New Persuasion

Plastic Bags are a Waste

Inhabitat had a great post this morning about declining plastic bag usage in Ireland...

Ireland plastic bag usage drops dramatically after plastic bag taxes are instated!

With all the recent bans on plastic bags around the world, it’s natural to wonder just how effective all the bag banning will be. Instead of simply enacting laws to phase out plastic bags - which seems like a wishy-washy attempt at most, Ireland has implemented a tax-based incentive to cut plastic bag useage — and it seems to be working wonders. Between the government tax on bags, an effective advertising campaign, and public support, plastic bag usage has dropped 94% in a matter of weeks.

I am so glad to see some of the new things being done to decrease the use of plastic bags around the world!  I know what a huge problem they have caused and continue to cause to our environment, and can't wait to see the types of things we will do in the U.S. to make a difference for ourselves.

When Customers Find New Uses for a Product

I have a nephew in the Marines.  He's in Iraq and he recently sent the family a list of things that guys in his unit would like to get.  High on the list was baby wipes.  Baby wipes?  Turns out soldiers use them for personal hygiene and cleaning their equipment and lots of other things. 

Now Matthew at Childs Playx2 says baby wipes are the new duct tape. (Thanks to Sarah at Strollerderby for the link.)  Besides wiping various parts of the body, he also uses wipes for:

• Cleaning the bannister
• Removing crayon from the coffee table
• Polishing your shoes
• Wiping snot off your computer screen
• Cleaning grout on kitchen tile
• Wiping dried oatmeal from the floor
• Cleaning high chair trays
• Cleaning the blades on your windshield wipers
• Wiping dirt from the top of a soda can
• Doing a quick wipe down of the toilet rim before visitors arrive

I love when people find new uses for a product.  A man I used to work with, who had no children at the time, always carried a bag of disposable diapers in his car.  He used them to suck up spills on the car seats or floors.  You can't believe how well they work.  He used them at home for the same thing.  So I did it too - and continue to do it.

I always wonder why the manufacturers of these products don't make use of the ingenuity of their customers.  If baby diapers can clean a carpet spill better than anything else, why not market them for that purpose?  I wrote about it awhile ago, but there is one company that does this - P&G has a fresh ideas section on its website for the laundry freshener Bounce.  Turns out you can use it for lots of different things and they encourage their customers to share their uses with each other. 

Flickr photo by Tom-Tom

The Slugging Experience

From our colleague Sandy Moore:

As a poor grad student in the late 1980s, my then-boyfriend (now husband) and I drove from Gainesville, Florida, to Springfield, Virginia, for a quick family visit.    Mike suggested we take a bus to “Bob’s” on Old Keene Mill, where we could get in the slug line for a free ride downtown.

I had no idea what he was talking about, but it turns out that slugging – catching rides from commuter drivers – is a unique phenomenon that started in Springfield 25 years ago, and some say even earlier.  Bob’s isn’t even around anymore but sluggers still wait here for free lifts on the restricted high-volume lanes, saving everyone time and the “slugs” money.  Up to 6,500 people a day rely on this option.

The name came from bus drivers who initially mistook the folks standing in slug lines for actual paying riders.  They started calling them phony riders or slugs, which were fake coins that showed up in bus collection boxes back then.  Now there’s a website http://www.slug-lines.com that not only provides extensive slug history, but offers links to message boards with titles like Morning Slug Lines Into the City, Afternoon Slug Lines, and Proposed New Slug Lines Locations.

Slugging is still around but there are some external forces that may change this type of transportation:

o The Internet
o Rising gas prices
o Future HOV / HOT lanes

There was no Internet in 1978 and slugging caught on by word-of-mouth.  That’s still pretty much the case, but riders and drivers alike have an extra tool – they can go online to find each other.  The other day, my colleague was rushing out the door at the beginning of her grueling commute home to Fredericksburg, Virginia, about 60 miles south of Washington.  In her hand was a printout of the name of a driver who could pick her up.   Every day she checks another website – mikeburkhart.com – for a possible ride.  If she lucks out, she just goes to the Pentagon where there is always a driver headed her way.

We all know that gas prices are out of control.  According to the Department of Energy, gas is well over $3.00 a gallon on the east coast, an increase of 11% from a few weeks ago and 33% from a year ago.  It makes one think fondly back to 1979, when gas was $1.41 a gallon (higher in today’s dollars, of course).  So have rising gas prices increased slug traffic?  My colleagues say there are more riders out there, but that slugging usually increases in the summer anyway when the weather is more accommodating to waiting outdoors.  But according to a Washington Post/ABC poll, few people are making any travel changes due to gas prices alone.  Only 11% of drivers surveyed said that gas prices would encourage them to drive less and gasoline consumption is actually up from this time last year.

What may permanently change the slug world is the introduction of HOT lanes, or High Occupancy Toll lanes, that will allow drivers to pay for the privilege of using the restricted lanes during rush hour.  Just this month, Washington area transportation authorities approved HOT lanes for I-95 heading south of the city.  Drivers with three passengers can ride for free.  Although these lanes are years off, some say they will encourage drivers to pay a toll rather than pick up a few strangers for a ride; others say slugging will continue as drivers will want to avoid the tolls which could reach $1 per mile.

Despite the changing dynamics of the slug world, the online community has kept its sense of humor.  A recent chat focused on a posting that a local TV meteorologist would take some slugs home on a certain day.  Other writers doubted it was legit.

“This is a likely hoax. If Sue X. does pick up any slugs, please let us all know. 

