As always, Seth Godin is a step ahead in understanding how product markets work and he is generous with his ideas. If I were Jeff Bezos, I’d pay attention. Godin’s underlying assumption is that whoever sells the most e-reader devices will control the publishing industry. So Amazon needs to drop the price of the Kindle and do whatever it takes to push the iPad out of the e-book reader market. He has some novel ideas such as:
Sign up to get a Kindle book of your choice every month for 12 months and get a free Kindle. Amazon presents you with ten book choices, and since the cost of delivering it is zero, there’s plenty of margin for all…
He has several more ideas so surf on over and check them out. It’s a smart, aggressive strategy. I hope Amazon is paying attention. I might add an idea or two of my own such as partnering with universities and textbook manufacturers.
What do you think? Is the Kindle going the way of the 8-track? Is Steve Jobs about to do it again?
Have you seen these pictures making their way around the Internets?
Yeah, I know it’s childish of me to pile on but this is the kind of thing that spreads faster than strep. The days of protecting your image and brand are OVER. Not just for BP, but for all of us. You can’t protect it; you have to sit up, take your lumps like a man (pardon the sexism), own what you did if you screwed up, do everything you can to make it right. Don’t take shortcuts or b.s. your customer (I’m talking to you, Toyota and you, Sigg, and you, BP) because we’re onto you and we will tell all our friends who will tell their friends and so on and so on and so on.
And you will live in infamy forever.
I still have businesses tell me they don’t want a Facebook page or a blog because they’re afraid they’ll get negative comments. Seriously? That’s what you’re worried about? The COMMENTS? How about the actual issues your customers have? Address them. And you know what? When you address them forthrightly in a public forum, most people will forgive you and even reward you for doing the right thing.
Having said that, I think it’s too late for BP. What do you think? Any shot of damage control here or are they done?
So if you’re BP’s marketing execs and your company just screwed up and spilled a bunch of oil in the ocean and keep screwing up with boneheaded statements from your CEO, what’re you going to do? Take out ads in major newspapers telling everyone how much you care? Check. Ads are running and roundly being mocked. What else? Oh yeah . . . how about buying up all the oil spill search terms? That way whenever anyone is searching for information on the oil spill, you can come to the top of the paid listings (which let’s face it, most people don’t know the difference between the paid and organic results) and direct people to your website with your propaganda?
It’s diabolical, isn’t it? Actually, it’s what I would do if I were in their situation. But still . . . ewwww. . . it’s kind of icky, isn’t it?
What you would give to a client, you should always give to yourself first.
I’m standing in a Mexican supermarket choosing pastries called besos, empanadas de crema and tabasqueños. No, I wasn’t grocery shopping (well, maybe a little), I was working.
New Thought Marketing was putting together a Cinco de Mayo gift box for clients. And we wanted to include some delicious Mexican pastries. If the boxes were long enough I’d just include the churros from my favorite stand and call it a day… after I tested them one more time of course.
But the box wasn’t long enough. So there I was on my grand pastry expedition. The first sweets I tried were frankly just okay. If I got these in a box, I’d think the idea was cool, but I wouldn’t be excited.
Off to the next place where the empanadas were soft, fresh and delicious, with a light dusting of sugar on top. Perfect. Two bakeries and six pastry tastings: It was a difficult job, but someone had to do it.
So the moral of the story (and yes there is one) is test your marketing promotions in order to give away value. It may be just a 10-cent pen. But if it has your name on it, it represents your brand. So it had better be a good pen, one that you’d like someone to give to you, not one that you have to shake to get to work (don’t you hate that).
At New Thought Marketing, we will often take a client to a promotional items showroom. Not only does this allow our clients to discover new promotional ideas, it allows them to test the quality. As much as you can, try to think about what a customer would be excited to receive, instead of what you are willing to give away.
Sometimes the answer will surprise you… and can actually be cheaper. For example, a major long distance company (I leave which one to your imagination) was offering 30 free minutes, 60 free minutes or a free long distance call of any length to new calling card customers.
