Here’s a layout of my marketing thoughts for the week. Someone asked me, “Why all the marketing talk?”

Two things:

1. That’s my role at my company. I am the Marketing Director.
2. I am preparing a few presentations on marketing for this year, so I am very purposefully trying to write more.

*Bad Marketing: McDonalds

*Brand [dis]trust

*SPAM

*Marketing is…

*Good Marketing: LifeGem

The better solution for web site marketing is multi-sites.

Since you have MULTIPLE AUDIENCES visiting your site, you should have MULTIPLE LANGUAGES.

And multiple entry points.

What if your web sites looked less like a pyramid and more like this:

Different places to jump on, different languages, different levels of information. They all become tracks that you control and it allows you to lead people to where they NEED to go.

We are experimenting with this right now. We developed a site that we will use on all our external marketing that only gives new prospects what they need to know at that stage in their exploration of the company.

I think you’ll start to see a lot more of this.

I was at a marketing conference a few weeks ago and the lady speaking made the statement that your web site is NOT external marketing.

Hmmmm…. instantly she had my attention.

Her reasoning was that web sites are designed for those who already have a general idea about your company or business. If they know how to get to your site, then they know your company and therefore it’s not external marketing.

Okay, sure… I understand. But is that true?

The problem I see is that most web sites are built to be one all-inclusive stop for information. Put everything about your business on that site.

Which causes a conflict because you have MULTIPLE AUDIENCES and only ONE LANGUAGE.

There’s only one track to gain information. You either assume everyone knows something about your company or you assume that everyone knows nothing about your company. It looks like a pyramid; ONE entry point accesses ALL the information.

So I think she’s right in regards to current web culture. Web sties are not external marketing.

But what if they were?

So, I was in Johnny Buccelli’s over the weekend and a placed an order at the counter for a grilled steak BBQ sub. The place was busy and the girl taking my order was polite, but when they called my name to come pick up my sandwich, I realized that it didn’t come with fries.

They sell their fries separately.

Which is fine.

They’re a $1.70 extra.

But money’s not the point.

The point is I wanted fries. And nobody told me how to get them.

The most profitable marketing question ever created is:

“Do you want fries with that?”

Billions of dollars in the fast food industry are generated from that one question every year.

And it works. Because you are at their restaurant, ordering their food and you have given them the permission to remind you.

But the girl at Johnny B’s didn’t think it was a big deal.

Blendtec is a great example of digital marketing 2.0 with their creative use of media to turn a mundane blender into a high-end kitchen appliance.

Blendtec founder Tom Dickson produced a series of 30 second viral videos showing his product pulverizing marbles, golf balls, cigarette lighters and even an iphone. The catch phrase, “Yes, it blends!” appears on the screen at the end of each video. Since their debut, the videos have been viewed more than 35 million times and the company’s sales have grown fivefold to $10 million.

Here’s the laugh-out-loud part: the original five videos cost $50 to produce.

Shut up!

…and go fire your marketing director who wants to spend lots of money.

Hello. In case you haven’t noticed, the rules for marketing have changed. The world of marketing is radically different than it was only a few years ago.

The problem is that mainstream marketing was invented by BIG business with BIG money to sell product to the masses . Think Coke and Tide.

Today’s new marketing is about complexity and individuality. Think youTube and Starbucks.

We are witnessing the emergence of a new suite of digital marketing tools that are quickly becoming the norm.

Here’s the digital suite and the tools that make them up.

WEB: blogs, mulit-sites, rss, technorati, digg
SOCIAL NETWORKS: myspace, facebook, virb, squidoo
TEXT: email, SMS, twitter
MEDIA: flickr, youtube, podcasting
MOBILE: iphone is changing phone culture

Which ones are you using as part of your marketing strategy?