Maybe some other local TV personalities would then pick up some slugs too to help their ratings. 

Are there any of them you'd particularly like to ride with? 

This could begin a new reality series: "Sluggin' With The Stars"!

... or "Survivor: Beltway"

And then there's "American Slug". (doesn't quite have the same ring)

I don’t remember much about that ride I took many years ago, other than no one said a word and I thought that riding in a stranger’s car in complete silence was kind of weird.  Most often used as a noun – this morning I picked up a slug from the Lorton exit – it can also be a verb, as in – I would rather slug than drive home to Woodbridge – slugging is bound to change.  For now it still provides thousands of Washington commuters a free ride and the ability to find that ride in cyberspace.

Angie's List

Our colleague Sandy Moore writes about her experience with a service that's basically local, word-of-mouth (via the Internet), and all about crowdsourcing.  The key to Angie's List is the trust Sandy has in other consumers like herself   --Nellie Lide

I’m pretty good at juggling – a fulltime job, two kids, husband with long hours, new puppy (who is sick and needs antibiotics twice a day which no one can get him to swallow but me), plus the weekly soccer practice-ballet lesson-Girl Scout meeting-playdate scheduling and overall “stuff” coordination required as a 21st century working parent.  I do the meal planning – my husband does the grocery shopping.  I do the babysitter scheduling and payment – he is the IT person.  I mow and garden – he goes to Home Depot.  We both try to get the car into the shop every once in awhile.

What baffles us is basic home maintenance.  Oh, I can change an air filter or two, lower the temperature on the hot water tank, or even stop the toilet from running, but electrical projects overwhelm me, as do any tasks that require sanding, sealing, or standing on tall ladders.  Luckily, there is a terrific website called Angie’s List that ranks service companies based on geographic region.  Say you live in Silver Spring, Maryland and you have termites.  Just type in “Pest Control / Exterminating” and your address and 10 bug-elimination companies pop up, complete with contact information, grades from A to F and local reviews.

I think of Angie’s List as an online Consumer Reports customized to my neighborhood.  In the past six months, I’ve hired an electrician, roofer, handyman, exterminator, fence-builder and pet-walking service.  I’ve taken my car to a recommended mechanic and my dog to a recommended vet.  I always mention that I found them through Angie’s List; some respond positively, some are surprised to find out they are listed and some do not know what Angie’s List is.

Here is what it is – a privately held for-profit company founded by an Indianapolis entrepreneur named Angela Hicks.  She started her first chapter in Columbus, Ohio, in 1995.  According to the website, more than 20,000 people use the service, members submit 5,000 reports a month, and overall there are more than half a million members in 124 cities.  You can join for $6.95 a month or $53 dollars a year, plus a $10 sign-up fee.  It has only been available in Washington since January of 2006.  A Washington Post July 2006 article described it as:

“...a very large community bulletin board where neighbors exchange references and anecdotes about carpenters, roofers, landscapers and appliance stores.” Companies do not pay to be on the list but can run ads in a hard-copy magazine sent by snail mail. 

Over the years, I have used the non-profit Washington Consumers’ Checkbook which rates local services, but there are differences.  The hard copy comes out twice a year and while the website is available all the time, it is only updated every six months.  Services fall into six categories:  Cars & trucks, Your Home, Health Care (including doctors and hospitals, not available on Angie’s List), Getting Things Fixed, Personal Services and Other (banks, hardware stores, etc.)  Overall, Checkbook has fewer categories of services but significantly more reports on each.  The auto body section alone contains 150 different outlets with ten ratings each.  It is also cheaper at $34 for a two-year subscription.

Angie’s List has saved me more than once.  The week before Thanksgiving, my washer and dryer died.  I bought a new set but apparently the power required was greater than my circuit box was willing to provide.  I had two weeks of laundry piled up, a traveling husband and a houseful of guests arriving in days.  I found a local electrician who replaced my system the next day, wrapping up at 8:00 pm.  He was great but a bit expensive, which I reported in my online evaluation.  Obviously Internet savvy, he gave me a hard time at the next electrical emergency:  “I can’t believe you said I was expensive!”  Reviews clearly are not anonymous.

If you have a problem, there is a dispute resolution service.  That has not happened to me yet but is a reassuring thought.  You can also give a membership as a gift.  My mother-in-law asked me to look up local contractors so often that I bought her a membership for Christmas.  How else can you track down someone who will rebuild your brick fireplace?

My membership lasts another six months.  I don’t know if I’ll renew –
It depends on what services I’ll need at that time.  I thought I’d rely on it for home maintenance, but with categories like insurance agencies, mulch and topsoil and piano tuning, the categories – and the home/life improvement projects – are endless.

Everyone's Space

Almost everyone has heard of MySpace.  People use MySpace to stay in touch with old friends, make new friends, look up an employee or a potential date before you meet them for the first time, or even as a way to keep the world informed by writing daily blogs.  MySpace has taken America by storm and WikiPedia even claims that it is the "third most popular website in the United States."

MySpace began in July of 2003 and the number of created accounts has exceeded 100 million (as of August, 2006).  It is interesting to wonder if it would impact other countries the way it has impacted us in America.

An April 27th article in the Wall Street Journal mentions that MySpace has "finally found it's way into China."  MySpace China launched it's test version and will be run and controlled by a Chinese company.

MySpace China's independence will give it an advantage, Mr. Luo said, that other foreign-affiliated sites haven't had in China's intensely competitive Internet market, which boasted 137 million Internet users at the end of 2006, second only to the U.S.

