Church of the Customer: Marketing archives
May 05, 2008
Jargon and marketing maturity
There's an inverse relationship between a company's ability to communicate well and its public use of jargon.
Facebook is a good example. Smart people run the company, but their communication with the world is usually pretty awful.
From my vantage point at a packed coffee shop in Austin this weekend, Facebook's familiar interface illuminated laptop screens on multiple tables. The scene was a typical cross-section of the site's users.
But very few, if any, of the people behind those laptops would describe Facebook to their friends as a "social utility," as Facebook describes itself on its home page.
Jargon is easy. Simple is hard.
Update: Jennifer weighs in on how jargon creates a cloak of online obscurity.
Update 2: Kara Swisher reports that Facebook has hired Google's head of PR to be Facebook's VP of communications and public policy. Public policy? Huh.
Anyway, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg emailed his employees about the new hire, saying: "He (Elliot Schrage) will be responsible for developing the key messages we want people to understand about our products, our business and the growing global importance of social networking and what we do."
Yes, the key messages we want people to understand.
Sounds positively Web 1.0.
April 23, 2008
Mickey Drexler knows me
Does this dress make my hips look big?
It was a question for which I needed an honest answer this weekend as I shopped at J. Crew. My salesperson complied.
"Yes, it does," she said. She smartly suggested another, more flattering dress instead. Thank you. I appreciated the honest advice.
Long-time readers of the Church probably know I love J. Crew, which continues to impress me with its turnaround from an average retailer into a dynamic store. CEO Mickey Drexler is clearly driven by a fanatical mission to understand what his customers want. He spends part of almost every day visiting stores. He talks with employees asking what is selling and what isn't. He chats up customers for feedback and comments.
Yesterday, a salesperson offered me a chilled bottled water as I entered the dressing room, something usually reserved for higher-end boutiques. My salesperson was highly attentive and she (and her colleagues) gave me great advice on what looked good and what didn't.
One thing Drexler must have learned from his chats with customers is an offer I received shortly after my store visit: a J. Crew personal shopper. I can schedule an appointment before and after the store is closed. Wow. Exactly what I want!
By listening to customers (not just once, but continually), J. Crew has learned that some of us who aren't afraid to part with our cash want someone to help style us and do it on our schedule. No wonder J. Crew is enjoying a 14% increase in revenue (from 2006-2007) while other retailers are floundering or simply closing stores in the face of a recession.
April 14, 2008
Erebelle update
If you've been reading us for a while, you may know about our work with Erebelle, an Austin-based women's clothing brand that we've invested in. Here's an update.
Website.
An updated website that positions the brand ("active wear for women") and showcases all of its pieces is nearly finished. To date, Erebelle has been sold only in boutiques and fitness centers around the country; a later update will add ecommerce to the site using GoodBarry, a SAS-based ecommerce suite with many appealing, if not overwhelming, features.
- The good: Creating a new website is relatively easy, especially when companies like XHTMLized turn complex designs into wonderfully composed CSS. Plus, an updated site with contemporary colors creates palpable internal excitement when its set to replace a neutral, drab-looking site.
- The challenge: Ecommerce is still not easy in the age of Web 2.0.
Packaging.
We asked Church readers for ideas to create buzz-worthy packaging. Readers shared some terrific thoughts, including Gaetan Giannini's advertising class at Cedar Crest University. The overwhelming response: environmentally friendly packaging is a bold and authentic statement. Makes sense since Erebelle is based in environmentally friendly Austin, Texas. We're researching eco-packaging options.
- The good: People outside the company love to participate with their ideas.
- The challenge: People in various departments (marketing, design, operations, etc.) are often not on the same page about new ideas.
Summer Collection Launch Party.
If you are in Austin Thursday, April 17, 2008, you are invited to a coming-out party for Erebelle, which will launch the Summer '08 line. The party will be at the Girl Next Door boutique, 250 W. 2nd Street. Party starts at 6 pm and goes 'til 8:30 pm. RSVP to events[at]erebelle.com or on Facebook here.
- The good: Inviting customers and prospects to meet other customers and people inside the company is customer evangelism 101.
- The challenge: When your brand is sold only through channels and no community-building work has been done, getting the names of just a handful of customers can be a daunting challenge.
Facebook.
Speaking of Facebook, part of our marketing remodeling work has focused on creating an Erebelle presence on the big social-networking site. We turned those duties over to our marketing protege, Christina Castro, a student at St. Edward's University who is social-media savvy. Christina has painstakingly built our Erebelle Facebook page, which features the latest photos
of the Summer '08 line. The FB fan site also features photos of current customers wearing the
clothes.
- The good: Facebook's tools are intuitive and easy to use.
- The challenge: How do you you create a page that doesn't look like the 100 billion other pages on Facebook?
March 24, 2008
Overcoming the skeptics
Clifford Stoll probably didn't imagine that his 1995 essay in Newsweek dismissing the Internet as a "trendy and oversold community" would ever become an item for discussion again, much less 13 year later.
It did yesterday (thanks to Digg), mostly because of extreme irony: his various points of skepticism, that computer-aided education would ever become important, that we'd buy books and newspapers over the Net, or that ecommerce would ever take root, have largely come true.
They were big ideas then. They didn't have a clear pathway to fruition, which is where skepticism breeds. Skepticism about technology is easy. Skepticism about ideas is not.
The big ideas of today, like making all of your intellectual property available for free, or launching a social network for customers or developing an extreme niche like space tourism, are easily dismissed because they're not safe bets, and they upset the existing balances of power -- two additional sources of skepticism.
Just as they did 13 years ago, the big ideas of today don't have simple and clear pathways to fruition that anyone can understand, but someone probably does. You'd better believe that virtual communities dismissed by Stoll in 1995 are breeding grounds for idea generation in 2008.
The big ideas Stoll dismissed required years of evolution to become viable. They went through a period of natural selection and homeostasis, where the idea remained intact but the external forces around it changed.
These days, a big idea person has to be a biologist just as much as a marketer and a technologist.
March 19, 2008
Starbucks embraces the 5th P
Everyone's favorite marketing patient, Starbucks, has launched a suggestion box-cum-social network for customers.
MyStarbucksIdea collects the ideas of customers (my guess: just as many employees as customers), puts the ideas up for discussion and a vote. Starbucks says it'll keep members of the socnet updated as the popular ideas work their way through the company.
If Starbucks really follows through with its promise, this suggestion box-on-steroids idea is meritocracy via social network. The congregation is smarter than the preacher, so this could develop into a valuable, and tangible, asset for Starbucks.
February 14, 2008
Rekindling customer desire
What makes a relationship last?
Researchers who study human couplings will tell you that it's often about adding novelty to the relationship to reignite old sparks.
Arthur Aron, a professor of sociology at Stony Brook University in New York recruited 53 middle-aged couples, asked them baseline questions about the happiness with their relationship, then divided them into three groups. One group was told to spend 90 minutes a week doing familiar social activities. The second group was told to spend 90 minutes a week doing "exciting" things that appealed to husband and wife. The third group, a control group, wasn't assigned any activities.
After 10 weeks, Dr. Aron surveyed the couples again. Those who took part in "exciting" activities reported much greater levels of relationship bliss than those who did the usual stuff (or nothing at all).
If you think about customer loyalty in terms of dating or egads, a marriage, it's easy to do the same thing, every day, with customers. Follow the rule book. Keep things familiar and safe. But then a competitor/suitor with a new, seductive product or idea can trigger brain reward systems like dopamine and lure away someone whom you assumed was committed to you.
The balancing act between maintaining rituals that celebrate the bond and thinking creatively with "exciting" new activities that relight the spark isn't so easy, of course. But on this Valentine's Day, it doesn't hurt to remember.
February 07, 2008
Being a gracious loser means...
Congratulating your competitor(s).
Smiling through the pain, even if it's through tears.
Highlighting your strengths by talking about those of your competitor(s).
Permitting people to empathize with you in your moment of vulnerability by admitting obvious mistakes or miscalculations.
Preparing oneself to be the future underdog.
Embracing your underdog status.
Never criticizing others, or scapegoating, or demonizing future competitors. It's hard to root for character suicide.
January 17, 2008
I'm moving in with Whole Foods
I love Whole Foods. I want to marry it.
More specifically, I love the Whole Foods flagship store at 6th and Lamar in Austin, Texas. I've dated its cousins in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but Mr. Flagship is a hunk. Let's just call him Mr. F.
My affair with Mr. F began innocently enough: a quick lunch here and there. Then it blossomed into quickie and not-so-quickie dinners, 3-4 times per week. Smitten.
My infatuation now potent, I did all of my Christmas
shopping there; lead-free toys for the nieces and nephews and care
boxes of Austin-made food for everyone else. "Lifestyle brand" is tossed around more than most salads, but Mr. F defines the term. Utility? Sure. Convenience? Check. But we're talking endorphins here. To me, that's lifestyle brand.
The smitten mind tends to formulate irrational ideas, and I joined the club like a character on General (Supermarket) Hospital: What if I ate every meal at Mr. F's Whole Foods for an entire week? Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Never eat the same thing twice, like a coupla hormone-crazed kids. Hell, I'd practically move in. Really get to know Mr. F. Maybe keep a change of clothes there, you know? What would that be like?
First, a few background notes about the hunky Flagship. Perched directly below company headquarters, he's 80,000 square feet of brawn, yet sensitive and fun. An amusement park for food. He is Whole Foods Mecca. He's the model store for the future.
He (yes, the store is a he) houses four mini-restaurants: Italian, seafood, BBQ, and raw/vegan. He has a metrosexual side, too; a sushi bar near the front right next to the pizza station. Of course, Mr. F built an authentic stone hearth oven to cook the pizzas. More urbane than a black leather couch, boys.
I'm a sucker for Mr. F's three beverage bars, too -- coffee, wine and smoothies. He makes me downright Pavlovian in Candy Island, or the gelato bar, or the roasted nuts stand. He's practical-yet-upscale in the prepared foods section, with his fancy lump-crab cakes, cranberry cous cous and teriyaki sweet potatoes. With seating for indoor or outdoor dining (featuring a gurgling creek), free wi-fi and a continuous 80's soundtrack, Mr. F has built Hef's Grotto, minus the nudity.
So, for one, food-driven week, I was dough to Mr. F's expert rolling pin. I ate a lot. I ate things I'd otherwise never give a second look. My week wasn't Oprah-transformational (I didn't cry), but we bonded.
I learned four things along the way, too:
1. Cater to the niche, baby.
In 1978, John Mackey opened a small, vegetarian grocery store in Austin. He was a part of his own niche: people who craved natural, healthy foods. His inspiration? A vegeterian co-op. Also, it had cute girls.
But living his niche paid off. Mackey eventually combined forces with friends who were operating other vegetarian and organic stores in Austin and launched Whole Foods in 1980. He's been running it ever since. Organic food may have started as a tiny beacon in the world of corporate farming but for nearly 30 years, Whole Foods stayed true to the niche. Maybe nurtured it, too.
Now, the niche is a global trend. By 2009, it's expected that 170 million American and European citizens will swear allegiance to all things organic.
Not everything Whole Foods sells is good for you, but it is organic. For instance, you won't find artificial sweeteners in Mr. F's coffee bar. Go ahead and pout, Splenda and Equal fans, but Mr. F lives by principle.
2. Business is theater.
For a country that exports ginormous amounts of culture, too many American businesses are culture-less shlubs. Sigh. Not Mr. Flagship. When he debuted in 2005, he set the stage. Literally. Pizza makers flip dough high above their heads. Fish mongers throw fish across the seafood counter, just like at Pike Place. It's touristy. It's theater. It's Disneyworld. Mr. F is Marlon Brando (the young version) to nearly everyone else's Bill Belichick.
I wish I'd been here for Mr. F's launch party in 2005 because I would have joined the 3,000 other people who paid $25 (to benefit the local public radio station) just to be among the smitten. I would have danced with the hipsters in the upstairs plaza who were getting funky with the band. I know, it's a freakin' supermarket. But that's the idea. They don't do this at Piggly Wiggly, honey.
3. Hire for attitude, train for skill.
I met many of Mr. F's food bunnies during my infatuation week. I must have looked lost one day in the bath and body aisle because an employee asked if I needed help. Try that at Home Depot and you'll stay lost for a week.
Curtis, the chef at the BBQ mini-restaurant, took pity on my dining-for-one status during one dinner visit and with twangy expertise, explained how meats are smoked in the store. He told me a story of how he special-smoked a prime rib for a couple's Roshashana celebration. The next day, the couple led a small brigade of friends and family directly to Curtis' station, pointed at him, and yelled, "That's the man who smoked our prime rib!" Before he knew it, Curtis was a rock star.
Another day, I bonded with Emily, the chef at the vegetarian/raw bar, about our favorite foods and being new to Austin. She'd moved here from New Orleans after Katrina. She got emotional talking about how much Austin means to her and how her family is proud of her work. We shared a moment.
Other food bunnies told me they love to rotate among stations. It keeps them sharp. Kyle, the employee pictured below, was generously patient helping me pick a dessert one day. Those who've dined with me know I like to take my time deciding. I'm a woman, so sue me.
4. Let fans spread the word digitally.
Every hunk has a flaw. Here's one of Mr. F's: no pictures or videos inside the store. It's a strict policy.
I'm grateful to Mr. F's handlers in corporate PR kindly giving me a green light to photograph my week-long lovefest. Every day, I picked up a media badge at the front desk. That didn't stop employees, sometimes herds of them, from accosting me (politely, usually) when I whipped out my D40 Nikon to snap a picture of some sexy cous cous. Clearly, Mr. F has flogged employees to keep the store camera-free.
Whole Foods says it must be draconian about photography lest competitors steal its ideas. But this is where I gently suggest Mr. F to update his haircut. In today's digital society, 70% of new mobile phones have cameras. Go to Flickr and YouTube and you'll see plenty of photos and videos from people who've documented their way through the store's aisles without resorting to corporate-level espionage. They can't steal your culture, which is your real advantage.
Mr. F, I love you, but I hope you'll understand: smitten fans and tourists want to capture their moment at Mecca. They want to post their photographic momentos to their blog, their Facebook account or jeez, I don't know, their scrapbooks. Can you imagine going to Disneyworld and being told to put away your camera? As a media monolith, Disney isn't bashful about protecting its intellectual property. But it understands the power of a captured moment, and how that power spreads when it's shared. You'll find at 185,000 photos of Disneyworld on Flickr.
Whole Foods takes in a jazzy $2.6 billion a quarter, all from word of mouth, you big lunk, so "sorry, you can't take photos here" succeeds in making people feel bad. Even with my press badge, I was pissed after intervention number 20 or so. Jerk!
See my Flickr photo set here of every single meal.
Despite the photo paranoia, my week at Whole Foods was a fun fling. Tried new foods. Met new people. It was fulfilling.
Too fulfilling. Jeezus, I gained about five pounds.
UPDATE: In the comments, Peggy Z. asks how much I spent during my Whole Foods week. The total cost of the week's meals was $153.78, which averages out to about $10 per meal.
January 10, 2008
Attraction method #1
The other week, my friend Christine stopped in to HomeMade Pizza. It's a 20-store Chicago pizzeria that makes gourmet pizzas but you bake them at home.
While paying, Christine filled out the store's (optional) customer contact card. The next day, this email arrived in Christine's inbox:
Hi,
My name's Mike and I'm the Manager at HomeMade Pizza Company in Evanston. I just wanted to thank you for choosing HomeMade. The way we figure it, there are a whole lot of places you could've tried for dinner, so we really appreciate the fact that you went with us.
And if you get a chance, we want to hear what you thought. Do you have any questions or comments about your HomeMade experience? Any rants or raves? Whatever it is, let me know. Feel free to give me a call here at the store, or e-mail us at [note: I'll save them from the spambots].
Thanks a lot for trying HomeMade. I hope to see you again soon!
Unlike most emails from companies to customers, Mike wasn't selling or promoting. He was attracting. He was following the first tenet of evangelism: customer plus-delta. Gather customer feedback. It's anti-selling, which makes it magnetic.
Christine sent a quick note back to Mike, saying she loved the pizza and the store experience. The next day, another email arrived, this time from a HomeMade vice president.
Hey Christine -- I just wanted to thank you for your nice email to Mike! Bottom line is, we're really glad you finally had a chance to stop in and, of course, I'm even happier your guys enjoyed everything -- fantastic! Glad you're planning on coming in again, too -- we'll be looking for you soon.
And keep in touch -- if you ever have any questions/comments/suggestions, we'd love to hear them -- we want to make sure we're keeping you happy.
Thanks again for the great feedback Christine, we really appreciate it!
Best -- Shane
Two emails from busy company people with a lot of responsibility who didn't hide behind a cloak of corporate invisibility.
Nor did they sell. Not one offer. Or one promotion. Or one tout of greatness.
Total attraction.
