Eliminate Stupid Rules and Fees

Dark clouds on the economic horizon. Executives naturally concerned about how to attain revenue growth during a slowing economy.

Ah! The light bulb goes on. Let’s create new fees we can charge customers!

Wrong!

The wrong way to go about creating new revenue streams is to start adding fees to your existing services or service delivery. Doing so will only agitate your existing customers and have them start questioning why are they doing business with you in the first place.The last thing you want to be doing at the start of an economic downturn is to have your customers asking themselves why are they buying your products, services, or brands.Ben McConnell, author of Creating Customer Evangelists, suggests all marketers should vow to eliminate a stupid rule as part of their marketing strategies. “More rules are proportional to less convenience,” writes McConnell. “More rules = fewer customers. You either let the tyranny of one customer influence your organization, or not. When someone wants to add a new rule, how about eliminating an existing one instead?”

I would add to this: vow to eliminate stupid fees as well, and make a vow not to add any new stupid fees during the remainder of the calendar year.

Your customers will appreciate this. And so will your bottom line, though you probably won’t be able to prove so to any bean counters.

Questions to ask yourself:

What fees or surcharges drive your customers crazy? How can these be eliminated, or incorporated into your overall price structure?

What rules do you have that drive your customers crazy? How can these be eliminated or modified?

As we said above, the last thing you want to be doing at the start of an economic downturn is to have your customers asking themselves why are they buying your products, services, or brands. At least if you want to reduce customer attrition and improve your customer loyalty.

The Marketing of Presidential Candidates

You’d think that with the tens of millions of dollars they have in hand to spend on their campaigns that American presidential candidates would be better marketers. Or at least have better marketing results.

But alas they seem to have fallen to the same disease of short-term sales (i.e. votes) and quarterly results (i.e. the next set of primary elections) as many corporate CEOs. This is why even when they win they often lose for their support is not deeply engrained and there is no voter (customer) loyalty post election.

This is also because none of the current crop of candidates has shown any ability to strongly position themselves (i.e. brand themselves). There’s not a solid brand amongst them. These candidates have no branding power (unlike JFK”, Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan). As one astute observer wrote to me last week, the current crop of candidates can be described (branded in my words) as:

a) a mean-spirited woman

b) a slick-talking,” Oprah-backed inexperienced quasi-Muslim

c) an old man from Arizona with a trophy wife

d) a womanizing 9-11 opportunist from New York

And those are just the leading candidates!

Change seems to be a major topic in this election. Perhaps the true change that is needed is the way the few remaining candidates need to start employing strong branding and marketing strategies to create some brand power and customer loyalty building with the American voters.

Otherwise,someone in November is going to win the election and lose the electorate (ala the current incumbent in the White House).

Apple Combines Powerful Brand With Great Marketing to Create iPhone Success

How powerful is the Apple brand?

Damn powerful.

I read last week that the Apple iPhone share of the U.S. smart phone market for the fourth quarter was an amazing 28%. This was up from the 19% level in the third quarter.

This means that Apple sold more iPhones in the fourth quarter than the number of smart phones sold by Palm or Motorola. Even more amazing – Apple outsold all of the various Windows mobile devices combined in the fourth quarter!

Chalk up another victory for Steve Jobs over the boys and girls at Microsoft!

The only mobile phone vendor to outsell Apple in the fourth quarter was RIM makers of the Crackberry…..oops, I mean Blackberry smart phone. They had 41% market share.

Now when is the iPhone being released in Australia???

The iPhone is going to make a great case study in how to launch a new product in what was previously considered a saturation market.

A powerful brand. An innovative product. A great launch strategy. Sort of sounds like Marketing 101 to me.

Super Bowl Ads

One of the most anticipated advertising events each year is the showing of new television commercials during the American Super Bowl football championship game.

The game which was played this past Sunday night, attracted an audience of approximately 97.5 million people in American, and countless millions more across the world. A tight contest,this was the most watched Super Bowl in history.

Thirty-second TV commercials during the game reportedly cost as much as US$3 million per spot.

