#92 - "The Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet, How to Promote a New WebTV Show, Translating Your Marketing Message, and a BIG Marketing Lesson from Drobo". | "Help! My Business Sucks!" Marketing ideas, plans, and news with Andrew Lock. The Web TV Show for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners.

#92 – “The Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet, How to Promote a New WebTV Show, Translating Your Marketing Message, and a BIG Marketing Lesson from Drobo”.

January 26, 2010

Episode #92 – “What I really Need are Minions…”

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Websites and Resources for your benefit:

Underground Internet Marketing Seminar (March 2010 in Washington, DC)

Frengly (Free, instant translation tool)

Other Useful Resources:

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Have you seen the new Taco Bell commercials on TV? They’re promoting the ‘Taco Bell drive-thru diet!” I promise you I’m not making this up, in fact you can see the actual commercial during this episode.

Charles from Michigan wrote to ask me for some tips about promoting his new WebTV show, so look out for that in this episode. Of course, there’s an in depth resource available to you at www.StartYourOwnTVShow.com if you’re serious about creating a profitable Internet TV show.

Let me ask you, are you translating your marketing into other languages, to reach a wider audience? For example, the Spanish and Chinese languages represent huge growth areas for many businesses. There’s a neat little nifty click resource that can help you get started, I’ll share that with you in this episode.

Finally, our big marketing lesson comes from Drobo, or more specifically Data Robotics, the company behind the computer backup product known as Drobo. There’s a concept in marketing known as “message to market match” – I believe it was Dan Kennedy who came up with that terminology. Anyway, it’s a neat way of describing the important principle that a marketing message needs to fit the audience, otherwise they’ll ignore it. Many companies make the mistake of assuming that an audience is a good fit for their product, without doing due dilligence. Don’t fall into that trap in your business – always evaluate whether the message matches the market (the audience you want to sell to).

Let me know your opinion about the topics covered in the show this week – leave your comment below, it’s really easy to do.

Enjoy the show!

Regards,

Having trouble viewing this week’s episode? Try the QuickTime version.

Feedback / Questions: Send me a message or question about your business, you just need a webcam connected to your computer. It’s fast, easy, and free. Note: You might be famous! In submitting a video, you agree to the possibility of having your video shown in a future episode of the show. Click on the ‘reply’ button below…

33 Responses

locky says:
January 26th, 2010 at 10:27 pm

Out of interest, does anyone own a Drobo S? I bought the first Drobo but it was very slow, so I was wondering if the new one is better?
Mrs SudsMuffin says:
January 27th, 2010 at 5:01 am

Thanks for another informative episode Andrew.

The Taco Bell diet idea is pretty ridiculous. The entire thing comes across like a spoof.

I just mainly wanted to touch on the translation link you provided. I know that you provided the caveat that it doesn’t always provide a perfect translation, but as somebody who speaks 3 languages, this can’t be emphasized enough. Online translators are notorious for producing some pretty goofy text at times. I would *never* recommend using one of these for translating my marketing message, without first running it by somebody who speaks the language you are translating your message to. Now for communicating via email with somebody who speaks another language, I`m ok with that, though even then you can end up with misunderstandings due to translator mishaps. Just be very careful with them. If you don`t speak the language, you have no idea what the online translator is really saying on your behalf.
Dr. Todd P. Sullivan says:
January 27th, 2010 at 5:06 am

Andrew,

I think the Taco Bell Ad is very stupid, but it has been my experience that patients will try any “diet” fad. When do you think there will be ad for weight loss that includes eating in moderation and regular exercise on a daily basis – but that would not be fun to watch. Thanks again for a great episode.
scanjet says:
January 27th, 2010 at 6:05 am

Charles

You can message me at arhemsedal@gmail.com and I can help you out with a really nice deal.
AndrewS says:
January 27th, 2010 at 6:32 am

Taco Bell Diet LOL! Isn’t that the same as Vodka Smirnoff sponsoring an Alcoholics Anonymous group. Well from what I know about human behaviour, people will believe just about anything if it serves their interests.
I don’t blame Taco Bell for trying.

Thanks Andrew I love your show. You inspired me to start my own show as well.

