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What's your marketing soundtrack?

February 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Beat ItJPEG

I help companies uncover what they love about their businesses and show them how to use that to create pretty fascinating sales and marketing strategies.

The first step in our discovery process is asking a few questions, like “if you were having dinner with an old friend,  how would you  brag about your business?” The answers to this question are usually dull, dull, dull. But it helps me get to know the people.

The second question always uncorks the creative juices.  Please take it and use it. It is simply this:

If you could pick one song as a theme song for  your organization, what would it be?

The ideas are usually hilarious, hold a thread of truth and possibility, and loosen people up in new ways.   A couple of weeks ago I heard some some great responses from a consulting firm with deep analytics expertise:

  • Beat It by Michael Jackson
  • White & Nerdy by Weird Al Yankovich
  • Marching Through the Wilderness by David Byrne

Let the marketing brainstorming begin….

Filed Under: Activating change, Conversational Marketing, Language, Point of View & Messaging Tagged With: , ,

A social media knowledge benchmark

October 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Thanks to Kishore Partchasarathi, a marketing student at York University in Toronto, for this social media overview and thoughtful review of my book.Review of Beyond Buzz

Filed Under: Books, Communicating, Conversational Marketing, Language, Social media strategy, Word of mouth Tagged With: , , ,

What's a talkable brand?

October 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association has put out a request: What makes a brand talkable? Here’s my take.

Filed Under: Communicating, Communities, Conversational Marketing, Language, Marketing trends, Public Relations, Sales, Social media strategy, Word of mouth Tagged With: , , , , , ,

New best practices paper on social media monitoring, engagement, measurement

June 18, 2009 By 1 Comment

We’ve just release a new study on emerging best practices in social media monitoring, engagement and measurement based on interviews with large corporations like Cisco, Intuit, GE and with the top monitoring technology providers (Visible Technologies, Radian6, Cymfony, Market Sentinel), who have fascinating stories based on existing clients and from the RFP/sales process.

(Economy be damned, one technology provider even had to fire a big brand company because its agency was basically spamming bloggers and Tweeters.)

The report includes sections on:

  • Guidelines for responding, engaging, working with legal, staffing
  • Measurement
  • Biggest surprises
  • Most common mistakes
  • Advice
  • Next steps

What I found especially interesting:

  • Universal agreement that people in companies should be engaging in social media conversations– NOT outside agencies.
  • Creating monitoring systems is straightforward; developing engagement strategies is much more complex, requiring a lot of employee education and process redesign (ex: customer service)
  • The stronger the corporate culture of trust and employee empowerment, the easier it is to implement and scale enterprise-wide monitoring and engagement approaches.
  • Insights from social media monitoring are extremely valuable, but creating the right reports to glean that value for different functions is challenging.
  • For most companies legal has not been an obstacle. But collaborating with legal is essential. (See tips on dealing with legal in the report.)
  • How few conversations require or could benefit from a response. Many companies think the cost would be exorbitant to assign people to respond to Tweets, blogs and forums, but once they analyze the data and do a business case analysis the investment for the value provides a good return on investment, whether it’s for customer service, sales, or reputation management.

To get a free copy of the report, click here.

Would love to hear  your thoughts about these best practices based on your experience. What’s missing?

Filed Under: Activating change, Conversational Marketing, Marketing trends, Research, Smart company stories, Social media strategy Tagged With: , , ,

Low cost video exceeding 1.3 million black and white views

June 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

We’ve been analyzing characteristics of marketing content that gets shared and passed around. Here’s an example of a home-grown advertisement from Red House Furniture in High Point, NC that has 1.3 million + views on YouTube, has been covered by on a number of news programs including CNN, and is being covered all over the Blogosphere.

The reason for its appeal? It’s provocative, employees and customers introduce themselves as being black or white, and talk about how the furniture is good for black people and white people. Racial? Yes. Racist, no way. Just pointing out that blacks and whites like the same kind of furniture. Hilarious? Most definitely

The video is also genuine — real employees, real customers, low production quality and a folksy tune sung by two geeky guys: “The Red House…where black and white people buy furniture.” (The company os also sells tee-shirts with the theme, leveraging the interest in the video

The video was a risky best for The Red House, but good for the owners for taking a chance. I hope the attention is bringing in lots of business.