Anheuser-Busch aired the best-liked Super Bowl ad for a record 10th-consecutive year, according to results of the Super Bowl Ad Meter real-time consumer focus group testing. Unlike many previous winners, the Anheuser-Busch ad did not rely on humor. Instead, it featured a Dalmatian who becomes personal trainer to a dejected draft horse eager to make the team pulling the famous Budweiser beer wagon.

The other Top 10 ads:

FedEx (FedEx beats giant carrier pigeons)

Bridgestone (critters scream with squirrel missed by car)

Doritos (gian rat goes for guy’s bag of chips)

Bud Light (fire-breather heats up romantic dinner)

Bud Light (men sneak beer into wine-and-cheese party)

Coca-Cola (cartoon-character parade balloons go after Coke Classic)

Diet Pepsi Max (star-studded cast stops dozing)

Planters (scent of nuts makes homely woman alluring)

Tide to Go (shirt stain is louder than a job candidate) tied with SoBe Life Water (Lizards dance with model Naomi Campbell)

You can watch all the Super Bowl ads as often as you like courtesy of Advertising Age at http://adage.com/superbowl08/article?article_id=124815.

10 New Rules of Branding

I came across the following list of so-called new rules of branding in a recent issue of Marketing magazine here in Australia. The list was developed by the folks at www.BrandingStrategyInsider.com.

Personally, I’d say the list is more valuable as a set of new considerations to be taken into account for marketing strategy, not just branding. But that’s just my opinion!

Anyway, here’s the list:

1. Brands that influence culture sell more; culture is the new catalyst for growth.

2. A brand with no point of view has no point; full-flavor branding is in, vanilla is out.

3. Today’s consumer is leading from the front; this is the most well-informed generation to have ever walked the planet.

4. Customize wherever and whenever you can.

5. Forget the transaction, just give me an experience.

6. Deliver clarity at point of purchase; be obsessive about presentation.

7. You are only as good as your weakest link; do you know where you’re vulnerable?

8. Social responsibility is no longer an option; what’s your cause, what’s your contribution?

9. Pulse, pace and passion really make a difference; has your heartbeat been checked recently?

10. Innovation is the new boardroom favorite.

Can’t say I agree with all of these….but it’s a good way to start a dialogue. Any comments?

Marketing Wisdom 2008 now available from MarketingSherpa

The sixth annual edition of the eclectic and interesting Marketing Wisdom report from MarketingSherpa is now available as a free PDF download at http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=30298. 

The report features dozens of real-life test campaign lessons and tips, and has been collated from 101 stories and submissions submitted by MarketingSherpa’s readers. The topics cover just about every aspect of marketing – advertising, B2B, B2C, customer service, direct mail, email, lead generation, search – and such hot topics as landing page and website design, mobile marketing and Web 2.0.

I have all six of these annual reports and refer to them frequently. And while you are at their site, I also highly recommend signing up for the free MarketingSherpa weekly newsletter. It’s one of the best in the business.

Brand Oprah Starts OWN Network

Oprah Winfrey – the brand and the person – has announced plans to create and launch a new cable TV channel called The Oprah Winfrey Network in conjunction with Discovery Communications.

To be known as OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, Oprah will reportedly be the creative force behind this channel and she will have full editorial control. In her words, Oprah intends to launch a cable channel with “mindful” content as instead of the “mindless” drivel that dominates today.

The announcement comes at an interesting time for Brand Oprah, as she is currently receiving heavy criticism in some parts of the USA for her support of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The backlash started soon after she started showing up on the campaign trail with Obama and is summed up by the following post from one angry woman on Oprah’s web site under the heading Oprah is a traitor:

“I cannot believe that women all over this country are not up in arms over Oprah’s backing of Obama. For the first time we actually have a shot a putting a woman in the White House and Oprah backs the black MAN. She’s choosing her race over her gender.”

Of course, Oprah has built her personal reputation – and that of Brand Oprah – by showcasing empathy with women’s issues and offering a continuous stream of redemption, hope and motivation through her TV show; O, the Oprah magazine, her satellite radio show Oprah & Friends. Plus, her multimedia production company Harpo Productions produces the widely watched Dr. Phil show.

