The bad news from a customer perspective is that companies aren’t doing the basics properly, let alone getting to remarkable. Customers hopes are high, but expectations low. This bad news is good news for your company. With expectations so low, simply doing what you’re supposed to do (the basics)  may set you apart from the competition.Breaking it down to basics, you’ll realize customers are looking for:

• The product/service they want,
• with the right performance/quality,
• in an environment they expect,
• in a convenient location,
• supported with the right level of service, and
• with good value for the money.

And this all needs to be Goldilocks-style. “Too little” and the customer will feel cheated and unhappy. “Too much” and they’ll feel they’re paying more than they need.

Let’s take a deeper look into this …

1.) The Product/Service They Want

As a customer, I want the product when I want it. I need it to what I want it to do. The way I want to do it. I’m willing to learn a little to use the product. But, too much of a learning curve… I lose interest. Isn’t there a company that makes a simpler one? It needs to be “just right.”

2.) With the Right Performance/Quality

I want the product to match my perceived level of quality. I want it to do the type of things I expect it to do. If the ‘ice crusher blade’ doesn’t crush ice — that’s a problem.

3.) In a Convenient Location

Your business should be easy to find. Your website should be easy to navigate. Your menu should be easy to read. If I have to use my car to get to you — you should provide parking. Your hours should revolve around my hours (after all, you are targeting me).

4.) In an Environment They Expect

When I get to your office or website, I’ll lose confidence if it is junky, cheesy, broken, or unprofessional. In brick or click store, I want to be able to find things easily. I don’t want to poke around to find pricing, product details, and the information that helps me make my decision. If you make me do this, I will go to someone who doesn’t make me jump through hoops.

5.) Supported With the Right Level of Service

Service can be human-to-human: a knowledgeable salesperson to explain the difference between two televisions. Alternately, a salesperson leaving me alone. It can be as simple as a smile and a genuine “thank you for coming” from the hostess as you leave the restaurant. Service may also refer to the post-purchase service of a built-in warranty, guarantee, or easy to buy replacement parts. It also means not abusing trust. Don’t try to trick me into buying your warranty – if I don’t really need it. And, yes, I signed up for your newsletter. But that doesn’t give you permission to send me spam.

6.) With Good Value for the Money

I want to feel I paid enough — or even better — NOT enough for your product or service. Ultimately, you want customers to feel they’re getting a steal. The secret to “value for the money” is, people are willing to pay more if you’re doing all the other things properly and consistently.

How often do you get the:
[×] right quality of
[×] what you want,
[×] where you need it, with the
[×] right support, at a
[×] fair price?

You’ll notice there’s nothing remarkable about anything on that list. However, if you do them all, at the same time, and consistently, you can be remarkable.

What Now?

To get started, consider running through this list with each of your business categories, products, and services.

Here’s an example Starbucks Coffee could use it to explore their core coffee products. (brewed/espresso drinks)

That’s pretty clear, huh? It spans the whole experience. It also involves many departments from the company. For this Starbucks example it involves: the beverage team, real estate, store development, training, operations, and marketing. And, most of it is accomplished locally, by the local teams — not the folks sitting at headquarters in Seattle.

Here’s a random, relevant example. In proofreading this article, I used the build-in dictionary function in my Mac to look up a synonym for “daunting task” (up there in my opening sentence).

The word daunting didn’t sound natural. I thought formidable may work better.

But look at the Word Toolkit (pictured below) presented by the Apple thesaurus. It indicated that formidable refers more to something physical: opponent, competitor, barrier. Daunting is the right word to describe a task or challenge. When I click on daunting, Word Toolkit links me synonyms, such as: intimidating, unnerving, and dismaying.

Wow. That was more service than I expected. When I didn’t even know I needed it!

Related posts:

1. The Great BIG Branding Lie
2. How to Get Great WOM: Get the ‘Little Simple Things’ Right Before They Turn Into ‘Big Ugly Things’
3. Discounting Prices Discounts Your Brand

The Boring Web Content Challenge, as I wrote about a few weeks ago, encouraged companies to submit their most lifeless, incomprehensible bit of web writing (a web page, or press release, or email, or whatever) to win a chance to have a free makeover from our friends at Captains of Industry.

