Church of the Customer: February 2005 archives
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February 19, 2005
Saving Star Trek
Evangelists, activists or citizen marketers?
A well-organized group of volunteers is all of the above, and they have united to save the TV series "Star Trek: Enterprise," which UPN and Paramount announced earlier this month will be cancelled at the end of this season.
The Trek United activits are employing just about every strategy and tactic necessary for a grassroots organization to succeed:
* A well-defined cause and mission
* A forum for activists to share news, tips and how-to
* Rallies (in various cities, too)
* A fundraising campaign (more than $30,000 raised as of this writing)
* A letter-writing/fax campaign
* Plans for a big demonstration at Paramount studios
Love it.
The Trek activists might consider creating their own media, too: personal videos recorded at their computers on what the show, and the franchise, means to them. Post the videos front-and-center on the Trek United website. Provide the means for send-to-a-friend. The more interesting videos could spread virally and generate interest among the mainstream media. That should get the attention of parent company Viacom.
The activists could also create public task lists on what they'll do specifically to help Paramount improve ratings.
I can't possibly imagine the fishbowl pressure television executives endure, but a group like Trek United is a gift for any company. It does not seem like a huge risk for the marketing execs at Paramount to embrace the activists and convert them into citizen marketers with the authority and tools to make the show more popular.
The safer route is to follow the stereotypical script of keeping fan-evangelists well behind the gates of influence and decision-making and move on.
Stay tuned.
UPDATE: The Trek United group receives a $3 million donation. Details here.
February 17, 2005
Inaugural Church of the Customer podcast
After meeting the Adam Curry at BloggerCon in November 2004, we were inspired to podcast.
So it took us a few months to figure out what to do but... we're
launching our inaugural Church of the Customer show! To listen, click
on the podcast link below.
To subscribe to our podcast, you can do one of two things:
* find us in iTunes Podcast directory under Business
Blogs and click on the Subscribe button
* paste this URL
(http://feeds.feedburner.com/ChurchOfTheCustomerPodcast) into a podcast aggregator like
iPodder
Show topics
1. Citizen marketers: what they are, what they do, and how to embrace them
2. Jones Soda: how they include customers in their marketing
3. What this podcast is all about
Show notes
Links to people, companies, articles, blogs, etc. mentioned in the podcast
* What are citizen marketers?
* George Masters iPod Mini ad
* George Masters featured on CNBC
* Wired Magazine article about George Masters
* Converse Gallery
* Converse amateur films driving sales
* BMW films
* Collaborate Marketing blog
* Spread Firefox
* Fake VW ad
* Jeff Jarvis talks about VW "ad"
* Jones Soda
* Fastcompany.com interview with Jones Soda CEO Peter van Stolk
* A Penny For blog post on citizen marketers (incorrectly referred to as the 800-CEO-READ blog on the podcast)
* MyJones: customize your own case of Jones Soda
* Heineken Super Bowl commecial featuring Izze
* SaveSurge.org
Show music
Intro: "G.L.S." by Salme Dahlstrom
Break 1: "Nanobite Battle," by Matthew Lefevre
Break 2: "Sha-Boom," by LamaRama
Show length
27:50
Show paid placements
Yeah, right!
After you listen, tell us what you think. Add a comment below, or send an email to talktous(AT)customerevangelists.com.
Better yet, leave a short voicemail message
on our special Podcast Hotine: 1-312-896-5095 and follow the prompts (our menu has not recently changed). You'll have 3 minutes to
leave your audible letter.
February 16, 2005
How to apologize, the Hallmark way
What would you do if you let down your customers on a day they needed you most?
For starters, you might write an instructive email like this:
Dear Friend,
We owe you an apology. First, the most important three words of this letter -- WE ARE SORRY.
This Valentine's Day, our site was up and down all day. For many of you that meant frustration and wasted time when you were simply trying to send or retrieve an e-card.
