Thursday, March 27, 2008
LIP SYNCH FRIDAY! - LADIES NIGHT! DIVA NIGHT!
The one below is not actually a lip synch, but good tv is good tv. It's the black bra that makes this a genuine ensemble.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Being Thankful
I buy a lot of stuff online, and am thus in a lot of email streams. I don’t open all of them, but I do read a lot, and I am struck by how few companies actually thank customers for their business.
Why thank customers? Well, because they pay your salary, and those of all your friends and coworkers. Because when people buy things from you, they place an implicit trust in you to deliver what you promise. We as marketers should thank people for that trust.
The only time I get thanked, it seems, is by recorded messages that also tell me that my call is very important to them, when it clearly isn’t. There is a difference between a throwaway thank you and a sincere one, and consumers can smell that difference a mile away.
I like it when United pilots tell me that they realize that I have a choice in airlines, and that they thank me for flying United. I remember an email I was sent when they were at death’s door after 9/11, which was signed by everyone at United thanking me for my loyalty.
Yes, I know they sent out a billion of them. I harbor no illusions that it was individually typed. I wouldn’t want them to. I just want companies to recognize that purchases are an act of faith that needs to be acknowledged.
It amazes me how many of my past clients spent 90% of their effort on customer acquisition, thinking of retention as something they’d worry about later, or that isn’t necessary. The worst manifestation is when new customers get a huge discount while the schmucks that have been loyal through 37 purchases have to pay full price. Many companies call a discount offered to a loyal buyer “subsidizing your users” and scoff at the stupidity of it.
I’d like to gently point out that the subsidizing of their relationship is the other way around. Their loyal buyers are subsidizing THEM despite their callous disregard.
But this post isn’t about discounts or frequent buyer clubs or whatnot. This is about expressing thanks occasionally.
I’d have liked it if maker of the dog food I buy had thanked me for retrusting them when it returned to the shelf. They didn’t, by the way, and that still chaps my ass given that I am literally placing the life of the cutest pup in the World in their hands.
I’d have liked it if the American Red Cross had sent a thank you for my tsunami online donation slightly faster than eight months after the credit card got charged. I know that they had lots to do at the time, but a thank you sent eight months late is more disdain than gratitude.
Life can often seem a thankless business. Don’t make it one for your customers. You can thank them easily and simply with digital, and you don’t even have to use some elaborate 2.0 platform. A nice SINCERE email will do it.
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.
Why thank customers? Well, because they pay your salary, and those of all your friends and coworkers. Because when people buy things from you, they place an implicit trust in you to deliver what you promise. We as marketers should thank people for that trust.
The only time I get thanked, it seems, is by recorded messages that also tell me that my call is very important to them, when it clearly isn’t. There is a difference between a throwaway thank you and a sincere one, and consumers can smell that difference a mile away.
I like it when United pilots tell me that they realize that I have a choice in airlines, and that they thank me for flying United. I remember an email I was sent when they were at death’s door after 9/11, which was signed by everyone at United thanking me for my loyalty.
Yes, I know they sent out a billion of them. I harbor no illusions that it was individually typed. I wouldn’t want them to. I just want companies to recognize that purchases are an act of faith that needs to be acknowledged.
It amazes me how many of my past clients spent 90% of their effort on customer acquisition, thinking of retention as something they’d worry about later, or that isn’t necessary. The worst manifestation is when new customers get a huge discount while the schmucks that have been loyal through 37 purchases have to pay full price. Many companies call a discount offered to a loyal buyer “subsidizing your users” and scoff at the stupidity of it.
I’d like to gently point out that the subsidizing of their relationship is the other way around. Their loyal buyers are subsidizing THEM despite their callous disregard.
But this post isn’t about discounts or frequent buyer clubs or whatnot. This is about expressing thanks occasionally.
I’d have liked it if maker of the dog food I buy had thanked me for retrusting them when it returned to the shelf. They didn’t, by the way, and that still chaps my ass given that I am literally placing the life of the cutest pup in the World in their hands.
