Shotgun Marketing Blog

fidel watches the price is right

2008-07-07T17:03:00.000-05:00

Surely, if you're breathing and have watched any amount of TV in the last few months, you know that your over-the-air TV ain't gonna work next February unless you take some steps. I got my "government cheese" digital TV conversion coupon a few months ago. Now instead of watching through periods of slight static, the show I'm watching is replaced momentarily by a completely dark screen with the words "searching for signal" on it. We're on the cutting edge.

(Don't get me started about the fact that I now have to hit 4 or 5 buttons to change channels -- one of which is a decimal point that is located in the most un-ergonomic place on the remote.)

Our local stations have beat it into the ground with badly produced promos that run incessantly. In fact, every time the "digital conversion is coming in February of 2009. Will you be ready?" promo comes on, my three-year-old son says "we're ready". Because he knows the new box on top of the TV is what the promo is talking about.

So I'm not exaggerating when I say it's so bloody simple that a 3-year-old can understand it. But, perhaps you've noticed in your daily life that there are some people walking around who aren't this bright.

There are groups who are criticizing the government's publicity efforts and are asking for more money to publicize the switch. And that's insane. While it has been a typical bureaucratic fiasco, the message has been pushed about as far as a marketing campaign can go.

Plus there's a good reason that the switch won't be as painful as the detractors say it will be. The local TV stations aren't going to let the little old ladies watching The Price Is Right disappear -- because those little old ladies also love the dollar they get from Neilsen to fill out a diary. And in general, the local stations will correct the problem and bring all the stragglers of all ages on board for self-preservation economic reasons.

But some of the points addressed in the article make sense: Why is there an expiration for the coupons? I nearly let my 90 day window pass by and used it a few days before it expired. Government handouts shouldn't expire! And it is hard to find the boxes now. I can imagine they'll be very hard to find next February. And some people like the little old lady in the NYT story are just plain stubborn and won't change until they're forced to. (like in Cuba, she says.)

sing what's in the brackets

2008-07-01T17:04:00.000-05:00

Shotgun Marketing Blog presents: Real Media Spending Cutbacks
[Real Media Spending Cutbacks!]

Today we salute you, Mr. Anheuser-Busch Media Buyer.
[Mr. Anheuser-Busch Media Buyer!]

Anheuser-Busch has slashed radio spending that will hurt the broadcasting industry especially large radio companies like Clear Channel.
[Let's play Monopoly!]

The bigwigs say they're just moving money around. Sure. Moving it out of reach from Hits 97.3FM.

Why spend money in a local market when you can buy Super Bowl spots like they're on the Dollar Menu?
[waldrobe malfunction!]

So crack open an ice cold newspaper classified section, Mr. Anheuser-Busch Media Buyer. Because it's either that or picking up a shovel down in the Clydesdales' stables.
[Mr. Anheuser-Busch Media Buyer!]

Anheuser-Busch, ~~St. Louis, Missouri~~ Leuven, Belgium.

---------------
(After writing this, I have new respect for the copywriters who do the Real Men of Genius campaign. You have to get the cadence exactly right or it doesn't work.)

mommy blog versus the big O

2008-06-30T21:27:00.004-05:00

One of the 5 or so books that are in my head ready to be written is about the marketing power of Oprah.

It's tentatively titled "The Oprah Effect" and it would look at the products/services/people that she has "touched". The book would examine the marketing impact these things (both in her own empire and the things she endorses) have picked up from her and how businesses could achieve the Oprah effect without Oprah.

(Aside: It's the one book in my head that I won't write without a good publisher behind me. So if you're a good publisher or know one -- it's chris AT shotgunconcepts dot com)

Anyway -- because of the potential of the book, I monitor what's going on with the "O" probably more than is healthy for a 30-something male.

Here's something that I've noticed in the past couple of weeks. Oprah has supposedly participated in a 21 day cleanse where you purge caffeine, sugar, alcohol, gluten and animal products from your diet. She has endorsed it through her media channels and even blogged (I think with a ghostblogger) while she did it.

Ah. The blog. While Oprah is the queen of traditional media, she is not the queen of new media. I think Heather is. (Dooce currently has over 9200 comments on one post. She's running a contest, but still.)

Heather started the cleanse at Oprah's beckoning and she and her friend got sick because of the cleanse. (Apparently, your body needs toxins. Pass the nacho cheese, please.)