"Our team here will have the sole right to decide on the operating model, the technology platform, as well as the product strategy," said Mr. Luo, a native of China who worked for 12 years at Microsoft Corp., most recently running its MSN Internet service in China, before leaving in December. "That's very unlike the other multinationals you might have seen in the Chinese market."

Moreover, despite its high profile in the U.S., MySpace's brand "is not very big" in China, Mr. Luo conceded. He said MySpace's technology will give his company a leg up on less-well-equipped Chinese rivals and that its ability to link Chinese users with existing users of MySpace in other countries could be a selling point. But he said the company's main challenge is to attract the user base necessary to build a thriving community.

Like its U.S. affiliate, MySpace China will get most of its revenue from online advertising. Mr. Luo said he doesn't know how long it will take for the company to become profitable.

The idea of international interest in MySpace says a lot about the way the world is changing.  The ability to stay connected with your peers and your community through a social networking website is something that has done amazingly well in our country, and, the thought that other nations may embrace this trend speaks for itself.  I think that we are always trying to step back and look at the big picture... and this is definitely a positive thing.

The Five Things Meme

I've been down and out the last month or so (health issues) and I removed myself from the computer for much of that time.  But I'm back baby. 

Anyway - what seems a lifetime ago, Jill Fallon at Estate Legacy Vaults blog (and Business of Life) tagged me with the Five Things You Don't Know about Me Meme.  So normally I hate too much personal stuff on the blog, but because I love Jill so much, I'll do it:

1.  I am the seventh of 13 children - 3 older sisters, 3 older brothers, 3 younger sisters, 3 younger brothers.  Terry, Dwight, Bruce, Lee Anne, Doug, Mary Joan, Me, Bernadette, Mimi, Jimmy, Glenn, Brian & Monica.  My mother had 13 children in 19 years (no twins).  Being the 7th of 13 has defined my existence.  And the 3 comments I always get are:  "You're Catholic right?"  (Yes)  "Your parents must have had a lot of fun --wink, wink." (I don't like to think of my parents like that thanks.)  "Who did the laundry?"  (My mom, until we each got old enough to do our own.)

2.  My first job out of college (besides working in the men's underwear department at Hecht's) was at CBS News 60 Minutes in their Washington, DC office.  I was a secretary, then a researcher, then an associate producer.   At one point I must have visited every maximum security prison in the country.  I learned this about prison -  everyone is innocent, and I wouldn't wish my worst enemy a prison stay.  My most memorable moment was accompanying Mike Wallace to Plains, Ga to do an interview with former President Carter.  I was alone in his kitchen and did what I always do in a strange kitchen, I opened the cabinets and looked around.  There was a box of unopened Godiva Chocolates on the counter, and I figured they were never going to eat them, so I opened it and had a couple - I chewed quickly and swallowed just before a secret service agent walked in. 

3.  I have luged at Lake Placid - I highly recommend it.

4.  I secretly long to be a screenwriter.

5.  I find that I can't watch The Office - it's too much like real life and it makes me cringe.  I once worked with someone who argued with me over the spelling of my name. 

(13 photo courtesy LeoL30 - see more of his photos here on Flickr; godiva photo courtesy Kathryn Kurioso - see more of her Flickr photos here.)

High School Musical - The Sequel - A Tween has Ideas

Not long ago I wrote a post on High School Musical - What it Means.  And I got a comment back from 9-year-old Martha Addis in the U.K.  Martha asked for my address, which I sent her.  She has written me a letter, but then she sent me an email to give me her ideas for a sequel because the physical letter (which is on the way) will take too long. 

This is why I love blogging.  In this day and age a nine-year old from Great Britain can find common ground and converse with a middle-aged mom in Rockville, Maryland, USA?  How is this possible?  I think it's wonderful (though I can see how it might be scary too - although Martha communicates with me through her mom's email - so her mother sees it first) -

Here's a pic she sent me - Martha is on the left, and her best friend K8E (her spelling) is on the right.

And what are Martha's ideas?   Here they are:

There is this girl (I don't know what the name could be) and she is Troy and Gabriella's kid. She is about 9 or 10 years old. And there is a play going on at her primary school. Troy and Gabriella try to convince her to audition for a part and they even get Chad and Taylor's kid to try and convince her to as well. They all make her listen to Breaking Free. She got upset and didn't know what to do because she didn't want to let her parent's down and she didn't want to let the basketball coach (her grandfather) down either. So in the end she gave up basketball and auditioned for the play (don't know what song she sang) and got the main part.

This is something else I love about blogging and the Internet - people are free and able to express themselves and their ideas to so many more people than in the past. I love that Martha wrote me, and that she feels free to send me ideas.  This is why I have high hopes for this Gen Y - they're so open, so creative, so fun.  They are teaching us so much. 

Viral Web Marketing Tips

I love it when people say "let's make a viral video!"  I cringe and say, "Well, you can make a video, but the viral part is sort of out of your control."  Puzzled looks follow.  We can only hope that something goes viral - we can't force it.  That's why I was glad to find this article by Thomas Baekdal - he gives seven tips on viral web marketing that are smart, practical and true - and he provides video examples.  In a nutshell:

1. Make people feel something.  The most important trick of all is to create a very strong emotion.
2. Do something unexpected ...and above all - never be a copycat.
3. Do not try to make advertisements (that sucks) One of the biggest mistake companies make is when they think viral marketing is just advertisements that people share - it is not.
4. Make sequels People have just seen your campaign. They think it was interesting, unexpected and their emotions has reached a high level - you have their complete attention. Now what do you do? If you do like most companies you will simply do nothing... and that is a big mistake.
5. Allow Sharing, downloading and embedding´ Sharing is what viral marketing is all about.
6. Connect with comments Another important element is to connect with your audience. Remember you got their attention, they are excited and now they want talk.
7. Never restrict access! Viral marketing is also about your campaign getting a life on its own - spreading like virus. In order to do that, in order to become "viral", it needs to be free.