Not only did the free long distance call win more new customers, it was also the cheapest, costing about $2.95 on average vs $11.50 for the 60 free minutes and $5.75 for the 30 free minutes. Without testing or putting themselves in the customers’ shoes, the company would have lost potential new customers.
Which one would you have chosen? Think about it: What is 30 minutes or even 60 minutes worth to you? It’s a little too nebulous to wrap your mind around. But a free long distance call…well, that’s a free call to your mother to say everything you need to say. And it doesn’t matter how long it takes. A conversion is ultimately more valuable than free minutes.
In the end, I hope our clients found the pasties delicious…I know I did. Too bad I didn’t have the pleasure of searching for the perfect margarita mix!
It’s that time of year again. Who’s in, who’s out? Who’s still in business and has an extra million or so bucks lying around for a Super Bowl spot? Why would somebody spend that much on one ad anyway?
On a pure cost-per-thousand people reached (CPM), Super Bowl ads are inefficient. So if you’re a hard-core numbers person, look elsewhere. But on an “event” marketing basis, the Super Bowl offers a number of important advantages. First, it’s one of the few shows people watch for the commercials. Second, because it’s sports and a huge event, most people do not DVR it and fast forward through the commercials. And last, but not least, media outlets (and bloggers!) post their favorite spots so if yours is a good one, it has the potential for additional exposure.
There’s also some research to indicate that sports viewers are more engaged with the content and therefore with the ads.
So who’s in this year? Alas, it pains me to report that GoDaddy will be back with two spots. I have no idea how scantily clad the actresses will be but I hear that Danica Patrick is reprising her role as the “GoDaddy girl.” Boy, I am so bummed I didn’t get that.
Bridgestone is sponsoring the halftime show again this year, which will feature a performance by The Who. That just happens to be my husband’s favorite band.
Anheuser Busch will be back. Monster’s back. Dorito’s is back with ads created by amateurs. Ad Age has the full list here if you’re curious if your favorite brand will be there.
Who will be talked about the next morning? Something tells me Twitter will be abuzz during the game with people loving or hating on the commercials — in addition to tweeting about the game. I’ll be curious to see if Twitter’s trending topics match up with post-game favorability ad scores.
Vesatee and I are at the Women’s Council of Realtors/Alabama Chapter (WCR) annual retreat at Callaway Gardens. They asked us here to speak on social media and other online marketing tools. Today, we discussed the importance of referrals in service-based businesses (well, any business really). Social media gives us the ability to amplify that word-of-mouth. If you used to be able to call 10 people a day, you can now easily reach hundreds of people that you already know (if you know that many people) in just one day — well, minutes really.
I meet lots of social media skeptics, people who think it’s just another waste of their time. And some of it is. But I think most of us agree that we want to hang out where our customers are hanging out, and increasingly, that’s online. They are interacting on Facebook, using Twitter to communicate, uploading videos to YouTube and blogging. It’s important to cruise this virtual town square and insert yourself in these online conversations.
The women of WCR understand this. They are building their local association chapters, in addition to building their individual businesses. They are dynamic and motivated. They understand that in times of economic distress, it’s more important than ever to step up one’s game.
Tomorrow, we are going to teach the group how to use Twitter. Twitter, for all its bare-bones functionality (it is, after all, just short messages), is still baffling for new users to figure out. The interface is not intuitive; that’s why so many people use Twitter apps like Tweetdeck, Twhirl and the like. For new people just getting started, the learning curve can be steep. What’s a “retweet?” What’s the difference between an “@reply” and a “dm”? Heck, what’s an “@reply” anyway?
Given how confusing it can be to get started, it’s remarkable how much Twitter usage has grown: it grew an astonishing 2,613% year to year (July 08 to July 09). Somebody’s figuring it out. Your customers? Your competitors? Might it be time for you to find out?
Thanks to the WCR for asking us to be part of their retreat.
My husband and I have Sigg water bottles. Have you heard of the brand? It’s what all the cool kids use to cart around their water. Better for the environment than plastic bottles and better than a lot of sports bottles because they’re BPA-free. BPA, or Bisphenol-A, is considered toxic by some countries (Canada has banned it) and is a source of controversy here in the States. Nevertheless, the environmentally conscious, and certainly Sigg’s consumers, are all about BPA-free bottles. So Sigg promoted themselves as BPA-free and they basically lied. It turns out their liners do contain small amounts of BPA. They did a little verbal sleight-of-hand by saying that their bottles didn’t “leach” BPA in tests.