So you have the world's most powerful woman endorsing something that the world's most powerful female blogger got deathly ill doing. Who will win? Traditional or new media?

CtrlAltDel

2008-06-27T20:11:00.001-05:00

So today was Bill Gates' last day. However, there was an incident. As he tried to leave the building for good, this popped up in the door:

He couldn't get it to go away and none of his keys worked. Eventually, he just had to turn the power off to the building and walk away in a huff. When they open back up Monday morning, Steve Ballmer will have to run a scandisk before he can come in.

There is a widely held belief that Bill is the devil. I don't necessarily think HE'S the devil. But his company and his products certainly can be. I think it's because the brand and the company didn't develop along with Bill. He would have been a good candidate to develop an accidental brand, but the growth probably overshot him.

Seattle PI's Todd Bishop found a Bill Gates e-mail from 2003 by sifting through the documents in the antitrust suits. When you read the email, you can see Bill's frustration because everyone of us has had the problems with Windows that he's describing in the email. And there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that Bill was concerned about usability and making the product work. The problem with MSFT was (is?) the company culture and the individuals below Bill.

The lesson for any organization is that fanatic attention to detail and quality assurance can't fall on one person. It has to permeate the entire group. The one guy approach may work when the company is small. But if you grow enough to be called a monopoly, it can't work.

opportunity missed

2008-06-26T08:13:00.005-05:00

You never want a tragedy to strike in your town.

But if it does, the local newspaper's online edition should be the source for constant updated information. And that newspaper should assume that it will get hit with a load of visitors from both local and national traffic. There should be a plan with the web host to deal with an influx of visitors.

If there's not, when the workplace shooting occurs, your online newspaper will look like this:

(Screenshot @ 7:46am 6/26)

And it's not just news/media that need to think about this. What if your site went to the top of Digg/Reddit/etc tomorrow? Would you be able to capitalize on the opportunity? Maybe you should call your web host today and make sure.

There are only 5?

2008-06-25T21:24:00.004-05:00

Oh. I can come up with many more ways to be annoying, but GeneratorLand has come up with five reasons why marketing people tend to annoy their colleagues.

If you look at his 5 reasons, you'll notice a common theme. Lack of proper communication by the marketing person.

Sometimes marketing does get a bum rap by the rest of the company. Why? It's because the marketing folks forgot to market the marketing to the rest of the company. In order to have success in marketing, you have to have the entire team behind the plan.

cyprus snail spam

2008-06-18T21:06:00.005-05:00

I've been getting alot of pitches lately in the inbox. (You know, because I'm such an A-lister.) But while the spinmeisters sending the email are working hard to find marketing/business blogs, they're not putting much effort into the actual pitches. Instead of the stale monotony of a data merge form email, it's typically the stale monotony of a perky intern trying to garner my goodwill.

Most of the time, you can tell they've never visited the blog because they've gotten some basic obvious fact about me or the blog wrong -- or because the product they're pitching is not even related to the topics I normally cover. But, of course, most pr and ad agencies make money on efforts not results. Some agency or marketing firm has blown smoke up some client's oriface by ensuring that they can get blog coverage of thier product, book, etc so they just spam every blogger hoping to strike one eventually. (look! we can work the social media web2.0 buzzword train!)

I'm used to it in the email inbox, but not my postal one. Imagine my surprise today when I open my spider-infested mailbox and I have a letter from Cyprus, the small eastern Mediterranean island country where they like to center-justify their address fields.

The letter inside is a pitch for some dvd training system for speakers and lost me after about the first paragraph. But I opened it and looked at it (which is an essential step in any direct marketing campaign).

I suggest all these PR agencies trying to get blog coverage start doing this. Instead of setting up a bunch of interns in a cubicle farm and spamming bloggers, why not send them all to an island nation (Malta, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago) and have them send us postal pitches?

It might work.

(and btw -- I am always looking for something to write/blog about. If you have a relevant well thought out pitch and want to reach my ~~millions~~ billions of engaged readers who are all innovators and early adopters, send it along. And seriously, if you're one of the readers who wants me to take on a topic, please email me. I'm starting to get blogger's block.)

the pervasive brand

2008-06-16T12:03:00.002-05:00

The entire customer experience defines the brand.

