Love you can smell

When we put love into our work, it changes everything.

I used to like Starbucks coffee but since I experienced Intellegentsia Coffee, I'm a changed person. Everthing in their store is full of love and passion for coffee. Somehow, when they prepare my latte, their passion is transferred to the end product. (No, I don't get paid by them. Just want to make sure everybody will try their excellent product.)

I feel the same when people cook for me or just make a plain cup of coffee with a french press. Same is true when I go to a local butcher or farmers market. There's more to it than the product, I can take the emotion they put into the product home.

Sure, nobody can create excellent meals each and every day. But just a little effort and thought goes a long way. Small pieces of tomato sprinkled around a plain spaghetti dish can change everything. Or freshly pressed OJ in a champagne. These little things show appreciation and passion for your loved ones. Or your customers.

The Candy Store

Having a kid reminds us of the wonders and miracles of childhood. New things happen to you every day. Amazement through small, little things. The world is your oyster.

Every time I see my kid experiencing new things, I'm reminded of my own career. It started out in advertising (the best copywriter ever!), continued in marketing and now I'm at the intersection of advertising/marketing/branding. My excitement comes from the new world of marketing/advertising. Learning new things every day. Experiencing changes every day. Trying to change the marketing reality each and every day.

While my kid explores the world one Duplo, puzzle and book at a time, I'm delighted to explore this new world one blog, Twitter and RSS feed at a time. I wouldn't want to have it any other way.

Relaunch

Starbucks Nation is in uproar because their beloved Java won't be available this pm. I don't care about Starbucks, prefer really good coffee like Intelligentsia. (Best coffee I ever had.) But I think it's a good move by Starbucks.
Instead of just changing out some advertising or signage, Starbucks signals very strongly that they're willing to change. Works better than any new tagline or fancy ad. I might even give them a chance again.

Sometimes you purchase a product...

...just because the design or functionality interests you. When you discover that the wine is good as well, you will buy the product again. It's that easy.

Obsession with customers

Joe Nocera, of NY Times fame, yesterday wrote a piece about Amazon's obsession with customers and his personal experience with their service.

He questions Wall Street's obsession with short-term goals:

"Maybe, just maybe, taking care of customers is something worth doing when you are trying to create a lasting company. Maybe, in fact, it's the best way to build a real business - even if it comes at the expense of short-term results."

And he concludes:

"There is simply no question that Mr. Bezos’s obsession with his customers — and the long term — has paid off, even if he had to take some hits to the stock price along the way. Surely, it was worth it. As for me, the $500 favor the company did for me this Christmas will surely rebound in additional business down the line. Why would I ever shop anywhere else online? Then again, there may be another reason good customer service makes sense. “Jeff used to say that if you did something good for one customer, they would tell 100 customers,” Mr. Kotha said.

I guess that’s what I just did."

Customer experiences become more and more important: Thoughtfulness is on the top of my list. Two examples:


My wife and I used to have a mortgage with Citibank and switched a few months ago to ING Direct. What a dramatic change:
The ING Direct web experience might be the best I've ever encountered. It takes less than 30 seconds to pay the mortgage, everything is superbly organized, no unnecessary paperwork. A pure, minimalistic experience. Exactly what I'm looking for when dealing with a mortgage company. The brand promise. Overdelivered.



Second Example: You know the situation: It's a dark bar, you get the check, it's hard to read and even harder to write down the tip and total, sign it. This bar and, dare I say it: Camel, improved my overall experience by offering the first back-lit bar check.

Bruce Temkin spoke on his blog about ten customer experience resolutions for 2008. All brands should have those resolutions posted in each room and our sites. And by all brands, I mean all brands. When a bar can delight you with something besides cheap and stiff drinks, you know that every brand can make my life better.