They knew what they were saying. They knew it was dishonest. That they didn’t know they’d get caught is shocking and stupid.
I honestly don’t think there’s enough BPA in the bottles for it to be a problem. But I’m pissed that they lied and I, like millions others, will never buy another Sigg bottle again. This is a bummer. I liked them so much I’ve blogged about them on my personal blog. Even bought a cute custom wrap for my husband’s bottle.
And the CEO of Sigg does not seem to know a lick about damage control. Sure, he claims to be reading and responding to emails personally. But then he goes and says stupid things like, “if retailers keep our old bottles on the shelf, there’s nothing we can do about that.” (I’m paraphrasing slightly.) Dude! You should be out front, apologizing, replacing bottles like crazy, getting independent testing to verify that your bottles and liners are now 100% BPA-free, etc. Actually, you should resign and let someone else clean up your mess. Because you lied. You double downed on your lie when questioned about it, and you’ve broken the consumer’s trust. That’s hard to win back. And since nobody will trust a word you say, you should step aside and let someone else try to mend the fences.
I would not want to be this guy’s PR firm.
I once worked for a guy who asked me to lie to the media. I looked at him like he had two heads and refused. He told me that I was his Vice President, that I was playing in the big leagues, and that I needed to do what was expected of me. Regrettably, I didn’t tell him to go f-himself. Fortunately, the magazine did not pick up the story and none of us had to decide whether we were going to do as we were told or risk losing our jobs.
If Sigg’s CEO had really come clean and reached out as I described above, his customers might be forgiving. As it is, he just handed his competitors several market share points. Kleen Kanteen, here I come!
Footnote: I tried to link to Sigg’s Facebook page but it’s disappeared. Is some ticked off fan messing with them? Or are they shutting down their community to avoid letting people have a place to post negative messages? Do they actually think the conversation will stop? No, it’ll just move on to someplace else where they won’t get to insert their voice . . . like Twitter or blogs. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I’m reading this NYTimes piece on Ford’s use of “guiding personalities” (what we at NTM call “customer personae) to inform and shape their new car design. Ford gets this half-right. At NTM, we use personae all the time to help our clients focus on their core customer’s needs and wants.
What’s a customer persona? It’s a mini-profile, a biography that fleshes out your target demographic. When you have people from all over your company focused on your customer, it’s a lot easier for them to understand who “Bob” is if you’ve provided details of Bob’s life, then it is to understand that the target customer is a “male, 25-54 years old, with an average HH income of $75,000.” Much better to describe Bob:
Bob is a 40 year old middle manager at a logistics company. He’s married to Cheryl, who works part-time at a bank and shuttles their two kids (10 and 6 years old) around. Bob drives a Ford SUV. He wears clothes his wife bought him at Kohl’s and Old Navy. Suits aren’t required at his office; Bob wears the typical business casual uniform of khakis and a golf shirt. The family vacations in Florida each summer, often with another family. For fun, Bob likes to watch NASCAR and college football, especially UGA, his alma mater.
Get the idea? Now contrast Bob with Chris, in the same target demo as Bob.
Chris is an environmental engineer, 30 years old. He got his master’s degree in civil engineering and has been on the job for just three years. He’s engaged to Ashley, a public relations executive. Chris drives a Prius and shops for himself at Macy’s and specialty men’s boutiques in the mall. He has a killer margarita recipe, fancies himself a decent cook, and likes to entertain.
Both these men are 25-54 years old; both make $75,000, but they couldn’t be further apart. Fleshing them out, giving them a story, helps your employees visualize. So if they’re working on a product feature, they can ask themselves, “would this appeal to Bob?” (When we develop customer personae for our clients, we like to clip magazine photos to realize the profile more fully.)