January 08, 2008
Weighty marketing '07
Time for our third annual (or thereabouts) Weighty Marketing Matters weigh-in.
The total poundage of unwanted direct marketing I received during the 2007 holiday season: 21.5 pounds.
For me, that's a new, no-permission marketing record. It beats last year's mark of 19 pounds and the first-year benchmark of 14 pounds. And that's at a new address, in a new city and state.
For context, 21.5 pounds is:
- 9.75 kilograms
- About the equivalent weight of three newborn babies (or quintuplets for one couple)
- Two bowling balls and a tray of white russians
- A bit more than the average weight of the handbags of some women (contributing to a 30% rise in purse-related injuries)
- The weight of a scarily large catfish caught in Missouri last summer
Because of marketing overload and a growing concern for the environment, 2008 will be a busy legal year for the direct-marketing industry. In 2007, at least 15 states were considering do-not-mail legislation. That number is expected to grow to 25 states in 2008.
Until the industry seriously considers enforcing a permission-driven system, rather than its favored opt-out model, the tide against snail-mail spam will probably only get stronger.
Agree/disagree?
Update: In the comments, Graham does some math for us: 21.5 lbs of paper times an estimated 110 million U.S. households is approximately 1,056,000 tons of paper. If 8 trees are used to create a ton of typical (unrecycled) catalog paper, and 21.5 pounds is the average weight of unsolicited catalogs, then some 132,000 trees were used to send people junkmail during a one-month period.
January 03, 2008
Is a shoplifter a customer?
Here's a stupid rule Whole Foods could eliminate in 2008: Automatic firing for touching a customer.
Here's why: Store employee on break gives chase to shoplifter. Catches shoplifter. Store manager orders employee to release shoplifter, who then gets away.
Employee is fired for violating the "never touch a customer" rule.
(Thanks, Bill!)
January 02, 2008
The invisible business
While most large companies wouldn't dream of being invisible on the web, it's shocking how many small businesses survive without a website.
In moving to Austin, I've been in the market for a new doctor, dentist, dog groomer, lawn service, cleaning service, etc. It's a long list.
Yet in each of those categories, I'd gotten recommendations for businesses and people who are invisible online. They're off the grid. This is in tech-savvy Austin, Texas, which is like a smaller version of Silicon Valley.
To me, that indicates a few things:
1. Tech-shy small businesses won't build a modern-day web presence until their utility providers make it ridiculously easy. Telecoms offer their own web-building tools, but most are clunkier than a pair of clogs from the 1970s. Utility providers should be affiliates for Typepad or Wordpress.
2. Customer evangelism remains the most important sales tool for small businesses. An enthusiastic recommendation is the X factor that likely determines the fate of a small business.
3. Online word of mouth is still an infant, but it's growing up fast. Even with a referral, I -- and armies of others like me -- scour the web for something of a consensus opinion. If I cannot independently research a business on my own, I'm likely to gravitate to one that's visible. Visibility builds trust.
December 28, 2007
10 marketing resolutions for 2008
What might marketers and entrepreneurs tackle in 2008? Here's one list, in no particular order.
1. Vow to do more attracting than selling.
To use a high school analogy: Be the charismatic kid with a winning smile, a charming personality and a good dose of humility. Don't be the tard who farts and throws firecrackers at cats in that desperate vein of "Look at me! Look at me!"
2. Adopt the 5th P.
If your company relies on the classic marketing model of the four P's, add a fifth one: Participation. Build a model of how customers, partners and employees can meet, share and participate with the company or with one another.
3. Build a niche.
The future is micro-specific. It starts
with people who share highly specific characteristics that defy
traditional demographics. Define an ideal customer to
the n'th degree, like unemployed college professors who wear corduroy
sport coats (with elbow patches) and drive old Volvos.
4. Conduct a word of mouth audit.
Put every customer-facing
experience up for review, from reception to the floor person, to
accounts payable. Does the customer experience generate good word of
mouth, or bad word of mouth? Adjust then measure again.
5. Create a social network.
Do it on Facebook, or Ning or the good ol' analog way: a customer advisory board. Any form of social network among customers, partners or employees (current or former) is a tangible asset. Treat it as you would your grandparents (respectfully), not as you would your younger brother whom you randomly punch in the head.
6. Vow to eliminate a stupid rule.
You know what it is. Customers (or bloggers) have already told you. So eliminate it already. For extra points, give it a funeral.
7. Create a social media training program.
In 2008, expect word of mouth and customer evangelism to be accelerated by social media considerably more than it was in 2007. What people say online will reach deeper into the B2B world, too, like long-term services contracts and enterprise-wide computer systems. Understanding the basics of social media, how it works and the effects it can have on reputation and sales should be part of annual training programs.
8. Ban use of the word "consumer."
Nothing says "I'm like Borat" more than using "consumers" to describe your customers, or end-customers. If you call the sales channel your customers, then their customers are your end-customers. To call them consumers is so Borat-like.
9. Raise the ethics bar.
Be a hero to people who still believe in ethics. Make 2008 the year you set higher standards for ethical behavior. Make the standards clear to employees, partners and vendors. Enforce them. Gaming the system is for congressmen and crooked military contractors.
10. Do what you love.
It may be trite but if you don't love what you're doing, how can you expect anyone else to?
December 17, 2007
The tyranny of one
Here's what the guy behind the counter at my local shipping-and-receiving store, which was filled with people sending Christmas packages, said to a startled customer the other day:
Sir, we can't allow you to tape your package in the store. A woman once cut her hand using a tape dispenser while taping her package in our store and sued us. So now we have to ask you to tape your package outside.
One customer's misfortune inspired an unnecessary rule at the expense of 10,000 others who aren't clumsy and litigious. Certainly, a lawsuit can be a drain on time and money. Therefore, our law-obsessed American society makes it easy to believe that creating yet another rule will limit exposure. But it's like putting on a full-body condom before swimming in the lake -- you might be a little safer from the leeches, but your flexibility is restricted and you look like a dork.
More rules are proportional to less convenience. More rules = fewer customers. You either let the tyranny of one customer influence your organization, or not.
When someone wants to add a new rule, how about eliminating an existing one instead?
December 10, 2007
Caterpillar's roadshow: show, not tell
Mike Cai is relying on word of mouth, not advertising, to sell Caterpillar's massive construction machines in China.
His strategy: roadshows. He hauls things like 38-ton tractor-scrapers (seen above) all over China to demonstrate their functions. People in China's construction industry haven't seen a tractor-scraper and don't necessarily understand its concept, so why not let them see a tractor-scraper in action?
"Word of mouth is the best form of publicity for the construction industry in China," he tells the WSJ.
By investing in a roadshow, Caterpillar creates tangibility through evidence. Evidence inspires word of mouth. Word of mouth generates sales.
Mike's marketing results are tangible, too: In just three years, Caterpillar's revenues in China have quadrupled to $4 billion.
Update: Wallstrip assembled a funny send-up of Caterpillar's growth by making fun of a corporate PR person who declined their request for an interview. Naturally.
December 06, 2007
The 4 types of community
You're thinking about creating or extending your customer or member community because it's central to increased word of mouth and evangelism, but community is a broad term.
What type of community, exactly, do you want to create? Here's four ways to think about it.
Clique
Your community could be small, like a clique. Its value is that members know another, look like one another, dress like one another. (To some, that could be its horror.) But a clique enjoys trendsetting and tweaking the noses of convention, just like fashion. Comfort comes from the raft of differentiation on an ocean of familiarity. The value of a clique is dependent upon its exclusivity, but its devotion can be fickle, just like in high school. Like: A Small World.
Network
Your community could be big and resemble a distribution system, like a network. Members pass along data or connections to one another like a fire brigade. Your goal is to catch the tailwinds of the network effect, whereby the value of the community is proportional to the increasing size of its membership. The network can be big, but there's little to no emotional tax for decoupling. Like LinkedIn.
Cult
Your community could be of medium size and resemble a cult. Its value is a strong belief system not fulfilled through mainstream channels. A charismatic leader has codified the belief system into rituals that people love and believe in. It may not be huge, but its devotion meter is off the scale. Like: Maker's Mark Ambassadors.
Nation
Your community could resemble a nation. The community owns its destiny. Their destiny is yours. The driving force is egalitarianism; everyone is on equal footing, with a few representatives minding the points of direction. The sense of pride, even sovereignty, is palpable. As is the devotion, which many would view as a mythological life-and-death struggle. Like: Netroots Nation.
No matter its type, your community is influenced by the forces of growth and devotion. It's hard to inspire growth, but easy to measure it and control it.
It's difficult to measure the invisible cement of devotion. But as the Facebook Beacon program has shown, it's easy to undermine it.
(Thanks to Ray Bard for the four quadrants graph.)
December 04, 2007
Shortcut marketing
"Lazy Gull," a painting by Tom Stack.
November 27, 2007
Your marketing budget is too big when:
- Your company or PR firm sends press releases to every blogger on the Power 150.
- Your organization writes more press releases than blog posts.
- You have more than one meeting about the wording of a press release.
- You buy lists of names or email addresses.
- Your employees or consultants obsess over "brand equity."
- You've created a brand presence in Second Life.
- You send SMS ads to mobile phones.
- You advertise inside video games.
- You advertise on mobile billboards.
- You advertise during movie theater previews.
- You hire Donald Trump, Martha Stewart or Jessica Simpson to appear in your marketing.
- You obsess over "brand recall" numbers.
- You invest more than a buck in stock photos of people for your website.
- You commission a new website splash page.
- Your new or redesigned website is built entirely in Flash.
- You hire the person responsible for the "Lingerie Bowl."
- It contributes to childhood obesity.
- You learn that your company is astroturfing or sock-puppeting.
- Your CMO's definition of engagement is: "Turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context."
Tell us: What you would add to the list? Here's a sampling of items from commenters on how to know when your marketing budget is too big:
- You pay your PR firm based on how many analyst briefings they can line up, regardless of whether the analysts are writing about companies like yours (from Josh).
- You're hiring companies to "make" something you've already created go viral (from Jennifer).
- Your ad budget exceeds the GDP of Tonga (from Bill).
- Your advertising agency makes a bust of your CEO (also from Bill).
- In a meeting, the word “eyeballs” is used in the same sentence as “Super Bowl" (from Bill yet again... hat trick!)
- You hire a person to "do word of mouth" -- basically, a one-person, one-off promotion ingenue, with a penchant for perky and a endless supply of Rockstar Diet (from Mike).
- You can't sleep because you don't have at least 100 keyword phrases yet for your new blog (from Connie).
- You advertise during the Super Bowl... and no one remembers (from Shama).
- You're not testing every idea (from Jonathan).
November 16, 2007
Five must-haves for thank-you notes
It's simple, of course, but a handwritten note from a business always gets my attention because it's so rare.
Inevitably, I either tell people about a note or blog about it.
Here's one I recently received from, surprise of surprises, my new gym:
It's pretty good. Lauren gets major gold stars for the effort alone, but I think there are five must-haves for an effective, buzzworthy thank-you note:
- Spell the recipient's name correctly (doh!).
- Thank the person for choosing your business. If they shared a specific reason why they choose your business of why they like it, reaffirm it. For heaven's sake, though, don't turn it into a sales pitch.
- Include a personal detail about the recipient that you picked up on. Prove that you were listening. Humanity is a good thing in the antiseptic world of business.