We thought we were ready to handle a huge amount of traffic on Valentine's Day. Obviously, we thought wrong. We were surprised by double the amount of traffic we expected. And we cringe at the disappointment we caused to some of you.
In short, we made promises to deliver that were not kept. And for those of you who experienced that disappointment, we are so sorry for any frustration we may have caused.
Rest assured this experience will serve as a lesson for us. We are now challenging our team to reevaluate every step we took to prepare for Valentine's day...because it wasn't enough.
With our deepest apologies,
The Hallmark.com Team
Hallmark knows a thing or two about crafting good apology notes, but it's usually in the form of cards for people who can't find the right words to say, "I forgot about our first-year anniversary. Sorry."
The only thing that would have made Hallmark's email better: a signature from an executive! After all, who sends anonymous apology cards to their families?
[Tip of hat to Jeff Anthony for the heads up.]
February 15, 2005
U2: biggest vs. best
An interesting examination of U2 by the Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot includes some remarkable quotes from fan-evangelist Patty Culliton:
The ticket fiasco was the latest eye-opener for longtime fans who once saw U2 as a beacon of integrity incapable of selling out its integrity or selling short its audience. Even as the band raked in $80 million on tour in 1997 and $67 million in 1992 and sold 5.4 million copies of "Achtung Baby" (1991) and 2.3 million of "Zooropa" (1993), Bono stepped up his social activism by campaigning around the world to reduce Third World debt and combat the AIDS epidemic in Africa. But the goodwill gestures are ringing hollow for many fans, says Patty Culliton, 32, of Chicago, who has attended more than 80 U2 concerts.
"What a shame," she wrote recently at a U2 fan Web site, interference.com. "U2 used to want to be the best band in the world. Now they just want to be the biggest band in the world. And they lost the plot along the way."
In an interview, Culliton stood by her posted comments: "In the past, they could have done just about anything except kill someone and I would have understood their motives, I would have defended them because I always believed their intentions were good," she says. "But not anymore. The blinders are off. We can see the little old man behind the curtain on this tour."
Kot argues U2 sold out smaller concert promoters it had courted for 20 years in favor of the biggest promoter in the business.
The band also partnered with a big online company to create a fee-based fan club that eventually led to a big ticket disaster. (The band apologized for the fiasco during its acceptance speech for a Grammy award it won this week.)
Maybe what fans like Patty are trying to say is that biggest isn't always best.
UPDATE: MTV updates the U2 ticket bomb and places the blame squarely on a fan-unfriendly design:
The ticket snafu began with the January 25 Internet presale for the band's upcoming Vertigo 2005 Tour (see "U2 Finally Announce Tour Dates"). U2's most dedicated fans — members of their fan club, who pay a $40 subscription fee — were supposed to get first crack, but things didn't end up working that way.
Those running the Internet presale didn't rank fan club members according to length of membership when they issued presale access codes. Instead, they randomly issued codes, which opened the door for scalpers who signed up for the fan club just to get in on the presale action. For them, $40 was a small price to pay, especially when tickets to U2's first tour in four years could go for four to five times that on eBay. Needless to say, the scalpers gobbled up tickets, and many longtime fans were left empty-handed.
February 14, 2005
Welcoming citizen marketers into your world
There's a new breed of marketer taking shape these days: Citizen marketers.
Citizen marketers are customer evangelists who generate media on behalf of products, services, companies or people who generate inspiration. Most forms of media they create is shared across the web.
Citizen marketers include:
- George Masters and his homemade iPod ad
- The volunteers who market the Firefox web browser (24 million download in 3 months)
- People who create fan sites like this one for the Broadway show "Brooklyn the Musical"
- The quirky guys behind the campaign to bring back Surge cola
- The creators of TiVocommunity.com
- Customers who post photos with their reviews on Amazon.com
- The people who created ads for the "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest from Moveon.org
The number of citizen marketers in the wild is rather small but chances are, their numbers will grow as the number of blogs, camera phones, and faster and cheaper video cameras and editing systems proliferate.
