Social benefits – will it make the customer look good to others, or increase their social standing
  • Economic benefits – will it help them save or make money in the long run
  • Lifestyle benefits – will it save them time, make their life better
  • Moral benefits – will it benefit others, the community or environment
  • Feature benefits – what will the customer actually get and particularly can’t get from somewhere else
  • Risk reduction benefits – what do you offer that may reduce their fear or level of perceived risk buying from you or your industry.

Now I’m not giving you open licence to charge exorbitant prices. At the end of the day customers have to be convinced they’re getting value for money and the only way to do that is to match your pricing to your unique benefit statements.

Give them reasons to trust you and have a level of comfort buying from you.
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Reading

Go and get happy. Read!

Kylie Fennell

Over the years I’ve gone to a few different leadership courses for work. Some stick in my mind for different reasons.

There was the one that had half the room sobbing uncontrollably within the first 30 mins of a four day course – surprisingly a good course.

The one though that I remember above all included a moment that is etched in my memory – I remember it clearly because I vehemently disagreed with the speaker.

The so called business expert and leadership coach said something along the lines of: “If you ever want to succeed in life and business, you must only feed your mind with non-fiction educational and learning materials.”

What she meant by this and I recall her actually saying was: “Watching any form of reality TV or content that is purely for entertainment purposes, is a complete waste of your time and brain, and will affect your ultimate success”.

This point was debated for some time. In the room were people including myself rapidly justifying to her why we watched reality shows and other “TV junk”. We were desperately seeking her approval.

In the room we had people who worked intensely busy jobs (including myself at the time), where it wasn’t unheard of to work 60 hour weeks. We had former journalists, emergency services workers and soldiers who had been on the frontline.

We argued that these people (us) deserved a little escapism. Time to watch something that required no thought. With no other purpose than to be entertained.

The speaker shut us down again, reinforcing her message that we were “wasting our lives”.

Now we weren’t talking about people who watch what may be considered an unhealthy amount of TV but everyday people who had a sense of fun. She was unmoved. We would “never succeed”.

So okay TV programs, especially reality TV may be a subject of huge debate, but what the speaker said next shouldn’t be – heck as far as I’m concerned she had lost the plot.

She claimed to be a leader and a success you should only read “NON-fiction” books that are designed to “feed your mind”.

Apparently fictional books don’t “feed your mind” with anything useful.

To be honest I kind of felt sorry for her at this point . If you can’t enjoy reading in any form that you wish, then your mind isn’t being fed. It is being starved!!

It doesn’t matter whether you enjoy reading Mills & Boon or Man Booker prize winning literature.

It doesn’t matter if you do prefer non-fiction or your favourite item to read is the footy magazine.

Reading should make you feel happy, contented, alive, informed, entertained even sometimes it should make you sad or even angry. The bottom line is that reading makes you “FEEL”. Having your emotional needs met DOES feed the mind.

If you don’t believe me, read this article in the New Yorker about how reading makes you happy.

The same goes for TV and film to a certain extent. You shouldn’t have to justify to anyone why you like watching a particular show or movie.

I’m going to put it out there: I love A LOT of reality TV (for varying reasons that I don’t have to justify). You may judge me but I love Goggle Box, Masterchef, My Kitchen Rules, Real Housewives of Anywhere, but I also love drama, documentaries, crime…I love stories.

Stories, imagery, people, words…they are my oxygen…I must have more information…I must feel something…yes watch what you want, but more importantly read what meets your needs and your mind will be fed.

I saw a quote once that “a library is a hospital for the mind” and that members of the jury is where I rest my case. Go forth and read and watch whatever the heck you want!

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Marketing lessons from the Minions

Kylie Fennell

They’re everywhere! Minions by the millions! These pint-sized yellow dudes in overalls, goggles and a penchant for bottom jokes and bodily noises have taken over the world in recent weeks.

They first appeared in the delightfully clever Despicable Me movies and their very own Minions movie was released – conveniently – in time for school holidays. 

Of course this was accompanied by the usual marketing and merchandise designed to reel in kids and drag along their unsuspecting parents.

Convincing parents to take their child to the Minions movie (or in my case getting Granny and Da to take Master Five) wasn’t a hard sell. The Despicable Me series successfully marries 5-year-old toilet humour with gags that are as equally appealing to adults.

