Everyone has been in this situation at least once in their life. Your sitting at a table with a group of people having a general discussion on some random topic. Then a friend in the group makes a bad joke referring to something only you and they know about. You both laugh, others looks bemused, and as is the case with any "in joke" its all the more amusing cause not everyone "gets it".
Broad appeal marketing works much the same way only (strangely enough) in reverse. As an advertiser, quite often a campaign idea will be scrapped due to its alienation of certain demographics. If we are putting together a campaign for say the Toyota Corolla, we don't want to use images and language that will alienate the over 60 crowd because as this might result in lost sales, but at the same time we don't want the car to be branded as a "grandma car" cause this might lose sales in the younger age group. So what do we do? We choose THE MOST middle class, middle age bracket people and dress them in non biased fashion so we can get the broadest appeal possible. And what ends up happening? Everyone at the table "gets it" so no one finds it all that funny.
As marketers are finding out, reaching the Gen X/Y markets is far tougher than it was with the baby boomers. These new customers are infinitely more fragmented and are constantly narrowing their own demographic. You just need to look at the shear number of sub genre's in popular music to get a feel for how things are changing, and they (the Gen X/Yers) like it this way. The less people there are in their genre the more exclusive it is and the more individual they feel.
So if your potential customers are deliberately fragmenting themselves how can you expect broad appeal advertising strategies to connect with anyone? You can't.
I look forward to seeing a main stream brand use a term like "L337" in a television campaign. Sure there will be some people that wont have a clue what it means, but for the viewer that DOES know what it means, it will be like the ad is speaking directly to them.
Thursday, 7 June 2007
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
Employees...Advocates or Badvocates
Let me set the scene for you:
Its Tuesday morning, 9 am. At a major Australian Financial Institution, some 28,000 bank employees (approximately 80% of total employees) are congregated around the hundreds of satellite-link television sets strategically position on every floor, of every building, in every state of their far reaching network of locations across this big brown continent. Music begins to blare out. 80’s video production values fire out from the screens and speakers of the outdated 90’s TV and audio equipment.
Spinning graphics, synth-music, flashing still photos. An introduction to rival any student-made news broadcast. Two presenters, shoulder-to-shoulder in a framed close up…
Presenter 1: Hi, I’m Kevin (actual CEO of said Financial Institution).
Presenter 2: Hi, and I’m Kevin (actual CFO of said Financial organisation).
Presenter 1: We’re the two Kevin’s here for your fortnightly TV update. How are you K2?
Presenter 2: I am good K1...and on it goes.
A tidal wave, no a tsunami, of smirks, sighs and shrugs sweep across the viewers, causing an undertow of cynicisms, that seems to have the ability to wash away for all of us (except for the most devoted of us employees), any sense of pride or morale we had in our company’s reputation and managements view of us as employees.
This is where I, and thousands others for that matter, work. And the questions that floods my thoughts, of course is, WHY?
Morale: Ok, yes I know, they are trying to keep their employees informed, in the loop, lifting morale. On Morale, I will just say this. Nobody likes working for an idiot that tries to be ‘your’ friend. Maybe, they should take a little look at the lessons to be learned from the great TV series (both the BBC and NBC versions) The Office. Nobody wants to work for Michael Scott or David Brent.
My main gripe with this type of de-motivation is this: Institution like this seem to forget that, at their disposal, every day, every work hour; they have great access to some very powerful marketing channels and voices that they will ever get the chance to use. Their employees! (I bet you thought I was going to say customers, didn’t you?).
Employees talk about their work. They have an opinion on your business, your management, your brand, your products and services. And they will tell people.
When you were last at a bar, a function or barbeque, what did you talk to strangers about? Sports? Television, Movies? Work? Did many people bag their work places or companies? Did many people recommend their company's services or products?
I am talking about treating employees with respect, providing them with opportunities. Get them to understand your business. You do not have to get them to love you, but you do need them to respect you. Give them a business, employer, workplace, products and services they can be proud to work for, talk about, and, hey lets not be stupid, RECOMMEND! ADVOCATE! Instead of just seeing the customer as potential brand advocates, employees also have a very important role in advocating your brand.
