Posted: February 25th, 2011 | Author: Joseph Wesley Putnam | 1 Comment »
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I hear a lot of people talking about how great Apple’s marketing is. And they’re right—Apple’s marketing is incredible. But what is the real secret to Apple’s marketing success?
The real secret is product marketing.
So what is product marketing? Product marketing is exceptional products that contribute to marketing objectives in place of traditional marketing such as print ads or billboards. Product marketing is similar to content marketing, a term used by Copyblogger to describe using content such as a blog posts to accomplish marketing objectives in place of traditional advertising.
With product marketing, the product is so good, it does work that traditional advertising usually would do. Thus, the success of the product is not due to exceptional commercials or fancy billboards, but instead, it’s due to how great the product is. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: January 20th, 2011 | Author: Joseph Wesley Putnam | 4 Comments »
Cover of Outliers: The Story of Success
Posted: December 8th, 2010 | Author: Joseph Wesley Putnam | No Comments »
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For marketing, you need to know what you’re really selling.
Without knowing what you’re really selling, how will you know how to present your product to customers?
Let me give an example.
What do professional sports teams really sell? Do they sell a game? Do they sell highlights? What do they really sell?
Here’s the answer – professional sports teams sell entertainment.
Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, knows this very well. He knows that the Mavericks sell an entertainment event. They sell more than just a game.
Mr. Cuban wrote about this on his blog, BlogMaverick.com, in a post titled “The Fan Experience at Sporting Events – Never Look Down.” In the post, he said this about professional sports games: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: October 19th, 2010 | Author: Joseph Wesley Putnam | No Comments »
Here are four classy sales lessons that you can learn from Bostonian.
Special note: I came up with the content for this post after a recent visit to a Bostonian store. These lessons may or may not be methods that Bostonian teaches its employees.
Lesson #1: Offer a money back guarantee.
It seems counterintuitive that money back guarantees would be a way to make more money. It seems more likely that money back guarantees would be a way to lose money. This might be true if a product is terrible, but as long as it’s not, offering a money back guarantee increases sales and boosts profits.
Bostonian offers to return any unworn shoes within 365 days of the purchase date. Yes, that’s anytime within the first 365 days. This may not seem like that big of a deal because what customer will return a pair of shoes 365 days later. Regardless, a guarantee like this often gives people the confidence they need to make a purchase. If a customer is wavering between whether or not to buy a product, knowing that it can be returned anytime over the next year can make the difference. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: September 27th, 2010 | Author: Joseph Wesley Putnam | 5 Comments »
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One of the oldest tricks in the marketing book is that benefits are more important than features. It’s also one of the things that most businesses get wrong.
The reason many people get it wrong is that most people are enamored with their own product. They love everything about their offering, especially the features. They love that their computer has a 15.6″ screen, 250 GB of hard-drive space, and 2 GB of memory. Sure, this information is important; it’s just not the most important. Read the rest of this entry »
