11/28/08

11/25/08

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself

Two words, people - Video. (Okay, it's one word.) My point is that video is highly underused as a marketing tool. And Web 2.0 has opened the door to making it effective and cheap. Just pick up your camcorder, round up a few friends, add a laptop plus the Internet and you're ready to go.

What can you do with this tool? Here's a few examples.

Marketing a high school: See every classroom and facility, the cool dudes in AV, and the obligatory Goth kids while grooving to Thriller. 140 people in a single take. Nice.
http://vimeo.com/1952036

You'll Have More Fun at Purdue: Flashmob worshiping the Sacred Engineering Fountain at Purdue University.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6PLSZ9liIU

Why I Love My Company: I Love Rewards gave these as the Top 100 Reasons they love to work for the company.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wjQo8rGRbY

11/17/08

Raving Fans

Today, we hear from Logic+Emotion, the blog of David Armano. A simple but powerful lesson.

I am currently in Orlando and decide to try out some of the restaurants up-scale Disney offers at Walt Disney World. Last night I went to their "Flying Fish" restaurant in the Boardwalk area next to Epcot. During the already fantastic meal, the chef came around to all the tables to check in on us and to visit. At one point, he asked if this was my first visit to the Boardwalk and I answered something like "No. we've been here many times but this visit is so much better than the last. That time we got stuck on the Boardwalk in a horrible rain trying to get back to pick up our kids from the Disney Child care facility. We got them, no problem, but along the way I misplaced the cinnamon rolls I had purchased from the bakery as a breakfast treat for the kids for putting up with my wife and I going out to a nice dinner without them. This visit, I might not be with my family, but I sure wasn't going to miss out on the food again!"

He made a joke about me being responsible for bad weather... rain last time and "cold" this time (60 degrees as a high yesterday and the locals were in parkas). Then, he was back to visiting.
About ten minutes later, I was paying the bill and the chef came back with a white paper bag as "a little treat for later." After a "thanks" I headed out. When I got to my hotel, I unwrapped the surprise to find a cinnamon roll and a note: "A little something to warm your morning. Just keep the rain away. -C"

Yes, I know that it was not expensive to have someone add a $4 cinnamon roll to a $80 dinner, but it was done so quickly and with such personalization that I stood stunned thinking about it. Not only was he concerned about my interaction last night, but he made up for my own stupidity a couple of years ago. Disney wasn't even at fault that night... but he tried to correct the wrong in such a classy way.

Will Disney get something out of it? You bet. I'll tell that story as an example of top-notch service whenever I can. I'm sure my wife will be sick of hearing it. Many folks will hear how Disney is at the top of my "best service" list.

MM: Word of mouth recommendations are powerful tools. What are you doing to ensure your customers receive a WOW experience that gets you raving fans that keep coming back for more?

11/9/08

Demonstrating Innovation

The competitive nature of our business - competing for projects, securing the best resources, maintaining industry leadership - requires that we show the world how great we are at solving problems. We try to demonstrate how having the best minds and the best incubator for that brain power allows us to come up with world-class solutions. That we are ahead of the pack and always seeking the next frontier.

Awesome. But how can we show that picture in a way that captures the imagination and sticks in the mind. Not everyone in our target market is an engineer. Not everyone we seek to influence is technical in nature. But every person we care about wants to believe in us. They want to see us as intelligent, imaginative, and creative. How do we marry the creative with the technical? Here's how BMW has done it. Beautifully. Showing us that there is a place where Art and Engineering can co-exist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW-9-Iiu7pI

11/2/08

The Story of Nick the Tailor

Those who want a direct ROI for every marketing tactic linked to guaranteed results, just don't get it. Marketing doesn't sell products directly. What marketing does is to start a conversation. And you need that to happen. Here's an analogy.

You are Nick the Tailor. You are at a formal cocktail party. There is an man across the room. His name is Rob. Rob is surrounded by friends and seems well-liked and interesting. You'd like to get to know him. Then, because you are a tailor, you notice that his dinner jacket does not fit as well as it should. It's clearly custom-made so it should be working better for the money he invested. You'd like to offer some help. But you can't just go over and say: "Hey, your jacket sucks. I'm a great tailor and I can do a better job."

But, later that night, Rob's wife mentions that he should get a better-fitting jacket. Now, he is considering whether his current tailor really gives him the best service. He is open to changing providers. He tells his friend Sam that he is considering a new tailor. Sam says, "Rob, you should consider Nick the Tailor as he does very good work - very personalized service."

Two things can happen.

1. Rob has never heard of you and is not interested in taking a chance on an unknown. (Proviso: It is possible that Sam may extol your virtues and urge Rob to seek you out. This is generally unlikely unless: a) you really are that good and b) you have become a key advisor to Sam so that he will act on your behalf. However, this doesn't happen often. And it's not a scalable strategy.)

2. Rob has previously run across references to your work: you won the Tailor of the Year award, you work with a Chamber of Commerce committee providing underprivileged kids with free formal wear for the Prom, and you had a really great ad in the local newspaper. Rob looks for you on the web and researches your work. Luckily, you have a killer website that shows examples of your clothes with (this is the critical part) how you used specific techniques to customize each garment. You demonstrate a thorough understanding of tailoring, you prove your commitment to each client, and your site's overview of the tailoring process educates visitors proving the value of custom over ready-to-wear. Rob asks around and gets enough good references that he finally calls you.

You scored a client. Hurray. Your skill as a tailor is rewarded. But you also needed those background marketing tactics to make the sale happen. Rob may have seen your ads and your awards in the past. At that time, he didn't care. He wasn't open to new providers. But they shaped his view of you, whether he was aware of it or not.

Now, here's something really interesting. When Rob comes in for the first fitting, you dutifully ask him how he found you. He replies "My friend Sam recommended you." Ha! He didn't mention the ads, the awards, the charity work - all those things that created a pictured of the talented, considerate, and dedicated tailor that he was looking for. But those stops along the road were critical to his decision to hire you.

Don't be fooled into thinking that customers don't use marketing as a reference. They do. They just don't talk about it. Don't use direct tactic hits as your ROI indicator. Use overall change in revenue.

Marketing - it's like the wind. You may not see it but you can feel its effects.