Play along with Shark Tank (game version)

If you are an entrepreneur at heart, or just a red blooded American, you probably like Shark Tank on ABC. If you are unfamiliar, Shark Tank brings entrepreneurs from all across America together and gives them an opportunity to pitch to a group of high powered venture capitalists. Being on the show can take you from a few hundred dollars in sales to a few million in no time flat, even if you do not get an investment.

Why do I love watching this show? Because Shark Tank shows that the American Dream of working hard and succeeding is still possible. I also like watching it to see how entrepreneurs represent themselves and how they market their products.

Last week Renae and I invited several people over to watch the 2 hour premier of Shark Tank. While preparing to host I thought wouldn’t it be fun if we had a game to go along with the show? So we busted out one of our favorite board games: Wits and Wagers. Buy your copy of Wits and Wagers here A wits and wagers board looks like this:

Wits and Wagers Board

So without further ado:

Here is how you play Shark Tank the board game!

Setup:
1. Set up your Wits and Wagers game board(or make your own). Write on the answer cards the name of each shark on the show that night. With the two remaining cards write: ‘2 or more sharks’ and ‘You’re dead to me’. Randomly distribute the cards on the game board slots.
2. Give each person or team two wager chips and five red chips.
3. Designate one person as the announcer(preferably someone who is familiar with the show) and one person as the banker.

Game play:
1. Watch while a prospect pitches a product. When the prospect finishes his/her pitch the announcer must call out ‘That’s the pitch’. After the announcement the players have 10 seconds to place their bets. Timing can be very important as Sharks sometimes back out quickly.
2. Wait till the sharks have made a deal or all have backed out. Then:
A. Multiply the amount bet by the amount listed on the board (ex: Pays 3 to 1).
B. If a shark goes in with one or more sharks the player receives half of the amount that would have been gained normally. For example: Player bets 3 on the Shark who is on the ‘4 to 1’ would normally receive 12 but since the Shark split the deal the Player only receives 6. Player would receive full amount of their bet if they put his/her wager on the ‘2 or more sharks’ card.
C. Distribute chips earned. Players cannot lose wager chips but can lose his/her other chips wagered.
3. After each pitch shuffle all the cards randomly on game board.

4. Winner is player or team with the most chips at the end of the game.

Remember their are only a few rounds for each game so bet big ad bet early!

Let me know if you come up with any variations of the game or make your own board!

Buy your copy of Wits and Wagers here

CVS and their Hedgehog Concept

CVS Heart

CVS Heart

CVS stopped selling smokes?  This is a bold move. It has been said they will lose $2 Billion (with a B) in revenues, Now  they made $123 billion in revenues in 2012 so maybe $2 billion will not be missed. But in a business where you answer to shareholders every penny counts. What I see in this story is a company following their hedgehog concept.

The Hedgehog concept comes from an amazing book called: Good to Great by Jim Collins.  Your hedgehog concept comes together when you find the common ground between three questions: What are you deeply passionate about? What can you be the best in the world at? What drives your economic engine? A hedgehog concept breaks down as depicted here: hedgehog graphic-01

CVS’s hedgehog concept is selling products that make people healthy. Selling tobacco products is glaringly contrary to that concept. I applaud CVS for making the bold move to stop selling a profitable item because it dose not fit with their mission or hedgehog concept. The next question that comes to mind for me is: How far will they go? Will they stop selling soda, alcohol, or candy? I don’t imagine they will but what would be the next appropriate step? Related note: CVS released a new logo to correspond with this change.

What is your hedgehog concept? What are you deeply passionate about? What can you be the best in the world at? What drives your economic engine? Figuring this out will help you make decisions that will help grow your business in the long run and avoid bad short term decisions. Also check out Good to Great it has the potential to change your business life!

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Beware of Hashtags

DiGiornos Twitter Fail

 

This week Ray Rice was cut from the Baltimore Ravens.

While another post based on the decisions of the NFL in regards to marketing maybe in order, that is not what we are here to discuss. I believe the hashtag #WhyIStayed surged in popularity because of the despicable and public choices of Ray Rice. The hashtag #WhyIStayed was made for women who had been part of abusive relationships to help others understand why they stayed in that relationship. Similarly interesting is the #WhyILeft hashtag helping others see the reason why it is worth leaving an abusive relationship.

DiGionro's did look into hashtags

Enter DiGiorno Pizza. The social media manager at DiGionro, hopefully, unwittingly tweeted “You Had Pizza”.  Now if the hashtag was referencing any number of other things #WhyIStayed: in the stands during the Rams Blowout, on the couch while that terrible movie was playing, on the live feed during Apple’s latest announcement, it would have been appropriate and potentially funny.

There have been lots of great funny hastags (#removealetterruinaband)but there have been very few serious ones. Understandably the assumption of the tweeter may have been that the hastag must have been a humorous one. Before you join in a hashtag conversation be sure that you at least look at the tag in use to get the context of its use. Clicking on the hashtag will show other people’s use of it. If the social media manager at DiGionro had done this he would have seen some heart wrenching tweets.

Feel free to use hashtags and join in on conversations on twitter but do so with caution.

What is your favorite hashtag?

 

 

Text Marketing to College Students

Influence on College Students
via Marketingcharts.com

Another helpful chart this week from MarketingCharts.com. Depending on your business, college kids can be a great customer base to target. This is especially true with affordable restaurants, entertainment venues, and clothing stores. College students love to spend time with their friends and frequently that comes in the form of sharing a meal, shopping, or going to a concert. As with all the age groups, college students love word of mouth, after all it is the best way to find out about the new hip restaurant or store in town. The other two mediums in the top three are very affordable to utilize.

