Almost one year ago, I was being evaluated to see if I could qualify as an Honorary Professor at Open University. One of the top reasons was the audience: the college students. They found the learning experience on the topic of combustion and energy conservation to be really exciting rather than boring. They also all did very well on their examinations in this topic because the science and mathematical concepts had been 'burned' into their memories. The students remember me as Professor Torch but this was because they had seen the movie Fantastic Four and there, I was branded by my own students. This was no accident because I knew my class would have an online component and it became viral real fast.
As time passes ... society changes. Your business must also change with it. During the 1980s, 90s and 00's, selling techniques did not embrace transparency in their films and movies. Lots of 'fake' effects that yielded an overloaded consumer. Additionally, consumer confidence would drop in 2008-2009 and spending would take a significant downturn. Nevertheless, we at GY believe that using the proper analysis tools (based on mathematics & science) the right messages delivered with transparency could make any down business thrive again.
In performing massive public surveys GY determined that the consumer 'expects' a higher level transparency from businesses. Consumers today expect to know why they should spend their hard earned dollars on YOUR service vs. a competitor vs. do it themselves?
Case Study:
One client approached me from the mold remediation industry and told me that business was slow. First, our company runs an assessment to determine if there is a target audience and a market size (this is a crucial step to determine macro vs. micro problems). Utilizing an algorithm developed @GY we completed an analysis of the landscape and realized this was a massive 5 Billion market. This business should definitely be able to have sales exceeding 200K/month even in this 2009 economy!!
Analytical Results (Los Angeles + Las Vegas):
Category: Mold Remediation Los Angeles Competition: 143
% National Fragmentation (0-100%): 100%
Diffential Videos on the Market: none
% Bank Foreclosed Properties Requiring Clean Up: 99%
% Bank Foreclosed Properties Requiring Mold Remediation: 60%
% Non-Foreclosed Properties Requesting Mold Remediation: 72% (after water loss)
National Data (USA):
# of homes requiring mold remediation: 5,000,000 units across USA
National avg. value of homes with mold: $100,000 USD/home (assumption)
Avg. costs for general remediation: $10,000 USD (10% of home value)
Conservative Estimate of Annual Market size:
Fn: 10% of homes (500,000) x $10,000 USD/home = 5,000,000,000 (5 Billion USD market)
Now that we know a sizable market exists, we find that the cause of their business downturn is due to expensive/ineffective marketing combined with poor outreach to the people who have mold problems. Take a look at the website: www.moldbusters.com This website was costly and requires maintenance but our analysis indicates that there is very little relevant traffic generated by this webpage. Weekly ValuePak's are also ineffective for customers in crisis mode. Rather than revamp the website, we added a video that enhances the concept of "mold busters" by playing off the movie blockbuster concept of GhostBusters.
While our client wasn't called "mold busters", this was not relevant since the branding of the company within the marketing could be individualized. In the differential videographing, we captured an actual live work day of the level of mold remediation jobs this company's team could handle. We then slated this for local and national broadcasting and set the business up for blockbuster performance. So while Facebook and MySpace sport >33% of traffic that doesn't mean you'll convert from them. Just because the local pizza shop uses a coupon on ValuePak doesn't mean this will work for your business. Every case is different but the methodology must be boiled down to a science.
Video Production (sample in the making):
Summary:
1. Identify the target market, target audience. (Owners work too long in their own business to be unbiased and critical).
2. Old slogan: The customer is always right. Today's slogan: Businesses in order to be profitable need to find the 'right' customer.
3. Differentiate using tools that suite YOUR business (don't use me-too strategies).
4. Reach a desired audience by generating true content that identifies your business as 'the talk of the town'.
5. Sample size cannot be small and the advertising spend cannot be to an overmarketed/defensive crowd (the same people won't spend in FaceBook but will spend under the right setting).
6. Think combination solutions: ROO (Return on Objective) & ROI (Return on Investment).