As promised, here’s the link to T.H.E Extraordinary Marketing Blog’s new home. This will give me a lot more control over the blog so I can write even better posts for you. 
Remember to update your bookmarks, RSS reader, etc.
http://extraMblog.blogspot.com
What are you waiting for? Get some Extraordinary Marketing of your own!
-Andrew Turnbull, signing out.
Working on transferring this page to Blogger for two reasons:
1. Flexibility. If you’re not self-hosted, wordpress is fairly limiting (can’t even touch the template). Blogger has more options in this regard.
2. Learning. A large part of my starting a blog was to play with and become comfortable with social media. It just makes sense that I should try Google’s platform as well.
If I can (remember, wordpress isn’t overly flexible) I’ll set up a redirect to the new page when it’s done. If not, there will be a big fat link.
Also. If you’ve made this transfer before, let me know how it went in the comments. I’m looking for a way to import the old posts but it seems most people go the other way (because they move to self-hosting) so if you have a WordPress –> Blogger solution I’m dying to know.
Sorry for missing Wednesday’s post (informal schedule is new posts on M/W/F in case you haven’t noticed) – It’s been a crazy week (moving, kitchen reno, painters, interviews)
@lonnietaylor on Twitter agrees.
We all hate when big companies put us on hold. We think “If they’re so big, can’t they afford a couple extra operators?” The worst is when they have the gall to include the “your call is valued” recording – how disingenuous. The problem seems to be unavoidable; no matter what you do, sometimes customers will have to hold.
Part of the problem is that hold messages lack originality. They’re all boring and mundane. Most use the exact same scripted recording. Yet how often do marketing professors have to tell their students “Every touchpoint with your customer is invaluable” for the learning to sink in. Remember, you’re only as strong as your weakest link and a convoy can only move as fast as the slowest ship. Use hold-time as an opportunity to tell your customer’s a little more about your company. Retaining and growing customers is just as much a marketing function as attracting them.
If you’re a funky, cool tech start-up, you should have a cool holding message. The same holds if you run a hip and happening – I don’t know – handbag store.
Even the so-called “stodgy” corporations can stand out in this way. Just because you run an insurance company doesn’t mean you have to be dull and boring. Look at Aflac and Geico.
What about hygiene products? Say…Old Spice? If I call 866-348-7798 Isaiah Mustafa should tell me something random while I’m on hold (he doesn’t, I tried).
Every point of contact with your customers is a chance to tell them about your brand. It’s like going on a date — how often do people compare marketing to dating ? I’m going to do it anyway because it’s accurate but as an industry we need a new analogy — clean, wrinkle-free clothes, combed hair, clean car, manners, body language, etc. In everything you do, your date is picking up clues because actions say more than words alone. Don’t *say* you care about your customers. Prove it.
Old Spice has a hit on their hands with the “man your man could smell like” campaign. It’s a tough repositioning gambit they’re running but hey – nobody said it was going to be easy.
When you’ve got a great idea, you need to run with it. So says author Luke Sullivan in the Advertising Bible “Hey Whipple, Squeeze This.” Sullivan spends a great deal of time talking about the changing marketing paradigm. It used to be when you needed to sell something you turned to TV, print and radio. Now we have marketers capable of crafting intricate campaigns across new mediums. Even foreheads aren’t immune to the imprint of guerrilla marketing.
Sullivan is an advocate for starting with the big idea (not TV or print but an idea). I’m a fan of this method as well. It’s easy to pluck the core out and transfer it across mediums.
With Old Spice we saw an idea that worked well on TV so they moved online using the same concept as a launching point. The response was incredible. Now is the time to leverage that momentum. Keep pushing forward using the same idea. It still has plenty of life left.
A simple suggestion: Add manly advice underneath the cap of OldSpice containers similar to Jones Cola. It doesn’t sound revolutionary but it doesn’t have to be. It builds on the established base set-up by the existing campaign and contributes in its own way by continuing the meme and encouraging repurchase. Maybe 1/7 could use a link to a video message as well. And while this may be normal and boring with soft drinks, it’s new to OldSpice’s product category. Besides – can you think of any reason NOT to?
In what other ways would you expand the OldSpice campaign? Try to move beyond traditional media and push the product into new realms with your response.