I'd like to add #8 - that viral videos have no rules and there will be viral videos certain to come along that break some, if not all, of these guidelines.

I recommend reading the whole article where Baekdal delves more deeply into this list.  And you can also watch his many video examples.

MegaChurches and MySpace

Ilya Vedrashko over at the Marketing and Strategy Innovation Blog writes about product placement in megachurches.  He points to a Knowledge @ Wharton article:

"Advertising has begun to seep into churches, and the phenomenon shows no signs of slowing down, say academic, religious and marketing experts...Now some advertisers are taking the next step: marketing products -- like an SUV -- with no intrinsic religious value through church networks."

That advertisers and companies want into these communities doesn't surprise me.  What surprises me is that these religious communities are letting them in.  Then I thought that in a way, megachurches in the U.S. remind me of the mega-social communities online - particularly MySpace.  Here's what they have in common:

• Both have religions - in the case of megachurches, it's Christianity, and on MySpace it's music.
• Member demographics are more similar than you think: 
  • Megachurches -"... tend to attract "relatively modern, high-tech, middle-class, well-educated, upwardly mobile, suburban family types.."
  • MySpace - "Internet users between the ages of 35-54 now account for 40.6 percent of the MySpace visitor base, an 8.2 percentage point increase during the past year." (from Paul B. Walker at The Zone Read).
• Advertisers want access to members - (from Knowledge @ Wharton article):  "They offer a particularly tantalizing opportunity for those intent on network or 'word-of-mouth' marketing, a strategy that capitalizes on social relationships to spread product information and influence purchasing, according to Wharton marketing professor Patti Williams. 'Megachurch members are drawn together by a strong common bond. Networks that exist naturally facilitate word-of-mouth marketing, because people tend to share information with those they are close to,' she says."
• Members can join smaller communities centered around certain interests -MySpace has band fan clubs, Megachurches have weight loss centers and football games.
• Both have gotten too big for the individual member.  That's my opinion anyway - MySpace has over 100 million members and Megachurches are defined as having a Sunday seating of over 2,000 members.  That's just too many for me to be me.

I have no idea what I'm getting at here.  Isn't this what blogging is for - to put out half-baked ideas?  Maybe it's that these two social networking communities could learn from each other, but I'm not sure.  It just seems interesting to me.

Chevy and Livin' Large

First off I have to tell you that Chevy and GM are clients of The McGinn Group and I sometimes work with these clients (when I'm not writing this blog or reading or thinking or otherwise trying to get out of client work).  And I will say that I was involved  in trying to get bloggers to write about this campaign. 

Chevy's had their problems with consumer generated media - the Tahoe campaign anyone, anyone?  Though Chevy folk shudder when you bring this up, I have to say that I think they earned respect and brownie points for keeping the negative ads up on the site.  And what I like about Chevy is that they keep trying.  (I get knocked down, but I get up again...)  They've got their Super Bowl commercial thing going on with college students, and this week they're running a different sort of campus challenge centered around the Chevy Aveo. 

I love this challenge - 7 teams at 7 colleges are living in their aveo for a week (I know, shades of that guy living in his Nissan Sentra - but Chevy's been working on this for a long time so we'll never know who had the idea first).  They can only leave the car for classes and what Chevy politely  calls "bio-breaks" - what,  no Johnny on the Spot?

I'll give you my reasons (not in order of importance but in order they pop into my head):

• The website is cool.  It's modern yet retro - how do graphic designers do that?
• The students are running the campaign.  The student teams have to perform tasks and challenges and try to get as many people to vote for them as possible.  Chevy's put the campaign in their hands. 
• It's CGM/New Media- these students are writing blogs for the website, and there are webcams in and out of the cars to catch the action 24/7.  From Boston University's Jamie and Allison's blog this morning:

OH MY GOD!

Everyone GO LOOK AT THE FRONT PAGE OF THE BOSTON METRO!!  There's a HUGE picture of us on the FRONT PAGE under the headline "GIRLS GONE WILD."  :)  The picture is from the Daily Challenge yesterday when everyone put their hands on the car.  IT'S SO FUNNY, GO LOOK!!

• It's live, It's real, it's entertaining - I mean the Northwestern University students got the drumline to come over and perform - most excellent.
• It has a good cause element built in -  the students on each campus are also trying to generate publicity for their favorite causes - like HIV/AIDS Awareness - and the team from USC (if they win) plans to cash in their cars and donate the  money to the Adom Partnership, for children in Africa.
• It's Local - Chevy is working with the Public Relations Student Society of America and their campus chapters to ensure that each team tailored their efforts to their local community.  Great idea.

Fun, funny, at times moving - it's a great campaign. Kind of blends pr, advertising and marketing.  Look in and vote for your favorites is all I can say.  I'm personally rooting for Gerald & Evita  from Howard University, since it's in D.C. and that's my town.

And here's the video that Dolce and Anna from USC made to get into the contest:

Are Blogs Irrelevant?