Filed Under: Advertising, Conversational Marketing, Smart company stories, Word of mouth Tagged With: , ,

Age of Conversation/2: My Marketing Tragedy

October 29, 2008 By 2 Comments

Today the book Age of Conversation 2: Why Don’t They Get It? comes out, with contributions from 237 marketers. All proceeds to to Variety: The Children’s Charity.

I contributed to the “My Marketing Tragedy” section. I passionately believe in the power of conversations to build understanding, trust and relationships — fundamentals in business. However, from much experience I realize how difficult it is for businesses to move from  “talk at” corporate and product message-speak to the much riskier and unscripted “talk with” conversations.

While much has been said about the value of social media and conversational marketing, not enough thinking has been put to HOW to help organizations change.  Earlier in my career I was totally wrapped up in the ideas and concepts, but many never saw the light of today. Today, I have a much greater appreciation of the value of helping clients overcome the obstacles — changing minds, changing behavior, changing business processes, changing legal policies.

What I’m learning is that people need to be inspired to see the possibilities so that they have the passion and energy to create change. And then they need a steady sherpa guide to navigate the formidable legal, IT and executive alpha fraidy cat objections.

I do think marketers “get it.”  The real priority is to allay the valid concerns of the people who don’t.

Filed Under: Activating change, Books, Conversational Marketing Tagged With: , ,

J. Crew's Drexler walks the conversational marketing talk

March 3, 2008 By 2 Comments

[photopress:Mickey_Drexler.jpg,full,pp_image]

J.Crew’s CEO Mickey Drexler is a great example of a CEO who lives conversational marketing, passionately listening to customers and incorporating their ideas into the business strategy.

In his Saturday N.Y. Times story, “A CEO Sells the Store,” Joe Nocera wrote:

“Visiting stores, quizzing the staff, critiquing everything in sight — and most of all, meeting customers, is at the core of how Mr. Drexler runs J. Crew. It’s also what makes him happiest.”

The story also talks about how Drexler personally follows up with customers he meets in stores. He’s intent on hearing their ideas — positive and negative. The customer is his muse, his energy, his grounding.

While CEO of the Gap Drexler lost touch with the customer, as many CEOs do, and lost his confidence. At J.Crew he’s intent on doing what he does best — visiting stores every day; reading, responding and acting on customers’ emails; and asking customers for input. He told Nocera:

“People want to be listened to and they want to be respected. Besides this is how you learn what is on their minds. What can be more important than that?”

Probably nothing. While most clothing chains are struggling, J. Crew’s 2007 revenues were up 14% and the company is profitable.

I think I’ll have to check out J. Crew’s new line of suits….and tell Mickey what I think. I know he’ll listen, and that’s a most powerful marketing strategy.

 

Filed Under: Activating change, Conversational Marketing, Leadership, Smart company stories Tagged With: , , , , ,

Ogilvy's Mike Hemingway on brand communications

February 10, 2008 By Leave a Comment

[photopress:Mike_Hemingway_Ogilvy_1.jpg,full,centered]

Speaking at the BRITE 08? branding/innovation/technology conference last Friday Mike Hemingway, global managing director, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, offered these insights:

  • Everything a brand communicates to its customers should be personal and important.
  • The future of marketing is not just offering value to customers, but offering values.
  • The Web is today’s mass media. Advertising and public relations are the accelerators to use to get people to the Web.
  • A brand is like a country. Make it a place where people want to be and go to.

Filed Under: Marketing trends Tagged With: ,

Marketing lessons from stand-up comics

February 10, 2008 By Leave a Comment

As I study? what it takes to get customers’ attention, I’ve become a student of observing stand-up comics.? No one has a harder time getting and keeping an audience’s attention.?? Last Thursday I saw eight comics perform at the little hole in the wall club, Stand-Up New York.? Two were outstanding, four were so-so, and two were bombs.

The bombs were mean-spirited, perpetuating tired, old stereotypes. Worse, they didn’t seem passionate about what they talked about; their focus seemed more intent on setting up a punch line to get a laugh.? The very worst came across as condescending and egocentric? — me vs. all you stupid people. In fact, he picked on an elderly couple in a way that cam e across as nasty and hurtful, not fun-spirited heckling.

