Where is YOUR advertsing dollar going?

I collected mail from a PO box today and was once again struck how many people did what I did. I struggled to get the mail out of the small box; not because there was a lot of mail in there, simply because of all the unsolicited brochures, mailers, junk flyers etc. They come in a huge bundle and a royal pain in the nether regions.

There are big tables and very large trash bins, as far as I ca see only to serve to sort the wheat from the chaff and to dump the chaff. The bins are invariably full.

Someone is paying big bucks to create, print, and mail these items. And all that happens is they get dumped without a second glance. Your ONLY chance of making an impression (positive or not?) is when the recipient sorts through to ensure that there is no real mail in the middle of this stuff.

Is that how you invest your marketing spend? Do YOU pay for creative, print, mail just to see your investment thrown away?

I hope not, but its worth checking!

Decide who (or what) you are….

Decide, then tell people. Sounds simple, huh?

So why do so many organizations insist on saying who they USED to be? The most egregious example I have seen in a long time is Accretive Solutions.

An aside, that seems like a horribly negative name, perhaps that’s why the keep telling us (on NPR within the last hour) that they used to be Horn, Murdoch, Cole.

Not the biggest of issues you might think. I’d agree, except that they changed their name in mid-2007.

Here we are more than TWO years later, and they are still telling the audience who they USED to be.

Not what they stand for, why I should get to know them, but who they haven’t been for over TWO years. They need a new marketing lead! And their CEO should be firing people. This stuff is not that hard,

You do work hard to define the business you are in, the way you relate to your customers, what your products and services are; and then you tell them the story, over and over again. You do NOT harp back to who, or what, you used to be.

Nobody cares. It’s not that legacy should be forgotten, but there are few, very few, organizations for whom it should, or can, be the marketing route to the future.

I spoke about one of the best name changes I had seen here. As I said then, maybe they were just Lucky….

Accretive Press

Truth in Advertising???

Has to be the most truthful adverting I have seen for a while…..

Now you start to understand my sense of humor …..

Truth in all its Glory!

As regular readers will know, I’m an advocate of truth and authenticity in our relationship with customers. However, I do think that the poor product marketers responsible for Quaker Instant Oatmeal have had to carry this a little too far – something you never thought you would hear me say!

Take a look at this:

“Artificial Fruit & Cream Flavors” plus “AND OTHER NATURAL FLAVORS”.

It struck me how different the two – at first glance – similar product packages were and I wondered if this was legal advice at work, or whether someone in the product department was being overzealous. As I said, I’m in favor of truth and authenticity in marketing and in product information, but I would hope for a little more creativity in presenting accurate information. As I pondered a little more, I started to think that maybe the two packages were so in order to try out different packaging.

But that’s a risky way to do it, live in the field. I always advocate quick and cheap ways to test ideas – like asking directly.

So what’s the lesson? Be truthful, but be creative. If you want to test ideas, ask customers directly.

It’s the Experience……

… that counts.

I was in Las Vegas for a client this week and they had booked the team into the Luxor (the Mandalay Bay where the trade show was, was full). As it happens I was driving – via the Mojave desert and a few days of photography on the way down, and Yosemite for more pictures on the way back (you can see the results at www.brearleyphoto.com) and so chose my arrival to coincide with a morning drive through the Mojave National Preserve. Big Mistake!

I got to the hotel at 12:05 and the line was huge – much worse than airline checkin. It took over 40 minutes to get checked in, and as I get to the head of the line, the usher pointed me to a clerk. I stood there for over three minutes whilst Amy completely ignored me and typed on the terminal. I get that she was completing something for the previous guest, but no greeting, no smile, no ‘I’m sorry, this is going to take me a moment’, I stood there, ignored whilst the people after me who were ushered to other clerks departed for their rooms. Eventually Amy turned to me. ‘I was busy’ was all I got.

It really is all about the people and their attitude to customers. It took four days and some exceptional experiences – such as the maintenance guy who fixed the internet and TV to appease some of the memory of checkin. Las Vegas is supposed to be ALL about the experience.

