There's No Business That's Not Show Business Marketing in an Experience Culture

by Schmitt, Bernd H.; Rogers, David L.; Vrotsos, Karen L.

• ISBN13: 9780130471192
• ISBN10: 0130471194
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-06-24
• Publisher: FT Press

Summary

Say goodbye to "business as usual"--to succeed today you need show business!How do you market in today's "experience culture"--as conventional advertising grows increasingly ineffective, and customers grow increasingly independent? Companies and brands from Altoids to Volkswagen have discovered the answer: bring show business into your business!There's No Business That's Not Show Business demonstrates how to use "show biz" techniques to cut through the clutter, engage your customers personally, differentiate your product or brand--and create real, long--term value.These techniques can be adapted for any product, service, or market--consumer or B2B. You'll learn how to clearly identify strategic objectives and expected outcomes; target your high--value customers; ensure that "show biz" marketing promotes your core brand message; extend your impact via PR and CRM; and, above all, achieve quantifiable results. The right show, the right media, the right venue Choose, invent, and re--invent media around your unique marketing needs Keeping your show "on brand" Drive your core branding message: don't distract from it Shows for customers, with customers, and by customers Use show business to strengthen all your customer relationships Integrating show business and leadership Persona, myth, and ethos: shape the experience of your own company Not just show: business Practical measurements, credible budgets, real ROI Show biz techniques that cut through market clutter--and delight and engage your customers! Building experiences that engage, surprise, and dazzle your customers Tying "show biz" marketing to measurable business goals Breakthrough techniques for consumer, B2B, even internal marketing initiatives Mobile marketing, street evangelism, customer events, theater, and much more Altoids to Oracle, Volkswagen to Victoria's Secret: new case studies in experiential marketing Customers today are more independent than ever, and advertising less effective and more costly every day. There's No Business that's Not Show Businessshows how smart companies can use creativity, humor, and play to reach out and engage customers through a new kind of experience. This book provides winning case studies and "show business" techniques that can be used to dazzle customers, launch products, build brands, generate buzz, and build great customer relationships. From road shows to street evangelism to multi--media theater and beyond, it offers a new generation of marketing that can work for every customer in every industry. Most of all, it offers tools to link your "show business" to your brand, to core strategic goals, and to measurable results. Your business can be in show business too--and to reach customers today, it must! Praise for There's No Business That's Not Show Business "This book cleverly and insightfully makes explicit a clear (if upsetting to some) trend, i.e. 'all the world's a stage.' As the emphasis has moved from the physical product (or service) to customer experience, how consumers relate to products in their own authored "play" has increasingly become the focus of marketing thought and practice. Using a variety of well--known (e.g. Victoria's Secret, Intel) and less obvious (e.g., the Guggenheim) examples, the book explores the implications of a focus on the show/experience in an entertaining way. Importantly, however, the book also provides a seven--step procedure for moving from identification of a desired image to the quantitative measurement of perfor

Author Biography

Bernd H. Schmitt is a world authority on customer experience, brands, and innovation. He is Professor at Columbia Business School, Executive Director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership, and CEO of The EX Group, a customer experience consulting firm. He has lectured and consulted in 20 countries, appearing on CNN, CNNfn, BBC, Bloomberg, and CNBC. He wrote the global bestseller Experiential Marketing and Customer Experience Management.

David L. Rogers heads the show business practice for The EX Group, where he works with clients to develop experiences that engage customers, differentiate products and brands, and create long-term value. Rogers came to show business via 20 years of performing, composing, and producing for the stage.

Karen Vrotsos is a freelance communications specialist. She provides consulting and research for books, online courses, and show business events. She has taught business writing and public speaking for professionals.

Table of Contents

Foreword.
Introduction: All Business is Show Business.

SECTION I. TYPES OF SHOWS.

1. Live Shows.
2. Immersionary Show Spaces.
3. Shows with Invented (and Reinvented) Media.
4. Buzz, Evangelistas, and Customer Shows.
5. Integrating Different Types of Shows.

SECTION II. STRATEGIC ISSUES IN SHOW BUSINESS.

6. Seven Steps to Keeping Your Show On-Brand.
7. Know, Engage, Become Your Audience—Creating Relationships Through Show Business.
8. Extending the Impact of Your Show.
9. Measurement, Budgets and ROI.

SECTION III. THE SHOW BUSINESS ORGANIZATION.

10. Internal Shows For Employees and Partners.
11. How To Run Your Own Show: The 3 P's and the IBM Opera.
12. Persona, Myth, and Ethos in Leadership.
13. The Show Business Leadership Hall of Fame.

SECTION IV. SHOW BUSINESS IN AN EXPERIENCE CULTURE.

14. Las Vegas.
15. The Cooking Business.
16. The Art Business.

Excerpts

Smart companies today realize that traditional forms of marketing and communications don't cut it any more. Customers want more than a smiling face accompanied by a catchy slogan and jingle aired on prime-time TV. Instead, customers judge products, brands, and entire organizations based on the experiences that they offer. Companies therefore need to provide experiences, and these experiences must be entertaining, engaging, boundary breaking, and at the same time value creating. Show business delivers such experiences, and in a more cost-effective way than any other form of marketing. As a result, there is no business that can't benefit from show business. But what is the right type of show for your brand? How do you stage and manage a show? How do you instill show business into the organization as a whole? This book shows you how by providing numerous examples of successful show business practices in today's organizations. As you will see, we found most cases outside the frame of traditional marketing and traditional media. Customers are getting quite skeptical and cynical about advertising and other traditional media. In response, many of the newest forms of marketing that we have found echo traditions that predate television. These new forms offer experiences instead of cut-and-dried messages: road shows, jamborees, product play shops, street theater, fairs, and other face-to-face encounters. That's why the old-fashioned term show business makes sense. The old razzle-dazzle experience mixed with up-to-the-minute technology is bringing marketing into the future. By now, the uses of experience by businesses have multiplied beyond theater-like performances at theme parks and restaurants to include buzz marketing, product launches, customer retention, internal communications, and nontraditional advertising. We view these show business experiences as a branding tool and a part of your increasingly diversified marketing mix. These experiences are valuable because they are face-to-face, interactive, help you reach and focus on your most valuable customers, and are capable of creating real loyalty and genuine relationships. They are not just razzle-dazzle, Las Vegas style. They are strategic and value-creating. Our take on the experience aspect of show business is related to two other books (as well as a series of articles) authored by one of us, Bernd Schmitt. Experiential Marketing, published in 1999, provided an integrated marketing approach that moves beyond the functional features and benefits of a product to differentiate a brand. Customer Experience Management, published in 2003, provided a five-step process for connecting with customers through unique brand experiences, customer interfaces, and innovations. As a consultant and CEO of The EX Group, Schmitt has used these frameworks and tools with companies in consumer packaged goods, automobile, electronics, software, financial services, pharmaceuticals, beauty and cosmetics, hospitality, and media industries. In working with these clients and with David L. Rogers and Karen Vrotsos, it became clear that many companies needed not only long-term strategic initiatives to manage customer experiences, but also concepts and tools for how to use creative, fun experiences to engage their customers and their own employees. In this book you find such concepts and tools as well as numerous cases of successful show business projects. In many successful companies show business is alive and kicking, a well-kept secret behind the corporate curtain. This book will open the curtain and let you see the value that show business can offer to your business. Ladies a-a-a-n-n-n-d Gentlemen in Business! Let the show begin! Bernd H. Schmitt, David L. Rogers, Karen Vrotsos The EX Group, LLC New York City, May 2003