The stars, on the other hand, took issues, human behavior and stereotypes and riffed on them through fresh lenses.? Their material was hilarious because the comics’ points of view were so different, insightful – and of course warped.? They were edgy, often raw, yet always inclusive, helping us how we’re weirdly all the same. They seemed more self-less, genuinely wanting to connect with the audience vs. just tell jokes.

While I’m still learning, here are some possible marketing lessons from successful stand-up comics:

  • Challenge assumptions with counterintuitive and contrarian perspectives. Great stand-ups start with assumptions that get people’s heads nodding and then, pow, present a wildly counterintuitive view.
  • Share real personal stories. Genuine stories resonate, and audiences can quickly sniff out the stories that are set-ups vs. real.
  • Be intent on giving the audience a great experience; it’s about them, not us.
  • Be inclusive? without being intrusive.
  • Be likable.
  • Be fearless and experiment: some things will connect, others won’t the only way to know is to try.
  • Tap into passionate beliefs. “You must go on stage with a passionate desire and the intent to communicate your thoughts and feelings, not just make people laugh,” says Judy Carter in her book, Stand-Up Comedy.

PS – If you ever get a chance to see Kyle Grooms, don’t miss him. He’s likely to become the next big name in American comedians. Amazing talent and one of the stars last week.

[photopress:Kyle_Grooms_1.jpg,full,centered].

Filed Under: Musings Tagged With: ,

Vote for topic: Next chapter in age of conversation

January 31, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Following up last year’s successful publication of the “Age of Conversation ” (one conversation/100 voices), Drew McLellan is pulling together plans for a bigger and better book in ’08.

Tomorrow is the deadline for voting on what the topic should be. (Vote here. ) Proposed topics are:

  • Marketing Manifesto
  • Why Don’t People Get It?
  • My Marketing Tragedy (and what I learned)

I’ve volunteered to write a chapter….very cool project and way for all of us to learn from fascinating voices around the world. (Plus book proceeds go to charity.)

Filed Under: Conversational Marketing Tagged With:

The cure for the Jerk-O-Meter factor?

November 7, 2007 By 1 Comment

The folks over at MIT Media Lab have created some interesting ways to assess whether someone is interested in or even paying attention to a conversation. In fact, using a machine that measures a person’s speaking style (activity, stress, empathy) the MIT researchers can predict the outcomes of a conversation with almost 90 percent accuracy – from just a few minutes of listening.

One tool is the Jerk-O-Meter, which measures how engaged you are with the other person on the phone and sends you messages, from “you’re a smooth talker” to “stop being a jerk” so you can alter your behavior.

Other tests include the The ElevatorRater, a program that analyzes charisma based on a speaker’s delivery, using non-linguistic speech features like pitch, speaking rate, pause durations. Another is the Human Interest Meter, measuring how interested people are in conversations.

I think tools like these hold some potential for communicators, giving us ways to more scientifically help people relax and be more genuine. They can also help us to crack the corporate speak syndrome, showing people just how engaged or unengaged others are when listening in to their podcasts, webinars, and in-person presentations.

One of the MIT researchers has suggested that perhaps people need to become better actors to be engaged in meaningful conversations. I say rubbish to that notion.

If we want genuine interest we need to be genuinely interested in what we’re talking about – and the people with whom we’re talking.

In today’s conversational world, whether online or in-person we have to learn how to find points of view – or help others in our organization find them – that are interesting to others and that we LIKE talking about. Points of view are an “also” to the traditional vision/mission/messaging basics; they’re beliefs, ideas, advice, and perspectives that are fresh, relevant and have a little emotion wrapped around them.

Harder than the usual “messaging” and best practices and feature/benefits? Surely. But if we don’t speak with conviction, research shows that people will tune us out in less than three minutes – despite the words themselves.

How a Point of View Differs

POINT OF VIEW

Beliefs and ideas that provoke conversation, build understanding; something a person would say



Filed Under: Communicating, Conversational Marketing, Research Tagged With: , ,

Openers to set you apart in RFPs, sales conversations, presentations

June 21, 2007 By 2 Comments

One way to quickly grab attention and set your organization apart is to use openers that challenge assumptions or offer contrarian points of view. Openers that smack people in the face and make them think, “gee this company is kind of interesting; let’s pay attention to this one.”