During a moving lunch break on Saturday, we went to a hard core southern bbq joint. The brand image that was trying to be conveyed was evident:
The food carried the brand message. (in this area -- pork with the bbq basic sides) -- Check.

The people serving it were authentic. -- Check.

The interior was decorated with old license plates and numerous pieces of country/southern Kitsch nailed to the rough-hewn lumber walls. -- Check.

On the overhead speakers, they had the local lite rock station pumping in Josh Groban and the Carpenters. -- Fail.

If you're trying to project an image, the little things count. (In fact, there are no little things.)

and the dominoes started to fall

2008-06-12T13:54:00.003-05:00

I called it.

Today's announcement -- United is following American's lead.

Of course, when your industry is hated and someone else has already taken the brunt of the PR backlash -- decisions like these are pretty easy. Way to step out, United.

And behold the power of contextual ad placement:

tuned in minority

2008-06-11T21:10:00.005-05:00

It has struck me in the last few days how "in-tune" an internet reader is as opposed to the masses that get fed by the 24 hour news cycle.

I started noticing the Killer Tomato scare in the mainstream media and on hastily written signs at restaurants on Sunday. However, I already knew about it from a Nashville veggie lover on the Wednesday before.

Articles of impeachment were introduced in the House against President Bush on Monday night. Have you seen it on your cable news channel or in the newspaper yet? (caveat: there's a tad bit of hype to it)

I read about the US strike in Pakistan this morning on the web. I consumed several types of traditional media today before I heard about it on the radio coming home this afternoon.

And I notice this happens over and over. People get in a tizz over something and I'm wondering why because I read about it a few days ago. Or I have started to notice that memes on the web will get picked up by the yucksters on the cable and network news shows a few days after they've fizzled online.

Here's the thing -- I am in the minority. (and if you're reading this, you probably are too). The great sages who are saying the time is NOW that EVERYONE is getting news/info off the web apparently haven't been talking to people in the real world. Everyone is not uploading videos and commenting on blogs. There's a time gap (and sometimes a plain lack) of knowledge as it's disseminated on the web and then through traditionally media.

Because of this, even though it's egalitarian, the knowledge on the web comes with a heavy bias. It's leaning toward those tuned-in consumers who are generating the some of the content and who are in the minority. The results don't pan out in the real world. Don't believe me? Ask Ron Paul.

Of course, the traditional media comes with its own long standing biases and the need to perpetuate its business model. But traditional media is not dead. It's just slow and bloated. And the masses are even slower consumers of it.

So there's opportunity for all here. The traditional media can start working to feed the hummingbird minority consumers. And the web can start bringing more of the lumbering hippos into the fold. They'll either meet in the middle or one will crush the other.

give me 6 months

2008-05-26T11:02:00.003-05:00

I don't mean to keep hatin' on 'em, but it's just such easy pickings. From AdAge, about blog coverage of American's $15 bag PR fiasco,

Mr. Flanagan, who felt media coverage of the announcement and on some blogs was very fair, said American injected itself into conversations online only when inaccuracies were being reported. He said American hopes to have its own corporate blog operational within the next two quarters.

6 months?!?! The corporate blogging question I ask you is: are they 6 months too late or are they 3 or 4 years too late? This is one of the many reasons that you should have a corporate blog strategy NOW. It will take months/years to build a dedicated blog audience. It's not something you can build to deal with a PR meltdown.

eliminating the last olive

2008-05-21T16:54:00.002-05:00

There's been some minor buzz about the customer service atrocity of hidden fees. But as with most things in our society, it's quickly forgotten with the next thing that snaps the masses' head another direction.

There's hidden fee news today that may stick. American Airlines will start charging $15 for your first checked bag. Not extra luggage. Not heavy luggage. Just your one basic container with supplies that make sure you're clothed and clean when you get wherever you're going.

Minor nickel and diming by the airlines has been happening for a while. I flew American a few weeks ago and rolled my eyes at the ridiculous $3 charge for a bag of nuts. I understand the age of the "freebie" is over. And I can see charging a dollar. Maybe a buck and a half. But $3 is an insult to common sense. And I chose not to "ensure" the fact I would have a seat for a standby flight for $35. Also -- I held it and didn't drink the $3 bottled water instead of paying $5 for a trip to the airplane lavatory. (Don't laugh. It may happen.)

