TTC - a marketing campaign offensive to customers

During my daily commute on the Toronto subway I came across an advertisement that presented the top five reasons for subway delays. The advertisement compelled me into writing this short article.

Here are the top five reasons for delays: blocking doors, holding doors, Mind-the-Gap injuries, litter resulting in track level fires, passenger illness.

Unbelievable, but true - according to the TTC, customers are entirely responsible for delays in the subway schedule. The complete absence of non-customer (e.g. mismanagement) caused delays only reinforces my perception of the message.

An unexpected message, a botched delivery

The tagline, "Do your part. Be safe. Be considerate," reveals the TTC's discontent with customers' less than perfect use of the transit system. Not only is this message offensive but also the way it is communicated is sub par.

Here are a few questions that occur to me when reading the advertisement:

• Why is passenger illness being reprimanded? What is the point of conveying this sort of message: Be considerate; don't fall ill while on the subway?
• What is the practical difference between blocking doors and holding doors?
• On what research (if any) is the ranking based? Good research standards require disclosing at least the period of the research, the size of the sample, the name of the researcher and the name of the sponsor. In the absence of such minimal disclosure, the credibility of the claim is seriously tarnished.
• What percentage of the delays is actually caused by customers? Customer-caused delays might make the top five reasons list, and yet might not constitute an overall majority.
• Why are the concept and design of the campaign executed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York? Did the TTC run short of advertising agencies?

Advice for the good marketer

• Never offend your customers; treat them with respect and care. They pay your wages.
• Whenever you near the idea that your customers are the main (or even one) obstacle in the way of your business, it is time for a comprehensive review of your business model.
• For the sake of the aforementioned respect and care, always present your findings in a professional manner. Professionalism really makes a difference.

Visit the CAIPS Retriever online.

YMCA of Greater Toronto assisting entrepreneurs

What should you do if you have little or no money to start a business? What should you do if your marketing knowledge is far from being perfect? YMCA of Greater Toronto runs a program that can help you with that.

As part of the program, I recently ran a workshop introducing new entrepreneurs to customized marketing and promotion strategies. Following are a few points on entrepreneurial marketing I made during the workshop.

A customer-oriented approach

Marketing plays a central role in the virtuous business cycle: acquisition/retention of a profitable customer base, long-term profits, shareholder value, resources and capital, and back to the starting point. In today's turbulent environments, the best approach is known as "customer-oriented". It emphasizes:

• gathering of, sharing of, and responsiveness to market intelligence,
• management of customers as assets,
• outperforming competitors and
• cross-functional integration.

The process starts with an (unbiased) assessment of customers' needs and wants, and continues with product development, not the other way around. If you follow this process, nothing except money can stop you from doing high quality marketing. But lack of funding is a challenging task. If your only choice is low-cost marketing, you have to be creative.

A clear idea about what marketing strategy is

Because they are both "strategies", there is confusion between "management" and "marketing" strategies - but there shouldn't be. It is important therefore to draw a line between them:

• Management strategy centers on the idea that a portfolio of companies, business units, products etc. generates the positive outcome of any portfolio (risk minimization for a given level of return),
• Marketing strategy stems from another idea, that the goal of greater return can be achieved by voluntary focus on the most attractive opportunities, through segmentation, targeting and positioning.

It might seem that management and marketing strategies are totally different, which is both false and true. It is false because both strategies do focus on the market and it is true because they have different responsibilities.

A combination of attractiveness and probability of success

You cannot engage in a market based only on its attractiveness, but you must always take into account a combination of market attractiveness and your own probability of success. The classic mistake is to pursue market opportunities because of a single reason (e.g., "we are first"), only to succumb to followers' and imitators' competition.

A systematic approach

• Always do marketing,
• Create and execute a marketing strategy,
• Budget for marketing,
• Consider outsourcing,
• Dedicate time,
• Always have marketing materials handy,
• Market yourself.

Visit the CAIPS Retriever online.

Ordering CAIPS notes after receiving your AOR

Please be advised, if ordering CAIPS notes after receiving your AOR (and before the formal assessment of your application), DO NOT include interpretation services in your order (we recommend choosing either CAIPS Standard or CAIPS Standard + Xpresspost).

Explanation: as long as your application has not been formally assessed, there is no need for interpretation services. Do think about adding interpretation services for subsequent stages of your application process. For more details, follow this link to our FAQ page: When is it useful to obtain my CAIPS file?

Rest assured, when no interpretation is needed or requested, we summarize the main areas of concern in our letter to you as a matter of common courtesy. Also, if after receiving your CAIPS file, it turns out that no interpretation is needed (as explained), our policy is to refund you the interpretation portion of our service fee. Thank you.

Updated processing times on CIC web site

Recently, CIC has updated the processing times statistics. Published on May 15, the latest data cover the April 2005 to March 2006 period. Unfortunately, processing times have lengthened (considerably in some cases). For more information, please follow this link to the Statistics and processing times section of our Useful Links page or this direct link to CIC's Application Processing Times page.

Visit the CAIPS Retriever online.

Census 2006: Statistics Canada and marketing

Do you know that Census Day was May 16? Do you know why all that information is being collected? If you live in Canada and you do not know, it is because of Statistics Canada's botched marketing campaign. Statistics Canada missed to (repeatedly) inform us of two important aspects:

• The benefits of being counted in the Census;
• The legal consequences of not returning the completed questionnaire.

A simple carrot and stick strategy. Instead of creating awareness and thus improving response rates, Statistics Canada is now forced to spend on collecting questionnaires from an uninformed population.

Here is another example of unwise government spending. Three weeks after completing the questionnaire on the Internet, I received in the mail an unaddressed postcard abut "counting myself in". No household that had completed and returned the questionnaire should have received this card. Yes, it is about cut trees, underused computers and wasted taxpayer money. But, instead of learning from professionals how to do marketing, Statistics Canada imposes on marketing subcontractors to have experience in working with the government (or to be already imprinted by bureaucratic, inefficient work).

Visit the CAIPS Retriever online.

The French fries truck: Toronto's sublime marketing on a dime

Go to Nathan Phillips Square to find this French fries truck just in front of the City Hall. You can get dogs, burgers, sausages and fries. The French fries truck has been in business for more than twenty-five years, closing each day only when running out of gas. During lunch, people queue in front of it. It is not uncommon to see thirty people queuing. Few, if any, spill over to imitators.

The French fries truck is a sublime example of little-money and lots-of-professionalism marketing that I wanted to share at an YMCA workshop with people contemplating their own startups. Keep in mind this is not about finding a great business idea but about making a business great, irrespective of its size or industry.

No competitors, just imitators

No competitors, just imitators

A few quotations from the blogosphere offer hints at what consumers perceive as value and at their reasons for patronizing this business:

• "The most food for the least money"
• "Good and bargain"
• "High value, low price"
• "Always excellent"
• "One of Toronto's crown jewels of fast food"
• "Excellent and fun"

Five sublime marketing principles

By definition, low-cost marketing has to be creative. Marketing wise, no two successful small businesses are the same, but finding those underlying, unifying principles shouldn't be a challenge. As long as your customers are your main concern, almost everything you do is marketing. So, what are those marketing principles?

• Product quality: This reduces your competitors to imitators, as mentioned.
• Constant product quality: Raise the bar and keep it up.
• Service quality: In this case, fast food is fast and with a smile on its face.
• Pricing: Stay busy with the above three and forget about inflation. Get profits out of increased turnover.
• Focus: Keep your business scope within reach of your business model. For your customers, a truck is better than a fleet.

Visit the CAIPS Retriever online.