Jon's In Waikiki (AKA The Waikiki Marketer)

As you may have read already, Hawaii, and the rest of the world, lost Don Ho. Not just a famous singer, but the biggest Hawaiian singer ever.

Although he was wasn’t a strictly Hawaiian act – ‘Tiny Bubbles’ is more lounge-pop than anything else – he was definitely of the Islands. He was the undisputed King of Waikiki.

Without him we have truly reached the end of an era. Waikiki was once home to many headliner acts that had their own room at one of the hotels or a residency at one of the sit-down style nightclubs.

Danny Kaleikini, Arthur Lyman, Martin Denny, Hilo Hattie – they’ve all passed on or retired. I was amazed when I moved back here that you could still catch the legendary Genoa Keawe at the Marriott but she wasn’t performing in that old showroom style or environment.

This is part of the declining ability of Waikiki’s marketer’s to come up with something unique. Instead of bringing up new local entertainers or producing Hawaiian-themed shows, they’ve allowed them to die.

You can still catch good Hawaiian music – on the beach every night at 6:00PM for example. However, the Hawaiian acts at hotels are usually put in as atmosphere.

They play at the bar while people drink or in the restaurants as they eat. But they’re not the focus. And they should be.

Where are the real local marketers today? Don Ho, on purpose or not, was one of the best. And now he’s gone. He truly was one of those few who put Waikiki on the map.

As I wrote (blogged?) before, my wife and I were just up in San Francisco. I hadn’t been there in some time.

Having lived here, where preservation is a big issue, as well as reaching an age that brings appreciation of day-to-day things, I saw SF with different eyes this time.

What amazed me was, at least in the ‘touristy’ areas, how many older buildings there were; and how much identity SF had preserved over their history.

Buildings all over the districts I saw were obviously built in the early to mid-20th century. Not only that, they were in good shape.

This was shocking to someone like me – an Oahu resident – where architecture is not valued. Hotels are demolished after as little as 20 years of service, cleared away for a bigger hotel using the same blueprint as a place in Albuquerque.

There may be some concessions to ‘place’ in the lobby, but once you enter the elevators, you could be anywhere. Hotel rooms share the double bed, tv & dresser combo that you find at any Holiday Inn.

There has been beautification done in Waikiki, but, again, outside of the immediate beach area, it’s the Rodeo Drive variety mostly.

Expensive designer stores, some palm trees and lame street acts. I’m astonished at how fascinated people are by a dude who is all silver. And doesn’t move.

The great buildings and hotels of Hawaii: The Waikikian, Waikiki Theater, the old Halekulani, Canlis Boiler, much of the International Marketplace – gone forever. I can name a lot more, but it just gets too depressing.

My point is that SF gets it – they have something unique – great buildings, the Market St streetcars, the trolleys.

Here in Hawaii, the travel industry is dominated by the big name hotel chains and a very unimaginative Visitor’s Bureau. They have gotten away with advertising a picture of a beach for 50 years now and raked in the money.

And the beaches are great. But they don’t build anything themselves that contributes to the tourist industry. They don’t think that giving a ‘Hawaii Experience’ that encompasses the visitor is important.

Try to find a tiki restaurant in Hawaii. Besides Tiki’s, which is basically TGI Friday’s with some decor that is, admittedly, not too bad. They used to litter the main drag of Waikiki. Not anymore.

The old Duke’s at the International Marketplace, that featured great live Hawaiian music, is now a Frat Dude bar. If you like to dance to Hotel California, I highly recommend it. It’s like you really are in Daytona!

Put it this way – to eat at a prime Polynesian restaurant, I had to go to SF! If you are ever there, make it a point to go by the Tonga Room.

Again, the music isn’t Polynesian, but the inside is incredible. We do still have the La Mariana here in Hawaii, but it’s up for sale, so I don’t hold out much hope.

The Hawaii tourism industry – especially Waikiki – should be ashamed of themselves. They’ve gotten lazy and the boom of the past 2 years didn’t help.

We’re experiencing a drop in arrivals as I write this. But I don’t think they’ll learn anything. Their best ideas will be to buy more ad space on the mainland and raise room prices.

Now that’s brilliant marketing.

It’s been a little while since last posting. I, and my wife, were up in Sonoma, CA and then down to San Francisco.