Submit they did (in spades!) and yesterday we plowed through all of them, searching for the worst of the lot. I mean “plowed” almost literally, by the way: Because reading through all the submissions, one at a time, required the same kind of effort necessary to move the thickest and heaviest objects. Like mud. Or wet cement.

Clearly: At a time when companies are increasingly charged with creating remarkable content as a cornerstone of their marketing efforts, many of us still struggle. But oh boy … was I struggling yesterday. To find meaning in the jargon. To keep my mind on task. To stay awake.

To give you a sense of the morning, our friends at Captains of Industry shot this video:

Reviewing Submissions for the Incredibly Boring Web Content Challenge from Captains of Industry on Vimeo

Look for an update on the finalists tomorrow.

Related posts:

1. The Boring Web Content Challenge
2. DC Solicits User Comics Submissions
3. Radio Gets Outstanding User Submissions for Remix Contest

But wait, there’s more!

While social media is an important element to business marketing and PR, it’s not a replacement for additional, proven forms of promotion. With its low cost, easy barrier-to-entry and seemingly widespread reach, it’s tempting to think social media can replace other forms of marketing. But it’s important to remember that social media in and of itself isn’t a marketing or PR strategy: It’s but one promotional tool in the smart business marketing toolbox.

Two important things to remember in business marketing today are integration and interaction. Don’t abandon something that’s been working for you and your business just because social media is the hot new thing on the block. Integrate your online and offline campaigns, and integrate cohesive online campaigns across social networks  to get the most bang for your buck, enhancing all current efforts and maximizing reach in a way never before possible. Interaction is also important (talk with, not at) to engage audiences and make them feel an emotional connection to your company, brand or product. Prospects are much more likely to listen to you and follow what you’re doing if they feel that you care about them and that they’re important to your business.

For example, say you’ve always had an email newsletter in which you send out special offers to subscribers. Help to increase your subscriber base through “sneak peeks” into your newsletter content by sharing snippets or teasers across other social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. Or post a survey or poll on your Facebook and share the results in your newsletter, again  reaching and encouraging new subscribers (and rewarding existing subscribers) with content reserved especially for them.

Another example : Most companies have always had speaking opportunities or event networking (even attendance of trade shows) on their marketing/PR “to do” list. Take these opportunities a step further by again involving not only the physical, offline audience that’s at the show, but also the online audience pre- and post-event. For example, say you’re speaking on the topic of franchise ownership. Post a pre-event survey across Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and/or your blog that asks your fans and followers if they’ve ever owned a franchise and if so, what their biggest challenges were. Incorporate these answers into your presentation at the show, giving credit where you can.  (If someone knows you’re going to mention them, they’re more likely to watch/listen and tell others to do the same). Or if you’re just attending or exhibiting at a conference, ask show attendees to stop and share their experiences or tips for others. Record their insights with a hand held camera (such as a Flip), edit into a compelling and helpful video when you return and post it on your blog with additional resources post-event. Tie these resources back to your website, or Facebook fan page, and promote on Twitter … again, back to integration.

One of the best marketing efforts has always been to have third-party, positive testimonies about your business or products. Whether it’s a customer, a reporter, an industry guru, a partner or an analyst, accolades from others hold more credibility than you standing on your own soapbox (or starring in your own ad). This traditional element to marketing is still incredibly important and can become a much  more powerful program with a social media element. For example, in the past, you might have interviewed a customer and asked them to sign off on a case study, which you’d then post to your website or in a sales kit. With social media tools, the case study can become so much more than words on a page; you can make them come to life as a much more intriguing story by including video, interactive comments from viewers, and more. “Case studies” can come in the form of an ongoing story, perhaps different chapters in an weekly video series, or the opportunity to interact with followers/prospects by asking them to join a Facebook event or Twitter chat where they can ask questions directly of the customer in the story. This gives them the opportunity to not just read your slick, well-written case study, but to engage with your case study subject and ask questions, a testament in and of itself that you truly do have happy customers that you trust to answer live questions about their experiences in working with you, or using your products.

