Marketing Ingredients

“Consumers are a lot smarter than they used to be,” said a colleague at a recent Glazer-Kennedy marketing seminar. He sounded sad about this, which puzzled me. He made it sound like smart consumers were a bad thing.

Actually, it’s a lot easier to sell to smart people. They listen better, they’re quicker to buy if you truly have what they want, and they won’t waste your time if you don’t.

Especially now, with legal challenges added to all the marketing noise you’re already competing against, smart consumers are a blessing to solid companies with good products. Why all the fuss?

In the darkest years of the Great Depression, an idealistic couple decided to put their beliefs into practice. Helen and Scott Nearing retreated to a small bit of farmland in Vermont, and began an experiment that they detailed in a book called Living the Good Life.

The Nearings were virtually self-reliant in food production, followed a strict vegetarian diet, and refused to use livestock either for food or labor. They took pride in their organic farming methods.

Entrepreneurs they were not. In fact, they were seeking an alternative to the capitalist system. Scott Nearing was an outspoken socialist whose academic career had been cut short by his political beliefs. Nevertheless, they needed cash from time to time, and developed a politically correct way of earning it.

The property included a number of maple trees, and the Nearings soon taught themselves how to produce and market maple syrup. But they added an interesting twist.

Since they were against capitalism in theory, they didn’t seek the maximum profit for their products. They calculated the costs of all the materials and inputs, paid themselves the current factory wages, and used this is the price for their maple syrup. They were probably able to sell below the market price, because there was no real markup. But the repercussions went beyond this, and probably produced a significant economic stimulus.

Their low prices helped a lot of mom-and-pop grocers and restaurants keep maple syrup on their shelves and tables. Offering this sweet luxury may have kept some of these places in business. This also encouraged people to enjoy a healthy, natural product when hard times might have driven them to a cheaper, less healthy alternatives such as corn syrup.

Best of all, the Nearings may have pioneered the idea of an organic farm as a profitable enterprise. Whatever they thought about the economy, they were stimulating it.

This is more relevant to our current situation than you may initially think, because many of the most successful businesses and business leaders have built their triumph on strong values. Business is often depicted as a sort of warfare, with “Captains of Industry” trying to outmaneuver each other in control of markets and territories.

But business is more often the development of networks and mutually-beneficial relationships. I could never make a living as a copywriter except for the fact that communication and interaction is far more important than sheer brute power.

The point of all this is that your business can build a strong economy in many ways, even when the profit motive is secondary (or even contrary) to your ideals.

An article India’s Business Standard caught my eye the other day. The government is in a legal clash with energy drink manufacturers over the caffeine content of their products.

In a nutshell, the argument is whether energy beverages are merely soda pop adulterated with illegally high levels of caffeine, or whether they’re a separate category subject to different rules.

The regulators are framing this as a health and safety issue. But really,  if you want a megadose of caffeine, isn’t it healthier and safer to have one super-caffeinated beverage, versus chugging six cans of soda (with all the extra coloring and corn syrup) just to get the same buzz? Not to mention the excess waste problem when people need to quaff half a dozen beverages just to stay awake.

If I were in marketing for one of these products, I’d launch a campaign with copy that would go something like this:

Energize your right to energy

You work hard. You play even harder. You live life on your terms. But now there are jealous, petty people trying to take away your energy. They want to drain the power from your next (Insert beverage name here). But don’t worry, (insert company name here) has your back. We’re fighting for your right to recharge, to make sure you and future generations are free to enjoy a refreshing (insert beverage name here).

Okay, it’s a rough draft. The first thing I came up with after just a minute or two of thinking. But you get the idea.

You could offer coupons in the shape of a bottle or can, with pictures of people living exciting, active lives. Start an online social platform where people weigh in on what they do with their energy, and what they would lose if the manufacturers were forced to cut their caffeine levels. Highlight real customers who show off their high-energy lifestyle.

The beverage manufacturers seem to be downplaying the whole thing, as if they’re on trial for making a dangerous product. But these aren’t cigarettes! We’re basically talking about coffee with vitamins. It may not be the best thing for kids to be drinking, or people with certain health problems, but if you’re in that category you probably shouldn’t drink a lot of soft drinks, anyway.

