Marketing with Technology and More

Caveat Venditor is the new Caveat Emptor

Many of us grew up in a society where the consumer mantra was always caveat emptor – let the buyer beware.  Beware for the world was filled with unscrupulous marketers and businesses that would rapidly remove hard-earned cash from your pockets and fill them with cheap products that didn’t work as promised , or deliver as required. 

The world is changing rapidly, and the old maxim of caveat emptor is rapidly changing into a new warning of caveat venditor – let the seller beware.  Today’s consumer no longer is powerless to change things, upset them, fail to deliver on your promises, anger them and you will find the tides of enterprise rapidly shift against you.  Upset enough of them, and the world as you know it may come crashing down on you.

This weekend it happened to the makers of Motrin.  They developed what I am sure both they and their ad agency thought was a “cute” ad that promoted their product by poking fun at mothers and baby carriers (Marketing 101 - never make fun of mothers or their children – very bad idea).  What happened was a literal firestorm of consumer action in the form of extremely negative feedback from consumers (many, but not all mothers) on blogs, Twitter and even in at least one case a 9 minute “protest video.” 

If you are on Twitter, check out the hash tag #motrinmoms, there are literally hundreds of postings about the offending ads.  By Sunday evening, close to 70 blog postings had been tracked mentioning it.  The video poster/blogger Katja Presna received an apology from the VP of Marketing - Pain, Pediatrics, GI, Specialty at McNeil (the makers of Motrin), and the Motrin web site had been completely taken down. 

I think McNeil got the message, unfortunately, there was much more they could have done to avert this disaster, and they could have been a part of the conversation rather than just sent out an email to one of the bloggers.  In the new age of Caveat venditor, if you are the seller, be prepared to play by the new rules.  They are:

• Think before you act – the consumer is watching and if they don’t like your actions, they will report on it (via email, blog, micro-blog, video, pod-cast and other social communications tools yet to be developed.  Ask a simple questions, “if I was my consumer would l like the action I am about to take”? 
• Listen – there is a global conversation happening and some of the talk is about you.  Good or bad, you must know what is being said and you must be listening.  Do you know the places where the conversation is occurring?  Do you have a method and a plan for gathering the rivers of conversation that pertain to you?  You should. 
• Converse – You must be part of the conversation.  This doesn’t mean you get to control it and it doesn’t mean you get to advertise in it.  The great part about today’s social media world is that it is like a giant cocktail party and everyone is welcome as long as they obey the norms of the group.  As a participant you will reap much in the way of rewards that go beyond anything you would find in any other one-way customer communications medium.
• Learn – No one has yet figured out this massive new world.  The great opportunity is if you participate now, you get to learn along with the others who are developing this new field.  The only failure will come from failing to participate.

The Invisible Hand Can Be Seen

Back in my University days I took quite a number of economics courses.  One of the first books most  economics students read in those days (and maybe still do) was Scottish economist Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations originally published in 1776.  I enjoyed that book immensely and thought it gave a great explanation of how an economic system was driven by individuals.  One key premise that Smith built his economic treatise on he dubbed  “The Invisible Hand.”

“The Invisible Hand,” was a great metaphor for how markets used to work.  The basic premise was that in free-markets, individuals, driven by their own-self interest, will act in a way that ultimately maximizes the wealth of a community.  “The invisible hand” will guide each in a way that ensures that by maximizing their own self-interest society as a whole gains the most.  Individuals neither intend to promote the public interest, nor do they even know that they are doing so, yet they do, by trying to maximize their own lot in life.

We know much more about economics today than we did in Smith’s time (yet we still manage to screw it up), however this is not my point here.  I believe that “The Invisible Hand” can now be seen in a way that it has never been visible before.  I was first excited by the Internet and what it initially did to reduce friction on economic activity.  Now, along come social networking tools, and I think they are in the process of severing the invisible hand.  For if you are listen to the social media/net world, it is easy to hear discussions that lay out market direction, before the market actually move.

Honest dialog is occurring about products, companies, politics, ideas, movements, organizations, events and tribes (to use Seth Godin’s metaphor).  People may still operate in their own self-interest, but communicate about it in a rare and extended way that distributes that which is of value to society at lightning speed.  So, self-interest that is self-serving is self-destructive in an unprecedented way.  We are at the dawn of the social network era (think Internet 1995) the basic social networking tools of today, blogs, wiki's, photo sharing, etc along with popular commercial resources (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Plurk, etc) are empowering people to help each other in ways that are extremely transparent and would have been impossible in the past. 

If you are in the conversation, you know what I mean.  If not, be prepared to wake up some day by being slapped in the face by a very visible hand that you just haven’t been looking at.

Magpie in Twitter

Magpie is the new ad serving solution in Twitter.  What are your thoughts about putting ads in your Peeps?  Would you do it?  Would you follow anyone who does?  Take our five second survey.  The results so far from the survey posting on Twitter are posted below.

