Getting the drip going

Zachary Aldwin Milkshake in the Boardroom

I pride myself on being able to bake a legendary cake but the rest of my culinary skills pass as “okay” and I am not likely to starve if left to my own devices, but in baking I do pretty well. So when I was asked last minute to bake a cake for my niece’s first birthday I jumped at the chance. First birthday cakes are a simple affair, make them bright and top them with sprinkles and you are good to go. After all, the baby is unlikely to remember it, they just need to be attracted by the colour long enough to get some photos taken.

A month ago there were plenty of sprinkles available in my usual supermarket in a variety of colours and fancy shapes that were perfect for children.

I popped down to the store to grab some this weekend. They were out of stock. The lack of consistency of supply, especially in imported goods, is a common trend in Zimbabwe and by no means limited to cake sprinkles.

There are a few reasons for this that include cash flow, import issues with new quality standards, and reserve bank clearances needed for external payments.

With the increased bureaucracy, the pain of importing something is often greater than the pleasure of the reward.

The rewards in the short term are often not big enough, they need long term margins to build an income.

Someone has a bright idea, brings a product in that they think is useful, it does not move fast enough off the shelves for their liking so they stop importing it without giving enough time to build a market share. Whatever the reason, the lack of consistent supply means that there is no drip.

The drip is the constant exposure to your product through advertising, shelf presence and word of mouth that people need in order to take it on and keep using it. We live in a world of short attention spans that need constant reminding about what you provide.

Likewise, as a result of the short attention span thinking, we get suckered into believing that success should be an instant result with a short turn around.

The struggle with the drip is that you have to have a long term outlook while dealing with short attention clients.

Along with coffee and cake, the other vice I often engage in is computer gaming. I am less than a month away from indulging in a much anticipated strategy game called Total War Warhammer.

If you ever want to get addicted to gaming make it strategy gaming as it is the only form of gaming that possibly has any benefit in real life (practicing strategy).

Total War is a turn based game interspersed with real time battles. One of the promotion videos shows a campaign in Turn 77.

When you look at the map they control hardly any of it, if anything you would think they were about to be overrun. This is not the case; they have taken 77 turns engaging in the drip of building a small but powerful empire that will smash out across the map.

Inexperienced players make the mistake of trying the big moves first without attending to the drip of supply chains-they often loose. Real life business can often be the same.

Talking of promotional videos have you noticed how movie trailers have changed in the last year?

In the past it you popped out three trailers over a year and were done. You maybe had a website.

Now movies are creating a much more frequent drip of information about their movie; there is a teaser trailer, at least three big trailers, featurettes, choreographed interviews, related adverts and public appearances before the movie releases.

It is possible that you see a significant percentage of the movie footage before you even get to the film.

Deadpool played this one well, especially with their tie-ins to things unrelated to the movie like men’s and woman’s health checks.

Jungle Book pushed out videos on nearly every character prior to the movie. Captain America: Civil War is taking over my YouTube splash page. The need to have a near constant presence in people’s minds has increased.

I was talking to a local gift shop owner that has been prolific on Facebook. She has noticed that if she does not update their page weekly then there is a noticeable drop in sales. Not only that but the bulk of her sales come through the items she promotes. The drip is important; the drip needs to be continuous.

What can you do to get a drip going? Firstly devise a strategy that works for your client base. There is a range to choose from that includes newsletters, emails, reports, infographics, blogs, social media.

Pick what works and plan it well. You may want to have a separate way of staying in touch with your big spenders as opposed to your run of the mill less frequent clients.

Make sure that what you do works and works well. Invest in a little psychological studying-the power of images, the power of facial recognition, the power of decluttering an advert.

When people have a short attention span they will gloss over a cluttered advert or email to find something more attractive.

Be visible and be consistent. This means pushing out frequent updates, ideas and pictures to the appropriate groupings of clients.

It also means having a supply chain that works to provide a constant supply of product. I went elsewhere for sprinkles, and while sprinkles are a small and possibly insignificant product if the lack of drip moves me constantly away from you, sooner or later, I may forget what you look like.

E-mail:[email protected]