Marketing

Hey customer, thanks for calling. You are fired!

July 6, 2007

Sometimes the stupidity of Corporate America stuns me.

Sprint recently sent out a batch of letters to their own customers.  The gist of the letter is that these customers have called Customer Service about billing or other issues too often, so Sprint is firing them.

What I love most about this letter is the ending. 

Picture_3

You're fired because you call too much.  But if you have any questions — call us!!  And does anyone else see the oxymoron of calling it the Customer CARE department?

So, if you've been looking for a way to break your Sprint contract so you can grab a new iPhone, it looks like you just need to give Sprint a call.  Or 10.

If you were the VP of Marketing for Sprint and the powers that be came to you with this decision…what would you have said?  If they demanded the customers be terminated, how would you have recommended it be handled?

Update:  Considering this was about less than 1,000 customers, now how badly do you think they handled it?

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How to anchor your tagline in your target’s mind

July 2, 2007

Picture_2_2 Use it.  Everywhere.

Here's a startling reality check.  About the time we are so sick of our positioning line (or tagline) that we could scream — our audiences are just beginning to notice it.

How do we accelerate the marketplace's awareness of our tagline?  We use it.  Wherever and whenever we can.  Sometimes, creating memorable marketing is as simple as frequency.

Where should we put it?  I'll start the list and you guys chime in.  After a few days, I'll update the post and give you credit for your ideas (in case some people are too lazy to scroll down through the comments!)

Business cards
Letterhead
Website
e-mail signature
invoices
Signage (when it fits)
Vehicle signage
Promotional items (pens, cups, lanyards, frisbees)
Wearables (hats, polos, t-shirts, aprons)
Voice mail message

Come on…where else?

UPDATE:  Here are some reader additions to the list.

Actually live your brand promise — submitted by Pete
Promotional literature (brochures, fliers, data sheets, etc)
Trade show exhibits
Newsletter banners
Presentations
Proposals
Advertising (TV, radio, print) — submitted by Martin Jelsema
Your blog — submitted by Steve Woodruff
Invoices
Checks
Front windows (we use sticky letter as well as paint)
Billboards
Social networking sites
Tattoos (Temporary!)
15 second pitches
Introductions
Sales Counters
Walls
Product packaging
Shipping containers and tape
Screen savers
Break areas (on the fridge)
Restroom mirrors
Text messages
Entry carpets
Is skywriting out of the question? — submitted by Becky McCray

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Are your marketing efforts overcompensating?

June 29, 2007

We’ve all seen it.

Bulging, overloaded PowerPoint slides,  brochures, packaging and websites.  With every additional word or element — you can smell the uncertainty.

They’re afraid the audience won’t get it.  Which speaks volumes.  But not about the audience.

Are you confident enough to be simple?

1tiffany_2

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Want a 24/7 employee?

June 23, 2007

Picture_5 One of the more interesting of viral marketing tools is the idea of using avatars in place of live employees.  Let’s face it, an avatar is never going to be sick, have to take their son to the dentist or want vacation time!

According to a study conducted by the Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University, "characters (avatars) can express social roles, emotions, and organized personalities that match learning goals, company brands, and transaction needs. Characters can increase the trust that users place in online experiences, in part because they make online experiences easier."

Avatars are also being used for in-house training and many other applications.  And your avatar doesn’t have to be human.  Remember CareerBuilders.com’s monkeys?  Odds are you received one of their Monk-e-Mails.  This is one of the ones I created.  Picture_6

A new viral campaign they’re running is Age-O-Matic — what will your job do to you.  And before you dismiss these are just fun and games, the Monk-e-Mail campaign increased traffic to CareerBuilders.com by 25%.

Certainly one of the most "famous" avatar driven marketing efforts is Second Life, the 3-D virtual world those boasts participants like Dell, the American Cancer Society and one crazy agency who announced their beginnings there.

Picture_8 Again, in case you think it’s all cute cartoons, according the the economic stats on Second Life’s home page, in the past 24 hours, $1,895,494 (U.S. dollars) was spent in world.

Want to check it out for yourself? You can create an avatar of your own, on SitePal’s free trial.

So, I’m curious.  Is this technology beyond your clients or your business?  Does it feel like this is only the territory of the big, retail businesses?

Is this one of those "cool, but not for me" things or have you used this sort of technology already?

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Let go

June 17, 2007

Trainingwheels It seems appropriate to share this with you on Father’s Day.  It’s something that’s come to me as I’ve blundered through being a dad.  It’s one of the hardest lessons I’ve ever had to learn.   Fortunately, the difficulty has been commensurate with the value.

When my daughter was a little less than a year old, she, like all babies, was struggling to stand and take those first steps.  I would walk behind her, her hands wrapped tightly around my forefingers to provide some stability, and together we would walk.

Of course, I was handling most of the balancing.  She was just putting one foot in front of the other and sort of lunging.  If I had removed my hands, she would have fallen.  So I didn’t.

My mistake.  Once I let her fall a couple times, she figured it out.  And took her first steps.