Good to the last drop

Seth Godin had a post today about marketing that delivers exactly the message marketers (and salespeople for that matter) need to hear as the economy gets tougher.  Now is the time to stick to your marketing progams.  Only he says it in a way that it almost sounds like poetry.

Marketing Prof's Digital Mixer - A perfect mix

 

Just returned from Phoenix after attending Marketing Prof’s Digital Mixer.  It was an outstanding event.  I have been to their events in the past, but this one was the best by far.  In trying to put my finger on what made this event great,  I thought back to other events I have attended that had a similar feel. 

The first, was a conference organized by Peter Senge in the early 90’s at Bretton Woods.  The second was a gathering Tom Peters organized in 2002 and invited a few of his “cool friends” to (I had the honor of joining that list after the publication of my first book, Aha) along with some major corporate leaders.  The third happens every year when I attend the TED Conference. 

The feeling at each of these events comes from the participants, not from the content.  Sure the content is important, most of us would never go if the content did not draw us in (or we were not invited to deliver some of it).  The people and the dialogue that go on in the halls, at dinner (or in this case in the casino) are where new connections are made and ideas launched.  At each of these events in the past, there were incredible individuals that I connected with, some who have become life-long friends, others mere acquaintances, but none-the-less, the conversations were life changing for me and many of the participants. 

At Bretton Woods, I met many of the influential leaders of the then very hot Learning Organization community.  I formed a loose partnership with one of them, and we worked together for several years in a variety of interesting ways that led me to the publication of my creativity book, and built a great management development business. 

In Vermont, I connected with many influentials of the digital world who were starting to change the way we viewed the web.  Seth Godin, Dan Pink, Marti Barletta, Robyn Waters, David Weinberger and many more.  I had started SubscriberMail at that time, and the ideas and feedback that came out of that gathering helped shape the vision for our organization.

TED every year is simply TED.  It defies description beyond the fact that it is the single event that I attend that requires I take a vacation afterwards to process the input.  You can certainly read more about TED on this blog, but you can experience some of the content at the TED website.

Now I come to this event, which I have fondly just started to refer to as #mpdm .  For those of you who Twitter, you will understand the reference, the rest of you, will soon.  From my perspective, this event fell into the same basket with the ones I have named above because of the participants.  There were many of the people I know from the email world, along with some of the SEO world.  The catalyst at this event however were the Social Media participants.   They verified for me that this is indeed and exciting marketing element, and in my mind they were the “who’s who” of this new space. 

I am sure that many of the participants formed relationships that are going to fuel new business ventures, create great new concepts and build new marketing ideas.  Many of the connections I made are people I plan to stay connected with and hope to get to know better in the years to come.  I think we will all be on this new marketing road together, and boy does it look cool.  Sure the economy is glum, but with opportunity like this, why worry?  As one of the keynote speakers Gary Vaynerchuk (future owner of the NY Jets) stated so eloquently, in the down economy, the first thing big companies will drop is their funding and focus on new marketing initiatives (like social media).   This creates fantastic opportunities for everyone currently in the space and willing to invest work, time and money.

Sealed for Your Protection

I am in Columbia Missouri this week for an exciting occasion.  My daughter is graduating from The University of Missouri (I’m one proud father).  Anyway, the trip necessitated a stay in a local hotel.  Having visited her numerous times, we knew what the area had to offer, and opted to try a brand new Hilton Garden Inn that had just opened on the outskirts of town. 

By today’s road warrior travel standards, it was pretty nice.  Free Internet, breakfast, coffee in the room, soap, shampoo, an alarm clock.  But the alarm clock is where it got oddly strange.  At about 10:30 PM, when my wife and I were ready to turn in, I looked at the alarm clock and it said 5:20AM.  So I looked at the clock for the “set time” function and could not find it.  So I called my daughter over, the new college graduate (figuring she would be pretty smart) and she could not figure it out either.  It was easy to set the alarm, but there did not seem to be a way to set the time.  In frustration, I called the front desk.

I simply said, “could you tell me how to set the time on the alarm clock in my room?”  His response was, “you can’t, it is sealed for your protection.”  He told me he would be happy to come up with the tools required to reset the time if I wanted or, he could arrange for a wake-up call.  I told him that this was pretty ridiculous.  I think he somewhat agreed, and had grown tired of telling clients that they could not set their own alarm clocks.

What am I being protected from?  My guess is the hotel is hoping no one will steal an alarm clock they can’t set (although the time has to be off in order for someone to figure that out, so a thief probably would not realize this until after they had stolen it and taken it home).  Sometimes we do things in business that are designed to serve our own best interest (not the customer’s) and then try to disguise it with some lame explanation that does nothing but frustrate a user or consumer even more.  Put as much control in the hands of the customer as you can (especially when it comes to setting their own alarm clock).

Marketing's Philosopher

When I was out at TED this year I ran into Seth Godin.  I wish I had more time to spend with him as I think he is a marketing genius.  He's often referred to as a guru.  I think that is the wrong moniker.  I think he is really a marketing philosopher.  Sometimes he makes simple statements that boil things down to their essential nature.  Today he posted the following:

"Persistence isn't using the same tactics over and over. That's just annoying.