This has been bothering me for a while now, I’ve got to get it off my chest: marketers,you are giving generation Y far too much credit. Credit we don’t deserve. I know your research shows we all spend copious amounts of time online and I’m not disputing your findings, but this generation is not as tech savvy as you think we are.
The reality of this misconception became blatantly obvious to me two months ago during a phone interview for a marketing position. It’s been nagging at me ever since. The interviewer asked about my level of comfort with technology. Having built my first website in grade 7, I laughed and said “like a fish in water” and elaborated with a few examples demonstrating my above-average proficiency.
Her response? ”Oh, well everybody of your age is like that.” I tried to clarify, describing how I once set up a dual boot Windows/Ubuntu system, tricked the autotrader website into showing the unseen deals and coded a PHP emailer system to play pranks on my friends – all before morning coffee but she was stuck in her mindset. It’s common knowledge, isn’t it? This interviewer was convinced that each and every member of my generation was at home with new technology.
They’re not.
I say this because I’ve had to debug computers for less tech savvy friends. Tasks such as removing spyware and viruses or reformatting a hard drive are beyond many of us. I’ve rocked classmates world’s by showing them how to do simple things – things like auto-populating a table of contents in Microsoft Word – that would save them all sorts of time in the future (the individual in question had been doing this task manually for years).
Even rudimentary skills like proper typing habits can’t be taken as a given. I was lucky enough to have had a typing class in elementary school with a drill sergeant of an instructor. The skills have stuck my entire life and returned dividends equal to Apple stock purchased in the 80′s. I literally cringe when I see hunt-and-peckers. I know people who are good with computers but can’t type properly to save their lives. If only they knew how easy it could be.
The University of Calgary teaches a course called Computer Science 203, it’s required for business majors. When I dropped the Computer Science portion of my degree (having previously been a double major) this became a required course. No combination of words exists that would have convinced the professor to waive the requirement. Despite my having taken 300 level courses, I had to circle back to check off CPSC 203.
I figured I might learn something interesting, make the best of a bad situation, right? Instead I became the go-to guy helping my friends with assignments where we were walked through the basics of Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. And I mean the basics. The professor lectured on how printers work and the difference between Java and Javascript. For the 400 people in this class, a lot of it was new information. We’re not as tech savvy as you think.
My final point comes from a friend who is just finishing his Computer Science degree. He’s one of the loyal few who didn’t jump ship to business. He put up his first YouTube video two days ago. The only social network he uses is Facebook. In fact, from an informal polling of ten friends – I’m the only one mucking around with Twitter and blogging.
Yet the research says this is where marketers can reach my generation. We’re all incredibly plugged in early adopters and innovators and the place to reach us is online. Afterall, we’re all proficient with technology because we grew up with it. I’m here to tell you this isn’t the case.
Yes we’re probably more comfortable experimenting with computers than you are. We’re definitely more skilled than our parents in this regard. But dammit, we were not all born with a mouse in hand. We didn’t come tweeting out of the womb and I would appreciate if marketers would get on board with this. Take a closer look at the numbers. Maybe you’re asking the wrong questions, I don’t know. What I do know is that you are misleading your clients and you don’t know your target market as well as you think.
I found an advertising book I’ve been looking for forever! I had to go to four different stores to find it in Calgary. Two claimed to have it and did not. Suffice to say, I’m extremely pleased to have finally located this book – it’s highly rated by the blogging and marketing community. The book is, of course, Hey Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan.
Also #extraM launches on Sunday. If you haven’t heard about it, save the tag – this will be a new hashtag discussion on Twitter about marketing. Topics are announced every Sunday and last a week, so you have plenty of time to get in on the conversation. We look forward to your input – it should lead to some interesting insights and networking connections – see you there!
I’m currently reading Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey A. Moore. It’s a great book that’s stood the test of time. Definitely a must read for anybody interested in the fields of technology and marketing. I found this awesome little nugget in the Foreword:
This is what we mean when we talk about “owning a market.” Customer do not like to be “owned,” if that implies lack of choice or freedom. The open systems movement in high tech is a clear example of that. But they do like to be “owned” if what that means is a vendor taking ongoing responsibility for the success of their joint ventures. Ownership in this sense means abiding commitment and a strong sense of mutuality in the development of the marketplace. When customers encounter this kind of ownership, they tend to become fanatically loyal to their supplier, which in turn builds a stable economic base for profitability and growth.