An organisation with 35,000 employees, that’s a pretty large social network of friends, family and acquaintances. Its great to get your customers to be your business advocates, but we don’t have the time or strength of relationship with our customers that we have with out employees.
Do you want you employees to be your business’s ADVOCATES or BADVOCATES?
Its Tuesday morning, 9 am. At a major Australian Financial Institution, some 28,000 bank employees (approximately 80% of total employees) are congregated around the hundreds of satellite-link television sets strategically position on every floor, of every building, in every state of their far reaching network of locations across this big brown continent. Music begins to blare out. 80’s video production values fire out from the screens and speakers of the outdated 90’s TV and audio equipment.
Spinning graphics, synth-music, flashing still photos. An introduction to rival any student-made news broadcast. Two presenters, shoulder-to-shoulder in a framed close up…
Presenter 1: Hi, I’m Kevin (actual CEO of said Financial Institution).
Presenter 2: Hi, and I’m Kevin (actual CFO of said Financial organisation).
Presenter 1: We’re the two Kevin’s here for your fortnightly TV update. How are you K2?
Presenter 2: I am good K1...and on it goes.
A tidal wave, no a tsunami, of smirks, sighs and shrugs sweep across the viewers, causing an undertow of cynicisms, that seems to have the ability to wash away for all of us (except for the most devoted of us employees), any sense of pride or morale we had in our company’s reputation and managements view of us as employees.
This is where I, and thousands others for that matter, work. And the questions that floods my thoughts, of course is, WHY?
Morale: Ok, yes I know, they are trying to keep their employees informed, in the loop, lifting morale. On Morale, I will just say this. Nobody likes working for an idiot that tries to be ‘your’ friend. Maybe, they should take a little look at the lessons to be learned from the great TV series (both the BBC and NBC versions) The Office. Nobody wants to work for Michael Scott or David Brent.
My main gripe with this type of de-motivation is this: Institution like this seem to forget that, at their disposal, every day, every work hour; they have great access to some very powerful marketing channels and voices that they will ever get the chance to use. Their employees! (I bet you thought I was going to say customers, didn’t you?).
Employees talk about their work. They have an opinion on your business, your management, your brand, your products and services. And they will tell people.
When you were last at a bar, a function or barbeque, what did you talk to strangers about? Sports? Television, Movies? Work? Did many people bag their work places or companies? Did many people recommend their company's services or products?
I am talking about treating employees with respect, providing them with opportunities. Get them to understand your business. You do not have to get them to love you, but you do need them to respect you. Give them a business, employer, workplace, products and services they can be proud to work for, talk about, and, hey lets not be stupid, RECOMMEND! ADVOCATE! Instead of just seeing the customer as potential brand advocates, employees also have a very important role in advocating your brand.
An organisation with 35,000 employees, that’s a pretty large social network of friends, family and acquaintances. Its great to get your customers to be your business advocates, but we don’t have the time or strength of relationship with our customers that we have with out employees.
Do you want you employees to be your business’s ADVOCATES or BADVOCATES?
Saturday, 2 June 2007
Taking the piss..
I'm not sure how well the phrase "taking the piss" translates in countries other than Australia, but basically it means to make a joke at someones expense. What I want to talk about today is companies that are prepared to "take the piss" out of themselves.
Carlton United Breweries (the makers of such highbrow beers as Carlton Draught and Victoria Bitter) had an ad campaign recently that was a parody of the famous scene from the movie Flashdance. Rather than having a beautiful girl dancing to the song "its raining men" they went with an overweight goofy looking middle aged male dancing around in a leotard... it was pretty funny as far as ads go (you can watch it on metacafe here).
Now I'm sure that there would have been more than a couple of Marketing Exec's who would have passed on such a concept based on the idea that people would equate Carlton Draught with being overweight/ugly/etc, but here's the thing, the ad was a smashing success! Why?
Because Carlton Draught didn't make an ad that tried to trick their consumers into thinking they would be smarter or better looking if they drank their product. Instead they made fun of themselves, gave the consumer a bit of a laugh in return for their 30sec of attention and both parties walked away happy. Carlton Draught got their impression and the consumer got entertained.
