Church of the Customer: May 2005 archives
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May 31, 2005
Get out and vote for your favorite marketing blog
We've been nominated for MarketingSherpa's 2005 Readers' Choice Blog Awards as one of the top group blogs on marketing and advertising.
While we don't write our blog to win awards, we sure wouldn't mind winning a super-cool MarketingSherpa mug : )
If you are so inclined, vote for us and your other favorite marketing blogs here.
May 25, 2005
Podcast: Are all marketers really liars? A chat with Seth Godin
Today's podcast is a stop on the Business Blog Book Tour for Seth Godin's new book, All Marketers are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World.
Next stops on the tour
Metacool (Thursday, May 26)
Brand Mantra (Friday, May 27)
To listen now, click on the podcast icon below.
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Show topics
1. Interview with Seth Godin about his new book, All Marketers are Liars
2. How customer evangelists defend you in the light of bad reviews
Show notes
Links to people, companies, articles, blogs, etc. mentioned in the podcast:
* All Marketers are Liars and companion blog
* Carnegie Deli
* Soup guy on Seinfeld
* Sripraphai Thai Restaurant
* Manolo Blahnik shoes
* Tom Ford
* Dove body wash on the Apprentice
* Publishers Weekly review of All Marketers are Liars
* Publishers Weekly's comments on Seth's other books
* Technorati search for All Marketers are Liars
* Jack Covert
* Joi Ito
* Ben's iPod blog post (read the comments too)
* Jason Calcanis
* Apple 12" Powerbook
* GM pulls advertising from LA Times
* GM Fastlane blog post on LA Times controversy
* Butler Eagle
* GM's financial problems
* GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz blogs about GM's turn-around strategy
Show music
Intro/close: "G.L.S." by Salme Dahlstrom
Break: "Funked" by Ernie Lake and Scott P. Schreer
Show length
32:18
Interview segment recording provided by Conference Calls Unlimited
Tell us what you think! Add a comment below, or send an email to talktous(AT)customerevangelists.com.
Or leave a short voicemail message
on our special Podcast Feedback Line: 1-312-896-5095. Follow the prompts and you'll have 3 minutes to
leave your audible letter.
Previous podcasts are here.
If you like our podcasts, vote for us on Podcast Alley here : )
May 20, 2005
Thank goodness for small favors...
The United States government is banning billboards in space.
But what's to stop some rocket-capable nation from launching a low-orbit billboard for the entire world to see?
JibJab's open source experiment
The fun guys at animation house JibJab announced they will open-source part of their animation process:
Every JibJab is made up of hundreds of images. If we need a picture of an umbrella for a scene, we snap a photo, cut it out, adjust the color and insert it into the animation. For our next JibJab, we’ll be posting a list of all the items we’re looking for and invite you to submit your photos. If we use your submission, you’ll get a credit at the end of the movie.
JibJab calls it an experiment, but it's a smart one. With 500,000 people in their fan database, JibJab is undertaking smart outsourcing of content creation (to a limited number of participants). Better yet, the assistants are evangelist volunteers.
This promises to be a fun experiment to watch.
(Thanks to Peter Durand for the tip.)
Wendy's square peg in a round idea
Fast food giant Wendy's is dipping its toe into the world of viral marketing with Good to be Square.
There's not much to report on this two-minute Flash movie; a traveling "square" cartoon evokes the company's square hamburgers as a pied piper in a world of circles. In the bigger picture, Wendy's and other companies creating solitary Flash videos like this are essentially betting a pile of money on one number of a giant roulette wheel. It's part of a tired, one-way broadcast model.
What's missing is customer involvement. Engaging citizen marketers in web-based content creation and distribution is an answer to the million-to-one bet. Instead of an agency creating a "video," Wendy's could turn to the thousands of talented amateur videographers or Flash designers who produce their own work around the theme. This is what the agency produces.
Showcase all submssions on the website, and let the congregation vote for their favorite submissions (and make them easy to forward). It's a hedging strategy that bypasses the one-way model and engages customers on a two-way marketing street.
May 19, 2005
Salesforce.com's bet pays off
As a company that launched its business on a risky-but-bold strategy -- give the web-based service away initially for an entire year -- Salesforce.com continues to reap the benefits of that big bet.
The company announced today that revenue nearly doubled to $64.2 million from the same period last year and was up 18 percent on a sequential basis. It also added 40,000 paying subscribers, ending the quarter with 267,000.
Salesforce.com's strategy is a good lesson for companies that put too many barriers in the way of try-before-you-buy. If your trial strategy requires more than 2-3 pieces of personal information, or a credit card ("unless you tell us otherwise, your credit card will be charged after 30 days of usage") or no trial at all, start over.
Today, Salesforce.com gives its service away just for 30 days yet it remains an unconventional company with an unconventional approach, thanks to founder and CEO Marc Benioff.
May 17, 2005
Article round-up
Two must-read articles published today:
* Emanuel Rosen, author of The Anatomy of Buzz, pens a MarketingProfs.com article on "The Five Most Common Misconceptions about Buzz Marketing" (free subscription required.) Emanuel is quite literally the dean of buzz marketing, and his article lays waste to conventional wisdom on this topic.
* Pete Blackshaw, CMO of Intelliseek, outlines "The Five P's of Activist Marketing." His ClickZ columns are always insightful.
May 16, 2005
Is GM listening yet?
In the first four months of 2005, it was bad news for General Motors: U.S. sales fell 4.9 percent, and market share dropped 1.7 points, to 25.6 percent.
To respond, GM says it will increase advertising spending 10% in 2005. That's $280 million more on top of the $2.8 billion (yes, billion) that GM spent last year on advertising.
GM's Tom Kowaleski says:
"[We will] boost advertising spending in markets where we are currently underperforming and our market share is less than what we feel it should be...because our voice hasn't been loud enough."
Oh, another advertising-solves-everything strategy. If you buy into the idea that the congregation is smarter than the preacher, there are plenty of customer ideas in response to vice chairman Bob Lutz's blog post about the company's new game plan.
* Reduce the number of makes/models
* Develop a hybrid model
* Increase fuel efficiency for all models
* Improve quality
* Extend warranties
* Help dealers to improve their customer service
* Hire better car designers
* Introduce Saturn-like no-haggle pricing on more models
It's not about being louder. It's about listening.
May 13, 2005
Stormy weather, doggy style
It's been raining in Chicago the past few days, so Mini and I sure could use this little number.
Talk about a product with word of mouth built right in!
Buzz marketing in Canada, eh?
Canada's National Post reports that buzz marketing is on the rise across the Great White North.
At Matchstick [a word-of-mouth marketing agency] in Toronto, a typical national word-of-mouth campaign runs like this: "Product seeders" are hired to identify "influencers," who are naturally enthusiastic toward a particular product category. Several dozen seeders reach about 100 influencers in each city. Matchstick hands out samples, thereby "seeding the product," then sends them on their way.
This story about Matchstick raises a number of transparency questions:
* How does it find product seeders?
* Are product seeders receiving compensation?
* How do the product seeders find the "influentials"?
* Are the influentials paid to talk up the products to friends?
Matchstick's web site doesn't answer these questions.
Ethical product sampling or cross-the-line stealth marketing?
