That crazy guy’s gonna go
broke
This is the world of white water where we
have to change to survive; where we have to develop to thrive,
and, paradoxically, where the very act of change increases the
risk that we won’t survive. – Randall White
hat is the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
Was it worth it? And what lessons did you learn from that
experience? Most drycleaners would probably say their biggest
risk was leaving a steady job with an established company to
start their own business. The biggest lesson learned, in most
cases, would be that you never know if you are going to be
successful at something unless you do it… so take the
risk.
A few days ago, Mr. Kim stopped by our
office. He wanted to set up a mailing program to reach
newcomers to his community. We’ve
been making new resident contacts for over 20 years, so it was
pretty straightforward. But that was just the beginning. What
he really wanted was a little help with his new idea. He wants
to start a new cleaning service and he wants to do it for free.
That’s right. FREE!
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Well, in the wide world of offers,
that’s what I would call taking a big risk.
Wouldn’t you agree? After all, what’s the sense in
starting a new cleaning service that doesn’t make a dime?
After unfolding his plan to me, Mr. Kim
said, “You know, Bill… everyone’s going to
say,
“That crazy Korean guy’s
gonna go broke! How can he possibly make any money?”
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Personally, I think he’s dumb as a
fox. What he’s doing is a perfect illustration of the
40-40-20 Rule which states that the success or failure of your
direct marketing effort is 40 percent the audience (your list
or database), 40 percent your product or service and your offer
and, 20 percent creative (graphics, copy, color and theme).
In a future article, I plan to share Mr.
Kim’s offer with you, but for the purpose of this article
it’s sufficient to know that his offer is very
strong… well worth the 40 percent weight allotted by the
40-40-20 Rule. With part 2 covered, his request was for help
with parts 1 and 3, namely with the target audience and the
creative aspects. Specifically, he wants to know who to contact
with his message and how to get the message delivered.
The purpose of this article is to consider
the emphasis that drycleaners typically give to the 40-40-20
Rule. For example, let’s say you want a flashy mailing
piece. (Believe me, it’s very important to drycleaners).
Seems everyone nowadays wants to have advertising pieces that
really stand out and make them proud. And there’s nothing
wrong with that. You can have anything you want. Anything money
can buy. But before you fork over the big bucks to some ad
agency, you should consider the 40-40-20 Rule.
At first glance, a 40-40-20 distribution
seems pretty reasonable. But take a closer look at the second
category. It’s made up of two components, service and
offer. So, if you divide 40 percent by 2, you see that each
component carries an average of 20 percent on its own.
The creative category has four significant
components (graphics, copy, color and theme), which means that
each component carries about a 5 percent benefit to the ad
campaign.
So what’s really important?
I talk with cleaners almost daily who
insist on having really hot copy on full-color slick enamel
paper with custom graphics and a full bleed. But think about
this. Adding just one color to a black and white postcard could
bump your cost by 30 percent while going full color can easily
double or even triple the cost.
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On the other hand, properly targeting your
audience is by far the most important component in your
advertising campaign. It’s the one category with a single
component. Get the target wrong and it doesn’t matter how
strong your offer or how slick your piece. If the ad goes to
people who can’t use your service or don’t care
that you’re in business… your campaign dies a very
quick death.
So, how are we going to apply the 40-40-20
Rule to Mr. Kim’s project?
First, we’ll offer the service to
the best audience possible — his current drycleaning
customers. We already know who they are. We have them in the
database and we know they’ll be more inclined to take
advantage of another service. If they respond favorably,
we’ll target prime prospects in his immediate geographic
market. If this is successful, we’ll extend the service
outward.
As to the vehicle, we’ll start out
on standard card stock with compelling copy to call attention
to this brand new service. Initially, it will be one color to
keep the cost down. Eventually, the plan is to run 500,000
copies in full color on slick stock, but first we will test in
small quantities on inexpensive stock to reduce the risk.
Earlier I mentioned that Mr. Kim had a
strong offer. I didn’t say it would work. Years ago, a
cleaner in Chicago decided to run a promotion by giving away
FREE goldfish with every drycleaning order. The campaign was a
winner. Everywhere you looked, people were walking down the
streets carrying little clear plastic bags of goldfish. In
fact, the promotion was so successful that when they ran out of
goldfish, the guy decided to keep it going, only this time with
baby turtles. He placed an order for hundreds of tiny turtles.
To his dismay, people rejected the turtles and he was left with
a ton of stinking turtles that nobody wanted.
It’s okay to take a risk. In fact,
if you want your business to grow you should take risks. But,
don’t make wild guesses, especially on a large scale.
Nothing is for certain. TEST. TEST. TEST.
Bill Bishop has been a consultant with the
Golomb Group for the past 12 years, designing marketing and
promotional programs for drycleaners. He can be reached at the
Golomb Group at (800) 679-5856 or by e-mail at billbishop@golombgroup.com.
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