If you talk to marketers who have run customer loyalty programs, they can pretty quickly tell you the basic keys to program success. I've set them out as best I can here, though I recommend reading the last key first.
If you think I'm right on target, or way off base, please leave a comment.
1. Listen to the Customer
In order for the program to be meaningful and attract participation, you need to offer participants things they want. To find out what those things are, you have to ask them. Then, when the program is up and running, you've got to continually ask them if they are really getting what they want. Were they happy with the item they received? Was the customer service up to snuff? Were their expectations met? Is there anything else they'd like to see in the program? And so on.
The listening should never stop. You've got to keep checking in with them to update and expand your offerings to meet their changing needs and wishes.
2. Act on What the Customer Tells You
If you're going to go to the trouble of asking what customers want, and they are going to take the time to respond, then you've got to deliver. If they want pet supplies, offer pet supplies. If they want home and garden accessories, offer home and garden accessories. If they want it, and you can get it for them, do it.
More importantly, if there are problems with fulfillment, customer service, or the account management process, you've got to fix them. The program is supposed to be a benefit to your customers. If it turns out to be a hassle or a disappointment, it will fail.
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In the blurb I wrote about my podcast with Debbie Weil, I gave as one of the "don'ts" of corporate, "Don't overestimate the amount of work it will require." A colleague saw the post and wrote, "This doesn't make any sense. You mean 'don't underestimate the amount of work,' right?"
Wrong.
Yes, conceiving and launching a blog takes work. Yes, once you've launched it, you've got to maintain it indefinitely. Yes, you will have to devote time and resources to this project. Nevertheless, and this was Debbie's point, while it does require work and commitment, it doesn't require so much that you shouldn't do it. Putting it another way, I could have said, "Don't let your overestimation of the work required stop you from trying."
When I explained this to my colleague, he responded, "Too clever by a half." To that, I could only say, "Guilty as charged!"
On February 28, 2008, at 1pm Eastern Time, Aquent will be sponsoring an AMA Webcast entitled, "7 Steps to a Stellar Online Reputation." The featured presenter will be Andy Beal, who recently co-authored (along with Professor Judy Strauss) a book on the subject of online reputation management called, Radically Transparent.
The webcast will provide those who are new to the reputation management game with a comprehensive overview of it. For those already involved in search engine optimization and marketing, social media marketing, or the management of an organization's complex and constantly evolving web presence, Andy has a lot of practical, tactical, and technical advice that will help you make sure you're covering all the angles.
Finally, although the emphasis will fall on things that companies can do, should do, or are doing to manage and influence their online reputation, many of the insights Andy will share can be applied by individuals concerned with building and shaping their own online reputations.
In other words, there's something for everybody here so you owe to yourself to check it out. I mean, your reputation is on the line! Doesn't that matter to you? Don't you want to know that you're doing everything in your power to maintain it in the best and strongest light? Wouldn't you feel bad if your reputation was dealt a horrible blow and you could have prevented or avoided it if you had just attended this webcast?
Don't find out the hard way just how important your online reputation can be; find out the easy way how to protect and nurture it: Listen to the darn webcast.
'Nuff said.
Image Courtesy of ktylerconk.
Yesterday - February 7, 2008, in case you are reading this in the far, distant future - Aquent hosted a webcast on changes in creative technology (like InDesign, Acrobat, etc.), that not only have an impact on the type of creative work that gets done but also on the way in which it gets done.
The 'cast was entitled, "8 Need-to-Know Technology Trends for Creative Managers." You can download a PDF of the slides here or check out a recording of the webcast here. Please note: You will be asked to enter some non-binding contact info if you want to access the recording.
The trends discussed by the presenters, Chris Smith and Jennifer Smith of Aquent Graphics Institute, ranged from the growing need to repurpose content for multiple platforms and devices to the emerging possibilities for collaboration and process improvement in creative organizations.