As tools, technology, bandwith, and skills for citizen marketers expand, so too will the variety of products and services showcased. Already today, some citizen marketing is as good, if not better, than the marketing produced by companies and their agencies.
Why?
In many cases, citizen media is more authentic and believable than agency work. It's created by customers not schooled in the traditional means of advertising. Citizen marketers aren't required to shimmer the truth to meet a CMO's desire for pedantic common denominators. Citizen marketers aren't beholden to often-silly categories of customer profiles dreamed up by account planners. They are the account planners.
Citizen marketers aren't required to overlook problems or mask shortcomings. But they may offer a workaround. Or justification for a feature or service some may consider wrong or short-sighted. Apple evangelists have multiple networks of stanchions standing by at all hours ready like the National Guard to jump into an argument or issue it considers unfair to Apple.
Citizen marketing is produced without the benefit of expense accounts, big budgets or pajama-clad creative directors (love that line from Sergio Zyman). Citizen marketing is more believable and impactful than the stuff being produced for mass media today. Their creative work is based on their intimate knowledge of the product, thereby making it authentic.
How citizen marketers work with an organization's marketing group is another matter. Some say bolt the doors! Shut out the citizen marketers and don't let them pollute the hard work of brand management!
That's what Jack Trout, marketing consultant and co-author with Al Ries of Positioning and 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, advocates. He recently told the Christian Science Monitor:
"It's a real problem...And the problem gets bigger the more people see this stuff. It begins to muddy the message....The ad industry should rise up against [amateur ads]."
Not to put words into his mouth, but we gather Trout means lawsuits. While a naturally defensive position for some, suing is like poking an elephant with a stick: not very effective, and it just annoys the elephant.
For instance, Time Warner screwed up when it sued fans of the Harry Potter franchise for creating fan sites before the release of the first movie. The studio's hard line generated piles of bad press, protest websites and fan boycotts. Then there's the recording industry, whose non-stop lawsuits against music fans has generated little sympathy for its cause, nor has it lawsuits stopped unwarranted music downloads.
A better idea for companies is to adapt the open-source mindset of the software world and adopt the citizen marketers as your own. Give them the tools, the means and the permission to join your marketing department.
The marketers at Converse have embraced their citizen marketers. The 96-year old sneaker company asked loyal customers to create short films that showcase their love of the shoes. So far, they've received 700 films. [View the Converse Gallery of films here.] The best 13 entries are being shown as commercials on MTV and other cable channels.
As a result, sales are up. Online shoe sales doubled a month after the Converse Gallery was introduced, with much of those purchases occurring after people viewed the spots, Converse says.
Will citizen marketers work with you rather than against you? Yes, but they may not if they believe your existing marketing strategy is flawed, which may well be the case. Their willingness to follow your marketing guidance may hinge on how far you open the gates and invite them inside.
Traditional media structures are undergoing vast molecular changes that decentralize their power, diminish their reach and usurp their authority. This bubbling stew of change is creating the DNA for a new forum of marketing unlike any other. It may make brand managers accustomed to top-down message control blanch, but it's too late. The construct is set. Message control is obsolete. Marketing control is futile.
The citizen marketers are here.
February 11, 2005
Top selling business books of 2004
800-CEO-READ just released its top 25 best-selling business books for 2004.
We were pleased as puppy punch to be on a list with such esteemed company. Our undying thanks to everyone who evangelized our book. We appreciate it!