Here are some examples we’ve been helping clients use to distinguish their RFP executive summaries, open sales meetings and make executive presentations more interesting.

  • “We don’t believe in quality control.” (If you create the right operational process you build in quality, drive out costs.)
  • “All the products in this category are commodities.” (The value comes from new types of service around the products.)
  • “Customer service should be eliminated or cut way back.” (Companies should invest more in creating a great customer experience, eliminating problems that jam customer service organizations.)
  • “Customers don’t want a relationship with companies. “ (They just want your product or service to consistently deliver as promised.)
  • “Successfully building this new airport isn’t about engineering. It’s about relationships.” (Changing the context of an RFP so the decision making committee looked at an underdog engineering firm in a new way. The firm won the bid.)
  • “The most creative marketers are scientists.” (The right data helps you target, trigger and activate.)

Filed Under: Conversational Marketing, Sales, Word of mouth Tagged With: , ,

Nike turns Imus controversy into positive conversation

April 18, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Good on Nike for turning Don Imus’ outrageous comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team into a more positive conversation about public speech, women athletes and the game itself. Nike ran this full page print ad in last Sunday’s (April 15) New York Times, and plans to roll out banner ads this week that make it easy to pass the ad along to a friend.

A great piece of conversational marketing — tying into a relevant news item with a fresh point of view that provokes new conversations.

“Thank you, ignorance.

Thank you for starting the conversation.

Thank you for making an entire nation listen to the Rutgers’ team story. And for making us wonder what other great stories we’ve missed.

Thank you for reminding us to think before we speak.

Thank you for showing us how strong and poised 18 and 20-year-old women can be.

Thank you for reminding us that another basketball tournament goes on in March.

Thank you for showing us that sport includes more than the time spent on the court.

Thank you for unintentionally moving women’s sport forward.

And thank you for making all of us realize that we still have a long way to go.

Next season starts 11.16.07.”

Filed Under: Advertising, Conversational Marketing, Smart company stories Tagged With:

Kleenex Let It Out: Beyond Buzz-worthy ad campaign

April 16, 2007 By Leave a Comment

What makes good advertising today? Two things. It helps sell more products and provokes conversation — getting people involved in the ad and giving them something to talk to people about. Kleenex’s “Let It Out” campaign is succeeding on both counts. The person-on-the-street interviews also show just how much people want to tell their stories and be heard.


Filed Under: Advertising, Conversational Marketing, Smart company stories Tagged With: ,

Reaction to Beyond Buzz: listening, something to talk about

March 30, 2007 By 1 Comment

I’ve been on the road this week talking with marketing and public relations people about the ideas from my new book, Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing. What fun this is.

The two big things people seem to be struggling with as they get into conversational marketing and Web 2.0 communications:

  1. How to listen in new ways . (If marketing is a conversation, at least half the process is listening.)
  1. Finding something interesting to talk about. For face-to-face and online communications. And that connects to the business strategy. People seem to understand the mechanics of tools, but they struggle with how to uncover interesting ideas to talk about that are genuine to people in the company and interesting to folks they want to talk with. (My view is that most of our companies don’t have cool, buzz-worthy products. But we all have the ability to talk about our companies in fresh, interesting ways when we uncover points of view that are engaging, and get the reaction, “That’s interesting. Tell me more.”)

I’ve tried to lay out how to do both in the book – as well how to overcome the five biggest obstacles to conversational marketing and operationalize conversational marketing into marketing functions and tactics. If you read the book, please, please let me know what’s been helpful. Or where I need to elaborate.

If you want the Cliff Notes version, you can download the ebook by clicking on the link to the right of this blog post — or check out the podcasts.

If your professional organization or company is looking for a fresh, “how to” perspective on the topic, let me know. While I’m promoting the book I’m willing to do these for free – as long as you pay travel expenses and can pull together at least 30 folks. So far the reaction from the sessions have been really great.

An email from yesterday’s American Marketing Association/New York event:

“I think I am an open-minded, “willing to admit everything I don’t know” type of guy………But it’s rare I go to a marketing seminar and actually learn something new and / or useful. But, yesterday with you, I came away informed and entertained.”

Filed Under: Books, Conversational Marketing Tagged With:
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