Persistence is having the same goal over and over."

If more salespeople and marketers paid attention to this advice, the world would definitely be much more enjoyable (and less annoying).

More on Great Customer Service from ProFlowers

If you read my earlier post about customer service at ProFlowers, and the great way they handled it when they goofed on one of my orders, there is an update.  Today, I received the following:

The Art of Fresher Flowers' is not just a motto, it's our mission. That's why we want to take this opportunity to offer our most sincere apologies that the bouquet you sent did not meet your standards - or ours. Our goal is to ensure every last bud, leaf, and stem is delivered just-picked-this-moment fresh, and while mistakes will occur with such a fragile and perishable product, we very much regret that we failed to live up to your expectations.

We hope you'll give us a second chance. To make your next purchase with us even better, we'd like to give you 20% off your next ProFlowers order*.

As you know, all of the bouquets at ProFlowers are delivered direct from the fields to guarantee freshness, which is why we offer a refund or replacement, no questions asked, if you are not completely happy. We are able to offer our unique 7-Day Freshness Guarantee as a result of our comprehensive three-point Quality Assurance Program, including:

Careful screening of our growers to ensure the quality of their flowers meets our uncompromising standards, Thorough inspection of our flowers to confirm each one meets strict criteria for appearance, quality, size, freshness, and vase life,
Continuous research to find innovations in flower foods, flower heredity, environmental acceptance, packaging and shipping processes, and other areas,
We put the same care into our flowers and plants as you do in selecting them for friends and family. And, with your 20% discount, why wait? You can browse our current selection of fresh flowers and plants, including seasonal favorites, by clicking here.

Or, save your 20% discount for a special event or holiday - it's your discount to use anytime in the next month, so be sure to save this link!

Please accept our sincere apologies for your unsatisfactory experience; we look forward to serving you again. And, remember, we're always just a click or call away.

There is nothing better than a company who stands behind what they sell, and deliver when they fall short.

Last week when I was at TED, I noticed all of the flowers were provided by ProFlowers, and they were breathtaking. 

 

YouTube Marketing Power

TED had one last minute addition to the speakers list.  A young fellow by the name of Johnny Lee.  Lee is a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University brilliant young technologist, who on his own, without any funding figured out that there is more power in a WiiRemote than simply helping your backhand in a video game.  Lee presented two ideas he developed using the WiiRemote.  The first allows a user with a computer, LCD projector, remote and white-board to turn their regular cheap white-board into a digital capture white board.  He also showed how it can be set up to do heard tracking.  Both of these ideas are explained in the video clips below. 

What is significant is two fold.  First he has definitely developed some cool interactive technology.  But more importantly is the fact that his idea has spread far and wide through the power of YouTube.  A total of 3.9 million people (more viewers than many network television shows) have downloaded the video on head tracking.  Another 1.2 million have downloaded the white board video.  If any marketer has ever doubted the power of a viral message, this should eliminate any doubt.

What I love about the age of the web, is that an old adage has become a truth.  Build a great product and the world will beat a path to your door.  Just ask Johnny.

Order Takers and Realtors - Seth says Quit!

Everyone in marketing knows that Seth Godin is the father or permission marketing.  His post today takes his discussion of permission one step further.  He was speaking to a group of Realtors.  Knowing Realtor’s, I’m sure he really got there attention when he told them to “quit now.”  He’s right on the money however.  His point is that a massive swath of the Realtor world (and other worlds too) are nothing more than order takers who pass out business cards with their picture on them and wait for the phone to ring.

It is interesting when you look at markets how few Realtors ever stand out beyond the standard Real Estate magazine advert, or open house sign.  I’ve vacationed often in Maui, where Realtors are as abundant as tourists.  It is difficult for anyone to stand out above the fray, yet over the past couple of years, there is a pair of Realtors there that have caught my attention because of their outstanding use of digital marketing. 

Tom Muldoon and Sean Crowley are like everyone else on the island trying to sell a little piece of Paradise to the visitors to the 50th state.  However, they have become the property experts in an area know as Wailea.  Instead of just sending out listing, they produce full-color, digital reports with detailed market statistics, area information and resale information.  They have a blog that talka about more than how great they are with new listings.

A friend of mine owns a condo on the island, and when they decided to put it on the market, they selected Tom and Sean.  They have created a fantastic web site for the property, and are using 37Signal’s Base Camp to communicate with the owner.  Tom and Sean are definitely not Realtors that are going to be impacted by a downturn in real-estate sales like others in the market.  All they need is a SubscriberMail newsletter, and their marketing will be perfect.

Going back to Seth for a moment, he points to Daily Candy as a great model to follow if you are looking to “talk about what matters” to your audience.  See my posting about Daily Candy’s CEO Pete Sheinbaum at the EEC on how they do this.