I noticed some things there which I’ll blog about at some point, but the issue I wanted to address today is my dog Nigel – a marketing savant.

Why do I say that? Because he can get past any and all barriers we put up to get through our day undisturbed. I see it every single day, time and time again.

Today, for example, while walking Nigel we saw an older lady coming in the opposite direction, the usual straight-faced expression one sees on a pedestrian.

But – as soon as she reached us she launched into a monologue about a dog outfit she had just seen at the mall. No introduction, no transition into the subject, she just felt an instant rapport.

More than that, she felt COMPELLED to talk to us. To tell us her story. I hadn’t said one word to her and yet, because I was with Nigel, I was golden.

This wasn’t a unique experience. This happens all the time. Nigel has the power to instantly build trust. Many times people don’t address or even acknowledge me.

People will come up, kneel down and start petting him; all the while they’re telling Nigel how cute he is. It’s as if I don’t exist – and for that moment, to them, maybe I don’t. It’s all about Nigel.

I’ll write more about the ‘Nigel Phenomenon’ in later posts, because there’s a lot that we can learn from him and how people react to him. For now, here’s a start.

Nigel is cute. He’s not ‘stunningly handsome’ or impressive. He invites people to approach him, to talk to him, to pet him. Not literally, but on some unspoken level that humans operate on and respond to.

A prize show dog can be beautiful, but how many people would run up to it on the street and start cooing to it? Those impeccably coiffed animals don’t inspire a desire to interact with them.

Those types of dogs aren’t ‘inviting’, at least to a stranger.

What does this have to do with marketing? Marketing for a lot of products and services is about building trust; and you need to do that as quickly and as firmly as possible.

Some industries do call for the Awe-Inspiring or Deeply Impressive image. A security firm, for example, won’t do well using the cute and approachable marketing avenue, or as I will now call it – the ‘Nigel Factor’.

Most, however, will benefit from being ‘cute’, not ‘stunning’. You want trust. You want rapport. You want to draw people in like a magnet. It’s not something you can fake.

You will have to work at it. It’s not about being ‘cutesy’, it’s about forming a bond.

If you really want to learn how to do this, I offering consultations with Nigel, for a substantial fee. Serious inquiries only.

Let’s say you’re walking down the street, on the way to buy some new T-Shirts. The ones you have are stretched in the neck, have holes plus they have stains.

None of those stains resemble any of the Church-recognized Saints or Star Wars characters, so you can’t sell them. Even if you could, you still need new ones, so that’s what you’re going to get today.

You continue on your way, almost to the door of where you get all your T-shirts – the Hooters gift shop (Yes, you’re a class act all the way).

But you arrive and the place is completely empty. No tables, no chairs, no young ladies working their way toward a degree in cosmetology. What do you do?

Luckily there’s a paper sign taped to the door. “We’ve moved 3 blocks away to 811 Clark St. Please visit us there.”

Now, there’s one more sentence below that – and that’s the one that makes all the difference, at least for our purposes.

Before we return to your journey, we need to look at the 2 main redirects. Both go by numbers, 302 and 301.

There are one or two others, but those will take care of probably 99% of your needs. So we can safely focus on them.

A 302 redirect tells the search engines that the web page, or the entire site, has moved temporarily. Why would you use a temporary redirect?

To be honest, I don’t know of a lot of reasons. However, one that leaps to mind is a situation where your site is corrupted or not working properly for some reason.

Instead of giving visitors an error page and losing business, you redirect them to another domain where you have the site up for the time being.

Being a 302 redirect, the human visitor is sent to your temporary home, but the search engine gets a special message. The 302 tells them you’re only going to be at this new address for a little while.

So, you don’t want your search engine listing to change to this new address. They understand and leave your domain as is. A couple of days later, you return to your domain and your search engine listings, and rankings, are kept up.

Now a 301 redirect does the same thing, the only difference is it tells the search engines that the move is permanent.

So the search engines are going to change your listing to reflect the new domain AND they’ll pass on the link credit, and any other credit you’ve built up, to your new address. That way you don’t have to start all over.

If you use the wrong one, you’re going to screw up your online business. And it won’t be easy to fix. That’s why it’s so important to know how they work and which one to use.

It can make all your internet marketing, and even real world marketing, worthless. Because if they can’t find you, they can’t buy from you.

