Bad Sales and Marketing Promotions - If You Are Not Going to Do it Right, Don't Do it At All

I see some really bad promotions and marketing all of the time. They make me want to pull my hair out. Spending money on promotions is great, but if you run a company and your folks aren't going to go out and spend the effort, elbow grease, sweat  and time to make the promotions a success, you shouldn't do those promotions... Or you need to find someone who will spend the effort.

I think the biggest mistake of promotions, and you won't find a company executive who disagrees with me, is thinking that throwing money at a promotion will make it good. Even though you won't find a company executive who doesn't agree with me, you'll find one heck of a lot of them who are guilty of doing this very thing or, at the least, allowing it.


I see it all the time.


Frankly speaking, if you are not going to do a promotion right, then don't do it at all. Little things are what really make or break a promotion to potential customers; to me, to you. Far too many company executives look at a promotion purely from their point of view and fail to see it from the other side.


Need proof that little things make a BIG difference? Here's one that everyone has seen: When you see a clock in public and the clock is broken do you think well of that clock makers merchandise? No. No one does. Of course.


How much more basic can you get than that example?

It takes a licking but keeps on ticking

Here's a few other examples that I can give you of promotions I saw recently with my own eyes that were absolute disasters.


I recall a time at a very famous record company when they were preparing the release of the CD of a new artist. The artist management was demanding (as they should) all sorts of promotion and cooperation from the label.


The label promised this and that. The one item I clearly remember was the label boss bragging to the artist's agent that they were going to go all out and print the most in-store flyers they'd printed in years to push this one artist. A few months later, when sales didn't materialize, I was visiting the record label. There I saw, under the desk of the promotions manager, stacks and stacks of unused flyers for that artist stored under his desk. There must have been 50,000 flyers there. This was two months after release.


So they spent a lot of money on the promotion but the people were too lazy to get off their rears and hit the streets and distribute those flyers. Needless to say the promotion was a flop as well as a waste of money.


That was several years ago. Last I heard was that this same guy was still in charge of promotions. Any wonder why their sales do not increase? 


The guy is lazy. That's all there is to it.


Another example that made me want to pull my hair out was a promotion for a famous automobile company. It was a charity banquet at one of the top hotels in Hong Kong. There were famous politicians and movie stars there too. Besides those folks, a lot of movers and shakers in town were also in attendance.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Banquet table. Can you pick out the automobile promotion? 

An American automobile company was a co-sponsor for this event. On the banquet tables they put boxed automobile models of their newest car. Guess what? No one knew what was in those boxes because they didn't bother to open one and make the model for display for each table. They left the model cars in the boxes!


Now, that is inexcusable. Any good promotion will allow the potential customer to recognize instantaneously what the service or product is. That the end user has to pick up the box, look at it and think, "What is this?" is just plain embarrassing for the sponsor. How long does it take to recognize a Coca-Cola promotion? One one-hundredth of a second?


On the cluttered tables at the banquet, the cars got lost in the shuffle and few people knew what they were (I took home a dozen to give to my kid and his friends). When I was taking boxes of models, one lady (who sat next to me all night) asked me, "What are those?" I showed her and she exclaimed, "Oh? I want some for my kids too!" and she grabbed a few from the neighboring table... Why not? No one at the neighboring tables took any home. Why should they? They didn't know what they were either. (By the way, including opening of the boxes, it required the average chimpanzee about 30 seconds to assemble one of the models).


Great promotion, eh? These things are sitting on a table right in front of people and no one even knew what they were.


Just before the banquet started, I asked one of the guys from the automobile company to open the boxes so that people would know what the heck they were but he told me that he "didn't have time."


Think about that folks. The guy from the automobile company says he "didn't have time." So what he is saying is that, "I didn't have time to get my butt over here an hour or two early to get the job done right." 


Hell, they could have at least tried to display the cars correctly on some of the tables. But they decided that they didn't have time to do them all so they didn't even start or make an attempt, so they didn't do any! 


The guy is lazy. That's all there is to it.


In spite of what you see going on around you, folks, there are a lot of people who are observant and thinking. In both the examples above, anyone can see that this is incompetence. 


Now be honest with yourselves? How do these examples reflect on the companies that ran these promotions? Good? Bad?


I think the impression is decidedly bad. It is half-a*sed and poor work. It is unacceptable. 

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Question: What does a model car in a box look like? Answer: A box. 

Think about it: If, say, an automobile company can't even handle a simple promotion at a dinner show, how am I to expect that they will make their cars or run their business? How can I confidently purchase their vehicles? I can't.


The point? If you are going to do a promotion then do it right or don't do it at all. A poorly run promotion is damaging to a company image.


Now why in the world would a company spend money on a promotion that is just going to create a bad image or hurt their brand?

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

This is my rendition but, anyone can see, within one-twenty-fifth of a second that above the black boxes is a model car. It shouldn't be too difficult to figure that this is an automobile promotion.

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As Japan's Nuke Troubles Deflate, So Does a Japan Blogger

The sub-title of this blog should be: "As people lose interest in Japan's nuclear problems, bloggers on Japan lose readers."

THE TEMPTATIONS - AM I LOSING YOU?