Instead of running and hiding from controversy, why don’t more marketers turn it around, ride the wave of publicity, and take a stand for their product?

Every nutraceuticals company should do this. Whenever you have contact with a prospect, even if it’s passive contact like a website, give them a specific step they can take to do business with you.

Don’t just put your phone number at the bottom of the page. Tell them to pick up the phone and call you for an appointment, and give them several good reasons why they need to do it today.

Every piece of text should actively prompt readers to do something: Sign up for a newsletter. Download a white paper. Take advantage of this special deal that will only be good until the end of the month.

This will usually help you close sales faster. More importantly, writing for specific results gives you something tangible you can measure.

When you know that 3 out of every 1000 visitors to your website call for information, and you get 5 appointments for every 100 newsletters you send out, you can start to understand what works and what doesn’t.

This will let you put more time and energy into useful activity, dump the tactics that aren’t working, and increase your Return On Investment.

There are a lot of clever ways to put in your “call to action.” But all you really have to do is include a reason why they should take the desired action.

For example, “Our proprietary mix of enzymes has just received GRAS certification. You can add value to all your products by including this vital ingredient. And to introduce you to our enzymes, we’re offering this special deal for the next ten days…”

Be sure to repeat your call to action at the end of your piece, in the form of a p.s. Over 75% of the people who don’t read your copy word-for-word will still read the p.s.

Businesses based on mail order, catalogs, and e-commerce seem to use this tool consistently. Do you?

The next time a marketing piece grabs your attention, ask yourself, “So what am I supposed to do now?” See if it answers that question. Then look at your own website, sales letters, presentations, or anything else you use, and ask the same question.

You’ll learn a lot of surprising things about your business and your customers. And on top of your new wealth of knowledge, you’ll also gain a wealth of…er, wealth.

There’s a hierarchy in the natural products industry. When you think about which companies you do business with, and which ones do business with you, there are several levels of the relationship. And if your company is in a high-level relationship with clients, you’ll get more and better business. This becomes doubly important in a slow economy.

Rising to the top

In order to raise your company status, you need to understand the levels and see where you currently reside.

Mere vendors and suppliers occupy the bottom rung. If you’re in this relationship with a client, you are expendable. In a vendor/supplier relationship, decisions are based on price, necessity, verifiable lab results and legal compliance. Decision-makers make rational, objective choices when dealing with vendors.

Meeting a clients needs at this level is important, but too many companies stop here. That’s a mistake, because anything new that you propose to a purely rational client will be resisted and questioned.

As a client comes to know you and trust you, your company my take on a little more status as a consultant and advisor. In this realm you have a more respect and consideration from clients. If you suggest a new product line, service, or action your opinion will be viewed favorably but not automatically accepted.

The top of the pyramid

To get into the best relationship, your company should be viewed as a partner or advocate for every client.  At this level it’s understood, at least tacitly, that you’re committed to the client’s success. When you offer a new product or service, the client trusts you enough to take the risk and give your plan a try. Your expertise is acknowledged, and even when the client disagree with your recommendations, she may give you a chance.

The doctor of natural marketing

When you achieve the highest levels of status and trust you’re like a doctor or a lawyer for your client. Most people will accept the advice of their lawyer without question.

So how do you get yourself up into the advisor’s seat?

Ultimately it takes years of healthy, mutually beneficial business relationships. But time alone won’t get you there. You need to build your company up and positions your business as a leader from day one. You have to start it right now.

The short list to marketing primacy

Your company representatives should be the go-to experts in your field, and the only way to get there is to be visibly present at the front of every trend. There are many ways to do this, and the more you can tackle the better off you’ll be. Here’s a short list to get you started.

• Don’t just make an appearance at trade shows and expos–offer presentations and workshops. Publicize these broadly and well in advance. Videos, recordings and transcripts of these presentations should be available later for the prospects who couldn’t attend.
• Have a collection of relevant and useful white papers and case studies for every product and innovation, and promote these regularly online and in person
• Launch a carefully-targeted media campaign for every significant new development in your company. As I’ve said elsewhere, the goal of you PR isn’t to get the release published, but to get an interview with a journalist
• Use blogs, Twitter, FaceBook, and every new social media you can find the time to handle. You never know who’s following, and you never know when they’ll start to see you as “more than just a vendor” because you happen to have kids the same age, or share a common passion for skydiving
• The most visible people in your company should each find a hotly debated topic that they’re genuinely passionate about, and visibly participate in the discussion via LinkedIn, online forums, and the media

I hope I don’t need to add that what you do publicly should be about 20% selling and 80% valuable information. If you sell too much, you’re going to drive away your audience. But if your only call to action is “Send us an email for more information” you’ve wasted all your hard work.