Back to our story – that last sentence on the sign says ‘Please come to our new permanent home’. So you, and a bunch of other guys who have walked up while you were reading this, update your phones with the new address.

It’s a real world 301 redirect, telling all their business to go to the new place 3 blocks away from now on. The old address can be safely forgotten and they won’t lose any customers.

Make sense? Try Googling ‘301 redirect’ to find out all the technical details that are out of the scope of this post. Your internet marketing depends on it.

So go to Google right now and do it.

As I have probably said before in this blog, I’m mystified by clients and prospects who say they don’t want to do a search engine advertising campaign because ‘you have to pay for those’.

It surprises me because they seem to see this kind of marketing as somehow different. It’s like saying that they wouldn’t do any advertising in the offline world, because they ‘have to pay for those’.

The point isn’t whether you pay for it. The point is this: does the marketing pay off?

If your business profits from search advertising, should you really be upset that you pay for the ads? It’s looking a gift horse in the mouth.

You can say it’s like winning money from the lottery, but complaining that you had to buy a ticket. Does that make sense?

Here are some more reasons why you should at least consider search marketing.

1. You’re not reaching the same people as your organic search engine listing. Even if your ad does appear on the same page as the organic listing, it isn’t 100% that the searcher sees both your ad and your listing.

Eye-tracking studies have shown that a person doesn’t necessarily see every listing on a page. And even if they do, there is a difference between seeing a listing and truly registering it.

2. Even if the searcher sees both your search ad AND your search listing, that works in your favor. Why?

Because it is a reinforcement of you business name and brand. Studies have shown that this works in your favor, making it more likely that a person will follow through and visit your internet site.

Of course, you still need to have a good ad to truly set this psychological ‘trap’ for the prospect. That’s where a persuasive, knowledgeable marketer (like – ahem – us) earns their fee.

3. Market/Marketing Research – I’ve discussed this in more depth in other posts, but this is so important I will briefly return to it. Through search engine ads, you can target keyphrases that you haven’t in your SEO.

This allows you to find new, even better, opportunities and markets that you might have overlooked. It also gives you the chance to pursue experimental uses or pitches for your product (or your service).

Best of all, because of the large scale traffic that comes through search engines, you can get answers quickly and cheaply. No other avenue can compete for the amount of time and money that search engines will save you.

Give search engine advertising a chance. It’s not for every business, but it’s as close as a marketing outlet and method can get in this world.

Market research was one of those subjects that people would study only if they were gunning for the corporate world. Small businesses can’t afford to hire someone to do that- not full time, at least.

For them, market research would be something along the lines of asking locals ‘How do you look that new gum we got?’ after ringing up their purchase.

Today – that has changed. Now these same businesses can just text ‘How do U lik tht nw gum?’! But that’s not where the biggest leap has taken place.

Most users of Google Ads have completely missed the fact that they have a market research tool right in front of them. And a lot of that research can be done for less than $100.

When you test ads on Google Ads, you’re not only getting feedback on which ad is better, you’re also getting an insight into your market.

Are people responding more to an appeal based around price rather than features? That’s telling you something very important about your marketing.

It’s something you can transfer directly into your site content. Chances are that if one appeal works best on the ad, it’s probably going to pull well on your site, too.

You can test different special offers, headlines, even single words. Because of the low cost of Google Ads you can gather data fairly cheaply and quickly.

That’s the other benefit you can reap from this avenue – you get fast response. It doesn’t take long to get the number of clicks you need to complete your research.

You can usually accomplish this market research in a matter of days, sometimes hours.

One other area where Google Ads excels is that in-person research, even if done through a confidential questionnaire, can inhibit a person.

They end up giving you the answers they think you want; or answers that they believe make them look ‘good’.

Consciously or not, they often will reply in ways that do not represent how they truly think. Why?

Because people act on unconscious levels when they go shopping. Interviewing them face-to-face, they switch to a much more conscious state that is probably not how they act on their own.

With Google Ads, people are responding naturally, often without knowing exactly why one ad pulled them over another.

That’s why focus groups are often proved wrong after thousands of dollars are spent based on them. This is only a brief touching on what can be done through online/search engine advertising.

Google ads may just look like classified ads, but there’s a reason they’ve made the company a billion dollar business in a few short years.