Keep ‘em comin’

Andrew Skelly
Elian Bar-Av says:
January 27th, 2010 at 6:56 am

Taco Bell ad: “Genius”. Certainly, there are the two disclaimers-a) written at bottom of ad and b)”subject’s results not typical” or similar, mentioned during the ad.
Subway and their star “Jared” paved the way, as did McDonald’s by publicising their “newswothy” compliance in decreasing certain fats in their menus-so, why not “The Bell”? The essence of weight loss (absent a disease process) is “calories out must exceed calories in”. If however, you order a double portion of the fat-free, low-carb, low sodium portions, be that on your own head (or bottom)!
Would be great if you spent a few secs explaining the T-shirt slogans each week OR put a blurb on the site.
Keep up the great show!
E
Suzanne says:
January 27th, 2010 at 7:22 am

The Taco Bell Diet commercial intrigued me. I actually watched it again. They were thinking of the now infamous “Subway” diet, where Jared lost a lot of weight. But they did a few things differently, they appealed to women who are now full-out in their New Year’s resolution lose-a-few- pounds diet, and they presented it in such a way that it looked like a Jenny Craig diet plan. They photographed it with lots of fresh vegetables, and also used the grams of fat numbers which everyone is obsessed over, appealing to the Weight Watchers programs who also use numbers in their daily regime. Ridiculous? Yes, but will it have busy moms who are looking for the quick meal drive through (after picking up kids from practices, etc.) opt for the Taco Bell drive thru instead of their other options ? Like you said at the end of your show, Message Matches the Market… you’re not the market, Andrew!
Brian Jones says:
January 27th, 2010 at 8:36 am

RE: message to market match .. Drobo lesson.

I can’t tell you how many companies contact me through email, mail or on the phone looking for my business. Unfortunately for them, I get to tell them that I am ALREADY their customer!?!
Talk about lazy companies. It’s very embarrassing for them, but I doubt that message gets back to their managers. Makes you question if your vendors are good enough.

Regards,
Brian
http://www.kenjones.com
Burger King Fan says:
January 27th, 2010 at 11:29 am

Taco Bell thanks you for all of the free advertising that you have given them. Kind of like the politician, who doesn’t care if his name is on the front page of the newspaper for rape, so long as it is on the front page for everyone to see!
Dan Herzner says:
January 27th, 2010 at 11:45 am

If you look up the word “diet” on Dictionary.com one of the definitions is “food habitually eaten”. If you wanted to get real pedantic about it, Taco Bell using the word “diet” in their ad does not necessarily point to weight loss. However you look at it you’d have to be a real fool to think anything purchased from a fast food place will have any sort of salubrious value. Just like light cigarettes are better for you.
Clint Cora says:
January 27th, 2010 at 2:17 pm

What is interesting is that some fast food outlets like McDonalds are pushing their salads as lower fat alternatives to say their fries and Big Macs. I remember their McLean product which was a disaster because it tasted really bad but I think their salads on the other hand, are making some headway. Of course, they are still not the place to go to lose weight and they don’t promote themselves as such. But if one is ever stuck in a McDonalds, at least the message that there are lower fat alternatives, is getting through.
James James says:
January 27th, 2010 at 2:45 pm

Another slam dunk Andrew…

Taco Bell drive through diet…whatever next…can i say…’Only in America’. Keep on keeping on…

James James
Jerry Purvis says:
January 27th, 2010 at 4:30 pm

Taco Bell diet? The company should fire the ad agency that came up with that bonehead idea. But I’ve seen plenty of small print weasel words in lots of other ads, from diet plans to make money at home setups. They always show the person who lost 100 pounds or earned $100,000 in a year, working part time. The fine print always reads: “Results not typical.”
How about something simple — like the truth?
Paul says:
January 27th, 2010 at 6:51 pm

First, the girl in the TB commercial is a hottie. Having said that, I could not help but think of Subway’s Jared. How many years ago did he lose weight eating Subway sandwiches? No, I don’t believe that TB’s attempt to market themselves as a healthy fast food option should be taken seriously. However, I do agree with you Andrew, there will be enough people that will look at this “diet plan” and go hog wild thinking that instead of eating 2 burritos they can now eat 5 since it is “healthy”.
Meny Hoffman says:
January 27th, 2010 at 7:48 pm

Hi Andrew,

Great point with the Message to Market Match.

Yes we own a Drobo backup, what we found is that it must be connected to a computer directly not a server.

Meny Hoffman
tumaini rivera says:
January 28th, 2010 at 4:36 am

HELP!!!
You gave a resource on an earlier webisode and I can’t find it.
It was a resource for searching forum posts.
I think it was Dashboard or BoardPosts or something!
I’ve been looking through your website for the last 2 hours and can’t find it. Is there any way you can send that to me.
Thank you!
Dvorah says:
January 28th, 2010 at 6:38 am

Hi Andrew,
I LOVE your show and eagerly await each new episode. You are a genius!

Here’s my .02 worth on the “Taco Bell Diet”.

As someone who is somewhat of a “health nut” who does most of her grocery shopping at Whole Foods Supermarket, I don’t frequent fast food chains….

EXCEPT…. I DO frequent Taco Bell about once a month or so. Being that I like to eat healthy and I need to avoid wheat products, finding something to eat “on the fly” can be a bit challenging.

Having access to Taco Bell vegetarian beans on a taco shell with lettuce and tomatoes has been a saving grace for me. When a protein bar won’t cut it and I don’t have an hour to go to a restaurant, Taco Bell serves me well.
In fact, it is the ONLY fast food restaurant that I frequent!

Thought I’d “weigh in” on the subject!

A weight loss program it might not be, however, it is a very health alternative when someone needs to eat on the run.

Here’s to a fabulous 2010!
D’vorah
Pete Muir says:
January 28th, 2010 at 9:54 am

Hi Andrew..

I just caught the latest episode. Question about the segment on frengly.com. I am new to frengly but have used babel fish (http://babelfish.yahoo.com/) on and off for a number of years. Babel Fish is also a free translation service, originally developed by Altavista. Do you know if there are differences between the two?

Thanks,

Pete
Brian says:
January 28th, 2010 at 12:48 pm

I think the Taco Bell “diet plan” is absolute genius from a marketing point. As you said youself, it’s the last thing you would think of, a national fast food chain being healthy enough to lose weight. So it’s brilliant from there point of view, as well as potentially opening up a new market for them. However, It’s stupidity to be buying something like this, and I’m not sure how people will take to it, as it’s such a novel idea (although has been tried to a similar idea with Subway.) So we’ll have to wait and see.
Mrs SudsMuffin says:
January 28th, 2010 at 1:15 pm

Responding to Pete Muir:
I had previously been using Babelfish to do very rough outlines of translation work when I needed but it can be *very* rough, with some of the translations coming out as utter nonsense at times. I recently found that Google Translate is a pretty good online translation tool as it seems to use natural language and search capabilities built in, similar to what I saw in Google Wave.

I performed a few translation tests (french to english then back again) in Frengly and I was quite pleased with the results there too. The results were similar to my Google Translate results, in terms of the vocabulary and grammar that it used in my translated text.

There was just one french verb in one sentence that Frengly did not know how to translate. But based on my limited early evaluation of Frengly, so far it’s been a thumbs up.
sidder says:
January 29th, 2010 at 1:24 pm

The best weight loss tip is get out and walk ,walk,walk 2 to 4 miles a day and keep your calorie intake at 1400 calories a day and you will get healthy and lose the weight.
Mary says:
January 30th, 2010 at 12:35 pm

Genius ad! There are definitely people out there who don’t want to give up fast food, or in a hurry, will remember the ad and think Taco Bell food will be okay. It will change some people’s perception of Taco Bell and I think that’s exactly what they are aiming for. Very clever, but totally ridiculous.
Denis G says:
January 31st, 2010 at 2:47 am

Hi Andrew, thanks for the new episode. Very interesting, especially when big names are using marketing tricks in that way. I would check how it turned out for them afterwords.
Inspiracja says:
February 1st, 2010 at 3:28 am

Hy Ander, great show you running here, any chance you could have sometimes some material about non profit “business” and their marketing examples?
Robin Tucker says:
February 1st, 2010 at 4:44 am

Andrew-
my son Ross has signed up to a $25 dollar product of yours and you have not delivered.
When everything is marketing etc’ you take money and don’t deliver — it makes all your claims and integrity just empty words like most of the marketing Guru’s and charlatans out there.
There is only one way to redeem your reputation and that is just to deliver what you sold. As simple as !
Robin.
p.s Challenge to publish this letter – I give it lead balloon status.
reroo says:
February 1st, 2010 at 7:34 am

Workers of the world, incorporate! Start your own business, sell your wares at a lower price than your former employer, and put them out of business. I fully support free enterprise – for all. Let the slave laborers start their own business. Make everyone a corporation and compete. Boycott global corporations.
Logan says:
February 1st, 2010 at 9:43 am

Suzanne hit the nail on the head!
No matter how ridiculous a ‘fast food diet’ sounds to us, it likely has brought them increased business, which is the whole point of any ad.

Anyone who doesn’t eat fast food is not going to start eating at Taco Bell in order to lose weight. However MANY people eat fast food on a regular basis. This time of year Many of those people are looking to lose weight, and rather than a huge change in lifestyle will look for lower fat options within their current lifestyle.

As Suzanne pointed out, the ad seems primarily aimed at women/mothers who’s kids likely scream for fast food after picking them up from the soccer game. With Taco Bells ad stuck in her head, she will likely choose them, feeling that she can feed the kids the junk they want, and get something more healthy for herself.

Can someone really lose weight this way rather than fixing healthier foods at home and exercising? Of course not. Will the ad serve it’s purpose and bring in revenue from their target audience chosen for the current climate? Yes! Much like it is always cheaper to cook at home. Yet when economic times are tough restaurants advertise their value menues. Will people save money by eating out instead of cooking at home? No. Will people that already eat out choose the places that advertise the value menus? Definitely.
locky says:
February 1st, 2010 at 12:11 pm

Robin,

I understand how frustrating it is to order something and not receive it, so it’s of great concern to me to hear that your son did not receive what he ordered.

Our records show that your son ordered a free DVD (he paid the international shipping amount of $9.77) and the order was sent out the same day it was received, and I see that it was sent to the UK.

Since the postal system is out of our control, we obviously don’t know if an item has been received, and we hadn’t received any communication about it until now. Sometimes International orders get intercepted by customs and held for inspection etc, or they simply get lost in the shipping process. While International tracking is available as an option with Fedex, it’s cost prohibitive on orders below $500 in value.

I would like to rectify this situation at my expense, so I’ve arranged for your order to be resent today. If this one also does not reach you, I’ll happily refund you in full.

Despite our efforts to serve our customers in the best possible way, occasionally mistakes and mishaps happen, and sometimes those events are outside of out control, I’m sure you can appreciate that.

Regards

Andrew
bernd hubl says:
February 1st, 2010 at 1:00 pm

Fake: sorry to see, that some part of your show is only a fake, I think the “Ask Andrew Question” was just a fake to promote your programm and also traffic-gyser is just a product from a friend. so I am really sorry to see this show going down

hope to see more quality soon and gotbiz.tv also

thanks for everything
bernd
locky says:
February 1st, 2010 at 1:35 pm

Bernd,

I don’t make up questions for ‘ask andrew’!

If you’d like to contact Charles Verhey who asked the question this week, the website he submitted is: http://www.creativeacronym.com – I’m sure he’ll be happy to confirm that his question was legitimate!

Re Traffic Geyser, yes I have lots of friends in this industry, but I still only promote products that I believe are valuable for business owners.

Regards

Andrew
Ben says:
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:18 pm

Hi Andrew!

I left a video question…but I’m not sure I did it properly. Did you get the question OK? Thanks!

Ben
darek says:
February 8th, 2010 at 6:16 pm

Hi Andrew,
Your videos have ebed function – is it possible if I embedded them into my website and add captions with translation into Polish language to gain traffic.
Andrew Lock says:
February 8th, 2010 at 6:22 pm

Hi Darek,

Yes, you are welcome to embed the video in your own website.

Regards

Andrew