I think all of us bloggers on Japan now have much deflated egos. I know I do. I have to admit it. I'm no longer flying high. I was a hot-shot blogger but now, to borrow a phrase from George Foreman, I am a "po" blogger. I am such a "po" blogger that I can't even afford to add the "or" at the end of "po." I am not a "poor" blogger. I am a "po" blogger. 


I was all proud of myself during the "hey-day" of the nuclear crisis in Japan as this blog was getting anywhere between 4,000 ~ 6,000 readers a day, on average, for about a month there (my current record is 8,418 readers in one day!). Those numbers, now, have dropped to about 1,500 ~ 1,800 readers a day. I can get over 2,000 ~2,200 if I blog three times a day like I used too, but, as people slowly return to work, along with the rest of Japan, who has time for that?


I guess my numbers are still pretty good for a blog that is barely one-year old, but, after those skyrocketing numbers, it is a bit of a downer.


This reminds me of how it used to be in Japan when I first came here in the early 1980's. There were very few foreigners here. Foreign guys were extremely popular amongst Japanese women. You would see these shockingly beautiful Japanese women hanging onto dorky looking foreign guys everywhere. You didn't think, "Why is that gorgeous goddess hanging out with that stupid-looking guy?" back then because you, too, had your own 4 or 5 awesome babes hanging around your neck! 


If you were a foreign guy in Japan in the 1980's, Japan was like dying and going to guy heaven.


Those days are long past. Foreign men are no longer anything special and now you see dorky looking foreigners hanging out with plain looking (albeit nice) Japanese girls. You still see the awesome women, but they are back to reality and are hanging out, for the most part, with rich guys (in Japan that means rich Japanese - funny that!)


Oh, those were the days!... But I digress... This blog is about the waning popularity of English language blogs on Japan. I suppose the English language blogs on Japan that were mainly tech and gadget orientated have not felt any drop in readership, yet I would imagine the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear accident didn't really jump their readership, but I could be mistaken. 


I 'm talking about the drop in readership to blogs about Japan that are culturally, economically or politically focused have all seen recent drops in interest. I'm sure that I am not the only blogger on Japan that is experiencing this drop in readership. 


That brings me to the real purpose of this blog post. Actually, I am writing this blog post for bloggers, like me, who have seen their numbers drop, or fail to rise as expected, whether they are in Japan or not or blogging about Japan or not. 


Fellow bloggers who do not see quickly great fruits of their works do not despair! Keep up the blogging and keep up the good work! 


As for myself, I am inspired by Mike "Mish" Shedlock. Mish has been blogging since 2005 at Global Economic Analysis. He tells me that he now gets about 1.8 million readers per month. That's wonderful but realize that he's been doing it for nearly seven years! So just because your numbers haven't climbed greatly in a year or two of blogging, don't give up! 


This is not an overnight success job.


I've been blogging since 2004, but not at my own site. I blogged at Lew Rockwell (LRC) and a few other sites until last year. I still submit to LRC. In 2006, Lew told me that one article I wrote in 2005 was the second most popular post on his blog for that entire year and that I had received over 1.5 million views. That article was entitled America is Bankrupt. You can read it here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers171.html  When I wrote that article, I was bombed with criticism from hundreds of people. No one criticizes me for that anymore. 


I didn't write that post to be popular, I wrote it because I wanted to tell people what I thought.


Don't forget, bloggers, to ask yourself, who do we do this labor of love for? It's not for other people. It's for ourselves. It's because this is what we want to say. 


You don't need to send out notices to people on Twitter and Facebook that say, "Please read my blog!" or "Please follow my blog!" You only need to keep writing those posts and then letting people know the subject matter. If what you write is good and you have a policy and are focused, then they will come. If you are consistent, they will follow.


Also, don't be ashamed of low readership! Be proud of what you are doing! I think everyone needs to put a visitor counter on their blog or web page if they can. If you don't put a counter on your blog, it seems that you are hiding a possible embarrassment over low readership numbers! Being embarrassed about something like that is not cool! It's like worrying too much about what the neighbors might think. Don't do it.


Like the hilarious remarks by Ian Faith in the classic movie, "Spinal Tap" your attitude shouldn't be that your popularity is low, your attitude should be that your popularity is becoming more "selective." After all, you only want the beautiful, intelligent, cool people reading your blog, right?

"Oh, no, no. I don't think the band's popularity is waning, 

I think their appeal is becoming more selective." 

- Ian Faith from Spinal Tap

So be proud of your audience and place that counter on your blog!


I am also reminded about my youth and playing in a Punk band. One time we played at a place called Madame Wong's in Los Angeles with Black Flag and Fear. All the bands expected a massive turnout. I thought we'd have at least 300 people there. Nope! I think there were only 8 customers.


My band's set was sh*tty and uninspired because of this. Black Flag's set was awesome! After the show I asked one of the members of Black Flag about it and he told me, "It doesn't matter if you are playing in front of 3 people or 300 people, you go out there and give it 10,000%!" Wow! He's right. Spoken like a true professional.


That was the difference between Black Flag and my band. They played their hearts out every time, like professionals, regardless of the crowd. My band's performance was influenced by outside factors beyond our control.


Bloggers! Do not be influenced by outside factors! Write your hearts out. Give it your all. Remember that blogging is not something you do for three months and then get thousands of readers! Think about getting a few thousand readers a day after two or three years solid effort. That's the way to approach the very rewarding effort of blogging.


Inspire and they will come. 

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