Old vs New. . .You make the call

Just this past June Wal-Mart unveiled this new logo as part of its "re-branding campaign". Now why am I writing about this now vs. 5 months ago? 2 reasons:

1. When I first read about it paid little attention and blew it off.

2. I Came across an article last night and saw how it confirmed the ideas I spoke about in my last post - business is about people (not logo re-designs - only). So I thought it was a good time to write a little somethin' about it.

There is one phrase and one phrase only that any consultant, startup, or established company should ever really focus on. That's "the customer experience". Now don't get me wrong. Manufacturing is important, prices are important, management is important, etc. But if you have the greatest backend system on the planet, but the way your customers experience your products or services is lacking you might as well pack up the office or store and go home. Especially in today's environment where competition is more fierce than ever.  Think about  it like this - If you can figure out and come to know what your customers truly like there is a high probability that your solutions will force you to think comprehensively about your whole business model; from A to Z.

Now here is a quote from the Business Week article I came across:

In general, corporations change their logos when prompted by the marketplace, be it increased competition or an economic downturn. Such redesigns are more than just prettying up an outdated logo. As Frere-Jones points out, the investment is significant (Wal-Mart wouldn't reveal details of the cost of the redesign). "Given the complexity of the company, this is a major financial undertaking. It affects manufacturing processes, fronts of stores, package design…all of which has to accommodate the new imagery and fonts."

Now nowhere above did it say that this was done to improve customer service, customer relations or the customer experience. . . hmmmm I wonder why? Isn't it the customers' hard earned money that they spend that generates revenue and profits and enables Wal-Mart to even be a company?

Wal-Marts CEO H. Lee Scott doesn't get it and neither does Frere-Jones.  Business is about people. Give them great/stellar service, make them feel like kings and queens, provide something they want and value and everything else will fall into place. If customer's don't like you, they may stay awhile because there are no other choices but when something better comes along (and it will) they will leave you.  And Wal-Mart should pay close attention as their customer approval ratings are steadily declining.

For whatever reasons so many companies can't seem to get it.  And if there are any companies out there that are listening, this is for you. . . .

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.

Sometimes we forget

It's not about the radio.

It's not about the TV

It's not about the laptop

It's not about blogs

It's not about Twitter

Its not about Facebook

It's not about IM

Its about people - and we often forget that.  We're caught up in technology, web 2.0,  and the internet (and for good reason. . .they are changing the landscape. . .) and we let it slip quietly to the background: individuals and the human experience and condition. 

How do we create the latest and greatest?  How do we make it bigger and faster? How do we innovate? We do this for individuals, people, customers and clients, yet we continuously (consciously or unconsciously) ignore how we as people are.  

What do people like?  How do people liked to be talked to?  What do they think about?  How are people distressed? What makes people content or happy?

When's the last time a VC invested in a human factor?  I mean isn't it people that ultimately make the world go round?  Yet how many products,  services or ways that we do business actually make our lives better, happier, cooler or easier? By show of hands who would pay top dollar for their lives to be better, happier, cooler or easier?

Ladies and gentlemen we get caught up in the tools.  Yet that's all they are. . .simple tools.  And the reality behind that is that tools come and go.  You can have all the the online communities, social networks and cool apps in the world but at the end of the day the question I think worth asking - what is its value to people?

Remarkably transformative ideas and strategies come when you're able to better comprehend and make more sense of the human experience:

How we think.

What we like.

What we hate,

What we love. 

Do this and you can really start setting the table for a huge chunk of the marketplace. 

What do people want?

All day yesterday the Motrin video hiccup was a hot topic on one of the list serves that I am on. Below was one of the more interesting questions. My response follows after it.

The question for us marketers is – how do we know who is the passionate few, and what will trigger them? Can this phenomenon be replicated at will? And if so, how? The holy grail is to know them, “own them” (of course they can’t be owned b/c the very definition of who they are precludes this, but that is the desire), and target messages to them that they will then passionately forward on to others. How does one lasso viral? If anyone knows the answers to these questions, please share with all of us. We’ll be rich.

Limor Schafman - KeystoneTech Group

Limor,

I think you definitely have it right. If there was an exact answer to your questions we'd all be rich. But I'll propose this. . .

There definitely is no silver bullet answer, but the next best thing (as we've discovered in working with our clients) is - having the understanding of what it is that people want. You can create all the Facebook links, flikr photos, and campaign ads you want but if you don't know what it is that drives and stirs people. . .(you'll never go viral - big or small).

So the next question is: What do people want? People want to be producers. What do I mean by that? People want to have a say (or the believeable illusion of it) in what affects their life.

3 examples:

1. Apple - Apple sells the iPod, iPhone and all that jazz but what people miss is that Apple creates software that allows you to produce - iWorks, iMovie, Garage Band, Final Cut Pro (and the list goes on). So Apple says "buy us and we'll let you take control of your world". With Apple you are now able to produce your own movies, records, videos, and on and on. . . (definitely one of the reasons they have legions of fans). Right now Apple after only 7 years in retail is the most successful retail store in the country. The second is Tiffany.

2. Threadless T- Shirt Company - Probably the most innovative t-shirt company in the U.S. (dare I say the world) - They crowdsource (wikipedia style approach) their t-shirt lines. Their customers are the ones who actually create the t-shirts that they eventually mass produce (they're now a $20 million dollar company). Again their customers are the producers of their products.

3. Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign - And for those who aren't profit driven. . . (arguably) one of the most mind boggling, innovative, and transformative presidential campaigns ever to be ran on U.S. soil. What was a truely poweful component of his campaign that made ridiculously successful?  His campaign allowed people to be producers. They produced youtube vidoes. They produced their own local campaigns. They produced their own tactics on how to get out the vote. People felt like they were creators and producers. In innumerable grassroots communities around the country everyday people were in charge. And that is what producers are . . . in charge.

Now whether you are a non-profit, for profit or whatever else - know how to create producers (and something they want to be producers for) and you have something powerful in the making.

When viral goes bad

There's a thousand different ways you can slice how the power of the internet and technology has begun to fundamentally change the relationship between consumers and the market. This past weekend was a prime example of the brave new world at work.

Motrin released its new ad campaign over the weekend and upon going viral, needed to be a customer of its own product as moms blogged, tweeted and launched their own response campaign that created a pain for Johnson and Johnson (the makers of Motrin). The offense that mothers felt and the insensitivity of the ad campaign forced the motrin.com site to be taken down Sunday night (and hasn't been put back up).

A Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman issued  this statement from Kathy Widmer, VP, Marketing at the McNeil unit:

I am the Vice President of Marketing for McNeil Consumer Healthcare. I have responsibility for the Motrin Brand, and am responding to concerns about recent advertising on our website. I am, myself, a mom of 3 daughters. We certainly did not mean to offend moms through our advertising. Instead, we had intended to demonstrate genuine sympathy and appreciation for all that parents do for their babies. We believe deeply that moms know best and we sincerely apologize for disappointing you. Please know that we take your feedback seriously and will take swift action with regard to this ad. We are in process of removing it from our website. It will take longer, unfortunately, for it to be removed from magazine print as it is currently on newstands and in distribution.

Now the next question would be how many people actually saw this ad or will ever know that this fumble took place? Twitter is still relatively new and used by a small portion of the market and the megaphone for blogs, as powerful as they are, there are still significant amounts of people who aren't part of the blogosphere yet. But what could be powerful (and the potential danger) is the negative word of mouth conversations that could surround the Motrin product.  Time will only tell.

The bigger story here is what's been tried and true for years: The utter lack of understanding that companies have for the market and how to truly speak to the needs of their customers.  It would serve in the best interest of companies to figure out how to effectively craft their marketing messages and get with the times and figure out how to re-tool their marketing strategies - because the internet isn't going anywhere.  The power in the market is shifting and as I've mentioned before. . . if you hate change, you'll like irrelevance even less.

The 3 Rs

Last night I was invited to a small and intimate speaking engagement (about 17 others atteneded) for a very cool opportunity to listen to a pretty interesting gentlemen named Jeremy Epstein. His brief bio follows. . .

Over the course of an almost 6 year career at Microsoft, Jeremy implemented numerous scalable community building and revenue generating programs. His efforts were frequently recognized as US-wide best practices, and he authored one of Microsoft's most successful marketing blogs with over 110,000 views per month. Since leaving Microsoft and "hanging out the shingle," he has signed contracts with multiple clients including Johnson & Johnson and NYT best-selling author, Dan Pink (A Whole New Mind and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko). A passionate technologist, Jeremy prides himself as early adopter with email (1991), a personal home page (1992), and blogging (2000). His career highlights include a start-up with his brother, SilentFrog, and award-winning interactive marketing in Tokyo.

Dan Pink being one of his clients (not to mention one of my favorite authors) I knew I would take up my friend Michelle's invitation to attend. Fortunately/Unfortunately I got there a little late and because of that, for a portion of the night I was the punch line for some of his jokes ... which was cool with me (a little limelight from jokes never hurt anyone). What was even cooler, though, was finding out that his network of close colleagues included Seth Godin and Hugh MacLeod. . .'nuff said.

So the basis of his presentation revolved around 2 ideas. One from Seth Godin - being Remarkable (the 1st R) and the second from one of the concepts of Made to Stick - being memorable or Remembered (the 2nd R).  He took three very easy accessible tools to ANYONE - Your business card, your voicemail, and your automatic out of office reply message (for those of you who use those) and talked about how these very simple tools can boost your clientele, revenues and profits for your company. Goooood stuff!

His premise was this (very similar to my earlier post on the devil is in the details): It's not always the grand ideas, the big marketing strategies or unique product lines that always generate business for you. Its the small and  mundane things that are JUST as valuable. For example. . .

. . .look at your business card.  If you were to give it to someone would they say its pretty cool, remarkable or memorable? Is it distinguishing you/your business from the hundreds of other business cards they have?  Will your card be one they will remember?

Your voicemail?  Does it stand out?  Does it say I am different and I have a unique offering?  Or does it just say "I can't take your call right now, please leave a message and I will call you back".  Standard. Regular. Not differentiating you from the pack.

The same for your auto reply out of office message.  Is it standard or can it say something slightly different to grab that attention and make someone say "whoaa, that's pretty cool"!

Ladies and Gentlemen the object of the game is to standout. Be different.  Give people a reason to want to call you back, seek out your services, and the sweeetest gift - refer you to a friend! Small things like this is how it all starts. 

So my advice is figure out a way to be a Remarkable Rebel (the 3rd R - see previous post) who will be Remembered and I guarantee it will pay off handsomely!