- Open the door to feedback. Whether the recipient provides it isn't the point; it's the idea that you're passionate about creating a recommendable experience.
- Be authentic: Include your full name and contact info -- email and/or phone. Or a business card.
November 01, 2007
PR is useless
... When actions create the real story.
Karen Hughes spent $900 million of Americans' money to convince the Muslim world that our elected leaders in Washington aren't insane. Worldwide opinion polls say otherwise.
Walmart has probably spent close to the same amount of money trying to convince us it isn't the greediest company in the world. But its actions tell us the real story. Today, it's how Walmart is trying to avoid paying state taxes.
Comcast can say it's "comcastic" all it wants, but when its technicians fall asleep on customers' couches, or grandmothers with a heart condition get so frustrated by the company's inattention they smash up a local office, then no amount of professional PR can mask its dreadful operations.
Hundreds of smaller businesses pay PR firms to spam bloggers with meaningless press releases. That's because they don't know how to tell their own stories with actions, not words. They don't understand that real word of mouth, real PR, is generated at the root levels.
The root levels are the clerks, the sales people, the support staff, the receptionist, the call center people, the on-site technicians and consultants, or the police officers, the clerks at the government offices, or the nurses who take your temperature and blood at the hospital. It's their work that generates real PR.
The best PR comes from the smallest of actions by the root-level people. They smile when they first meet you. They call you by your name. They compliment competitors. They don't blame you for their system's misgivings. When forced to make a decision, they always, always, always do the right thing, even if it's not in the economic or political interests of their employer. They break the rules when it's obvious they must.
That's real PR. It's the total sum of stories people tell about you.
October 03, 2007
The galvanizing power of evidence
No amount of marketing that the developers of this complex on South Lamar boulevard in Austin will ever surpass what they've done here.
Those large "sold" signs on the individual units are the best possible evidence to make their sales pitch.
Indicating what's been done, rather than what will be or could be, is a powerful tool that's not often used.
October 02, 2007
Name your price as a sales and marketing strategy
A few years ago, we wrote an essay for Seth's "Big Moo" on what the world might be like if technology and globalization overwhelmingly drove a significant number of prices to their ultimate price point: free.
Our scenario: what if "suggested retail price" disappeared, along with your ability to set prices?
Or, what if you allowed the marketplace to name its own price without negotiation?
The British band Radiohead is trying scenario two with its new album. On this website, you add the album to your cart; when you check out, you type in how much you'll pay. That's it. No argument, no negotiation.
You pay a buck to handle the credit card fee (alas, intermediaries always get paid), but it's a cool experiment in economics for a band known for risk-taking.
For producers of digital content, I argue this isn't much of an economic risk at all. The replication cost of digital files is basically zero. Radiohead has spent years cultivating a cult following, so the band has already reaped a handsome return based on the worldwide attention they've accumulated with this product-release strategy.
Of more benefit to them now is building a database of buyers, bypassing the information black hole of so many retail channels. That's the value exchange.
And in a few months, Radiohead will partner with a label, which will manufacture a CD of the album. If the album is great (always a non-quantitative variable when it comes to art), it will have already created demand for the totem version of the album.
If scarcity isn't your primary method for generating demand, then getting your product or service into as many hands, mouths and minds possible is. The ideas, products or services that spread the most usually win.
Today and more so tomorrow, that means letting go of the control you're accustomed to.
October 01, 2007
The 5th P is Participation
This weekend, Tim told us about Crushpad, a month-old company that is democratizing the wine-making process.
From their site description:
Crushpad is a San Francisco winery where you are the wine maker. Crushpad provides grapes from the West Coast's top vineyards, an industry-acclaimed wine making team and a state-of-the-art winery 100% focused on making wine in small lots. You choose your level of involvement and we do the rest. No matter where you live, you can now make your own "cult" wine.
With most wineries experiencing double-digit growth, wine is a growth industry. To be successful, Crushpad only needs to attract a small percentage of wine afficianados and do-it-yourselfers who love the idea of learning the many mysteries of winemaking, whether it's helping harvest grapes, or meeting fellow amateur oenophiles.
Clearly, Crushpad recognizes that participation is a cultural trend. It is removing a curtain that's always separated the winemaking process from the masses. With a choose-your-own level of participation, Crushpad has engineered word of mouth directly into the company's DNA. It doesn't get much better than that.
If they manage the operations well, they will have engineered easy-to-spread evangelism into the process, too.
I love this idea. I hope Crushpad is a hit.
September 28, 2007
The road to a recommendation
It's been nearly three months since Jackie and I relocated the pews to funky Austin, Texas.
To complete our move, we've purchased goods and services from at least a dozen vendors with local and national roots. We've bought all types of office furniture, equipment and services. We've had things installed and had things hauled away. The investment has surpassed the GDP of Ecquador. Or so it seems.
The only vendor -- the only from more than 12! -- that asked for our opinion afterward was Best Buy.
Best Buy has made deliveries here twice; the first time, it didn't go too well, but the company was extremely apologetic and worked hard afterward to make amends. For the second delivery, the service was flawless.
One big reason why: after each delivery, the driver asked us to rate his work by handing us a bright yellow form that pointed us to a feedback website. One company out of 12.
The road to a hearty recommendation -- and Best Buy easily falls into that category -- begins, ends and begins again with asking for customer feedback.
September 25, 2007
It's a speck
Tom Fishburne's latest Brand Camp cartoon reminds us about the actual "mindshare" products and brands play in the lives of customers.
September 18, 2007
"Eat, Pray, Love" as a WOM model
What creates successful word of mouth?
There's no secret formula, no rules, no simple methodology. A word-of-mouth hit is like a lightning strike: when and where it will land is difficult to predict.