The point is  social media in marketing can enhance your efforts and make them more interesting, interactive and memorable. But social media in and of itself doesn’t replace traditional efforts. Both are important for success today. Learn how to integrate them both for your best success yet.

Related posts:

1. Integrating Social Into Traditional: 10 Tips For A Remarkable Blogger Event
2. Seven Methods For Affective Marketing Tactics
3. Employees as an Overlooked Resource: 5 Ways to Equip Employees to Help with Marketing

I love this idea. Here’s how it works: Make at least one referral to whomever you think could use new business, and add your recommendation #marm)
• Blog about it on your own blog
• Add this badge to your site

There’s more happening this week to help small businesses learn how to leverage the power of referrals, including daily guest-posts on John’s blog and an online seminar.

MarketingProfs is a sponsor of this event, along with GoTo Webinar, PR Web, Constant Contact, Perkett PR, Palo Alto Software, Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Sage, BNI, Vertical Response, Verizon, alphagraphics, InfusionSoft, The Referral Engine, Gold Star Referral and Intuit. If you are a small business, BTW, you may already know that MarketingProfs has tons of content geared toward small business. But did you know you can browse our archives by that category here and here? (The latter, by the way, is our Small Business-centric newsletter: Get to the Po!nt Small Business. Do you subscribe?)

So how do you encourage more referrals for your business, or inspire customer love?

My take is that there are two fundamental approaches to generating more business: The first is to focus on making your existing customers insanely happy, so that they want to tell others about how much they love you; the second is to simply be a resource — or be helpful — to those who aren’t customers yet. That’s a sneak peek of what I write in my post running on John’s blog this week, and I offer 17 tactics on how to accomplish that. Watch for it over there .

So how about you? What’s your referral secret? Add it below?

UPDATE: My post is now active; check it out: 17 Terrific Tactics to Inspire Customer Love (And Get New Business)

Related posts:

1. Guest Post: Recessional Loyalty — Strengthening Your Business Through Retention, Repurchase and Referral
2. RADAR 94: Network Radio Reaches 233 Million Listeners per Week
3. Radio Reaches 232MM per Week – and 96 Percent of the Educated/Affluent Age 25-54

Stepping off on a hike last fall in New Hampshire, I was overwhelmed by the sense that I was back home in New England. No matter that I’d spent seven years in Tennessee, and a quarter-century in New Jersey. I’m a Connecticut boy, and the New England woods are home. Driving in and around Mystic CT last week, the trees and stone walls and topography and houses all felt like … home.

How powerful can it be, then, for a brand to become a “home” brand. So much a part of your life, that you are not comfortable without it.

From day one, the iPhone became a home brand for me. I can’t imagine not using it daily. Google is a home brand, indispensable, every day. A particularly helpful blogger can be a home brand for you. As can a certain make of car. Or a brewer, such as Samuel Adams.

One of the signs that something is a home brand is that price becomes almost irrelevant. I barely even look at my AT&T mobility bill for the iPhone. I don’t even think about writing a check to Amica Insurance. Price is secondary because it’s … home. Part of the family. And, just as we talk about our family members naturally and eagerly, so we word-of-mouth our home brands without any effort.

We all have our home brands, and if we’re marketers, we all strive to BE one of those home brands. Undoubtedly, you have a home brand or two that come to mind — share them in the comments!

(Image credit)

Related posts:

1. Store Brands Give National Brands a Run for the Money
2. Five Key Characteristics of Web Brands
3. Talking Brands & Building Buzz

Ongoing scientific research suggests consumption of chocolate rich in flavonols may act as antioxidants to help defend the body from free radical damage. Researchers at Harvard and elsewhere have been studying the effects of cocoa flavonols on healthy blood flow and circulation.

Even the American Heart Association in its Scientific Sessions of November 2004 demonstrated in its study that Cocoa Via™ Snack Bars (based on Mars technology) consumed by adults twice per day saw a significant reduction in total—and especially LDL cholesterol.

And let’s not forget chocolate consumption provides a serotonin uptick in the brain; there’s nothing like releasing endorphins to make people feel happy!

So what’s the point from a marketing perspective?

Mars, the behemoth manufacturer of some of the world’s most beloved chocolate brands: Snickers®, Milky Way® and M&M’S®, has been proactive by supporting ongoing research for years to uncover the health benefits of chocolate. Fifteen years of research led to a patented, proprietary process dubbed Cocoapro® which retains the compounds in the cocoa bean.

Wise idea, right? Why not capitalize on consumer interest in healthier snack options? But this is no mere marketing ploy without substance.

Earlier this year, Mars and Swiss B2B chocolate supplier Barry Callebaut released a statement announcing they will work jointly to create a standardized measure to “increase the availability and uniformity of cocoa flavonol-rich chocolate products worldwide.”

This was announced in a Just Food article among other sources, including press releases from both companies.

“This agreement with Barry Callebaut will now guarantee reliable flavonol levels in more chocolate products around the globe,” stated Mary Wagner, general manager at Mars Botanical, a scientific unit of Mars.

In a nutshell: Careful handling of cocoa and measuring throughout the manufacturing process are necessary to ensure the important compounds in chocolate are delivered to consumers consistently, on a global basis. Otherwise much of flavonol benefits are lost in the manufacturing process.

I think this is a terrific strategy. As more science emerges, Mars will be positioned to capitalize: its brands will no doubt be marketed as containing “standardized flavonols” or “the ultimate flavonols.” Even better:  Mars will no doubt be embraced as the chocolate company that took the initiative to make cocoa products healthier the world over. From a marketing perspective, it’s a brilliant strategy.

Questions:
• Would you be more likely to purchase Mars chocolate or another brand of chocolate if it marketed a “standardized flavonol” pledge to you? Do you think messaging about this will be understood by consumers if handled properly by marketers?
• Do you prefer to eat your favorite chocolate and just enjoy it without health-related information?
• Do you think confectionery and snacks, in general, will have to be “healthier” than they were in the past? Or is this a category where marketing decadence will always be acceptable to consumers?

I’d love to hear from you.

Related posts:

1. Jumping on the Healthy Food Bandwagon
2. Chocolate Phone: Sweet Spot or Sour Taste?
3. ‘Let Your Food be Your Medicine’: 7 Trends Worth Watching

Over the last six months, I’ve been working closely with Ray Wang who is well known as an expert in the Customer Relationship Management space. Coupled with my focus on social technologies, we did a deep dive on how our worlds are colliding into the trend to Social CRM. In our opening webinar when we announced our joining of the firm, we made it clear we’re looking at the holistic business, across multiple business departments — not silos or roles.

A real problem is this: Companies are unable to scale to keep up with the social phenomenon.

We know that customers are using these social technologies to share their voices, and companies are having a very difficult time to keep up.

• For companies, real time is not fast enough. Companies need to be able to anticipate what customers are doing to say and do, in order to keep up. Although Motrin responded to angry mom’s within 24 hours –it was too slow.
• Companies are unable to scale to meet the needs of social. No matter how many community managers Dell and ComcastCares hires to support, they’ll never be able to match the number of customers happening. They need tools, and they need them now.
• Customers don’t care what department you’re in they just want their problem fixed. Dooce’s support problem with Maytag quickly became a PR nightmare –had the support group known she was an influencer (and what it means), they could have serviced her better.

As a result, companies will need to tie their existing customer management tools like CRM to the social web. Read this report to find out about the 18 different use cases. Then, prioritize a roadmap based on your needs, and always start with listening.

Related posts:

1. Surprise! Making Customers Happy Is a Key Benefit Of Web 2.0
2. Do You Know the Value of Your Customers?
3. Business Without Trust is Bad Business

So, why should you want Gen Y on your marketing or public relations teams? Besides the obvious need for molding, educating, engaging and reverse mentoring, Gen Yers bring unique perspective to the table; those willing to research and learn know how to network and revitalize campaigns.

Target Demographic
Oh, the 18-35. This general consumer demographic is one that is very general, but with social media in the mix, brands are trying to reach everyone and constantly come back to this specific one. Instead of focus groups and crowd-sourcing, it’s easy to have a Gen Y give insight and ask questions of their friends (who they trust more than a brand) and help cultivate more strategic tactics and objectives.

It’s Sometimes Difficult to Blog with Authority
Successful Gen Y bloggers are willing to admit when they don’t know everything … and will craft open-ended blog posts to drive conversation and discussion in the comments. Utilize the comments section as an open brainstorm, where many ideas can delve from. We don’t have the 20+ years experience that seasoned professionals have. We have a thirst for knowledge, keen research skills and the ability to process a lot of information at once.

Integrated Marketing Communications
Those that stand out in the Gen Y crowd are amazing networkers. They know how to talk with people of all levels and bring together teams. With Marketing/PR/Creative/Ad/social coming together for a kind of Marprosocial hybrid, its imperative to have those on the team that aren’t entrenched in the silos mentality. They just haven’t been exposed to it as much.

Pride in Agency/Organization Work
The Gen Yers you want on your team? They want to learn from you. They want to engage. If they don’t ask you first, take them out for coffee. They want a dynamic where everyone can work together. It’s not so much individualism as it is pride in an agency or organization. PR professionals can sometimes be their own worst promoters when it comes to promoting their firm. It’s in our framework to always put the client first. Utilize them in a community manager type role in conjunction with traditional duties.

So, what do you think? What would you add?

Related posts:

1. Hybrid Tactics of Social Media
2. GM Unveils Nation’s First Hybrid Pickup
3. Mullen Creates Integrated-Production Position

It seems like more and more retail outlets are getting wise to the concept of marketing their own product insurance. And is this because they are thinking about you,  the customer? Doubt it. This additional revenue must add decent profit to the bottom line because many stores have incentive programs for their employees. The more insurance they sell, the more bonuses they make.

I can somewhat understand this concept when it comes to electronic, electric, and other goods with microchips or moving parts. It seems that appliances, computers, and other big ticket items just don’t last as long as they did in years past. But, my friends, get this. Have you ever heard of insurance on shoes?

When Sports Authority sold me a pair of New Balance tennis shoes in December of 2009, I declined to purchase the added insurance, which can run up to $16, depending on the cost of the shoes. That’s supposed to cover usual wear and tear for up to one year. Do they think I’m nuts?

Well, two months later, the shoelaces completely fell apart, so I went back to the store to ask for new laces. The manager took a look at my bill and reminded me that I hadn’t purchased the insurance and that the warranty was only good for 30 days without it. But … this time only, he’ll let me have a pair of new shoelaces (worth $2.49 in his store). Gee, what a pal. After exploring the Sports Authority website, I discovered that shoelaces are not even included in the warranty, so I’d be out of luck anyway. Besides, the floor sales rep handed me the wrong lace length after I showed him the shoes, so the replacement laces were useless.

But, the bigger picture here is … what happened to standing behind the products they sell? Has manufacturing gotten so bad that retailers need to add this insurance to protect themselves from the multitudes of returns? Shouldn’t retail buyers ensure that the products they buy match quality for price?  The guy in front of me at the store spent $155 on Nike runners and declined the insurance. If his shoes fall apart after 30 days, does that mean the store will tell him he’s out of luck for $155 shoes?

Why aren’t these retailers standing behind the products they sell and then dealing with their distributors or manufacturers after they look after their customers? If consumers continue to accept this practice and it becomes more commonplace, wouldn’t it make sense that more and more retailers will jump on the bandwagon?

So, what do you say? If you’ve paid for product insurance, do you think you got ripped off or was it worth it? If you didn’t, is it because you think it’s a rip-off or did you prefer to take your chances? Share, please!

Related posts:

1. Retailers: “You’ll See Fewer Products On Our Shelves.”
2. Sales of Natural Pet Products to Reach $1.3 Billion in 2007
3. Are ‘Complete’ Products Being ‘Totaled’?