Online coupons can come from email marketing, a page on your website, a special on social media, or a deal with a local online deal program (here in Jackson, Snagmob.com is popular). Mobile ads are really easily done with text message marketing. Text message marketing can be done cost effectively and because you can send out time sensitive deals on a slow night of business they can help drive traffic strategically. They can also be used to bring attention to specific deals and events you have going on. People frequently forget things you have announced earlier through more traditional means of marketing and a text can give them a very timely reminder.

Adelsberger Marketing can help you with getting an email or text messaging campaign set up for your business. Send me an email at: kevin@kadelsberger.com to set up your free consultation.

 

 

On why Email is better than Facebook for marketing.

A new Marketing Charts came to my email this week.

Stats on Most Effective Digital Marketing Efforts

Facebook has investors. When you have to pay share holders you always need to be generating more revenue. Facebook has become increasingly more commercialized since it’s IPO. Now a company’s Facebook posts will get to 6% or less of their fans! Ridiculous! Organic reach has been significantly dropping (via Tech Crunch):

  • Feb 2012 = 16%
  • Sep 2013 = 12.60%
  • Nov 2013 = 10.15%
  • Dec 2013 = 7.83%
  • Mar 2014 = 6.51%

Why does Organic reach drop? So you can spend money to reach the fans you have worked hard to collect.

But this should be a  warning to all marketers for all social channels. Social Media networks control the flow of information. They will use that control after gaining our dependence for marketing. Twitter just proudly told everyone that 30% of a company’s followers will see their posts. I am predicting this will begin to drop as the need for revenue increases. After all Twitter has only been publicly traded for less than a year. It is conceivable that they will take a similar course as Facebook.

This is why email will become more and more crucial to marketers. Email does not require a channel owned by a interested party. The only thing that keeps your open rate low is the quality of your list and the quality of your content.

It is up to you.

Maybe that is the scary part but it is also the easiest to fix.

Kevin

Guess what? People dont trust…

People do not really trust sponsored content. Big surprise right? This reminds me of the general distrust of authority that seems ever present in our current culture. We have been lied to many times by leaders and companies and as a result we trust very few or none of them anymore.

Although Sponsored Content is sneakier in the digital format, I always flash back to a magazine. Do you remember those pages that looked a little different from the rest of the magazine because they were not up to the same visual quality of the rest of the pages.  They also  said “Sponsored Story” in the top corner.  Those were the worst. I never read them, always went right past them even.

Now and days with native advertising they no longer stick out as badly but hopefully will remain clearly labeled. But 22.5%  would believe the story if it is from a trusted brand. So how do we become a trust brand? Probably start by not lying.

Here are the charts:

Media Charts Trust in Sponsored Content

Why would you make something non responsive anymore?

Why would you make anything that is not responsive anymore? Unless there is some super technical thing on your site that cannot be responsive, there is no reason to not have a responsive website. More than 30% of traffic is now mobile, that means if your site is not responsive, IT LOOKS BAD FOR MORE THAN 30% OF YOUR VISITORS! Responsive is now as standard as remote entry is on cars. If your website is not responsive you need to start a redesign soon! This even expands into emails as the below statistics reveal. Is your email template responsive? (HT MarketingCharts)

 

Needs for employees to succeed.

Do you want to be a great organization? If you are familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs then the below chart will make sense to you. This chart is derived from some of the great research that Gallup is doing on leadership. Almost all of the steps to creating deep employee engagement have to do with the leadership of a supervisor. When I think back to some of my most successful times during employment, I can see these factors being present. Conversely, when I think back to some of my least successful times of employment, I can see these factors not being present.

My only issue with this chart is the word ‘best’ in Q10. Might be over kill to require a best friend at work. But friends at work is a must.

One thing I might add is: Does the culture of the work place demand excellence? Cultures that demand the best often bring out the best, when these other factors are present.

via Gallop Business Journal

First Impressions happen fast.

Another great resource for marketers is Marketing Charts. Marketing Charts is a free email service that shares some of the latest and greatest data about marketing.

First impressions happen fast. Sometimes before you even start the interaction (HT Art of Manliness: How to Enter a Room Like a Boss) These stats help me think about two things: 1. The first interaction with your product matters (duh) 2.What comes before that interaction.

1. Obviously if you mess up the initial interaction: the first meeting, the first plate of food, the first presentation, the first printing, the rest of the relationship is going to suffer.

2. I think to make such a strong connection so quickly there are often going to be some preliminary things happening:
Two thoughts:
1. Word of Mouth/Reputation: Your reputation sets the stage for your entrance to the party/meeting/point of first contact. Keep an eye on your online reviews and know what people say about you. When I go to a restaurant and I have read online that their service is slow, I am keeping a special eye out for it. Pay attention to and fix your weaknesses. Someone who is primed to be a critic becomes a fan to defend your reputation quickly.

2. Branding/Appearance: When you enter a place, the place will help set your perception of the interaction that is about to happen. It is the same thing with the brand personality that you put out into the community, if you use the average Joe persona people might be taken back by a $30 steak on the menu. Use your branding to help set the stage for your first interaction with a customer.

Think through the whole interaction, even try to imagine the part you are not privy to.  Use the tools you have to set up the first interaction with your brand to be successful so that you grow rabid fans quickly. Now I wonder what we could accomplish with some rabid fans?