I was told yesterday by a colleague I highly respect (and like a lot) that the "...whole blogging world is irrelevant."  I told him I disagree but that a lot of people felt the same way he did.  I walked away then because what he said sort of pierced me, since a lot of what I do has to do with the blogging world.  For a moment or two I felt irrelevant in this man's eyes.

And then later in the day, I read this post on David Armano's Logic + Emotion blog. In a recent Knowledge @ Wharton report, "To Blog or Not to Blog," Wharton faculty and staff were asked their opinions of the blogosphere and there were some responses that amazed me:

" 'Blogs are the latest forum for people who have nothing to say that others actually care about,' states Wharton marketing professor Xavier Dreze... 'I don't see the point. It's a bunch of people writing their opinions, and those people have no credibility. The information content is very low.'  Established media outlets, such as newspapers and magazines, have standards and fact checkers to help guarantee accuracy, he notes, but 'anybody can print a blog and say, 'Hey, I'm an expert. Let me tell you about this.' "

It made me want to scream out:

Why do people belittle blogs so?  Are they threatened?  Maybe.  Angry?  A little.  Stupid?  Not really. 

So I can only tell you why I think blogs are important, wonderful additions to our times:

1. Anybody can do it.  Anybody.  That's extraordinary.  I can write and publish something.  Me.  This doesn't mean anyone's reading it, but it's the possibility and potential of having a say, of being included in the conversation that make blogs so powerful.  The other point here is that some people don't necessarily want an audience.  They may write a blog for themselves, or their friends, or family.  Blogs are about communication, information, conversation- but they can also be about plain, simple expression.  I am, I exist, I have a voice.  Who cares if no one reads it - I'm expressing myself.  I'm creating something only I can create.
2. Blogs question authority.  I can challenge those in power if I want.  If I want to tell a Wharton Professor that he makes no sense, I can do that.  And he's free to tell me I'm full of it too.  Mainstream media often can't do this because of time and money constraints, so bloggers are only too happy to fill that role. 
3. Blogging is Continuing Education at its best.  I don't know that I teach anyone anything on this blog, but I know I sure learn a lot from other blogs.  Any subject I'm interested in professionally and personally I can find people who know so much and actually take the time to write about it and share their experiences with me.  There are even a few bloggers I consider friends, though I've never met them.  The blogosphere is such a vast, wide world and when I go exploring, I always bring back a trophy.  And though many say they don't know which are the "good" blogs and who are "real" experts, I've found when you read enough blog posts, you can tell who this person is and if you want to listen. Truth is, somebody doesn't have to be an expert to have something worthwhile to say.  And just as I don't read the sports section in the newspaper, I'm not going to read some blogs.  I track maybe 200 now (that's down from close to 400) and I agonized over who I had to lose in order for me to stay up-to-date.  That because each blog is a university for me, and I learn so much.
4. Blogging is not irrelevant, but it is irreverant - it's the casual, informal style that blogs are written in that I love.  Though some blogs take themselves too seriously, most insert a bit of lightheartedness and goofiness that's often missing in mainstream media.  It's fun to blog.
5. The blogosphere is too big now - there's no going back.  Blogs are one more communication system that is here to stay.  Accept it, embrace it, love it.

For more good reasons why blogs are important, see this group blog post, "Why Blogging Matters; Six Degrees of Perspective," organized by David Armano.  These guys are way smarter than me and make much better points. 

Blog on.

Picture above, Siren, is from Salnunzio's collection on Flickr.

Edelman and the Definition of Blogging

Richard Edelman outlines what he's doing to make sure there are no more flogs from his PR firm:

• We are undertaking a thorough audit around the world to ensure we apply best practice guidelines to every program in every market and specialty area.
• We are requiring that all employees attend an Edelman University class on ethics in social media, hosted by members of me2revolution team as well as external experts. This will take place before the end of next week.
• We are establishing a 24/7 hotline so our me2revolution team can review, provide counsel and apply best practice guidelines on social media programs before their implementation. This ensures that programs adhere to the WOMMA guidelines or best-in-class standards around the world.
• We are creating ethics materials that will be distributed to each office and all new hires.

So, they're trying - but they might have saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had read this September post from IBM's Irving Wladawsky-Berger:

"I think that the key difference between a blog and other kinds of web sites is their personal nature.  In your blog, you are making the implicit promise that you are personally writing the content and that you are writing about subjects you care about in your own voice and style.  Which leads to another important aspect of blogs - they should be conversational and informal enough to let your voice, style and personality come through.

In other words, the essence of blogging is authenticity. In your blog, you are essentially sharing what is in your head, your feelings and opinions, with others out there.  If you feel strongly for or against political candidates, then it makes sense to write about them in your blog.  However, if you really don't care, or are a paid campaign worker posing as someone who cares, that is not OK.

If you like or dislike a company and its products and services, sharing your opinion with others is good.  But if you really have no opinion and are writing about the company just because you work for the company, its competitors or a marketing agency engaged by either, I would consider that bad blogging behavior."

He's right.

(Read the roundup of the Wal-Mart/Edelman troubles here on Constantin Basturea's PR Meets the WWW blog)

Elwood P. Dowd Was Right

Jill Fallon at Business of Life points to an article in The Observer: 

'There is a widespread belief that ruthless and self-centered people are the most successful when it comes to their careers. But being prepared to do anything to get ahead does not mean you will succeed in your ambitions,' says Stefan Einhorn, author of The Art Of Being Kind, to be published this week by Little, Brown. 'True success is not achieved by those who are smart or inconsiderate, by hard-baked egotists or psychopathic bosses,' says Einhorn, who is also chairman of the Ethics Council at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

'On the contrary, being kind to our fellow human beings is a precondition to becoming truly successful. Goodness and kindness are the single most important factors when it comes to how successful we will be in our lives.'

