Costly Little Mistakes

This week a spokesman for Toyota announced it is inevitable that all thirteen of its American plants will be temporarily shut down, laying off 25,000 employees, probably at the end of April. The reason for the layoff is that Toyota has closed all of its plants in Japan due to the earthquake and tsunami. Some of the parts made at the Japanese plants are used in the American-manufactured cars.

Toyota is not the only car manufacturer which is affected by the disaster. Merck, a German company, is the sole source of the glossy paint pigment used on most motor vehicles. Where is Merck’s only paint pigment plant located? You guessed it, Japan. Merck’s plant has been closed due to the earthquake disaster and won’t reopen for four to eight weeks, depending upon repairs to infrastructure and utilities in Japan. The Merck plant is located thirty miles away from the damaged nuclear power plant, and, therefore, what happens at the nuclear plant also determines when the Merck plant reopens.

The closing of this one plant affects the color choices of vehicles from most car makers.

The closing of all the Toyota plants in Japan affects 15% of the parts needed for American-manufactured Toyotas.

Wow! The loss of a small number of parts, 15%, is crippling Toyota’s manufacturing process in the United States. The loss of one plant’s paint pigments is drastically limiting the color choices of all auto makers.

I am amazed at the poor planning of Toyota, Merck, and the auto makers. They are all multinational corporations. Why would Merck have only one location which produced a pigment? Why would Toyota not have plants in more than one location which produced all their parts? Why would the auto makers have only one supplier of paint pigments? Why would you locate a sole plant in an earthquake zone?

Where is the contingency planning? Where is the consideration of weaknesses in their marketing plans? Why didn’t anyone in management at these companies address this situation?

I asked this question of the students in my marketing class, and one suggested the management was arrogant. Perhaps. I don’t know the internal workings of the organizations well enough to answer the questions. I do know the results, however, and that is why I am bringing this to your attention.

We can all get caught up in the daily activities of our businesses and neglect planning. That neglect may seem a little mistake. However, that little mistake can be costly to a business. When you discover the mistake, it is too late to fix it. It is too late for Toyota or Merck to build or retool another plant as a backup. It is too late for them to plan for contingencies. It is too late for them to explore their weaknesses. It is too late for the auto makers to find a backup paint pigment supplier.

It is not too late for your business. When did you last update your marketing plan? When did you last review your business’s weaknesses? What weakness could cripple your business? What would you do if that weakness suddenly loomed large?

Think about this. List your weaknesses. Make your contingency plans. Most importantly, implement those plans.

Justin, Ted, and Grayson

Justin Bierber. Ted Williams. Grayson Chance. Are you familiar with these names? They all have gained notoriety from YouTube videos.

Justin owes his success to his mother. Raised in Canada, Justin taught himself at a young age how to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet. In 2007 at the age of twelve, he entered a singing competition in his hometown of Stratford, Ontario, and placed second. His proud mother shot a video of his performance in the competition and posted it on YouTube for family and friends to watch. After her first YouTube upload, she continued to post Justin’s performances, and his videos grew in popularity. A year after her first post, Scooter Braun, a former marketing executive, was searching YouTube for another musician and came across Justin’s videos by accident. Scooter was impressed. He tracked down the theater where the performance which he had watched had been shot, then located Justin’s school, and finally reached Justin’s mother. She allowed Justin to fly to Altanta to meet with Scooter and Usher, and that was the beginning of Justin’s teen heartthrob career. Now seventeen, a couple of weeks ago Justin could not leave his London hotel room due to the throngs of fans outside.

Ted was homeless in early January. He wrote on a piece of cardboard that he “had a God-given golden voice” and needed work. Holding his sign, Ted positioned himself on a busy street corner in Columbus, Ohio. A reporter sitting at a traffic light read Ted’s sign and was intrigued. He opened his window to talk to Ted, and Ted’s reply in his deep, rich voice further piqued the reporter’s attention. The reporter grabbed his camera and shot a video of Ted holding up his sign and talking. As soon as the reporter returned to his desk, he uploaded the video to YouTube. Within hours, the video had gone viral, and virtually overnight Ted became a YouTube sensation. Offers for voice work poured in, including the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and NFL films.

Grayson shot a video of his performance of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” at a sixth-grade music festival and uploaded it to YouTube. His brother wrote to The Ellen DeGeneres Show and suggested that Ellen watch the video. On May 10, 2010, two weeks after the video had been uploaded, Ellen watched it and awarded Grayson the first recording contract with her a new record label. Seven months later on January 3, 2011, Grayson was the 28th most subscribed musician of all time on YouTube with a 286,000 plus subscriber base. His videos have had over thirty-seven million views on YouTube.

Ted’s original video has had over eleven million hits.

Justin continues to upload videos to his YouTube channel. He has six million fans following him on Twitter.

What do Justin, Ted, and Grayson have to do with your marketing?

They all gained fame through YouTube. YouTube has impact. YouTube gets attention. YouTube encourages sharing. While you may not be interested in the millions that these three have touched, YouTube is an effective marketing tool to reach your customers. Using an inexpensive digital camera, you can shoot a video and broadcast your business at virtually no cost on YouTube. If you were offered free commercials on TV you would use them, wouldn’t you? YouTube is a free video channel.

In addition, you can add new videos whenever you want at minimal cost and have them available for your customers to watch 24/7 on YouTube. Your videos can be tied to your Web site, pulling in more attention and ranking your site higher in the search engines. People like video, and that’s why YouTube gets a great deal of attention. Video is a powerful marketing tool.

Are you tapping into the power of video on YouTube?