Haley's Marketing Blog

Making Customers Feel Important

2012-01-13T07:20:00.002-06:00

During part of my time in college, I served as an office assistant in my school's College of Business Administration. A handful of other student workers and I took shifts organizing paperwork, printing mail lists, ordering supplies, and - perhaps most fun - greeting visitors at the front desk.

On one of my first days at the front desk, a visitor walked in and asked directions to the office of some professor or other. As per my training (our dean was a businessman, and big on customer service), I was friendly, courteous, and ensured that she found the person she needed to find.

However, one thing was missing from my otherwise brilliant customer service: attentiveness.

I had been working on a clerical project on the computer when the visitor arrived, and I continued to be distracted by it while I "served" her. Certainly, I greeted her with a warm smile, but then I resumed reading my computer screen while she spoke. True to the culture of my Texas school, I responded courteously ("Yes, ma'am! Of course, I'll be happy to help you..."), but then I clicked the mouse button once more before I served her. Absolutely, I gave her directions to the appropriate office, but I turned my gaze away from her even before she said "Thank you."

What was wrong with my customer service? I did not honor her. I did not attend. My body language drowned out my polite words and warm smile with a louder message: the message that another task was at least as important - if not more important - than serving my guest.

If you want to build relationships, to delight customers, to cultivate their love and loyalty, you cannot act that way. When you serve customers, you honor them with your full attention. You look them in the eyes. You let nothing distract you from what they are asking you to do.

When you serve customers, you adopt the mindset that serving them is the most important thing you could be doing at that moment.

And when you make customers the most important part of your business - and show them by your actions that they are - then you're taking the first (and often missing) step at building the relationships that will lead to the fan-based marketing and the sales you desire.

A Holiday Act of Kindness

2011-12-21T08:27:00.000-06:00

At this time of year, when marketers bombard customers with cries to choose their brand for holiday shopping ("50% off Holiday Special!" "Gift Cards for the Whole Family!" "Last Chance for Free Shipping - Guaranteed by Christmas!"), it's understandable why some might confuse our holidays - the "holy days" for our families, churches, communities, and societies - as days invented by marketers to buy and sell and make a buck.

And so, it's nice to see marketers who seem to remember that Christmas, Hanukkah, and our other December holidays are meant as times of giving, of gratitude, of love, of humility, of rejoicing in what our Creator has done for us.

In that spirit of giving, MINI Canada extended some holiday cheer to otherwise frazzled shoppers in this recent marketing campaign:

At shopping malls in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, ad agency Taxi 2 tied three-foot red helium balloons announcing "Your Mini Is Here" to all of the MINI Coopers in the parking lot, helping MINI-owners to easily find their vehicles by quickly scanning the lot.

This stunt achieved three things:

(1) It drew attention to the MINI brand. MINI-owner or not, if you shopped at (or drove past) one of those malls on those days, you noticed bright red balloons plastered with the MINI brand, proudly celebrating each MINI.

(2) It honored each current MINI customer. Marketers sometimes spend so much time and energy attracting new customers that they neglect their current customers. MINI flipped that on its head by lending an unexpected helping hand to each current MINI customer at the mall, and rewarding their MINI-ownership.

(3) It brought joy and laughter to all observers. For the MINI-owners, other mall patrons, passers-by, and us watching the video online, this zany surprise relieved the stress of shopping - or of everyday life - with a few laughs and good-natured merriment.

Bravo to MINI. If a company is going to invest marketing dollars on a PR campaign to raise brand awareness and sales, they may as well invest in a campaign that raises people's spirits also.

Advice from an Alzheimer's patient

2011-12-14T07:48:00.002-06:00

One of the best pieces of marketing advice I've ever received came from a woman with Alzheimer's disease.

At one point during my college years, I spent a morning volunteering at an Alzheimer's care facility, visiting with the residents. One elderly lady there - we'll call her Lois - was particularly engaging. We chatted for the better part of an hour. She told me (several times) about growing up in the 1940s, about her husband and kids and grandkids, and about a blanket she was knitting.

She asked me, too, about my life - about my family, my college major, and my career plans. Upon hearing that I was a business major and planned to start a marketing career, Lois became very serious and offered me a piece of advice from her experience. She told me, "Pay attention to the details. The details make the difference. The details are what counts."

Of course, it wasn't until much later that I realized that her words were ones of wisdom, not just the babblings of a senile woman.

The details. That final bit of wordsmithing that changes the tone of an email from demanding to friendly. The watchful eye that prevents lapses in continuity during filming. The slight design tweak that makes a package easier to open.

Sending a handwritten note after an introductory meeting with a new client. Providing scented lotion in the ladies' restroom. Walking a visitor to his destination, rather than saying, "down the hall, up the stairs, fifth door on the left."

The university admissions counselor who delivers acceptance packets to local students in person. The auto mechanic who tops off the vehicle's fluids for free while it's in for other maintenance. The barista who signs her name to each customer's to-go cup.

Any organization is expected to perform their core business correctly. Meet the customer's needs, and they will be satisfied. But it is these additional bits of attention and courtesy that turn a satisfied customer into a delighted customer. That turn an average experience into an exceptional one. That turn a casual shopper into a brand evangelist. That turn a good company into a great one.

Pay attention to the details. The details make the difference. The details are what counts.

Tis the Season to be Jolly

2011-12-05T12:49:00.001-06:00

This morning marked the first snowfall of the season for Abilene, Texas. In honor of this momentous occasion (and not only momentous, but momentary - the snow will be completely melted any moment now, although we appreciate it while it lasts), here are a few fun holiday campaigns to warm up your week:

(1) Hot or Not Snowmen - Target Brands, Inc. presents hotornotsnowmen.com - a collection of photos of the world's most eligible snow-bachelors, and invites viewers to rate each one as "Hot" or "Not". (Bringing back junior high memories, anyone?) Once you've rated one snowman, the next photo appears, providing potential hours of snowman-viewing cheer. A sidebar allows you to share the site with your friends on social media, or to check out Target's Weekly Ad for brand savings.

(2) Santa Yoda - The LEGO Group is promoting its LEGO Star Wars collection with a starfighter-load of holiday-themed fun at the legosantayoda.com microsite, hosted by none other than the jolly Jedi master himself. Visitors can share holiday video e-greetings starring their favorite LEGO Star Wars characters (my favorite involves carolers interrupting a quiet evening at Vader's house), upload photos for the LEGO® holiday scene contest, and add to their own LEGO Star Wars holiday wish list. For every e-card shared, LEGO will donate one new LEGO toy to the U.S. Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program.

(3) NoiseTrade - NoiseTrade.com isn't specifically holiday-focused, per se, but as a purveyor of free, legal music, it naturally has Christmas albums at the top of the list this month. NoiseTrade enables musicians to build their fan base by providing their albums free to consumers. This free marketing model draws many artists who are just starting out, but also features a few more well-known bands, such as Thousand Foot Krutch. If you want to break up the Christmas music with something mellow and folksy, check out my friends Josh Powell & The Great Train Robbery, who just released their free EP last week.

The thing I love about all three of these sites is how they share a bit of cheer (Internet fun, videos and contests, music) with customers, for free. Their first step at building relationships is to give. Certainly, giving entails risk - your recipient might never return your love. Your customers might feast on your free content, and never return the goodwill by purchasing anything.

But it might also lead the way to a beautiful friendship, with customers who think you're fun, kind, decent, and generous, and who are eager to support you and to introduce you to their friends for years to come.

The Time Traveler's Golf

2011-11-18T07:20:00.001-06:00

It seems that Dutch customers aren't the only ones celebrating history with Volkswagen.

Volkswagen UK, in honor of the 35th anniversary of the Golf GTI, has done a little something special to outfit one 2011 Golf:

Not sure if VW engineers studied under Doc Brown, and it appears they may have made some upgrades (their flux capacitor seems to engage well before reaching 88 mph), but regardless, their return to 1976 has certainly taken us back to 1985.

A visit to Facebook.com/VolkswagenUK allows fans to follow the continuing adventures of these time travelers in their VW Golf, as so far they've witnessed other significant events in the history of Volkswagen and the United Kingdom. Fans can follow the time travelers' updates, watch video recordings of their progress, and even listen to the radio stations of days gone by.

Well done, Volkwagen, in connecting your audience to yet another pop culture icon - this time, by outfitting a 2011 vehicle with 1985 technology. We'll be following you as your Golf comes back to the future.

Giving a Push, Gaining Momentum

2011-11-14T08:21:00.000-06:00

Twenty years from now, when a biographer asks UK band Summer Camp to tell the secret of how they gained such fame, the band members might answer that it's all because of make-up.

Not because of anything distinctive about their own make-up, à la KISS, but because of a promotional partnership with UK retailer Boots' cosmetics brand, 17. 17 Cosmetics selected Summer Camp as the first band featured in its latest campaign, which pairs an exclusive song by an up-and-coming band with each of 17's new cosmetic products.

Consumers receive access to the music video for Summer Camp's new single "You Might Get Stuck On Me" by liking 17's Facebook page, which also shares information about the band (an "indie-electro" duo who are "totally inspired by movies like The Breakfast Club and 80s American teen culture"), and offers a free download of the song for those who share the page with their friends.

"You Might Get Stuck On Me" was written by Summer Camp especially for the 17 campaign, and is being co-branded with 17's new Magnetize Nail Polish, which is fitted with a magnet. (Get it?)

The campaign is an example of how helping one b(r)and get started can help build momentum for two brands.

For any new band, one of the biggest challenges is spreading exposure and gaining a following. By partnering with an already-established brand (retailer Boots and their cosmetic line 17), Summer Camp gets its music in front of potentially hundreds of thousands of customers, who might become fans. Boots, in turn, increases its relevancy and "cool-factor" by becoming a music maven who introduces its young customers to the next major artists (giving customers the prestige of being some of the first fans of the next great band, should the band go on to achieve success).

Thus, a little partnership brings worthy content to consumers, and improves brand awareness and reputation for both partners. Sounds like a hit to me.

Showing Honor

2011-11-11T08:43:00.000-06:00

A sign of a healthy society is that people show honor where honor is due.

In America, we have special days set aside to honor various groups of people. Presidents. Mothers. Fathers. Fallen heroes. Grandparents. Bosses. Administrative Professionals. Veterans.

Such days are meant as outcroppings of the love and respect that we ought to show one another every day. A healthy society honors individuals continually, not only for what they do, but for who they are.

We honor the President of the United States because he is the leader of our nation, not because we agree or disagree with him.

We honor mothers, fathers, and grandparents because they have paved the way before us, and are given to us to lead, love, nurture, care for, and teach us.

We honor bosses because they lead. We honor administrative professionals because they serve.

We honor veterans and fallen heroes because they committed their lives and their freedom to protect the lives and freedom of others.

We ought similarly to honor all who lead and serve us. Doctors. Sales clerks. Waitresses. Flight attendants. Firefighters. Police officers. Teachers. Coaches. Janitors. Groundskeepers. Coworkers. Classmates. We don't honor them for what they've done or haven't done. We honor them for the position they've taken - the commitment they've made to lead and to serve. We honor them for their natural position as fellow human beings, worthy of dignity and honor. We honor them because we ourselves are men and women of honor.

When we show honor to others, we show ourselves honorable, and we ourselves receive honor. By honoring others, by thanking them, by appreciating them, we empower them to continue to lead and serve us well. We give them a reason to honor us.

Honor improves the way we lead, the way we serve, the way we live.

Happy Veteran's Day. Show honor today.

When Life Pauses

2011-11-07T08:24:00.000-06:00

There are moments when normal life gets put on hold.

For folks at the university where I work, one of these moments took place last Friday afternoon, when a bus of students and faculty overturned en route to another town for a service project.

The travelers on the bus had intended to spend the weekend at a children's home. Instead, many spent the weekend in hospitals. One spent the weekend at a welcome home party in Heaven.

For those of us who were in our offices, or homes, or dorm rooms when the news broke, life paused for the weekend.

It no longer seemed important that we had to prepare for a big meeting on Monday, or that she needed to make some headway on her term paper, or that they were absorbing the news that their positions would be eliminated within the year, or that he had been planning to go out with his friends that night.

Instead, we started preparing for the drive to the hospital. She gathered with her friends around the TV and their smartphones to watch the incoming updates. They left work early to be with their families. He decided to head to the prayer service instead of the club.

The university's social media channels lit up with prayers, questions, and proffered answers. A little-used "emergency" blog became a flowing newsreel. Local news stations received more 18-to-24-year-old viewers than ever in their history. High school football games paused for a moment of silence. Hostile and critical commenters were nowhere to be heard.

Instead of football, work, entertainment, and rivalries, our attentions became focused on love, family, comfort, mourning, community, life, healing, tenderness.

We've become concerned for students we've never even met. We've postponed important meetings to schedule time for corporate prayer, weeping, and thanksgiving for lives lived and healing begun. We've laid aside differences to offer kindness and compassion toward one another.

Right now, we want to be in communication, and we want to be together. Normal life can wait for a while.

Perhaps it would do us all a bit of good if normal life included more of this unity, communication, and love - without requiring tragedy to remind us of these things.

Facebook Meets the Sixties

2011-11-04T08:36:00.000-05:00

Volkswagen won't be the first auto manufacturer to integrate social media functions into their vehicles.

In the past year GM has added hands-free calling and texting, turn-by-turn navigation, and Facebook features into its OnStar roadside assistance system, allowing drivers to listen to their Facebook news feed, get directions, and respond to text messages via voice command. Prior to that, Ford introduced its Microsoft-powered Sync system, which provides drivers and passengers with hands-free calling and texting, voice-activated music selection, smartphone app connectivity, and GPS navigation.

But Volkswagen might be the first to retrofit these features - or some of them, at least in a manner of speaking - into a classic van or beetle.

One Facebook fan of Volkswagen Nederland will win the title to the Volkswagen "Fanwagen," which will come stocked with a "Feed-O-Matic" Facebook newsfeed printer in the dashboard, a gearshift in the shape of the Facebook "Like" symbol, a license plate displaying one's relationship status, a poke button on the steering wheel, a "Friend Finder" map with one's friends' hometowns plotted on it, a birthday notification system, and privacy settings (Facebook-blue curtains over the windows).

All of Volkswagen Nederland's Facebook fans get to help choose which iconic VW vehicle will come with all these trimmings. As of 8:00am this morning, the van was beating out the beetle with 69% of the votes.

Pretty fun idea from Volkswagen. Not because many consumers will get to enjoy driving a Facebook-connected vehicle (only one will win the Fanwagen, even if the vehicle's features do actually work), but because consumers get to chuckle about this whimsical mix of old and new, and get to vote for their favorite VW classic.

Folks (or "volks") enjoy whimsy, enjoy being connected, and enjoy a little bit of nostalgia. Combining these elements in a social-media campaign can be a great way to create a bit of fun for consumers - and potentially strengthen your fan base.

Who's Your Granny?

2011-11-01T08:26:00.000-05:00

"All caps should be knitted by grandmothers."

Or, at least, that's the philosophy of Jérémy Emsellem, founder of Golden Hook, an online purveyor of knitted caps. And so, that's what Golden Hook does - sells caps knitted by real, honest-to-goodness grandmothers.

Jérémy started knitting and selling caps himself when he was a 23-year-old Parisian college student. During a visit to his great-aunt's nursing home, he asked some of his aunt's friends if they would be interested in crocheting hats as a way to occupy their time and earn a little cash. They agreed, and Golden Hook was born.

Golden Hook now employs more than twenty grandmothers (yes, they all have grandchildren - even the youngest, who is 48) to knit and crochet hats made from French wool, merino, mohair, angora, or Egyptian cotton. And these grannies are not just nameless, faceless octogenarians - the ladies post their names, faces and stories on the Golden Hook website, and as part of the ordering process, the customer may select which grandmother he would like to knit his cap. He can even send that granny a personal "thank you" message, or request that she sign her name on the cap's label.

The customer may also customize his cap, choosing between three styles, and selecting the color to be used on each knit row.

(Golden Hook also offers a selection of pre-made, non-customized hats, scarfs, bracelets, and other knit and crocheted accessories, but why be boring?)

What's the draw here? Why are customers interested in knowing who knitted their caps?

Perhaps it's the human element - we enjoy connecting, even in some small way, with other human beings. We like seeing faces and hearing stories. We appreciate reminders that a person is a person, not a number or a machine - perhaps because we, ourselves, prefer being seen by others as a person. We enjoy being known, and so we enjoy knowing.

And so we like it when our server at the restaurant wears a name tag and introduces herself as Jessica. We like it when the barista writes on our to-go coffee cup, "brewed by Bobby." And we like it when we can say that our wool cap was knitted by Michelle, the former hairdresser from Lyon who loves to tango.

When your customers interact with your organization, do they feel like they are interacting with people, or with machines? Even in the most automated industry, can you find ways to foster that human connection? To help your customer feel that she is a person, and that a person is serving her?

Making It Easy for Our Online Consumers

2011-10-27T09:09:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, digital marketing firm Beyond and communications company MBooth released the results of their joint study on the online product research patterns of consumers. (Click the image to see the full-size infographic on Mashable.)

The "Science of Sharing" study surveyed more than 3000 consumers in the US and the UK, and analyzed their behavior in researching 12 brand categories - spanning "High Involvement," or higher-priced, more complex, less frequently purchased goods, and "Low Involvement," or lower-priced, less complicated, more frequently purchased goods - over three types of online channels: "earned" (review sites, news articles, blogs, etc.), "owned" (brand's website and social media profiles), and "search" (both paid and organic).

The results grouped consumers into "high sharers" and "low sharers".

"High sharers" actively contribute content to online communities, and are more likely to be younger, to be brand-loyal, to own multiple Internet-connected devices, and to research low-involvement products. These consumers account for 20% of the population.

"Low sharers" are more passive consumers of content; they are more likely to be older, to place more value on quality than brand image, to be more willing to change brands, to research high-involvement products, and to purchased products they have researched. These consumers account for 80% of the population.

The study found that "high sharers" are three times more likely to recommend a product than "low sharers".

And are consumers influenced by the recommendations of these high sharers? That depends (as you might expect) on the product category.

For "High Involvement" products, online consumers are more likely to be influenced by the brand's web site, review sites, and search. For "Low Involvement" brands, social networking sites are more influential. (See fuller results from the study at bynd.com)

So what does this mean for marketers?

We need to make it easy for consumers to find out about us online. This starts with identifying which channels are most relevant to our customers - based on their preferences and our product category - and ensuring that their experience with our brand on those channels is superb. When they visit our website, consumers should be able to find the information they're looking for, easily, in a visually pleasing, understandable, and transparent manner. When they want to interact with us on social media, we need to be responsive, friendly, and open. When they search for our brand, our SEM/SEO should be such that they find the relevant content they want from us. How do we know what customers want on each of these channels? We ask them.
We need to make it easy for sharers and reviewers to speak well of us. This starts at the most basic level - our products and services. Do our products provide quality to our consumers? Are they meeting consumers' needs in the best possible manner? Do we serve our customers well? Do customers feel happy after they've shopped in our store, or interacted with us, or used our product? Are our products and services designed with the customer in mind, instead of with us in mind? Do we exceed their expectations? We have to get these things right before we have a right to be recommended.

When we make it easy for consumers to find us and to have a good experience with us, we make it easy for them to purchase our products, and to recommend that others do the same. We have to create good experiences for our customers - both online and off.

Who's in the Spotlight?

2011-10-25T08:40:00.000-05:00

If you want to host a good party, don't spend the entire evening talking about yourself.

This is a fairly intuitive piece of social etiquette, isn't it? The quickest way to lose a person's interest is to spend an entire conversation focused on you.

On the contrary, a good conversationalist listens. He inquires about the other person. He finds ways to allow his conversation partner to open up about her life, rather than focusing completely on his own. And especially if he's a good host, he'll find ways to place attention on his conversation partner - to bestow praise on her - rather on himself.

This leaves a better impression than any amount of self-promotion.

Some marketers, however, seem to leave their social sense at the door when they come to work. They seem to want their brand to dominate every conversation they have with customers - to use every possible minute to talk about themselves.

What an obnoxious way to bore customers.

Instead, other marketers find ways to shift the focus to the customers. Good marketers (and good salespeople) have been doing this for years - taking time to inquire about and discover an individual customer's needs before recommending a solution; proactively gathering customer feedback; listening to customers as they talk about their experiences and frustrations.

And marketers seem to be relearning their manners more and more as they engage the social sphere online.

Brands are learning to use Twitter to not only promote themselves, but to listen to customers. Some, like TOMS, for one, barely talk about themselves at all on Twitter; they focus primarily on listening and responding.

Brands are learning to use Facebook to put customers in the spotlight, rather than themselves. They invite customers to post photos and comments - and receive recognition - surrounding a common theme or topic, as with Dunkin' Donuts recent "Chance for STARDDOM" contest. (Facebook fans were invited to post photos of themselves and an explanation of what makes them the biggest Dunkin' Donuts coffee fan. Other Facebook viewers vote to select the winner.)

And some brands use social media to help them kick it old school, hosting actual, real-live, in-the-flesh events. Frontier Texas!, an interactive history museum in Abilene, Texas, is using Facebook to garner entries for its "Miss Frontier Texas" scholarship competition - a chance for young women (a segment of their customers) to receive scholarship dollars by completing tasks formerly required on the wild frontier.

So, marketers, how are you treating your customers in your conversations? If your brand were hosting a party, would anyone come? And more tellingly, would anyone stay?

Boys or Men?

2011-10-21T08:56:00.001-05:00

A recent article in Marketing News, the monthly magazine of the American Marketing Association, reveals a blight in modern-day marketing efforts: the blight of stereotyping men.

Author Christine Birkner points out that most marketing campaigns are aimed at women, under the assumption that women are the primary purchasers of most consumer goods for a household. Among marketing campaigns targeted at men, she observes, many play on clichéd views of men as beer-drinking, ESPN-watching, buddy-bonding "frat boys."

Perhaps men do enjoy these things - beer, sports, time with "the guys" - and perhaps they need these activities in their lives. But that's not all of who they are, and marketers shouldn't treat them as if it were.

Birkner quotes Ken Wong - a brand consultant, and a man - who reports that "87% of men think that being a father is an important if not defining part of who they are." These men are fathers, providers, leaders - invested in being men of character, courage, wisdom, and strength for their children.

Birkner quotes researcher Paul Jacobs, who found that "one-third of men are single and one-fifth live alone," and that these men are "über-shoppers...buying cars and groceries and hardware" and all the other products in their lives. They want information to help them make good purchasing decisions and steward their money well, based on their lifestyles and needs.

And she quotes Robert Passikoff, head of a New York-based brand research firm, who posits that "there was a time when sex sold to men, but now...what sex does is get attention. There's a big difference between attention and liking and real marketing engagement."

If marketers want to make a meaningful impression on male consumers, we need to appeal to more than just the "beer, sex, and sports" side of men. That's a small segment of their lives - albeit fun and healthy segment, when it remains just a segment.

For real, deep connections and lasting brand loyalty - to be a company who "gets" men - marketers ought to be appealing to all of who a man is: a husband, a father, a son, a friend. A worker, a director. A lover, a gentleman. A thinker, a doer, a leader, an imaginer. An adventurer, a warrior, a provider, a hero.

Marketers today would never presume to treat women uni-dimensionally as just cute, sweet homemakers, and nothing more. We would call that sexist and foolish. Marketers approach women in all their roles - wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, employees, leaders, cheerleaders, coaches, fixers, movers, shakers. Why don't we apply that common wisdom elsewhere, and extend the same courtesy to our male consumers?

Gettin' Jiggy Wit JELL-O

2011-10-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

We've known for years that JELL-O is alive...

...what we didn't know is that it can dance:

Yes, JELL-O fans, the day you didn't know you were waiting for has arrived. What Forrest Gump called "some kind of fruit company" and another kind of "fruit-y company" have made it possible for you to watch a JELL-O cube dance to your music.

The free JELL-O Jiggle-It app on Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch analyzes the beats-per-minute (BPM) and energy level of any song it hears, and adjusts the moves of its JELL-O cube to match. Users can build a playlist for their JELL-O straight from their iTunes library on their device, or they can point the device's microphone toward any other set of speakers to pick up some outside tunes.

Users can also choose the flavor of their JELL-O dancer, and can swipe their finger during the dance to add and combine different dance moves.

So why would Kraft Foods spend time building a free app about, well, dancing JELL-O, of all things?

Perhaps to reinforce the JELL-O brand in the minds of consumers.
Perhaps to remind us how fun it is to watch - and eat - JELL-O.
Perhaps simply because it sounded fun.

Perhaps all of the above.

Isn't this why we marketers do everything we do? To create enjoyable - fun, relaxing, stress-free, exhilarating, or other types of pleasurable - experiences for our customers?

Fundamentally, of course, we must ensure that the use of our products and services is enjoyable. And then, if we can also provide enjoyment outside of the product experience, we have an opportunity to indicate to customers how much enjoyment they'll have when they do use our product.

Marketers, have fun with what you do. And make sure your customers have fun, too.

Captured by Free

2011-10-14T08:40:00.001-05:00

It started with a tweet:

Perhaps because I really like Phil Wickham's music and wanted a chance at a free CD, or perhaps because I was just curious to see what the giveaway was about, I clicked the link.