The car you can't ignore

Chevy shows all those Web 2.0 preachers and social media fanatics that mass advertising is still alive. Spend gazillions of dollars and you can ensure that blind people will see and deaf people will listen: Homepage takeovers, commercials after commercials, billboards, print: you name it.
Chevy achieved their goal: The Malibu can't be ignored. Just like taxes and death.
Is mass advertising so desperate that not being ignored is now a goal? Pathetic.

Think about it

Hundai is in brand hell: They are the ultimate value brand but they want to move upmarket. A very typical problem that most brands never solve. Or, typical for automotive brands, they create sub-luxury brands such as Lexus or Acura.

In order to solve this problem, Goodby was hired and created the new brand campaign with the title: 'Think about it' You can find detailed information on their mini site. (Even though I couldn't access it last night.)

"Our new 'Think About It' advertising campaign is designed to be thought provoking," said Joel Ewanick, Vice President of Marketing, HMA. "Goodby, Silverstein & Partners has developed an unconventional, integrated campaign that challenges perceptions about our brand and the auto industry, resulting in a creative execution that feels authentically Hyundai."

By adopting a tone of disarming honesty, Hyundai is breaking down the barriers that consumers have built to shield themselves from marketing claims. The intent was to pull consumers into a new understanding of the automotive world -- to challenge consumers' thoughts about what is, and should be, "standard" in the automotive industry.

"The Hyundai brand has an opportunity to define itself in the eyes of the consumer," said Jeff Goodby, co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. "We feel that the campaign will close the huge gap between the reality of Hyundai vehicles and the perceptions that consumers have about the brand."

Phase one features three weeks of unbranded advertising from September 10 - 28, 2007. The intention is to increase the receptivity of a consumer audience that is increasingly skeptical of marketing messages, by offering startling proof points deployed across the media landscape (print, broadcast, outdoor and online). During phase one of the campaign, the advertising challenges conventional thinking about the auto industry.

Examples include:
* Shouldn't a car have more airbags than cupholders?
* The logo is there to tell you what the car is, not who you
are.
* When a car company charges for roadside assistance aren't
they really just helping themselves?

Goodby and Hyundai missed the point. Completely.

As a value brand, the last thing you need to do is focus on the rational part of the purchasing process. We already know that Hyundai has good products and service. Why bother retelling the story? Hyundai's problem is that it doesn't find the right emotional connection with prospects. A value brand doesn't speak to the heart of the upscale consumer.

However, Hyundai has a vivid community: There are many owners who blog about their Hyundai's, express their positive opinions about the brand and their products, spread the message about their ownership experience. Instead of wasting their money on rational advertising messages, Hyundai should have tapped into this unexplored territory. Create a network for Hyundai owners, just like Saturn did pre-Web 2.0: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Niche Networks: use the new tools to spread the message.

Instead, Hyundai chose to go the safe route. A sure path to failure.

Branded Entertainment

It has been said many times: Brand have to become content providers and utilize their brand values and attributes in an entertaining environment.
Reburban, a Dutch agency, created 'The Millionaire' an entertaining project for the Dutch Lottery.

It allows to live your life as a super-rich in first person. The challenge for everyone is 'Can you handle the rich life?' Pick the right girl? Enhance her in the right way? (I didn't say it wasn't sexist...) Choose the right car.
I found it very entertaining and wonder if I should go back and make other choices.

When it comes to branded, online entertainment we're still at Mile 1 of a marathon. Let's make sure to judge all new efforts accordingly.

Brand Extensions

Most companies still don't understand that each interaction with their brand and people determines the value of their brand.

I meet with Sales Reps almost every day: Sites, Emerging Media, Technology Providers, etc. More than 50% of these brand ambassadors feel like a brand mismatch: There's the sales rep for an emerging media company that relies on print-outs for his presentations, the rep for one of the hottest sites on the Internet that doesn't know what Web 2.0 is all about and and and...

