Reputation to Revenue

Seth Godin strikes again

Seth Godin once again demonstrates the power of the personal brand. Opening an email alert from his blog this morning, I see that he’s invited his readers to join a new “tribe.” At first glance it seems relatively standard issue — a new online community for marketers with blogs, forums, photos, etc. (yawn). But, as usual, he adds a few interesting twists.

For one thing, it’s invitation only for readers of his blog, at least until October. Since Godin’s blog is one of the most popular around, this is not exactly an exclusive invitation, but, as he notes in the invite, “powerful tribes aren’t open to everyone. The exclusivity makes it work.”

For another, accepting the invitation is based on pre-ordering his next book, which is all about (drum roll please), tribes. It’s not about selling more books (hmm), according to Godin, but rather “it about creating a small hurdle to get the right people in the door.” The book won’t come out until October 21, and a visit to Amazon provides only the title and a short paragraph about the power of tribes.

Well, he got me. I dutifully bought the book for $14, forwarded him my receipt before 11 am this morning to make sure I beat the deadline, and will now wait and see what happens with the new community. And I know I’m in good company. As I write this, the book is 7th on the Amazon best seller list (at least for this hour) and 1st in several business sub-categories. Not bad for a book we won’t even see for three months.

Will the book be worth it? Probably yes; most of his books contain at least a few good nuggets. Will the “tribe” be worth joining? Who knows, but it’s worth the price of admission just to see how Godin will try to carve out a unique position in a field of too many marketing communities to count.

Leadership words of wisdom from Warren Bennis

Listening to an interview with leadership guru Warren Bennis today, I wrote down three phrases he discussed at some length -- all, interestingly, from great writers:

• "First class noticers" (Saul Bellow): great leaders are great observers -- of people, situations, and trends
• "I dwell in possibilities, a fairer home than prose (Emily Dickinson): great leaders are visionaries, focusing constantly on what might be possible rather than immediate problems or obstacles
• "To be of use" (John Irving): great leaders worry less about specific roles or projects or even financials and more about simply being useful to their various constituencies.

Makes sense to me.

Comcast is listening

According to today’s New York Times, Comcast is putting serious people power into listening to the online gripes of its customers. The cable TV giant has a team of seven, soon to be ten, actively following public comments on blogs, online message boards, and social networks to find complaints and then jump into conversations with the complainers to see if they can help.

It’s a bit unnerving for people used to sounding off to their friends about the evil cable company to all of a sudden have a “digital care manager” pipe up with a cheery offer to look into the problem. But such is life in the social media fast lane. If you’re posting in a public forum, you shouldn’t be surprised at who might be listening.

Comcast’s objective is a good one: tapping new tools to provide better customer service. And the company certainly needs to try new approaches. It lost ground in the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index, and has reached an all-time low in customer satisfaction (Full disclosure: I’ve been a long-time unhappy customer myself, and recently switched TV and Internet service to Verizon FiOS, which I”m hoping against hope might be at least a little better). The company has also been stung by the wildly successful Comcast Must Die site launched last fall by media commentator Bob Garfield  (who also wrote the important Listenomics piece on rising consumer power back in 2005).

The real question, of course, is what Comcast is doing to actually turn around customer service at the larger level than simply emailing disgruntled customers in the middle of the night. The new online initiative has reached out to more than 1,000 gripesters in the last five months, according to the Times, and is actually helping some of them to resolve their problems. But that’s just a tiny fraction of its customer base, and even Frank Eliason, who heads the new Comcast initiative, admits his team would be overwhelmed quickly if the masses of customers who complain mostly by phone were suddenly to start blogging and Twittering their problems instead.

So two cheers to Comcast for listening more to its angry customers — it can seem a bit creepy, as one surprised blogger told the Times, but overall I take it as a positive step. But I’m still waiting to see about the larger commitment to change, and if they can actually move the needle on the satisfaction index. If not, this will simply join the ranks of bad shows that already pervade the Comcast network.

According to today’s New York Times, Comcast is putting serious people power into listening to the online gripes of its customers. The cable TV giant has a team of seven, soon to be ten, actively following public comments on blogs, online message boards, and social networks to find complaints and then jump into conversations with the complainers to see if they can help.

