Amid the Noise and Haste

Graduation Day from Pace University...it finally happened!

I haven't posted in a long, long time.  For the past 23 months, my time has been filled with papers and projects and teams and conference calls.  But it paid of nicely.  I just graduated with my MBA from Pace University's Executive MBA program. 

I can't say enough about how much I got from the program.  It taught me about cohorts, team work, myself, and of course business principles and practices which were immediately practical and useable.

Cycle 9 starts Aug. 16th, and they are always looking for more good applicants. By the way, Module 8 has a record-breaking 28 enrollees. Now's the time to get an MBA! To find out more about Pace's eMBA program, visit www.pace.edu/emba or contact Jim Parker, Director - Executive MBA Program and Adj. Assoc. Prof. of Marketing for the Lubin School of Business, directly at (212) 618-6653 or jparker@pace.edu.

Word of Mouth Marketing - Not Working or Not Worth Talking About?

Seth Godin, by way of Micah, points us to an article about Jupiter's new report about viral marketing, "Viral Campaigns Falling Short, Says JupiterResearch."  The article states, "JupiterResearch...found that only 15% of viral campaigns in the past year achieved the goal of prompting consumers to promote the marketer's message."

But here's the thing: isn't viral marketing supposed to be about the product?  I mean, if you like the product, or not, you tell people about it.  The campaign is secondary.  I have to agree with Seth here:

Excuse me... the most effective technique is making stuff worth talking
about in the first place. True viral marketing happens not when the
marketer plans for it or targets bloggers or skateboarders or pirates
with goatees, but when the item/service/event is worth talking about.

Here is a true example of viral marketing.  I have a friend who uses a credit union in New York.  She lives in Florida.  It's extremely inconvenient for her to go there, but she LOVES their service.  In fact she raves about it.  She loves them so much she sent out the following email to her list of friends with no prompting from the credit union, and it wasn't part of a "viral marketing campaing."  Here is her email in full (I've removed any personally identifying information):

Hey, gang,

As most of you know, I've been an insanely happy member of the same NYC credit union for about ten years. Well, the Entertainment Industries Federal Credit Union just opened up their membership to the general public (it used to be employee-only), and I wanted to pass that info on to everyone I possibly could. While they aren't the flashiest (as you'll see from their website), they truly take care of their customers. If you are even vaguely dissatisfied with your bank, you should check them out.

This is a Manhattan bank that knows my name when I call from Florida. We're talking small-town hi-[name]-how-is-the-new-car-working-out kind of conversations, while they approve loans, consolidate my debt, and work with me on mortgage information. And, trust me, I'm one of those customers who can't add, doesn't understand decimals and asks the same damn question over and over. They never make me feel like an idiot...I LOVE THIS CREDIT UNION!

The only downside I found when I lived in NYC was that they only have one location, Madison and 55th, but since most of my banking is electronic anyway, I never thought that was a huge problem...So, visit the website - www.eifcu.org - or call Joe Reyes at 212.833.5533 to get membership info. And feel free to pass this on to your friends. It's really nice to know the name of the person handling your money.

And, yeah, I'm kind of nuts about them!

When someone is brand loyal because they truely believe in a product or service, they tell people about it.  That is viral marketing.

Technorati Tags: viral marketing, word of mouth

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Is Price Your Only Differentiator?

John Jantsch over at the Duct Tape Marketing Blog points out a key flaw in many business descriptions - and how to break out of that mold!  Here is the exercise he suggestes

Go to the web site of your four biggest competitors, copy the
introductory paragraph from their home page and paste each on a
document. Now add the same from your own web site. Lastly, black out
any mention of the names of the firms and pass this page around the
office or to anyone familiar with your business.

Now what can this show?  Can you even pick your company's description out from the competitors?  As John points out, "what is usually painfully obvious is that each of the companies is saying essentially the same thing."

Can your customers really read the difference, the reason why they should pick you instead of their customers?  If not, all they can do is choose by price.

Instead of dollar signs as a differentiator, I suggest that you describe your company with the most simple words - no jargon!  Amid the noise and haste of business-speak and language, filter the noise and simply tell your customers what you do.


Technorati Tags: marketing

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Pecha Kucha - "The Sound of Conversation"

You have a meeting, the conversation goes round and round, nothing is accomplished and worse yet people go off point, get distracted and you walk out wondering how to get that last hour of your life back.

Enter Pecha Kucha, Japanese for "the sound of conversation."

• 20 slides
• 20 seconds per slide
• Power point off!

That's it.  As Seth Godin so aptly states, "Tell me a problem that can't be outlined in six minutes and I'll show you a problem it's probably not worth having a meeting about."