I’d have liked it if the American Red Cross had sent a thank you for my tsunami online donation slightly faster than eight months after the credit card got charged. I know that they had lots to do at the time, but a thank you sent eight months late is more disdain than gratitude.
Life can often seem a thankless business. Don’t make it one for your customers. You can thank them easily and simply with digital, and you don’t even have to use some elaborate 2.0 platform. A nice SINCERE email will do it.
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.
Wisdom from the East? Or the Orange?
Hurrah!
A new perspective has emerged from the doors of Catalyst SF. Our own Kevin Long aka KLong has created a digital marketing blog. His first post is up, and it is a winner. Somehow he weaves together water buffalo Disney, Nick and the new GoFish Network. Find it here and add the Digital Sensei to your start pages!
One note: Kevin's blog name is all sage and wisdom of the East and sh*t, but he's actually from the OC - so I will be encouraging him to change the name to DigitalKooKooRoo. I am not hopeful about driving this change however. The fella has airs. ;-)
Seriously, check it out.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Twitter Me This
Find a Date. Make a Sale.
Why don’t more companies leverage the dating sites for marketing? You’ve got millions of highly involved members, all looking for things they have in common, or ideas for what to do on those dreaded first dates.
Relationship sites have done a great deal of partner marketing in recent years, most notably Perfectmatch’s partnerships with movie studios, Lifetime, Today, etc. But if you consider the absolutely colossal populations on Match, eHarmony, and Perfectmatch, just to name three, its absolutely crazy that more brands haven’t jumped on the bandwagon.
I’m not talking about banners. Well, that’s not right. Banners would be OK for an awareness campaign, but I bet click metrics would be dismal. If I’m there checking out potential dates, I’m not going to be clicking on mortgage ads.
No, rather, I am talking about deep integrated partnerships. Like what? Here are a few ideas:
1. Coffee Dates: Work with the backend of these sites to identify the Starbucks that is most convenient for both people. Then, give the asker a pretty ecard to send to their prospective date, asking for a meetup. This’d also work for a beer or wine or spirits brand.
2. Movie Dates: If you’ve ever done online dating, you know one of the challenges is to figure out what to do on those first couple of dates. What about making evites to invite your love interest to the opening of a flick. It’d tie in well with the hype strategy of most movies to get butts in seats on opening weekend.
3. Outfit apps: Have an apparel company work with a site to help people decide on what to buy and wear on their date.
4. New year diets and exercise: Work with a fitness company to help members improve their appearance and their first impressions.
It’s easy to come up with ideas like this. And I suspect that given that the category growth has slowed, many dating sites would be only too happy to develop new revenue streams. This stuff isn’t rocket science but it could be enormously powerful in the lives of singles. Think of the implication of being the place where millions of people had their first coffee date? It makes my heart go pitter pat.
This stuff might require a bit of back end integration, but it doesn’t require a leap of faith about what people will be doing in six months online -- meaning you don't need a crystal ball to identify what the single will be doing online ain six mos. About 50 million of them will be looking for a date. Dating sites aren’t going away anytime soon. And it isn’t getting any easier to break the ice and get the dating ball rolling.
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.
Relationship sites have done a great deal of partner marketing in recent years, most notably Perfectmatch’s partnerships with movie studios, Lifetime, Today, etc. But if you consider the absolutely colossal populations on Match, eHarmony, and Perfectmatch, just to name three, its absolutely crazy that more brands haven’t jumped on the bandwagon.
I’m not talking about banners. Well, that’s not right. Banners would be OK for an awareness campaign, but I bet click metrics would be dismal. If I’m there checking out potential dates, I’m not going to be clicking on mortgage ads.
No, rather, I am talking about deep integrated partnerships. Like what? Here are a few ideas:
1. Coffee Dates: Work with the backend of these sites to identify the Starbucks that is most convenient for both people. Then, give the asker a pretty ecard to send to their prospective date, asking for a meetup. This’d also work for a beer or wine or spirits brand.