But we can create favorable conditions for it to flourish by examining the hard work that goes into successful buzz-driven products.
Like this one: "Eat, Pray, Love," by Elizabeth Gilbert. The WSJ went behind the scenes last week to understand the word of mouth that has propelled this memoir to sell more than 1.5 million copies thus far.
From the Journal's story, we can extract 6 key factors:
1. Build your base.
For starters, Gilbert had previously written four modestly successful books, establishing an initial base of readers. More importantly, Google "Elizabeth Gilbert;" her personal website is the second result, right after links to her books. It's easy to find her, and Gilbert's website smartly features a prominent picture of her smiling, pretty face.
Translated: Make it easy to find you, your product or service online, or citizen-created content about your product or service. Certainly your product or service website should be search-engine friendly and free of Flash-driven navigation or content, but how often do you link to related content outside of your own? Do you make it easy for people to begin a relationship with you? Are you building relationships months or even years in advance, rather than a week before your product arrives? All of that work builds your base, both among people as well as the search engines.
2. Focus on employee buzz.
Kathryn Court, publisher of Penguin Books which released "Eat, Pray, Love," gave her marketing and sales team homework: read the book! It ensured her sales people could authentically talk about the book. For those who loved it, their enthusiasm would be naturally contagious in the sales channel, not part of some scripted marketing patter.
Translated: Do you make it easy for employees to use your own products and services? Or are there too many financial or bureaucratic hoops for them to navigate, preventing them from becoming power-users or evangelists? Would they even recommend your stuff to their friends and family?
3. If your product or service makes no gender distinctions, tilt it toward women.
In the publishing world, women account for 60-70% of all U.S. book sales. One reason why "Eat, Pray, Love" is a blockbuster because it was written for women, although plenty of men would enjoy it, too. If we consider that women make or influence 80% of all consumer-level purchases, then it follows that women should have major roles in product design and marketing.
Translated: There's a strong chance that women are the primary decision-makers or influencers of the sales of your product or service. Does your product or service speak to women? Is it designed with them in mind, knowing there's a greater likelihood they'll talk about it more than men? Do women have the power to decide how your product is designed and represented? (Yeah, we're talking to you, electronics manufacturers!)
4. Create something that's transformational.
"Eat, Pray, Love" is a memoir of how Gilbert struggled through big changes in her life. It's a story of transformation -- her painful divorce, spiritual search and road to self-redemption as she traveled the world. The WSJ tells us that's been one of the book's strongest hooks. That's why it was excerpted by Oprah's magazine.
Translated: How can your product help change or improve someone's life? How can it be the catalyst for change? That's a tough question for utilitarian products or companies but then again, that never stopped the late Anita Roddick from using her soap business to become a force for empowering women, stopping product testing on animals or working toward social justice.
5. Create something worth talking about.
Gilbert is an accomplished writer. She spent a few years writing for a well-known magazine and had written several books. But it could be argued that "Eat, Pray, Love" was her most personal book, largely due to the above-mentioned transformation.
We're all taught writing during our school years, but it's not easy for everyone to be a great writer. Writing is editing, of stripping away the cliches and conventional thinking until original thoughts and ideas are exposed. The music producer Rick Rubin likes to say that the first dozen songs written for an album are junk. It's not until after the songwriter starts stripping away the masks of convention that songs actually become good. So, too, it often is with writing.
Translated: Creating something worth talking about is the alchemy of word of mouth. What's worth talking about? The answer lies somewhere in the stew of the marketplace of ideas, the social sciences and popular culture. It's between what's new, what's old and what's ready for a comeback. It's also the gulf between what's expected, and what's not.
6. Meet your customers and fans.
In preparing for the release of the paperback edition of "Eat, Pray, Love," Gilbert launched a 20-city book tour. She was visible. Readers and fans met her. She signed books. She listened to their stories. She connected. They told their friends. Stories were written.
For many products and services, people will often be more loyal to the people behind the brands than the brands themselves. That's often due to the emotional connection customers make to the people of your company. Product features, doo-dads, and an endless array of gimmicks are one thing; how you and your employees connect with customers, prospects or vendors is entirely another. That's where the substantial, growth-oriented word of mouth multiplies.
September 12, 2007
Do China's products concern you?
A producer for a big American network news show called us, looking for help. We couldn't help much, but we figured you could in answering 1-2 questions:
1. Because of the problems in China with tainted dog food, toothpaste and toys with lead paint, or because of a greater overall environmental awareness, have you focused on buying more products made in the USA? If so, how and why?
2. Have you seen any companies position their marketing recently as a direct alternative to products made in China?
Post your answers to the comments section. If you're interested in being considered a source for the network news story, be sure to include your name. For comments that interest her, we'll pass along your contact information offline.
September 02, 2007
What's missing here?
Here's a quick marketing puzzle to figure out:
Using my cellphone, I took this photo of a great band performing today at an Austin, Texas, street festival.
From this photo's perspective, what's missing?
The first person to comment with the answer I'm thinking of gets an autographed copy of "Citizen Marketers."
Update 1 - Monday, 5:45 pm: After 25 responses, all of them good, no one has yet identified what I consider to be the most important item missing from this picture. The primary clue is "cellphone."
Update 2 - Monday, 6:45 pm: We have bingo!
There are several things obviously missing from this photo:
- The name of the band; Ben Rowe was the first to note this. But that wasn't the complete answer I was seeking.
- Putting "Austin" in front of Batfest, as commenter Andy noted.
- The sun and a bigger crowd, as several commenters noted. I snapped the picture a few moments before a darkened sky unleashed an hours-long rainstorm. That may explain the picture quality. The lack of a wide-angle lens on my cellphone camera may explain the latter.