I’ve got a bunch of marketing thoughts running through my head. I am going to lay them out in some short posts, so watch for the following this week:

*Digital Marketing 2.0

*Good Marketing: Blendtec

*The Most Profitable Marketing Question Ever

*Is Your Web Site External Marketing?

*Multi-Site Marketing

The big news in marketing right now is Wendys scrapping its recent ad campaign called “That’s Right” featuring an awkward male wearing red pigtails. L.A.-based firm Saatchi & Saatchi created the ads.

The very interesting story behind this, however came from the Wall Street Journal (you can’t access the ad without a subscription). Apparently, the initial plan was to have the actual Wendy - Wendy Thomas; Dave Thomas’ daughter who inspired the logo - be the new advertising face of the company.

Thomas, who is now in her 40’s did a screen test and the idea was rejected.

I think Wendy’s is losing sight of authenticity. It never was a 16 - 28 year-old male demographic that wants Baconator Burgers. Wendy’s has always been hometown, home-style burgers. And Dave always kept it simple.

It’s just bad marketing.

I recently found Jeremy Cowart’s Virb site which features a lot of his photography. I first ran into Jeremy with his book “Hope In The Dark: A Photographic Journey into the Humanity of Africa.” I posted about it here. Since then… I’ve been hooked.

Check out his stuff.

>> Sony uses a vanilla and mandarin aroma in their Sony Style Stores.

>> Abercrombie & Fitch has been using this technique for years; associating their stores with a specific smell.

In a nutshell, SCENT BRANDING is enhancing a brand image through aroma and ScentAir is leading the way. Associate a scent with a product and you unleash emotions and create experiences that stay with the consumer longer. People recall scent with 64% accuracy after a full year (Scent is the closest sense linked to memory). Compare that to 50% visual recall after 3 months and you can understand why companies are trying to add this sense to their marketing strategy.

If our sense of smell is responsible for 80% of what we taste, why wouldn’t an ice-cream store want to pump a waffle-cone scent into the air? Why wouldn’t Doubletree saturate their lobby with the smell of chocolate-chip cookies and then hand you one right out of the oven as you are checking in? I’ll bet that’s the best chocolate-chip cookie you’ve ever eaten.

I remembered when my church used to smell like old wall paper. It was a very distinguishable “old” smell. I hated it. In no way did it make you enjoy that fact that you had just walked into that building. It didn’t smell like excitement. It didn’t smell like energy. It was a “come here and die” smell. Once we remodeled, it disappeared. And now our cafe helps pump a light “coffee” scent through our foyer space.

But here’s the question: What if a church took the experience they are providing seriously and added a scent to help brand those moments into our lives? A fresh white tea or linen scent. Maybe spring shower or lemongrass. Maybe for your Nascar-themed series, you can use ScentAir’s engine exhaust or burning rubber. Maybe that western night could benefit from a little gun smoke and sagebrush in the air. What if your Christmas Eve service smelled like an evergreen forest upon entrance? What if…

I came across an ad for Coke Blak in my recent addition of Wired magazine. I personally like the taste of Coke and coffee together, but the whole marketing strategy is broken. Two reasons:

ONE: I don’t understand what they are trying to say. The ad says at the top, “Update your operating system.” Okay, you lost me right there. That doesn’t speak to my need to drink this. I don’t drink Coke Blak and think to myself, “I’m really glad I updated my operating system today.” It’s just stupid.

And underneath is the Coke Blak tag line, “Coke effervescence with Coffee essence.” What does that mean? I have no idea. But I do know that someone got paid a lot of money to think that up.

TWO: The packaging is all wrong. Smaller bottles and higher prices. They made the mistake of trying complete with Starbuck’s line of Frappuccinos. Coke is not coffee. Coke is coke. So don’t try to be coffee. And don’t try to compete with coffee. Coffee snobs will never drink Coke Blak.

Be Coke with a coffee flavor. Same bottle size, same price.

Anyway….

I was at Whole Foods last weekend when I overheard a lady ask the guys working in the Fish Department if they sold “organic” fish.