2. Movie Dates: If you’ve ever done online dating, you know one of the challenges is to figure out what to do on those first couple of dates. What about making evites to invite your love interest to the opening of a flick. It’d tie in well with the hype strategy of most movies to get butts in seats on opening weekend.
3. Outfit apps: Have an apparel company work with a site to help people decide on what to buy and wear on their date.
4. New year diets and exercise: Work with a fitness company to help members improve their appearance and their first impressions.
It’s easy to come up with ideas like this. And I suspect that given that the category growth has slowed, many dating sites would be only too happy to develop new revenue streams. This stuff isn’t rocket science but it could be enormously powerful in the lives of singles. Think of the implication of being the place where millions of people had their first coffee date? It makes my heart go pitter pat.
This stuff might require a bit of back end integration, but it doesn’t require a leap of faith about what people will be doing in six months online -- meaning you don't need a crystal ball to identify what the single will be doing online ain six mos. About 50 million of them will be looking for a date. Dating sites aren’t going away anytime soon. And it isn’t getting any easier to break the ice and get the dating ball rolling.
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.
"Aggressive Online Behavior"
I am a scrounger for free online info, and a white paper hoarder. That said, there are certain things that everyone should read, and this is one of them. It is an excellent white paper on how to deal with "aggressive, destructive consumer behavior" designed to inpugn reputations or interrupt business. If I had a nickel for every company that has asked me about this topic...
The authors, Misters Urs Gasser and John G. Palfrey, Jr. provided a thorough way of thinking about UGC, and a series of steps to prepare and combat aggressive UGC. Download it from the Cymfony website here.
Or join the new site eMarketing Papers free (where I found it) and grab it along with a treasure trove of other marketing white papers. You'll be happy you did.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
The authors, Misters Urs Gasser and John G. Palfrey, Jr. provided a thorough way of thinking about UGC, and a series of steps to prepare and combat aggressive UGC. Download it from the Cymfony website here.
Or join the new site eMarketing Papers free (where I found it) and grab it along with a treasure trove of other marketing white papers. You'll be happy you did.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Monday, March 24, 2008
The Giant Sucking Sound
Forgive me if I deviate from the topic of digital marketing for a moment -- actually it'll be in here somewhere.
I've been thinking a lot about the digital economy and its implications. Generally speaking digital is good for Northern California where I live. Sure, lots of tech jobs have been outsourced to Asia, but there are still lots of them here as well. And new companies and the promise of biotech generally mean that Northern California won't have to suffer the traumas of Ohio or Michigan or Pennsylvania.
But I live in Oakland, which is the big city in Nor Cal that generally doesn't benefit very much from the digital boom. The schools aren't very good, drop out rates are high, crime is problematic, and real, genuine, empty stomach poverty is by no means rare here. There are also systemic problems in the way digital recruits people. How many African Americans do YOU know in digital? Ditto Latinos? How about even in Mobile, which is a medium disproportionately favored by both groups. Or how about women? How many women CEOs are there in the Valley?
And it brings up a larger question for me about what regular people are going to do in the US in the future. Yes, bigger, more educated minds than mine have discussed and theorized about this subject. But while some of us can capitalize on the digital revolution, there are millions and millions and millions of Americans and Europeans and Mexicans and Canadians and insert names of 92 other countries who largely cannot.
There used to be a place for people who have abilities related to physical work -- you couldn't perhaps be rich as a factory worker, but you could have a house and a couple cars and pay for a state school for your progeny.
And now what? They cannot all be waiters -- in part because companies are figuring out ways to outsource even drive through orders and in part because fewer and fewer Americans will be able to afford eating out.
They cannot all be customer service reps -- as is proven every day when we call the excellent Indian Amazon CSRs. They can't all work in Wal-Mart, especially as they are pursuing self check out. They can't all be car mechanics as cars need less and less maintenance.
So what ARE regular people -- and I do NOT use the term regular as a pejorative, what I mean is people who aren't blessed by accident of birth as I am by Ivy League education and the "pull" required to get and keep a great job. I am talking about people without silver spoons.