So I eventually get to my room, quite nice, roomy – but clearly not set up for a business traveller. The workable table has no power outlet within reach and when I power up my MacBook there is not a wireless to be seen. Hmmm. No Cat 5 cable or connector to be found. Hmmm. As part of the checkin conversation, I had mention that I needed an internet connection, surely that hadn’t been ignored too? I checked the directory in the room. No mention of internet. I call guest services. “There is a cable in the armoir, just pull it out and connect.”

There isn’t anything obvious, but I swivel the TV and root around and eventually, amongst the rats nest of wires, find a cat 5. I pull and get a six foot length of cable, and I find a connector box back there too, not connected to anything.

I connect everything and move my notebook to the small table by the bathroom where the cable will – just – reach if it is stretched across the room about a foot off the floor, and there is a power outlet close enough.

But eventually I get it all connected:

What a mess! I can’t get in and out of the room (or bathroom) without stepping over the cable. And the connection stops after 20 mins. The roaming maintenance guy I talk to offers to help and we quickly discover why the connector box was not connected – it’s faulty. We connect without the box – viola! He gets it replaced. He has restored some of my faith in the Luxor.

Can you give your customers away?

It’s funny how things come in waves. I talked a little while ago about Nordstrom’s attitude to customers when it sold off Faconnable. What impressed me was they wrote and asked me if they could transfer my information with the sale. I remain blown away by that.

So far this year I have had two similar, but not as well executed, examples. In the first, our long time CPA / tax preparer retired (rather suddenly and unexpectedly) due to ill health. The surprise letter also told us that ‘your records and information have been transferred to….’ and named an individual I had never heard of. I “could, of course, choose another preparer if you so wish.” I was also told that we would get a call from the nominated person to introduce themselves. That didn’t happen. What did happen was that the standard tax prep pack arrived.

I was furious. Was I a commodity to be handed around as someone wished? This of all relationships was the most personal and close to home – my entire financial data and life – was simply passed on to someone I didn’t know – and I was told after the event.

The second was that Broadway Ford, of whom I have written many times (most recently here), are going out of business after 70 years. One of the reasons I stuck with them – through not always smooth car issues – was that it was a small, family owned dealer. I got a (very) strangely written form letter – it didn’t say so, but I got the impression that they were being obliged to close down by Ford – which said that there were two alternative Ford dealers close by. One is more convenient than the other, but neither are well situated for me. Maybe it’s time for an independent who is convenient.

So I was very surprised to start getting mail from the inconvenient dealer within days. It hasn’t let up, so far about six of them. No call, no personal connection, no attempt to build a relationship. I’m just a commodity to be handed around. Why don’t US automakers get that service is the differentiator. My previous car, a Jaguar then also owned by Ford, had service that was just as bad.

And it’s sad, I spent the last week driving a Ford Explorer to and from Las Vegas. What a great car! I can see why people love them – and at 20c per mile on a rental (plus gas of course!) it was a great deal. I got over 19 mpg on the 1600 mile trip including highways and driving slowly and exploring around national parks on the way there and the way back. So the cars are impressive, the service not!

So, the lessons? Back to basics it seems to me.

Number ONE – the Golden Rules

Number TWO – execution is all. This is where I judge how well the policies are delivered to me, as the customer or user.

Execution is hard! Get the policy right, then execute, execute, execute.

P.S. Today, two weeks after Broadway closed it’s doors, I got a letter from them, advising me that my Ford is due for its 50,000 mile service and to bring it to them for service.

Ermmmm. Whoops! Ford, don’t you know you closed down that dealership?????

Smart Marketing Bose

I travel on American Airlines – one of the better experiences (if that’s possible on modern airlines), really due to their customer service phone lines. I recently headed to Europe for the first time in quite a while, and took notice of how many passengers had Bose Quiet Comfort headphones – as I do. They are a nice device and work well on aeroplanes (I got them after leaving TWO pairs of in ear noise-reduction headsets on aircraft inadvertently – never to be seen again).

But what made me like them – even at the premium price they command? AA hand them out to business class passengers to try. It’s obvious that once they are tried, people buy. Something over 25% of the business class passengers on the sector from San Francisco to Chicago (where they are not handed out by AA) were wearing Bose headsets. That’s an incredibly high percentage. There were also a reasonable number, five or so, in the economy section going to London.

I’ve written before about my Bose experience – others commented that they were not anywhere near as happy. But my experiences have been positive – both with the products, and with their service. And it is clear that if you can get customers to try – especially when corralled for a long time in a perfect trial environment – they will buy.

So how can we get our potential customers to trial our offer? That is the challenge for us in marketing, but thinking ‘outside the box’ as Bose did clearly works and works well.

I’d love to hear what you have done that worked.

Renault in Los Angeles

I was in the UK this week – I’m always fascinated to watch the TV ads and see the differences in approach between the UK and the US.

One ad that really grated was a Renault car ad – it will become clear why!

The premise of that ad is a tour bus taking visitors around to view star’s homes in the Hollywood hills (presumably), big houses, pools, expensive cars, etc., etc.

The typical image that is portrayed of a luxurious and expensive lifestyle. The bus departs. The scene cuts to a guy on a radio saying ‘It’s OK, they’ve gone for the day’. What we see next at first made me smile. In each house, the big, expensive and exotic cars are moved into the garage, and the Renault moved from hiding, into the driveway.

Which is fine and dandy, quite amusing really. Except that Renault does NOT sell cars in the United States. I’ve never seen one anywhere. Not even an odd import (which I do see once in a while, Puegots, Citroens, etc.). Never a single Renault.

So, a bit of harmless fun you say?

Well after chewing it for a while, and playing devil’s advocate with myself, it still grates. Surely there is a truthful way to achieve the same end result? It troubles me that a company will play fast and loose with such a basic lie. As the body that supervises advertising in the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority, says:

“The main principles of the advertising standards codes are that ads should not mislead, cause harm, or offend.”

It clearly doesn’t offend or cause harm (well not to me at least), but what about that mislead bit?

Tell me if you think I’m being too pedantic……..

Just Lucky?

On the subject of brands, and especially the change (or abandonment) of a brand identity and the adoption of a new persona.

I’m struck by the difference in approaches between two recent prominent examples. In California, Albertsons bought out Lucky stores and merged them all under their own name. Recently however, they have changed back to Lucky. They did that, almost overnight it seemed and immediately started talking about Lucky brand values. Albertsons dies overnight.
On their website there is a single mention “There are 72 Albertsons stores targeted for conversion to the Lucky banner; they are located throughout Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties.”

Compare and contrast.

AT&T bought Cingular (a brand I happened to feel had great equity and had succeeded in separating itself from the pack of wireless carriers. They were (are!) far from perfect, but much better than the rest in terms of brand equity, promise and customer experience.

Once AT&T (a much more stodgy brand, with much negative equity, in my mind) bought Cingular, they proceeded to spend the next year of more telling me (and everyone else) that I was now an AT&T customer (formerly Cingular) customer. Did they think I didn’t know? I’m actually not sure what they were thinking of. It seems to me the worst example of how to change a brand, that is, keep telling people what it used to be! I had a much more positive view of Cingular than I do of AT&T and the constant reinforcement is like rubbing my nose in it.

Worse, on AT&T’s web (as the first entry under About US) is this:

“Following AT&T’s merger with BellSouth in December 2006, Cingular Wireless is now solely owned by AT&T. Now that branding from Cingular to AT&T is complete, the new AT&T represents the largest wireless company in the United States, with more than 65 million subscribers who use the nation’s largest digital voice and data network. Cingular customers can rest assured that they will continue to receive the quality of products and services to which they’ve grown accustomed—exclusive cell phones and mobile devices, cutting-edge technology, and a large selection of rate plans.”

So, TWO years after the merger is made, they are still promoting the name. Read the second sentence “Cingular customers…….”

Somebody, somewhere is being paid big bucks to perpetuate this branding mess. Talk about confusing. It is nothing short of abysmal. AT&T (formerly CINGULAR) senior managers should be fired for allowing it happen. They should buy dinner for the brand folks advising and implementing the Lucky brand values and listen to how it should be done They get it, and they know how to execute.

If you care about your brand, make sure that the brand values are clear, clearly articulated again and again (and that you live up to them!!!) and don’t talk about what you used to be, to do, or espouse.

And if your consultant recommends anything less, fire them and come and talk to me.

Advertising, Brand, Marketing, Product, User Experience

Exceptional Customer Focus

I tried out Filemaker’s new personal database, Bento, and am not only delighted with the $49 product, but also the service and support.

All this in spite of some really, really horrible messups that would usually be reported here in much stronger terms.

The story:

I downloaded the preview version and was impressed enough to start on a household inventory (actually, I was sold the moment I could manage all my x years history in iCal – deleting only up to the start of 2006 and having it work perfectly – all from within Bento itself). The product is largely self evident (that is, you don’t need a user manual) and the forums and feedback was excellent to product requests, enhancement suggestions and cries for help. TSGal deserves a huge pat on the back for her work there (and a bonus!).

There were some howlers – the ‘Buy Now’ link resolved to a ‘page not found’ error. A killer for the marketing guy in me, even though this was beta software. There are still some of those (read on) in the released product.

I made a couple of suggestions and had questions (from TSGal) to clarify and feedback that my requests had been passed to the development team. Wow, a response! Score 1.

The initial release is announced and I sign up. Filemaker incurred my wrath for stupid (that is information that MAY be valuable to them, but that i should not be OBLIGED to disclose in order to buy) mandatory questions on the order form. For example, this is a personal purchase but the form would not let me proceed without entering a company (as an aside, MacWorld got a repeat of last years silly inputs to its sign up form again – this time the check in crew had a sense of humor and laughed at my company – MYOB). So I wrote ‘This is not a mandatory field’ in the company slot, and sure enough I was allowed to spend money.

I think there computer has a wry sense of humor though. My purchase completed, I scanned my email for the unlock key. Sure enough, it arrives. I enter my name, as requested, and my software key – carefully cut and pasted to ensure accuracy. Nothing. The unlock button stays stubbornly grey. I continue to use Bento in ‘Try’ mode.

I read the forums, sure enough I’m not the only one with problems. I carefully follow all the suggestions – the cause seems to be that those of us who used the preview version, then installed the trial to unlock were struggling. But that IS what we have to do. So I download the trial again, make sure I delete the old installation and install again (at least on a Mac this stuff is trivial and simple). Same result.

I read the forums, make an entry saying that I’ve done all that is suggested, and still had the problem. More suggestions, try them, comment on the forum. TSGal is there, with good suggestions. None of which worked for me. ‘Send me a private message with a number, dates and times our support can contact you’ says TSGal. Are they kidding? They’ll call me? I respond, and sure enough a great tech support person called me.

Turns out that the unlock mechanism didn’t want my name (I tried all the suggestions: use lower case throughout, use two spaces between first and last name, etc., etc.) at all. For some reason – that is still not clear – the registration mechanism wants the Company details, not my name. This is a bit of a surprise, as it’s supposed to be an optional field. So my software is now registered to ‘This is not a mandatory field’. Who says computers don’t have a sense of humor.

I’m a delighted customer. Really.

The lesson here is that our expectation is not for perfection (especially in beta software), but how a company reacts to correct a problem. Filemaker’s people were exemplary. They replied to posts on the forum, they took the problem and owned it, they called me (I still can’t believe that) and they laughed and treated me as a human whilst solving the problem. The support lady who called me said she would report the problems to the dev team. I believe her.

What an organization – represented by extraordinary people.

Apple, Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Mac, Marketing, Product, Service, User Experience, WOM