Plus, if I’m being honest: I’ve always thought LinkedIn was kind of … well, boring. If Facebook was a rave at a cool downtown hot spot, LinkedIn was a stuffy reception with piped-in music at one of those cookie-cutter function facilities conveniently located at the end of an exit ramp.

Does that sound harsh? Perhaps.

But now I’ve realized that I couldn’t have been more wrong.

LinkedIn, it turns out, is a happening place: It has more than 60 million members in over 200 countries, in all 7 continents. Execs from all Fortune 500 companies are there. And 81% of business-to-business marketers use LinkedIn. All this is from our latest case study collection, LinkedIn Success Stories: How 11 companies are using the global networking site to achieve their business and marketing goals.

In the collection, our own Kim Smith details LinkedIn’s slew of new features and recent applications, and gives an insider’s view of how those tools are being used by 11 organizations in four distinct ways:

1. market research,
2. demonstrate thought leadership and expertise,
3. attract users to events, and
4. win new business.

Like how, specifically? Check out these two mini case studies excerpted from the report.

Market Research. Penman Public Relations, headquartered in Austin, TX, used LinkedIn to research a client’s planned launch of a high-end gaming system.

Approach: Penman found that connecting with potential product users individually through LinkedIn offered more straightforward feedback and less “groupthink” that focus groups often deliver. To research the launch by Hardcore Computer, Penman posted short discussion posts at certain groups they were already active in (as well as solicited individual contacts), requesting a shout from those willing to provide feedback on PC gaming computer features and their advantages.

Those who responded received a more detailed message thanking them and then asked about specific user expectations for a factory-built gaming system in the $3,000+ range, as well as for one that might cost $5,000 or more.

Result: CEO Patti D. Hill said she received several hundred responses, many from people who were neither in her contact base nor members of the groups Penman targeted. Instead, they’d been forwarded her query. “This speaks to the passion of this audience, but also to the willingness of people to provide information and contribute even when they’re not directly connected,” Hill said.

By the way, one of my favorite quotes in the case study collection is from Hill, who says she likes the enduring aspect LinkedIn. “Twitter is real time, and you’re a blip on the screen,” she says. “LinkedIn waits for us. Like email, it’s there when you want it.”

Bottom line: The approach worked to not only gather insight for the new product launch, it also attracted additional traffic to the Hardcore Computer website and generated great visibility among gamers and developers for both Penman and its client.

Biz Dev. Closer to my neck of the woods, Boston’s PJA, an advertising and marketing agency, told Kim how they successfully mined LinkedIn for new business. After using LinkedIn to fill key positions within the agency, PJA VP Greg Straface decided to test how effective the network might be for new business outreach.

Approach: Investing an hour a day, Straface focused on three main activities:

• Targeted searches for such keywords as “VP of marketing,” specific ZIP codes and company names, to identify key contacts to call, InMail, email, or forward the agency’s portfolio.
• Tracking who was looking at his profile and those of other PJA staff, as featured on each user’s homepage. He then researched those companies in more depth, identified their marketing directors and sent out the agency portfolio by FedEx to land on their desks the next day (and again following up with a phone call, email, or InMail).
• Participating in LinkedIn groups catering to CMOs to build conversations with relevant individuals. He monitored each group’s discussion posts until he thoughtfully with content, rather than a pitch. As always, the key is to engage, don’t sell.

Result: Actual business: Inquiries, agency pitches, and new accounts, including Guidewire and Chase.

Bottom line: “By using LinkedIn actively in this way, it has become a very productive channel with huge financial return,” Straface says.

* * * * *

So those are two stories that showed me how, while I wasn’t looking, LinkedIn has amped up to a full-blown party—one you don’t want to miss.

My bad.

Your turn: How are you using LinkedIn?

In case you missed it, LinkedIn’s Community Manager Mario Sundar last week gave MarketingProfs Pro members a tour of LinkedIn’s existing and new features. It’s a great primer on using LinkedIn, if you haven’t begun to take advantage of the goodness there.

Related posts:

1. People Are Really Using LinkedIn Differently Than Other Social Media Sites!
2. Join the MarketingProfs LinkedIn Group
3. A Second Life for LinkedIn