He explained to her that they don’t label fish “organic” because it all comes directly from… well… the ocean.

The lady stood there surprised. I don’t think she believed him.

It makes you think about that whole “organic” label thing though. I ended up buying some “organic” sweet corn on Wednesday. I wanted to ask the guy, “So this is organic corn? As opposed to corn that was grown in your basement?” I’m just not sure how that all works.

I think it’s kind of like when it became the cool thing to put “antibacterial” on a bottle of soap. “New Antibacterial Formula!” What was soap supposed to be before that?

The guys over at Studio 8e8 recently did a complete redesign of our school identity.

Mark Tracey of Illustrated Alaskan Moose did the new lion logo for us.

Check out the new brochure….. yes, that is a die cut.

I know… it’s swanky.

Last on my list is Branding.

Branding is your lowest form of marketing because there is no relational connection associated. It’s purpose is to expose people to your name/logo and increase awareness and comfort.

Branding is also asking the question, “What story are we telling?” If you have 3 seconds of a person’s attention as they’re driving by your billboard or sign, what do you want them to know about you?

So this is your external signage, your building, billboards, unsolicited direct mail, your web site, tv and radio ads.

On average, 15% of our guests attend a service because of our location and sign at our main entrance. But we have a great location. We are directly across from the biggest mall in Ohio. We are right in the middle of the Polaris Centers of Commerce. So we realize that our sign and our building is vitally important. It’s all marketing dollars. We have to reflect the standards of the commercial community around us. People have to drive by in 3 seconds and know that we are not a church that is 30 years out-dated.

We get a lot of people that see our building and huge 9′ x 21′ sign and after driving by it every day for 18 months, decide to check us out.

Because of this, we don’t do a lot of direct mail or billboards because we feel like our money is better spent in our sign and building design.

Where is your best exposure happening?

One of the things that is unique to our church is what I call Feeders.

We have a sports program (UPWARD) and a soon coming child-care center (The Gathering Place) that actually feed our Sunday morning attendance. They are entry points. Places where parents can get their kids involved in programs without the threat of having to “go to church.” And more and more parents are turning to Christian run sports and child-care programs because of the character building and morality… things they think are important for their child to grow up learning. The great thing is they don’t have to be a Christian to get involved in, unlike our Christian school (Polaris Christian Academy). So it becomes a non-threatening environment. And it gives us a chance to prioritize their child and really do a great job taking care of them. It builds trust and confidence.

These are places where we don’t hesitate to spend money because we know we are reaching our community.

So a good question to ask is, “If people will not come to a church service first, where else would they come in at?”

We have a member in our church who is a marketing consultant. She travels around and advises companies on where to spend their marketing money. I asked her where she thought our money was best spent. It was real easy: events.

If we are going to spend money, spend it on something that impacts and makes a difference in the community.

Since children and youth are our number one priority, this becomes a simple strategy. Here are some examples:

Our quarterly KidStuf events. We buy dinner and put on a 90 minute show geared towards both parents and kids.

We have a great VBS program that draws hundreds of kids every year.

We have found that a lot of people will not set foot in a church for a Sunday service, but they will attend a family-oriented event. Our events give them a chance to get accustomed to our church and hopefully a little more comfortable thinking about attending a service.

The second marketing thought is First Impressions.

This is the guts of it all.

You can have the best marketing plan in the world and have hundreds of people walking through your doors each month, but if you do not create a great first impression, you will lose every single one of them.

We ran some reports at the end of 2005 and realized that we had somewhere around 500 people enter our church for the first time in the last 6 months.

Have all those people become members? No.

Can we account for the majority of those people? No.

Did they not come back because of our first impression? We don’t know.

We’re trying to figure it out and make sure we don’t repeat our mistakes.