However the Minions didn’t stop there. The Minions went far beyond the usual promotion and took ‘Pester Power’ to a new level.

Pester Power 

Minions seemed to be popping up everywhere. Stalking me from every bus ad to shopping centre appearances. Then of course there were the McHappy Meal toys and Kinder Surprise toys.

Let me tell you –  “Hell hath no fury like a 5-year-old who didn’t get the Minion toy he wanted” or worse still – “I’ve already got that one!” – followed by said toy being thrown, tears and tantrums.


Welcome to the Power of Pester. That is, the marketing genius of getting children to pressure their parents to make a certain purchase.

So what can you learn from the Minions when it comes to marketing?

You can learn the difference between marketing to a customer and a consumer – and that sometimes you need to market to more than one person.

Customers vs Consumers

It’s important of course to know who your target market and ideal customers are.

However it’s just as important to understand your potential influencers – people who have the ability to influence others to buy from you.

Additionally you must understand, who is actually making the buying decision and the purchase?

You’re going to need to know the difference between Customers and Consumers.

Customers are those people who make the buying decision and purchase products for their own or someone else’s use, while consumers are the people who use the goods or service. 

Sometimes the customer and consumer are the same person, but often they are different. For example a parent could buy their child a new toy. The child in this case is the consumer and the parent is the customer. 

However this concept goes well beyond kids and toys.

Stop and really think about who makes or influences the ultimate buying decision for your products or services?


It may not be the person you initially think it is.

For example – putting generalisations aside for just a moment – often mothers (or those doing the grocery shopping) make a lot of household buying decisions for their spouses and children. When it comes to other types of purchases such as cars and trade based services, it may be a husband, father, brother or uncle with specific knowledge, influencing or making a purchase.

Finally, when it comes to marketing, you must consider how you’re going to reach your customers, consumers and influencers.

Don’t forget though that you should always tailor your marketing approach and messages to each person.

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My Top 5 Marriage Proposals from Literature

Kylie Fennell
Who doesn’t love a bit of romance between their favourite characters? It gets me thinking about my favourite marriage proposals in literature – starting with Mr Darcy of course.
 
 
1. Pride and Prejudice – Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett
Mr Darcy declares his love to Elizabeth, though it took two shots to get it right.
“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
2. Anne of the Island – Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe
Another 1 of 2 marriage proposals.
Gilbert [took] her hand in a clasp from which she could not free it. “There is something I want to say to you.”
“Oh, don’t say it,” cried Anne, pleadingly. “Don’t — PLEASE, Gilbert.”
“I must. Things can’t go on like this any longer. Anne, I love you. You know I do. I — I can’t tell you how much. Will you promise me that some day you’ll be my wife?”
“I — I can’t,” said Anne miserably. “Oh, Gilbert — you — you’ve spoiled everything.”
“Don’t you care for me at all?” Gilbert asked after a very dreadful pause, during which Anne had not dared to look up.
“Not — not in that way. I do care a great deal for you as a friend. But I don’t love you, Gilbert.”
“But can’t you give me some hope that you will — yet?”
“No, I can’t,” exclaimed Anne desperately. “I never, never can love you — in that way — Gilbert. You must never speak of this to me again.”
There was another pause — so long and so dreadful that Anne was driven at last to look up. Gilbert’s face was white to the lips. And his eyes — but Anne shuddered and looked away. There was nothing romantic about this. Must proposals be either grotesque or — horrible? Could she ever forget Gilbert’s face?
3. Jane Eyre – Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester
“Come to my side, Jane, and let us explain and understand one another.”
“I will never again come to your side: I am torn away now, and cannot return.”
“But, Jane, I summon you as my wife: it is you only I intend to marry.”
I was silent: I thought he mocked me.
“Come, Jane — come hither.”
“Your bride stands between us.”
He rose, and with a stride reached me.
“My bride is here,” he said, again drawing me to him, “because my equal is here, and my likeness. Jane, will you marry me?”
4. Gone with the Wind – Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara
“Say you’ll marry me when I come back or, before God, I won’t go. I’ll stay around here and play a guitar under your window every night and sing at the top of my voice and compromise you, so you’ll have to marry me to save your reputation.”
5. Emma – Emma Woodhouse and Mr Knightly
“I cannot make speeches, Emma,” he soon resumed; and in a tone of such sincere, decided, intelligible tenderness as was tolerably convincing.—”If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am.—You hear nothing but truth from me.—I have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it.—Bear with the truths I would tell you now, dearest Emma, as well as you have borne with them. The manner, perhaps, may have as little to recommend them. God knows, I have been a very indifferent lover.—But you understand me.—Yes, you see, you understand my feelings—and will return them if you can.
What did she say?—Just what she ought, of course. A lady always does.—She said enough to shew there need not be despair—and to invite him to say more himself. He had found her agitated and low.—Frank Churchill was a villain.— He heard her declare that she had never loved him. Frank Churchill’s character was not desperate.—She was his own Emma, by hand and word, when they returned into the house; and if he could have thought of Frank Churchill then, he might have deemed him a very good sort of fellow.
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Inspiration to Get You ‘Big Kev’ excited about marketing