OK, so how is it that Ford only gets this half right? According to the article, they’ve created Antonella, a 28-year old Italian living in Rome, to guide the design of the Ford Fiesta. Their thinking being that party girls are the same no matter what country they live in, and that Italians are experts when it comes to small car driving. That may be true, but the people designing and building the Fiesta are Americans who may or may not be able to relate to this young Italian donna. The whole purpose of creating the persona is so that your team can understand and relate to the person. It should be someone they instinctively “get” or know.
So kudos to Ford for trying. And hey, who am I to tell them what they’re doing wrong? But I sure would’ve used Ashley, a 28-year old living in Chicago, if I were developing their profiles.
On this subject, I know so much, and yet, so little. I know what most of you know from watching the news, following the tweets, reading the blogs. I know a little more because I’m half-Iranian and lived there as a kid for three years before the Revolution. I’m not sure that experience gives me any meaningful insight, but I feel as if I know the people, understand their passions, and share their longing for freedom.
I could weigh in on the current uprising, the politicians, the process, the government, the mullahs, but there are smarter, more informed bloggers and reporters (See Andrew Sullivan, the Lede, Nico Pitney) that can better educate you on those topics. So while I am blown away by the movement, and the courage of the protestors, what I want to write about today is the marketing of the movement.
Time magazine calls Twitter the “medium of the movement.” Much has been said about how Iranians are using Twitter to communicate with one another and with those of us outside the country who are watching. They are using it as an organizing tool (tweeting out what time and where the protests are occurring) and as an information-dispenser (tweeting out in real time what is happening, the beatings, the violence, the non-violence, etc.). The government shut down texting and almost shut down the Internet (they slowed it down to low, dial-up speeds to discourage people from uploading videos), but folks were able to use Twitter. And because the regime is monitoring Twitter, folks outside of the country helped the Iranians set up proxy servers to hide their Internet trails.
I’m sure Tom Friedman would call the revolution “flat.” In the past, when people protested (think Tiananmen Square), all most of us could do was helplessly watch it on TV. Today, Americans are engaged with the protestors, setting up the proxy servers, retweeting their news and information, helping to spread the news and photos to the world, all in defiance of the Iranian government. While we aren’t physically there, we are able to show our support, albeit limitedly. Hence, the “flat” world.
” . . . as a medium gets faster, it gets more emotional. We feel faster than we think. But Twitter is also just a much more personal medium. Reading personal messages from individuals on the ground prompts a whole other sense of involvement.” – NYU Professor Clay Shirky
It really is remarkable how the Internet has changed things. Before, if a government clamped down on its citizens, we might hear rumors and whispers. Today, we have thousands of cell phone pictures and videos distributed online almost immediately. We have real time, unedited “man on the street” reports in the form of tweets and blog entries. We have Facebook updates from the incumbent candidate and his opponents, like Mousavi. The Ayatollah reportedly even has a Facebook page.
What we don’t have enough of are reporters in the region, giving it all context. Most of what we’re receiving is raw and unedited, so “buyer beware.”
The protestors are controlling the conversation right now. From a marketing standpoint, whoever controls the conversation “wins.” If I jump out of the box and claim that I’m supporting freedom, I’m automatically implying that you aren’t. If I get a whole bunch of people to agree with me – and find a way to get that word out – then guess what? I’m the freedom lover and you hate freedom. This is what we call positioning. And in the battle for the minds, the protestors are winning right now in spite of the government’s vast tools (they control the mass media and are reporting little on the protestors, they control the army, etc.). Social media has allowed the protestors to spread their news quickly all around the world. And the world is watching.
There is a lesson here for marketers as well. While we talk about social media and help our clients develop programs, at the end of the day, WE DON’T CONTROL THE CONVERSATION. The users do. We can set up the Facebook fan pages, the Twitter accounts, build initial followings, and create promotions to draw attention to our efforts. But at the end of the day, the people decide what they’re going to talk about and how often they’re going to talk.
And as the Iranians have shown us, if the people are passionate about their subject matter, nothing will stop them from communicating.
We're the brains behind New Thought Marketing, a consulting firm based in Atlanta. When it comes to marketing, we know how to push the envelope and we know when to keep it simple. If you need assistance in strategic thinking, contact us. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy our blog.