Hence, the backlash from female supporters of Hillary Clinton, Obama’s main Democratic opponent in the current election season, should have easily been anticipated, pre-empted and mooted. That it wasn’t – and still hasn’t – may or may not tarnish Brand Oprah, depending on how divisive the gender/race issue becomes in the remaining months of the primary campaign. Of course, should Clinton and Obama run as a joint Democratic ticket against a Republican foe in the presidential election in November, Oprah might find herself sitting pretty in support of both a black candidate and a female one.

Chances are, of course, that all will be forgiven after the election and Brand Oprah will continue to rise and shine across the globe. And OWN just may be the launch pad for the brand’s new trajectory across both race and gender. 

According to the press announcement on the new cable venture with Discovery, OWN will target “women, men and their families with a purpose and a passion to celebrate life, to inspire and entertain, empowering viewers around the world to live their best lives.”

With a mission statement like that, there is no doubt the Brand Oprah fully understands the power of branding. As they often say on her show:  you go girl!

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L.L. Bean Tops Retailer Customer Service List

L.L. Bean has jumped to the #1 position in customer satisfaction in the USA, according to the third annual National Retail Federation Foundation/American Express Customer Service Survey.

Ranked third last year, L.L. Bean shot past both Amazon and Nordstrom to take the top position. The company was judged the best across all retail formats and is the only “old school” retailer ranked in the top five this year. The other top five included Internet retailing giants Zappos.com in second, followed by Amazon.com in third, Overstock.com in fourth and Newegg.com in fifth.

The survey was conducted amongst 8,877 consumers in September and asked “which retailer delivers the best customer service?”

“Good customer service starts and ends with how the customer feels about their experience with a retailer,” states NRF Foundation Vice President Kathy Mance. “Retailers are especially challenged because of the multiple touch points that exist between the customer and their brand, but these companies have shown that great customer service does exist.”

I would suggest that rising customer expectations is another challenge for retailers, since four of the top ten from last year’s survey (Boscov’s, Kohl’s, REI and Macy’s) have fallen off this year’s list entirely. As we have often written, customers have too many choices to put up with failed or falling service.

One of my favorite quotes is that “life is too short to drink bad wine.” I would also suggest that “life is too short/precious/busy to put up with poor service.”

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Online holiday season shopping posts record $29 billion

Consumers spent over US$29 billion in online e-commerce holiday season shopping over the last two months of 2007, according to figures released by comScore (www.comscore.com). According to comScore this is a 19% gain over the US$24.6 billion spent online during the 2006 holiday spending spree.

The two heaviest spending days were Monday December 10th (US$881 million) and Tuesday December 11th ($819 million).

Video games, consoles and accessories were tracked as the fastest growing online retail category, with an increase of 129% over 2006, driven mostly by popular consoles like the Nintendo Wii and the Sony Playstation, plus games like Halo 3, the Simpsons and NBA 2008.

Furniture, appliances and equipment as a category was up 67% while event ticket sales during this period rose 24% and consumer electronics were up 23%.

These figures should certainly make the credit card industry happy, since the great majority of all retail e-commerce transactions are charged to a credit or debit card account.

The NBA Launches In China

It is not often that I get to write about two of my most passionate interests at the same time, but an announcement yesterday has given me an opportunity to write about both basketball and marketing in the same article.

Four Chinese companies and global sports broadcaster ESPN (owned by the Walt Disney Company) are investing US$253 million for an 11% stake in the newly formed Chinese subsidiary of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

This is huge.

Not only in terms of the dollar value, which values NBA China at about US$2.3 billion for a subsidiary company with little or no current revenues. But also in terms of what this means for the global sporting world, sponsorship opportunities, and marketing in general.

It is also huge for the NBA brand, one of the best sporting brands globally and one that has yet to suffer from the drugs scandal and player misbehavior taints of several other major professional sports.

NBA China has the right to create teams in China and will own all broadcasting rights and merchandising rights. It reportedly will also have the right to retain partial ownership in the teams created in China.

The NBA has never been secret about its long-held desire to turn this North American professional league into a global franchise. But previous to this announcement its efforts have been limited to a handful of exhibition matches played in Europe, Asia and Latin America, plus the obligatory global broadcasting of regular season games through ESPN and of its annual All-Star weekend classic and its year-end playoff series.

Interestingly, the league currently has about three dozen international players performing on its 30 teams, making it one of the most “internationalized