I had said in my post about my flight during American's last PR disaster, that the airlines have beat their customers into accepting any level of bad service. American is trying to lower the bar again. While I understand that these are rough times for the airlines, there are other ways to cut costs and increase efficiency. When times get rough (in any business), don't cut costs where it touches the customer. Or if you really do need the extra $15 to get my underwear there with me, just raise the price of the ticket. Don't try to hamstring me with a fee.

Fortunately for me, 95% of my flights are one-nighters where I go the night before and fly back immediately after my speaking engagement. I've become a semi-master at the art of packing a suit and toiletries in my laptop bag. For 2-day stays, I have to take another bag, but it's a small one and I check it at the gate.

And that's one of the ripple effects that this American move will have. More people trying to do just carry-ons. That means longer delays getting on/off the plane. Less room in the overheads. And longer lines at security. (Government Propaganda Tip -- 3-1-1!)

I predict there will be one of two reactions to this move by American.

Consumers will balk and American will back down.
All other airlines will follow their lead and baggage will be extra for everyone.

I hope it's #1. It will probably be #2.

Clarification: In case you're not familiar with the useless trivia behind the title of this post.

that will be one amazing person

2008-05-14T20:18:00.004-05:00

In a couple of weeks, I'm going to call this company because I REALLY want to meet the person they hired for this job.

Marketing, PR, accounting, and HR all rolled up in one. Wow. Why not add "company mechanic" onto the position and have them change the oil in the fleet in their downtime?

I've discussed this before.

accidental branding

2008-05-12T21:07:00.000-05:00

David Vinjamuri recently sent me a copy of his new book, Accidental Branding which is excellent.
Long time readers of this blog know that I declare that brand strategy is always deliberate, but that brand image is ultimately created by the end consumer. There are no accidents in branding -- only incidents of companies not cultivating the brand and helping their customers develop it.

David’s book title comes from the fact that all the companies he profiles are strongly associated with an individual. These individuals have seen their brands develop over time and have a personal journey with the brand that is intertwined with their lives.

What David tries to show is that all these brands have developed a (sometimes small) group of dedicated followers who stuck with the brand even through rough times. Since the brand/business is so personal to the owners he profiled, there is an innate sense of quality and pride that leaks out and the brand authenticity is built in.

The companies that he profiles are all brands that you've heard of like Columbia Sportswear and Baby Einstein as well as lesser known but popular brands like Clif Bar and the Art of Shaving. My favorite chapters of the book were his discussions with Craig Newmark of Craigslist, Roxanne Quimby of Burt's Bees (he also talked to Burt), and my fellow Kentuckian – John Peterman of J. Peterman.

The book is not a typical business book (see changethis manifesto). It consists of several good stories that are enjoyable even if people don’t care about branding. David doesn’t preach mantra in the stories. He just lays them out well and lets you learn what is obvious to you. He does begin and end the book with some of his own gleanings from his visits. Another great thing about the book is that you don't have to read sequentially (I didn't), but just take the stories and ingest them one at a time.

If you're beginning to build a brand or stepping back to take a new look at a current brand, this would be a good book to start reading.

jared has lots of stamps

2008-04-23T21:42:00.008-05:00

Read this consumer review of a Subway in Ohio.

Just as demanding as the Seinfeldian Soup Nazi, I've dealt with many Subway Nazi "sandwich artists". And it's always about the minor things like a drink refill, a few extra olives, or like the guy in the link -- arguing the finer points of a free sub card.

A Subway franchisee will argue that giving a free sandwich that comes out of his pocket/profit to a customer that may have never been in his store is not good business.

I would argue that keeping core Subway customers who are willing to eat 6 (or 12) sandwiches happy and content is good business. And if all the franchisees were willing (or forced) to participate, the money would all equal out in the end.

But here's the bigger point for everybody. If a marketing promotion makes you irritate your customers and generates negative brand images and kills goodwill -- maybe you shouldn't do the promotion.

someone tried to proposition me in a hotel lobby

2008-04-18T14:18:00.003-05:00

Last week, I was in Chicago speaking to a group. The hotel had an afternoon social time that I stopped at one afternoon to grab a snack. While I was sitting there, a young guy came in and started talking to me. He said he was from the area and had an appointment with someone staying at the hotel.