Can anyone say Apple? Fantastic read so far. I’m less than fifty pages in and have already stumbled upon more than my share of nuggets like this one.
Wisdom-packed books like this one seriously rock. Post the ones you’ve found in the comments.
*Spoilers below. Use extreme caution if you haven’t seen Inception yet.*
I read a post the other day titled Inception Marketing – timely, yes. Maybe a bit exploitative? Probably – it’s part of the game. But accurate and thought provoking? Definitely.
As with all good cinema, Inception has something to teach us about life. Sounds melodramatic but it’s true. I read a fantastic post – unfortunately, I’ve lost the link – about how the movie could be interpreted as one large analogy to the movie business. Architects are directors, dreamers the audience, etc., etc…dreams can be cathartic, more real than reality and impact the real world – just like movies. But I want to focus on something different in this post because the essay already covered that topic in detail. If you find the link, please, post it in the comments.
Inception is about the power of an idea. In the words of Cobbs – “the most resilient of viruses”. The trouble is, you can’t just insert a fully formed idea, you can only use it’s most basic form and allow it to grow on it’s own. So there’s a bit of an art to it. If you’re too obvious, the target’s mind recognizes a foreign intruder and puts up walls. Nolan (the director) uses the movie as a medium to talk about making movies. His point is that you can’t be too blatant, you need to trust the audience to interpret for themselves. The same can be said for marketing. And just like marketing, the better you know your customer, the higher your chances of success.
Look at Starbucks. They never explicitly say that drinking your daily latte makes you hip, upscale and trendy. They provide the cues – atmosphere, barristas, music selection, wifi, location, etc – and you, the customer, make the final statement. You say that Starbucks is an upscale brand. That positioning is more powerful because you arrived at it on your own. Yes, Starbucks planted the seed but you connected the dots.
Their’s a parallel to social dynamics too. Trying too hard to be ‘cool’ in high school made you (or others) look like a poser. If you have to say it, the magic is lost.
Leave the blatant, over-the-top statements for late night TV. Use some subtlety and tact and your communications will be far more powerful and persuasive.
One of the neat things about the Internet is that it’s only semi-permanent. Websites come and go all the time and it seems like some bloggers change their template everyday. With computers, making adjustments is incredibly easy. Today’s guest doesn’t care what you looked like yesterday. You have to reinvent yourself constantly.
So whether you’ve been thinking about starting a blog, writing an ebook, or becoming the next YouTube star – what are you waiting for?
Get started right now. Let the process be a learning one and don’t be afraid to adjust course as you go. Just do it.
This is something that popped into my mind yesterday while driving around Calgary.
Tell me, how many times you’ve been in this situation, say on a road trip or even in your own city, where you just want to know where the nearest Tim Horton’s is (replace with Starbucks if you prefer specialty coffee or don’t live in Canada) so you can get your caffeine fix and continue on your way. I would venture to say that we’ve all been there at least once. It can be a frustrating ordeal when we have to leave our normal environment.
An iPhone app from Tim Horton’s could solve this problem. Instead of spelunking around in Google Maps, all you have to is tap the Tim Horton’s icon. Directions will appear on screen to guide you from your current location to the restaurant.
Now that solves our problem but, it’s kind of simplistic. Not really worth the hassle if you’ve already got Google maps.
So let’s crank things up a notch: what if you could order your Extra-Frappo-Mocha-no-fat-a-chino w/ Hazelnut from your handheld. When you arrive at the store it would be ready and waiting. Also, if you’re ordering from your iPhone, you don’t have to fumble around for change because the app could be tied to your account or credit card. All you have to do is show the cashier your iPhone. It’s that easy. You’ll be back on the road in no time.
Edit: Erm, apparently Tim Horton’s is one step ahead of me. There’s a reason they’re one of the top brands in Canada! Check out TimmyMe for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Now we just need the mobile-enabled ordering to make this app truly extraordinary. An Extra Large Double Double and a Toasted Blueberry Bagel (plain cream cheese) to go please!
Starbucks has a similar app and one that lets you use your phone to pay in select locations. Now they need to roll it out across the continent and put the two apps together and they could put a dent in those morning line-ups.