Einhorn says we're often kind out of pure egotistical needs - but that's okay.  It's the act, not the thought that counts.  He gives three reasons why it pays to be kind:

1. Kind, generous people are not perceived as threats, and people tend to cooperate with them, not compete with them.
2. When you're kind - people tend to be kind back.
3. Being kind simply gives a person pleasure.

And all this kindness makes me think of my favorite quote of all time - as a kid I thought it was the wisest thing I'd ever heard.  It was spoken by Elwood P. Dowd in the 1950 movie Harvey:

"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be' - she always called me Elwood - 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

No Need for Advertising

Dave Winer on product development and how advertising eventually not be needed:

The current product development process, that focuses on a few supposed geniuses and ignores the intelligence that's in the user's minds..Think about it. There's a big trend here, imho it's the difference between the 20th and 21st centuries. In the past the flow of ideas for products was heavily centralized, and based on advertising to build demand. In the future, the flow of ideas for products will happen everywhere, all the time, and products with small markets will be worth making because we'll be able to find the users, or more accurately, they'll be able to find us. "Targeting" customers is the wrong metaphor for the future. Instead make it easy for the people who lust for what you have to find you. How? 1. Find out what they want, and 2. Make it for them and 3. Go back to where you found out about it, and tell them it's available.

Winer's words stuck in my mind as I read this article in Slate on Stephon Marbury's $15 Starbury shoe line at cheap apparel retailer Steve & Barry's:

...Steven Shore and Barry Prevor have managed to undercut Wal-Mart and Target by scoring great deals from landlords at crappy malls, buying directly from overseas, and offering only house brands. The result: absurdly low prices...And unlike Nike and Foot Locker, Steve & Barry don't advertise. Spike Lee certainly won't be making any high-concept ads for the Starbury One, and Stephon will have to help hustle the goods himself (Marbury vs. Madison Avenue). But these days, fantastic word-of-mouth can be as valuable as a multimillion-dollar ad campaign. And Starbury certainly has that.

So Steve& Barry have found their niche.  Now we just have to find ours.

Listen and Respond to Customers

Lots of talk these days about good old-fashioned manners.

Steve Cody at Rep Man asks the question: Why is politeness becoming the exception, rather than the rule?  He goes on:

According to an AP-Ipsos poll released last October, 70 percent of Americans think their fellow Americans are ruder and less polite then they were 30 years ago. I have no doubt this is true and see it demonstrated in multiple ways every day (from the sarcastic train conductor and obnoxiously loud fellow passenger to clients who fire you by e-mail and prospects who string you along meeting after meeting).

And Guy Kawasaki over at Signum sine tinnitu says companies need to:

1. Find out what's being said about them by customers on the Internet.
2. Respond to unhappy customers.
3. Respond to happy customers.

The key words here are listen and respond.

Some companies are doing this.  Take Service Unititled's experience with Headsets.com:

Mike Faith, the CEO of Headsets.com discovered Service Untitled and I exchanged a few emails with him since his comment at Service Untitled spoke with him this afternoon. He is an interesting guy to talk to and I noticed a few things:

• First of all, he took the time to A) comment on Service Untitled, B) respond to my email, and C) talk to me. Very few companies will do any of those.
• He uses Google News to monitor the web for updates on Headsets.com, which is how he discovered Service Untitled. Mike said that if a customer or an article is written, they either thank them (assuming the write up was a good one) or try and resolve issues (if there was a problem).This technique isn’t new or revolutionary, but it’s not done as often as you think it would.

Listen and Respond.  Good business, good manners.

Super-Niche Media has Voracious Customers

Max Kalehoff of Attention Max writes about his pregnant wife Laura's obsession with getting information regarding parenthood.  That's normal for any woman pregnant for the first time.  (Yes it hurts, yes you forget, and yes you will love your baby.)

What isn't normal is both the amount of information and the narrowness of the information.  And even more striking is how trusted this information is.  Max says:

What’s fascinating to me is that media technologies are enabling time-shifted consumption of extreme-niche reality programming. Not reality programming in the spirit of cheesy game shows like Fear Factor and Survivor, but reality programming in the spirit of real people sharing their experiences, devoid of artificiality, commercial agenda and formality. I’ve been witnessing engagement and trust with media programming that I’ve never seen before in my life. That’s a big deal, given that I work in marketing and media research. Is my wife falling into just another marketer-coveted affinity group, or is she at the forefront of a major shift in how consumers select, consume, engage in and trust super-niche programming and content?

I'm betting she's at the forefront of a major shift.  Laura even wants to start her own podcast:

She noted there are no newborn or pregnancy podcasts produced by professional women living in Brooklyn, NY, where we live. Because there is no existing programming that fits her profile with such extreme specificity, she considered creating it herself. That’s telling.

It is telling.  It's that whole idea that we will all be famous to fifteen people (as opposed to being famous for fifteen minutes). 

Co-Creation & Sharing with Your Customers

Here's what I love - when people much smarter than I am think the same things I think - only they say it a bit better. 

Strategy + Business has a great article, "My Customer, My Co-Innovator" by Michael Schrage:

In industry after industry, a shared model for innovation adoption is emerging. The most valuable “platforms” — the tools and technologies used internally to discover, design, and test new products and services — can be creatively and cost-effectively sold or lent to customers, clients, and prospects. Customers get a chance to “try before they buy.” They can adopt and test new ideas and technologies before investing in them. And the purveyors of new technologies rapidly gain insights into the potential value of their wares — insights that might otherwise take years to gather.