As an advertiser, I think there is a valuable lesson in this and other campaigns of this nature. You can show attractive people standing on a beach enjoying your product till the cows come home but chances are your just going to blend in with 98% of the other ads trying to do the same thing. So why not be bold, try something that's makes fun of your company in a light hearted way and maybe you wont end up with people changing channels as soon as the ad break starts.
Carlton United Breweries (the makers of such highbrow beers as Carlton Draught and Victoria Bitter) had an ad campaign recently that was a parody of the famous scene from the movie Flashdance. Rather than having a beautiful girl dancing to the song "its raining men" they went with an overweight goofy looking middle aged male dancing around in a leotard... it was pretty funny as far as ads go (you can watch it on metacafe here).
Now I'm sure that there would have been more than a couple of Marketing Exec's who would have passed on such a concept based on the idea that people would equate Carlton Draught with being overweight/ugly/etc, but here's the thing, the ad was a smashing success! Why?
Because Carlton Draught didn't make an ad that tried to trick their consumers into thinking they would be smarter or better looking if they drank their product. Instead they made fun of themselves, gave the consumer a bit of a laugh in return for their 30sec of attention and both parties walked away happy. Carlton Draught got their impression and the consumer got entertained.
As an advertiser, I think there is a valuable lesson in this and other campaigns of this nature. You can show attractive people standing on a beach enjoying your product till the cows come home but chances are your just going to blend in with 98% of the other ads trying to do the same thing. So why not be bold, try something that's makes fun of your company in a light hearted way and maybe you wont end up with people changing channels as soon as the ad break starts.
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Gone in 60 Seconds….
Waitress 1: Sorry we can’t make changes to the breakfast menu.
Customer 1: I just want the BLT served on rye bread instead of a baguette?
Waitress 1: Sorry, but we don’t make changes.
Customer 2: Can I get a Skim latte please?
Waitress 1: We don’t do skim?
Customer 2: what about Soy?
Waitress 1: Yep
Customer 2: So you do Soy milk, but not skim! Why?
Waitress 1: We just don’t…
10 minutes later…
Waitress 2: Hi, um…it seems we have run out of baguettes, would you mind the blt served on bread, or would you like to change your order?
The above was an exchange that a friend and I had with a waitress on Sunday, as we had breakfast at a café close to where she lives.
The Café is not expensive. Nor is it exclusive. It is just your typical, hip Melbourne-Fitzroy corner café. There is nothing on the menu saying why menu items cannot be altered. And each time my friend asks to have an item altered (always the BLT on Rye...such a creature of habit!) she gets inconsistent answers from the wait staff...
Make me feel special. Make me think my happiness is important to you. Get me to feel like I am part of your customer community? And I will care about you and be one of your business advocates. If they really wanted to stick to this policy what should have been said or stipulated on the menu…
Due to our small kitchen, and the busy customer traffic we experience, to ensure that all our customers get their meals quickly (and while they are still hot!), our kitchen staff unfortunately can not make changes to the menu items. We hope you enjoy your meals – and don’t forget to ask our staff about our daily specials!
Know your business value points in the minds of your customers.
A great contrast to this, comes from a company that truly understands what value it really provides to consumers - McDonalds…
Bangkok McDonalds promises your order in 60 seconds or you get a coupon for a free drink. There's an electronic timer that the customer pushes to start the countdown. Reports from when the program was first introduced, indicate the staff seemed to have fun trying to get the order done in time. The customer is being reinforced of the message that - this is fast food, McDonalds strives for consistency and customer service, and how “customers” felt was in the forefront of McDonald’s business model! I can’t think of anything else that would be more important for McDonald customers to know!
Customer 1: I just want the BLT served on rye bread instead of a baguette?
Waitress 1: Sorry, but we don’t make changes.
Customer 2: Can I get a Skim latte please?
Waitress 1: We don’t do skim?
Customer 2: what about Soy?
Waitress 1: Yep
Customer 2: So you do Soy milk, but not skim! Why?
Waitress 1: We just don’t…
10 minutes later…
Waitress 2: Hi, um…it seems we have run out of baguettes, would you mind the blt served on bread, or would you like to change your order?
The above was an exchange that a friend and I had with a waitress on Sunday, as we had breakfast at a café close to where she lives.
