Touch Points

Climbing the Hill Too High

Monday Morning Memo for January 31, by Roy H. Williams

Niche marketing was born the day a clear-eyed realist chose to dominate a subcategory when the master category seemed too high a hill to climb. "Instead of trying to become a major retailer of home furniture, I'll become the king of affordable dinettes. Instead of making a run at used cars, I'll dominate used Corvettes instead."

Focused specialization makes sense, and in some circumstances it's exactly the right thing to do. But beware the temptation to think too small. Climbing molehills is easy. And when the time comes to plant your flag on top, you'll find there's already a convenient hole in it for you. Long live the king...

Voices of Dissent

Monday Morning Memo for January 24, 2005 by: Roy H. Williams

I was writing an upbeat and instructional memo to send you today called Confidence: Where to Get It and How to Keep It. But it's going to have to wait. This other thing just wouldn't turn me loose until I wrote it down and sent it to you.

Have you ever had a concept slap you in the face with every twist of your consciousness? The slap-fest began for me on Friday, when my chief media buyer asked to have a long discussion with me about television. Juan Guillermo Tornoe rarely requests my time. We had a long heart-to-heart about TV ads and then went home for the weekend...

The Gift of 500 Years

MMM for Monday January 17, 2005 from Roy H. Williams

It was Christmas Eve, 1513. In just two more years, 78 year-old architect Giovanni Giocondo would be dead, having filled Europe with magnificent buildings and bridges that continue to stand unweathered in the year 2005. During that night he wrote a note to his friend, Allagia Aldobrandeschi. The note, like his other work, remains:

A Simple Greeting That Will Increase Retail Sales Today!

From The E-MYTH Revisited by Michael E. Gerber

www.e-myth.com

 

In Fact some of the more powerful Innovations have required little more than a change of a few words, a gesture, a color of clothing.

For example, what does the salesperson in a retail store invariably say tothe incoming customer? He says, "May I help you?" Have you heard that one before?

And how does the customer invariably respond? He says, "No thanks, just looking." Have you ever said that one before?

Of course you have!

In fact, it’s a universal phenomenon...

Before You Begin Writing Those Ads...

Roy H. Williams - Monday Morning Memo for January 10, 2005
Which do you think would work better, the brilliant execution of a flawed strategy, or the flawed execution of a brilliant one?

In business, it's the flawed execution of a brilliant strategy that usually wins the day.

Most advertising professionals are unwilling to question a client's strategy because they're afraid of losing the account. So they happily pretend that "good writing, scientifically selected colors, powerful pictures and reaching the right audience" is all that's needed to make money in America.

Piffle and Pooh. Give me average writing, bland colors, no pictures, the wrong people and a strong strategy and I'll have to rent a trailer to haul my money to the bank...

My "Go To" Quote from Charles Swindoll

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change the past...we cannot change that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes."

I first read this quote in a church bulliten many years ago,clipped it out and kept it.  The original clip out still hangs on my corkboard above my desk.  We lost a family member on Christmas Day, cash flow has been tight, both with the business and personally and I've been dragging my ass for a few weeks. Having just read this quote and feeling it's motivational impact again has lifted a cloud and I feel new energy coursing through my body. Do you have a "go to" quote that you keep handy like this one for me? If so, I invite you to share it with us.

Cheers

Steve

Cecil, Charlie, and Lagniappe

From the Wizard Tower Chronicles on Making Ads Work
By Roy H. Williams. Originally published on this blog in August 2004. Worth reading again.

Lagniappe (Pronounced - Lan-Yap, for us Aussies)

“I was charged a fair price,” is not the statement of an excited customer, yet many business owners mistakenly believe they need only to convince the public that they will be treated “fairly” to win their business. Phrases like “Honest Value for Your Dollar” and “Fair and Honest Prices” tempt me to say (with no small amount of sarcasm), “Yippee Skippy, call the press.”

If the most your customer can say when he walks out your door is, “I was treated fairly,” your business is pitifully stale and you have virtually nothing to advertise. Why? Because the expectation of “fair treatment” is such a basic assumption in business dealings that most people take it for granted. What we really hope to find is “the delight factor.”

Taking Note of the Little Things

From my good friend and colleague Michele Miller about her stay at the Delta Winnepeg:

I've spent more time on the road than off lately, and have gotten to the point of saying things like, "Well, if it's Tuesday, it must be Philadelphia." Seems to be the only way I can keep track of my current location, short of purchasing a GPS navigation device.

Last week it was Winnipeg, including great meetings with a client and hundreds of kilometers put on the rental car driving between their chain of stores across southern Manitoba. The funny thing is, I would arrive back at the Delta Hotel in the early evening, exhausted but actually looking forward to walking into my hotel room.

When I arrived in Winnipeg, instead of checking me into a regular room and making me pay for all of the "extras" (such as high-speed internet), they asked a simple question: Would you like to upgrade to our Signature Club room for $25 more? After they explained what it included, how could I say no?

Thoughts to Think in the New Year

Monday Morning Memo January 3, 2005

From Roy H. Williams

"You've heard that before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes? This is true. It's called living."

I'd love to take credit for that line, but I lifted it from an obscure novel by Terry Pratchett. It's one of the 716 random quotes that magically appear, like a secret message in your alphabet soup, each time you visit WizardAcademy.com. Most of these quotes you won't find anywhere else because I don't take them from quote books or compilations, but from strange and interesting places. And from even stranger and more interesting people...