It’s a bit unnerving for people used to sounding off to their friends about the evil cable company to all of a sudden have a “digital care manager” pipe up with a cheery offer to look into the problem. But such is life in the social media fast lane. If you’re posting in a public forum, you shouldn’t be surprised at who might be listening.

Comcast’s objective is a good one: tapping new tools to provide better customer service. And the company certainly needs to try new approaches. It lost ground in the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index, and has reached an all-time low in customer satisfaction (Full disclosure: I’ve been a long-time unhappy customer myself, and recently switched TV and Internet service to Verizon FiOS, which I”m hoping against hope might be at least a little better). The company has also been stung by the wildly successful Comcast Must Die site launched last fall by media commentator Bob Garfield  (who also wrote the important Listenomics piece on rising consumer power back in 2005).

The real question, of course, is what Comcast is doing to actually turn around customer service at the larger level than simply emailing disgruntled customers in the middle of the night. The new online initiative has reached out to more than 1,000 gripesters in the last five months, according to the Times, and is actually helping some of them to resolve their problems. But that’s just a tiny fraction of its customer base, and even Frank Eliason, who heads the new Comcast initiative, admits his team would be overwhelmed quickly if the masses of customers who complain mostly by phone were suddenly to start blogging and Twittering their problems instead.

So two cheers to Comcast for listening more to its angry customers — it can seem a bit creepy, as one surprised blogger told the Times, but overall I take it as a positive step. But I’m still waiting to see about the larger commitment to change, and if they can actually move the needle on the satisfaction index. If not, this will simply join the ranks of bad shows that already pervade the Comcast network.

Why do companies continue to mislead their customers?

I'm not a huge fan of Sports Authority, but my 13-year old son is an athlete, and mega-retail convenience tends to win out when we need a quick fix of new clothes or gear to keep up with the next growth spurt. The selection is good, prices are okay, and it's closer than any alternative. So we tend to pay attention when there are sales, and my wife jumped on the latest brochure with a $15 coupon on the back cover.

The brochure was mostly taken up with the latest from Nike and Under Armour, and my son needed (yet another) new pair of sneakers, so off we went -- paying little attention to the inevitable fine print on the coupon noting that not all items were eligible for the discount.

You can guess the rest: we find a cool pair of Under Armour sneakers that fit my son, get to the counter, present the coupon, and of course find out that it didn't cover either Under Armour or Nike.

Why do companies do this? Certainly the coupon had the fine print to defend against any complaints. But coming attached to a promotion that highlighted the very items not eligible is more than a bit misleading. Not exactly a great way to build reputation and strengthen customer loyalty. One would think the marketing folks know better.

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I'm not a huge fan of Sports Authority, but my 13-year old son is an athlete, and mega-retail convenience tends to win out when we need a quick fix of new clothes or gear to keep up with the next growth spurt. The selection is good, prices are okay, and it's closer than any alternative. So we tend to pay attention when there are sales, and my wife jumped on the latest brochure with a $15 coupon on the back cover.

The brochure was mostly taken up with the latest from Nike and Under Armour, and my son needed (yet another) new pair of sneakers, so off we went -- paying little attention to the inevitable fine print on the coupon noting that not all items were eligible for the discount.

You can guess the rest: we find a cool pair of Under Armour sneakers that fit my son, get to the counter, present the coupon, and of course find out that it didn't cover either Under Armour or Nike.

Why do companies do this? Certainly the coupon had the fine print to defend against any complaints. But coming attached to a promotion that highlighted the very items not eligible is more than a bit misleading. Not exactly a great way to build reputation and strengthen customer loyalty. One would think the marketing folks know better.

A framework for green marketing in IT

Green marketing is all the rage in IT this year. CEOs identified environmental concern as the most important trend affecting public expectations of business in last year's McKinsey CEO survey; Gartner put green IT at the top of its list of top ten strategic technologies for 2008; the VCs are pouring money into clean tech; and a recent survey of 3,500  IT buyers found that half of them "definitely" will look to purchase green IT products and services this year.