Schrage uses Cisco as an example:

“We’ve found that when we share our tools with customers rather than just demonstrate how much we’ve improved our technologies, we learn a lot more,” Randy Pond, Cisco senior vice president of operations, processes, and systems, told a Cisco CIO customer workshop in 2004. “Several of you have become true partners in design with us.”

And along the same lines, Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users writes another fantastic post,  "How We Treat Customers:  Before and After They Buy Our Products"-

If the best way to help create passionate users is by helping users learn and get better, then we should put our power to entice, motivate, and inspire someone to buy more, and use it to entice, motivate, and inspire someone to learn more. In the end, those passionate users will evangelize our product or service far more credibly and honestly than we can.

She's saying use the advertising money on stuff for your existing customers and they'll do your advertising for you.  I believe this completely.

Related Posts:  Customers in Charge, Ask Your Customers

MINI in a Committed Relationship with Customers

I've always thought that companies should pay more attention to existing customers.  It's something I hate about cellphone contracts.  As soon as I sign up, I get no more good deals on phones, any change is hard to make, yada, yada, yada.  Seems like Verizon Wireless is only interested in getting new customers not keeping the ones they already have.   And I've said it before - today it's about establishing and maintaining a relationship and connection with your customer for the long term. 

So it's with glee that I read MINI goes to great lengths to keep in touch with their existing customers.  First there are secret ads for MINI owners.  Brent from Everything's Better with Brentter explains:

Every MINI owner was mailed a little black box containing a book entitled, “A Dizzying Look At The Awesomeness of Small.” At the end of the book is a “secret” compartment hiding a few gadgets that are meant to be used with upcoming advertisements. One of them happens to be the magic window decryptor capable of showing us the secret text. The hidden message drives the user(no pun intended) over to a Citizens for Fair Insect Treatment website. From there the user can click on a couple funny features of the site, ultimately leading them to yet another site which is part of the MINI Take The States promotion. Overall I thought this was a crafty way of making the MINI owner feel like he/she is part of a community. ..Also included in the MINI “spy kit” are two other decoders - some red tinted glasses and the “super secret decoder” (a card with holes cut at strategic points).

And Autoblog reports on the MINI takes the States rally going on now:

So, a total of 3,347 MINIs are taking part in a multiple-stage road trip across America...The two-week celebration of all things MINI begins and ends with the delivery of the first American-market MINI GPs...Registered MINI owners will be joining and leaving the pack throughout the trip, though 175 cars are signed up to make the full coast-to-coast run. Between Monterey and Lime Rock, MINI has events scheduled for the rally participants at every stop, ranging from a John Hiatt concert in Nashville, tailgating at Busch Stadium, a photo-op under the ST. Louis arch, an all-MINI drive-in movie, track tour and parade laps at Indy, and much more.

This event took a year to plan - all for current owners - what a fun way to recognize and celebrate your customer.  And today Autoblog reports that MINI owners now get special service at BMW Dealers:

It turns out MINI owners felt like "second-class citizens" next to their Beemer brethren, so BMW has taken steps to give MINI owners a unique, MINI-branded service experience that includes dedicated MINI service personnel, MINI-branded clothing for service techs, and special service and waiting areas. You can read about one owner's new experience at his Long Beach dealership here.

Even though the changes haven't rippled through the entire dealer network, the results are remarkable: J.D. Power's 2006 Customer Service Index placed MINI 9th (from 39th), the most improved brand in the survey.

MINI is telling their customers "We like you, we really like you!"  That's what I want companies to tell me - that they care and they still want me around. I don't want to be a one-night stand, I want the ring, the pledge, the commitment.

Snakes on a Plane is about FUN

Is the movie Snakes on a Plane (SoaP) a failure?

It opened number one at the box office - but because it failed to meet expectations of a $20 million take (it made $15.3 million) it's considered a disappointment, a failure. 

Seth Godin says:

I fear that people are missing a fundamental truth: just because people know who you are doesn't mean they're going to buy what you sell. There's a difference between infamy (or celebrity) and the consumer's desire to buy. I knew all about SOAP and had no desire whatsoever to go... I'm afraid we come back to something that marketers have been struggling with for a really long time--the best way to succeed is to have a really great product.

Seth is wrong. 

Snakes on a Plane isn't about the movie product - it's about the whole experience.  It's about the FUN. 

I got a phone call from Samuel L. Jackson.  My brother got a phone call from Samuel L. Jackson.  My best friend got a phone call from Samuel L. Jackson.  None of us went to see the movie.  But that doesn't mean we're not going to see the movie.  Most likely we will buy it, rent it or watch it on demand - but we will see it.  The movie theater going experience is changing, but that doesn't make Snakes on a Plane a failure. 

BS^2 Branding Space blog has it right:

I think Soap did it right. By engaging the audience, they were able to make them feel like part of something special, even if the movie did suck, turning them into SoaP evangelists. Subsequently, these SoaP evangelists gave the movie marketing legs that cast a wider and deeper net than what they could’ve done via tens of millions of dollars of standard advertising means. Is it a problem that the opening weekend wasn’t gonzo? Not really, because most of these people will eventually come around. Why? Because they’ve invested themselves into the movie - minutes and maybe hours viewing and creating wacky videos and fan-art. Maybe they won’t view it in the theaters (because spending free time remixing videos doesn’t mean you’re going to slap down $20 for a movie ticket, popcorn and drinks), but they’ll see it when it comes around on DVD, VoD, piracy (yes, piracy), etc. And just as importantly, it’s now a part of the cultural lexicon. So it’s not likely to fade away into nothingness like a Final Destinations or Jeepers Creepers.

