Fryer's Blog in the Mountains

Penn Schoen and Berland Flawed Online Surveys

PSB claims to give people who buy their service "Winning Knowledge ^tm".  Unless you are interested in that very small segment of the market who run on a Mac.   O.K. that's 10% of the market PSB is ignoring.

Why?  Because the opinionguru survey system will not run in a browser on Mac OS X.  Oh, and it won't run on Safari.

Hey Mark.  Here's a trend; a lot of people use Mac's and maybe, just maybe your clients are interested in their views.

Today's lesson.  When you're getting the pulse of the market, be very careful not to put up any roadblocks between you and the people who are your market.

Whole Foods Debacle: A lesson in corporate culture foot in mouth

Whole Foods publishes their "Declaration of Interdependence" on their web site.  Where it says:

Our business is intimately tied to the neighborhood and larger community that we serve and in which we live. The unique character of our stores is a direct reflection of the customers who shop with us. Without their support, both financial and philosophical, Whole Foods Market would not be in business.

  A caring community focused corporate culture.  Except for the CEO when it comes to health care:

 A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That's because there isn't any. This "right" has never existed in America.

Oops!  There is quite a backlash building because of the inconstancy of what is on the web site and what the CEO says. 

And when you're building a corporate culture you have to be clear and consistent from the bottom to the top of your organization.  Pull a stunt like this and your loyal customers feel betrayed.  

It would have been interesting to see if Wild Oats was still around and how much market share they pick up.  I bet a lot of folks will start doing a lot more shopping at Sunflower Farmers Market.   We'll see.

And as a closing, I'ld hate to be the PR flak spokeswoman Libba Letton at Whole Foods who:

pointed to the grocer's long history in supporting sustainability and organic farming, food and nutritional labeling, and ethical treatment of animals. 

but omits talking about the ethical treatment of people. 

The Trick to Low Price High Volume Businesses

With Cloud Computing, cheap computer and easy merchant services it doesn't take much to start a business.   Making it a successful business is a whole different thing.

The first mistake people make is confusing price with value.  The trick here is to deliver a high value product / service, but at a low price.   If your competitor charges $6 and you charge $5.50 that doesn't mean you get the business.  At some point price becomes irrelevant.   What do you get for your six bucks?

The first and most important place to start is service. 

• Can your customer figure out what you have?
• Can they get answers quickly?
• Can they buy it easily?
• Are there no surprises?
• When something goes wrong can they get help?

You must stand behind what you have.   I have been using a hosting service for the last 10 years.  They got good reviews, I signed up. I got an email from them the other day inviting me to check out some new goodies they offered.   Turns out by clicking a button they would install a copy of SugarCRM for you.  (this is the open source equivalent of Salesforce.com.) 

I pushed the button.

It installed and I logged in.  The first question was to confirm a time zone.  I did and the system crashed.  Horribly.  So I filled out a trouble ticket.  And here was my reply:

Hello Bruce,

I have tried logging in the Sugar CRM application and noticed that the issue you are facing is with scripting. We suggest you to contact the application vendor and fix the issue from your end.

If you have any further questions, please update the Support Console.

Sincerely,

Stan Harper
Technical Specialist

Nice.  So they will have 100% installation failure and I'm supposed to fix it.

Let's just say I won't be recommending these guys to anyone soon.  

So make sure you walk through every offering you have from end to end from the customer's perspective.  And that will serve you well.

Marketing Windows: Amazon and Battlestar Gallatica

What works and what doesn't changes rapidly depending upon what is going on at the time and what the next trend may be.   There are two approaches to this.   The first is reacting quickly to events.  The TV show Battlestar Gallatica was a master of this.   The show was started in 2003 right after the US invasion of Iraq and dealt with issues of religious conflict, torture, betrayal and retribution.   The writers payed close attention to current events and wove the themes into the shows.   It was very popular and just ended  with a note of hope and warning of repeating past mistakes.

The second approach is predicting trends and building a product before it becomes poplular.  Amazon Web Services, which just marked their 3rd anniversery, was the first in Cloud Computing.  I've worked with them since the beginning and although there have been some rough patches.  But they have become a thought leader in this space and are doing quite well.

So make sure you are paying attention to what is going on around you and become relevant to the exisiting trends and conversations.  You will do much better.

Paul Harvey ..... Good Bye!

I think everyone has heard Paul Harvey at least once.  As a child I remember riding in the car down the small country roads in Indiana and listening to Paul Harvey while eating a somewhat warm Velveeta sandwich (those were the Tang years too).

I saw an interview with Larry King from '03 where Paul was asked how he put together his news casts.   He said after reviewing all the news he focused on those stories people needed to know and those they wanted to know.

This is a great marketing lesson.  If you don't tell people what they need to know, then what's your value?  And if you want them to pay attention you also tell them what they want to know.   Striking the balance is critical.

This is Bruce Fryer...... Good Day!

Talking Loudly in Public Places: Corporate Espionage

I'm traveling today and am totally amazed on the different conversations going on as I wait for my next flight.   Right now I'm getting an unintended update from a real estate developer on the health and progress on three major projects, two here in the US and one in Italy.

I make it a habit never to do any business while traveling.   When I worked at PC Week I used to get lots of scoops just by traveling from Logan.   But if you must, go to a corner where no one is around, and use your inside voice.   With a good headset, you can talk very quietly and be understood.

Or else run the risk of finding your trade secrets in the trade press.

Johnson & Johnson Motrin Opportunity

Kathy Widmer has the attention of social media in just a couple of days.  Ouch!   Of course it's kind of like the attention you get showing up to a black tie event wearing shorts and flip flops.    Kathy did apologize but instead of shuffling off to the side of the room, here is an opportunity to engage with the angry people.   

Time to start a conversation with these people.   Get their insight.  Better yet collect YouTube videos from the moms and  display them in a collage talking about issues that are important or not.

Or she could sit meekly in the corner waiting for this to blow over.  Which would be a shame.

Cost Effective Marketing

Today, more than ever, we need to focus on controlling expenses, retaining customers and increasing revenue.   Nothing like a recession an economic downturn to keep you focused.  A couple of weeks ago I was asked how to do this:

1 - Hang out where your customers hang out.  Be it regional tradeshows, associations, online.

2 - Associate yourself with someone / something who has authority, or as I like to say "Hang out with the cool kids".

3 - Listen, listen, listen, talk, listen, listen listen.

The Ad Agency's "Marketeer of the Year" is  a master of this. 

This does work.    I don't believe in email blasts.  I do believe in persmission marketing.  And hooking up with a daily newsbrief is a great way to do this.   A campaign I just did for a client netted a 5% click through.    And none of the readers were annoyed because this was done in the context of a subscription they were getting.   Compare this to spamming mass emailing to a list and getting .2% return.

Buy your pictures and images, it's worth it

Let's call this an intervention.   I'm so tired of looking at brochures, websites and especially power point presentation with crappy images or even worse, the ones that come with the software.

You can do better than that.

So forgo Starbucks for just 2 days and take that ten bucks and buy credits at Stock Exchange or iStock Photo.  You can get some nice pictures for your next presentation for $1-$2.   And with a little clever searching they will project your point crisply.   Remember, strong visuals are remembered.

Next for your brochures or websites, go to Getty images.  This is where the pros hang out.   You'll pay from $300 - $1,000 for images, but they're so much better.

And if you find an image that's *almost* what you want, figure out the name of the photographer.   Do a search and drop them an email.  Chances are they have the image you need.

And finally, if you do have the budget, hire a photographer.   Nothing beats the quality and content of a custom job.   

Your company is unique, so should your face to the world.  Spend some time and money here.   

Customer Service – Just Another Marketing Slogan!

We’ve all had poor customer service experiences, and a recent one with our fitness club, GoodLife Fitness (a Canadian chain with 140+ clubs) prompted me to think more about customer service.  Sparing you the gory details, incorrectly GoodLife identified my wife’s membership and mine as expired.  After several calls and much follow up by me, I finally learned that their computer glitch created the situation and our embarrassment and inconvenience (we lost use of the club for a short period of time).  After writing an e-mail to Customer Service, I received a standard e-mail response with an apology embedded within it.  My preference was that they more clearly demonstrate their understanding and regret for the situation and our experience.  They could have simply provided a one week extension to our current membership, but they opted for a low cost alternative—the ‘we’re so sorry e-mail’—which correspondingly possesses a low amount of effectiveness.

Although there are costs associated with compensation in the form of one week extensions, for example, they play two vital roles:

1. By providing something of value, this clearly demonstrates to the customer that they are valued.  Anyone can apologize; children learn to do this at an early age, as it costs virtually zero;
2. Providing compensation acts as a penalty to the organization.  This usually entails a dollar cost, lost or deferred revenue, and this will act as a catalyst to ensure situations like this are not repeated.

Our experience was shared by eight fellow colleagues on the same corporate plan.  Our corporate membership is up for renewal in ten days.  Let’s see if GoodLife Fitness decides to right the wrong.  Stay tuned for an update!

Ryck Marciniak

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryckmarciniak