Successful Blog

Is Mountain Dew’s Marketing Campaign too Tough for Even Mice?

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We have all heard the stories over the years of how some soft drinks can corrode one’s teeth and other body parts.

The question now is can a soft drink like Mountain Dew actually dissolve a mouse carcass?

A current small court battle involves an Illinois man who claims he discovered a deceased mouse in a can of Mountain Dew at work three years ago after taking a sip.

From a marketing standpoint, such a claim certainly can’t be good for the soft drink maker that goes by the slogan — “It’ll tickle yore innards”. Worse yet, the man claims he forwarded the mouse to PepsiCo, the soft drink’s parent company, only to reportedly have the rodent’s remains destroyed.

Call in the experts

In order to fight the court case (the individual is seeking $50,000 in damages), PepsiCo has called in experts to say that the claim of a rodent or any other foreign body in one of their soft drink products is simply false.

The experts pointed out that the Mountain Dew drink would have dissolved the mouse, turning it into a “jelly-like substance,” had it been in the can of fluid from the time of its bottling until the time the claimant opened it, 74 days later.

According to a spokesperson with the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, he believed it was plausible that the soft drink could dissolve a mouse over a few months’ time. “But dissolving [the mouse] does not mean it will disappear, because you’ll still have the collagen and the soft tissue part. It will be like rubber,” he made clear in his remarks.

According to a 2004 study where human molars were soaked in Mountain Dew for 14 days (a period of time similar to about 13 years of normal beverage exposure, the researchers calculated) the molars’ enamel lost more than 6 percent of its volume. Meantime, molars placed in Coca Cola for two weeks lost slightly more than 1 percent of their enamel volume.

Will marketing take a hit?

While sales of Mountain Dew may not be impacted by the ongoing legal case, it does make it a little harder to market the soft drink, given the fact some may wonder what is coming out of each can.

In early 2011, a Washington State man claimed to have also discovered a dead mouse in a Monster Energy Drink product.

According to the man who filed a lawsuit, “Any time somebody talks about Monster I get a sick feeling in the bottom of my stomach. “I looked in the can and I saw the tail – the tip of the tail. And I just vomited everywhere,” said the young male, who sued for physical and emotional damages.

Needless to say, such reported incidents make it a tad more challenging for any brands to market their goods.

That being said, Pepsi has heavily invested in the marketing of Mountain Dew products over the last decade, securing some 80 percent of the citrus flavored soft drink sales nationwide.

While these two incidents do not appear to have impacted sales in a negative way, you can bet such claims will leave a bitter taste in the mouth of marketers at the respective soft drink companies.

Photo credit: bossip.com

Dave Thomas, who covers among other items starting a small business and business proposals, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

Even Cheap Is Expensive When the Model Doesn’t Work

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What IS Reach?

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Once upon a time, I subscribed to the Chicago Tribune. (I apologize to the New York Times and my friends who Yankees fans. I also live in Wrigleyville.) I subscribed to daily delivery during the period that the Tribune won 11 Pulitzer Prizes. I’m not certain that I read any of the winning articles. Though the paper came as promised, with a job in the city, my schedule often didn’t offer me the time I wished to read it. Even when it did loosen a bit, I didn’t read every word of it.

So though the paper reached me. I wasn’t exposed it. I was on their list and I would bet that I was counted in their ad fees based on circulation.

My point is that reach only meant I was paying for it.
They didn’t have my eyeballs, impressions, or attention.

The traditional model of impressions, circulation, subscriptions has always been false.

The model of impressions and circulation numbers sold ads and justified advertising costs. I was the product the Tribune was selling. I was the demographic they were basing their numbers on. The people who bought the ads knew that I was supposed to be seeing, reading, and paying attention to those ads, but that there was know way to know if I was.

They were access to subscribers — much like the subscribers to my blog.
Do you believe for a second that they got access to every subscriber? Do you supposed every subscriber read every ad in every paper. Do you read everything you subscribe to — even most? (If you do, perhaps I should talk with you about some ads in the email that goes out with my blog.)

The impression, circulation, subscription model never delivered the numbers that it sold.

Now we’re applying that model to social media.

