Church of the Customer: March 2005 archives
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March 08, 2005
Podcast as tour guide
David Johnson is a funny podcaster who does a great job of explaining, autopsy-style, the meaning of songs we've all heard a thousand times. It's a tour inside his mind, courtesy of one song per podcast.
Podcasts fill a niche where one never existed before.
Baby's got a new pair of shoes
Strolling with me through downtown Chicago in beautifully balmy 64-degree weather Sunday, Mini generated a good deal of buzz.
Passersby on foot, in cars, buses and store windows did double-takes and pointed. If they were with someone, it was practically an autonomic reaction to say to their friend, "Look!" More than a few shrieked.
They were all gah-gah at Mini's hot-pink dog boots, zippered shoes with real rubber treads, ideal for an urban jungle of mud, broken glass and who-knows-what. (Close-up picture here.) I heard at least a dozen instances of "Oh my gosh, that is SOOOOOO cute!" One guy stopped dead in his tracks and just stared.
My guess is at least 100 people extrovertly reacted to seeing Mini's boots; the visceral reactions were clearly buzz-inducing. I saw them spread to others nearby. I would conservatively guess at least half of those people probably told at least one or two other people at home that day they saw "a dog wearing pink shoes."
The particular pair Mini owns are from the Little Lily company. But why the buzz? My guesses:
* Dogs wearing shoes are about as common as, um, dogs wearing shoes.
* The design is eye-catching.
* Mini is a great model (of course I would say that).
Little Lily could do a lot more to spread the buzz. Sadly, their website is under construction, and the company doesn't show up in the first 10 pages of Google results for "dog shoes" or "dog boots." Another "little" company -- Little Earth -- has the right idea to create Brag Tags for proud owners to spread buzz. I could have easily handed out a good dozen on Sunday to inquisitive gawkers.
Despite the state of Lily's online presence (Carson Kressley would probably call it "tragic"), I think the shoes are great. You'll find them through specialty dog shops or online (I found the pair from shopping at a local boutique pet store). Since Little Lily doesn't help you locate the shoes, here's a pointer to the cheapest ones I've found online.
UPDATE (3/14/05): I misidentified the maker of the boots in the original post. They are from Gooby, not Little Lily.
It was a dumb mistake since I had thrown away the packaging and looked online for the boots. I'd found what looked to be the pair, which were the shoes from Little Lily. Gooby didn't show up in any of the Google results, so I didn't realize they weren't the pair I'd actually bought.
All of which brings up a marketing dynamic you probably would not see between Adidas and Nike: marketplace confusion. Little Lily has been around longer, but Gooby's are, in my opinion, a higher quality boot with their thick rubber soles (Little Lilly's have vinyl soles). Gooby's are less expensive, too. You'll find them at boutique pet stores and online.
March 07, 2005
Citizen marketing of iPods
An interesting layer of citizen marketing in action: News.com has aggregated candid pictures of people with their iPods from sister site webshots.com.
Get over it already
I anxiously await the day when a blogger is no longer charaterized in publications like the New York Times as a "guy sitting in his pajamas drinking beer."
Jeez.
Making Apple's Genius Bar smarter
Seth has several ideas how Jobs & Co. can improve the Genius Bar experience at Apple retail stores for customers.
Making the iPod diagnostic tool self-serve would be a big help. That could have saved me an hour last year waiting for a genius to do what I could have done myself in a few minutes at a self-serve kiosk.
Waiting for a genius can take time; I'd love to fill that time by checking email or surfing, but the store's Internet-enabled Macs are in the opposite corner from the Genius Bar (in the Chicago Michigan Ave. location) and are consistently taken by what often appears to be non-customers.
Apple might take issue with Seth's point that it doesn't differentiate the $10,000 customers from the $300 ones and point toward its Pro Care program as evidence. Knowing that most warranty and service programs are huge profit centers for companies, I politely declined my Apple store's offer to sign up for Pro Care because I expect my new Powerbook to work for more than a year.
As a luxury technology company, I'd love to see Apple adopt a practice luxury car makers use: longer warranties. From a customer's perspective, how insanely great would a 3-year or 5-year warranty be?
March 06, 2005
Star Trek citizen marketers raise $3 million
Three anonymous donors contributed $3 million this week to Trek United, a grassroots effort to save the TV show "Star Trek: Enterprise." (Read my Feb. 19 post about the group.)
Three million dollars is a remarkable donation by any measure, much less an effort to save a television show. The donors wrote a mini-manifesto to accompany their donation:
We are in the commercial space flight industry and would like to testify that at least one out of two of all the actual entrepreneurs involved in this industry has been inspired by Star Trek; and we are not only good at watching TV sci-fi , we are also good at writing checks, big checks. The people airing this kind of TV have a responsibility; inspiration.
It seems the Trek United organizers have a lot more juice behind their efforts now.
UPDATE: The Feb. 19 blog post has spurred a discussion among some of the Trek United activists about its work. One thing that's missing from Trek United's work: An RSS feed.
March 04, 2005
More about Bzzagent
Dave Balter, CEO of Bzzagent, talks to CMO Magazine about the history and workings of his controversial company. Love or hate Bzzagent, the 42-minute long video interview is informative.
Perfect for big-city taxis
Here's a sure-fire way to generate buzz in your neighborhood: Buy a JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank. Only $19,999!
From the description on Amazon:
Designed with versatility in mind, the Donk can transport cargo or a crew of five internally or on the roof, and can be piloted from within the armored shell or from an exposed standing position through the hatch, thanks to special one-way steel mesh armor windows and a control stick that pivots up and down to allow piloting from the standing or seated positions. The interior is fully carpeted and cozy, with accent lighting and room for up to five people.
(Via: Myself. The Donk was collaboratively filtered to Creating Customer Evangelists on Amazon.com)
March 03, 2005
The lampshade tripod
I love David Pogue's tip that most lampshade screws are the same diameter of most tripod screws. It's perfect for producing citizen journalism or citizen marketing reports when you don't want to haul a clunky tripod around the world.
Pogue's tip is part of an entertaining introductory tutorial on the tools and techniques he uses to create his video reports for the Times.
March 02, 2005
Podcast: customer loyalty and brag tags
A new podcast has been prepared by our merry band of Oompah Loompahs. To listen, click on the podcast icon below.
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* find us in iTunes Podcast directory under Business and click on the Subscribe button
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Note: From now on, all of our podcasts will be fed from our new podcast blog, so if you want automatic downloads, subscribe to our podcast blog.
Show topics
1. A new study finds many company executives say they don't deserve the loyalty of their customers
2. Tools to help customers spread the word
3. Word of Mouth Marketing Summit
Show notes
Links to people, companies, articles, blogs, etc. mentioned in the podcast
* Survey results from Strativity Group, Inc.
* Robert Scoble
* Steve Rubel
* GM Fastlane blog
* Latest American Customer Satisfaction Index ratings
* Kimpton Hotels and its Inner Circle loyalty program
* Dallas Mavericks
* P&G CEO Alan G. Lafley
* Marketing Wonk dinner in Chicago
* Betsy Weber from TechSmith and her purse
* Little Earth and its Brag Tags
* Conference Calls Unlimited and its customized cards
* WOMMA's Word of Mouth Marketing Summit
* Church of Customer discount code for the Summit: welovemini
* Guy Kawasaki's book Art of the Start
* Jake McKee and his Communityguy.com blog
* Jason Berberich and his blog
Show music
Intro: "G.L.S." by Salme Dahlstrom
Break 1: "Top Floor, Bottom Buzzer" by Morphine
Break 2: "You're So Gangsta," by Chromeo
Show length
24:28
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