Read more about Pecha Kucha in this month's Wired from Dan Pink. 

Are You Engaged?

Forrester has released the results of a new survey on engagement (this is a product).  Not the kind that leads to marriage, but the kind that keeps you in touch with your clients.  As they defined it, engagement is the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence an individual has with a brand over time.

As they see it, these four components of engagement - involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence - can help you learn how to make better marketing decisions.  Their argument is the following:

...that companies need to start tying these metrics together to make sense of how engaged their customers actually are—and then make product and marketing decisions based on that knowledge.

Now, there's no clean and beautiful equation like e = mc². But as we continue this research on the topic and gather feedback (we've already seen some extremely polarizing reviews of the report), we'd love to get your take on the matter.

Sifting through the noise and haste, can you see how to better engage your customers?  If you don't have definitive metrics, I suggest open conversation with your customers.  Talk to them, or better yet listen.

 

SEO Tips and Tricks

The folks over at SEOmoz continuously provide great information about search engine optimization, link building and more on their blog.  They are always smart, on point, and relevant, though somewhat technical.  Here are some of my favorite posts:

• Answers to Ten SEO Questions
• Ever wonder what bounce rate, click rates or indexed pages really are?  Read A Complete Glossary of SEO Jargon
• Tracking your website click thrus and more?  Refer to the List of Every Website Statistic Publicly Available

Amid the noise and haste of trying to track website usage and development, these tools are invaluable.  Thanks SEOmoz!

iDon't Care

Why has everyone latched on to the "i"?  Aside from Apple's i-line, we now have iGoogle, iBloglines and a plethora of other companies latching on to the"i".  iget it, it's supposed to make their product or service seem more personalized; just for me.  But the problem is over saturation.  There are so many i's there is no longer differentiation. What iwould like to see is more creativity in the branding because frankly, i've had it.

Now that's Service!

I use Netflix. I don't have a lot of time to rent videos at the store between work and my MBA program. The videos I get are my little two-hour escapes. Imagine my surprise when I received an email with the following notice:

They actually lowered my subscription price.  I did nothing.  Have to do nothing.  That's it.  Lower price.

That's a great way to compete.  Blockbuster has one service advantage over Netflix right now in that you can return the videos you rent at the store or through the mail.  But I don't have a Blockbuster near me, so I use Netflix.

How can you give back to your customers to show them that you appreciate their business?

Seth Godin wrote a while ago about Buy One Get One Free. Tom's Shoes donates a pair of shoes to  a child in a developing country for every pair you buy. As Seth says, "I like several things about this approach. The simplicity of the offer, first of all."

Ideas, marketing campaigns - they don't need to be overly complicated. Make it easy for your customers to see what they are getting, without needing the small print, just like Netflix did. I don't have to do anything:  the next time my bill comes, it will be lower. Done deal.

Technology’s Untanglers: They Make It Really Work - New York Times

Shannon from If You See Something Say Something blog points us to an article in the NY Times about Usability Professionals.  I hand the mic to Shannon:

From the Department of Understatement:

SOMETIMES there is a huge disconnect between the people who make a product and the people who use it.

Link: Technology’s Untanglers: They Make It Really Work - New York Times.

But it's great to see usability and user experience design getting ink, especially in the Money section of the Times.

A lot of times, it is hard, amid the noise and haste of product development and user experience, to see the disconnect between form and function.  It seems though, according to the article, that the fog may be clearing a bit.  This is definitely good news.

From the Department of Understatement:

SOMETIMES there is a huge disconnect between the people who make a product and the people who use it.

Link: Technology’s Untanglers: They Make It Really Work - New York Times.

But it's great to see usability and user experience design getting ink, especially in the Money section of the Times.

A lot of times, it is hard, amid the noise and haste of product development and user experience, to see the disconnect between form and function.  It seems though, according to the article, that the fog may be clearing a bit.  This is definitely good news.

What Makes You So Different?

So you offer the same products/services as your competitor(s).  What makes you so different?  It could be price.  But wouldn't you spend just a little more for better service?  I would.  And I think that's what makes people more "brand loyal."

On Forrester's Marketing Blog Peter Kim talks about the keynote session Bruce Temkin gave at Forrester's Finance Forum.  The reference here is to banking, but I think this theme crosses all business boundaries.  The example given is this:

Successful firms practice "experienced-based differentiation" based on three key areas.

1. Obsess about customer needs, not product features.
2. Reinforce brands with every interaction, not just communications.  I.e. make promises and keep promises.
3. Treat customer experience as a competence, not a function.

Take a look at Peter Kim's post for example of each of these areas and also for the experience-based differentiation self-test (note: content is not free).