What's In A Name? Ask BOTOX®.

We're all familiar with BOTOX®. The magic injection that makes us look instantly younger. BOTOX® itself has become a word similar to Kleenex® or Xerox®, a brand name used to broadly identify its product category. There are many other uses for BOTOX® than the most commonly prescribed, but it's the very fact of the BOTOX® omnipotence that makes it such a marketing success story.

The name BOTOX® seems innocent enough. But BOTOX® is short for Botulinum Toxin, or botulism. Botulism, among its other traits, paralyzes you. Food-borne botulism is contracted due to poor hygiene (usually involving canning or food packaging).

And yet BOTOX® is one of the most popular elective medical treatments on the market. It's also one of the most impressive marketing success stories out there. Imagine if you were the agency in charge of introducing Botulinum toxin to the general public - the pitch meeting would go something like this:

"What's the new product?"
"Botulism."
"Botulism like the deadly botulism?"
"No, this is perfectly safe."
"What makes it safe?"
"You inject it into your face."
"Why?"
"It gets rid of wrinkles for a while."
"But it's botulism."
"Aside from the name, it's a great idea."

BOTOX® had a name problem. There was no way in the world they could market their product, no matter how effective it was, by calling it by its real name. It would be like introducing a new cereal called "Plague Flakes". So they came up with BOTOX®, a softer, gentler version of its key ingredient. Two syllables, rolls off the tongue, has no negative connotations, and is completely ambiguous. Millions of BOTOX® injections later, the name has done the trick.

It works the same way with your business. Sometimes calling yourself "Jones & Son" works. Sometimes it doesn't. If you run a mom-and-pop operation that builds relationships on a micro level, "Jones & Son" works. You have a small operation, your customers are usually dealing with either Jones or his son, and the business is designed to be small. For a larger organization, "Jones & Son" doesn't work. The more faces a customer has the potential to see means the company has a broader scope. Something like "Andrew Jones Incorporated" works if the name is well known - but a broader name, a less specific name, allows the company to have its own identity separate from the original owner.

If you are weighing the balance between having the name mean something and having the name sound good rolling off the tongue, rolling off the tongue wins. Look at "Google". Or "Yahoo." Or "Bing." Sometimes simply having a name that is unique will be the thing that gets you remembered.

There are benefits to having a simple, meaningful name. "Rosenplot Design", for instance, is purposely named because I establish personal relationships with my clients. My name is my company. My reputation is tied into it. As my business expands, it is quite possible my company name would change to reflect the broader influence of new partners. Another benefit of my name being the name of my business is that Rosenplot is an uncommon name. "Jones & Son" doesn't carry the same uniqueness as "Rosenplot Design".

Your name should also be dependent on your industry. The name of a technology company will and should be very different from a bakery, or a moving company, or a Realtor®. Keep in mind the vernacular of your market. What are your customers expecting? A bakery called "MotorGears" or a moving and storage company called "Fluffy Puppies" probably wouldn't connect with their customers. Choosing a name that's both unique and appropriate allows you to tap into the cultural references and language of your customers.

Take a lesson from BOTOX®. Sometimes a name is more than just a name.

Patience, Grasshopper

When you begin any marketing or brand awareness campaign, patience is not always foremost in your mind. Your product or service or company is the best ever and simply opening the doors will leave you flooded with customers. As anyone who's ever introduced a product or started a company understands, that is not the case. Brand awareness takes time. Lots of time. And during that time, you'll be forced to spend gobs of money that you can't afford on media that looks great when the salesperson is in your office but shows absolutely no signs of life once your campaign begins.

Unfortunately, there's no easy way around this. Introducing something new is very difficult. Even if you don't have direct competition, you have perceived competition. If you're the only Italian restaurant in town, for instance, you may think you've got a corner on the market. But you're competing against a finite number of customers who are either not aware of your restaurant, not in the mood for your style of food, want to eat somewhere tried and true, have a coupon, don't want to hassle with parking ... the list goes on. You may be the only one of your kind, but you are certainly not immune to competition. Your food may be incredible and your service out of this world, but if you aren't "top of mind", you will lose business.