If I pay close attention and “prune” my power network just right, I should be able to connect to the perfect 150 power people who have each also connected to another 150 power people and so on outward. A mere two generations out would be a network of 3,375,000 power people. But just to hedge the bet, perhaps I should connect to 150,000.

Thing is any message I send to my own group only gets read the same as the Tribune did … when they have time. I’m not foolish enough to believe more than that.

Reach is not a guarantee of engagement, participation or even exposure.
Reach is merely a possibility.

Andrew Smith at marcom international points out,

“For decades, PR has been seen by many marketeers as “cheap reach via editorial” – in other words, the goal of PR was to gain editorial coverage that provided the greatest number of opportunities to see – at a significantly lower cost than advertising.”

But even cheap is expensive if no one is paying attention.

How do we tell the folks who don’t want to know?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Making Sales for Small Businesses More Predictable

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A Guest Post
by Cynthia Kocialski

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Seeing Sales as a Solution

Every business needs revenue and the more the better. Most don’t have cash reserves or access to capital like the big corporations to shore up operating expenses, and so getting sales right is crucial. What every small business wants to know is how they can increase sales with minimal effort and how their sales can be more effective.

I have to admit I didn’t begin with a background in sales. I had to learn it by doing. Everyone does it this way. As far as I know there aren’t any college degrees in sales. As I’ve gone through many start-ups, my view of sales is far from where I begin on my first start-up.

Without a sales background, I had an immediate dislike of this business function. It seemed a necessary evil. If someone mentioned sales to me in those early days, I’d cringe. I had visions of a sleazy used car salesman that would lie and cheat his way to closing the sale.

Now, I have a completely different outlook. Why? I looked at the sales from the customer’s point of view. As any customer, I have many problems in desperate need of solutions. Most of my issues don’t have easy-to-find answers. I want to know if someone can fix my problems. I want them to tell me about their solution. I am tired of dealing with the problem and I want it to go away forever, never to come back to bother me again.

Let’s flip back to the sales side, your customer wants you to tell them the solution to their problem. You are doing them a favor. You aren’t bothering them; they want to talk to you. It’s only when you are trying to sell them something they don’t need or want that you’re acting like a sleazy, greedy, unethical used-car sales person.

Once I was able to see myself as not becoming the used car salesman, I was able to embrace sales and learn how to do it much better.

Focus on the Customer

The first place to start is to begin by reviewing your sales of the past several months and to conduct some customer interviews. You want both the good and the bad customers, but focus two-thirds of your efforts on the satisfied customers. For your existing customers, answer the following questions among your staff before conducting any interviews. Then look for similarities among customers.

  • What problems are your customer trying to solve and what are they hoping to accomplish? There is a difference; the later are bigger customer goals.
  • Is your customer using the product in the way you intended?
  • Is there a specific feature to your product that they are using to solve their problem?
  • What is the financial cost if the problem is not solved?
  • Whose job is it to solve this problem? Who are your contacts and what are their titles?
  • What problems are blocking the customer from accomplishing their goal?

Customer interviews are important. You hear established business talking about how they have lost touch with the customer all the time. If your company doesn’t have any customers or your closing rates are low then customer interviews are immensely useful. I’ve sent my staff back to call on failed sales to ask questions. Most former prospects or potential customers will spend 15 minutes on the phone with you. You don’t need many phone interviews, 15 or 20 are enough. Patterns emerge quickly.

When conducting customer interviews, add a few more questions to the list above. Prepare the questions you want answered ahead of time, but always be prepared to let the customer take the conversation where they want it to go.

  • When your customer was in the process of buying your product, what concerns or questions did they have during this process?
  • What do your customers think of your competitors? Is there anything you could learn from them?
  • Have your customers interacted with your customer service and what did they think of it?

Why did you do all this work? Sales is a search for the customers that are most likely to buy. The shotgun approach of talking to anyone and everyone, hoping that someone will buy is not effective. You need to know who your most satisfied and happiest customers are and why they are buying. For example, if your happiest customers are using feature X with benefit Y, then why is this tenth on the list in your marketing materials. You want to find more like them, and not waste your time with the others.

