From the Desk of John Kumpunen

Marketing in a world of excess

Do we really need 437 different mp3 players … or 20,000 brands of beer? We’re now in a crisis of overproduction. Too many products competing for consumer attention. What does that mean to a small business owner trying to make a living selling stuff to people?

Assume that they don’t need it.
Assume they don’t even want it.
Assume they don’t like your Sales&Marketing.
Assume they have 100 other better MoneyHoles.
Assume they have already met the Salesman in white shoes.
Assume they like a TV commercial if it’s funny but will not remember the product.
Assume they spend a fleeting second scanning newspaper ads.
Assume they don’t Trust you.
Assume they may never even learn to Like you.
Assume they may not even have the money for it.
Now, how are you going to pull off your AIDA? Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.

It will take new type of marketing thinking.

From the Desk of John Kumpunen

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The concept of USP = unique selling proposition needs to be revisited. It has had its ride through the decades from 1940s when Rosser Reeves introduced it, but how limiting is it? Does it make sense outside of industrial buying process where a shortlist of manufacturers are compared feature for feature? Or is it just bullshit that became an urban legend and survives because people just can’t think outside of the box?

What did you buy recently because of perceived USP? Honestly, I can’t think of any other than a vegetable coctail that tastes better than the other stuff I have tried. But the manufacturer doesn’t advertise it as “tastes better than the other competing brands” because it wouldn’t make sense.

Maybe we need to come up with something parallel — like PSP = Personal SOLD Positioning, PBT = Personal Buying Trigger because, I have a feeling, most of our purchases are not based on USP. No kidding.

I think we should move closer to Elmer Wheeler’s concept of Tested Selling Sentence than USP. Gotta think about this one.

From the Desk of John Kumpunen

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From fads to impulse buying to frenzy — what makes people go crazy … ready to kill each other over an Elmo doll? Why do fads happen? Are the lemmings at their worst when they think they can’t have it? And what happens to the mentality after this nuclear-fart marketing frenzy is over?

A 911 call captured what happened next:

“He told me he had a loaded gun on him and he’d have no problem shooting me,” the man tells a 911 operator. “What it was an issue over this stupid Tickle Me Elmo freaking doll.”

From the Desk of John Kumpunen:

In a VillageEconomy, there was no need for marketing. There was the blacksmith, the seamstress, the storekeeper. It was a closed loop, everybody knew everybody and everybody gave their business to one another.

And before long, the affluent CityEconomy was full of all kinds of products. But excess is not success. Too many products fighting for the consumer attention. We’re now in a crisis of overproduction and choking from excess. Somebody counted 437 different mp3 players. And 20,000 brands of beer? Do we really need that many brands of beer (since 15% of us Homer Simpsons drink 85% of all the beer)?

Michael Masterson’s ETR reported that 95% of books out there sell fewer than 100 copies. I had no idea. A recent guest on Coast to Coast openly confessed he had written 165 books. Shocking. Like Stephen King. How about just ONE really good book? Thankfully, Steve Jobs spaces the new iPods at least 4-6 months apart! Four-month planned obsolescence I can take LOL.

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