All of this is designed to give your company a recognizable face, a personality that puts you above the role of mere vendor.

You’re probably already doing research. You’re hopefully doing something to get the word out about your company’s latest developments. But you might be missing a new application of your methods.

Here’s how to turn the latest research into profit growth.

If you want to make a new discovery or breakthrough, you do two things: You experiment under carefully controlled conditions, and then you record and compare your results.

Along with uncovering new health-giving properties in natural ingredients, this process can uncover new profit potential for your company.

You’re probably already doing the legwork in another form. You go to trade shows and offer “demonstration” samples of your products. For example, you cook up chocolates, cookies and drinks infused with your proprietary ingredients. The goal is to give manufacturers and distributors new ideas on how to use your ingredients.

Now let’s make a leap and go one step further. You’ve shown prospective clients how they can sell your ingredients to consumers. Now it’s time to find consumers who specifically demand your ingredients.

Now this is your homework assignment (unless you engage  me as a copywriter–then it’s my assignment). Figure out how soccer moms, metrosexuals, rising Asian and Indian entrepreneurs and others will want to use products containing your ingredients.

Then take it up another notch. Create some techniques to actively cultivate these markets. I’ll give you an example. As an avid cyclist and traveler, as well as a hard-working entrepreneur who wants to live to 150, I read up on the latest nutraceutical research and use astaxanthyn.

But not just any astaxanthin. At a trade show I saw a presentation by a company that offers their own special branded astaxanthin, and I spent several days looking for a supplement that contained that specific astaxanthin. They won my loyalty with a good PR campaign, friendly interactions, and a book that convinced me their company produced superior quality.

They won my loyalty, and if they can rally an army of consumers like me, they’ll get priority treatment from all the major supplement manufacturers. (It doesn’t hurt that they boldly list these manufacturers on their website.)

Getting noticed means taking risks. But taking risks means getting noticed.

As a natural products copywriter, I’ve got a bias here, of course. But my recent experience with a chiropractor showed me just how badly a subtle bias is hitting the natural products industry, and probably depriving millions of people the health and happiness they deserve.

So far, in the fateful DNA lottery I’ve been a lucky winner. But it turns out I’ve inherited my mother’s spinal stenosis, a condition that will lead to irritated and constricted nerves that will probably get worse as I get older.

When you get diagnosed with something that probably won’t kill you but will definitely impact the quality of your life, you get to make a choice.

Most people (Americans, at least) don’t even realize they have a choice, but there it is. You can follow the mainstream “traditional” course of treatment which usually involves drugs and surgery. Or you can deal with your problem through nutraceuticals, herbs, and minimally invasive procedures.

My mom had back surgery a few years ago. She said it made her feel “20 years younger.” I opted for the alternative medicine choice, and went to a chiropractor to see what he could do.

I had high expectations (after all, I spend my free time studying the research on alternative medicine) but I was still blown away. After the first session, 90% of my problems went away. The pain was gone, and I could move around again. My feet no longer tingled. I went for a bike ride that afternoon, and felt stronger than I had in months.

No doubt a successful operation would have accomplished the same thing. But she needed weeks to undergo the process and recover from it. I spent 30 minutes in the office, and walked away feeling better. Traditional treatment involves shaved bones and possibly fused vertebrae. I got instant relief an increased mobility in the bargains.

There are no-brainer trade-offs in most cases, and this is what nobody ever talks about.

Alternative treatments like chiropractic, acupressure and rolfing have all kinds of side benefits. Likewise, nutraceuticals generally nourish and support your body in ways that extend beyond the immediate benefits to your condition.

The research tends to focus on two things: First, the safety of a given treatment or procedure. Second, the effectiveness in treating a specific condition.