What is a Landing Page? They’re simply the page a searcher is sent to when they click on your Google Ads ad (or Bing/Yahoo Ads, Etc).

One thing that people often forget is that they still need to customize the marketing to the keywords. Most search advertisers just send every person who clicks their ad to the home page. That seems to make sense, doesn’t it?

It does, but if you want to take your ad campaigns to a higher conversion level, you need to start coordinating the landing page to your ad.

For example, a visitor is more likely to stick around if they see the same keywords on the landing page that they used on the search engine.

The unconscious idea is produced in their heads that this page is what they’re looking for; therefore it’s worth checking out. Of course, you still have to provide the copy and content that also fit the keywords’ subject.

What this all means is that you need to create individual pages for different campaigns so you and your individual visitors are talking – on a subtle level, of course.

If they click an ad about #2 pencils, direct them to the page on that product specifically. If they click on an ad about erasers, send them to a page of erasers.

Giving them to a general home page to look at is putting more distance between the visitor and a sale. Take them directly to what they want, what they asked for on the search engine, and your chances of a sale go up.

It’s a simple concept, but requires some work. But that’s what marketing is all about, isn’t it? Working to grease the skids toward a sale.

I can still remember as a child being taught the metric system in school.

This was a time when we were convinced that it would take over in the US, leaving the Inch and the Quart by the curb to be picked up by the Standards Garbage Man and taken to the dump.

There they would spend the rest of their days reminiscing with the Sheckel and the Cubit while they passed around a bottle of White Lightning. “Man, everybody knew me. I’m telling you. Now even Milligram won’t return my calls. He used to beg me to hang out. BEG ME!”

That’s just a brief digression that was prompted by the subject of Web Metrics. That word ‘Metrics’ has a few meanings for me, hence the reminiscing.

Any Internet Marketer worth his salt, or his pepper, will tell you how important Web Metrics/Analytics are; if you’re not using them, you’re missing the most effective path of marketing – measuring response in order to learn how to increase it.

For now, I won’t go into the whole subject of Metrics as it is extremely complex. It’s not just about getting the numbers – the software will do that for you.

Successful web metrics/analytics is about setting up the software to give you an answer to a specific question, such as ‘What call to action works best?’.

But metrics is equally the interpretation of data because testing can give you answers that aren’t apparent immediately.

There isn’t always a simple ‘this means this’ solution. For now, to help you get started, I just want to recommend to you a few free Metrics packages that offer all the capabilities you’ll need. At least for the smaller business. They are:

1. Google Analytics – Formerly Urchin, this is a full Web Analytics package that offers capabilities you won’t grow out of anytime soon. Some don’t like it because of Google’s growing domination. There’s always the question of what Google will do with all of the data they get, not only from this program but all of their others. Still, it’s free and a very powerful tool.

2. ClickTracks – ClickTracks has been in the Analytics business for some time and have succeeded to the point where they are one of the ‘Standards’ in this industry. The features of their free program is equal to Google’s so it’s a fine choice. The one problem, at least for people like myself, is part of it runs on your computer – but only Windows machines. Google is completely Web-based.

3. Crazy Egg – I have to admit that I don’t know a lot about this program,but it’s worth a look. Not as powerful and the free option is only good for tracking 4 pages, but it’s a start. Worth at least looking into.

With 3 options, 2 of them world-class, you have no excuse for not working on your Metrics. The sooner the better. Trust me.

If there is a Business Hall of Fame, one of my first nominees would be Mr. Terence Iwamoto, owner and proprieter of ‘Mr. Ink Plus’ here in Honolulu.

Like many inkjet printer owners, the cost of ink has always amazed me – or maybe that should be ‘angered me’.

When my HP’s black ink went dry I went ballistic. Why? Because I literally had printed only 10 pages with an ink cartridge that was brand new (the inkjet was brand new as well, btw).

There must be some defect here, right? Wrong.

I went to Mr. Ink Plus to sort this out. After telling Mr. Iwamoto about this ‘freak’ inkjet occurrence, he pulled out 2 HP ink cartridges he had cut the tops off of for exactly this situation.

The first cartridge was the old standard HP black ink cartridge. I was shocked to see that only about 1/3 or less of the inside was set aside to hold ink. But that was nothing compared to the ‘New’ HP black cartridge.