Not surprisingly, IT companies have raced to respond, and most of the top firms have begun to tout their green credentials or accelerated previous initiatives. We're now awash in green advertising, sponsorships, and offerings; agencies are rushing forward with proposals and programs; and it's getting rather difficult to separate what's real and what's just hype.

The trend is an important one for all the obvious reasons (cost savings, environmental impact, employee morale, etc.), but the risk of backlash is significant. Environmentalists and other corporate watchdogs are quick to pounce on false or misleading claims, and the blogosphere lights up quickly with the latest scandal.

Done well, green marketing can bring substantial benefits, including cost reductions, new revenue opportunities, distinction in the marketplace, and greater employee loyalty. Done poorly, however, green marketing can distract from more important initiatives, create market backlash, and inspire employee cynicism, 

For IT marketers, the challenge is to balance the internal and competitive drive to "do something" with an appropriate caution against getting out ahead of the corporate reality.

My own approach to green marketing puts as much emphasis on internal operations as on external promotion. A simple framework could include four areas of focus:

Green Operations: Getting Your Own House in Order

Greening your operations, at both the company level and within marketing specifically, should be at the top of the list. Are you minimizing resource consumption wherever possible? Are you investing in technologies and services that lessen environmental impact? Are you helping educate employees about steps they can take?

Green Offerings: Helping Your Clients Go Green

New offerings create new revenue streams and stronger client loyalty. This is where a lot of the green IT action is already but some of it is simply repackaging existing offers with green labels. What new products, services, and solutions can you develop to help your clients be more green? What about new partnerships?

Green Communications: Telling Your Story.

Thoughtful, creative, and fact-based communications always has a place in the market, no matter how crowded. But it's critical to avoid the hype. IT buyers are looking hard for legitimate educational (i.e., non-promotional) material, so that's an important direction. Case studies and other proof points is another. And practicing what you preach by emphasizing low-impact communications resources and activities is just as important.

Green Philanthropy: Underlining Corporate Commitment.

Adding philanthropy to the mix brings additional credibility both inside the company and out. This can include direct corporate contributions, matching employee gifts, and supporting employee initiatives to donate their time and expertise.

The key to success with green marketing is taking the long view, and building a balanced and integrated approach. We're still in the early days of going green and getting it right is a lot more important than rushing for some early advantage.

Less is more: Why more leads won't help

"We need more leads" is a pretty common refrain in the marketing department, especially when times get a bit tougher. Everyone, and especially sales, starts screaming for marketing to pump up the volume on lead generation.

But is a lack of leads really the problem? My sense is that most companies dealing with high-value services and solutions already have more opportunity than they can  handle. The real problem is that they don't spend enough time  figuring out which leads are the ones that really matter and then nurturing those particular opportunities to help sales close the deal.

A recent ITSMA breakfast highlighted a few dimensions of the problem from the buyer perspective. According to ITSMA research with buyers of large-scale IT services and solutions:

• Buyers are reducing the number of companies with whom they do business
• They prefer to establish strong relationships with a select few, and believe they can effectively manage only 5-6 major vendor relationships at a time
• They want to work with providers that truly understand their business and that they can really trust

For marketing and sales, the implications are pretty clear: You need to learn a lot more about your prospective clients' businesses (including their end customers); you need to make absolutely sure you can deliver solutions with a substantial payoff; and you need to be in it for the long haul.

All this screams quality over quantity. You simply cannot create personalized campaigns and customized solutions on a mass scale, no matter how many marketing consultants and tool houses say you can. Much better to invest the up front time in sharpening your focus on the right segments and the right offers, demonstrating your expertise in narrow market slices, and shifting from mass lead generation to ongoing nurturing programs with your most important prospects.

A number of tech and services firms are moving in this direction. Participants at the ITSMA breakfast, for example, cited examples of much more narrowly targeted campaigns. But there is still a long way to go. According to another recent ITSMA survey on penetrating new accounts, only 55 percent of marketers have primary responsibility for scoring the leads they generate and only 42 percent have formal lead nurturing programs in place. In a world where buyers continue to raise the bar on would-be providers, and sales has less and less ability to go it alone, it seems time for marketers to accelerate the shift to quality over quantity.