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Author’s Bio:
Cynthia Kocialski is the founder of three tech start-ups companies. In the past 15 years, she has been involved in dozens of start-ups. Cynthia writes the Start-up Entrepreneurs’ Blog and has written the book, “Startup From The Ground Up – Practical Insights for Entrepreneurs, How to Go from an Idea to New Business.”

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Thanks, Cynthia!

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Using Foreign Languages to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

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By Adria Saracino

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Connecting Globally

One of the single greatest aspects of the Internet is the ability to connect with people from all over the world. Social media and blogging have quickly created an environment conducive to erasing the distance between people. Now more than ever, information can quickly spread within a matter of seconds.

This global market is great news for website owners, as it means there is opportunity for more people to visit your site. However, you may not be capturing as many of those visitors as you think.

This graph shows that only one fourth of all Internet users are English speakers. Since ¾ of Internet users are not native English speakers, disregarding this audience on your website could mean a missed opportunity for more traffic.

So how do you make sure to capture non-English users? Cater to their native language.

For quick results, using programs like Google Translate (http://translate.google.com/translate_tools?hl=en) to translate your site content will give your international readers—who may have come to your site via English search terms—the option to view your content in a much friendlier environment. This shows cultural sensitivity, and as a result could encourage brand loyalty.

However, note that using free automatic translating services tend to produce very literal translations, which is often free of colloquialisms and common slang. Such literal translations oftentimes come off as poor grammar, so if your translations are faulty it could turn off potential foreign visitors.

Thus, more traditional methods of language learning (http://www.pimsleurapproach.com/) and translating your own content is probably the best way to ensure your site is suited for an international audience. Investing in programs like pimsleur French (http://www.pimsleurapproach.com/learn-french/) and pimsleur German (http://www.pimsleurapproach.com/learn-german/) are great for learning the fundamentals of the common languages you are hoping to optimize for. Whichever route you decide to take, make sure your site content is carefully edited for accuracy.

There are other benefits to catering to an international audience besides showing cultural understanding and sensitivity. Translating your site to popular languages also optimizes your site for international search engine results, since onsite factors are a major indicator of how well you will rank in search engines. This should give you a unique advantage over many of your domestic competitors who otherwise might not optimize for the often overlooked foreign web community.

As translation software improves and the web advances, translating your site should get easier. Until then, invest the time and resources needed to get your web properties optimized and into the search results of foreign visitors before your competition.

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Author’s Bio:
Adria Saracino is the Head of Outreach at Distilled, a creative internet marketing agency in Seattle. When she’s not connecting with interesting people on the web, you can find her talking about style at her personal fashion blog. Follow her on twitter @adriasaracino to stay in touch.

Thanks, Adria!
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Be irresistible!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Make Your Own Opportunities

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A Guest Post by
Rosemary O’Neill

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The only way to know for certain that you won’t win the Publisher’s Clearinghouse is to
not enter the sweepstakes.

The same principle applies to just about every opportunity out there. The successful
entrepreneurs, A-list bloggers, and business leaders all made it because of two things:
?rst, they had radar for opportunities, and second, they seized them.

Think about it. What might have passed you by in the last week or so because you
thought it was too dif?cult, you didn’t have time, you didn’t have the skills, or you just
plain thought “I’ll never make it.” Instead, you should be opportunistic in a good way.

Here are some tips:

  • Recognize your little voice – when it starts telling you why you can’t grasp that chance, don’t listen. Tell it to take a break while you submit that guest post inquiry.
  • Train yourself to see opportunities – you need ?nely tuned opportunity radar. Notice the call for speaker submissions and recognize it as a chance for you to shine.
  • Remember that if you don’t ask, you don’t get – the only reason I am blogging here right now is because I summoned up the guts to ask. Take a deep breath and do it.
  • Don’t get discouraged – the other differentiator for successful people is that they use every rejection as a springboard to the next opportunity. They move on quickly to the next one until they are successful.
  • Always have “lines in the ocean” – you can add so much excitement to your life if you have several things out there, waiting for a response. Will you get accepted to that course? Will your panel proposal be accepted for the conference? Will your photograph win the contest? How much fun to go through life waiting for exciting news!

How about an assignment this week? Go right now and ?nd an opportunity, then just go for it without fear. Tell them Rosemary and Liz sent you.
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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
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Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Hierarchy of Influence: Matching Your Actions to Expected Reactions

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Redux: I wrote this post in Feb. 2011. Based on recent conversation, it seems even more relevant now and so I choose to pick it up, add some clarity and publish a newer version this week.