The new one, which I believe is #92, was set up so only 1/5 or less of the inside actually held ink.

Basically the were charging more for the ‘New’ standard ink cartridge while giving you about 1/2 the ink! Mr. Iwamoto immediately recommended that I buy an Epson in order to save myself some money.

He actually cheated himself out of a sale to help me – let’s face it, other ink sellers aren’t going to say a thing about this. Why should they?

If you buy ink more frequently, they make more money, just like HP. I immediately went to CompUSA to buy an Epson printer – and so did the customers behind and in front of me from Mr. Iwamoto’s.

You see, Mr. Iwamoto doesn’t sell the printers, so getting you to buy an Epson doesn’t benefit him one bit. His only concern was educating customers and saving them money. And he did it at his own expense.

If you live here in Hawaii and have an inkjet printer, please go by the store. Do you need an ink? Or will you need ink at any time?

You can support Mr. Iwamoto’s honest business and benefit from his tell-it-like-it-is, customer first attitude.

Go to MrInkPlus.com and download his catalog. He takes orders so please put your money where it will benefit you and a good honest businessman.

And No, I have no affiliation with him or the store whatsoever. I just want to see him succeed. After all, he went to bat for me.

PS If you have an HP inkjet printer – junk it. HP is ripping you off. Give your money to a company that isn’t stealing from us.

It’s unfortunate that we sometimes look at our customers as trying to take advantage of us.

Or as just one of an inexhaustible supply of people we can make money from; therefore we feel we don’t need to try too hard to connect individually.

There’s always another customer around the corner, we think. But that’s a quick way to kill our business.

We should instead be looking for personal connections, especially in a world where the Internet offers an alternative just a few clicks away.

I learned a lot about building Customer Loyalty from 2 businesses here in Hawaii. The first one is a shop my wife has been a fan of for some time.

She has a favorite store to go to for jewelry. She doesn’t have expensive tastes, she just likes to get something nice to wear every once in a while.

The store she always goes to, and which I went to with her yesterday, is Kamaaina Metals.

What impressed me is that the owner took time to show us his current stock, even though it was obvious that we probably weren’t going to buy that day.

He was truly interested in talking to us, even showing us some upscale rings that he obviously took pride in.

The man insisted that my wife try on one ring that was appraised to be worth much more than I make in a year – or three, just so she could say she’d worn something so expensive.

The man had a talent for making his customer feel special. It was like he wasn’t ‘selling’ at all.

And, believe me, my wife will be telling her friends about that ring. I don’t know if the store owner did it deliberately, but he set up a situation that will produce word-of-mouth marketing.

That ring gambit can’t fail. My wife will HAVE to talk about it.

Those of you who watch ‘Dog’ may know this store already. In one episode, a fugitive of Dog’s had promised to turn herself in at his office, but kept delaying her arrival.

He finally traced her to, you guessed it, Kamaaina Metals where she was selling her jewelry. You might recall that he tried to get the saleslady there to bring the fugitive to the phone. But the Dog connection doesn’t end there.

The owner told us that a few weeks later Leland and Duane Lee, Dog’s sons, showed up at his door with camera crew in tow.

They proceeded to shop for some time, leaving with a nice pile of bling.

The punch line is that these 2 tough bounty-huntin’ men walked right outside the store and held their hands up to the sun to admire their new rings, like women who’ve just been engaged.

Passers-by were amused to hear them exclaim about how the rings sparkled in the light(!).

The most amazing part of this tale is that Dog’s sons had gone to another jewelry store first and were told to take their business elsewhere.

That first store, whoever they were, threw away a great opportunity to promote themselves and sell some jewelry, too. A textbook case of creating enemies, rather than loyal customers out of 2 guys with money to spend.

But the main point here is that my wife loves the store. Not only because the prices are reasonable, sometimes even incredible, but also because of the service and the attitude of the owner.

He gives the customer the feeling that he has their interests at heart; there’s more concern in him for a long-term relationship than with getting a sale today.

I can tell you that he’s won a loyal customer in my wife. And me, for that matter. That is smart marketing.

Someday, very soon probably, my wife will drop those boulders she calls subtle hints about a ring she wants, or some earrings. My first thought will be – when can I get to Kamaaina Metals?

I’ll tell you about the 2nd business in the next post.