Flash forward a few years.  My daughter loved riding her bike and was ready to go sans training wheels.  So we took them off.  We started out slowly.  I’d walk (then run) behind her, holding onto the seat so she wouldn’t fall.   Every time the bike would start to tip to the side, I righted it and we kept going.

My mistake.  Once I let her fall a couple times, she figured it out.  And rode down the street, triumphant and training wheel free.

I’ve observed this pattern in our lives together many times. When I hang on too tight out of fear or protectiveness, she doesn’t grow.  She doesn’t master something new.  She doesn’t get to be all that she can be.

I know, as we approach the dating years, I am going to be painfully reminded of this lesson.  And I know I won’t always heed the little voice in my head that’s whispering, "let go."    But I’m going to try.

Beyond parenting, I believe the "let go" lesson is incredibly relevant in marketing. 

We can craft our marketing messages and our brand promises until we think they’re perfect.  But sooner or later, we have to let go.  We have to recognize that it’s a conversation, not a monologue.

When we hang on too tight out of fear or protectiveness, nothing grows.  We can’t master something new.  And the relationship we’re trying to forge with our community of customers doesn’t get to be all that it can be.

What’s something that you held onto for too long?  Or, tell us a success story of what happened when you let go.

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What if Seth Godin was full of crap?

June 15, 2007

Picture_4 He’s become the JFK of the blogosphere.  Revered.  Quoted.  Beloved.

But what if ones of these days he said something that just didn’t ring true to you. Or that you vehemently disagreed with? Would you publicly say so?   Would you call him out or disagree? 

As I watch us all invent this medium and how it is used to create thought leadership surrounding marketing and branding, I’m struck by how genteel we are.  We rarely argue with one another.  We point to each other and "atta boy" a good post.  And there’s nothing wrong with that. 

As long as our readers know there’s a balance.  As long as they can trust that we’ll tell them when the Emperor’s naked.

And it’s not just Seth.  I think we do it with each other all the time. Haven’t you read another marketer’s post and thought "he/she’s way off base there?"  Did you comment or post your counter-viewpoint?  Or did you just shrug and let it hang?

Seth’s just a great example because he’s become the marketing icon.  He’s down to first name status.  He’s the Bono or Cher of our industry.  But, as smart and insightful as he is, that doesn’t make him infallible. 

And if you say…"well, Seth is never wrong…" does that mean he stays in the safe zone?  No one is always right unless they don’t push beyond the accepted truths, right?

What do you think?  If Seth (or Guy or Kathy Sierra or any respected marketing/branding blogger) posted something today that was based on a faulty assumption or flew in the face of a marketing truth as you know/believe it to be – would you write about it?   

Maybe the better question is — have you ever?

UPDATE:  Mack Collier asks a very interesting and smart question.  If Seth were to launch a generic blog with no tie to him/his name –would it survive?  Thrive?

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Viral product placement — do you think it drives sales?

June 14, 2007

One of the newer trends in marketing is the development of videos (think Mentos & Diet Coke) with specific products playing a primary role.  On YouTube alone, the Mentos video was viewed over 2.2 million times.  And imagine what that number balloons to when you consider all the places the video was shared.

A more recent viral video coined "Catch" features a guy catching a pair of Ray-Ban glasses on his face.  Despite some pretty hard to believe scenarios.

That video, on YouTube alone, has been watched almost 2.5 million times.  But…does it makes you want to buy Ray-Bans?  Or does it even make you more aware of the brand?

Josh Warner, President of the Feed Company who produced the video sure hopes so.  He was the subject of an interesting Q&A on the topic.  Their home page says "200,000 videos are uploaded to YouTube and the web every day.  You might be an agency or entertainment company that’s great at making ’em but getting web videos ranked, forwarded, and featured is an art in itself.   Let us feed the monster – we know what it’s hungry for."

What do  you think? 

  • Does it sell product?
  • Does it raise brand awareness?
  • When the viewers realize its been produced as an "ad" does that change/diminish its effect?
  • Would the technique play better if it occurred naturally or doesn’t it matter?

 

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What is the matter with you people? You are supposed to be marketers!

June 12, 2007

Photo You are marketing people.

You are blogging or have a website so that people (potential customers, the media, etc.) can learn more about you, so that they want to talk to you. Right?

So why in the name of all that is holy do you NOT have your e-mail address on your website or blog??

Some of you are laughing…but I challenge you.  Physically go to the blogs in your feed reader.  Or pay attention to the 10 blogs you visit every day. 

You will be astonished at how many professional business/marketing blogs give the reader absolutely no way to get a hold of the author, except in the comments section.

As I’ve worked on the last few collaborative projects, I’ve had to reach out to many bloggers. I’ve spent countless hours trying to track some of them down.

And don’t give me the SPAM or bots excuse.  Come on…if you have to, spell out the e-mail address with the word "at" in place of the @ sign.  But for the love of Pete, give us a way to start a conversation.

Isn’t that why you’re blogging in the first place?

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