Kylie Fennell 1 comment
When it comes to marketing inspiration and excitement – you can’t go past Big Kev – RIP big fella. Image source: photobucket.com

I’m on holidays next week. Just for one week. I’m not doing anything special but heck I’m looking forward to it.

It’s been a busy few months with the launch of my online marketing course and some exciting times with my clients.

The thing about holidays though is that you madly try to get as much work done as you can before you go on leave, so you can have a holiday. By the time you get to your holiday you’re stuffed!

Well that’s where I’m at. I have hit holiday preparation fatigue and need to write a blog post.

So here is a collection of inspirational marketing quotes to keep us ALL inspired. Enjoy!

1. “The objective of all advertising is to buy new customers at a profit. Learn what your customers cost and what they buy…spend all of your ammunition where it counts.” Claude Hopkins-Scientific Advertising (1923)

2. “In marketing I’ve seen only one strategy that can’t miss – and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last.” John Romero

3. “Good marketers see consumers as complete human beings with all the dimensions real people have.” Jonah Sachs

4. “Our jobs as marketers are to understand how the customer wants to buy and help them do so.”  Bryan Eisenberg

5. “Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication” Leonardo Da Vinci

6. “’Build it, and they will come’ only works in the movies. Social Media is a ‘build it, nurture it, engage them and they may come and stay’.” Seth Godin

7. “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is — it is what consumers tell each other it is.” Scott Cook

8. “As you’ve noticed, people don’t want to be sold. What people do want is news and information about the things they care about.” Larry Weber

9. “Marketing is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content marketing is showing the world you are one.” Robert Rose

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY

10.  “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.” David Packard

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Why I’m Still in Mourning for Deadwood

Kylie Fennell

I am still in mourning. One of my favourite TV series, Justified, finished a little while ago after six seasons.

In Justified, Timothy Olyphant portrays Raylan Givens, a tough US Marshal enforcing his own brand of justice in his hometown of Harlan, Kentucky.

Raylan Givens is something of a 19th-century–style, Old West lawman living in modern times, whose unconventional enforcement of justice makes him a target of criminals, and a problem child to his US Marshals Service superiors.

The good guys are great, and the bad guys are awesome!

From Boyd Crowder, a master criminal and silver tongued devil in a tight-fitting suit, to Dickie Bennett and his hill-billy marijuana growing family and the mishap-prone Dewey Crowe, it is truly entertaining.

Like any good things though they must come to an end, which led me to search for another show to fill the empty space in my heart.

The most obvious next step was to revisit Deadwood, which also featured Timothy Olyphant, but only ran for three seasons (2004-2006). It may be 10 years old, but this series hasn’t lost any of its shine for me.

The TV Series was based on and inspired in parts by actual facts and real people from Deadwood, South Dakota circa 1877. The series featured larger-than-life characters like “Wild Bill” Hickok, “Calamity Jane” Cannary, the Earp brothers, and Al Swearengen.

I loved it mainly for the show’s unusual dialogue.

The show creators injected Shakespearean language into the American Wild West and peppered it with what’s been described as nothing short of “the most delightfully vulgar language you’ll ever hear on a TV show”.

Unfortunately Deadwood met a premature end (like many of the Deadwood inhabitants) for the same reason it’s fans loved it – the language. The venn diagram above explains more.

So yes I mourn the ending of Justified and Deadwood, but while there is Timothy Olyphant and show creators such as those that brought us these series, there is still some hope of bringing the Wild West, amazing characters and dialogue with a difference, back to life.

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