He was unusually chatty and a little cheesy in our conversation. But he was a young guy and I figured he was awkwardly trying to "network". He said he had his own business and wanted to know what I did. I explained I was there to speak to the group. He said he might have a need for sales/business speaker in his new business. I gave him a card, said goodbye, and went to my room to crash.

A few days later, I get a call from the guy. He wants to know if I'm keeping my options open for "business opportunities". And he goes into a pitch about his "system".

It then dawns on me that the dude cruises business hotel lobbies to pick up leads. He has now taken the title of "most pathetic schemer" from the guy who tried to do the same thing to me in an aisle at Staples a few years ago.

I broke into his pitch and tried to politely tell him I wasn't interested. He responded testily - "Does that mean you don't want to keep your options open?"

I told him my options are pretty much closed. And I hung up.

But I wish I had stayed on the phone a bit longer and told him some simple truths:

--The reason that my "options" are closed is that I've already been through that stage of life without getting sucked in. I'm now (much?) older and wiser. When I was in college and immediately afterwards, I wasted several hours going to "job interviews" that turned out to be MLM schemes like Primerica or worse.
(Advice to the marketing kids -- never respond to a job listing that refers to "sports marketing" or sports-minded marketing")

--If you're hanging out in Staples or hotel lobbies trying to bottom feed, you really need to reexamine your sales strategy (and reexamine your life)

--If you have to trick people into a meeting, you're probably selling crap.

I've said it before. Sure, stuff like this works in the short term. But for long term success (in sales, marketing, or whatever), you HAVE to have honest conversations and relationships with your targets.

come check my wiring harness

2008-04-10T07:25:00.004-05:00

I'm a Southwest person. If they don't go where I'm going, I'm a US Airways person. With US Airways alliances, sometimes they stick me on a United flight.

I haven't flown on American in about 10 years -- until a speaking client's travel agency put me on an American flight this week.

On Wednesday, when I saw the lines, I thought there would be a bloggable customer service disaster. But BNA did well. They were handling the crisis very well (at least, they were on Wednesday morning). The only trouble I had was that I didn't have any AA miles clout in achieving standby status. Luckily, I had plenty of time to get where I was going with relative little trouble.

The thing I kept thinking was that just a few years ago, people would have been incensed at the whole situation. All through the airport, there were just dead eyed accepting blank stares from passengers. The entire air travel industry has lowered the bar so much in the last few years that people are accepting of situations like this. I suppose if you mistreat customers enough, they eventually are satisified with subpar experiences.

wanna see me?

2008-04-02T22:06:00.002-05:00

A brief blogging pit stop to announce some public events I'll be speaking at in the next few months.

April 11 (Chicago) -- Inland Press Interactive Media Seminars
A big day for newspapers with lots of discussion on multimedia in journalism and what newspapers need to be doing on the web. I will be doing a session at 1030am about newspaper blogs.
(More info) (Register)

May 7 (Chicago) -- Inland Press Small Newspaper Workshops
Smaller circulation newspapers need to be online too. I'll be doing a session at 1:15 that will focus on using video, audio, rich media, and social networking to grow a newspaper site.
(Info) (Register)

May 30 (Las Vegas) -- World Tea Expo
I think one of the nicest compliments I get is being asked back to an event. And this one is a great one to go back to. If you missed my marketing spiel at the World Tea Expo in Atlanta last year, please try to make it to my session in Las Vegas this year. I will be talking about Winning Brand Strategies. While I will focus on the beverage industry, any industry can apply the branding principles I will be talking about.
(Get info) (Register)

June 7 (Atlanta) -- American Advertising Federation National Conference
I'm actually doing a private daylong session for the Executive Directors prior to the conference, but I will be floating around the AAF meeting. I'd love to meet you if you're there.
(Details)

I will be off the speaking market from mid-July to mid-August, but I have a few tentatitve bookings for this fall and next year. I will post the open public ones when they are confirmed.

As always, if you would like to bring me in for a conference or a private corporate event, I'd love to work with you. Click here for possible topics, video demo, testimonials, and more.

focus

2008-03-28T01:21:00.000-05:00

I've always disliked focus groups as a marketing tool.
But I hope you find as much useful information in your next focus group as they found out in this one.

is he dead or did he invent the turducken?