It took me to a blog post at FreeCCM.com, where I learned that all subscribers to FreeCCM's email newsletter will be entered in a drawing to win one of 50 CDs from some of the top Christian artists. This was my first introduction to FreeCCM, self-styled as "your source for free & legal Christian music downloads."

Perhaps because I was impressed with Phil's and FreeCCM's marketing moves, or perhaps because someone had slipped giddy-teenage-fangirl pills into my breakfast that morning and I really, really wanted a shot at a free CD, I decided to subscribe.

The contest winners won't be selected until October 20, so I haven't received my "you won a free CD!" email yet, but I did receive the obligatory subscription confirmation email, and, within four hours, a second email from FreeCCM, proclaiming "Stream The New Albums From Shane & Shane And Phil Wickham And Download A Free Song!"

Apparently, once a week FreeCCM posts a free download of a track from a popular Christian artist. All one has to do is create a free account on FreeCCM.com, and voilà! one is permitted to download as many of these weekly free tracks as one desires. The site also posts YouTube interviews with each of these artists. And sometimes, as with this Shane & Shane/Phil Wickham email, also posts streaming versions of full albums, with encouragement to readers that "If you like what you hear, be sure to support these guys by picking up your copy of the album at your store of choice, and don’t leave without downloading a free song from each below!"

So, FreeCCM and these partner artists are offering me:
- a chance to win a free CD (on occasion)
- "exclusive" interviews with the artists
- a free track weekly, which I can download and play on my iPod forever
- a free stream of a few full albums, to which I can listen online as many times as I desire

And then they give me a simple, humble encouragement to support the artists I like by following the iTunes link and actually purchasing their albums.

They are giving me so much free stuff that, if I like these artists enough to want to receive and listen to their free music, then I feel compelled to thank them and support them and actually purchase their albums, not just be content with taking them for free.

And so, in an industry consumed (and perhaps with justifiable reasons) with the protection of their intellectual property rights, in which customers are frequently reminded that it is wrong to download and share music without receiving permission and giving payment, and in which the most "free" music that most artists provide is a 90-second preview of songs in the iTunes Store, these artists are, with complete goodwill, warmly and wholeheartedly giving me access to loads of free music.

And, since they seem to place no limit on the number of times a person can listen to the web-stream, nor on the number of free weekly tracks a person can download, these artists must know that people could take advantage of the system. People could simply listen to the freebies forever, without once offering thanks by purchasing an album or merchandise.

But the artists offer this free stuff anyway.

And, quite possibly, earn more fans, and more loyal customers, and more album purchases, and more concert revenues, than the majority of the artists who keep their wares so heavily guarded.

We could stand to learn from artists like Shane & Shane and Phil Wickham. In most cases, it pays to be generous.

What's in a Deal?

2011-10-11T08:57:00.003-05:00

A wise man once told me that "a good deal is only a good deal if it's a good deal for both parties." In marketing, as with other business functions, this proverb holds true.

Good marketing must provide something of value - a good deal - to both the customer and the organization. If a marketing strategy only results in the organization making a buck at the expense of the customer, it isn't good marketing. If a marketing strategy provides an exceptional discount to the customer, but fails to result in a lasting and profitable relationship for the organization, it isn't good marketing.

Recently some friends and I stopped at a local SUBWAY restaurant to pick up some subs for a picnic in the park. SUBWAY was advertising this month as "ANYtober" - during October, customers can purchase any regular footlong sub for only $5.

Now, in one sitting I can only eat a 6" sub. So on a typical night at SUBWAY I would have purchased a 6" turkey breast sub for $3.50. But that evening I could purchase a footlong turkey breast sub - a double-portion of food - for only $1.50 more. I couldn't eat that double-portion of food that night, but I could save half of my footlong in the fridge for another meal, thereby getting two meals for only $5.

Two meals at SUBWAY for the price of one at another store? That was a good deal to me.

SUBWAY would get a good deal out of the bargain, too. They would procure a $5 purchase from a customer who would ordinarily have only spent $3.50 in their store. Throughout the month of October, SUBWAY has the opportunity for hundreds more similar up-sales from other customers who might usually only purchase a 6" sub.

SUBWAY's "ANYtober" is good marketing. It provides SUBWAY the opportunity for increased per-customer sales, and potentially increased traffic, as customers choose SUBWAY more frequently over other restaurant options this month in order to take advantage of the discount.

And it enables customers to save money on food they would have purchased somewhere anyway.

Are your marketing efforts providing a good deal to both you and your customers? If not, it isn't good marketing.

In Memoriam

2011-10-07T12:50:00.007-05:00

Within the past 40 hours, virtually every notable business publication, technology blog, and news outlet has offered a tribute to the late Steve Jobs.

From a brief four sentences on the Apple landing page,

to a five-page biography by Wired,

to Forbes' speculations about the next rising tech star,

everyone has something to say in credit to the Apple founder who revolutionized the way the world approaches computing, music, telecommunication, and publication.

For all his quirks and flaws, Steve Jobs is a man honored for his vision, creativity and passion for beautiful design and a seamless user experience.

My prayer for Steve Jobs is - regardless of accomplishments and failures, strengths and weaknesses, friends and enemies, wealth and poverty - that when he left this planet, he was satisfied with life.

Isn't that something we all wish for? Live your life so that in the end, you will be truly satisfied.

Love Your Customer As Yourself

2011-10-06T07:34:00.000-05:00

Nearly every religion in the world endorses a version of the Golden Rule, known most commonly in English as "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," (stated by Jesus of Nazareth in Matthew 7:12).

Confucius stated it as, "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself." (Analects XV.24)

Buddha said, "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." (Udanavarga 5:18)

And the Hebrew Torah reads, "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Leviticus 19:18)

What happens to marketers who apply this Rule in their work? Who act based on the customer's point of view, rather than their own? Who evaluate ideas on the basis of how they would feel if they were the customer? Who consider how they themselves like to be treated (or serviced, or communicated to) as customers? Who value the customer's interests above their own?

I would venture to say that these marketers are better able to meet the customers' needs, and better able to make a connection with consumers. And thus they enjoy stronger customer loyalty and stronger sales.

Why? Because they continually do unto the customer as they would have others do unto them.

Love your customer as yourself.

Marketing: The 3,500-Pound Weapon

2011-10-05T08:36:00.000-05:00

On my first day of driver's education, my instructor gave me one word of warning: "Haley, remember, you're in the driver's seat of a 3,500-pound weapon."

He said this to teach me a respect for the vehicle I was driving. I needed to recognize that an automobile is not a toy, but a very large, very powerful tool. This tool could be very useful to me. But if I used that tool improperly, someone could be hurt - or even killed.

Marketers use a set of tools with similar potential for much usefulness or much harm. The design we choose for our products; the pricing model we set; the sources of our supplies and labor; our manufacturing processes and distribution channels; the way we communicate with customers; the messages we send; the language we use; the values we promote - all of these things can be beneficial for identifying the needs of customers and delivering products that serve their needs.

However, when used wrongly, marketing tools can also do much damage - causing an organization to hurt or lose customers, lose marketshare, or hurt its reputation.

So how do marketers use their tools dangerously? Let's take some examples from driving school.

Tools become weapons when their drivers:

(1) Stop paying attention. When a driver stops noticing what is going on around her, she is driving dangerously. She is at risk of ignoring a lane change, missing a traffic signal, or failing to stop for the brake lights in front of her. When a marketer stops observing her organization's position in the market and the movements of customers and competitors around her, she similarly impedes her ability to respond to changes, or even to continue moving in the right direction.

(2) Move too fast for the conditions. A driver moves too fast when his speed prevents him from maintaining control of his vehicle and adjusting safely to unexpected changes along the road. Driving too fast can occur out of recklessness (i.e. cruising well over the speed limit just to see "how fast this baby can go") or failure to pay attention to warning signs (i.e. a speed limit sign, or the start of a rain shower). Marketers must use appropriate timing, and pace their actions based on the market conditions and their own capacity.

(3) Fail to yield the right-of-way. Car accidents are often caused by the failure of one driver to yield appropriately to the other, as when a driver runs a red light, or pulls out in front of another driver. Similarly, a marketer fails to yield the right of way when she fails to yield to the customer's needs and opinions instead of her own. When the marketer forgets that the customer comes first, crashes (or clashes) happen.

Remember, marketers, you have plenty of tools at your disposal - tools that are powerful. Tools that are 3,500-pound weapons. Use them respectfully and responsibly to bring benefit - not harm - to your organization, your customers, and your world.

Reaching "Young" Adults

2011-09-30T09:43:00.003-05:00

On a flight earlier this week, I sat next to a lady who offered to share with me one of her recently purchased fashion magazines - a genre of publication I don't usually find worthwhile to read. However, I accepted her offer, and spent part of our time airborne browsing through photos of overpriced clothing, interviews with up-and-coming celebrities, and reviews of new television shows, movies and books.

One of these reviews provided some interesting commentary on 21st-century American culture. It discussed a new reality show - one of several, I know - about a few sets of young married couples. These particular couples use expletives to show affection for their newborns, are more likely to play video games than watch the news, and, at thirty years old, exhibit parenting styles closer to those they watch now on Teen Mom than to those they grew up watching on Full House.

The show reflects - albeit in a somewhat extreme fashion - a cultural shift toward lingering "youthfulness" into a person's twenties and thirties.

In the mid-20th century, western society perceived a young person as an "adult" when he or she graduated high school (and usually entered the full-time workforce, got married, and started a family) around age 18.

In the early-21st century, this transition to adulthood has been delayed. Young people now tend to report that they don't feel like "adults" until age 25 or 26. Studies indicate that contributing factors include the proclivity of Generations X and Y to pursue college and graduate school; to switch career paths early; and to get married later.

(For more on this phenomenon, see studies such as these.)

So, how do marketers respond to this emerging set of "early adults" (as distinct from adolescents and full adults) and the tendency even of middle-aged adults to continue to enjoy youthful activities?

A few have opted to appeal to the fun, youthful side of our adults, while recognizing and applauding their adult responsibilites, such as...

...raising a family...

(see more on the Toyota Sienna at youtube.com/sienna)

...and maintaining digestive health.

(see more on FiberOne's "magic" brownies at fiberone.com/magicbrownie)

Has your organization adopted any means of simultaneously appealing to the youthfulness and the responsibility of 21st-century adults?

Managing Busyness

2011-09-27T08:49:00.001-05:00

I've concluded that if too much busyness is what drove me to regrettably stop blogging and stop reading a year ago, then perhaps I can use all the help I can get in learning how to better manage busyness.

I've been trying to glean wisdom from authors and mentors about managing busyness, and in the process, a few thoughts have surfaced in my mind:

Busyness in itself isn't a bad thing, provided that it doesn't rule our lives. As with everything else in life, busyness needs boundaries. Healthy human beings know how to be productive and to make the most of their time, but they also know how to rest, enjoy life, be at peace, and build relationships with those they care about. They give equal importance to both busyness and stillness. They manage their busyness; their busyness doesn't manage them.

We ought to be busy about the right things. Highly motivated and highly competent people, perhaps most of all, seem prone to pursue too many things at once - because they see that those things are good ideas, because they believe that no one else will do those things correctly if they themselves don't, or because they fear missing a good opportunity. But not every good idea is the right idea to pursue. Healthy human beings know how to say "no" to some good ideas in order to say "yes" to the right ideas.

An Inc.com article from yesterday offered me some good insight about this last point. Please enjoy the wisdom from this brief conversation between Inc.com writer Marla Tabaka and author Peter Bregman: "Mastering Distraction in 18 Minutes"

Ideas. And the Return of Haley's Marketing Blog.

2011-09-26T08:25:00.002-05:00

Dear readers,

It's been a long time - a year, in fact - since I last wrote to you of any ideas surfacing in this young, developing marketer's head.

After a year's hiatus, I now return. I look forward to sharing with you some of the things I've learned over the past year, and many more things that I will continue to learn as I recommence exploring marketing ideas with you.

For now, let me share just one thing I've learned during my break from blogging - the reason for my return:

When we stop growing, we start dying.

I'd heard this adage before, and thought it applied mainly to biology: when a creature stops growing (for humans, around age eighteen), it slowly starts to die. I didn't realize how much this maxim applied professionally.

When we as professionals stop learning and observing and growing, our ability to contribute and improve and add value in our profession starts to die.

Business professionals must keep growing and learning if we're going to keep contributing value. When we stop learning from new ideas, and start relying on our old thoughts and ideas and ways of doing things, we stop being effective and relevant in the work we do.

I stopped blogging last September because I felt that the busyness of life was causing my blog to suffer, and that it would be better to step away from blogging until I could reduce the busyness and more fully devote my attention to searching out and writing about fresh ideas in marketing. I thought this decision would help me to stay sane (or at least, get enough sleep at night), be happier, and improve the quality of my work all around.

I was wrong.

Quite the opposite happened, actually. For when I stopped blogging, I stopped reading the marketing journals and magazines that inspired my blog posts. When I stopped reading, I stopped learning. When I stopped learning, I stopped discovering fresh ideas to apply to my work. When I stopped discovering fresh ideas, I stopped contributing as much to my organization, and stopped feeling as happy at work.

This year has reminded me how important it is to keep learning. In their book The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas and Make Them Happen, Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer emphasize that successful professionals continuously and intentionally "hunt" for ideas: they observe, they ask questions, they take a deep interest in diverse subjects and people, and they immerse themselves in the ideas of others. They "sell" the best hour of their day to themselves for the purpose of learning, searching out, and discovering ideas.

It makes sense. We can't make something out of nothing. Everything - whether an organism, an automobile, or a manufacturing plant - requires inputs in order to produce outputs. If I'm to produce new ideas that will improve the quality of our products, the efficiency of our processes, or the way we serve customers, then I must first - and continually - take in ideas from the world around me.

And so I've returned to blogging, partially to continue serving you with ideas, but mostly for selfish reasons: I want to start generating ideas again, and blogging is my impetus to read, observe, and receive the inspiration that will let my ideas start flowing again.

I encourage you to join me in searching out ideas. Ideas that will serve your industry, your organization, and your customers. And as a result, your career.

It's good to be back.

Cheers,
Haley

Taking a Hiatus

2010-09-28T20:11:00.002-05:00

Human relationships are founded upon mutually understood - and usually unwritten - social contracts. That is, the trust required for healthy relationships is maintained through the understanding and fulfillment of certain expectations.

A friendship, for example, rests on a social contract that includes respecting one another, standing up for one another, listening to one another, being there for one another, investing time in one another, etc. An employer-employee relationship rests on a social contract in which the employee follows the instructions of the employer, the employee shows respect to the employer, the employee pursues the goals set for him by the employer, the employer pays the employee the agreed-upon wage, the employer provides a healthy working environment for the employee, etc.

These social contracts may vary depending on the culture in which they exist; however, social contracts do exist for every type of relationship, and when a social contract is broken, the relationship deteriorates.

The social contract between an organization and the community stipulates that the organization will provide some benefit or meet some need in the community; that the products or services of the organization will maintain a consistent quality; that the organization will steward its share of the community's resources; etc. The social contract among users of social media includes meaningful interactions, consistency of communication, timely responses, etc.

As a blogger, I operate within social contracts described in my last two examples. My blog is a product offered to readers; the social contract mandates that my blog posts benefit my readers and offer consistent quality, if I am to maintain healthy relationships with my readers. As part of social media, my blog is expected to be consistent in its frequency and responsiveness to readers.

My blog posts have gradually been declining in frequency and consistency. I suspect that some readers may have found them to be declining in quality also. For all of this I do apologize.

As I allocate my resources of time - much like an organization allocates its resources - I am finding it difficult to devote the kind of time it takes to produce well-written, thoughtful, frequent blog posts without detracting from my performance of other obligations. Since I cannot commit the time to fulfill the social contracts implicit in a good blog, I am hereby going to take a hiatus from Haley's Marketing Blog.

This will be my last blog post for some time. I expect - and hope - to return to steady authorship of Haley's Marketing Blog at some point in the future. Until that time, I will not waste my readers' time as they wait for a new post, only to be disappointed.

Be sure that I will continue expressing marketing ideas on Twitter (@HaleyDD), and when the time comes for me to revive Haley's Marketing Blog, Twitter will be the main channel by which I announce the blog's renewal.

For now, I must bid my readers adieu. I look forward to chatting more later.

Blessings to all! Happy marketing!

Thanks for reading,
Haley

To care or not to care?

2010-09-17T08:35:00.005-05:00

Last Sunday, mechanical failures caused a four-hour delay for my first flight on the way back from vacation. This delay, not surprisingly, caused me to miss my connecting flight - and all of the remaining flights that day.

When I arrived at my connecting gate thirty-five minutes after the last flight had left, the American Airlines gate agent heard my story and quite promptly provided me with a $15 food voucher, a free hotel stay, and a boarding pass for the first flight out the next morning. Standard operating procedure for flights missed due to the fault of the airline. Have a nice day.

Now, I'm very appreciative that American Airlines has a policy like this. I'm thankful that I can book another flight with no hassle, and that the airline covers my meal and hotel bills incurred from an unexpected overnight stay. I'm thankful that I don't have to fight the airline on this; I'm thankful that they provide these services automatically when the airline is at fault in travel delays.

However, this is not the first time that I've been in this situation and received this response from American Airlines. And this time, the response seemed almost too automatic. The gate agent simply followed procedure; she didn't apologize on behalf of the airline for the inconvenience. It was as if the airline was making things right, but only because that was their system, not because they actually cared about my thwarted travel plans.

Contrast this with the way Disney handles one particular customer inconvenience:

When a family arrives at Walt Disney World with a car full of overjoyed, rambunctious kids, and manages to find the closest available parking space (which still seems miles away from the front gate), and unloads all the kids, packs the littlest one in a stroller, grabs the backpacks and cameras, and begins to dash off toward that land of magic, there is an odd chance that they might lock their keys in the car.

This circumstance, in contrast to my missed American Airlines flight, is completely the fault of the customer. In their excitement, they locked the keys in the car, at no fault of Disney. It's not Disney's problem.

However, when this happens, all a customer has to do is contact Disney customer service. The sympathetic customer service person assures the customer that Disney can help. Within five minutes, Disney's on-site locksmith crew arrives at the customer's vehicle, uses their tools to open the door without any damage, and retrieves the keys for the customer. The customer reaches into his pocket to pull out some cash to pay the locksmith's charges, but the Disney locksmith stops him and says this:

"No charge, sir. I'm sorry the keys got locked in the car. You and your family have a magical day."

I'm sorry the keys got locked in the car. Even when this inconvenience was completely the fault of the customer's absentmindedness, Disney sympathizes. Disney apologizes. Disney solves their problem. And Disney encourages the customer to continue on with a wonderful day at the Mouse House.

Now, this is a standard procedure for Disney, just like the food-hotel-flight-reimbursement is a standard procedure for American Airlines. But when Disney employees follow their procedure, they do it with an attitude of caring for the customer's predicament and wanting to do everything they can to redeem the customer's experience with their brand. When the American Airlines employee followed her procedure, she completed the right actions, but the caring attitude was missing.

And that attitude is what makes the difference.

At your organization, do employees have an attitude of caring, or just following procedure?

Good communication covers over a multitude of sins

2010-09-06T17:01:00.005-05:00

We see that communication is critical to any human relationship - that between a husband and wife, between parent and child, between employer and employee, between teacher and student, between roommates, between friends. And between company and customer.

A countdown timer announcing "time until next ride" can help reduce impatience among customers waiting in line for a ride at an amusement park.

A response email acknowledging receipt of a complaint and assuring a quick resolution can help a customer feel that his issue has been heard and is being addressed.

An easily-found set of guidelines for what constitutes an acceptable submission can help customers to contribute better customer-created content to a social media campaign.

A periodic phone call to check on a client can help her to feel that she is cared for and that her vendor is eager to meet her needs.

A notice that a service provider has not received payment from a customer can help to uncover the oversight and elicit payment before service is discontinued.

A voluntary recall of a defective product and an immediate, free replacement can help to prevent customer injury and mitigate ill-will toward a brand.

Good, timely communication is such a simple thing, requiring little of your time, effort, and money. Regular communication - even a quick "how are you doing? what can we do to serve you?" helps to maintain a strong customer relationship. An immediate and courteous response to a frustrated customer helps to restore the customer's sense that the company really does care and really is working to make things right. These forms of communication are quick, painless, and inexpensive (or free).

Lack of communication causes the tenuous, tense, or broken customer relationships that lead to expensive fixes - customer service wars, legal battles, reparation to soothe an irate customer, or a lifetime of value lost when a customer leaves.

What damages might have been reduced, whose reputation strengthened, or which customers retained through simple, clear, timely, reliable communication from your company?

Caring about customers - at home

2010-08-16T12:49:00.006-05:00

Yesterday I used my brand-new Kitchenaid electric hand mixer for the first time (baking banana bread - yum!). Inside the instruction manual (yes, I admit that I actually flipped through the instruction manual), Kitchenaid had printed a dozen recipes that involved the use of my mixer - some cream cheese spreads, whipped toppings, coffee cakes, and other desserts.

Now, it's not uncommon for purveyors of foodstuffs to print recipes on the outside of their food packages, for obvious reason: a consumer is more like to purchase a food item if they have a delicious-sounding recipe for which that item is an ingredient.

But why would Kitchenaid bother to print useful recipes in the instruction manual inside the box of a kitchen appliance? In a location where the recipes would only be discovered after the consumer purchased the appliance and took it home?

Could it be that Kitchenaid wants consumers to have a good experience actually using their product? That the company wants their product to be useful to the consumer, not just a wasted expense that sits in a cupboard? That they care about the Kitchenaid brand experience - not only before the purchase, but after?

Sometimes we marketers get so focused on acquiring new customers that we forget to take care of the customers we already have. We spend our time making a product look useful enough for customers to buy, and forget to make it useful enough to use. We work to improve the in-store or online experience, and forget to improve the at-home experience.

As marketers, we ought to spend 80% of our time improving our product - making it more useful and more enjoyable for the customer - and 20% of our time improving the way we communicate about that great product. Sometimes we get this backwards.

It looks like Kitchenaid is getting it right.

Look, Ma, the moon's on sale! Let's buy it!

2010-08-11T07:48:00.004-05:00

Allsup's, the convenience store chain local to Texas and New Mexico, is currently offering a promotion called "Pump. Drink. Win."

When customers buy at least eight gallons of gasoline and a twenty-ounce Pepsi product in the same store visit, they receive a game card that gives them the chance to win prizes from any one of a number of brands, including Allsup's, Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Wrigley, Blue Bunny, Jack Links, Kellogg's, Mars, Cadbury, and Tyson.

A promotion like this one is great way to (a) reward customers who purchase gas and Pepsi products at Allsup's stores; (b) motivate customers to purchase Pepsi products over another brand of soft drink - that is, if those customers have no strong preference for one brand over another; and/or (c) motivate customers to purchase a full tank of gas at Allsup's, rather than just a few gallons at a time.

This promotion is meant for those customers who would normally (or who might) buy gasoline and a drink during the same stop at the gas station.

Now, when I stop for gasoline and sees a promotion like this one at the gas pump, I have to avoid the temptation to go inside and buy a bottle of Diet Pepsi just for the sake of getting a game card. I don't normally buy soft drinks when I stop for gas, and I don't need to get soft drinks when I stop for gas. I wouldn't even have really wanted to get a soft drink at the gas station if I hadn't seen the poster. And if I had bought a soft drink and gotten the game card, I wouldn't have really been interested in drinking the soda anyway.

As a consumer, I have to remember that the fact that an item is on sale is not enough reason for me to buy it. As a consumer, I should buy on-sale products when those are products that I needed anyway. Just because the moon is on sale, does not mean that I need to buy the moon.

As marketers, our promotions are meant to provide a product to consumers who needed that product (or a similar one) to begin with. We do not market to convince people to buy products they don't need.

Who Gets the Final Say?

2010-07-30T11:58:00.003-05:00

It happens every so often that a marketer disagrees with his client or CEO on how something should be done - how a product should be designed, how a loyalty program should be structured, how a website should be organized. In most cases, the opinion of one party or the other can be swayed into consensus. But sometimes, the difference of opinion cannot be overcome by any amount of persuasion. When such a disagreement occurs, how should the marketer proceed?

A proper respect for authority (or a desire to keep one's job) would say that the marketer should submit to his employer's opinion. After all, the marketer works for the client or CEO; he doesn't work for himself. He ought to follow the instructions of the person who pays his salary.

But what if that client or CEO is wrong? What if the employer's plan will completely ruin the company's reputation and sabotage all of their efforts? What if the marketer is absolutely sure that the employer's idea is a bad idea?

Who should have the final say?

The customer.

The employer's customer should have the final say. After all, both the marketer and his employer do what they do in order to serve the final customer. The customer is the one whose opinion matters. The customer is the one who will be using the product, or loyalty program, or website. The customer is the one who will decide whether it is a good product, a rewarding loyalty program, or a helpful website. The customer is the one who will choose whether or not her experience with the company merits continued support of that company.

So, marketer, find out what the customer's opinion is. Find out what she has to say about your product, loyalty program, or website. Find out what she's looking for, what she needs, what she likes. Research. Ask your customers. Gather data. Discover what your customers actually prefer, not what you or your employer think they prefer.

Let your employer see the customer data. And resign yourselves to act on whatever the data says. Design your product, structure your loyalty program, and organize your website based on what you learned from your customers.

Let the customer have the final say-so in your decision-making.

(Of course, though, if your employer refuses to do what the customer's say, you should ultimately follow your employer's instructions. Then let the results speak for themselves - one way or the other.)

Why Should You Care?

2010-07-22T21:36:00.005-05:00

A few nights ago, some friends and I were discussing the differences between various fitness clubs.

One friend observed that sports training clubs - like the martial arts school he attends - care deeply about the attendance of their members, because they are invested in teaching those members and developing their skills. On the other hand, he commented, typical gym owners don't care how often their members visit the gym to work out, since the owners receive the monthly membership dues, and don't require anything more.

As I've been thinking about my friend's comments, I've come to disagree.

That is, I agree that most gym owners probably don't care whether their members work out every day, or once a week, or hardly at all, but I believe that good gym owners do and should care.

Sure, a gym owner still receives the same membership fees whether his members attend once or thirty times each month. But if a customer pays a gym membership, without ever actually visiting the gym, sooner or later she will decide to stop wasting money and cancel her membership altogether.

Even if a customer does attend the gym regularly, but her gym owner doesn't really care, that customer could easily be convinced to switch membership if another gym opens that is closer, less expensive, more lavish, or offers more appealing classes.

But what if there was a gym owner who did care about his members? What if their physical fitness mattered to him? What if he spent time thinking of new ways to help his members stay healthy? What if he helped to motivate his members to work out more, and offered them free services to teach them more about their bodies and about fitness? What if his members knew that he cared about them as individuals? How would that affect their membership?

I suspect that those members would be motivated to continue their membership over many years, that they would be loyal to the gym and fairly resistant to the promotions of competing gyms, and that they would rave about their gym to friends, family, and coworkers.

I postulate that those members will have a longer (and more profitable) relationship with the gym owner.

The good and successful gym owner is the one who actually cares about his members.

The good and successful business owner is the one who actually cares about his customers.

Do you care?

The Company Your Company Could Tweet Like

2010-07-17T09:43:00.004-05:00

Earlier this week, the Man Your Man Could Smell Like (whom his fans affectionately refer to as "Old Spice Guy," and who seems to have a mysterious connection via a parallel universe to actor and former NFL player Isaiah Mustafa) spent two days personally responding to Tweets and Facebook posts addressed to him.

Old Spice Guy is not the first to converse with Facebook fans and Twitter followers on behalf of the company he represents. However, he is the first to carry on that conversation through over 150 YouTube videos recorded and posted over two days while in a bathroom, wrapped in a towel. Here's a sample:

In other response videos, Old Spice Guy answers fans' questions, gives shout-outs to celebrities, offers manly wisdom, sweetly reassures skeptics, and even proposes to a man's girlfriend for him. But you'll have to find those videos yourself.

As of this writing, each video has received between 33,000 and 1.9 million views. Most of the videos have received a few hundred comments each. And a few received comments like, "I went out and bought Old Spice TODAY because of this video!"

The Old Spice brand image has come a long way in a few short years. Not too long ago, Old Spice seemed...old. My grandfather used Old Spice. My guy friends did not.

But now, Old Spice seems young. Strong. Robust. Adventurous. Manly. Daring. Thanks in large part to a well-executed campaign surrounding Old Spice Guy, making the claim that wearing Old Spice can help men to smell like a "ridiculously handsome" man who rides horses and whales with equal ease, uses wolverines to apply body wash, bakes gourmet cakes in a kitchen built with his own hands, and wins medals for exotic car-throwing.

Old Spice has created a new image for itself with clever videos that make hilariously absurd boasts of manly strength. Because it has created content that people enjoy watching, it has been able to reach audiences and start converting viewers into fans. And now its amazingly funny personalized video responses have furthered those fan relationships.

I'm not saying that your company needs to start conversing with customers via individual YouTube videos of a man in a towel. In fact, you probably shouldn't. But you should look for ways to connect with customers in an enjoyable way that surpasses expectations and aligns with the brand reputation that you want to have.

If personalized video response tweets is the way for your company to do that, then go for it.

Giving Back, Paying Forward

2010-07-10T15:40:00.004-05:00

Susan Boyle - the Scottish singer who broke into the music industry a year ago with her astonishing performance on Britain's Got Talent - is now helping other normal folk to start musical careers. With the Susan's Search contest, ordinary people can audition for a chance to record a duet with Susan for her next album, to be released this November.

Susan explains it this way:

"When I did Britain's Got Talent, I was given a chance by Simon Cowell to show what I could do. This got me thinking about people who maybe missed that opportunity. Susan's Search is about giving other people an opportunity; it's about letting them live the dream that they have always wanted to do."

Because someone gave Susan the chance to show that her singing talent meant more than her outward appearance, her response is to create similar opportunities for other singers who may be "diamonds in the rough."

To give back, or "pay it forward," (as depicted in the movie of the same name) is the natural response of a thankful and humble attitude. When we take into account the number of opportunities we've been given (opportunities that were not created by us, only used by us), and the number of people who have helped us in our journey (people who didn't owe us any help), we should want to create opportunities and offer help to others.

Organizations, like individuals, can find ways to give back. Like Susan Boyle, they can offer a chance to talented people whom the world has ignored. Like TOMS Shoes, they can provide shoes, or clothing, or shelter, or food, or education, to children across the world who wouldn't otherwise have those necessities. They can give unexpected gifts or discounts or freebies to customers and non-customers, in gratitude for the patronage of their loyal shoppers. They can take time to serve the communities in which they operate - communities which provide resources and support for the business.

How is your organization "paying forward" the opportunities that it has been given?

Who's Responsible for Innovation?

2010-06-30T07:21:00.003-05:00

If a company wants to be innovative, it must create an atmosphere that encourages innovation. A healthy atmosphere of innovation will exhibit three conditions:

Innovation - The company must give employees - ALL employees, not just those in the R&D department - the freedom to innovate. Supervisors at all levels should welcome their subordinates to discover creative solutions and to constantly look for ways to do things better. Employees should be allowed to generate new ideas, and should feel that their supervisors will be receptive to their ideas. Employees should be empowered to innovate.

Submission - Once an employee develops an innovative idea, she must share it with her supervisor. The supervisor should listen eagerly, ready to assess how this idea could benefit the company and customers. The supervisor should ask questions and coach the employee on how to improve and adapt the idea to best fit the company and the situation. The employee should trust that her supervisor will be an advocate of great ideas; because of that trust, the employee submits to her supervisor's final decision about whether or not - and how - to move the idea forward.

Protection - Once the supervisor gives his employee the authority to implement the idea, then the supervisor becomes a protective covering for the employee. As long as the employee follows the supervisor's instructions, she doesn't need to fear the consequences of failure - the supervisor takes those consequences upon his own head. If the employee makes a mistake or makes someone angry, or if the idea doesn't work, then the supervisor bears the responsibility. He protects his employee, because the employee was acting under his authority. This gives the employee the freedom to fail - and the freedom to succeed.

These three measures - innovation, submission, and protection - are essential if a company wishes to be innovative. Employees throughout the company must be inspired to think creatively and to generate ideas, no matter how raw or ridiculous the ideas seem at first. Employees must vet those ideas through their supervisors, trusting that their supervisors will want to bring great ideas to life, and ultimately submitting to the final decision of the supervisor. And supervisors must protect the employees as they start implementing their ideas under the supervisors' authority, empowering the employee to succeed by bearing the responsibility if they fail.

If one of these conditions is missing, innovation within the organization will be stifled. Companies stagnate if employees don't generate ideas. Ideas go awry if employees act without the authority of their supervisors. And employees stop innovating if they can't trust their supervisors to protect their efforts.

If your organization wishes to be innovative, does it have these processes in place?

Whose Team Are You On?

2010-06-25T07:29:00.004-05:00

This is the story of two marketers.

Suzy Marketer was the co-founder and marketing consultant of Suzy Marketing Services, L.L.P. A hard worker, go-getter, and experienced marketer, Suzy managed the accounts of several prestigious clients, and earned a respectable income for herself in the process.

Sally Marketer was the co-founder and marketing consultant of Sally Marketing Services, L.L.P. An equally hard worker, go-getter, and experienced marketer, Sally also managed the accounts of several prestigious clients, and earned a respectable income for herself in the process.

But Suzy's and Sally's marketing services were as different as different could be.

Suzy approached her work as an outside consultant. She saw herself as a service provider hired by clients who were utterly unable to market themselves on their own. Her clients hired her to analyze their company, their business model, their products, and their market niche, to tell them how to market themselves, and to execute their marketing for them. The prestige of the clients who hired her was proof that Suzy did her job expertly.

When Suzy landed a new client, she would spend days researching them: poring over their website, their search results on Google, their Facebook presence, and the chatter about them on Twitter; examining their products, testing their services, and analyzing their annual reports. Then she would spend a day interviewing their marketing team and execs to conduct analyses of the brand, their market position, and their goals.

Back at her office, Suzy would develop key messages and a marketing strategy, then hold a brief meeting with the client to present her plan and to convince the client that her plan was best. Once everyone was in agreement with the plan, Suzy would return to her office, and put her team to work at executing the marketing plan. She would call, email, and occasionally visit her client's employees when she needed information, payment, or approval for the next marketing tactic.

Sally, on the other hand, approached her work as a teammate of her client. She knew that her clients were experts on their brand, their industry, and their market, but hired an outside marketing consultant so that they could focus their resources on making great products and serving customers well. She knew that her clients trusted her to learn from them, to adopt their culture, and to partner with them in serving their customers.

When Sally landed a new client, she would spend a day researching the brand online, among customers, and in stores. Then she would spend several days with the client, visiting headquarters, touring the plant, observing their work processes, meeting with each department, building relationships, browsing their corporate history, and absorbing all that the execs, marketing team, and other employees said about their mission, values, goals, culture, brand, products, customers, and previous marketing strategy.

Back at her office, Sally would do more research to see if customers' views of the brand matched the client's view of their brand. Where they didn't, Sally brainstormed ways that her client could serve customers better and communicate with them better. After drafting key messages and marketing strategy based on what she had learned from her client and their customers, she met with the client to adjust her plan. When Sally and the client agreed on a plan that best fit the client and their customers, she and the client planned how to work together to achieve those marketing goals. When she returned to her office, Sally worked in constant communication with her new teammates at the client's headquarters to ensure that her efforts were coordinated with theirs.

Both Suzy and Sally were experts at marketing. Both could analyze, strategize, and actualize marketing communications flawlessly. And both had prestigious clients and generous paychecks to show it.

But somehow Sally's clients always ended up with deeper customer loyalty and a more favorable brand image; Suzy's didn't. Somehow Sally's clients always felt like Sally understood them, like she was part of the gang; Suzy's didn't. Somehow Sally always enjoyed her time with her clients; Suzy, didn't. Somehow Sally managed to maintain long-lasting relationships with a handful of valued clients; Suzy's list of clients was constantly changing.

Sally was part of her clients' team; her view was, "we're all working together."

Suzy was part of her own team; her view was, "I'm working with them."

Whose team are you on? Your customers'? Your clients'? Your company's? Or your own?

Things Worth Doing

2010-06-23T06:21:00.007-05:00

As marketers (and as human beings in general), our lives should be about making others' lives better. Meeting needs. Bringing joy to lives. Helping others to succeed. Making the world a brighter place.

We weren't created to be takers, but to be givers.

When I see creations like this one, I think that someone is doing a good job of brightening the world:

Yes, it's a two-and-a-half-minute commercial for Toyota. But it's also a rap song about some suburbanites and their minivan. The folks at Toyota and director Jody Hill spent time and money (a lot of it, I'd imagine) on creating something that would be fun to watch. That would make people laugh. That people would enjoy watching. And these Toyota folks probably had fun in the process.

In the first seven weeks since the video was posted on YouTube, it has received over 3.8 million views. And I can understand why. People need (and want, and enjoy watching) things that make them laugh. That make the day a little brighter.

Marketers, if you're going to do something, then do something worth doing.

Start initiatives that help people to succeed.

Create content that makes lives happier.

Sell products that help people to breathe easier.

Give service that brings a smile to peoples' faces.

If what you're doing is not making the world a better place, then why are you doing it?

Serving vs. Stalking

2010-06-18T07:38:00.002-05:00

An AdAge article yesterday reported on a recent study of the effectiveness of online advertising. The study examined two online ad tactics - targeted* advertising and obtrusive** advertising - to see their impact on consumers' intent to buy.

The results showed that consumers were 0.9% more likely to buy when they saw a targeted ad rather than a non-targeted one, and that they were 0.5% more likely to buy when they saw an obtrusive ad over a non-obtrusive one. However, when an ad was both targeted and obtrusive, consumers were only 0.3% more likely to buy than if the ad were a typical, non-targeted, non-obtrusive ad.

The study suggested that privacy-concerned consumers may find targeted obtrusive ads to be manipulative.

The bottom line is that marketers exist to serve customers, not the other way around. We aren't serving the customer when we use ads that interrupt what the customer is doing. And we aren't serving customers when we interrupt them with an ad that says, "I know you're looking at Product X right now, so you should stop what you're doing and come look at my Product Y to go with your Product X." Even if these interruptions create more "brand awareness," they don't create the brand awareness we want. If it's not serving customers, it's not worth it.

We serve the customer when we make ourselves available for them to choose when they need our services.

As marketers, our attitude should not be one of pushing ourselves, our products, and our messages onto customers, but one of waiting on customers. "Waiting on" customers the way a server "waits" tables. Or the way a servant used to "wait on" his master. Paying the utmost attention, capable and diligent, doing everything in our power to be available, letting them know that you're there for them, waiting for the slightest request, ready to provide what the customer needs.

Marketers, wait on your customers. Don't interrupt their lives.

*Targeted advertising is that in which the advertised product relates to the content of the site, i.e. an ad for camping gear on a site about outdoor recreation.

**Obtrusive advertising was defined by the study to include pop-ups, pop-unders, ads in an audio or video stream, takeover ads, non-user-initiated audio/video, full page banner ads, interactive ads, floating ads, and interstitials (ads displayed before a page loads).

Business on Purpose

2010-06-12T08:50:00.004-05:00

Why do you make the business decisions you do?

Because it's what you've always done?
Because it's what everybody has always done?
Because it's easiest? cheapest? fastest?

Or do you make decisions because they are the right thing for you and your customers?

Companies get into trouble (or, just as bad, become stagnant and unremarkable) when they aren't intentional about the things they do. When they make choices based on what seems normal, rather than on what is best for their particular customer base and brand promise. When they choose the easiest marketing channels, product features, package design, or shipping strategies, rather than choosing those that fit best. When they don't stop to think about why they do what they do.

It may turn out that what you've always done, or what is easiest/cheapest/fastest is not the right decision at all. It might be that there is a better solution. A solution that provides a better experience for your customers. A solution that more closely aligns with what customers need. A solution that better enables your organization to do what it was meant to do.

Or it might be that the decision to do the comfortable/easy/cheap/fast thing is exactly the right thing to do. It might be that those strategies provide the convenience, affordability, quick service, quality, standardization, customization, status, or other value that your customers want.

But come to that conclusion because you were intentional about it. Because you took time to consider what the right thing is. Not because you were on autopilot.

Context

2010-06-03T07:44:00.002-05:00

Meaning comes not just from the words spoken, but also by what is being spoken around them.

For example:

"Alright, Stacey, the show is starting. You're on in five minutes."
"Thanks, Joe."
"Break a leg, kiddo."

versus

"Well, Tony, did you get it?"
"Nah, Boss. He doesn't have the money. What should I do?"
"Break a leg."

In each of these examples, the phrase "break a leg" is given a distinct meaning based on the context of the conversation. The context is affected by the characters involved, the location, the timing, the events leading up to the conversation, and the other words spoken in or before the conversation.

Marketing messages, too, are impacted by context.

$2.01/gallon for gasoline is a terrific price - on June 3, 2010. In America. When the gas station across the street is selling gas for $2.47/gallon. It's an abominable price on June 3, 1990 in America, when the guy across the street is selling gas for $1.19/gallon.

An OxiClean commercial starring Billy Mays was a mundane occurrence on June 27, 2009 (the day before Billy's death). The same commercial had a very different effect on June 29, 2009.

An email offering a 25% discount on an item could be a welcome surprise to a customer - unless the customer is an overworked businesswoman whose inbox is full of 80 similar unread messages and who has just sworn to forever boycott the next company who sends her an email.

As marketers, we need to know the context of a situation before we start spewing marketing messages. Some contextual information can be gathered fairly easily from examining current news, the rest of the market, and the marketing efforts of partners and competitors. Other information (like the number of marketing emails one customer has received, or a customer's attitude toward a particular brand, or the current state of a customer's life) can only be gathered by having a relationship with the customer. By caring about what the customer thinks, feels, and has to say. By keeping track of how (and how much) you have communicated with the customer in the past. By asking for - and listening to - the customer's comments, expectations, frustrations, and concerns.

As marketers, we have to pay attention to context. Our audience's perceptions are acutely shaped by it; our messages are changed by it. We must listen to it.

If I Were an Oscar Mayer Wiener...

2010-05-27T07:41:00.005-05:00

...I would be on my way to feed hungry families right now, thanks to Oscar Mayer's Good Mood Mission.

The Good Mood Mission is a partnership between Oscar Mayer (a Kraft brand) and Feeding America (the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization).

Visitors to www.goodmoodmission.com can help feed needy families across America by completing a Good Mood statement like, "It doesn't get better than...." or "The best cure for a case of the Mondays is..." By completing the statement "If I could ride shotbun in the Wienermobile, I'd...", they can also enter to win a ride in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile for a day.

For each of these "Good Moods" submitted, Oscar Mayer will donate one pound of food to Feeding America.

For each "Good Mood" shared with friends via Facebook or email, Oscar Mayer will donate five pounds of food.

For each person who becomes a fan of Oscar Mayer on Facebook, Oscar Mayer will donate ten pounds of food.

Plus, folks can visit ebay.com/oscarmayer to bid on the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. The winning bidder will win the Wienermobile for a day, plus a catered Oscar Mayer cookout for 50, and a year's supply of Oscar Mayer wieners. All of the proceeds will be donated to Feeding America. As of this writing, the bid is at $1111.11 - the auction ends June 4, 2010.

This kind of initiative is why I love the idea of social cause marketing. Organizations support - and encourage their customers to support - a worthy cause, and build something fun around the effort. With the Good Mood Mission, people all over the world can contribute to the conversation, enjoy reading others' Good Moods, daydream about riding in the Wienermobile, watch a funny video of actor Ty Burrell with the Wienermobile, and have their days brightened in the process.

Not to mention that when they do so, they are also causing Oscar Mayer to feed hungry families.

If a company is going to make a contribution to a non-profit organization, why not give their customers a chance to get involved as well? And why not have fun doing it, and create a great experience for the customers who join in?

It has worked for Oscar Mayer and Feeding America so far - the goal for the Good Mood Mission was to donate 3 million pounds of food. As of this writing, 2,904,795 pounds have been donated.

As a corporation, find a way to help the world, and find a way to enable others to join in.

"...if I were an Oscar Mayer weiner, everyone would be in love with me!"

Mascots, the Olympics, and Audiences

2010-05-20T17:46:00.005-05:00

Yesterday the world was introduced to Wenlock and Mandeville, the mascots for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The two were fashioned from drops of molten steel that spilled during the pouring of the last beam for the London Olympic stadium. They magically sprung to life, began to learn the Olympic and Paralympic events, and now roam throughout the world on a rainbow, teaching children about the games.

Or, at least, that's the story that is shown in this short film about the shiny, jiggly creatures.

In reality, the two friends are creations of London agency Iris. The one-eyed, bipedal, androgynous creatures were chosen as non-human, non-animal beings that would appeal to children, and whose "skin" could be changed to reflect different nations, events, etc. The orange light atop the head of each represents the lights standard on London taxicabs; while the single eye can be used as a camera to facilitate social, video, and interactive marketing.

The names point to the contributions that the U.K. has made to the modern Olympic Games: Much Wenlock in Shropshire held games that inspired Baron Pierre de Coubertin to found the modern Olympic movement in the 19th century; Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire was the location of the first "parallel Olympics" in 1948 for World War II soldiers with spinal injuries.

Within a day of their introduction, the London 2012 Wenlock and Mandeville are quite active in public interaction - each is on Facebook (I am Wenlock and I am Mandeville) and Twitter (@iamwenlock and @iammandeville), and, of course, they have their own website. And together they are visiting schools to encourage children to live active lifestyles.

Photo from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG)

Also within the past 36 hours, the duo have received much flak (disdain, scorn, disbelief, derision, contempt) from online audiences. One journalist compared them to a cross between Sonic the Hedgehog and Mike Wazowski; one design critic called them "computerised Smurfs for the iPhone generation."

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), on the other hand, hopes that the mascots will "chime with children," "connect young people with sport and tell the story of our proud Olympic and Paralympic history," and "help inspire kids to strive to be the best they can be."

It would seem that many adults (or at least, many vocal, online adults) fail to see the attractiveness of creatures. We've yet to hear the voice of the children on the matter.

If the main audience for Wenlock and Mandeville is adults, LOCOG may have missed their target. If their main audience is indeed children, they may have hope yet.

Note to marketers: create for your audience.

Just Plain Fun

2010-05-07T07:54:00.002-05:00

I love this idea.

Gatorade and Fox Sports are teaming up to give unsettled high school rivalries a chance to settle the score - a decade after they originally played.

In Replay: The Series, old high school rivals are nominated to play again in re-matches organized by Gatorade and Fox Sports. The two companies provide training, coaches, a venue, and the opportunity to bring closure to old competition.

The first season of Replay: The Series featured the 1993 football teams from Easton (PA) Area High School and Phillipsburg (NJ) High School. The 1993 Thanksgiving Day game between these two long-time rivals ended in a disappointing tie. On April 26, 2009, these same players - now 33-year-olds, not 18-year-olds - suited up one final time to determine a winner once and for all.

Gatorade provided eight weeks of intensive training for the teams (as well as sports drinks for the game, of course); while Peyton and Eli Manning served as honorary coaches for the big game.

The second season of Replay: The Series culminated in a hockey match last Sunday, May 9, 2010, between the 1999 teams of Central Catholic High School and Trenton High School, both from Detroit. The original 1999 game ended in a draw after a player's jugular vein was sliced open by a skate. Eleven years later, that player inspired Gatorade and Fox Sports to reunite the teams for a final match-up.

I love Replay: The Series simply because it's fun.

It's fun to hear the stories of the original fateful (or non-fateful, however you want to look at them) games.

It's fun to see the passion and anticipation of these former high school athletes and their hometown fans.

It's fun to see grown men get back into shape for a shot at redemption.

It's fun to read player bios, follow the training, and watch the final outcomes of the games on the Replay website.

And it's fun to nominate one's own high school team for a Replay via the Replay Lineup Finder on Facebook.

If you want to build love of your brand, connect better to your audience, and strengthen brand awareness, why not do it with something that's just plain fun for people to participate in and to watch? Create a fun and worthwhile experience; people will remember you for it.

It's Not Just a Bag

2010-05-06T08:05:00.002-05:00

Anything that reminds people about your organization is a representative for your brand.

Hence we have logos - visual representations of the corporate identity of a brand. We have advertising campaigns, carefully planned to accurately convey a brand's identity and proposed value to consumers. We have colors, fonts, store designs, soundtracks, and even smells that are strategically chosen for what they say about their respective brands.

But other things speak for your brand as well:

          Your partners (I blogged about that last week).
          Your product packaging (I blogged about that two weeks ago).
          Your facilities (how tidy are they?).
          Your corporate vehicles (how often do you wash them?).

          Your shopping bags.

Shopping bags (and other distribution packaging) have great - and often underused - potential as branding tools. Well-designed and attractively-branded shopping bags provide two marketing tactics in one:

First, they serve as free advertising - distributing your logo, willingly, through the hands of every customer.
Second, they serve as social proof - every customer seen with your shopping bag indicates support of your brand to those around them. And as Robert Cialdini would tell us, observing the approval of others towards a brand gives permission to new potential customers to try the brand, too.

Bloomingdales does an outstanding job of using shopping bags as branded items. People notice the cute, clever "Little Brown Bags" with which Bloomingdales customers leave their stores. The more customers shop at Bloomingdales, the more those Little Brown Bags are seen by others, and the more other people see public approval of the Bloomingdales brand.

FedEx also uses their "shopping bags" (aka their boxes) well. Every time you receive a package via FedEx, you see the FedEx logo, and are given another example of a customer who used FedEx for their shipping needs.

Start-up companies can use branded shopping bags to great advantage as they work to build brand recognition. Each time a customer carries out a branded shopping bag, the organization receives another instance of free advertising in the community, and another testimony of a [presumably satisfied] customer.

And to be remarkable, shopping bags need not be simple plastic bags stamped with a logo (although they very well could be). Why not use your shopping bags as another opportunity to exhibit great design? Why stick with a one-color print on plastic? Why not make your shopping bags something that are fun and attractive to carry around? Something that reinforces your brand's personality?

So, how are your shopping bags representing you? Do they speak your name in a clever, fun, innovative, or attractive way? Or do they speak your name at all?

Tell Me Who Your Partners Are...

2010-04-28T09:48:00.001-05:00

A familiar adage states, "tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you who you are."

People infer much about us - about our beliefs and values - by observing those with whom we associate ourselves. That's because we, as human beings, tend to be drawn to others of similar character to ourselves. And we also tend to adopt some of the characteristics of those with whom we spend the most time.

Likewise, we make inferences about an organization based on its "friends" (aka partners), just as we make inferences about an individual based on his or her friends. When Company A partners with Company B - whether as a supplier, distributor, vendor, sponsor, or other ally - we assume that Company A also supports the purpose, actions, and reputation of Company B.

Thus, just as our parents warned us to choose our friends carefully, organizations need to choose their partners carefully.

Great Wolf Resorts, Inc. makes a big deal of its corporate partners, listing them all on its website and featuring them prominently at each of its twelve indoor waterpark resort hotels. (A recent article from MediaPost's Marketing Daily describes the face time that these partners receive at each Great Wolf Lodge.)

According to its website, Great Wolf Resorts aims to "capture the atmosphere of the Northwoods" in an indoor, "weatherproof, year-round destination" where "families [can] re-connect." Each Lodge is designed to recreate - indoors - the fun of the outdoors, and the company is committed to environmental stewardship; each location is Green Seal Certified (Silver), and its Project Green Wolf works to reduce the company's carbon "pawprint" and to educate young guests in green practices.

So, if an organization's partners shape consumers' perceptions of the organization's values, what kinds of partners might make sense for a company like Great Wolf, whose brand celebrates nature, families, and outdoor fun?

Vendors of outdoor equipment - camping gear, bikes, personal watercraft, fishing gear, and other equipment for wilderness fun would align well with Great Wolf's outdoorsy theme

Vendors of recycled products - t-shirts made from recycled plastic, tote bags made from recycled fabric, paper made from recycled elephant poo...the possibilities are nearly endless for gear that reflects environmental responsibility (although I would draw the line at recycled food)

Vendors of healthy snacks - natural and organic foods, trail mixes, fresh fruits and raw veggies, dried fruits, nuts - all of these and other healthy snacks complement the active lifestyles of outdoor-lovers

Some of Great Wolf's current partners mesh well with the values exhibited by the company. Others seem to be partners of convenience or opportunity - fine partners, no doubt, but with little obvious connection to the outdoorsy, active, environmentally-friendly atmosphere of Great Wolf.

If your organization is serious about presenting a unified set of values and personality to your customers, consider how your partners do (or do not) reflect those values. Choose partners whose brands harmonize well with your mission.

Tell me who your partners are, and I'll tell you who you are.

On Judging a Book by its Cover

2010-04-20T08:17:00.000-05:00

We judge books by their covers.

The judgment isn't necessarily fair, and it isn't always accurate, but it is a judgment that we make anyway.

I have loved to read for as long as I can remember. When I was a child, I loved going to the library - or, better yet, the book store - with my mother to find a new book to read. However, if a book were to have any chance of my picking it up and taking it home with me to read, the cover had to look appealing. In my mind, the contents of a novel had no chance of being interesting if its cover were bland and boring.

The only possibility for an insipidly-covered book to make it past my "cover test" was if the book already had a strong reputation, or came highly recommended by a friend or teacher. (This exception was quite fortunate; otherwise I might never have picked up some of my now-favorite classics, like the works of Dickens or Doyle or Dumas or Austen.)

As consumers, we make the same judgment. When we encounter a new, unheard-of brand, we take its packaging as an indicator of its quality. If the physical packaging or product design looks clunky, and we have no other information about the brand, we have little reason to trust the performance of the product or the credibility of the company. If the company's website looks like it hasn't been updated since 1995, it may cause us to wonder what else about the company falls below current standards. If the exterior of a local restaurant is dirty, with bars on the windows and a parking lot overgrown with weeds, we often decide to drive past and eat at a place we know and trust instead.

Of course, this packaging judgment can be overcome, if we find a source of trustworthy information to allay our misgivings. If we learn that a brand uses plain packaging simply to maintain low prices, or to help the environment, we might be persuaded to consider purchasing it. If a friend insists that the product she ordered from an online company is the best product she ever used, we might feel better about ordering something from their outdated-looking website. If a coworker raves about this hole-in-wall restaurant that he found, we might be willing to try it, no matter how fearsome the building appears.

But without that other source of information, consumers often have little to go by besides the packaging. If everything about the packaging indicates lack of quality, consumers have little motivation to try to discover the actual quality of the product's contents.

If you're an unknown brand that is trying to become known, pay attention to your packaging. In the absence of other information about your product, we will judge your product by its cover.

My Apologies to the Twitterverse

2010-04-15T20:23:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I was enlightened by a survey.

Not a survey that I administered. Not a survey in which hundreds or thousands of consumers responded, and which I, the marketing researcher, analyzed to glean data on consumer attitudes and interests and perceptions.

No. I was enlightened yesterday by a survey that I took.

It was a survey from Twitter, asking about respondents' Twitter usage. In addition to basic demographic information, it asked things like, "Through which applications do you use Twitter?" and "What kinds of information do you like to find on Twitter?" and "What kinds of information sources would you like to find more easily on Twitter?"

The part that enlightened me was my response to this question:

"What is your main reason for using Twitter?"

The choices were something like (a) To give information; (b) To receive information; (c) To connect with other people; (d) Other.

My first instinct said "a". I use Twitter to give information - blog posts, local news, funny quips, interesting retweets.

And then my marketing brain kicked in. I remembered all of my marketing training - that marketing is about building relationships with customers so that marketers can learn how to serve them better, not just throwing products and advertisements at consumers. That marketing should be interactive. That marketing communication is about dialogue, not monologue. That marketers need to listen to their audiences, so that they can learn what customers want and need and desire and prefer and like and dislike.

And so, for a moment, I was tempted to choose the "right" answer - (c). But, for the sake of honesty, I had to stick with my original answer, (a).

Now don't get me wrong - using Twitter to provide information is a fine thing. People want to gain information from the individuals they follow - be it local news information, lifestyle updates from celebrities, sports scores and standings, personal comments about life from friends, or any other of the many types of information.

Providing this information to one's followers is a good thing. But one needs to be listening to his followers, customers, fans, audience members, critics, etc., before he can provide them the information that they are interested in hearing.

Celebrities and organizations and marketers who do not interact with their Twitter followers can still be listening through other sources - other online forums, blogs, polls, other social media networks, focus groups, surveys, in-store conversations with customers, etc. I, however, have not made it a priority to do these things - listening to people on Facebook, on my campus, on other authors' blogs, or on Twitter. This act of only pushing, never listening, is what gives marketers a bad name.

And for this, I apologize. To the Twitterverse, and to the universe of customers out there. I'm sorry that I haven't been listening.

And to my readers especially, I want to do a better job of listening to you. I want to hear what you are interested in, what you are passionate about, and what you would like to see my write about. Please feel invited to share your thoughts with me at any time here on my blog, or on Twitter (@HaleyDD).

From now on, I'll be listening.

iPad Apps and Adding Value

2010-04-09T06:30:00.003-05:00

My alma mater (which is also the university where I work) just released an iPad application for its student newspaper, the Optimist.

Of course, the folks at my university (myself included) are excited about this product, and about the chance to explore what publications can do on a tablet device like the iPad. But a few voices (including those of my friend and critic @chrylis, and MediaPost writer Steve Smith), pulled me from my personal revelry long enough to ask an important question: Why choose to make a native iPad app when one could make a mobile-optimized website instead?

In his critique of the iPad and its apps, Steve notes several apps (particularly, apps of publications) that provide more limited content compared to their online counterparts and fail to make up for that limitation through seamless navigation or personalization. @chrylis questions the utility of an app that runs only on one device, as opposed to a mobile website that would run on many.

They're right.

No new product (including mobile applications) is worth buying (or selling) if it doesn't add some value above the products that are already available.

If a new product does the same thing as something else on the market without doing it better, or more easily, or more conveniently, or less expensively, or with greater access, or with more satisfaction, then it has missed its mark as a new product that meets consumers' needs.

If an iPad app looks like its online counterpart, but with less content, more restricted navigation, less ubiquity, and no additional not-available-via-web features, then the web version will prove more useful to both iPad-users and non-iPad-users.

Steve Smith recommends two ways of differentiating iPad apps from their web versions: personalization and navigation. I would add a third: communication.

Personalization would enable an iPad user to configure an app based on their personal preferences. Maybe this means pulling in information specifically relevant to the user's interests. Maybe it means adjusting viewer settings to fit the user's lifestyle. Maybe it means reconfiguring navigation so that the viewer's favorite features are the easiest ones to access.

Navigation on the iPad should work intuitively, should flow gracefully, and should access data simply. Maybe this means simplifying the menu to just a few categories. Maybe it means reducing visual clutter. Maybe it means letting users customize the menu to their own preferences. Maybe it means expanding or hiding extra content with just a touch. Maybe it means taking advantage of two axes for scrolling "deep" into a topic versus "wide" across topics. Maybe it means a visually-logical arrangement of information, instead of only lists.

Communication should enable iPad users to easily share comments, connect apps with social media, and integrate information from various sources. Maybe this means allowing activity on an app to update a user's status on their social networks (as desired). Maybe it means that comments made in an iPad app would show up on web versions as well. Maybe it means that users can collect articles from various apps into a centralized database, so that users can bookmark pieces of information, cross-link them, and add their own notes.

As Steve Smith pointed out with current examples of successful iPad apps, the personalization and navigation pieces are already being achieved by several app makers. I suspect that the communication piece will require additional development and exploration, perhaps even in the capabilities of the iPad SDK. Regardless, these value-adds must be part of an iPad app if the app is to be more useful than a mobile-optimized website.

With your own products, whether mobile or not, are you adding value for your customers? Or can their needs be met just as well (or better) with another item on the market?

Designer Turned Marketer?

2010-04-05T22:00:00.003-05:00

MediaPost's Marketing Daily last week published an interview with Dodge president and CEO Ralph Gilles. Gilles took the driver's seat (pun intended - sorry) at Dodge last October, after 16 years rising through the ranks of Chrysler's design team.

Yes, the design team. Not the marketing team.

It doesn't seem that shifting gears (yes, another pun) from product design to marketing is a typical career move for most. And yet the articles and quotes that I've found online seem to indicate that Gilles has a good head for business. So this got me to pondering: what - aside from his MBA from Michigan State - can lead a design guy like Gilles to have potential for success in marketing, or vice versa?

His biggest advantage, I think, is that years of design work breeds a passion for excellence in product quality. Designers** have an intrinsic love for great design - in the case of product designers, this love encompasses aesthetics, certainly, but also engineering, performance, and product features. More marketers would do well to absorb some of their designers' passion for an outstanding product. When marketers become so focused on marketing communications, distribution channels, pricing tactics, and strategic partnerships that they forget about the product, they run into problems. A drive to continually turn out an excellent product (and services) must be the foundation for good marketing.

Conversely, a marketer-turned-designer would bring another key ethos to his design team: a commitment to customer-centricity. Marketers** constantly think about how they can serve customers. What does the customer need and want? What delights the customer? What frustrates the customer? Marketers create products and plan strategy with the customer in mind. More designers would do well to adopt their marketers' dedication to the customer perspective. When they think about the customer's needs first, designers build products to fit the customer's preferences, not just the tastes of the designer.

So yes, moves from designer to marketer or marketer to designer can provide some distinct insight for each of these realms of the business. We would do well to operate with both worlds in mind.

**Note: I almost said "Good designers" and "Good marketers," but I felt that that would be inaccurate. When I refer to a "designer," I mean someone who designs because design was born in them; a "marketer" is someone who does marketing because marketing was born in them. A person doesn't become a designer because she does design work; a designer does design work because a designer is who she is. She loves design; she is good at design; design is her passion; she couldn't imagine doing anything else. Likewise, a person doesn't become a marketer because she does marketing; a marketer does marketing because a marketer is who she is. These people are the true designers and true marketers, and their design work and their marketing is good, and is naturally done from these mindsets I described. I would assert that "bad designers" or "bad marketers" are bad at what they do because they aren't really meant to be designers or marketers at all. Thus, the word "good" is unnecessary to distinguish the designers and marketers to whom I refer in this blog, because true designers and true marketers are good at what they do, and naturally operate from the mindsets I describe.

Crowdsourcing Love and Chocolate

2010-03-27T10:11:00.004-05:00

On February 14 of this year, Lacta chocolate discovered that love was in the air. And on the airwaves. And online.

Lacta - a Grecian chocolate company bought by Kraft Foods in the 1980s, and currently the top-selling chocolate brand in Greece - has made good use of interactive marketing in the past few years to promote love (and, by extension, chocolate). Lacta's most recent project climaxed on Valentine's Day 2010 with the premiere of a love story, brought to film by Lacta customers.

Creation of the 27-minute film, entitled "Love in Action," began in October 2009 with a television ad inviting viewers to submit their own real-life love stories on the Love in Action website, www.loveinaction.gr, for the chance to have their story made into a movie. According to an article this week by AdAge.com, the site received 1,307 submitted love stories.

Lacta, their marketing consultants at OgilvyOne Worldwide, and screenwriter George Kapoutzidis picked the winning story from the 1,307 entries.

In November 2009, Lacta issued another tv spot, asking the audience to view actors' screentests for the film (which were posted in full online), and to vote for the cast of the love story. These online audience members also chose the characters' names and clothing for the film.

In early February 2010, Lacta released a short trailer for "the love story we all turned into a movie."

Originally scheduled to release solely online on February 14, the "Love in Action" film also broadcast - at no cost to Lacta - as part of the Valentine's Day programming on Greece's leading tv station, MEGA Channel.

In March 2010, Lacta published a fourth and final tv commercial for the campaign, showing the film's ending and announcing that the film was based on a true love story.

(See the film and the entire campaign process at the Love in Action blog.)

And it seems that interactive romance stories work well for Greece's leading chocolate brand. In the quarter after the Love in Action campaign began, Lacta's sales were up 0.6% while the overall chocolate market was down.

This was not Lacta's first foray into interactive storytelling, either. In 2008, OgilvyOne had helped Lacta to release an online "choose-your-own-ending" love story, entitled "Love at First Site". Visitors made choices to move the story along to a happy (or unhappy) ending. Codes on wrappers of Lacta chocolate bars provided clues as to the right choices to make on the site.

Due to the success of the crowdsourced romance - according to AdAge, "Love in Action" was viewed by 12% of Greek television watchers, and was viewed 150,000 times during its first few weeks online - Lacta plans to create another interactive online love story based on one of the other 1,306 campaign entries.

Love, chocolate, and audience participation. Seems to be a winning combo for Lacta.

Permission to Buy Your Product

2010-03-25T08:24:00.001-05:00

People need permission to buy your product.

Permission from themselves. Permission from their friends, family, religious communities, civic organizations, and sub-cultures. Permission from their peers, colleagues, coworkers, and superiors.

For most routine purchases, for purchases of well-respected brands, and for purchases that are considered to be a "reasonable" cost, this permission isn't usually a hang-up for consumers. Permission has already been granted, in the form of a generally accepted view that this is a "legitimate" purchase.

But for non-standard purchases, for large purchases, for purchases of little-known brands, and for purchases that carry a high "cost" (in terms of price, time, inconvenience, reputation, future success, etc.), permission from self or others isn't automatically guaranteed. And this permission is crucial; without it, the buyer feels like he or she must choose another brand, or abandon the purchase altogether.

Some examples:

When a straight-A high school senior is considering an unheard-of college while his friends are applying to Ivy League schools, he needs permission to attend this obscure university. He needs permission from himself (that this school, though small, will provide him the best education he could find); permission from his friends (that they can accept that he has chosen an academically challenging college, although it does not have nearly the reputation of their own); and permission from future employers (that a degree from this university will enable him to get a good job in the future).

When a mom is trying to take better care of the environment and beautify her home while being a good steward of the family's finances, she needs permission to buy the unfamiliar brand of weed killer that is 20% more expensive than the recognized brands but comes in the ergonomically-shaped green bottle with a name and package that sound environmentally friendly. If she is going to pay 20% extra for a brand she doesn't recognize, she first needs permission from herself and her family (by being sure that the product will work well and will be less harmful to the environment).

When a husband wants to buy an expensive sports car, he needs permission from himself (that he deserves it, that the car is a good deal) and from his wife (that they have enough money to pay for the car, that the car gets good gas mileage, that the car will last the family a long time).

As a marketer, how do you provide this permission for consumers to buy your brand?

First, excellence. Second, communication.

The unknown university needs to be excellent in its academic quality, in the credentials of its professors, in the opportunities it provides to students, in the atmosphere on-campus, and in the success of its graduates. And it needs to communicate that excellence to prospective students, to the parents of prospective students, and to the general public.

The obscure "organic" weed killer needs to kill weeds effectively, and needs to do so with less environmental impact than the standard brands. And it needs to communicate to consumers - on its packaging, on its website, and in its advertising - exactly how its ingredients are better for the environment and how its performance compares to the leading brands.

The luxury sports car needs to provide an exceptional, enduring, and fuel-efficient driving experience. And it needs to communicate its performance, its ratings, its gas mileage, and its value through its marketing materials, advertising, and personal sales.

With your own brand - especially if you represent a new company, or a new product, or a new brand - be excellent, and communicate. Give people permission to buy your product.

The Art of Thoughtfulness

2010-03-22T07:06:00.004-05:00

Most of the time, most people treat others only according to what is expected.

We are polite, but we're not caring. We're not rude, but we're not kind, either. We say "please" and "thank you" (maybe), but we don't show people how much we truly appreciate them.

And that's fine. We're not being rude, after all. No one expects anything more of us.

But in a world where avoiding rudeness is all that is required, a little thoughtfulness goes a long way.

The college professor who remembers the name and one interesting fact about every student he meets - so that when they meet again, he can say, "Hello, Elizabeth! How's your little brother's baseball season going?" - is thoughtful.

The woman who makes sure there are gluten-free foods available at her party when she invites her friend who has a gluten allergy, is thoughtful.

The man who brings back a well-chosen souvenir from his Hawaiian vacation for his coworker who has always dreamed of going to Hawaii but has never been, is thoughtful.

The girl who knows that her friend doesn't really care for birthday cake, and bakes her a birthday pie instead, is thoughtful.

Such acts of thoughtfulness are not required, or even expected. But they are very meaningful to the recipients.

Thoughtfulness requires a bit of extra work, and a bit of extra thinking. In particular, thoughtfulness requires that we think about the other person - what they like and dislike and need, rather than what is socially normal. It requires that we take time to listen, and to learn the people around us, and to look for ways to make their days brighter. It requires intentionality.

What would happen if marketers took the time to be thoughtful?

If we thought about what our customers need (or what we would need if we were in their shoes)? If we took time to listen to our customers and to find out their likes and dislikes? If we learned their wants, both on a collective level and on an individual level?

Would we provide umbrella-drying racks inside our doors for rainy days?

Would we provide hand lotion, in addition to soap, in our public restrooms, for the dry, chapped winter hands?

Would we remember that Customer Tom's favorite band is Journey, and send him two tickets for a Journey concert near him to thank him for being a valued customer?

Would we take note that Customer Julie tends to purchase a lot of Product X from us, and send her a coupon for a free unit of Product X on her birthday? (And a coupon for Product Y to Customer Bill, and a coupon for Product Z to Customer Myra?)

Again, these acts of thoughtfulness are not required. They are not even expected. And they require extra work, extra listening, extra thinking.

But who says that we should only do the expected? And who says that a little extra thoughtfulness isn't good for us?

Creating for Your Audience

2010-03-19T08:39:00.001-05:00

Ad Age published a white paper this week called "Shiny New Things", exploring the influence of those customers known as the "early adopters".

The term "early adopters" was introduced in 1962 as the valued second category in Everett Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory. The theory asserts that all consumers can be grouped into one of five categories - innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards, consecutively - according to their willingness and quickness to adopt new ideas and products.

Rogers' diffusion of innovations curve. From the Wikimedia Commons.
For a good, brief online explanation of these five categories, I recommend ProvenModels.com/570.

Of these five categories, the early adopters are the consumers whom many marketers seek to impress when they release new products (hence the motivation behind Ad Age's white paper). Early adopters are revered as the consumers who can "make or break" a product's success. They are the ones who will tell the rest of the world whether the product is worth buying or not. They tell the world this by their words (increasingly so, in the days of social media), but also by their actions (are they seen actually wearing and using the new product or brand?). And they are the ones to whom the rest of the world listens.

(Of course, very few brands or products would do well to target the early adopters exclusively. As Seth Godin is quoted as saying in the Ad Age white paper [and in his blog], "if you want to stick around for a while, you need to make the difficult sales to the middle of the market or have a ready supply of new stuff ready to entertain the never-satisfied early adopters.")

The Ad Age white paper expanded on Rogers' theory by sharing findings from a study done for Serena Software that dissected the diffusion of innovations curve beyond its original five categories. The Serena Software study broke the "early adopters" segment into five micro-segments of its own by characteristic (rather than by adoption rate):

Alphas - "These are the tech elite, immersed in technology. Alphas see technology as having a significant, positive impact on their lives and ability to communicate. At work, they are delegators, developing solutions to hand off."

Accidental - "Not as comfortable with technology as Alphas, Accidentals still have a deep understanding of how technology can improve their lives. With a less direct approach at work, they consider technology a tool to solve problems, but not the key to everything."

Practical - "Using all the technology that most other types are excited about, but they are less enthusiastic about the devices. They typically report to the Alphas and Accidentals at work, but are focused on implementation."

Balanced - "Although similar to Accidentals, they do not place technology or work at the center of their lives. Approaching their jobs as a means to fund other things they enjoy, this group leads more relaxed lives than other types, and are hesitant to adopt emerging technology until they see how it relates to their personal lives. The most likely to be students and the least likely to be workaholics."

Lite - "The most resistant to adopting new technologies before they are mainstream, they are less likely to take risks, actively solve problems or create efficiency. At work, they may adopt a new process once it is proven effective in another department. The most risk averse segment in relationship to technology, their work life, and at home."

These five micro-segments intrigue me. I want to discover how I can reach these customers - that is, how I can design products that fit their needs (rather than trying to convince them to buy a product that they really don't need - a much more difficult and much less honorable sell).

If I were to create a product with these five groups in mind, here are the steps (and priorities) that I would take:

Build for the Accidental. These are the consumers who see technology as tools, not as toys. Accidentals expect new technology to solve a problem. They will be my most valuable critics - the ones who tell me whether a new product is actually worth the materials from which it is made. They will tell me if a product actually meets a need in consumers' lives. If my product is going to be worthwhile, it needs to work for the Accidentals.

Support for the Practical. The Practicals are the ones who implement the technology, and are responsible for making sure that it works for their (or their organization's) needs. They use all the new technology, but they rarely get excited about it - they have to work around all the bugs, and make the solutions work for their supervisors or clients. Having technical support - especially, letting them tell me where all of the quirks and faulty solutions are, and then working my hardest to correct those things - will be key for these folks. The Practicals will be the ones who tell me how to make my product function the best.

Design for the Alphas. The Alphas get excited about technology, and are most likely to agree that technology has a positive impact on the world. If a new product has some new, better feature, and if some group of fanboys say that the product will be the next great thing, the Alphas will eagerly adopt the product, expecting great solutions. For this group, products should have good functionality, but also good form. Sleek design and intuitive user interface, added to great features, indicate quality to Alphas. If I care about design, I should design products that Alphas would be proud to carry.

Connect for the Balanced. These guys care about life, relationships, and well-being outside of work. They will adopt new technology if it improves the quality of their personal lives and social interactions. If my new product is a time pit or an end in itself, the Balanced won't accept it. My product should help them to simplify their lives, or connect with friends, or save time for the important things. If my product can possibly benefit people in a personal or social context, I should look to the Balanced to see how I can make it happen.

If I can create a product that meets these consumers' demands in terms of functionality, support, design, and connectedness, then I can sleep at night feeling that I've created a product worth buying. If my product satisfies the needs of these four micro-segments, and if the rest of my marketing mix can deliver my product to the world, then my product has a chance of being adopted by the other groups from Rogers' bell curve.

Can Social Save Chevrolet?

2010-03-10T07:35:00.006-06:00

Several months ago, shortly after it was announced that GM would be selling Pontiac, my friend Savannah asked me to write about marketing strategies that GM could use in order to maintain market share after the divestiture.

Shamefully, I neglected to write such a blog post at that time.

However, many months later, General Motors (or Chevrolet, anyway) is making some marketing moves that give me some hope for the company: Chevy is one of the sponsors for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival in Austin, Texas, March 12-21, 2010.

SXSW is an annual pilgrimage for many in the music, film, and interactive media industries. The conference showcases the top talent and thought-leaders from each of these industries (the music side alone features nearly 2,000 musical acts), not to mention that it aggregates nearly 200,000 creative, innovative, artistic, tech-savvy, and entrepreneurial attendees into one city.

Chevrolet is using SXSW as an opportunity to test some new interactive and social media marketing initiatives:

Gowalla couponing - When smartphone users check in via Gowalla at any of several locations in Austin during the conference, they will receive text messages with free offers from Chevrolet and SXSW. One such offer: a ride from the airport to downtown in (what else?) a new Chevrolet.

QR & iReveal augmented reality - Chevy will be placing Quick Response (QR) codes on its vehicles that are on display at SXSW. When visitors photograph a QR code using their smartphones, a microsite opens that provides more information about the vehicle. Plus, a mobile application called Chevy iReveal allows users to view 3-D models of several Chevy vehicles.

"Chevrolet Volt Recharge Lounge" - Chevy provides a "charging station" for SXSW attendees near the northwest entrance to the Austin Convention Center. At the Lounge, visitors can recharge their electronic devices, grab a drink, receive a massage, and check out the 2011 Chevy Volt.

"Catch a Chevy" - SXSW visitors can ride through the city of Austin in style, by hopping a ride on complimentary shuttles between several SXSW locations - in one of 14 Chevy vehicles, of course.

"See the USA in a Chevrolet: A SXSW Road Trip" - teams from eight U.S. cities participate in an "Amazing Race"-style road-trip/scavenger-hunt to get to SXSW. Along the way, each team must complete 50 different "challenges" (all submitted by Chevy Twitter followers and Facebook fans). The winning team will be the one that completes the most challenges and interacts the most with their Twitter and other web communities.

Chevrolet seems to be putting forth a good effort to provide a fun experience for SXSW attendees and online participants. And, as Christopher Barger (GM's director of global communications and technology) was quoted in MediaPost's Marketing Daily, Chevy also hopes to use this opportunity to learn from the brilliant and connected visitors to the conference.

Of course, successfully [re-]building a brand requires more than an outstanding social media effort. The promotion that Chevrolet is doing at SXSW is just part of one of the "4P's" of marketing. The others - product, price, place - are just as important for creating what Barger calls "a better experience" for customers. Chevy needs to invest just as much - if not more - time in creating remarkable vehicles for their customers, as they do in creating a fun interactive marketing campaign.

Brands do not live by social media alone. But if Chevy can put the same amount of effort, service, and ingenuity into its products as it does into this promotion, I have reason to believe that this brand, indeed, will live.

How Clever Is Too Clever?

2010-03-06T10:38:00.002-06:00

Marketers like to be clever in their communication.

When they develop brand messaging, or an advertising campaign, or a product name, they want to create something that (1) attracts attention, (2) reinforces the desired "personality" of their brand, and (3) sticks in peoples' minds.

Sometimes marketers muster all of their cleverness and creativity to produce marketing communications that truly get noticed, and truly stick, and truly remind people of the brand. When I think of successful marketing efforts, I think of brands and campaigns and slogans like these:

Twizzlers. "Makes mouths happy."
Did this slogan leave us with any doubt that Twizzlers were a delightful thing to eat?

Fuddruckers.
The name itself is so funny to say - and the selection of burgers and toppings so fun and delicious (ostrich burger with peanut butter, anyone?) - that this restaurant chain is pretty unforgettable.

GEICO. "15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance."
After seeing that random, Australian-sounding gecko and hearing that slogan over and over and over again, who could forget that GEICO can save you money on car insurance?

When these brands and campaigns delight consumers and stay in their brains, the cleverness and creativity of their marketing teams has paid off.

But sometimes, cleverness actually sabotages the marketers' goals. A few examples:

The Oneders.
This was the original name of the band for whom Tom Hanks' character served as manager in the 1996 movie That Thing You Do. The band members tried to be clever with their name by replacing the "won" in "wonder" with the number "one." Unfortunately, their audiences didn't get it, pronouncing the name as "The Oh-NEED-ers" instead of as "The ONE-ders." Later in the movie, the band dropped the clever spelling and renamed themselves simply "The Wonders."

The Brew.Net Internet Cafe
This is the name of a coffee house in my town - a rather good one, actually - that offers free wi-fi (hence the allusions to both coffee and Internet in the name). But customers - and potential customers - never seem quite sure how to pronounce the name. Is it "The Brew Net" (sounds like "brunette")? Or "The Brew DOT Net" (sounds like a web URL)? Here again, cleverness obstructs customers' pronunciation. And if they can't pronounce it, how can they tell their friends about it?

Super Bowl commercials - generally speaking.
How many times do we see brilliant, extreme, hilarious Super Bowl commercials - ones that we share with our friends and laugh about for weeks - but which leave us with absolutely no recollection of which brand the commercial was promoting. Was that a Hyundai ad or a Nissan? Sprite or Sierra Mist? If the viewers can't remember the brand name, it doesn't matter how much they loved and laughed at the ad.

In marketing, clever can be good. Clever can make your brand surprising and remarkable and memorable. Or it can make your brand get lost in the confusion or hilarity of your messaging.

If you must be clever, make sure that your cleverness reinforces your brand, rather than distracting from it. A clever ad that leaves viewers without a clue about your brand is much less worthwhile and effective than a non-clever ad that clearly tells viewers who you are.

Social Context, part 3

2010-02-25T08:15:00.002-06:00

In the last two posts, I illustrated two extremes of a person's social context within a work situation:

Complete dependence, as shown in the twelve disciples of Jesus, who preached in pairs throughout the land of Judea without any money or food, relying entirely on the people they met for survival.

Complete independence, as shown in Jesus' cousin John the baptist, who preached alone, in the wilderness, relying on nobody but himself, God, and nature for his survival.

In reality, neither of these parties operated within these extreme social contexts indefinitely. The disciples later regrouped and continued to follow Jesus; later, a few disciples used other employment (fishing, tent-making, sale of property) to provide income while they continued their Christian ministry. John the baptizer attracted disciples who lived and worked and served with him.

And in general, healthy individuals live and work in an equilibrium between these two extremes - in a state of interdependence. One might consider this to be a state of healthy teamwork.

For people to function in a team, two fundamental things must happen.

First, each team member must accept responsibility for his own actions. There are certain tasks which each individual can do better than anyone else on the team. The individual must complete those tasks with all of his heart, applying the full measure of his strength to successfully do his particular job within the team.

Second, each team member must rely on his teammates to complement his weaknesses and to fulfill the tasks that he himself cannot fulfill. He must trust his teammates to do their jobs to the best of their own strengths, just as he trusts his teammates to allow him to do his own job to the best of his own strengths. He must communicate with and collaborate with his teammates, and dedicate his efforts to the success of the team as a whole.

The way in which a healthy team works is the same way in which a healthy organization and a healthy society work - in a state of interdependence. Each of us accepts responsibility to fulfill her own role and vocation according to her own strengths on behalf of those around her. And in return, she trusts and relies on those around her to use their own strengths to fulfill those things which she herself cannot.

Interdependence, like most good things in life, is a balance. Beware of becoming too dependent or too independent. And when you sense yourself sliding toward one extreme or another, you might try a little mental experiment: imagine how you would act if you operated under the extreme opposite social context instead.

Social Context, part 2

2010-02-23T08:52:00.000-06:00

Jesus of Nazareth had a cousin - John - whose work slightly preceded Jesus' own. John instructed the people of Israel to change their ways and to prepare for the coming Messiah.

John's modus operandi was quite different from the instructions that Jesus gave to his own disciples. Jesus told his disciples to travel in pairs, going from town to town, preaching and healing and relying on the people they met for their food, water, and shelter.

John went out to the desert, alone, dressed like a wild man, eating off the land, and the people traveled out to the wilderness to hear him speak.

If all of your work is done alone, if you are by yourself, if you are a one-man team, then who makes your decisions? You. Who plans your strategy? You. Who coordinates your communication? You. Who does all the work? You.

If, instead, you work in an office full of coworkers and superiors and subordinates, you can sometimes get caught up in soliciting everyone's opinion, or letting someone else make the decision, or leaving the work for another person to do. Sometimes these things unintentionally get out of hand; sometimes they become our excuse to procrastinate.

If your success and survival depended entirely on you and your decisions and your efforts, how would that change the way you approach your work and your life?

Social Context, part 1

2010-02-22T08:19:00.000-06:00

In the first century A.D., a Jewish rabbi from the town of Nazareth in Galilee hand-picked twelve men to be his disciples. After a period of time, he sent these disciples out by twos to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick and afflicted among the people of Israel. And he gave them some interesting instructions for the task:

"Take nothing for your journey - no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra undergarments. And whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from that place." (Luke 9:3-4)

Strange requirements. If you travel extensively as part of your work - as a touring musician, or a motivational speaker, or a political candidate, or a sales representative - don't you usually take a suitcase? and a change of clothes? and, above all, a credit card?

So why would this Jesus of Nazareth instruct his disciples to leave these things behind as they traveled around the countryside to preach?

Likely there were multiple reasons. But consider this one:

If you're traveling from town to town for weeks (months? years?) on end, without having any money to buy food or a hotel room, you are forced to rely on the people you encounter in each town. You are forced to speak with people in each town - to meet them, to engage them in conversation, to tell a compelling story to them, to pique their interest, to build a relationship that benefits both yourself and them.

If, on the other hand, you have the ability within yourself to supply all of your own needs, you may find it easier to become an island. To be totally self-reliant. To avoid community and collaboration. To isolate yourself from others, never to connect with others (i.e. your clients, your potential clients, your coworkers) at all.

If your success and survival depended entirely upon your relationships with other people, how would that change the way you approach your work and your life?

Liberty, Leadership and Trust

2010-02-19T08:56:00.003-06:00

In free societies, leadership is based on trust.

In other societies throughout history, leadership has been based on less worthy foundations: fear. greed. wealth. property. coercion. The men with the most money, or most land, or most slaves, or most socio-political power became the leaders. The rest of the people obeyed their bidding. Loss of job, loss of home, loss of family, loss of status, or loss of life came to the brave ones who refused to obey.

We have seen, however, that leadership based on this kind of tyranny is not sustainable. Dynasties built around these systems will eventually fall, usually by economic ruin or by the political uprising of good men fighting for their freedom (or of bad men fighting to attain their own positions of tyrannical power).

When people are free, however, leaders cannot be tyrants.

When people appoint or elect or hire or otherwise designate their own leaders, that leadership is based on trust. The followers choose a leader because they trust the leadership of that person. They trust that the leader will act in the best interests of the followers, and so they place their confidence and their individual power into the hands of this person. If the leader goes on to violate that trust, the people can impeach, or fire, or otherwise abandon that leader, and find another one.

During my undergraduate work I took an entrepreneurship class. In the class, we students were assigned to teams. Each team was to develop an idea for a start-up company, and to write a business plan for our start-up. Each member of the team was to be an executive officer of our "company."

In a team project like this one, in which all team members were equal, the socially comfortable strategy was to give equal power and an equal position to each member of the team. But as our professor (Dr. Phil Vardiman) wisely advised, this strategy was impractical. One person in the team was required to be the president and CEO, in order to give the final say-so if the other officers disagreed about some strategy.

So how did we, the team members, choose a president?

Among equal teammates, the rest of us had to choose the person whom we trusted with the best interests of the team. In choosing a president from among us, we voluntarily placed our power into the hands of one leader. We trusted that he would listen to our opinions and our counsel, and that he would represent our interests in his decision-making.

By entrusting him with our power, we also agreed to submit to his leadership even if a situation arose in which we disagreed with him on a particular point.

This kind of submission works because we the vice-presidents would have the power to fire our president if we ever determined that he was abusing his power.

When men are free, they are equals. When they are equals, they have equal power and an equal voice. In choosing a leader for themselves, they voluntarily place their own power and their own voice into the hands of someone who will represent them. Someone who will act in the best interests of all. Someone whom they can trust.

As a leader, you hold the trust of your followers. That trust is a precious thing, and is essential for a society - or an organization, or a team - to function. Violate that trust, and your leadership will be lost forever.

Freedom Stones: A Start-up with Good Marketing?

2010-02-17T07:37:00.001-06:00

Last week, some friends of mine invited me to check out the website of their start-up non-profit organization, Freedom Stones.

I was blown away.

Oftentimes, when a non-profit organization is just beginning, its marketing and promotional efforts are rather primitive. Its web presence consists of a Facebook fan page, or perhaps a website that looks okay by 1995 standards. Its print materials are 8.5" x 11" flyers that were created and printed from the founder's home computer. Its advertising occurs at random through garage-sale-signs and word-of-mouth.

And we, the public, are okay with that. We realize that the people who found non-profit organizations are usually passionate and skilled in issues like social justice, and are rarely passionate and skilled in marketing. We are happy that they are investing their initial time and energy and precious start-up capital in the operations of helping people, even if it means that their marketing efforts lag behind for a while. All of this is par for the course with a new non-profit organization. If the cause is a worthy one, we will support the organization anyway.

So marketing efforts like those of Freedom Stones come as quite a surprise.

Freedom Stones was incorporated just last year, and the site went live just a few weeks before I first looked at it. When I visited the site, I was thoroughly impressed. The design is beautiful - great layout, great colors, great photos and texture, terrific overall aesthetics. The navigation and organization are tight and easy to follow. The site is full of thick, rich, helpful, purposeful information - about the organization, its work, its staff, the issues it fights, the people it helps, the products it sells, and the ways in which supporters can get involved. And the site has a functional shopping cart system - not just a Paypal setup - for purchasing items and making donations.

Plus, the Freedom Stones website links to social media - a Facebook cause, a Twitter account (@FreedomStones), and the Freedom Stones blog. One might expect these accounts to have been thrown together, and to contain only a handful of posts about Freedom Stones.

Instead, Freedom Stones seems to have strategically planned and implemented its use of social media. The Facebook cause already has 664 members, with regular posts over the past 10 months. The Twitter account seems to have begun in mid-January, but Freedom Stones has been faithful to tweet well and often since then. And the blog, while low on posts as of yet, seems to be off to a great start.

When I see marketing efforts that look like this, I feel more comfortable with and confident in the non-profit. It seems that the non-profit is already well-established; that the founders are serious about this cause; that they have been thoughtful and strategic, and that they understand the "business" of running a non-profit; that this non-profit is well-funded, well-supported, and well-stewarded - that the non-profit is not destined to fail in six months due to poor money management or poor operational decisions.

I certainly do not begrudge start-up non-profits whose marketing efforts have not yet reached this level of quality. However, it seems that the founders of Freedom Stones realize the importance of having supporters to bring the work and mission of Freedom Stones to fruition. They have given some thought to how they will reach, attract, and communicate with supporters, in order to provide the financial and emotional legs for their ministry to stand.

And I fully expect that stand it shall.

One Small Step...but no giant leap

2010-02-12T07:29:00.005-06:00

This week, Target unveiled a new way for customers to redeem their Target gift cards in-store: by scanning a bar code on their mobile phones.

To avoid the my-wallet-is-stuffed-with-50-bajillion-gift-cards syndrome, or the oh-no-I'm-at-the-store-but-left-my-gift-card-at-home problem, Target GiftCard recipients can enter the information from their GiftCard into a secure account on the Target.com mobile site. Then, when the recipient visits one of Target's 1740 store locations, she can retrieve her GiftCard information on her phone, which displays a digital bar code to be scanned at checkout.

Customers can access the Target.com mobile site at any time to check their GiftCard balance(s), and can reload their mobile GiftCards at any Target store register.

This seems like a good step for Target, a company that aims to "surprise and delight [its] guests with innovative and highly relevant mobile capabilities," in the words of Steve Eastman, President of Target.com.

But Target could do much more to make their GiftCard program convenient, accessible, and truly mobile for its customers.

For one thing, it seems that customers must still receive physical, plastic Target GiftCards before they can use those cards on their mobile devices. They must manually input the data from their plastic GiftCards into their mobile phones.

Sure, this is great, reducing wallet clutter and nearly ensuring that the customer will have his GiftCard information with him when he visits the store. But why require a physical, plastic GiftCard at all? Why can't customers exchange mobile GiftCards electronically, eliminating the need for the physical plastic by simply sending the GiftCard information to their friends via email or text message? Then the intended recipient could simply follow a link to retrieve his GiftCard on his mobile phone - saving plastic and saving the time required for a manual input.

At the very least, why can't the purchaser choose to instantly email the GiftCard information to the recipient as soon as the GiftCard is purchased?

Mobile technology can be a great way to create easy access and reduce physical waste. But Target hasn't quite made that leap yet.

Super Bowl XLIV and the Web

2010-02-10T06:57:00.003-06:00

The Super Bowl is known to be an event that features not only the year's best in professional football, but also the year's best in television advertising.

Many football fans and non-football-fans alike watch the Super Bowl for the sake of seeing the commercials just as much as - or more than - for the sake of watching the actual football game. And this year, I don't think those viewers were disappointed. Most of the commercials were very well done; many were funny; a few were slightly disturbing. And the football game was exciting, too.

But what impressed me most about Super Bowl XLIV was the number of brands that integrated their television commercials with free bonus content on the Web.

Several companies allowed web users to see "sneak peeks" of their Super Bowl spots during the week before the game. Many of these offers tied into a reciprocity technique - after watching the short clip, users were encouraged to follow the brand on Twitter, or to use a promotional code to receive a discount at the brand's online store. And after the game, some brands then emailed links for the full versions of their ads to users who opted in to their mailing list.

Also this year, all of the Super Bowl commercials were made publicly available to users after the spots aired during the game. Viewers can watch all 71 commercials at www.youtube.com/adblitz, and between now and February 14, can vote for their favorite.

Of these Web-integrated Super Bowl campaigns, my personal favorite is the HomeAway ad:

This ad is actually a trailer for a new short film, available for viewing pleasure at HomeAway.com. Clark and Ellen Griswold return in "Hotel Hell Vacation," much to the delight of this particular National Lampoon fan. Visitors to the site can also watch other short videos, play the Griswold Getaway game, read (and vote for their favorite) user-submitted hotel horror stories, and enter to win a dream vacation.

With these and the other web-integrated Super Bowl advertisements, it seems that brands are beginning to understand how offering free, fun, accessible content to audiences can help to build customer relationships. As companies provide content like this, they associate their names with enjoyable experiences, and create opportunities to delight customers and to form positive impressions and reputations in the minds of consumers.

And after a customer spends 15 minutes exploring this fun content, he might also explore the actual product information on the rest of the brand website. Or at least remember HomeAway.com, for example, the next time he plans a family vacation.

Great job, HomeAway.com and others. I hope that next year, your Super Bowl ads will go one step further, by integrating with mobile content as well (as blogger Steve Smith points out).

Why Do We Do What We Do?

2010-02-05T07:43:00.003-06:00

Gary Chapman would say that my love language is words of affirmation.

As such, few things brighten my day more than when someone pays me a sincere compliment or gives me a word of encouragement. In my work, I seldom feel more satisfied and useful and fulfilled than when a boss or a client or a coworker tells me that I've done an excellent job.

But sometimes, I find myself beginning to do things solely for the prospect of receiving praise for my work. Instead of giving 110% to a task simply because giving 110% is the right thing to do, I begin to give 110% because I want to impress my client, or because I hope that one of my dearest mentors will notice.

As marketers, do we act the same way?

Do we begin to strategize ways that our organization can be amazing, just so that our organization can achieve recognition and media coverage and positive word-of-mouth?

Recognition and media coverage and positive word-of-mouth are wonderful and worthy things, no doubt, but they should not be the reason why we do what we do.

Instead, we should strategize ways to be amazing, just because being amazing is the right thing to do. Because having radical customer service is the right thing to do. Because being dedicated to good stewardship of natural resources is the right thing to do. Because improving the lives of people is the right thing to do. Because designing innovative, aesthetically-pleasing, useful products is the right thing to do. Because creating a wonderful place to work and shop and do business and live is the right thing to do.

When we do amazing things out of a sincere conviction that those are the things we should do, then the recognition and awards and good press and outstanding brand reputation will follow.

When we do amazing things simply because we are pursuing those accolades, then our heart isn't right. And when our heart isn't right toward the things we are doing, sooner or later the facade will break down. Sooner or later customers will realize that our customer service doesn't really care about them the way it is reputed to. Sooner or later our brand experience won't match up to the stunts we pulled, and our customers will become disillusioned - and leave. Sooner or later we will cut a corner or two, and the media will find out, and the bad press will more than destroy the good reputation we had built.

Be exceptional in what your organization does, simply because being exceptional is the right thing to do. When you choose to be exceptional for the right reasons, the real praise and the real devoted customers will follow.

Empty Restaurants and Dying Malls

2010-02-03T21:53:00.003-06:00

Recently, some friends and I decided to have dinner together at an Italian restaurant in our town. This particular restaurant was a local favorite; however, I had never eaten there before, and my friends had not eaten there since it moved to its current location one year previous. So all of us were quite excited about our dinner plans.

Until we got to the restaurant.

We walked into the restaurant shortly after 6:00 on a Thursday evening; the place was empty. As is, zero customers. None. Zilch. The lights were on, the tables were set, the servers and chefs were there and ready to go. But my two friends and I were the only non-employees in the place.

That seemed rather odd, since it was already an hour into dinnertime, on a not-quite-weekend night. And at a well-known local restaurant. There was no explanation for it - the room had not been reserved for a large party. It was simply a regular evening. With no customers.

After consulting for a moment or two, my friends and I bade a polite goodbye to the hostess and decided to patronize another restaurant for the evening.

Why? Why did we decide to leave?

Robert Cialdini would explain it as a principle that he calls "social proof."

Social proof is the idea that we as human beings - and especially as consumers - infer truths about a situation based upon how others act in that situation.

You attend a get-together at the home of some new acquaintances, and notice that all of the other guests have removed their shoes as they entered the front door; you presume that removing shoes is the policy in this house, and so you remove yours, too.

You walk down the street and notice numbers of people gathering at one particular location and staring up into the sky. You assume there must be something unusual to see in the sky, so you stop and look up, too.

Social proof tends to be especially strong in unfamiliar situations in which the proper behavior is unknown. When we are not sure how to act, we take our cues from the actions of people around us.

In the case of my friends and me at the restaurant, we took our cues from the absence of people around us. We thought it unusual to find a restaurant empty at 6pm on a Thursday; and while we didn't know of anything specifically wrong with the restaurant, we presumed that there must be some reason for customers to be staying away. For lack of better answers, we felt it safer to stay away as well.

Social proof can be a powerful force, for good or ill. If you are a new business, and you give free t-shirts and hats to your all of your customers for the first six months, others who begin to see your logo everywhere will likely infer that you must be a good brand (everyone is going there, after all), and be prompted to investigate and learn more about your company. If you have an excellent product or service and all of your customers continually rave about your brand to their friends, those friends will likely try your product the next time they have a need which your product might solve.

Conversely, if you are a restaurant with zero customers in the middle of a given night, then those potential customers who arrive may likely decide to leave. If you are a shopping mall with 20% of your storefronts empty, then mall shoppers (and potential tenants) may likely infer that something about the mall prevents it from attracting enough customers to make the retailers profitable, and may likely stay away themselves.

How can your organization noticeably provide excellent experiences to all of your customers, such that others will be positively affected by their social proof?

Social Media Apps: What Goes Around...

2010-01-30T13:39:00.003-06:00

Today I learned about a new mobile application called ParkShark.

ParkShark is a "parking space sharing app." Users share their current parking locations, as well as what time they plan to leave the parking spot, and other information such as a photo of their car, a photo of the spot, whether the spot is paid or free, etc. The app then displays those soon-to-be-available parking spots for other nearby users to see, reducing the time they spend fruitlessly circling the area in search of a parking spot.

The goal of this app is to reduce the amount of time, energy, frustration, and gasoline spent by users as they search for parking spaces. In turn, this reduces pollution and congestion, making a happier driving experience for everyone.

Of course, the concept of finding a parking space faster only works if users are first willing to help others by sharing their parking information as much as possible. As more parking-space-occupants share their locations and departure times, more parking-space-seekers can happily find a spot.

To facilitate this sharing process, the ParkShark app uses a rating algorithm to determine which users are good sharers (they share spots on time, and rarely cancel or leave earlier or later than they said they would) and which are not. The app rewards good sharers by telling them about soon-to-be-available spots first, before it displays those same spots to other users.

One Creativity Online commentator calls this, "parking karma in an app." While I don't believe in all the nuances of "karma," per se, I will agree that this app demonstrates a similar principle from Christianity: people reap what they sow.

This principle of sowing and reaping (or, "what goes around, comes around") is the basis for a healthy society. As each of us individually treats others with respect, kindness, generosity, friendliness, compassion, and goodwill, we improve society, making life better for ourselves and for those around us.

In a world where many places have lost this neighborly feel, social media tools can often enable people to rebuild a sense of community - of sharing life together, for their own sake and for the sake of those around them. ParkShark does this by creating "a community of cooperating parking citizens who work for the betterment of everyone's parking experiences."

Other apps like UrbanSpoon and Yelp enable people to share advice that is based on their experiences at various restaurants, hotels, and other businesses. Loopt enables users to see which of their friends are in the same geographic vicinity. Pandora enables listeners to share their custom radio stations with their friends. And social networks like Facebook and Twitter simply allow people to stay in contact with one another.

This idea of rebuilding community is what makes social media tools so successful. And rebuilding community is something that all of us should strive for - as marketers, as businesspeople, as coworkers, as neighbors, as friends and family, and as people.

(Note: It seems that the ParkShark app is currently available only on the iPhone and iPod touch. For the sake of drivers everywhere, I hope that it becomes available on other devices soon!)

Revolution-starters: iPad vs. iBooks store

2010-01-27T22:32:00.007-06:00

May you hereby know, in case you missed it, that today Apple announced its much-anticipated new device - the iPad.

The iPad is a half-inch-thick, 1.5-pound tablet device, with a 9.7-inch, LED-backlit, multi-touch screen; 1 GHz Apple A4 processor; 16, 32, or 64 GB flash drive; 802.11n WiFi and optional 3G; 30-pin dock connector; Bluetooth; microphone; speaker; accelerometer; compass; and expected 10 hours of battery life. (If you haven't yet seen the video of Steve Jobs' announcement and the iPad promo video, watch them at www.apple.com/ipad.)

The iPad will enable users to surf the web, access email, manage calendars, search maps, listen to music, and access iPhone, iPod, and iPad apps. All on a device that is a bit smaller - and a little thicker - than a clipboard.

So what makes the iPad anything more than a giant iPod touch?

At this point, it seems to be one particular native app that Apple has created specially for this device: iBooks.

iBooks is an e-book reading app. Users can download books to their iBookshelf from the iBooks store; open a book by tapping on it; view one page or two pages at once by orienting the iPad vertically or horizontally; flip through the pages by tapping either side of the screen or by swiping a finger across the screen; adjust the typeface and font size; jump to a page from the book's table of contents; and view any photos or videos that the author has embedded in the book.

Before the announcement, this new device was rumored to be a tablet that would be "the most important thing that Steve Jobs has done" and that would "revolutionize the publishing industry."

After the announcement, some commentators seemed underwhelmed. A nifty device? "Maybe." Revolutionary? "We're not sure how."

One could make the case that the iPod and iPhone were revolutionary devices. The iPod, while not the first MP3 player, transformed the digital music industry. The iPhone, while not the first smartphone, transformed the communication industry.

How did the iPod and iPhone achieve these momentous milestones?

The physical devices themselves were good, perhaps. There is something to be said for Apple's talent for simple, elegant, intuitive design.

But the best-designed device in the world would be useless, were it not for content to fill the device. "Form follows function," after all.

The revolutions sparked by the iPod and iPhone lay, not so much in the devices themselves, but in the information systems behind the devices. The revolution lay in the iTunes Store and the App Store.

The iTunes Store provided iPod users with access to [now] millions of songs - the content which made the iPod worth having. The App Store provided iPhone and iPod touch users with access to [now] tens of thousands of applications - the content which made the iPhone and iPod touch worth having.

If the iPad is to revolutionize publishing as the iPod revolutionized music and the iPhone revolutionized communication, it will be because of the iBooks store.

Of course, for the iBooks store to start this revolution, it will need content: books, magazines, newspapers. Apple cannot provide that content; it must come from third-parties - the authors and journalists and publishers.

And, of course, the iBooks store faces some stiff competition from other eBook providers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Google Books.

And, of course, the funneling of e-books through Apple's closed system will exclude those e-books that are available only from sources other than the iBooks store.

But, if Apple is indeed launching a revolution, it will be due to the iBooks store - the distribution system behind the iPad - and not to the iPad itself.

Intrigue, Mystery, and AT&T

2010-01-21T16:39:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, while I was on Pandora, this ad caught my attention:

However unexciting this simple ad may be, it caused me to pay attention to AT&T for a few moments. Here's why:

I have no conscious recollection of what, exactly, attracted my eyes to the ad. What I do remember is the phrase that I noticed:

"Only on the nation's fastest 3G network"
It isn't that the words "the nation's fastest 3G network" are all that spectacular. It seems that every wireless provider claims to be the best at some aspect of wireless coverage: "the largest 3G network," "the most reliable 3G network," "the only 4G network." I can't remember which is which, and frankly, I don't care.

However, for the very reason that I do NOT care which wireless provider claims to be the best at what, I did not remember who was supposed to be the "fastest" 3G network, and the ad did not immediately tell me which wireless provider it was.

So, despite my apathy, I had to look for the answer.

And there it was, the logo at the bottom right corner - AT&T.

Now it will be fixed in my memory - at least for a while - that AT&T is supposedly "the nation's fastest 3G network."

Why?

Because the ad raised my curiosity. It didn't say, "AT&T is the nation's fastest 3G network." Instead, it referred to someone as the "nation's fastest 3G network," and forced me to discover who that someone was.

The ad raised my curiosity, forced me to ask a question, and caused me to care about the answer. And because I cared, I intentionally sought out - and paid attention to - the answer.

Well done, AT&T. You made me care - just for a moment. Very clever.

Hindsight Is 20/20 . . . Or Is It?

2010-01-20T10:00:00.003-06:00

We say that hindsight is 20/20. That is to say, that when we reflect back upon a situation that has occurred, it is "easy" to see what proper course of action in that situation should have been.

Yet I would say that our hindsight fails us more often than we care to admit.

Too many times, we look back upon a situation and criticize our own actions or the actions of others, without making any attempt to adjust our behavior for the next time a similar situation occurs. If we only use our hindsight to play Monday morning quarterback, and to declare what the "obvious" solution would have been if we had only taken time to realize it, then our hindsight is not really serving us.

Our hindsight is only useful when it translates into insight for future situations.

If we want our hindsight to be helpful to us, we must be intentional about recognizing the thought patterns that let us to a bad choice, and to recognize the situational cues that should have pointed us to the right decision in the first place. We should learn from those mistakes, and look for those situational cues as new challenge arise, so that our hindsight can inform our future decisions.

20/20 hindsight is no good to us until it translates into clearer foresight.

Coca-Cola: Sharing a Little Happiness

2010-01-14T08:32:00.002-06:00

Coca-Cola recently made a few little tweaks to one of their vending machines:

Okay, so maybe they made more than a few tweaks.

But what has Coca-Cola really done here?

For the cost of a few "extras" and some apparent manpower, and with the element of surprise, they have brought laughter and happiness to potentially thousands of college students. Plus, they continue to bring joy to tens of thousands of other people, as those same college students share the story with their friends, and as viewers watch the video online. (On YouTube, the video already had 81,924 views on Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 8:55 AM Central Time. The video was posted on January 12, 2010.)

Do you want your brand to be known as a brand that brings joy to people? What can you do to brighten their lives?

We're on the Same Team

2010-01-13T07:45:00.002-06:00

Sometimes an organization can become fragmented. Not by a corporate restructuring or a division into geographic territories or the divestment of some strategic business units. Sometimes an organization becomes fragmented by the mindsets of its employees.

Perhaps you've seen it happen. Perhaps you've been a part of it. Members of different departments (or even of different functions within the same department) begin to see themselves as being on opposing teams. Life within the organization becomes a clash of "the marketing team" versus "the finance team" versus "the technology team" versus "the R&D team" versus "the legal team."

Naturally, these departmental "teams" must have completely opposite goals and completely opposite points of view. Working with anybody from another "team" will inevitably be a hassle and a struggle. A necessary evil.

Members of the "marketing team" enter a meeting with members of the "legal team," dreading the roadblocks that these legal guys will put in the way of the marketers' terrific ideas. Members of the "finance team" walk into a meeting with the "R&D team," ready for a fight over how many budget dollars are reasonable to spend on mere "research." The meeting room is no longer a meeting room, but a battleground. A boxing match.

We forget that everyone within the organization is on the same team.

Hard as it may be to accept, or even to comprehend, our jobs were not created for the success of the marketing team, or the success of the finance team, or the success of the technology team, or the success of the R&D team, or the success of the legal team. Our jobs were created for the success of the organization. We happen to be placed within these departments according to our strengths and to the needs of the entire organization.

We are all working together for the success of the organization. (And, by the way, the organization is successful when it sustainably serves its customers best.)

If we enter a meeting with the realization that everyone in that meeting is on the same team - the "team" of the organization - how does that change the way we approach the meeting? The meeting no longer becomes a contest to see whose opinion can win out, or who can convince "the other side" to give her what she needs, or who can persuade whom to cooperate with his idea. It becomes a discovery of how WE can work together to best serve the organization and our customers.

In that process, we consider what "that department" needs from "this department" in order to do "that department's" job best, and what "this department" needs from "that department" in order to do "this department's" job best. How can each of us do his job best and serve the others in order to achieve the goals of the organization together?

And when we set our sights on achieving the goals of the organization together, the goals of our own respective departments should fall naturally into place.

Einstein Bros. and Soft Openings

2010-01-06T08:09:00.003-06:00

Today an Einstein Bros. Bagels is opening on the campus of the university where I work. Since most of the students will not arrive until this weekend (Monday is the first day of classes for the spring), the store has three solid days to practice their craft before their biggest customers arrive.

Thus, this Einstein Bros. location will enjoy an abbreviated "soft opening."

On this, their first day of their "soft opening," the store will not be selling food. Instead, they are giving it away.

The store has been distributing a limited number of vouchers for free samples. Each voucher lists a particular food item and a time of day during which the customer may receive the food item. (Mine says, "Bagel Dog & Choice of Blended or Coffee Beverage, 12:30-12:50") Customers may choose from a selection of 10-12 vouchers, and return to the store at the specified time to pick up the specified item.

This seems like a great idea for our new Einstein Bros. store for several reasons:

It gives the new employees a chance to practice, without wasting any food. And even if the trainees don't get a food item exactly right, they (hopefully) will not anger or alienate their customers, since the customers understand that these employees are still in training.

It builds excitement for the store, as customers get to taste a sample of the food and drinks that Einstein Bros. has to offer. And even for customers who arrive too late to receive a voucher, the anticipation builds as they await their opportunity to purchase something from Einstein Bros. and taste for themselves.

It starts a cycle of reciprocity, that principle discussed by Robert Cialdini that states that people tend to return favors. Giving away free samples helps to build goodwill for a business; when customers get free samples, they often feel compelled to support that business later.

And so, unless the employees drastically mess up the food today and create a huge fiasco of customer fury, today's soft opening seems like a great opportunity for Einstein Bros.

I could, however, imagine a situation in which a strategy like this would not work for a particular restaurant. If the food items are especially difficult to prepare and master, then loudly publicizing the distribution of free food could be risky. If a huge number of customers hear about the opening and then receive free food that is not fit to eat, the restaurant could be stuck with a bad reputation that proves impossible to overcome. A restaurant in that situation may want to open more quietly.

Text Messages and Serving the Customer

2010-01-05T09:33:00.004-06:00

A friend of mine told me recently about a smoothie shop in her town that is making good use of mobile technology to serve their customers.

Visitors to the smoothie shop can sign up to receive SMS updates from the store. The shop sends a daily text message to its subscribers, telling them about the special of the day and sometimes offering extra discounts, such as "Visit us today and show us this text message to receive 50% off any large smoothie!"

Social media and other digital communications tools like SMS, Twitter, Facebook, and email can be a great way to offer something extra to your customers and to build a better customer relationship. Here are a few reasons (and rules) for why this works:

It's welcome. Perhaps the number one reason why these forms of communication can be successful at building customer relationships is that they require the organization to ask the customers' permission. (Seth Godin wrote a great book back in 1999 that explains how and why Permission Marketing works.) Your customers must opt-in to this service. They - not you - get to choose whether they receive your communications every day (or week, or what-have-you). Customers who view such messages as spam will not receive the service. Those who do subscribe to the service will not view your messages as spam (and if they did, they could unsubscribe).

It's expected. Your customers know what messages they will receive from you, and how often, because you tell them before they even sign up. You post point-of-sale advertisements in your shop that tell them how they can "sign up for free [daily/weekly] messages containing [updates/news/coupons/special offers] via [text message/email/Twitter/Facebook]." Or you print this information on your packaging. Or your sales clerks ask them if they would like to sign up as they check out (and then direct them to a paper or digital sign up sheet, rather than putting them on the spot by asking for their contact information verbally).

It's easy. Your subscribers get your information pushed to their email inboxes, Facebook accounts, or mobile phones. They don't have to go searching for your news and coupons on your website, via Google, or in your store. And your messages are short, so they don't take long to read. If you have too much to say (i.e. more than 140 characters, whether or not you are using Twitter), you give the customer a headline and a link to a webpage that contains all of the information. If they are interested in the headline, they can follow the link. If not, they can delete your message.

It's helpful. You send these messages for the purpose of serving the customer. You give them information that they would like to hear. You give them information that they care about. If your organization serves smoothies, you distribute links to articles about healthy foods and healthy living. If you sell bicycles, you distribute links to news about cycling and cyclists. If you provide business services, you distribute links to information about industry developments and best practices. And, when appropriate, you distribute special offers for your products and services. Every message you send to your subscribers should serve your subscribers.

For building customer relationships, these communications methods can be a great tool. But remember, as with any marketing effort, your SMS and social media communications should serve the customer, not just serve you.

New Year's Resolutions for the Marketer

2010-01-01T15:25:00.004-06:00

With New Year's Day comes the tradition of new year's resolutions.

Lose weight; exercise more; eat right; save money; spend less; read more; be more patient with my loved ones; be more considerate; invest more time in people; be less sarcastic; pray more. We set so many goals for ourselves as individuals, as family members, as friends, as human beings.

Do we set similar resolutions for ourselves as workers and business owners and public servants? I should think that we would seek to improve ourselves professionally as much as we do personally.

For myself in 2010, I resolve to adhere to the following principles as a marketer:

I will intentionally and humbly listen to my customers' opinions, complaints, and ideas.
I will continually refine my actions in order to offer better service to my customers.
I will do everything feasible to resolve my customers' grievances, meet their needs, and exceed their expectations.
I will look at my product from the perspective of the customer, not only from the perspective of the company.
I will view each new technology as another potential tool for serving my customers, not as a new gadget that will help us look snazzy.
I will approach all of my communications as dialogue, not monologue.
I will consider it my purpose to benefit society, not simply to make more money for myself.
I will cultivate a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in those working with me.
I will appreciate and respect the work of others in my organization.
I will seek to build better relationships with other departments in my organization.

Happy 2010!

How Many Workers Does It Take To...?

2009-12-31T13:16:00.004-06:00

While my dad and I were out running yesterday morning, we passed by a group of Comcast workers who appeared to be working on the telephone lines. The entourage included seven Comcast trucks and vans, two Comcast men on ladders, and eleven other Comcast men standing in a group on the ground, observing the two men on the ladders.

[insert joke here: how many Comcast guys does it take to...?]

Now, I like to give folks the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps the eleven Comcast men on the ground were in training, and therefore were observing the two on the ladders for training purposes.

If, however, this was not a training exercise, then thirteen men seems like quite a large number for whatever repair work was occurring. Assuming that two ladders were required, with one man on each ladder, one man stabilizing each ladder, and one man to direct everything, five workers could be understandable. (My dad insists that three would have sufficed.)

But thirteen? Things were beginning to look like a Verizon commercial.

The lesson here? Don't send thirteen people to do a five-person job. Unless you expect that doubling or tripling the number of workers will result in work that is twice or three times better.

And if your organization is doing something that seems wasteful, even though it isn't, then communicate. Tell your customers (and potential customers) what is really happening, so that they may continue to see you as a company that is a good steward of its resources. If you are sending ten workers-in-training to observe a three-person job, send with them a sign that says, "Workers in Training." Or "Learning How to Serve You Better." Or something.

Be a good steward of your resources. And communicate with the public - especially when your actions could be misinterpreted.

Be wise. Happy New Year!

A Few Favorites, and Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T19:54:00.009-06:00

I write this post from Terminal C of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, as I await the magical metal bird that will carry me home for the holidays. Tonight I will not be sharing any profound marketing wisdom with you, other than this:

Whatever holiday you celebrate, take some time this December to spend it with people who care for you. Shut down your laptop, disable the wireless connection on your iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, or what-have-you, and devote time to really matters: the people in our lives. You can't be a good marketer without first being a healthy person.

That said, below is a brief selection of some of my personal favorite (read: funniest) marketing efforts that I've seen in the past month. Evaluate their effectiveness on your own.

Enjoy! And merry Christmas!

Volkswagen New Polo - Rumour commercial

Last year's viral video from JCPenney, "Beware of the Doghouse"

And the recent sequel, "Return to the Doghouse"

Last but not least, take a moment to call the Nestle Crunch hotline at 1-800-295-0051. After the prompt asks you to press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish, wait 10 seconds. What you hear next is worth it! (Friendly commenters, please don't spoil the surprise!)

Give a Little, Get a Lot: Free Shipping Day

2009-12-18T10:00:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, Thursday, December 17, 2009, was the second annual Free Shipping Day online. 742 online retailers offered free shipping all day yesterday for all purchases made online. Plus, as mentioned in a story about the event on CBS' The Early Show, UPS guaranteed a Christmas Eve delivery for all packages that were shipped yesterday.

Events like Free Shipping Day are a win for everyone. Customers save money and still get to purchase those last-minute Christmas presents just in time for a Christmas Eve delivery. Merchants see a boost in their online sales, which, according to FreeShippingDay.com, drop significantly after December 12 each year. And UPS gets a huge influx of shipments, and the opportunity to provide a delightful experience for hundreds of thousands of potential new customers.

Free Shipping Day is just one more example of how a little goes a long way. By covering their customers' shipping expenses, the online merchants relieve customers of that small extra financial burden, and attract those customers to shop at their establishments. And of course, when 742 retailers (not just one) participate in the same offer, the word spreads faster, leading to awareness among more consumers, and thus more customers for each merchant.

What can your organization do to give a little to your customers? And how can you partner with other organizations to spread the reach and give a bit more Christmas cheer to all?

Marketing Lessons from Christmas Cookies

2009-12-14T08:29:00.000-06:00

In my family, December is the time to bake Christmas cookies. Snickerdoodles, peanut butter cookies, chocolate no-bake cookies, peanut blossoms (aka Hershey's Kiss cookies), chocolate chip cookies, kolaches, sand tarts, Christmas tree-shaped almond cookies, sugar cookies, and raisin-filled cookies were all standard holiday fare at my parents' house and my grandparents' house when I was growing up.

When I moved off to college, I started extracting my favorite childhood recipes from the memories and cookbooks of my mom and grandma. In that process, I was amazed to learn how many of those delicious recipes were not ancient family secrets or mysteries unveiled in a gourmet cookbook. Instead, the instructions for many of those wonderful treats came from the packages of the ingredients.

The recipe for peanut blossoms came from the back of a bag of Hershey's Kisses. The recipe for Chex Mix was printed on the side panel of a box of Chex breakfast cereal. The recipe for chocolate fudge was found on a jar of Kraft marshmallow creme. The recipe for pumpkin pie was revealed on the wrapper of a can of Libby's pumpkin pie filling.

I think I shall be forever grateful to the makers of these food items for sharing the recipes that have become family traditions.

And really, it is a fabulous idea - brightening your customers' celebrations by telling them of wonderful ways to use your product. Consumers will not buy a product (or at least they will not continue to buy a product) that they will not use. Sharing a delicious recipe - for free, since consumers could plausibly glean the recipe from the outside of the package while in the store, without ever purchasing the product - provides valuable information to consumers, and gives them a reason to keep purchasing the product.

Food items are not the only products for which manufacturers and retailers share helpful hints. Arm & Hammer shares myriad uses for baking soda (i.e. cleaning, air freshening) on its signature orange boxes of the product. The Home Depot and Lowe's both share Do-It-Yourself tips on their websites.

How can your organization share with people - for free! - ways in which they can use your product?

AT&T Takes a Step in the Right Direction

2009-12-08T07:48:00.002-06:00

In case you hadn't noticed, AT&T has been receiving some flak recently for its less-than-market-leader 3G coverage. Verizon Wireless has been particularly scathing of its iPhone-carrying competitor with its "There's a Map for That" and "Island of Misfit Toys" commercials. AT&T, of course, has put up a defense with its "Postcard" and "Side-by-Side" commercials.

And now, AT&T has put forth a "make-good" effort, in the form of a free iPhone app.

Yesterday, AT&T introduced its new Mark the Spot app into the iPhone App Store. The app enables users to submit a notification to AT&T whenever and wherever they experience dropped calls, failed calls, no coverage, data failure, or poor voice quality. The app can pull the iPhone's GPS information to tell AT&T where the failure happened; alternately, users can manually select a location on the map to indicate where the coverage failure occurred. With the notification, users can also submit additional comments, as well as tell AT&T whether the problem occurs only once, seldom, often, or always.

FAQs within the app reveal what AT&T plans to do with the feedback it receives:

"AT&T will utilize this feedback to optimize and enhance the network. Problems will be clustered to highlight areas for investigation. However, multiple submissions at the same time for the same issue by the same user do not receive higher weighting."

Other commentators seem skeptical about whether AT&T will actually use the feedback submitted via the app to begin patching its coverage gaps. Assuming, though, that AT&T has the resources and infrastructure in place, the company would be unwise to not improve its 3G coverage based upon this information. Not only would such improvements benefit its customers, its reputation, and its sales, but AT&T's Mark the Spot app sets expectations that the carrier will take customers' feedback seriously and work to fix the problems.

Congratulations, AT&T, for taking a step to improve your customer service and effectively repair your reputation. Don't let us down now by doing nothing with the valuable feedback you receive through your new app.

Revising Your Holiday Gift-Giving Strategy

2009-12-07T07:22:00.004-06:00

Last week, MediaPost's Marketing Daily published an article entitled, "Report: Gift Cards Are The New Fruitcake." That is to say, gift cards are the new "classic" Christmas present that nobody wants to receive.

According to research firm TowerGroup, store gift card spending is expected to decrease 7% for 2009; an October Consumer Reports survey revealed that only 15% of consumers actually want gift cards.

The MediaPost article and a video by Consumer Reports offer some hypotheses for the reasons behind the gift card's fall from favor:

Consumers want to spend money on more practical items (i.e. food and gasoline), not on the non-necessities sold by the typical gift card retailer.

Consumers are slow to spend their gift cards. According to Consumer Reports, 25% of consumers who received a gift card in 2008 have not yet spent the gift card.

65% of consumers spend more than the face value of the gift card they receive, meaning that in order to use their own gift, they must spend money.

Retailers are maintaining smaller inventories this year; thus, by the time a consumer visits the store to spend a gift card (i.e. after the holidays), the items they might have wanted may likely be sold out already.

Adding to the "fruitcakey-ness" of gift cards this Christmas season is the loudness with which retailers have been peddling their gift cards. It seems that a person can no longer turn on the television or set foot in a store without a bombardment of advertisements touting gift cards as the "one-size-fits-all gift" or the "gift that won't be returned" or the "gift that people really want."

But if folks want to give something better than fruitcake to their loved ones this Christmas, they might be advised to avoid the gift cards and resort to the good, old-fashioned holiday gift strategy:

Giving actual, physical objects as Christmas presents.

When a person gives a physical item - be it a toy, a sweater, cologne, or a toaster oven - it shows that he took the time to consider the recipient's likes and dislikes; he spent time browsing the store aisles or catalog pages (or actually making a gift, like everyone did in the olden days); he spent time choosing a thoughtful and meaningful gift.

Instead of trying to persuade consumers to buy gift cards for their loved ones this year, marketers ought to help consumers pick out considerate and desirable gifts.

Social media seems like one natural venue for this. Help consumers use their friends' profile information (with permission, of course) to determine likes, dislikes, and wants. Design quizzes that enable users to report on their likes and interests, and then output suggested gift items. Enable users to create "Christmas wish lists" to post to their profiles. Create "secret societies" of friends that can share ideas for what to give to a certain someone.

In-store displays could also give helpful hints to gift-givers. What if stores showed lists of this year's top-selling items for different interest categories: "for the musician," "for the gamer," "for the animal lover," "for the skater," "for the outsdoorsman," "for the fashionista," "for the bookworm," etc.?

This Christmas, consumers may be returning to the notion of giving thoughtful gifts because they care, instead of giving "spend-as-you-like" gifts because a gift is expected. And if consumers are thinking more about the gifts they give, marketers should be thinking more about how to help those gift-givers give meaningful gifts.

Selling Products? or Experiences?

2009-12-03T06:38:00.005-06:00

Are you in the business of selling a product, or selling an experience?

Let's take cupcakes as an example. A company could see themselves as a seller of cupcakes. They could choose which flavor(s) to sell - vanilla, chocolate, or a combination of flavors and icings and decorations. They could choose a price for their cupcakes. They could choose their delivery method - in a storefront, to grocery stores, or as an online retailer? As individual cupcakes, or packaged together? Then they could choose to promote their brand: "we sell cupcakes."

Or, a company could approach their cupcake business like Cupdates does.

Cupdates is "a cupcake delivery and catering business, serving the Hampton Roads [Virginia] area," according to the Cupdates Facebook fan page. But they aren't in the business of selling cupcakes. They are in the business of selling cupdates - "sweet and memorable experience[s] that [are] created when two or more people gather together to share in the delight of eating a beautiful and delicious gourmet cupcake." (again, from their Facebook fan page and their website.)

What is the difference?

Most cupcake purveyors think that they are selling cupcakes to customers who want cupcakes.

But most customers don't want to eat cupcakes just any old time, and most customers don't want to eat cupcakes alone.

They want cupcakes as a treat - as part of a joyous occasion. Cupcakes are most delightful when they are shared with friends and family in celebration of a birthday, or holiday, or party, or event.