One of my job duties is to evaluate all opportunities and generate recommendations/strategies for our clients. Since many of these opportunities revolve around Web 2.0 and Emerging Media, I don't have tons of data to determine my recommendations. I have to rely on basic data, overall match for respective brand and the sales rep to offer me additional insight to support my case when I go back to client.

Sure, you might have the right target audience, matching psychographics, decent reach and a good match with the brand I try to market. But many brands do. The difference between a sale and a non-sale is the sales rep. If he's really in tune with the brand, if he understands and represents the essence of the brand, lives and breathes the brand; that's where magic happens.

It seems there's a dearth of good sales people out there. And most Internet/Emerging Media companies decide to hire seasoned sales veterans. This might work once in a while. Most often it doesn't. It's not about the sales skills of the sales reps. It's about their street cred. Because most of Emerging Media buys are experimental, the outstanding sales rep has to to play a much broader role than usual: He doesn't have to be a sales person, he has to be a brand evangelist.

So, next time you need to hire someone in your sales department, forget about resumes and experience. Focus on passion. Find the person that creates a space where your brand becomes more than you ever dreamed of being.

Indifference is deadly

There are some brands that I can't stand: Best Buy comes to mind, American Airlines, Citibank, just to name a few.

I've invested a lot energy into disliking these brands. I tell people about my experiences, share our frustrations and spread the word.

Most brands make the mistake just to embrace their most loving customers: They build loyalty programs, treat them with perks and make it easy for them to stay part of the 'family'.
In addition, brands try to convince the indifferent crowd to come over to the sunny side where all the happy brand lovers are. This is mostly a waste of time since most people don't waste a second thinking about brand unless they hate or love them. Getting indifferent people excited about your brand is a sisyphusian task.

Why not embrace the haters and harshest critics instead? They invested a lot of brain power and emotions into your brand.

Offer them opportunities to express themselves, listen to them, make them part of your marketing plan. What's the worst that can happen? You gather a lot of insights about your critics. You will understand that your indifference and putting up a big walls that people can't infiltrate caused these negative emotions.

And, if you do it right and take your time, some of the haters might come over to the sunny side.

Hoping for Phase 2

Fedex launched a new campaign that drives consumers to Fedex Stories, featuring online videos of FedEx employees telling stories how they have helped customers.

They want to create a global and, at the same time, personal brand image of their service offerings.

The stories are engaging, interesting enough to keep me around for a while and made me click on another one to find out more.
The Flash execution is sub-par, takes way too long to load and their abandonement rate must be extremely high.

I like the tagline “Shipping is Global yet Personal” but wish they would have offered the opportunity for consumers to share their experiences, maybe even talk about and connect with the FedEx employee featured in the videos.
How about a Phase 2?

How to test future employees

Found this on Tom Peters site:

"Trying to evaluate a potential new hire? Here's a great test: Arrange for them to work for a day—a particularly slow day—at a place like Best Buy or a hotel check-in desk. Make sure that there are ropes set up to control long lines—you know, the kind that corral the crowd and make customers walk back and forth many times before making it to the counter. Remember: Be sure to choose a slow day.

Now, station yourself at a place where you can surreptitiously observe your prospective new hire. Watch him as he watches the occasional customer walk back and forth through the empty labyrinth, following the course of a long line even though there is no line and no other customers. What does your potential new employee do as he watches customers take these extra steps? Does he do nothing? Does he assume that "the powers that be" (I hate that term) have decided the ropes are necessary, even on slow days? Or, does your future star worker take the initiative to undo the ropes and let customers walk right in?

The formula is simple: If he does nothing, don't hire him. If he takes the initiative to change the configuration of the ropes, hire him."

Obviously, this shouldn't be taken literally. What we need from employees is to question th Status Quo, and look for new ways to improve the customer's brand experience. Everyone in your company has an effect on brand experiences and nobody should be passive when customers enocunter bad brand experiences.

Let's be clear: Most prospective employees won't move the ropes. Cherish those that will.