2008-03-26T21:01:00.006-05:00

It was just the other day I was having a conversation with someone about Paul Prudhomme. I don't remember the specifics of the conversation (or even who I was having it with), but at one point the question came up whether Prudhomme was even still alive.

Actually, Prudhomme is still kicking and extremely successful (when he's not dodging bullets). You just don't hear from him that often (except when he's dodging bullets).

Sidenote: Most interesting line in Prudhomme's wikipedia entry is:
Dom DeLuise is sometimes confused for Prudhomme. Both have a similar body shape and enjoy cooking. They both often wear "newsboy"-style cloth caps and beards.
Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls.

But I do remember my conversation involved the over-saturation of another Nola celebrity chef - Emeril Lagasse. There's really no doubt that Emeril is still alive. He's everywhere. Cooking on a morning show. Bam! On a talk show. Bam! On a grocery shelf. Bam! In Vegas. Bam! Etc. Bam! Etc. Bam! Bam! Bam!

It's easy to think that mass attention and mass exposure means marketing success. And in many cases, it does.

But true long term success does not involve 24/7 exposure. It involves dedicated followers.

The great unwashed masses will latch onto anything for awhile if it has sufficient exposure in the culture. And they'll forget it just as quickly as the next thing comes along. Long term successes are built on the following of a dedicated few that truly believe in the product/person and spread the word.

To use a cooking analogy -- While Emeril is sprinkling Essence™ on the entire surface, Prudhomme has been deep injecting a marinade into certain areas of the carcass.

Stop trying to get everybody. You can't. There's not enough time, money or attention.
Find a group of dedicated followers and be a huge success with them. Who cares if the rest of the world thinks you're dead?

results rather than messages

2008-03-23T14:59:00.000-05:00

Two true stories that make a point...

Story#1
Last week, a media property I work with was being pitched a service from a major web company -- a company you've probably used today. We were fairly sure we wanted the service even before the pitch. We just had a few questions. During the presentation, the WebEx went a little screwy and we couldn't see the guy's Powerpoint. No big deal for us as our questions had been answered on the call. We were ready to sign a contract.

But the guy didn't want us to sign a contract. He wanted to show us a Powerpoint. In fact, he said he needed to FedEx the printout of the slides before he sent us the contract. Nothing striking on those slides -- just a bunch of screenshots.

Story#2
My wife is working on a project for the Commonwealth (come experience our unbridled whatever). A part of this project involved a two-day training session earlier this month. But because of a snowstorm, she as unable to make it to the training that was 2.5 hours away. No problem. Someone from the state was in town last week and she went over everything that my wife needed to know in about an hour. In other words, two-days condensed down to an hour.

The Point
A part of these two stories can be attributed to the fact that most organizations are in love with unnecessary meetings and powerpoints. But the bigger point is something you've probably noticed in individuals already. People love to hear themselves talk. And they love it even more when it's formalized in a ppt file or a meeting that can be stretched for a few days.

And it's even worse when it comes to marketing. From the local car dealer and mattress salesman who throw away ad dollars just for ego-inflation to the CEO who's convinced he's the only one that can talk to the consumer, people see the MESSAGE of the marketing rather than the RESULTS.

Just because you see motion doesn't mean something is moving.

tweet checks

2008-03-10T21:15:00.005-05:00

You've probably already heard about the Zuckerberg interview fiasco at SXSW. If not, here's a good overview and Jarvis has some insight.

After spending years in marketing and media, I've learned a few things that are showcased in this particular incident:
1) Every interviewer has an agenda. And every interviewee needs a plan. Sure, they're going to ask you questions. You just give the answers that you want to get across. Politicians do this too well.
2) In most interviews, journalists already have most of the story written and just need some quotes to fill in the holes. You may have to slap them around (figuratively, of course) --but make sure that they're getting your story right.
3) Most interviewers don't listen to what you're saying.
4) Don't ever tweet in anger.
5) The audience has always controlled the conversation. If you insulted them in the old days, they canceled their subscription or changed the channel. Now they bite back.

I don't think people realize how much communication has changed. We've all been in a conference where someone was doing something stupid on stage. Everyone winced individually and went on to the next session. Maybe later in the exhibit hall or somewhere else did the WOM occur that negated the presentation. It now happens in real time. You can have an angry mob on your hands and not realize it. Presenters often have a person in the audience who watches their time or body language. You now need a plant to give you cues on the meta-conversation and how the natives are feeling.