1. "Free Prize Inside," by Seth Godin
2. "Trading Up," by Michael Silverstein, Neil Fiske
3. "Purple Cow," by Seth Godin
4. "The Power of We: Succeeding Through Partnerships," by Jonathan Tisch
5. "Guts!: Companies that Blow the Doors off Business-as-Usual," by Jackie Freiberg, Kevin Freiberg
6. "Leadership Presence," by Belle Linda Halpern, Kathy Lubar
7. "Creating Customer Evangelists," by Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba
8. "Leadership from the Inside Out," by Kevin Cashman
9. "Becoming a Category of One," by Joe Calloway
10. "Six Fundamentals of Success," by Stuart Levine
11. "Love Is the Killer App," by Tim Sanders
12. "Good to Great," by Jim Collins
13. "Radical Leap," by Steve Farber
14. "Adventure Capitalist," by Jim Rogers
15. "Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business," by Ram Charan
16. "The Feiner Points of Leadership," by Michael Feiner
17. "The Little Red Book of Selling," by Jeffrey Gitomer
18. "Crucial Confrontations," by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler
19. "Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness," by Rich Karlgaard
20. "The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business," by Don Tapscott and David Ticoll
21. "Giants of Enterprise," by Richard S. Tedlow
22. "The Attitude of Leadership," by Keith Harrell
23. "The Cycle of Leadership," by Noel M. Tichy with Nancy Cardwell
24. "The New CIO Leader," by Marianne Broadbent, Ellen Kitzis
25. "New Sales Speak," by Terri L. Sjodin
February 09, 2005
Word of mouth and ethics
The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) today published the first draft of its ethics guidelines for members.
From the organization's website:
This is a first step in the complicated process of building an industry based on consumer respect and fundamental ethical principles.
The essence of the WOMMA CODE comes down to the Honesty ROI:
- Honesty of Relationship: You say who you're speaking for
- Honesty of Opinion: You say what you believe
- Honesty of Identity: You never obscure your identity
Relevant links:
- Ethics code
- Fundamental principles
- Frequently asked questions about the code
- Word of mouth definitions
Andy Sernovitz, WOMMA's president, says the code is the first stake in the ground for word-of-mouth marketers to follow. Feedback on the code can be found here.
[Disclosure statement: Ben and I are members of WOMMA. We reviewed early drafts and provided a number of comments during its formation.)
You may also be interested in checking out the code of conduct for a similar organization, the Viral & Buzz Marketing Association. [We're members of this non-profit group, too.]
Carly Fiorina and management
In its coverage today of Carly Fiorina's departure from HP, the New York Times writes, "[Fiorina's] charisma and aggressive, top-down leadership style made her a
highly visible personality..."
Let's hope Fiorina's firing signals the demise of "aggressive, top-down leadership" in organizations that rely on collaborative, bottom-up teamwork and integrated customer involvement in decision-making and growth.
February 08, 2005
Xtreme test drives
If you have the money, here's a new take on the bite-size-chunk strategy of spreading buzz.
Chrysler is spending $3 million to build a half-mile test track at the Chicago Auto Show, which pulls into our hometown here Feb. 11-20.
The company is trucking in tons of dirt and gravel for an off road course that's four football fields long. Chrysler's goal is to have 75,000 people give it a try.
Of the 36,000 people who test-drove Jeeps at a similar off-road course at the 2004 New York auto show, 8 percent bought the vehicle. Not bad. Of course, that doesn't count the word of mouth generated by test drivers who told friends about the experience.
Ford Motor Company is also moving toward a more aggressive test-drive strategy, too. Says Stu Smith, launch manager for Ford: "I've seen the guys try the new Mustang and you have to see the look on their faces when they get out of the car. No commercial can do that."
The $18 billion car makers spend each year on advertising could buy a lot of test-drive tracks... 6,000 tracks, to be exact.
[The Wall Street Journal has more on auto maker test drives here.]
February 07, 2005
How to save $2.4 million
... And still get your product into a Super Bowl commercial?
Be like beverage maker Izze and
give your product away to lots of commercial production and film
production companies.
That's what the smart marketers at Izze did, and it got their product placed in the Heineken ad starring Brad Pitt. In the ad, you clearly see bottles of Izze to the left of an empty six-pack of Heineken. (Perhaps Brad should have reached for an Izze instead.)
Total cost: about $2.39 million less than a Super Bowl ad.