And so, Cupdates doesn't sell cupcakes. They sell something more compelling and valuable for customers - they sell the experience of enjoying, with friends, the delightful creativity and wonderful deliciousness of a gourmet cupcake.

It is as the saying goes, "a person doesn't want a drill; he wants a hole."

When a company shifts perspective from selling drills to selling holes - or from selling cupcakes to selling sweet experiences - it becomes more able to solve the customer's real need, and enjoys more flexibility in the way it meets that need. The company also takes on another level of responsibility. When you sell experiences, you are no longer responsible for just the product. You are responsible for the delivery, the customer service, the life of product. You are answerable for the solution to the customer's problem, not just for a product you provide.

What might have happened to American railroad companies if they had seen themselves as in the business of transporting people, rather than the business of running trains?

What will happen to Cupdates as they see themselves as selling "sweet and memorable experiences," rather than selling cupcakes?

And what would happen to your organization if you begin to see yourselves as providing experiences, rather than providing products?

A Corporate Thanksgiving?

2009-12-01T07:36:00.004-06:00

During last week's Thanksgiving holiday, people around the U.S. gathered together to eat turkey, watch football, and, presumably, to give thanks for the blessings they have received.

We share in this ritual of thanking God as individuals, as families, as friends. The first American settlers (with their American Indian friends) thanked God together as a community who had survived a hard voyage, harsh winter, cruel sicknesses, and new growing season.

Shouldn't our corporations offer thanks in a similar fashion, as a community that has received numerous blessings in good economies and in bad?

Below is my list of thanks-giving to God, on behalf of my organization:

Thank you for air to breathe.

Thank you for the capacity to learn, the capacity to think, the capacity to remember, the capacity to communicate, the capacity to grow things, the capacity to build things, and the capacity to work.

Thank you for the natural resources – earth, trees, water, sun, food, wind, stone, minerals, electricity – and the laws of physics which enable us to live and survive.

Thank you for beauty and strength and goodness and truth and trust.

Thank you for people. Thank you for relationships. Thank you for enabling us people to work together as a team, to learn from each other, to support one another, and to grow together.

Thank you for people who care – who care about their work, who care about the people around them, who care about their families, who care about customers, who care about being good stewards of the things they have been given, who care about making the world a better place.

Thank you for wisdom to make good decisions.

Thank you for leaders who care about their followers, who empower and strengthen their followers, and who lead by example.

Thank you for followers who follow responsibly, who work wholeheartedly, and who support their leaders and one another.

Thank you for families and for generations – for children, for youths, for young adults, for singles, for spouses, for parents, for grandparents, for elders, for those who have gone before us, and for those who are yet to come.

Thank you for ideas.

Thank you for the free market system, and the ability to trade, and the ability to connect to people in other locations and other nations, and the ability to compensate people for the work they do.

Thank you for nations that value and enable freedoms – among them, freedom to speak, freedom to practice religion, freedom to be educated, freedom to work and trade and be paid, freedom to start and run and own businesses, freedom to choose where to live, freedom to care for one’s family.

Thank you for governments that protect freedom and justice and truth and right-doing.

Thank you for the ability to create and the ability to make the world a better place.

Amen.

0% OFF and marketing tactics

2009-11-24T07:27:00.006-06:00

One store in my town has a marquee with shall we say, an "unusual" promotional message.

The sign reads:

"0% OFF ALL HOME DECOR

WE HAVE MODA FABRIC"

Now, one might think that the "0% OFF" is a mistake. Surely it was meant to say "20% OFF" or "40% OFF" or "70% OFF", and a digit simply fell off the sign.

But when a person - like my friend Dwayne, who told me about the sign - drives by that sign every day for over a month, and the message has not changed, and the store is still in business, one begins to wonder what other reasons might lie behind the "0% OFF".

POSSIBLE REASON #1: The store is using "0% OFF" as a quirky surprise that will catch attention, pique curiosity, and attract customers. "After all," thinks the passerby, "no store in their right mind would offer '0% OFF' as a legitimate promotion. I wonder what they're doing in there. Maybe I'll stop in and see."

POSSIBLE REASON #2: The store is using "0% OFF" as a one-size-fits-all promotion. Customers realize that "0% OFF" must be a mistake, but that there must be some sort of sale going on inside the store. The store doesn't have to change the marquee to "20%" or "40%" or "70%" based on the discount of the day; the same message can remain on the board and still achieve the same effect.

POSSIBLE REASON #3: The store is using "0% OFF" to make a statement. The store is saying that their prices are so reasonable, that they don't need to offer discounts. Customers don't need a discounted price, because this store's prices are already the lowest in town. This store's regular prices are as low as their competitor's sale prices.

POSSIBLE REASON #4: A digit really did fall off the sign a month ago, and the store owner hasn't noticed, and the store manager hasn't noticed, and the employees haven't noticed, and no customers have said anything. Or someone did notice, but they ran out of extra numbers for the sign, and keep forgetting to order more. Or someone did notice, but they haven't taken the time to change the message yet - in over a month.

Whatever the reason for this particular marquee message, the goal of outdoor messaging is to draw customers to the store. Logical dissonance (i.e. "that's strange" or "I didn't expect that"), price discounts, and "everyday low prices" can all be used to raise customers' attention. Of course, all three tactics should be used strategically, and should be crafted with the customer in mind.

"What will the customer think?" and "How will the customer perceive or understand this?" should be two primary questions when crafting one's marketing messages - or any other marketing tactics, for that matter.

Your marketing message should be clear to the customer. If the customer thinks that your message was a mistake (i.e. a digit fell off your sign), he is going to keep driving right by.

Virtual Dressing Room, Starring You, Live!

2009-11-20T07:52:00.002-06:00

The downside to the convenience of online shopping (or catalog shopping, for that matter) has always been that the shopper cannot really see how the clothes will look until the purchase has been made and the clothes have arrived.

As of four days ago, that has changed.

RichRelevance, a company that develops e-commerce tools, and Zugara, an interactive marketing and advertising agency, have now unveiled Fashionista, a "webcam social shopping tool" that enables shoppers to "try on" the clothes they browse online.

Using augmented reality and motion capture, Fashionista enables shoppers to test how an article of clothing will look by standing in front of their computer's webcam. Shoppers can rate articles of clothing (thumbs up or thumbs down), which enables Fashionista to provide recommendations for other clothes they might like. Shoppers can take a photo of themselves "wearing" their prospective clothing purchase, and send the photo to Facebook to get feedback from friends.

Watch the video below to see Fashionista for yourself:

Fashionista is currently used at www.tobi.com.

Other online retailers have used "virtual dressing rooms" of sorts already. H&M allows shoppers to select one of eight "models" on whom to view the clothing. Other stores enable shoppers to "build" a virtual model that matches their body type, or to upload a photo of themselves for "trying on" clothes.

Fashionista lets shoppers have a more interactive virtual dressing room experience, using their own bodies, in realtime. Shoppers can see how clothing of a certain color will look against their skin, and can envision what the clothes will look like.

Unfortunately, though, it doesn't seem that Fashionista can yet recognize the contours of the shopper's body in order to simulate how an article of clothing will fit him or her. For shopper's with model-like bodies, this might not be important; however, for me personally, seeing how clothes actually "hang" on me is the determining factor in whether or not I complete a purchase.

Hopefully the next generation of virtual dressing rooms will enable the clothing image to stretch, shrink, and gather based on the shopper's body shape.

And after that? 3D virtual dressing rooms?

And after that? Hologrammatic dressing rooms?

Oh, what will the future hold for us online shoppers?

Facebook, Birthdays, and Changing Marketing

2009-11-18T07:34:00.006-06:00

Browse through nearly any marketing journal, and you will find talk on how Facebook and Twitter have changed (and in the case of Facebook, possibly birthed) the field of social media marketing.

I won't go into that whole discussion today; enough people smarter than I have spent more than enough words on it already, so you can Google them if you want to join that conversation.

I do, however, want to point out one tiny feature of Facebook that has changed our lives in a way that many marketers may overlook:

Birthdays.

Facebook has been the source of more birthday wishes than any other single tool I can imagine.

For example, of my Facebook friends, 99% of them are people I know personally (that is, I know and have met them in the flesh). Most of those 99% are people whose birthdays I would like to celebrate out of general love and goodwill, even though I might not see them or talk to them very often throughout the rest of the year.

But I have enough trouble remembering the birthdays of my ten cousins, let alone hundreds of Facebook friends.

Thanks to Facebook, I can "remember" the birthdays of each and every one of my Facebook friends. Since Facebook even notifies me of birthdays a few days ahead of time, it gives me a chance to buy a last-minute card or gift if I happened to forget an important birthday. But for the majority of my Facebook friends - those "Tier 2" relationships whom I do not see very often, who are friends but not close friends or family, whose birthdays they would not expect me to remember - Facebook's birthday notifications enable me to post a simple "Hope you have a wonderful birthday!" on their Facebook wall.

And on my own birthday, it is a special feeling to see a wall full of birthday wishes, some from people whom I have not seen in months, from whom a birthday wish is neither required not expected.

What are Facebook's birthday notifications really doing for us?

Facebook is enabling people to tell each other that they care. That they value one another. That they respect and appreciate one another's lives. That the people in their lives are important, even if they don't see one another very often.

It is a show of simple human kindness and caring. And in the kind of relationships that most of us have with most of our Facebook friends, this show of caring does not have to be a big thing. Just that unexpected "Happy Birthday" shows a little bit of love and consideration for one another.

That single purpose - showing that people care - is the core behind social media. We want to know that people care enough to notice us. That they like our ideas enough to listen. That they value our existence enough to converse with us.

That act of caring is what social media marketers must demonstrate in order to be successful, in order to really connect. What makes social media marketing different from many other forms of marketing, is that it enables marketers to stop doing all the talking. It enables marketers to listen to what the customer has to say. It enables customers to engage in the conversation with the brand and with each other. It provides a place where the customer's opinion matters.

The successful social media marketer recognizes this, and approaches social media accordingly. She engages in dialogue (not monologue). She takes time to listen, and to find out what individual customers care about. She recognizes the thoughts and opinions of her customers, and she communicates by her words and actions that her customers matter.

If you're going to engage in social media for marketing purposes, you must care about the customers, and then show them that you care. Otherwise you're just wasting everyone's time.

Good Salesman / Bad Salesman

2009-11-17T12:26:00.004-06:00

Sorry for the brief hiatus, everyone.

Recently I've been in the market to buy a house, and last week I ramped my search up a notch. This experience of considering a major purchase has given me an interesting look at the sales process. Being a marketer, my work does not often cover the area of "salesmanship," so I find it fascinating when I can make some observations about "sales" from the viewpoint of a consumer.

And so, based on my recent experiences in working with realtors as I shop for a large-value, long-term, high-investment purchase, and based on other shopping experiences in general, here is Haley's Good Salesman/Bad Salesman list (version 1.0):

A Bad Salesman believes that he knows exactly what the customer wants as soon as the customer makes a request.
A Good Salesman asks questions, so that he can learn and clarify the customer's tastes, preferences, needs, and circumstances.

A Bad Salesman believes that he is the expert in the sales relationship.
A Good Salesman knows that the customer is the expert on her own needs and wants, and that his sales expertise about the product is relevant only after the customer teaches him about her situation.

A Bad Salesman is mostly concerned with talking about the product.
A Good Salesman is mostly concerned with listening to the customer.

A Bad Salesman shares his own speculations when he doesn't know the answer to the customer's question.
A Good Salesman admits when he doesn't know the answer to the customer's question, and finds the answer for the customer within 12 hours.

A Bad Salesman badmouths his competitor.
A Good Salesman conducts himself with grace, openly recognizing and respecting the strengths of his competitor, or identifying the differing usage situations for his competitor's product versus his own product, or speaking about "other brands" in general terms, or not mentioning the competitor at all when he talks with the customer.

A Bad Salesman alters the customer's needs to fit his product.
A Good Salesman alters his product to fit the customer's needs.

A Bad Salesman wants the sale to be a good deal for him and his company.
A Good Salesman wants the sale to be a good deal for both his company and his customer.

A Bad Salesman is an advocate for his company.
A Good Salesman is an advocate for his customer.

A Bad Salesman's goal is to make the sale.
A Good Salesman's goal is to make sure his customer gets the best solution.

Making Advertising Work Better for the Customer

2009-11-06T07:30:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, MediaPost's Video Insider published an article by Michael Kokernak, founder of Backchannelmedia, entitled "Scientific Advertising and Free Samples." Mr. Kokernak predicts a few of the ways in which interactive television commercials would change the way marketers approach advertising.

First, he says that television advertising will no longer be driven by audience size and demographics. Indeed, demographics are an insufficient predictor of consumer preferences. My buying habits are more affected by my psychographics - such as my lifestyle (I'm a marketer; I run; I draw; I play piano; I'm actively involved in my church), my beliefs, and my friends - than by the fact that I'm a 20-something white American female.

With traditional television advertising, especially on the major networks, it was nearly impossible to segment viewers by anything but audience size and demographics. But since interactive television would enable viewers to pause, click, and further pursue the specific ads and information in which they are interested, marketers can get to "know" the likes and dislikes of each individual viewer, and to customize their advertisements according to those psychographics.

Second, Mr. Kokernak predicts that interactive television commercials will be more "keyed" to results than traditional tv advertising is. The ultimate goal of advertising, as Mr. Kokernak points out, is to drive sales. But so many factors contribute to the consumer decision-making process, that it is difficult to pinpoint if and how a specific ad led to a particular purchase. Except in routine or spontaneous purchases, most consumers' decision to buy a specific product comes after a long period of inputs, including previous brand experience, brand awareness, brand reputation, knowledge of the product category, opinions of other users, a history of advertising, point-of-sale marketing, customer service, etc. Rarely can a sale be attributed to any one factor, such as a particular ad.

Interactive television ads could help to more accurately measure results by capturing the actions of the consumer directly after viewing the ad. Did the viewer click on the ad? Did he spend much time on the website? Did he register on the site, or subscribe to email/SMS/RSS updates? Did he search for the product online? Did he use keywords from the ad in his search? Did he actually purchase the product online immediately after seeing the ad?

By tracking these results, marketers can determine whether an ad was successful in achieving "intermediate" goals, such as increasing the viewer's awareness of the brand, or improving the brand reputation in the mind of the viewers, or drawing the viewer to the website, or creating a positive brand experience for the viewer, or leading the viewer to "become a fan" and subscribe to updates. And because of e-commerce, marketers can also see when their interactive television commercials actually did lead to an immediate sale.

I think the jury is still out on how consumers will receive the idea of television and Internet rolled into one. It could be a huge success if done well. And whether or not "interactive television," as we imagine it, becomes the norm, interactive technology in general should enable marketers to make their communication more relevant and more useful to the individual consumer.

Innovative Boost to Tourism

2009-11-03T07:46:00.003-06:00

Need to boost tourism in your corner of the world?

Try this: Pick the most distinctive thing about your location. Hire somebody to take, essentially, a six-month vacation in that place, doing all of those fun, distinctive activities, and blogging about it for six months. Don't search for this fortunate fellow in just your local area. Instead, place classified ads in newspapers around the globe, inviting anyone to apply for the Best Job in the World. Require them to submit their applications via online video. Invite the top applicants to fly to your site for interviews. Pick the best one and set him to work.

And get $98 million (USD) of publicity for your location in the process.

That's what the tourism board of Queensland, Australia did with their "Best Job in the World" campaign this year. In January 2009, they announced their position with classified ads stating this:

The Best Job in the World

Position Vacant: Island Caretaker
Location: Islands of the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia
Salary: AUD$150,000 six-month contract
Responsibilities: Clean the pool, Feed the fish, Collect the mail, Explore and report back
Applications close: 22 February 2009 Interviews: 4 May 2009 Announcement made: 8 May 2009
Work begins: 1 July 2009

Anyone can apply.
www.islandreefjob.com

The website received over 34,000 applicants. 15 finalists spent four days together on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef, taking tests in snorkeling, swimming, eating island barbecue, and blogging. The winner, Ben Southall, 34, a charity worker from Petersfield, UK, began work 2 July 2009.

Since the job began, Ben has been staying in a multi-million-dollar three-bedroom beach villa with pool, exploring the island, snorkeling the reef, posting photos, videos, and blogs, and earning AUD$150,000 (USD$134,000) in the process.

With 34,000 applicants alone (not to mention other visitors to the site and followers of Ben's blog) and estimated USD$98 million in free publicity from news media around the world, I would imagine that Tourism Queensland will be doing pretty well for quite a while.

To see a video recap of the campaign, visit http://adage.com/u/lvfdVaM.

Have We Missed the Point?

2009-10-26T07:20:00.002-05:00

Along Interstate 20 in Texas, somewhere between Abilene and Eastland, stands a billboard that bears the Texas Tech University logo and reads, "We make Texas better."

The billboard does not mention Texas Tech's academics, or athletics, or grad school acceptance rates, or faculty. Its simple statement focuses on the bottom line: that, ostensibly, this university makes the world a better place.

Does your organization make the world a better place? Or does your organization merely fill the world with stuff? Does your organization enrich lives? Or do you act as if people's lives (customers' lives, employees' lives) exist to enrich your organization? Does your organization exist merely to make a profit? Or worse yet, does it exist merely for the sake of existing?

I would assert that if an organization does not make the world a better place, then it has no reason to exist. If an organization does not bring life, or joy, or love, or friendliness, or peace of mind, or greater wellbeing to the lives of people, then it has no reason to be.

We are all created to give something to the world. To enrich. To bless. Our organizations should do the same, or else we have deeply missed our calling.

Now, as we go about seeking to enrich the world, we had better have the excellent work, excellent products, and excellent service to make that happen. Texas Tech University had better have the stellar academics, the great athletics, the astronomical grad school acceptance rates, and the highly illustrious faculty that are critical to its mission. Texas Tech had better be instilling in its students the healthy worldview, the critical thinking, the character, the desire for excellence, and the drive to innovation that transform them into citizens who can make the world a better place. Organizations cannot approach the goal of enriching the world in the same way that the folks in this commercial approach the goal of ideation:

However, if we go about our business of making products and offering services without ensuring that we actually are making the world a better place, then we have missed the point entirely.

Giving Handles, Selling Blades

2009-10-20T21:01:00.008-05:00

(or, How to Make Money by Giving Free Stuff)

I just bought my first iPhone last week. Since then, my continuing odyssey through the wonderful world of the iPhone App Store has inspired some musings on why free apps (and other free products) can be great money-makers for an organization. Absurd, you say? Let me explain with an example.

One application I have downloaded is RunKeeper Free, by FitnessKeeper, Inc. The app uses the iPhone's GPS and a timekeeper to record distance, duration, pace, and speed. RunKeeper Free also provides me with a Google Map of my route, plus allows me to save my run history to the app and/or to the RunKeeper website, where I can also view Calories burned, elevation, and start/end times for each activity in my history. And, of course, because of the iPhone's multitasking abilities, I can also listen to my tunes while RunKeeper tracks my workout.

FitnessKeeper, Inc. also offers a paid version of the application - the RunKeeper Pro. For $9.99, the RunKeeper Pro provides the same features as RunKeeper Free, as well as audio cues, training workouts, iTunes playlist integration, the ability to post geo-tagged photos and status updates, and integration with social networking sites. The RunKeeper Pro also runs without the small, silent, inobtrusive ads contained in the free version - ads which, incidentally, I did not even notice until their absence was highlighted in the description for RunKeeper Pro.

A download button (linked to the iPhone App Store) for the RunKeeper Pro is included on a screen within its free counterpart.

So, if FitnessKeeper, Inc. offers a robust $10 application, why do they also offer a free version? Won't the free version cannibalize the paid version? Would anyone pay $10 for the Pro version when he can get the most valuable features for $0 with the free version?

The answers to the last two questions are "probably not," and "yes," respectively.

iPhone users who would download the free version (me, for example) would probably only download an app like this if it were free. If the only version available were the paid version (or the $10 paid version anyway), such users would probably decide that the app was not worth downloading after all. They would choose another, free, app, or no runner app at all.

Some iPhone users will download the $10 RunKeeper Pro right off the bat, even though they know that a free application with most of the same features is available. These users are probably either hard-core runners (possibly), exercise-motivation-seekers, or gadget aficionados (most likely). To these users, it is worth $10 for audio cues, pre-programmed workouts, playlist integration, photo-sharing, and social networking features unavailable in the free version. Thus, offering the RunKeeper Free does not steal the business of these paying customers.

Still other iPhone users will download the RunKeeper Free, and later decide to upgrade to the $10 RunKeeper Pro. Perhaps they loved the free version so much that they were ready to try the paid version. Perhaps their curiosity got the best of them, and they just had to try out the additional features. Or perhaps they developed into such avid runners that they came to see the RunKeeper Pro as a good buy.

Whatever the reason for the upgrade, the RunKeeper Free paved the way for some prospective paying customers to become actual paying customers. The free version enabled FitnessKeeper to build trusting relationships with potential customers. And it provided opportunities for RunKeeper Free users to show off the app to their running buddies, some of whom might be the types that would purchase the paid version.

And so, one can think of the RunKeeper Free as less of a profit-less product, and more of a marketing tool for the RunKeeper Pro.

It's like the strategy of razor manufacturers. Gillette, I'm told, sends a free razor to young men on their eighteenth birthdays. Those young men like the experience of shaving with a Gillette razor, so they keep coming back to Gillette to buy replacement blades.

Also, free products (or paid ones, for that matter), like the RunKeeper Free and RunKeeper Pro can connect the organization to fans who might also pay money for other items. FitnessKeeper could have among its customers a market for more FitnessKeeper gear, like t-shirts, running shorts, sweatbands, socks, watches, etc.

What products can your organization give away for free? And not just demos or promotional products, but real, useful tools that can benefit consumers and can help you to start building a fan base? Out of that trust-relationship, those fans may become paying customers for your other product offerings. Or, even better, they may spread the word to others like them who become paying customers, too.

Exceptional Customer Service Strikes Again

2009-10-16T20:14:00.003-05:00

The story you are about to read is true.

Some of my marketing consulting work recently required me to have some informational booklets professionally printed. I sent the booklet to the printer in two batches - in the first batch, I ordered only one copy, so that I could show it to my client for approval before running the rest of the copies. After I got my client's opinion and made a few changes, I ordered a larger batch of the booklet.

For the first batch, I used a local printing company - let's call it Company A. I had never before worked with Company A, but I had heard of them and was willing to give them a try. Company A was professional, and turned out a great-quality product to me within my four-day deadline. I felt badly that my four-day deadline was a bit short, but I was under a time crunch myself, and was relieved that Company A was able to print my project, with great quality, on time.

Sometime after this first booklet came back from the printer, a friend of mine recommended that I try another printer in town, with whom he had had excellent previous experience. He suggested that I investigate whether this second printer - Company B, let's say - could print my booklet at a lower price than Company A.

I showed my first booklet to Company B, and, sure enough, their price quote per copy was 14% lower than I had paid for the booklet from Company A. Eager to try to save money without sacrificing quality, I placed the order for the second batch of booklets with Company B.

When I placed my order with Company B, my deadline was, unfortunately, even shorter than that for Company A - three business days, rather than four. With Company A, the graphics I sent were able to be printed without any manipulation. With Company B, their designer had to fix a few things for me. Company B then had to show me a proof. I then made one more change. Company B printed another proof. I then gave the okay, and Company B printed five times as many copies as Company A.

My order from Company B was ready for pick-up the very day after I had placed the order.

Company B delivered my project three days earlier, for 14% less per copy, and with more work on the part of the vendor, than Company A.

Guess which vendor will have all of my printing business from now on?

Had the lower price been the only benefit that Company B provided to me, I would have been equally satisfied with both Company A and B. Company A gave me a great product and met my professional expectations; they were satisfactory. Company A was simply a bit more expensive on this project - no hard feelings. On my next print job, I might have gotten bids from both Company A and Company B, and simply selected the less expensive vendor once again.

However, my experience with Company B was so exceptional compared to my completely satisfactory experience with Company A, that it left me with an unequivocal loyalty to one vendor over the other.

Is your organization like Company A? Do you provide a great product? Are you professional? Do you meet your customers' expectations? Do you satisfy your customers?

If so, beware that a Company B doesn't come along and start providing, not only a great product, but an outstanding product. Not only meeting, but exceeding your customers' expectations. Not only being professional, but being servants. Not only satisfying your customers, but delighting your customers.

If your organization currently looks like Company A, I would recommend doing everything in your power to become Company B - quickly.

Volkswagen and the Theory of Fun

2009-10-13T00:09:00.004-05:00

I feel slightly behind the times. Within the past five days, I have received links to this video series from three different people. When I did a Google search for the series, the first results page was full of blog references to the initiative. As much as I dislike following the crowd and talking about the same thing as everyone else, I must say something about this.

It is spectacular.

It is called the "Theory of Fun," and it is a new initiative by Volkswagen to persuade people to act responsibly.

The idea is that adding fun to a specific action will cause people to participate in that action - perhaps even changing their behavior over the long-term. This video shows how Volkswagen induced subway travelers in Stockholm, Sweden to take the stairs rather than the escalator, by turning the staircase into a working piano:

Climbing stairs is not the only thing that Volkwagen has made more fun. To see how Volkswagen put some fun into both recycling and throwing trash into the trash can, visit www.thefuntheory.com.