For this movie - It's the process the not the product.  And just because Hollywood hasn't figured out how to answer this question:  How do we make it as easy as possible for people to access our movies whenever they want and in whatever form they want? - don't blame SoaP.

Customer-Centric Thinking Must Be Real

Doug Floyd at Doug Watching writes about The Art of Listening:

I appreciate this current focus on customer centrism and usually try to follow what people are saying about it. The trend toward customers seems like a good thing.

Especially if it is for real.

Listening is an art. If I listen to a customer just to figure out a plan for the best way to manipulate them to purchase my goods, I may not listen for long. Or they may not speak for long.

I am constantly amazed by people and companies who pat themselves on the back for "listening to customers", when all the means is that they've given customers a place (like a blog) to express their opinions and thoughts.  But they don't take the next step and talk back, or even acknowledge the customer checked in. 

Doug points to Heidi Cohen's article about collecting customer feedback.  Cohen gives this advice:

• Invite customer input on your Web site, in correspondence, and through other touch points. Read it and, at a minimum, thank customers for communicating. Tap customer service and call-center staff to get their help and insights on these efforts.
• Track consumer comments and buzz on relevant message boards, forums, and rating sites. Starwood Hotels takes this a step further. Writing as the Starwood Lurker, customer service coordinator William R. Sanders participates in message boards and engages consumers. Since November 2000, he's made over 12,000 posts to FlyerTalk. Notable is the transparency with which Sanders does this, adding to his credibility on the board as a customer advocate.
• Set up an online customer research panel to solicit input on new initiatives and ongoing issues. Ensure members feel they're being heard, and thank them for their participation. One online resource for this is Communispace.

It's not about your product, it's not about your company, it's about the customer and it will always be about the customer.  Why don't you listen?

Advertising and Public Relations Continue to Merge

Andrea Learned at Learned on Women posts about this article she saw in a local Vermont paper - (click on the picture to see a bigger version) she thought it was a wonderful way for a person to advertise her services without advertising her services:

"...this profile offered up so many different, personal, facts/interests of this woman that you either identified with her, or not - but you had a lot of opportunity to find some connection.

If people, especially women, are looking for a realtor, they are going to love that they feel like they "know" this woman a bit, and that they have common interests.  While they wouldn't spend more than 1/2 second glancing at a typical realtor's classified ad, this profile will likely draw them in a lot more.  A.. reader/real estate prospect won't necessarily walk away thinking: "I'm going to call that woman right now," but they will remember her face and an element of her story, and file it away for future reference..."

Here's another great example of how public relations and advertising are becoming the same thing.  The way to a customer's heart is telling your story, sharing who you are and letting them make connections back to you.  It's not what a great realtor you are - let's face it - there's lots of good realtors out there - it's who you are and making people feel comfortable working with you. 

Learned mentions that realtors have always been good at humanizing their business, but lots of other industries could take a clue from this.

Raw Tea, Raw Strategy

The Wall Street Journal ran an article today about Smirnoff's Tea Par-tay video on YouTube. (You can watch it in the player below). Instead of a tv commercial, the ad agency (BBH) created a two minute rap parody about ice tea and preppies, uploaded it to YouTube and now has over half a million views.  Kevin Roddy, executive creative director at BBH said to make it on YouTube, you can't play by ordinary rules of advertising:

Within the lyrics, there are a lot of mentions of Smirnoff and the products. One line says: 'We'll serve Smirnoff Raw Tea and finger sandwiches.' The characters in the video also hold the bottles in some scenes. But they did not hold them in a prominent way, like you would see in a typical TV ad. There were no bottle close-ups. If we want this to get picked up, have people watch it and have them pass it along, we can't play by the rules of advertising. As soon as you do the classic bottle close-ups, big company graphics or lots of shots of sweaty bottles -- people reject it.... advertising is no longer about talking at someone, it's about engaging with the consumer. To do that, you have to play by different rules. It requires you to be more entertaining. Brands aren't advertisers anymore. ... At their best, they're tools, something consumers can get involved with, experience and take part in.

According to the article, people are asking for Smirnoff's Ice Tea beverage all over the country.  So it's working. 

But, and it's a big but - if you want to find out more about the raw tea drink - don't depend on Smirnoff's site to help you.  According to William I. Lengeman III at Tea Guy Speaks:

Now, if you'd like to find out a little more about what Raw Tea is, good luck to you. Smirnoff has a Tea Partay Web site set up here. As of right now, it just redirects to the Smirnoff Ice Web site, which features a small banner ad for the product and nothing more.

If you try Smirnoff's main Web site, you're presented with attractive, but not very user friendly animations that do little or nothing to aid in your quest for information - but they do look really nice. ..Which seems like a pretty lamebrained way to capitalize on a "viral hit".

Tea Guy Speaks had to dig around before finally getting a little more information from a beverage distributor. 

Seems like Smirnoff did not think this one through all the way - if you're going to initiate a conversation, make sure you at least have some small talk on hand to keep the conversation going.

Customers Flock to Social Networks

Sivaraman Swaminathan of Customer World talks about how social networking sites like MySpace, YouTube and Facebook are gaining on web portals/search engines like Yahoo and Google: