Monthly Archives: December 2009

Social Networking Gets Slater’s 50/50 off to a Strong Start

By John Aberle | Internet Marketing , Sales and Marketing , Social Networking

The first time I heard about the concept of viral marketing was in Malcolm Gladwell’s fascinating book, The Tipping Point. He described the elements necessary for a product to take off and catch the public’s imagination like a virus. The impression I got was that while you can know what elements are necessary, you can’t guarantee that you can get the mix right when you deliberately try to make a product go viral.

The marketer’s dream is to have a product go viral.

This remains true about social networking. Some things are so well done that they capture the imagination of a few people who are influencers, and those people spread the word. If they’re respected and their followers or audience agrees, they too tell their friends. Suddenly your product or service goes viral. At least that is every marketer’s dream.
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Researching Facts Is So Much Easier – Thanks, Wikipedia

By John Aberle | Research , Sales and Marketing , Soft Sell , Trust

If you really care about building relationships with your customers and prospects, then you will frequently find yourself doing research to confirm your facts. Because trust is a fragile thing, I often look information up to double check things. I want my clients and potential clients to be able to count on me. Trust is core to heart-centered, soft sell sales and marketing.

Wikipedia Needs Donations for the World’s Largest Free Encyclopedia

Recently, my favorite reference site put out a request for support. Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia’s founder, is asking for our help. You probably already use Wikipedia. If not, I can’t encourage you strongly enough to support this nonprofit organization that seeks to become the largest encyclopedia in human history. Wikipedia is already the “fifth most-read site in the world.” “More than 340 million people use Wikipedia every month – almost a third of the Internet-connected world.”

To Preserve My Relationships of Trust Requires Checking Facts

Ever since I was introduced to Wikipedia, it’s been my primary resource for information and checking my facts. Their information generally gives a detailed explanation as well as the history or background. For instance, I looked up Sears’ Craftsman Tools’ lifetime warranty because I couldn’t find the warranty on their website. Then today I inquired about the meaning of the term “whitelist.” On the Sears lifetime warranty, the writers explained which products Sears covers with a lifetime warranty and which have a more limited warranty. I am so incredibly grateful to the Wikipedia community for the gift of this free encyclopedia.

Wikimedia Will Appreciate Any Size Donations

Heart-centered, soft sell salespeople and marketers, please join me in saying thank you to the Wikimedia Foundation for making it so much easier to research our facts. Any size donation will be welcome.

Slater’s 50/50 Uses Traditional Marketing Tools to Help Launch Restaurant

By John Aberle | advertising , Sales and Marketing , Unique Selling Proposition

If you think that Internet marketing and social networking have replaced traditional marketing, think again. By picking the right traditional marketing tools, you can reach many prospects that you won’t touch in any other way. As much as I believe in web-based marketing, it’s just one tool, though a multi-faceted one like the Swiss Army Knife. It actually works best when used to augment traditional marketing.

Like my last two articles, I’m going to continue to explore Scott Slater’s marketing efforts for his Slater’s 50/50 “Burgers by Design.” This post will look at his traditional marketing.

Nine Standard Marketing Elements Used by Slater’s 50/50

Slater has demonstrated strong marketing skills. The following are some of the things that Scott Slater does well in old fashioned promotional efforts:Continue reading

Can a Unique Selling Proposition Be Just a Simple Difference?

By John Aberle | Sales and Marketing , Unique Selling Proposition

Have you ever thought that for something to be a unique selling proposition it needed to be really significant, like the Craftsman Hand Tools Lifetime, Unlimited Warranty or owning a patent or having a guarantee like FedEx’s guaranteed next day delivery? I used to. Then I began to pay attention and discovered that unique selling propositions (USPs) only have to be distinctive and important to the prospect.

To give you an example of a business person doing a good job of developing his USP, I’m going to continue my analysis of restaurateur Scott Slater and Slater’s 50/50.

Using branding to set yourself apart

If your uniqueness appeals to your target market, then you may have a unique selling proposition. The goal is to have some distinction that sets you apart from others so that patrons have a reason to come. Almost any branding campaign can create a unique selling proposition just by heavy and constant repetition of their brand name and tagline, like Cadillac’s “The all new 2010 SRX – The Cadillac of Crossovers.” The problem with a campaign like Cadillac’s SRX is that small and mid-sized businesses lack the advertising budget to build a brand just on the repeating an advertising slogan over and over on TV. This particular slogan gets extra impact by relying on the established brand to imply that this is the best of crossovers because it’s a Cadillac.

Slater’s 50/50 shows how a small business can build a unique selling proposition

Scott Slater, on the other hand, takes the path of most small businesses.Continue reading

Slater’s 50/50 Restaurant Demonstrates the Power of Soft Sell Marketing

By John Aberle | heart-centered , Sales and Marketing , Soft Sell

How would you like to launch a new restaurant and by the first weekend have a waiting line of patrons? That’s what Scott Slater did. Recently I had the pleasure of dining at a Slater’s 50/50. I was there to do a review based on a really strong recommendation. Not only did the food win Dorothy and me over, I was impressed with how successfully Scott Slater launched this business and how well it appears to be doing in only 90 days. So I wrote two additional articles for Examiner.com, an interview and an analysis of his marketing efforts, especially his social networking in “Anaheim restaurant Slater’s 50/50 uses social media to generate traffic and reviews.” In my brief discussion of why I believe his marketing is so effective, I covered the following seven areas.

1.    Ideal customer profile
2.    Unique selling proposition
3.    Traditional marketing
4.    Social networking and Internet marketing
5.    Website
6.    Blog
7.    Customer service

Begin your marketing with your appeal to your ideal customers.

In today’s article, I cover the first of the seven points, the ideal customer profile. In subsequent articles, I’ll go into more detail on each of the remaining points.Continue reading