But Jeremy was our bingo puzzle winner after noting what I thought was the most important missing element: an easy way to begin a relationship with this band using my cellphone. (Jeremy gets a book for his correct and fast response after I provided the cellphone clue. Mark also gets a book for identifying the band: Nakia and his Southern Cousins. Nakia is the lead singer; he said his name a few times between songs, but since Nakia is an uncommon name, I couldn't fully grasp it.)
This is the bigger issue: If people are out and about, how will they remember a website address? Or the name of band? Or a product? Sitting in front of the computer hours later?
But at the moment I'm listening to a band, or at a trade show or festival, I could use my cellphone to make a simple text-message inquiry about something that tickles my fancy. An automated system sends me all the info I need.
At Batfest, a simple banner with the band's name and "Text 78293 for band info" hanging over or behind the stage would have made it considerably easier for me and nearly everyone else that afternoon to become an opt-in fan of Nakia or the other bands who played that weekend. An automated service could have asked for my email address or permission to text-message me about future shows.
That's the nature of mobile word of mouth: we can ping ourselves or friends quickly if there's an easy way to do it. Seems like that should be standard practice here in tech-savvy Austin (another clue).
As for Nakia, he sounds eerily like Joe Cocker. I only heard three songs, but his band played a tight blend of classic-sounding R&B fused with Texas boogie, two genres I love.
Can he be a big star? Sure, if he creates enough fans.
August 27, 2007
The grassroots Wispa campaign
The British candy bar Wispa will be revived this fall thanks to the petitions of 14,000 people across dozens of different Facebook user groups.
Manufacturer Cadbury Schweppes said it was the first time "that the power of the Internet played such an intrinsic role in the return of a Cadbury brand."
If this is truly a grassroots, nostalgia-driven effort (Cadbury insists it is), then the company has a unique opportunity to parlay that revival interest into strong customer ownership: hand over levels of brand management to a dedicated Facebook community.
Give 'em a voice and a vote on decisions. It would immediately propel thousands of evangelists to the top rung of the loyalty ladder. It would be an excellent R&D vehicle for learning how to apply the work of a community across other brands.
After all, 14,000 Wispa fans have already proven their votes can make noteworthy things happen.
(Thanks, Peter!)
NASCARifying your commute
Wrap your car in an ad just like a city bus or train, and make about $800 per month: "Your ad here, on my S.U.V., and you'll pay?"
What happens when the car driver can't answer the question of a curious passerby because he doesn't work for the pool repair service, even though his car makes it appear that way?
An authentic moment is squandered. Suddenly the brand seems more like a schmuck.
Wrapping one's car in an ad for $800 per month doesn't make you its "brand ambassador," as the company behind this effort claims, any more than the guy who parks a Tagament rig at the baseball stadium.
Real brand ambassadors and customer evangelists would probably do it for free.
August 23, 2007
The $100 million boob job
The WSJ asked a rhetorical question today:
Can a splashy ad campaign featuring the likes of domestic entrepreneur Martha Stewart, tycoon Donald Trump and singer-actress Jessica Simpson help revive Macy's sagging fortunes?
No.
Even if they spend $100 million on advertising.
In one of those "what are they thinking" efforts, Macy's really is going to spend $100 million to saturate us with already over-saturated celebrities to profess how they now love Macy's. $100 million.
The real solution, of course, is that only improved word of mouth from thousands of existing customers, not a bushel of shill-happy celebrities will turn Macy's around. Or any retailer whose fortunes are sagging.
Such an effort requires a holistic and coordinated effort from operations, design, human resources and marketing. It requires an unwavering belief from the CEO and a company-wide can-do spirit. It's a lot of work.
That's the problem. It also requires significant changes in culture and personnel. That's why it'll be easier to blame the CMO or the ad agency when revenues worsen or better yet, take the $20 million severance package when the board shows you the door.
August 07, 2007
The customer review effect
Some new numbers on what retailers in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe say happened after putting customer-created reviews on their websites:
- 77% reported site traffic increases
- 56% reported improved conversion rates
- 42% reported higher average order values
Personally, I don't buy anything or visit any new merchant today without first locating a number of customer-generated reviews for it. Making it easy for customers to review your products on your site is now pretty much a no-brainer.
August 06, 2007
Friendraising before fundraising
Here in Austin, as in Chicago and cities across the nation, busy sidewalks are sometimes filled with teams of young and ambitious people hoping to persuade passersby to give money to their cause.
But they are wasting their time. The collateral pollution of spammers, scammers and phishers who disguise nefarious intentions to steal your money are turning street-team awareness-generators or money collectors into dinosaurs. Sure they can wear matching t-shirts or official-looking badges, but the scams we're increasingly subjected to online is making all of us wary of people we don't already know offline.
Social networks are replacing old-school street teams. Social networks do the work of street teams and create hoped-for network effects: they create friends, spread knowledge and as some political social networks are demonstrating, raise significant dollars. And they can do it much more efficiently than street teams.
Social networks work for cause-driven organizations because they focus on friendraising before fundraising. They create the necessary social capital that makes raising budgetary capital more efficient, eliminating the need for street teams, cold-calling or mass-market appeals.
Friendraising before fundraising creates better friends who will lend you their time, their attention or if you do an exceptional job of creating trust, their money.
July 30, 2007
Products of mirth
Laura sent us this picture, which has been swimming across the web for the past few months. Do a quick search on "High Tide Heels" and you'll find the picture often produces one of three reactions:
- Are those for real?
- Those are stupid! Someone has too much time on their hands.
- Those are cool! Where can I buy them?
Indications are they're not for sale. They seem to be someone's art project. A project of mirth, designed to elicit laughter. I laughed.
It would be hard to imagine a child looking at that photograph and saying "someone has too much time on their hands." A child would probably imagine the possibilities of high-heeled flippers.
That's the thing about mirth, especially with children: they