People get freaked out when this social conversation happens in a microcosm like a conference so you can actually see it. But this is happening everyday. Not everyone is in the same room. But when your company, you're media outlet, your celebrity, your politician, or your product messes up, everyone is out there talking about it to each other.

And 99.999% of companies are doing what this interviewer did. They say I'm giving you what I think you need instead of what you're telling me you want.

double half caff

2008-03-07T20:33:00.004-06:00

Earlier this week, Advertising Age quoted me in an article on some comments I made about Starbucks shutting down over 7,000 locations one night in late February for a barista boot camp.
It's now old news, but let me clarify and expand upon my original comment -- and provide some updates.

First off, it's obvious that the shutdown was not "training". It was nothing but a PR/media stunt. It garnered LOTS of free coverage from the press who seemed not to realize they were being used.

I had said in my original comments that I would be interested when baristas started spilling the beans (ha!) about what went on during the 3 hour period. Just as I predicted, customer service was discussed during the training as well as how to make a machine produce three dollar foam. But some baristas are ticked off about the training and point to poor working conditions and wages as a reason for sub-par customer service and not-so-perfect drinks.

But here's your big problem, SBUX. Customers aren't finding any big difference. And that is a huge problem. After pulling a stunt that showcases how you're going to improve, people expect...improvement. When it doesn't show up, you've ultimately hurt the brand.

look at me!!!

2008-03-06T21:33:00.005-06:00

So Firebrand failed. That's amazing. Hard to believe that people don't want to watch a show or web channel that has nothing but ads.

In several of my marketing talks, I make the implicit point that no one cares about your marketing except you. And the only people who actually look for ads are the people paying for them and the people who sell them.

But for some reason, many companies feel that their advertising is an entertainment source. Visit a company's web site and see a big flashy-blinky that says "Click to view our latest TV commercial!" Companies upload their spot to the Google Tubes and think they're offering substance. Of course, you know the idea du jour. Stagger in like a greasy used care salesman in a blog, try to be my "friend" on Facebook, or crash some other private party.

Sure, people are interested in advertising and become ad experts around the time of the "big game". But for the most part, people try to avoid "advertising". What people want is answers to their problems. And sometimes advertising shows them an answer. But most advertising I see is undirected and loud -- and not really concerned about connecting with the right people.

Stop advertising and start providing answers to your customers' problems. And you might have to do that through a print ad or a TV spot. Just remember that people are concerned about the message -- not the messenger.

proof shame

2008-02-29T22:00:00.002-06:00

Let me first say that I have made many mistakes. A few have been made in life and many more have been made in my marketing efforts. I have approved print jobs with both minor and egregious errors. I have designed and sent ads to a publisher with misspellings. And this blog has been known to have more than the occasional typo. (Although, a copy editor friend is now reading the blog so I'm more careful than I used to be.)

As you go through the day, more than likely you'll see a few mistakes in marketing pieces. Most of them come through hastily written signage, employees not using common sense, or the dangerous combination of minimum wage and brand messages. I've even provided photographic evidence of poor proofs here before. In fact, the problem has gotten so bad that we've come to the point that you get a write up in the New York Times because you know how to use punctuation on a sign.

It's easy to find these singular errors. But occasionally, you'll find an example where they just backed the dump truck up and let it all go. There's a new restaurant in my hometown that has been publishing its menu in the local paper for the past few days. And it's bad.

My wife is an adjunct college English professor and she took it to her night class. The students found copious amounts of misspellings, punctuation errors, and things that just made no sense. Here's the ad, but because of the poor design and small type, you really can't read it. But while trying to find an online copy of the menu to show you, I did find that the restaurant has already become a local laughingstock because of others who have noted the horrible job on the ad and menu.

This is not nitpicking. This is being in control of your marketing. There's no reason for it. Shame on the newspaper and salesperson for letting such a horrible thing be published on behalf of a client. Shame on the graphic designer who didn't proof the work. And shame on the owners for not taking responsibility for their own marketing and image.

If a company is not going to take the time and effort to properly craft the marketing messages that they're paying for, how bad are the other aspects of the marketing experience I'm going to have with the company going to be? As you can see in the laughingstock link, shoddy craftsmanship in preparing a menu spills over in the preparation and quality of the food on the menu as well.