You can play with dozens of the latest desktops, laptops and netbooks, see every conceivable monitor, satisfy your ZuneHD lust, talk to the experts at the Apple Genius Bar ripoff, play the most popular games and generally leave feeling Microsoft is a bit hipper than when you entered.

Are they eight years behind Apple (first Apple store opening: May 15, 2001)?  To the subset of the 8% of the U.S. population who own an Apple computer who are Apple hardcore fans, absolutely.  To the rest of us, we’ll feel a bit better toward Microsoft than when we entered.

It’s an expensive path to repairing a brand image, but smart all the same (branding as theater).  It’s fun to be in the store.  I want to go back.  Plus I got a cool Bing T-shirt. 

So, late or not, ahead or behind the curve, it doesn’t matter, what is your Microsoft store?  That experience you create for the people you want to attract that makes them feel a bit better about you than they felt before?

By now you’ve heard about GM’s 60-day satisfaction guarantee.  Drive one of the eligible cars for 60 days.  If you aren’t happy return it and get your money back.

More lipstick?

Probably, but they don’t have much choice until they can bring out more fuel-efficient cars.  You know, the type of cars people actually want to buy?  Which gets to the core of GM’s self-inflicted problem:

GM has too many cars people just don’t want to buy; they need to fix this; and it takes years to develop a new car.

You, however, don’t have this problem.  That is, the problem of years required to develop a new product.

Your Product is Central to Your Marketing

While this seems obvious, it isn’t.  Subaru made money in 2008.  Toyota is selling as many Priuses as it can make.  GM and Chrysler are on the edge of extinction.

The difference, class, anyone, anyone?  Subaru and Toyota have cars people want to buy.

Your Product. . .a Pig?

It’s a pig if the needs of your target market have changed and your product hasn’t.

Wait a second you say, I can’t change my product, my product’s my product.  Everything you do is your product.  How you ship, terms, quantity discounts, service, support, it’s all part of your product and all of it can be changed.  It could be as simple as changing what you say about your product.  Are you highlighting quality when you should be talking about a low annual cost of operation?  And it could be a difficult as actually changing your product.

Please, remember, a slick new ad, a cool new brochure is nothing but lipstick if people just don’t want your pig product.

The fact is, regardless of who buys from you, there are other types of customers that represent an opportunity when your current customer group stops buying.  Who, you say?

Look no further than your sales records.  I bet you there’s a group or two of customers, probably small, who just sort of “find” you.  That is, you don’t advertise to them or spend any time or money attracting them.  You don’t have any brochures that speak to their specific concerns.  Again, they find you, not vise versa.

A residential pool remodeling client that did the occasional commercial pool project is now actively courting commercial customers with great success.  In fact, I shutter to think where we’d be without them in today’s economy (residential sales have dropped. . .off a cliff).

Here’s a good one, especially if you’re having a hard time thinking about a small unlikely type of new customer.  Don’t forget your competitors.  We have a client, Freelance Electronics, that is starting to attract competitors as customers.  Okay, I admit, they are unique.  They buy and sell surplus electronics.  They need to continually buy new supplies of surplus they can then resell.  And competitors represent a great source to buy surplus from.

So, what small group of customers have been buying from you and what are you going to do to start attracting more of them?  Where are they?  What are their buying criteria?  How do they like to be sold to?  What are the main issues they face today?

Come on, get going, before one of my clients beats you to it!!

// A NON-AD is something that doesn’t feel like an ad.  It informs.  It has value. 

It becomes an ad when it causes action.

You know what I’m talking about.  A white paper.  A report.  A guide.  An article reprint.  Something you can do for prospective customers that has as its goal to inform, to add value.  Now that’s a non-ad ad. 

Because if you can inform and deliver value, you can persuade.  Correct?  You don’t always have to “advertise” to advertise, right?  Take the video below, it’s a good example.

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwfJqCI74t4[/youtube]

This is a video by a respected member of his industry talking about what his organization feels is important about software that manages cases in forensic laboratories.  If you work in a forensic lab you’d learn some things about how to select case management software.  The company that paid us to create the video, JusticeTrax, is never mentioned.  The video obviously is on their site.  The implication is the software he uses is theirs, but it is designed to help someone in the early stages of considering this type of software.

You know what I mean.  You just need a reminder to plug this type of non-ad into your marketing and advertising program.  So, consider yourself reminded!

Chris Jones
Owner
CDC Pools – Pool resurfacing and backyard redesign
480-539-7700

Brad Johnson
Partner
Jacoby & Meyers // Petersen Johnson – Accident injury law
602-650-1200  bjohnson@petersenjohnson.com

Ms. Jan Kanaba
Owner
Media People, Inc. – Video production services
623-465-4500

Warren Levenbaum, Attorney
Owner
lawtigers.com – Motorcycle accident law
602-271-0183

Ms. Dallas Porter-Stowe
CEO
AGTS – Training
480-967-7544  dallas@agts.com

Ray Bastin
Specialist Partner
Pan Pacific Partners – Investment banking
480-968-6771