Not Every Attempt Gets the Expected Outcome

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When our son was barely five years old, he was a shy child who lived by his own timetable. He had his own ways of doing things. If you wanted his attention, your best bet was to make eye contact and simply explain what you what you had to say.

It was during that year, that his grandparents came to visit us in Austin. Together as a family, we planned several outings to enjoy the city and our favorite restaurants. One evening, the whole group was getting ready to go dinner and our son was still playing — not getting ready. This circumstance stressed out three of four adults in his company. Suddenly one, then two, then all three of them were using loud firm voices to tell a child, half their size, to “Get upstairs to change in to clean clothes, immediately!!”

The child froze like a deer in the headlights.

The mom in me responded with like to like. In firm and loud voice, I said, “Who are you to gang up on a little kid like that? Get away from here!”

The three adults moved into the kitchen and spoke quietly to each other.
I took the little boy by the hand. “I said let’s go upstairs and find what you’ll wear to dinner.”

When we came downstairs ready to go to dinner, I walked into the kitchen and apologized for my outburst. In return I got three calm apologies that also said I was right to intervene on the child’s behalf.

Not every attempt at influence gets the outcome we’re going for.

Which Actions Achieve the Outcomes You Seek?

If we can agree that influence is some word or deed that changes behavior. Then plenty of influence occurred in the story I just related. I suspect that had I been privy to the whole scene in the kitchen I would have found that that single story included examples of confrontation, persuasion, conversion, participation, and collaboration. The only thing missing in this family scene would be true antagonism. Six different approaches to influence which lead to entirely different outcomes.

I’ve been reading about, thinking about, and talking to people about influence for months, because influence and trust are integral understanding to loyalty relationships. Let’s take a look at six of the usual forms of influence and the outcomes that result from them.

  1. Antagonism – provokes thought Your values are everything I believe is wrong with the world. You can’t stomach anything that I stand for. We are not competitors. We are enemies at war. Your words and actions might provoke thoughts and deeds, but what I’m thinking is how wrong you are, how to thwart you, or if I have no power, how to hide my true thoughts and feelings. An order from an enemy can influence a behavior but won’t change my thinking.
  2. Confrontation – causes a reaction You say it’s black. I know it’s white. I respond in some way — I fight back. I run away. I consciously ignore you. My response will probably change based who is more powerful. You might overpower me. I might stop responding, but it’s unlikely that you will actually change my thinking. Confrontation leads people to build a defense, to strengthen their own arguments.
  3. Persuasion – changes thinking You look at me and think about how what you want might benefit me. Rather than telling me, you show me how easy, fast, or meaningful it is go along with you. You’ve changed my about what you’re doing. I now see your actions from a new point of view.
  4. Conversion – moves to an action Your invitation to action is so convincing and beneficial to my own goals that I do what you ask. You’ve influenced my behavior to meet your goal. You have won my trust and commitment to an action. It’s not certain I’ll stay converted.
  5. Participation – attracts heroes, ideas, and sharing You reach out with conversation. We find that we are intrigued by the same ideas, believe in the same values, and share the same goals. Your investment in the relationship builds my trust and return investment. You invite me to join you in something you’re building. My limited participation raises my investment, gives me a feeling of partial ownership, and moves me to talk about you, your goals, and what we’re doing together.
  6. Collaboration – builds loyalty relationships We develop a working relationship in which you rely on my viewpoint. We share ideas and align our goals to build something together that we can’t build alone. You believe in my value to your project. I believe in the value of what you’re building. You have gained my loyalty and commitment. I feel a partnership that leads me to protect and evangelize the joint venture. I bring my friends to help.
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Strauss Hierarchy of Influence

Not every campaign or customer situation will need to move to collaboration. But understanding each level will help us manage expectations allowing us to move naturally and predictably from confrontation to persuasion, so that we don’t expect the loyalty of collaboration from a momentary conversion.

Could be useful when looking to connect with that special valentine too.

How might you use the hierarchy to change the way you manage your business, your event, your community, and your new business initiatives?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!