I am not a Luddite. I am not suggesting tarriffs on the order of Smoot-Hawley. Actually, I am hopeful that digital will open an array of opportunities for small businesses -- like eBay did, only on an even larger scale. I harbor no illusions about growing a new industrial base in the US -- there is no way a country that cares about people, air, and water can compete economically with slaves in Myanmar. For manufacturing to return to the US, there will need to be some sort of micro model that capitalizes on the passions of individuals rather than the phenomenon of interchangeable parts. An example: a model that enables an avid skateboarder to make and sell skateboards built based on insights from her own experience. I have no idea if this is possible on a major scale.
I am just ranting now I guess. What I am saying is not new. It's no wonder that the people of Ohio picked the candidate that postured so firmly about NAFTA last month. But Clintonian ideas aren't going to create the opps that are going to be necessary. For one, Hillary largely misunderstands the power of the web. Heck, look at her crapass digital efforts. Nope, looking to Washington to do anything but blow a lot of hot air on this topic is ridiculous. This cause needs the best and brightest in digital -- who are arguably the only people creating value in the US economy today.
I've been thinking a lot about the digital economy and its implications. Generally speaking digital is good for Northern California where I live. Sure, lots of tech jobs have been outsourced to Asia, but there are still lots of them here as well. And new companies and the promise of biotech generally mean that Northern California won't have to suffer the traumas of Ohio or Michigan or Pennsylvania.
But I live in Oakland, which is the big city in Nor Cal that generally doesn't benefit very much from the digital boom. The schools aren't very good, drop out rates are high, crime is problematic, and real, genuine, empty stomach poverty is by no means rare here. There are also systemic problems in the way digital recruits people. How many African Americans do YOU know in digital? Ditto Latinos? How about even in Mobile, which is a medium disproportionately favored by both groups. Or how about women? How many women CEOs are there in the Valley?
And it brings up a larger question for me about what regular people are going to do in the US in the future. Yes, bigger, more educated minds than mine have discussed and theorized about this subject. But while some of us can capitalize on the digital revolution, there are millions and millions and millions of Americans and Europeans and Mexicans and Canadians and insert names of 92 other countries who largely cannot.
There used to be a place for people who have abilities related to physical work -- you couldn't perhaps be rich as a factory worker, but you could have a house and a couple cars and pay for a state school for your progeny.
And now what? They cannot all be waiters -- in part because companies are figuring out ways to outsource even drive through orders and in part because fewer and fewer Americans will be able to afford eating out.
They cannot all be customer service reps -- as is proven every day when we call the excellent Indian Amazon CSRs. They can't all work in Wal-Mart, especially as they are pursuing self check out. They can't all be car mechanics as cars need less and less maintenance.
So what ARE regular people -- and I do NOT use the term regular as a pejorative, what I mean is people who aren't blessed by accident of birth as I am by Ivy League education and the "pull" required to get and keep a great job. I am talking about people without silver spoons.
I am not a Luddite. I am not suggesting tarriffs on the order of Smoot-Hawley. Actually, I am hopeful that digital will open an array of opportunities for small businesses -- like eBay did, only on an even larger scale. I harbor no illusions about growing a new industrial base in the US -- there is no way a country that cares about people, air, and water can compete economically with slaves in Myanmar. For manufacturing to return to the US, there will need to be some sort of micro model that capitalizes on the passions of individuals rather than the phenomenon of interchangeable parts. An example: a model that enables an avid skateboarder to make and sell skateboards built based on insights from her own experience. I have no idea if this is possible on a major scale.
I am just ranting now I guess. What I am saying is not new. It's no wonder that the people of Ohio picked the candidate that postured so firmly about NAFTA last month. But Clintonian ideas aren't going to create the opps that are going to be necessary. For one, Hillary largely misunderstands the power of the web. Heck, look at her crapass digital efforts. Nope, looking to Washington to do anything but blow a lot of hot air on this topic is ridiculous. This cause needs the best and brightest in digital -- who are arguably the only people creating value in the US economy today.
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