The Café is not expensive. Nor is it exclusive. It is just your typical, hip Melbourne-Fitzroy corner café. There is nothing on the menu saying why menu items cannot be altered. And each time my friend asks to have an item altered (always the BLT on Rye...such a creature of habit!) she gets inconsistent answers from the wait staff...
Make me feel special. Make me think my happiness is important to you. Get me to feel like I am part of your customer community? And I will care about you and be one of your business advocates. If they really wanted to stick to this policy what should have been said or stipulated on the menu…
Due to our small kitchen, and the busy customer traffic we experience, to ensure that all our customers get their meals quickly (and while they are still hot!), our kitchen staff unfortunately can not make changes to the menu items. We hope you enjoy your meals – and don’t forget to ask our staff about our daily specials!
Know your business value points in the minds of your customers.
A great contrast to this, comes from a company that truly understands what value it really provides to consumers - McDonalds…
Bangkok McDonalds promises your order in 60 seconds or you get a coupon for a free drink. There's an electronic timer that the customer pushes to start the countdown. Reports from when the program was first introduced, indicate the staff seemed to have fun trying to get the order done in time. The customer is being reinforced of the message that - this is fast food, McDonalds strives for consistency and customer service, and how “customers” felt was in the forefront of McDonald’s business model! I can’t think of anything else that would be more important for McDonald customers to know!
Monday, 28 May 2007
So banner ads are good?
So there was an article in Ars Technica the other day saying that people who were exposed to banner ads for a particular product had a slightly more positive attitude towards it (the product, not banner ads).
I wont go into detail about how the study was performed (if you want to get a better idea, read the article) but what I will say is that I am always a little sceptical of these types of studies. Why? Because after reading (well listening to the audio book of) Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" I have come to realise that what people SAY and what people actually THINK are often 2 very different things. Having done one or two market research surveys in my time, I know that when asked specific questions about "how you feel" about a brand the true answer is quite often "I don't FEEL anything about it" yet feeling obliged to answer the question I choose a random number somewhere between 1 (meaning poor) and 10 (meaning excellent).
In my opinion the proof is in the pudding and the statistics that can be gathered from said pudding. Statistical research of how your advertising campaign is extremely important but it tends to be something that only gives you true data after the fact. Asking people how they "feel" about a brand might not result in accurate data, looking at how many people bought your brand after a certain campaign will usually tell you everything you need to know
I wont go into detail about how the study was performed (if you want to get a better idea, read the article) but what I will say is that I am always a little sceptical of these types of studies. Why? Because after reading (well listening to the audio book of) Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" I have come to realise that what people SAY and what people actually THINK are often 2 very different things. Having done one or two market research surveys in my time, I know that when asked specific questions about "how you feel" about a brand the true answer is quite often "I don't FEEL anything about it" yet feeling obliged to answer the question I choose a random number somewhere between 1 (meaning poor) and 10 (meaning excellent).
In my opinion the proof is in the pudding and the statistics that can be gathered from said pudding. Statistical research of how your advertising campaign is extremely important but it tends to be something that only gives you true data after the fact. Asking people how they "feel" about a brand might not result in accurate data, looking at how many people bought your brand after a certain campaign will usually tell you everything you need to know
Friday, 25 May 2007
I love you. I don’t respect you…
Today I was put on hold twice. Nothing particularly unusual in that regard, I make tonnes of calls during the day and find myself on hold, waiting for a page and being transferred plenty of times each day. What was particularly interesting was the contrast between the two “on-hold” experiences. Let me recap…
Call 1. The Marketing Message Wait: National Travel Agent. On hold for 4 minutes. Put on hold by personal assistant, to listen to “hold music” consisting of a 2 minute loop of the companies marketing message, detailing what the company can potentially do for me and how convenient they are to deal with (what with more than 200 locations Australia-wide – do I have to say Ironical??).
Call 2. The Radio Message Wait: National Real Estate Agent. On hold for 5 minutes. Put on hold by secretary, listening to 5 minutes of a national radio program.
I don’t know about you, but when I am put on hold I can get a bit irritable. Frustrated? Sure! Bored? You bet. Is this the best time to be marketing your company to me in an impersonal way? HELL NO!
In the first call, the Travel Agent's marketing department obviously was trying to take advantage of utilising every available opportunity to deliver to their customer's the “marketing message”. I was on hold. I was bored. I was irritated. Did they try to solve my problem? No. Was this a useful marketing exercise? I highly doubt it. Despite the repetitive name recognition that the marketing loop perhaps embedded into my head, telling someone how good you are when you are causing them irritation and inconvenience does not work.
Although, as marketers, we need to take advantage of any touch-point that we can identify with our customers, we also have to make sure we are choosing the right moments to interact with our customers, and that the message and conversation we have with them matches specific circumstances of the interaction.
Try this for example. Go up to someone you love. Punch them in the arm. Then tell them you love them. Wait. Do it again. If you manage to survive the next 20 seconds without being punched or screamed at, try it again. The person will be confused, probably wary of when you next approach them, and my guess is that they will start to think you are a bit of a prick. The problem is that the two messages that you are giving the person do not match each other.
When I was put on hold to the radio, sure this wasn’t ideal, but I was certainly less bored, not annoyed by boring marketing messages, and also got to catch up with the latest Christina Aguilera song!
What is wrong with sincerely apologising to your customers for the inconvenience? Solve their problem!!! If your customers are bored, entertain them. If they don’t have enough, or the correct information to be able to interact with you business easily, efficiently and quickly, give them this information.Now nobody likes being put on hold.
Nobody likes to be forced to line up in a supermarket for 5 minutes, for the privilege of paying for their items. But sometimes the inconveniences we cause our customers are unavoidable (despite our best intentions). The key to excellent customer service is, what are you going to do for your customers in response to causing this inconvenience and the privilege of having their attention?
Nat xoxo
Call 1. The Marketing Message Wait: National Travel Agent. On hold for 4 minutes. Put on hold by personal assistant, to listen to “hold music” consisting of a 2 minute loop of the companies marketing message, detailing what the company can potentially do for me and how convenient they are to deal with (what with more than 200 locations Australia-wide – do I have to say Ironical??).
Call 2. The Radio Message Wait: National Real Estate Agent. On hold for 5 minutes. Put on hold by secretary, listening to 5 minutes of a national radio program.
I don’t know about you, but when I am put on hold I can get a bit irritable. Frustrated? Sure! Bored? You bet. Is this the best time to be marketing your company to me in an impersonal way? HELL NO!
In the first call, the Travel Agent's marketing department obviously was trying to take advantage of utilising every available opportunity to deliver to their customer's the “marketing message”. I was on hold. I was bored. I was irritated. Did they try to solve my problem? No. Was this a useful marketing exercise? I highly doubt it. Despite the repetitive name recognition that the marketing loop perhaps embedded into my head, telling someone how good you are when you are causing them irritation and inconvenience does not work.
Although, as marketers, we need to take advantage of any touch-point that we can identify with our customers, we also have to make sure we are choosing the right moments to interact with our customers, and that the message and conversation we have with them matches specific circumstances of the interaction.
Try this for example. Go up to someone you love. Punch them in the arm. Then tell them you love them. Wait. Do it again. If you manage to survive the next 20 seconds without being punched or screamed at, try it again. The person will be confused, probably wary of when you next approach them, and my guess is that they will start to think you are a bit of a prick. The problem is that the two messages that you are giving the person do not match each other.
When I was put on hold to the radio, sure this wasn’t ideal, but I was certainly less bored, not annoyed by boring marketing messages, and also got to catch up with the latest Christina Aguilera song!
What is wrong with sincerely apologising to your customers for the inconvenience? Solve their problem!!! If your customers are bored, entertain them. If they don’t have enough, or the correct information to be able to interact with you business easily, efficiently and quickly, give them this information.Now nobody likes being put on hold.
Nobody likes to be forced to line up in a supermarket for 5 minutes, for the privilege of paying for their items. But sometimes the inconveniences we cause our customers are unavoidable (despite our best intentions). The key to excellent customer service is, what are you going to do for your customers in response to causing this inconvenience and the privilege of having their attention?
Nat xoxo
Thursday, 24 May 2007
the "i found it" mindset of consumers
So I know that its technically sales, but they call themselves telemarketers and this is a marketing blog so I think its worth a mention.
This afternoon I received a phone call from a man offering me some "great deals on holiday packages". Its unfortunate that the bulk of the people hired to do this work are from the sub-continent as I have it on good authority that a lot of legitimate call centres these days have an unofficial policy of not hiring Indians due to the negative connotations the accent arouses in customers, but everyone needs to make a living..
The "telemarketer" spent the next 30Min's on the phone trying to tell me that the package deals he was offering were "excellent value", unfortunately being that I had an open browser in front of me at the time, I was able to check the REAL prices of the hotels in question rather than just taking his word for it that I was getting "$150 worth of free accommodation". After a long discussion I declined his offer at which time he started swearing at me about how I had kept him on the phone for $30Min's and wasted his time (he failed to see the irony in this statement) before I eventually congratulated him on his persistence and hung up the phone.
Why is this in anyway blog worthy information you ask? Well let me try and explain..
A site like wotif.com or lastminute.com are great for travelers, because these days the under 30 market spend a good deal of time prior to travel researching accommodation/etc on the Internet before they head off to a far away land. The creators of these sites (and sites like them) understand the mindset of the modern day traveler and have created a service that lets the customer FIND the hotel (who are anctiously trying to fill empty rooms at the last minute)
themselves. People like finding these deals, they love telling their friends about how they stayed in the middle of Sydney in a 5 star hotel for $99, the sites and the hotels hardly have to market themselves at all as happy customers just keep pumping referrals though to their site.
I'm sure that the man I spoke to will sell a couple of holiday packages today, he was very persistent after all, but its unlikely that the customers will leave the transaction feeling as though "they found" a great deal (if in fact it even is a great deal). Why? Because people love to FIND a bargain. The same mindset that will see a customer spend hours rummaging though the "last season/seconds/out of stock" box at the back of a store hoping to find that ridiculously discounted garment also takes place when tracking down a great price for an item on the Internet (be it hotels or otherwise). Someone once said "people don't value something that comes to them easily" and i think this is true in the case of marketing. If a consumer feels as though they have had to put in a little effort to get the great value, they will treasure this far more.
This afternoon I received a phone call from a man offering me some "great deals on holiday packages". Its unfortunate that the bulk of the people hired to do this work are from the sub-continent as I have it on good authority that a lot of legitimate call centres these days have an unofficial policy of not hiring Indians due to the negative connotations the accent arouses in customers, but everyone needs to make a living..
The "telemarketer" spent the next 30Min's on the phone trying to tell me that the package deals he was offering were "excellent value", unfortunately being that I had an open browser in front of me at the time, I was able to check the REAL prices of the hotels in question rather than just taking his word for it that I was getting "$150 worth of free accommodation". After a long discussion I declined his offer at which time he started swearing at me about how I had kept him on the phone for $30Min's and wasted his time (he failed to see the irony in this statement) before I eventually congratulated him on his persistence and hung up the phone.
Why is this in anyway blog worthy information you ask? Well let me try and explain..
A site like wotif.com or lastminute.com are great for travelers, because these days the under 30 market spend a good deal of time prior to travel researching accommodation/etc on the Internet before they head off to a far away land. The creators of these sites (and sites like them) understand the mindset of the modern day traveler and have created a service that lets the customer FIND the hotel (who are anctiously trying to fill empty rooms at the last minute)
themselves. People like finding these deals, they love telling their friends about how they stayed in the middle of Sydney in a 5 star hotel for $99, the sites and the hotels hardly have to market themselves at all as happy customers just keep pumping referrals though to their site.
I'm sure that the man I spoke to will sell a couple of holiday packages today, he was very persistent after all, but its unlikely that the customers will leave the transaction feeling as though "they found" a great deal (if in fact it even is a great deal). Why? Because people love to FIND a bargain. The same mindset that will see a customer spend hours rummaging though the "last season/seconds/out of stock" box at the back of a store hoping to find that ridiculously discounted garment also takes place when tracking down a great price for an item on the Internet (be it hotels or otherwise). Someone once said "people don't value something that comes to them easily" and i think this is true in the case of marketing. If a consumer feels as though they have had to put in a little effort to get the great value, they will treasure this far more.
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