But if research took a broader view, maybe it could support both the anecdotal and common-sense benefits of natural medicine:

Drugs and surgery have side effects and complications. Natural cures have side benefits.

Traditional medicine usually costs more than nutraceuticals, often by one or more orders of magnitude.

Natural medicine can be part of a healthier lifestyle. Traditional medicine often leads to months of recovery and disability, and frequently this is permanent.

I’d love to see a study of the side effects and advantages–lets call them fringe benefits–of different types of treatment. Rosemary and tai chi versus statins, or cinnamon versus diabetic medication.  I’m sure this kind of research would give our industry some badly needed ammunition, and I would love to write about it.

This is just a quick update to let you know I’ve got a new phone number. When you need help with your marketing, call me at 213-675-6377.

Here it is: anyone who’s willing to get up early, drive, and possibly fly to your presentation would probably be just as eager to watch a video or read a document with the same information.

You can easily post a white paper or a video presentation online for downloading. Most of your competitors won’t even take this minimal first step.

And then comes the critical wall that separates the mighty from the meek:  Getting the right people to watch, read, listen, or download your information piece. (I call it this because the term “white paper” is overused and far too limiting.)

But there are two simple ways to overcome this challenge.

The first is to massively publicize your new creation. Send an email announcing what you’ve done to everyone on your list. Issue a press release and offer an article to your media contacts. Send a pre-release review copy to all the industry trade journals.

The second way to get your masterpiece into the hands, eyes, ears and minds of your prospects is to engineer it for this purpose. This takes a little bit of explaining.

You see, nobody in this industry is motivated 100% by hard economic gains. People have a natural interest in health and well-being, a concern for the future, a fascination with science and a love of nature. Some are loyal to friends and family, others are passionate about sales, research, or some aspect of business.

Your information piece just needs to include the emotional, feeling side of your work. And this isn’t nearly as hard to do as you might think.

State Your Process

People are naturally curious, and you’ll be amazed at the fascination prospects have for the methods and equipment your company uses to grind, extract, desiccate, bottle, or store things. How you monitor the yeast cultures, and what could happen if you get it wrong.

The secret is to name your process in details involving color, smell, and sensations. Tell the story of discoveries made, disasters averted, even what went wrong and how you dealt with it. The hard numbers are the steel framework that supports your breathtaking work of marketing architecture.

This has been tested and proven to work. Advertising history is filled with documented success stories in companies ranging from coal mines to beer brewers who made use of this technique. (For some classic examples, look up John Caples, Howard Gossage, David Ogilvy, or Bruce Bendinger. Especially if you think copywriters have too much free time.)

If you’re a contract manufacturer, this could be the key to the vault! And if you’re not, consider that almost none of your competitors are using this tactic. I’ll be posting more tips on this, and maybe a few examples, in the weeks to come.

The nutraceuticals industry is booming, but a lot of contract manufacturers and raw ingredient suppliers are left out of the biggest growth.

As a copywriter, I’m seeing more and more requests from Business-to-Consumer (B2C) nutraceuticals companies. This is a sign of a growing inequality.

You see, most of the growth is happening in the B2C side of the industry. This growth naturally increases demand and brings more business to manufacturers and suppliers of ingredients, but with an important difference.

The B2C companies create and promote new products at will, charging whatever the market will bear and using copywriters to market their goods and increase demand. At the same time, they get to pick and choose the best deals from multiple nutraceutical ingredient suppliers and manufacturers who offer (at least superficially) the same things.

You’re often shut out of the consumer end of the dialogue, with almost no way to differentiate yourself from your competitors. This takes away your power to choose the pricing for your products and hard work.

How can we add value to our products, and ultimately play a part in the consumer end of things, where most of the marketing and valuation traditionally takes place? This shouldn’t be an “us vs. them” battle. The best solution would be win/win partnerships where specific ingredient suppliers or specific processes become critical elements of the brand.

I don’t pretend to have the solution to this challenge, just a few suggestions. If you’ve subscribed to my newsletter (the green sidebar to your left) you’ve probably received the white paper I wrote about this more than a year ago. Email me if you’d like a copy.

This problem is becoming increasingly relevant and pressing. Let’s start a dialogue. Any ideas? (Please leave a comment below)