So how do you become top of mind? The answer? With lots and lots of patience.

DEFINE YOUR GOALS
What are you hoping to achieve? Think both long term and short. Your overall goal may be to franchise your Italian restaurant, but there are many, many steps between here and there. What do you hope to achieve in the next month? The next three months? The next six? Be reasonable. Having seven restaurants in six months is not only very difficult to achieve financially, it's also very difficult to manage. Your first Italian restaurant is where you work out your processes. It's where you fall flat on your face a few times. What's a reasonable goal? It's something achievable. It requires you to stretch, but doesn't require you to break.

POINT YOURSELF IN THAT DIRECTION
Your closest goal is the one you focus on. Your three month goal is to increase dinner reservations by 30%, let's say. Point yourself that way. Focus exclusively on promoting your dinner menu. Invite movers and shakers from the community to dine at a special opening event. Use social media to generate a buzz. You have a Facebook page - enlist your friends. Ask them to enlist their friends. It's a network - that's how it works. Keep in mind that any broad marketing you do will have a very low feedback rate. You're not just starting a restaurant - you're establishing a brand.

Remember to set your baseline. You can't measure success unless you know where you've been.

LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS
You may know the best way to cook lasagna, but if your customers don't like it, you have to change. Your customers will not change, and shame on the business owner who demands that. Your customers will tell you what works and what doesn't. All you need to do is listen.

MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE
Allow your strategy to work. Whatever combination of promotional material, word-of-mouth, social media, etc. you choose to use, let it work. It takes time. There are various environmental factors that can contribute to why people aren't seeking you out. Using our Italian restaurant as an example, it may be that your potential customers have a favorite place and haven't discovered you yet; it may be that it's too hot outside and Italian food seems too heavy; it may be that people are on vacation; there might be something happening on American Idol. The point is, don't throw away your plan simply because you don't have instant gratification. You won't. Branding takes time.

FOCUS ON SHORT TERM CASH FLOW
Most new business owners cut their startup investment very close to the wire. By the time all the expenses have tripled and the marketing budget comes around, business owners are so tired of spending money with no return that they demand something immediate from the marketing. Creating your identity takes time. Most businesses will not see a profit for at least two or three years. How do you mitigate this? Focus on keeping afloat. Working for cost or just above cost will allow you to keep yourself above water long enough for you to catch on. Every day you stay in business is another victory. Celebrate that. Your franchise may be years away, but you will have earned your business by fighting in the trenches. Successful business owners are those who make failure a four-letter word. Failure and falling on your face are two different things. Failure means you don't get back up. Falling on your face means you take your blows and live to fight another day.

My Customers Will Always Buy Local. Won't They?

Local businesses tend to believe that if they build it, their customers will come. Everyone wants to support local businesses, right? That works when the economy is good. The moment the economy goes south, most consumers will throw their social conscience out the window in exchange for lower prices. In the real world, simply being local doesn't always cut it. In the age of the Internet, your competition is not just the local megastore, but can be any online outlet store anywhere in the world. How do you compete?

It's important to not rely on the implied guilt trip of being local. There are lots of good reasons to shop locally, but a majority of people do so only during times of abundance. It's the same thing as buying organic. Unless your customers have a specific moral reason to do so, buying local and buying organic are the first things that people stop doing. So the question becomes how to ensure your customers have more reasons to use your services than the fact that you're their neighbor.

Your overhead and limited buying power will likely not allow you to compete with megastores on price. You have to figure out a way to set your business apart. The simplest and most effective is by offering incredible service. Keep in mind that service extends to every member of your team, every sale you make and every issue that comes up with your products or services. If you lose a sale because your service is not exemplary, understand that you are likely losing the business of every person in that customer's sphere of influence. It will be nearly impossible to win them back.

Another way to remain competitive is to offer a wider selection. Consumers are used to shopping in locations that allow them to multitask when they shop. The days of visiting multiple small retailers for a single item are gone. Listen to your customers. What else do they need from you? If you sell shoes, have all related supplies available. If you sell cookware, also sell gadgets and ingredients your customers will need. Be as complete as you can in your stock.

If you can't compete on price, compete on quality. Sell higher quality merchandise than the megastore. Offer free classes on how to properly use the merchandise. Educate potential customers about the benefits of your higher end products. Offer follow up classes.

Set your business apart by using real differentiators. Don't rely on the fact that your shop is local. It might work when times are good, but the moment there's a hiccup in the economy, your business will be the first to go.

What Else Does Your Customer Do?

Your customers don't live in a vacuum. People have multiple interests - often disparate interests. Your product or service is one small part of what makes your customers whole. If you sell a consumer product, your customers will have multiple related consumer products they view as a part of a whole. If you sell business products or services, your customers will have and need multiple related things. Your business customers are also people. The decision makers have families. They have pets. They have parents. They have lives outside their business. Consumer customers can also be business people.

Talking to your customers in their language means you have to understand their entire world. Now, you can't customize your marketing plan to a specific individual. There are certain generalities you make based on what your customers are most likely to do. Marketing is about stereotypes - not in a negative way, but as a means of targeting a group of individuals in a broad way. It's about hitting the widest target with the least amount of ammo.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Let's say you run a small cafe in  a downtown area. Your cafe isn't isolated. Potential customers are generally not coming downtown to visit your cafe exclusively. They are likely shopping or going to a show at the theater or visiting a museum or visiting an art gallery. Your customers have multiple other interests. You can be part of their experience by tapping into how they're using downtown. They are visiting for specific reasons - you can make your cafe fit into their day. You achieve this by being aware of events that are going on, patterns throughout the day and week and promote your cafe according to how your potential customers are experiencing the entire area. Partner with some of the venues to help customers make the connection between visiting these places and visiting your place. Link yourself to where your customers are and you become part of what they're doing. You become part of their experience.

Another example - your shop sells a specific type of product - let's say a specific line of athletic shoes. You've noticed that sales are way down. Because your athletic shoes are so good, they don't need to be replaced often. Your clients are thrilled, but repeat business is way down. Your existing customers would buy more product from you but don't need it. Expanding your product line to include additional related products such as dress shoes, hiking boots and other high quality footwear allows you to tap into the goodwill of your existing client base and increase multiple sales. People have multiple footwear needs - people buying athletic shoes also need dress shoes. By understanding that your customers have multiple interests and mutiple needs, you can offer product lines that satisfy each of them. You increase your sales by increasing the per-customer sales.  You know your customer has multiple needs and you're satisfying them.

Business owners tend to have tunnel vision. They establish their business because they want to sell one certain thing. While that is the impetus for starting a business, don't forget that your customers have many other interests. Figuring out what else your customer needs and providing it for them will increase your bottom line and your customer loyalty.

Antisocial Media - A Case Study

Recently a local restaurant owner had customers in her restaurant that brought an infant child into the restaurant. The child obviously didn't want to be there, and cried and screamed the whole time. The incident itself is repeated every day all across the world. What sets this one apart is that the owner posted a lengthy complaint about these guests on her Facebook business page. In the post, the owner stated that other customers were disrupted, and that she overcharged the customers for their meal to compensate for her staff's trouble. Unfortunately, the subject of the post turned out to be a fan of the page.

If you don't think social media matters to your business, try doing something like this. Social media is a phenomenal tool - and can also be a nightmare. For businesses that want to increase word-of-mouth traffic, spreading their message across social media is worth its weight in gold. The benefit of re-posts recommendations and sharing is that your business is being introduced into the lives of your customers' friends. In essence, your customer is working for you. The downside, of course, is that one blunder can spread worldwide in a matter of moments. Social media, like the Internet itself, is perpetual. Everything you've ever done online, every mistake you've ever made, every embarrassment, is forever captured and cataloged and archived.

Let's start with the basics - never, ever, ever post a complaint about a customer anywhere. Don't even send it in an email. If you can help it, don't put it in writing. The customer may not always be right, (and quite often isn't), but they're your boss. Social media gives us the feeling of invulnerability - the same feeling we have when we're in our car. But like driving our cars, accidents happen when we're careless. And for crying out loud, don't post it on your business page. Especially if the person you're posting about is a fan of your page.

The business owner had the ability to salvage the situation at several points. First, as the owner of the business, she had a responsibility to the majority of her clientele who were being disrupted. Much like the captain of a ship, the business owner has absolute authority in a situation like this. Simply explaining privately to the parent that the child's unhappiness was disruptive to the other guests and asking the parent to quiet the child or come back another time without the child would likely have solved everything. At worst, the restauranteur would have lost one customer instead of the dozens she now has lost.

Second, the business owner should never in a million years have posted the customer complaint. Once the customer commented on the post and the comments began to fly, she should have immediately removed the post. She should then have called the customer directly and offered a full apology. Offering a free meal or two wouldn't hurt, either. Although the customer was originally at fault for the disruption by not listening to the needs of her child and having the common courtesy to leave the situation without disrupting everyone else around her, the business owner made cardinal mistakes in handling this situation. (And I know many people will argue that point, that the customer was at fault. But as a business owner, you are responsible for the satisfaction of everyone, not a single person. As a customer, you need to recognize when your behavior or the behavior of those in your party - whether they are capable of stopping the behavior or not - is disruptive. And as a parent, your responsibility is the well being of your child. If your infant child is incapable of handling a high stress social situation, it is your responsibility to remove your child from that situation. Unfortunately, your social life goes on hold in many ways when you are the parent of a small child. It doesn't last forever.)

I didn't hear about this story firsthand. A friend reposted the link. As did many others. A relatively small circle of people suddenly grew into a huge group of people with most now having a strong negative opinion of the restaurant. Social media travels fast. Impossibly fast.

The best way to avoid negative publicity is to not do something that will cause it. Never complain about customers, even on your personal social media pages. If a customer is unhappy, make them happy. No matter what. It is far easier and less expensive to give away a few meals than to have to undo catastrophic damage. If you're at fault, make it right. Make the solution exceed the problem. Make the customer remember the solution.

Branding versus Targeted Advertising

Business owners tend to want an immediate return on their investment. Who can blame them? Most consumer-facing businesses operate on a quid-pro-quo basis. Goods or services are exchanged for compensation, usually within a short time frame. This is the way business is done, after all. Why should marketing be any different?

Marketing works on a more glacial timeline. A majority of your company's marketing budget will never see a clear return on the investment. This portion of your marketing budget is called "branding". This represents the ethereal, intangible "brand identity" that's created by repetition of a single message. Creating a brand identity takes patience. And consistency. The trick is repetition. The same message, across as many venues as you can afford, targeting your audience.

Soft drink companies are good examples of how to create brand identity. By repeating their message over and over again, it burns itself into your mind. When you're ready to purchase a drink, the brand has stuck with you and you make your buying decision based on the brand awareness the soft drink company has implanted in you by repeating their message. Otherwise known as "top-of-mind recognition", establishment of a brand identity means that, when your customer is ready to buy, yours is the first name they think of.

Targeted advertising, on the other hand, can be thought of as a time limited event. For instance, a one-day-only sale moves only items that are on sale. An event around a holiday can drive short-term traffic to your business but is not likely to create loyal customers. Direct, time limited advertising has a strong place in any marketing plan. However, relying too heavily on this immediate traffic with sales and limited time items will cheapen your brand. Companies that are always having sales will be viewed as the discount store - and cause potential customers to only shop the sales.

Establishing a brand identity allows your business to build a reputation all the time, not just when you're trying to move overstocked merchandise.

A brand identity consists of a logo or wordmark, a consistent color scheme, consistent font choices and additional peripheral items - an informational website, store signage (both inside and out), vehicle signage, salesperson apparel, printed materials, giveaway items and anything else that puts your business name in front of the public without directly asking for their business. Clearly state what you do, what sets you apart and why you understand your customer's needs better than your competition.

Consistency. Patience. Repetition. It's how businesses create their identities.