First impressions are your buildings and facilities (cafe, childrens’ rooms, signage) and parking lot, your guest services (greeter, hosts, check-in, ushers), childrens’ ministry, audio, video and lighting. It’s everything that creates your environment and atmosphere during that service. It’s kind of everything else other than the music and preaching. Because a first impression has already been formed by that point. Some say it takes 12 minutes, others say 2 minutes. It’s probably somewhere in between that. But we know that by the time the pastor takes the stage, people have already made their decision.

I think a guiding principle in this is to “Be Remarkable.” Are you a beach front property or a cookie-cutter, suburban house? Are we a Four Seasons hotel or the Holiday Inn down the street? There are churches all across this country that are predictable and franchised. The question is are we committed to being something remarkable?

I’ve been thinking through a marketing approach lately and reading a lot of books on the subject.

I’ve kind of narrowed it down to 5 different thoughts:

1. Word of Mouth
2. First Impression
3. Events
4. Feeders
5. Branding

The number one marketing focus of our church is Word of Mouth. Plain and simple. 85% of people attend church because of a friend or family member. It’s your strongest tool.

So in order to really use this well I think that you have to be focused on creating an unforgettable experience that is worth telling others about. You have to have some “buzz.” The little extra things that create big energy. What are you doing that makes people leave and want to tell other people about the church service they just attended?

We have a Sunday coming up soon where we are promoting our Life Groups. We decided to serve “Texas-style” chili after the service. I don’t even know what “Texas-style” chili is, but I know that people are more likely to talk about it.

We had a Catholic couple with a 20-month old daughter attend our service this last week. They left St. Michael’s because they wanted to attend a church that was “different.” I said, “We’re probably a little bit different than St. Michael’s.” He said, “You’re a lot different!” They loved the music, the message spoke directly to some things they had been thinking about and their daughter loved her nursery class. They will leave talking about this “different” experience they had.

We are in an experience economy. People don’t just want to attend church out of obligation or family heritage, they want an experience - an experience with God. Our role is to facilitate that. Have some fun, create some buzz, but always make sure our number one priority is God showing up and speaking to hearts. If we can do that, people will leave talking about what an unforgettable experience they had.

That’s word of mouth.

I have been working on a marketing strategy for the church lately. I will post some of my thoughts later, but in order to help me get a handle on it, I put together a stack of books that I have been reading through to help guide me in the process. Some of these are not directly marketing, but more customer service. That’s because your customer service and experience in a service industry is your marketing.

Purple Cow by Seth Godin: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

Branded Nation by James Twitchell: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Musemworld

Emotional Branding by Marc Gobe: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People

All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World

Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service

The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore: Work is Theater and Every Business is a Stage

The Center For Church Communication just published a report on church marketing.  You can download the 8 page document here.

I found the report very surprising.  Yet  it challenged me in our efforts to get our arms around a real marketing plan for The Church At Polaris.

Here are some of their findings:

76% of churches are not documenting or tracking the results of their marketing.

88% of churches rely on staff or volunteers to handle their marketing.

80% of churches spend less than $10,000 a year on marketing and promotion. ( Sidebar - a healthy marketing budget is 3 to 5% of the annual income.  That means a church with an annual budget of $300,000 should be spending about $10,000 a year on marketing.  A church with an annual budget of $300,000 typically has 250 - 400 people in it.)

83% of churches said their website was probably the most important piece of marketing that they do.  Yet 44% of church websites are handled by volunteers.  Another 46% by staff.  Only 5% of churches hire an outside company to handle their site.

The final results:  Churches are actually doing more marketing than expected, though they don’t seem to be follow a plan.

“Churches have the greatest story ever told, but no one’s listening.  We think there’s a communication problem.  That remarkable story is lost thanks in part to poor research, little or no planning, bad clip art, cheesy photos and ignorable ads.

We believe there is a better way.  It’s not simply flashy designs or catchy slogans, but effective and authentic communication.  If we can’t communicate, how can we fulfill the great commission?”