Max's mantras

Thanks to Nick for blogging in my absence - my 601 has been more work in the last week than I expected.

I wanted to put up a code of conduct for myself for my future in marketing, something which I can refer to throughout my career. It's a list of things I believe now and strive to follow. Periodically I look back on the blog and try to find nuggets of insights (amid a lot of the dreck!) which I still think are valuable. I'm also now reading a great book, Adland, and its quotes from Bernbach, Ogilvy, Wells, and Rubicam have got me really inspired. Years from now, I'd like to look back on this list and proudly say that these things mattered to be at a time when consumer marketing was experiencing an identity crisis.

ONE:
Marketing’s future will be defined by the ability for consumers to own an experience and the ability for marketers to correctly identify those consumers.

The consumer experience implies that owning a product is not as satisfying as using a product or experiencing the transformative benefits. Marketers must capture the experience, in situ, of the consumer and the brand.


TWO:
CRM must be at the centre of an integrated marketing solution.

Customer relationship management (or experience, conversation, or value management) imply a rational identitification of a marketer's customers and channels to create consistent marketing communications. Makes sense, right? What's different now is that CRM isn't tossed aside to act as a Skunkworks for future strategy. It's smack in the middle receiving input and guiding all channel strategies so that customers are spoken to in a unified way with measureable goals.


THREE:
Reject as false anything except that which can be learned from your customers.

Remember that there's a reason customers buy from you. It's not because they owe you or they are short of options. It's because of some unique value proposition they relate to. Customer insights matter and the insights from your customers should be the only immediate truths.


FOUR:
As a consumer, demand only the best from marketers.

Passive response from consumers is a marketer's nightmare. It means that nothing was relevant or interesting. Complacent marketers who don't deliver the best solutions should no longer be allowed access to the customer conversation.


FIVE:
As an agency, be perceived as risk-taking.

The key word here is 'perceived'. Don't take risks. Rather, take perceived risks. The ready, fire, aim strategy is amateurish and unsustainable. Agencies which take calculated risks manage their opportunities and image better than those that take risky risks.


SIX:
Love the fact that not everything can be measured in life.

Your customers are many things. But they are not simply an equation for value based on complex activity and demographic variables. They're people. Chaotic people. Much of marketing is scientific but there's a human element to creating a spark of action where previously there was none. This is more the product of art than analysis.


So these are just a few of my mantras. I'll add my others in the future. I hope this becomes like Oprah's Book List and I start seeing these phrases show up in assignments at school.

Important marketing memes of 2009

And we're back!

Memes are important thought trends in contemporary culture. They are widely distributed, fresh, and organically generated concepts and ideas that emanate and circulate rapidly in a network of plugged-in people. At their worst, memes can propagate racism. At their best, memes can propagate lolcatz like Ceiling Cat!


So I should probably cover up.

Anyway, to start off the new year, it's relevant to think about memes that might matter in marketing in 2009. Let's talk about the concepts, trends, and practices of marketers that will become more commonplace and popular. Let's talk about the ideas that will quickly disseminate through agencies and client teams, mastered by the savvy group of consumers, and eventually expectorated back to the teeming masses of mainstream culture.

In other words, let's talk about what are relevant marketing trends for 2009:

THE 'EXPERIENCE IT' MEME


In the context of the rising tide of greater relevance in advertising, some lucky consumers will find themselves the subject of rare interactions with marketers that go deeper than the banal and shallow ad pitch. Without buying, a privileged few prospects will be invited to try a product, brand, or service. But what they're really trying is an experience.

Remember when you were invited to try Gmail when it was still in beta mode? (Remember how awesome that felt!?)

Testing experience with consumers firsthand is like playing in a sandbox. It's safe, controlled, and a great petri dish to catalyze learnings for experiential improvements. Furthermore, you want to actively segment an select prospects to participate in the experience who you know will then actively go out and spread word of mouth among their networks.

Seeding networks is nothing new, but in 2009 expect to see more seeding based on complete brand experiences rather than simple trial testing or free offers. It's the culmination of consumers' undeniable influence on social diffusion of brands and the demand by consumers for things which they can live, rather than things which they can simply wear, listen to, or eat.

THE COLLABORATION MEME


You know how individual consumers are encouraged to put their stamp of approval on something? They're able to personalize their brands either through participating in the product development and customization process, influence brand direction by vocalizing their needs in web forums and social media, and make the brand their own through non-traditional uses.

Now take the personalization to a broader scale. You and your network personalize your product. You and your friends personalize your brand experience.

Gen Ys are social creatures. We thrive on instant communications within our highly networked worlds (that's why we go mental when the DSL isn't working...). Digitally socializing is an intensive part of our lives and the impact of one's network on the things we associate with is immense.

So why would a marketer allow your network to collaborate with you when developing your personal brand relationship with them? Because it's a direct acknowledgment by the marketer of the things that matter to the consumer: their friends. It's an invitation by the marketer for you to show your network that they are influencers.

Look for this style of meme to pop up with everything from iPod playlists to fashion to media content.

THE INTEGRATED MARKETING MIX MEME



This one is big. Integrated marketing communications refers to the choreography among different ad channels, all targeting the prospects with related messages, calls-to-action, and incentives. It's not merely enough anymore to pair a TV spot with a website. It's insufficient to have a radio play in the same market as targeted magazine drops.

Integrated marketing is a mix of advertising channels that are optimal to distribute the message YET still convey relevance to the end consumer. This is critical. Furthermore, this does not underscore an increase in the overall number of message impressions received by the prospect consumer. Instead, it speaks to two things: 1) a curriculum style that gradually educated prospect consumers about a product/service/brand that they would respond to; 2) a coordinated effort by a marketer to demonstrate relevance to consumers across multiple platforms.

What is still unexplained is whether marketers will contract out their entire marcom budget to a single agency that is capable of doing all things (integrated), or whether marketers will act as directors and fragment their marcom budget out to a variety of specialized agencies.

It's hard for me to call this one a meme because I believe this is a sea change in marketing towards relevance-based integrated campaign development. Perhaps it's meme-like insofar that there will be rapid awareness in 2009 and some traditional marketers will make nascet inroads to developing a more balanced communications strategy.

BTW, when I was thinking about an element to include for the word 'choreography', the Indian version of 'Thriller immediately came to mind...!

What's the deal with Microsoft's new ads?!?

As part of a new $300 million (yes, $300 million) ad campaign to reposition itself as a friendly, approachable, and human brand, Microsoft has launched these new commercials, mini-movies really, featuring the original odd couple, Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. Seinfeld earned $10 million for his zany performance.

Here's 'Shoe Circus':



Here's 'New Family':



What's the point of this ad? I'm really confused and scared right now. It's not a feeling I like! So, why are they trying on shoes? Is it supposed to be cute and irreverent?

Does anyone think that Jerry Seinfeld is relevant anymore? Is Bill gates really a charismatic and influential individual to Gen Y? Is he really even that influential to normal consumers, who, if they're of a certain age are doing everything they can to infantilize themselves anyway and would rather buy a new Apple than a new PC.

It's just a baffling commercial because Microsoft and their agency Crispin Bogusky & Porter believes that the simple new message of Microsoft "Delicious" or "Connectivity" is best communicated by obnoxious loud mouths. Simple messages don't need such a carnival-like atmosphere to be understood. In fact by giving this campaign such a massive context mutes and muddies that simple message. The fact that the commercials are 1:30 and 4:30 long and that there is not an immediate hook to clue the audience in to the whole value prop is confusing.

Nonetheless, we're talking about it and the ads have gone viral. He's what others have said:

The Good:
Seattle Post-Intelligencier

The Bad:
Wired
Engadget
MSNBC

The Ugly:
Scoble
Fast Company

They've gone viral, but as MSNBC analyzes, the virality is negative and reinforces the perceptual challenges that Microsoft has faced in the last five years.

...because the perception, now as before, is that Microsoft just doesn't get it.

Kraft's innovative online push for Peek Freans

Marketing Mag wrote about a great new campaign today, the launch of new Peek Freans cookies by Kraft. It’s the way the campaign was executed that excites me and makes me think that this was a good innovative push. I’ve never heard of a web-based soap opera to introduce new cookie varieties! From prowling around in the campaign's Facebook page, I think it was co-created by the digital arm of MacLaren-McCann here in Toronto (nothing is safe!!!)



The message is funny and the brand isn’t taking itself too seriously. Kraft is great at branding and the modernization of Peek Freans, a 150 year old bakery with a 50 year legacy in Canada, is pretty impressive. The campaign focus is clearly women, 30-45, who are not necessarily tech-savvy but have received a viral video message from friends before. The seven-part series encourages repeat visits and there is a strong call to action to register your email on the site so that you can be notified of the next video launch (I assume weekly?). Good for CRM purposes too since this is a form of opt-in customer acquisition.

They’ve built a microsite to highlight the video campaign and I assume, the eventual release of the new cookies, Brown Sugar Blueberry with Flax and Lime Coconut with Probiotic. A few things that are missing – more information about the product please! And perhaps some coupons that I can take to the grocery store on my next visit to entice me to buy the new product…

The article talks about this campaign’s reach through other online platforms including Flickr and Facebook to add context to the more costly direct mail and in-store sampling that will be done. I hope I see more of this campaign to get the fuller picture.

Good job, Kraft and MacLaren-McCann!

Keith Richards and the seven deadly sins of experiential marketing

As evidenced by my latest Facebook albums, this weekend was one exhausting booze-filled event after another. While my liver and wallet may have been slightly compromised, the 2008 Festival of Beer (Saturday) and a day spent touring the wineries of Niagara Country (Sunday) did provide me with a lot of material to work with for an exploration into experiential marketing. Keith Richards can kindly offered his assistance in this topic since, as we all remember, he is the Stone incarnate of experiential marketing.

Keith: Hey Max...

Here a roundup of the seven deadly sins of experiential marketing, critical mistakes that will surely kill your product when launched and sampled in an open consumer setting.

ONE DIRECTIONAL - Deadly Sin #1

As a marketer, consider the enviable opportunity to look your consumers directly in the eye as they experience your product. If you’re a winemaker, watch them taste, swirl, smell, an analyze the wine. Look at their facial expressions. Listen to them. If you’re sampling at the Beer Festival, have they come back for more? Have they told their friends?

Think about experiential marketing as not only your opportunity to get your brand visibility and product noticed, but for you to receive valuable on the spot feedback. This is especially critical for marketers that hire freelance mobile promotion teams who do not work directly for the client. Get them to actively solicit feedback from customers as the product is being experienced.

Keith: Always have your eyes open and your ears to the ground when engaging consumers one-on-one.

UN-DEMONSTRATIVE - Deadly Sin #2

Demonstrate the characteristics of your product that set it apart from your competitors. This is key to establish a position of competitive advantage in the consumer’s mind. Does your amber ale has subtle nuances which you can demonstrate to me are the result of a special brewing process that only your brewery has perfected? Is this Meritage the result of a blend of different vintages resulting in a completely different balance to the wine? As a consumer, it’s important that you tell me this. Explain it to me and let me learn.

Keith: Always be explaining the key features, differences, and benefits of the product.

GENERAL - Deadly Sin #3

The worst reception that a brand could get is indifference. If consumers feel nothing about a product, how likely are they to tell others about it? Worse, if consumers feel nothing about a product, how likely are they to tell its marketers how they feel so that the product can be improved to get a warmer reception on a second go-round.

Make your experience unique. Set it apart from your multitude of derivative competitors by heightening the original qualities of the product. If this is the only bottling of Nebbiolo in Ontario, cool – run with it! If you’re the only brewer to use hops actually grown in Ontario, great – let that be a key component of your message.

Keith: Always focus on the unique, not the mundane or ordinary.

SPOKEN, NOT FELT - Deadly Sin #4

What would a Beer Festival be without dozens of free miniature beer samples? How fun would it be to visit a winery and see the grapes growing in the fields, see the musts fermenting in the tanks, and see the wine aging in the oak casks…but not actually have the opportunity to try the wine that you’ve just learned so much about. Product sampling is a key reason why consumers can engage with a brand on a higher sensory level than just what is seen and heard.

Sampling is really the key reason why experiential marketing is often performed, but marketers shoudn’t dismiss the importance of this function for its apparent simplicity and straight-forwardness. Analyze sampling from the consumer’s perspective. They are looking to try as many variations on the theme as you can offer (e.g. different shades of beer, different years of wine vintage).

Keith: Always allow the customer to experience the brand with multiple senses and understand their objectives for analyzing the brand.

NON-ASSOCIATIVE - Deadly Sin #5

Experiential marketing is a holistic branding moment, meant to envelope the consumer in the whole realm of the brand. This is a positive thing. It forges critical associations between the product and its perceived lifestyle in the consumer’s mind. At the Beer Festival, individual brewers like Budweiser, Cameron’s, or Wellington could create the perfect setting for visitors to sample their beers. For example, the Corona station was in a sandbox with fake palm trees and Muskoka chairs.

Keith: Always create positive associations between the brand and the immediate experience since memories are formed by imprints of related experiences.

UN-PARTICIPATIVE - Deadly Sin #6

Your brand story is too self-congratulatory and doesn’t do enough to include the consumer in the legend. It’s hard to relate to and offers nothing that the consumer can really remember or redeem. So then what’s the point of creating an experience for the consumer if it’s really your experience, not theirs?

Brand stories must involve the consumer to create a point of relevance in the consumer’s mind. Think of it like a foothold on the side of a sheer mountain face. Consumers develop deeper and richer experiences of a brand when they are involved in its evolution. This speaks more like a broader ideal than a proscriptive instruction, but it’s important that a message of inclusiveness permeate any interaction marketers have with their prospects.

Keith: Always engage at a ‘we’ level, never distance at a ‘you and me’ level.

AMBIGUOUS CONTEXT - Deadly Sin #7

Go show off your product. Better yet, just leave your product out for people to sample themselves. What’s wrong with this scenario? Consumers are given no expectations about the brand and are left totally uninformed going into the branding experience.

Think of it as if you’re a complete wine neophyte and have no idea what you’re tasting when the vintner hands you a glass to sample. If the flavours, aromas, and textures aren’t first established to contextualize your experience, then it’s likely that your interaction with that brand will be less enriching, relevant, and fulfilling than that of someone who is given those benchmarks beforehand.

Keith: The brand is yours. It’s ok to set expectations for the consumer from their experience with your brand.

So remember these seven deadly sins when consumers approach your brand experience. They write experiential marketing into their personal brand storyline.

Thanks Keith!

I buy from you, service me

Companies have attempted a lot of marketing promotions in their efforts to differentiate themselves from competition: celebrity endorsements, eye-catching out-of-home advertising in unexpected places, and price slashing. But lo and behold, everyone else is doing this too.

The untapped fountain of customer retention? Customer service.

Cindy Chen and I both stumbled on this article describing the lack of value for customers in recent times. Ok, for a long time. But among the horror stories, there are still some shining examples of very good customer service that make some companies really stand out. Here are a few basic customer service lessons:

CUSTOMER INTIMACY

We've all called a customer care line and been greeted by CSR named John, who swears that he is in fact from INDIAna, despite his accent. “Alright, John, I believe you…after a 45 minute wait I'll believe anything. Just get me my luggage back please, Air Canada employee.”

This is a telephone pole in a high traffic call centre country. A sigh of understanding? (Courtesy of Marcus Forrell.)

In fact, just last week I had to make a similar call to J. Crew’s customer care line. You see, I wanted to buy a jacket, the J. Crew Mosaic Metallic Jacket in a size 6. It was online just days earlier and had sold out.

The jacket I don't own.

I would try my luck at getting their search team to find the coveted jacket in a store and they would ship it to me with the exact same pricing as if I was buying it online. Neat.

So I dialed the toll-free number and nestled myself up with a bag of snacks and began loading an episode of The Simpsons. The phone rang and I was waiting for the automated message telling me that I was put in queue behind the other customers. Instead, I hear "J. Crew Customer Care. My name is Mindy, how may I help you?"

I almost choked on my pretzel.

So unexpected, so cheerful, so polite. But what should I say? "Mindy I love you." ??? No, too honest. Instead I stumbled on my words, "Hi. I'm sorry. I didn't expect to get a person so soon." Mindy giggles and proceeds to ask me what I would like to find, with a smooth Southern accent.

This is how I picture Mindy.

(Wherever you are Mindy, I miss you.)

We never did find the jacket. But can you blame J. Crew for being sold out of the most beautiful thing ever? I never had to hold, I never wait to be told that my patience was appreciated, and the rep was polite. I got a real person who could give me advice and even offer suggestions (check the outlet mall in Buffalo) afterwards. It was such a rare experience that I’m telling people about it. It's not only Air Canada's fault that luggage gets lost - every airline loses luggage. It is just very comforting to know that someone with a heart beat on the other line promptly appears and is trying for you. Whoever started this person-picking-up-the-phone deal at J. Crew can give Air Canada and a few telco giants some pointers.

SHORT TERM GAINS VS. LONG TERM CUSTOMER LOYALTY

I know Starbucks is the caffeine monster and their coffees are $5 a pop. However, for those who take great pleasure from coffee, I'm sure it's well worth the price. If you've ever read the fine print on the back of a retailer's gift card it clearly states that the company is not responsible for lost or stolen cards. Which makes sense, I guess. If I were to lose the J. Crew Mosaic Metallic Jacket that I purchased with a gift card, is it J. Crew's fault that I'm irresponsible? Starbucks doesn't agree.

If your Starbucks card is registered online (a task which only takes five minutes) and you lose it or have it stolen, you can report it by phone or on the website and they will lock in the amount, cancel the card and send you a new one in the mail with the same amount on it. So unless whoever finds your card is a caffeine addict with a severe craving, you're pretty safe!

This is how I picture the guy who would steal your Starbucks card.

Starbucks could easily adopt the "not our fault" mentality but that has no stand out effect. And the amount that they are recovering me? Around $20. They could have kept the money and told me to buy another card, but it wouldn't set them apart and would definitely disappoint me. Everyone wins in the end: I get my money back and Starbucks gets to collect my precious information. For a big company like that, they can afford to help me out a little even if I am irresponsible.

…I wonder if caffeine intake is related to one's tendency to misplace things.

You've Screwed Up: FIX IT

No one is perfect and customers are human too - even if they are not treated that way sometimes. If you have screwed up at any point in the customer experience, there should be a way to redeem yourselves without having to call Montie Brewer. Some hotels, like the Delta Meadowvale in Mississauga as described in this article, have a great system of handling customer issues and fixing the issue. Most recently, Kinder Surprise did a great job at resolving a customer issue.

I want a case of these for my birthday.

You can read the whole article here but to sum it up, a woman with strong Native/First People connections found that her son had a KinderSurprise figurine that made native people look unpleasant, to say the least. She contacted the company and received an apology and a promise to withdraw the toy from future production. She was very pleased with the resolution and the case was closed, without any costly lawsuits and a positive article written about the company.

So you really want people to talk about your product and to ensure that you are not confused with your competition, customer service must really go above and beyond the call of duty. Customer service solidifies a customer’s relationship with the brand and intensifies their attitudes to that brand. Remember, a customer is only as loyal to your brand as the quality of their last interaction with you.

Celebrity endorsements may get a product noticed and low prices will have customers consider it, but word of mouth still stands head and shoulders above other drivers of product value.

Oh, and could you ask any friends if they own a J. Crew Mosaic Metallic Jacket that they would like to get rid of? The one on eBay is overpriced.