Volkswagen is also encouraging consumers to generate their own ideas for how to change behavior for the better by making things fun. People can submit their own videos from now through November 15 for the chance of winning 2,500 Euros.

Isn't it a brilliant idea? Changing behavior by making things fun? Of course, over the long-term, people should choose to do the right thing (i.e. exercise, recycle, refuse to litter) simply because it is the right thing to do. But why not use fun to start people on the path of building those good habits? It is like the scene in Mary Poppins in which Mary convinces the children to tidy up the nursery by turning it into a game. "Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down," Mary would say.

So why is Volkswagen doing all this? First off, getting masses of people to start taking care of the environment is a wonderful, rewarding, and wise thing to do. A clean planet is good for everyone. Secondly, engaging in social responsibility and creating free fun for people builds goodwill toward the Volkswagen brand. And third, if people start being more environmentally conscious, perhaps they will become more interested in purchasing environmentally responsible cars.

Do you have a cause that fits with your brand, like environmental responsibility fits with VW? If not, get one. Explore the basic need being filled by your products and services. Find out what your people are passionate about. Discover the root principle behind your mission statement. And make that your cause. Your company should not just add more "stuff" to the world; your company should make the world a better place.

Once you have a cause that fits with your brand, see if you can make it fun for people to participate. Walmart could encourage kids to "save money. live better" by giving them free musical piggy banks. Schoolteachers could make studying fun by creating educational games for their students. Hospitals and restaurants could encourage people to wash their hands by installing synchronized, dancing, multi-colored lights over the sinks in the restrooms. Your human resources department could encourage employees to turn in their paperwork by singing every time someone places their papers into the inbox.

Find your cause, and make it fun for people to join in. You'll be helping society, helping your customers, and helping your brand, too.

Perspectives from Inside the Organization

2009-10-08T08:24:00.003-05:00

To read today's post, see my guest blog post on the Abilene Startup Blog, hosted by my friend @chadhutchins.

- Haley

Go Forth on a Levi's Scavenger Hunt

2009-10-06T10:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Levi Strauss & Company launched a venue for destiny-seekers to heed the brand's call to "Go Forth."

The venue is the new Levi's scavenger hunt game, Go Forth, which leads players on a search for $100,000 in buried treasure belonging to the late Grayson Ozias IV. Grayson Ozias IV (G.O. Fourth - get it?) was a friend of Nathan Strauss (nephew of Levi Strauss), and disappeared in 1896, after leaving behind a series of wax cylinders upon which are recorded clues that lead to the treasure. Levi's will release these clues over a seven-week period; players visit levis.com/goforth to read the clues, deduce the cities to which they point, and discover the treasure.

While Grayson Ozias IV may be fictitious, the $100,000 treasure is not. The first player to solve the puzzle will win $100,000, and may vote for a U.S. nonprofit to receive $100,000 as well.

With the "Go Forth" game, Levi Strauss & Company and their ad agency Wieden + Kennedy are creating a fun blend of alternate reality and social media. The site, in addition to providing the game clues, also features a comments board and the @GraysonOziasIV Twitter feed. And according to MediaPost's Marketing Daily, Levi's is also promoting the game through its Facebook fan page, Twitter, ESPN Magazine, and online ads.

Bravo for Levi's and their foray into role-playing games. They are providing a free venue for customers (and potential customers) to interact with their brand and with each other, while promoting the spirit of 19th-century American pioneering upon which the company was founded. Creating positive brand experiences and allowing people to build relationships sound like great ways to sell jeans.

Flash for All Smartphones...Except the iPhone

2009-10-05T08:35:00.006-05:00

Users of Blackberry, Google Android, Symbian OS, Palm webOS, and Windows Mobile can expect to have full Flash player capabilities for their phones within the next few months, according to multiple sources, including Adobe.

Today at the Adobe MAX developer's conference in Los Angeles, Adobe introduced Flash Player 10.1, part of Adobe's Open Screen Project, an initiative to "provide a consistent runtime environment across mobile phones, desktops and other consumer electronic devices." Flash Player 10.1 is GPU-accelerated*, so users can view videos in HD, while [hopefully] conserving battery life and CPU** usage. Flash 10.1 will also support the capabilities of each mobile device, including multi-touch, accelerometer, gestures, and screen orientation.

Flash Player 10.1 will be available in beta for Windows Mobile and Palm webOS phones later this year; the beta version will hit Google Android and Symbian OS phones in early 2010.

One smartphone, however, is blatantly absent from this list: the Apple iPhone. Over a year ago, Apple declared that desktop Flash was too CPU-hungry, and Flash Lite too poor-quality, to be used on the iPhone. As early as June 2008, Adobe developers began work on a Flash version that would meet Apple's requirements. The latest news from Adobe was that the development of Flash for the iPhone is "in [Adobe's] court." There has been no word today on whether Flash capability for the iPhone is forthcoming.

Is this another case of Apple refusing to play nicely with other technology companies? Or is Apple waiting for a Flash Player version that will meet certain standards of quality for the iPhone? Or, as one blogger speculates, is Apple intentionally providing a respite for web users weary of tiresome Flash animations?

One report suggests that Apple might indeed be taking a step in the Flash-friendly direction. The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) reports that Adobe Professional CS5 will enable Flash animations to be exported to iPhone/iPod Touch applications. So even though iPhone users will be unable to view Hulu and Facebook videos on the device, they will be able to use iPhone applications that feature animation.

I look forward to seeing what Apple communicates with its continuing lack of Flash capabilities for the iPhone. Will Apple announce that a version of Flash Player will soon be made available for the iPhone after all? Will they report that the decision for the iPhone to go without Flash was made with the consumer in mind? Or does Apple have something else up its sleeve?

Stay tuned.

Brief glossary:
*GPU = Graphics Processing Unit
**CPU = Central Processing Unit

Living Life Like a Butterfly

2009-09-29T19:02:00.004-05:00

My friend Sarah and I picked a perfect day to sit outside for lunch.

Today in Abilene, Texas, the breeze was cool, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the monarch butterflies were passing through on their fall migration. Sarah and I just happened to eat lunch together outside today, in a spot where a couple hundred monarchs were fluttering about.

The butterflies were breathtaking to watch, of course. And, more than that, they fascinated me.

Here they were, in the midst of a few-thousand-mile flight south to Mexico for the winter. But these butterflies were not soaring by, as Canadian geese zoom past during their own annual migration. The butterflies' migration looked nothing like an American family road trip, with no stops allowed except bathroom breaks.

Instead, the monarch butterflies seemed to be taking their time. Sarah and I watched as they simply fluttered around this cluster of bushes and trees in Abilene, Texas, almost as if they lived there. Had someone been visiting Abilene today and seen these butterflies, he would have assumed that he had stepped into a permanent butterfly garden - not that these beautiful insects were just passing through.

I want to go through life like the butterflies do.

I want to live life with a destination in mind, with an innate purpose and goal which I press on to achieve. But I do not want to travel toward that destination single-mindedly, like a Canadian goose. I do not want to zoom through life, non-stop, trying to reach my goal without delay.

I want to travel toward my goal like a monarch butterfly. Moving from place to place, with the same path and purpose and focus as the Canadian goose, but enjoying the trip along the way. Slowing down enough to savor each moment, each location, each season. Taking time to get to know people and experience places as I go. Realizing that each stop along the journey might be just as important, and as meaningful, and as beautiful, as the final destination.

Are you living life like a goose, or like a butterfly?

Starbucks and Disappointed Hopes

2009-09-29T08:46:00.004-05:00

I don't mind Starbucks. I wouldn't say that Starbucks coffee is my favorite, and I can think of other coffee houses that have great atmosphere, and sell fair trade, and are going green. But Starbucks is fine.

There is one thing that always disappoints me about Starbucks, though. It is this:

When Starbucks advertises its drinks on posters, table tents, etc., it shows steaming hot Pumpkin Spice Lattes, or cool-and-creamy Mint Chocolate Frappuccinos, served in beautiful china mugs or glass stemware, with swirls of caramel syrup or chocolate shavings or cinnamon flakes.

Have you ever been served a Starbucks espresso drink in a china mug with cinnamon flakes on top of the foamed milk? Has anyone?

My Starbucks coffee has only ever been presented to me in the mostly recycled/recyclable paper cups (or plastic, for cold drinks), and always with a lid that hides any cinnamon flakes that might have been sprinkled on my drink by an extra-thoughtful barista. No matter if I plan to stay in the Starbucks store for hours, sipping my drink and chatting with friends or reading, my coffee still comes in the to-go cup with a lid.

Why? If I intend to drink my coffee inside the store, why can't Starbucks serve my drink to me in the manner in which it is advertised? In the nice china mug, with the swirls and flakes and cinnamon dust?

I should think that it would be easy to ask customers, "for here or to go?" when they place their orders, and to serve their drinks accordingly. Using mugs and glasses for in-store orders would surely save trees and landfill space, although I admittedly do not know how much the extra dishwashing would affect water usage. And if a "for here" customer had not yet finished her drink by the time she was ready to leave the store, she could easily request a to-go cup for the remaining coffee.

Please, Starbucks, stop using your ads to raise my hopes for a delightful coffee-drinking experience, only to dash them with another paper or plastic cup when I visit your store. The idea is to "under-promise, over-deliver"; not the other way around.

"I love my city. Don't send the Olympics here."

2009-09-27T23:00:00.003-05:00

In less than five days from this writing, the International Olympic Committee will decide which city will host the 2016 Olympics. The top contenders are Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro. Officials from each city have spent months (or years?) trying to convince the world (or, at least the Committee) that their city is worthy of hosting the Games. In similar fashion, a grassroots organization of purported Chicagoans has launched a marketing effort promoting the Olympic bid...for Rio.

The group's website, www.ChicagoansForRio.com, quite attractively displays information about the Olympic Games and why Chicago should NOT be the host in 2016. The main reason why not? Finances. These Chicagoans do not want their city to go bankrupt with all of the obligatory Olympic-sized construction and infrastructure projects.

The "Chicagoans for Rio" site features an animated counter claiming to show the "2009 City Deficits to Date," plus fun facts about the debt incurred by previous host cities of the Olympics, a photo slideshow of the now-unused 21 (out of 22) Olympic venues in Athens, and a scrolling marquee of supposed site visitor comments supporting Rio de Janeiro's bid over Chicago's. Other helpful (or amusing) features of the site include links to recent crime records from Chicago; a "head-to-head" comparison of Rio vs. Chicago; and links to purchase "Chicagoans for Rio" merchandise, to email the IOC, and to support Rio's bid on the Rio 2016 website.

Last Thursday, a Chicago Fox News station broadcasted the story of "Chicagoans for Rio", but was politely asked to stop talking about it, as the report "would harm Chicago's chances" for being awarded the bid. Ironically, this shushing only garnered more attention for the movement, as Drudge Report, Twitterers, and several online journals and blogs spread the word about the cease-and-desist.

The publicity about "Chicagoans for Rio" has also drummed up some questions about the group's veracity: given that the website lists no contact information, how do we know for sure that the group members are truly from Chicago? Who's to say they are not really from, say, Rio? And where are they getting their budget deficit facts, anyway?

Nevertheless, let's assume for the moment that "Chicagoans for Rio" truly is a group of Chicagoans willing to forego the honor of hosting the Olympics in exchange for some semblance of fiscal responsibility. Assuming that they are a spontaneous grassroots organization with no budget, here is what I would recommend if they truly want to dissuade the International Olympic Committee by Friday:

1) Get people talking. The shushing of Fox News generated some buzz already; "Chicagoans for Rio" needs more. Start a blog telling the full story behind the website, behind the Fox News story, behind the shushing - everything! - and include buttons to make it easy for people to Tweet, email, embed, Digg it, and post it to Facebook. Invite people to use the Twitter hashtag #chicagoansforrio to share reasons why the Olympics should be hosted in Rio and not in Chicago. Post YouTube videos in which Chicagoans share these reasons audio-visual style.

2) Get people involved. The whole anonymous website thing might be the "safe" way for the organizers to go, but they need some legitimate method of showing how many Chicagoans support Rio for the 2016 Olympics. They could start a petition (secure, of course) on the website in which visitors submit their names and email addresses to show their support for Chicagoans for Rio. Or they could start a Facebook group (the group "2,000,000 for the olympics in chicago" currently has only 99,540 members). Or they could invite Chicagoans to tweet their "send the Olympics to Rio" messages to the IOC (@Olympics).

3) Be the anti-Chicago2016. For everything that the Chicago Olympic Committee has done to promote Chicago as the host city for the 2016 Games, the "Chicagoans for Rio" group should do the same to plead against Chicago as the 2016 host city. So maybe they cannot replicate the entire Chicago 2016 site by Friday, but they could still create some videos or write some articles to counter the COC's arguments point-for-point. They could post a nice slideshow describing why Rio, rather than Chicago, is ideal for the 2016 Olympics.

But again, these suggestions could only be worthwhile if "Chicagoans for Rio" are truly in earnest. And even if "Chicagoans for Rio" do try some of these tactics, the plan could always backfire - the International Olympic Committee might vote for Chicago 2016 just to spite them.

The Home Depot and Edutainment

2009-09-23T08:42:00.004-05:00

Majesco Entertainment Company recently released a game for the Wii, featuring home improvement retailer The Home Depot. The game, "Our House: Party!" features 175 mini-games in which players (up to four) complete home improvement projects in order to make their homes the best in the neighborhood. These projects include tasks like construction, demolition, plumbing, wiring, landscaping, decorating, and, of course, racing through The Home Depot store to get the necessary power tools.

Majesco also released a similar version of the game - "Our House" - for Nintendo DS. In the DS version, players start as contractors who must build customer's houses in order to save up enough money to build their own home.

The first brilliant thing about these games is that they're just plain fun. (Or at least they sound fun! I haven't tested them out yet.) The second brilliant thing is that, in the midst of all that fun, Majesco and The Home Depot have combined education (learn, loosely, how to do various projects), branding (The Home Depot, of course!), and entertainment. The game provides instruction and fun in a positive brand experience for The Home Depot's potential customers.

The Home Depot creates other positive brand experiences, too, without forcing customers to pay them a dime. In addition to the caricatured "do-it-yourself" projects of the "Our House" and "Our House: Party!" games, The Home Depot shares scores of free, real-life "how to" videos on their YouTube channel. And, as I understand, anyone can visit a Home Depot store during their project workshops for hands-on instruction in home improvement.

These are the kinds of things that attract customers to a brand. Give people something useful, teach them, provide them a service - for free. In the process you will be building trust, building rapport, and building relationships with people. And then, when those people really do need a product that you sell, with whom will they prefer to spend their money? You've proven yourself trustworthy in a service that does not earn you money; now those people will be ready to trust you with a service that does.

How can your organization provide an honest-to-goodness, helpful, positive, fun brand experience for people, before they ever have to spend a dime?

Good mobile web? Someone needs to step up.

2009-09-21T08:03:00.004-05:00

Two MediaPost publications reported last week on a Yankee Group study that assessed the overall quality of mobile websites. Yankee Group researchers evaluated 27 major mobile sites on criteria including design, usability, and ability to adapt to multiple devices and networks. The findings were disappointing: the average score was 52 out of 100 - a failing grade.

The highest scorers among the group, which included popular news, sports, and search sites, were as follows: Google search (81), Yahoo search (76), Google News (73), Yahoo News (73), MLB.com (71), Rivals.com (58), and ESPN.com (57). When translated into academic grades, the highest scorer (Google) only achieved a B-.

Given that smartphone usage continues to grow massively (Nielsen reports that smartphone adoption has increased 72% quarter-over-quarter this year, to 26 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2009), this mobile web failure is a sorry state. But it means that there exists lots of opportunity for companies to fill that space by developing mobile sites that are truly outstanding.

Imagine how much of the mobile web audience could be captured by a company that offers an A+ mobile site, at a time when the top competitor (Google) only scores a B-. Imagine the kind of fan base that company could build if its mobile site communicated essential information in a clean, simple, easy-to-read, easy-to-navigate format, optimized for any mobile device.

How can companies do this?

1) Simplify. Tell mobile users what they want to know; do not overwhelm them with information. In your writing, be succinct. In graphs and charts and design, use as few strokes as possible to accurately communicate the information. Use space wisely, without crowding. For inspiration, read up on books about clean design and simplifying your life; or browse through top design magazines and "best of the web" lists.

2) Detect. Determine whether the user is accessing your site from a desktop/laptop or from a mobile device. For users surfing on mobile phones, automatically route them to the version of your site that is optimized for mobile. You might do this by providing customers with a separate web address for your mobile site (my alma mater uses http://www.acu.edu for desktop, and http://m.acu.edu for mobile). Or, for an even better user experience, take Carl Howe's recommendation and invest in device detection on your mobile site; this will allow you to provide users with a site that is optimized for their specific mobile platform.

3) Target. Customize users' experience based upon their location. Use the GPS data from their phones to give them information relevant to their geographic area. Unless they state otherwise, treat their mobile web experience like local search. If they are looking at music, show them concerts near them. Looking at food? Show them restaurants near them. Weather? Show them local weather. Sports? Show them the local teams. And then provide easy access to information from other regions as well.

4) Research. Ask users what they want in a mobile web experience. Ask them to critique several mobile sites; ask them what they like and dislike. Ask them what their favorite mobile sites are, and why. Ask them which information on your site should be displayed on a mobile device, and which information is irrelevant. In order to provide a great customer experience, you must know what experience your customers want.

The mobile web space is wide open for companies that will optimize their sites for the mobile user experience.

Subways: Boring or Beautiful?

2009-09-18T07:50:00.005-05:00

Last week, New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority unveiled a project that will make subway riders' commute a bit "brighter."

That project is the newly completed art installation by the late Conceptual artist Sol Lewitt. The piece, entitled "Whirls and Twirls (MTA)", is an arrangement of brilliant porcelain tiles on the wall above the staircase at the 59th Street-Columbus Circle subway station. The piece is the first of three Lewitt works commissioned by the MTA; the other two are compass rose floor designs. (Read more about the work at www.nytimes.com.)

Photo by Ángel Franco, New York Times

The piece rather reminds me of another bit of art and culture that was added to the NYC subway recently - without the direction of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. One evening in November 2008, Improv Everywhere, a volunteer group that "causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places," opened an "art gallery" on the 23rd Street subway platform. See their video below:

Both of these initiatives took a typically dirty and dreary part of New Yorkers' daily life - riding the subway - and made it interesting and beautiful. They brought joy (or in the case of Improv Everywhere, "chaos and joy") to the public. At no cost to the public.

What can your organization do to brighten up the lives of your audience? How can you add beauty and delight and surprise and laughter to your customers' experience? What part of your product or service is taken for granted as dull or distasteful, and what can you do to change it?

And don't make your customers bear the cost of this change. Take it out of your marketing budget. The repeat business of your delighted customers and their friends will be more than enough recompense for any extra expense.

What They Don't Know Can Kill You

2009-09-15T09:21:00.003-05:00

Over lunch earlier this week, my friend Howdy and I had an interesting conversation about the hoopla surrounding President Obama's speech to America's schoolchildren on September 8.

During an interview with student reporter Damon Weaver in August, President Obama announced that on September 8 he would be making a speech to schoolchildren across America. By August 21 the press had picked up the story, reporting also that the President's address was to be accompanied with a curriculum for teachers to use with the speech. The curriculum suggested that teachers engage students with questions like, "What is the president trying to tell me?", "What does the president want me to do?", and "What new ideas and actions is the president challenging me to think about?"; and with assignments such as "writ[ing] letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president." The actual contents of the speech were not released.

By September 1, conservative parents, educators, and activists were up in arms.

For adults already concerned by more liberal shifts in our nation's politics and education, the speech could only mean one thing: an attempt by President Obama to push his left-wing agenda on the children of America. And the accompanying curriculum - typical of any critical-thinking exercise in American schools - must, of course, be a ploy to further brainwash the children. How does the president have the right to preach to our children and dictate curriculum in our schools?

CNN, among other news channels, covered the story of conservatives' outrage. Among conservative bloggers, a flurry of blog posts arose, displaying such titles as, "Obama's next effort: a Children's Crusade?", "Beloved Leader to Begin Indoctrination of Youth", "Dilemna: [sic] What's a mom to do? Creepy President to deliver speech to all public school children!", and "September 8, 2009: National Keep Your Child at Home Day". These bloggers compared President Obama to everyone from Kim Jong Il to Adolf Hitler to Fidel Castro.

Finally, on September 7, the day before the President's speech, the White House released the text for the incendiary address.

It was perfectly harmless.

The speech was a pep talk to America's students, encouraging them to be responsible, to work hard in school, to do their homework, to respect their teachers and their parents. It was a message that we all want our children to hear. And it was to be delivered by a man who, for some children, might be the only decent role model to whom they would listen.

This incident, says my friend Howdy, is a perfect illustration of a sagacious maxim: What they don't know, can kill you.

When people distrust an organization (as they generally distrust the government), and they don't know the full story on what that organization is doing, they will make it up. And usually, what they make up is wrong, and is the worst-case scenario, and is quite damaging to the organization's reputation.

Had the White House released the text of President Obama's speech from the beginning, concerned conservatives would have had no room for alarm. No room to assume the worst. No room to let their imaginations run wild with the horrible propaganda the president might be pushing. The administration could have avoided the entire public relations mess.

Howdy asked me whether I think the same principle holds true in the private sector. I think it does. Obviously, the public does not need to know all the inner workings of a company, just as we do not need to know all of our nation's military secrets and other classified information. But when a company unveils a new initiative, or recalls a product, or releases a similar big announcement, they should be prepared for full disclosure of the situation. Especially in situations of PR crises, companies should be wary of sending cryptic messages.

Remember, people will make up what they don't know. Don't leave the public to make up the parts that are important. Give them the facts, so that they can't give you their wild speculations.

Don't leave room for people to make important stuff up. What they don't know can kill you.

Exceeding Expectations

2009-09-14T08:15:00.003-05:00

Yesterday a friend and I visited the Watters Creek mall in Allen, Texas, for the first time. While we were there, we stopped in a store called Francesca's Collections.

Francesca's is a nice little boutique, well-decorated (as Anthropologie stores are well-decorated, but not in the same style), selling bags and jewelry and female fashion. And I liked the clothing. Trendy but classy. But given the tendency of such boutiques to be well outside my price range (I do not typically like to pay $150-$300 for a blouse that will be out of style in six months), I was fully content to simply browse without purchasing anything.

And then, Francesca's delighted me and exceeded my expectations. Out of curiosity, I checked the price tag on one of the sweaters I was flipping through. It was $38, not $138 as I had expected. I checked the price tag on a blouse - $28. Jeans? $98.

The prices were reasonable! Through the decor and product selection, Francesca's had created a beautiful customer experience of quality and luxury that bespoke an exclusive, expensive boutique. And yet their prices were in a "normal" range, not expensive designer shop range.

Delightful.

Beautiful customer experience + Prices within my budget = Store that I will eagerly patronize

Viral Marketing Failure du jour

2009-09-11T18:54:00.004-05:00

As a general rule, I shun Facebook applications. I dislike the way they clog up your profile, and I dislike the way they require you to allow them to access all of your Facebook information (which is usually unnecessary, and is not used for reasons that benefit the end user).

But today I saw in my News Feed that a friend had taken a Facebook quiz entitled "What Does Your Day Mean?" which purported to report the implications of being born on a particular day of the week. It sounded interesting (though I would never take it seriously). I was curious. I decided to add the application and take the quiz myself, just for kicks.

As was to be expected, the application required me to allow it to access all of my Facebook information. Okay. But then, an epic viral marketing failure: before it would allow me to take the quiz, it asked me to invite my friends to add the application, too.

Forget it.

The creators of the application are making an attempt at viral marketing by asking people to tell their friends. But they are going about it all wrong. You cannot force someone to recommend your product. And you cannot expect someone to recommend your product if they have not yet tried your product. You would not expect someone to recommend a movie they have not yet seen, or recommend a clothing designer whose clothes they have not yet tried, or recommend a restaurant at which they have not yet eaten.

You must let customers experience your product first. And their experience with your product must be remarkable enough that your customers want to talk about it. They cannot help but talk about it. Talking about it benefits their friends, and builds coolness points for themselves. (Thanks, Seth Godin, for your great book on ideaviruses like this.)

If you force people to talk about a bad product, the opposite happens. They hurt their friends; they hurt their trust with their friends; and they hurt their coolness points. People do not want to do that.

I did not want to invite my friends to add the application, and, in so doing, to stamp my recommendation on a product I had not yet tested. Neither did I want to spam my friends with one of the Facebook application invitations which I so despise. (Disclaimer for my friends who have sent app invitations to me: I still love you. You are forgiven.)

Granted, this application did have a "skip" button to the "invite your friends!" plea, for those users who take time to search for the button. But the inconspicuousness of the button makes the invitation stage seem unavoidable. And if the user does skip the invitation stage, they will likely never recommend the app to their friends.

If these Facebook application creators truly want to enhance their viral marketing, they need to save the "invite your friends!" request until the user has already completed the quiz, or joined the cause, or played the game, or done whatever the app does.

Let the user experience the product first. Then give them an easy way to invite their friends. If they like the product, they will often be more than happy to tell people - especially through the click of a button on a social media site like Facebook.