We got a number of good questions during the call but one that surprised me the most was, "What is XML?" It took me back because five or six years ago I was frequently called on to explain XML to our internal staff, in spite of the fact that I had no technical background nor had ever consciously used XML (it's all around us, so I had probably used it without knowing).
I was on the call as the host, so I portrayed XML as a customizable mark-up language that works like a universal translator on Star Trek. With it, you can tag your content in a way that can then be read or understood by a variety of technologies. Chris Smith put it a little more simply by describing it as a mark-up language that allows you to make content platform independent.
Any other ideas about how to explain XML to non-technical designer types?
Image Courtesy of MegElizabeth.
Gary Katz is the CEO and founder of Marketing Operations Partners. Gary is a thought leader in the emerging field of marketing operations, a field to which he brings both a keen intellect and a missionary zeal.
I caught up with Gary and recorded this interview with him, which I present for your podcasting enjoyment. In it, he defines "marketing operations," discusses the benefits of this approach as well as the challenges - both organizational and, for lack of a better word, psychological - faced by anyone trying to implement it within their company. Listen to what he's got to say and find out why he refers to marketing operations as a "cosmic universal force."
To get down to the nitty gritty, you can hear the podcast by clicking on the device pictured below:
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You can also download the mp3 by "right-clicking" ("control-clicking," Mac-wise) this link here, or check out all the Talent Blog Podcasts on iTunes.
Highlights of the podcast can be found at the following time coordinates:
00:46 - What is Marketing Operations?
02:12 - What problems should the Marketing Operations approach fix?
05:00 - Marketing vs. Sales: Who's driving?
07:10 - "Sophistication"
10:31 - Ideal metrics
11:25 - Challenges faced by organizations when implementing Marketing Operations
16:30 - MO - A Cosmic, Universal Force
18:37 - Overcoming the challenges
21:40 - Getting C-level support
26:10 - MO: The future of marketing?
29:49 - The missionary sell
Image Courtesy of Pernell.
"If you're not thinking segmentation, then you're not thinking," Ted Levitt of the Harvard Business School supposedly quipped. While every marketer would readily agree with him, getting segmentation right can be as challenging as it is necessary - and getting it wrong can be downright disastrous: Working with segmentation schema that are irrelevant to your business is a waste of time and money; working with too few or too broadly defined segments means missed opportunities; and working with too many or too narrowly defined segments means stretching your marketing resources to their breaking point.
Since there are so many options and variables involved in segmenting your audience, it is best to rely on analysts, either external or internal, who understand your business and who understand how to match your needs with the myriad segmenting approaches. To sketch out a useable framework for getting the most valuable results from your segmentation provider, I consulted Ben Ben-Baruch, a Senior Business Intelligence Consultant represented by Aquent who got his first contract assignment with General Motors in 1997 and has been there ever since.
"Whatever segmentation provider you use and whatever methodologies and data they employ," Ben says, "the key is ensuring that you can use the segmentation to meet your business goals. Finding a provider that thinks in terms of your business, presents the data with an emphasis on its proper use, and makes it easy to keep the data fresh, is critical not only to the success of your segmentation process, but to the success of your marketing efforts in general."
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As part of the follow-up to webcast Aquent sponsored devoted to Seven Key Insights for Global Marketing and Brand Management, I called up Sarah Schuh who is general manager of Aquent's Multilingual Communications offering. Sarah has been working in the marketing translation and localization space for many years now and I thought she could help some of you out there with her experience and insights.
I recorded a podcast with Sarah and in our conversation she made one thing perfectly clear: when it comes to localization, translating copy from one language to the next is actually the easy part. Indeed, the real work happens well before any copy is handed over to the translators. That work involves clarification of your core marketing message, ensuring that this message meaningfully addresses a real audience in the target market, and planning for eventual localization when designing critical marketing instruments such as websites. There's nothing worse than having to add to the cost of translation the cost of redesigning your site to accommodate the expanded text produced by moving from English to, say, German.
To get down to the nitty gritty, you can hear the podcast by clicking on the device pictured below:
powered by ODEO
You can also download the mp3 by "right-clicking" ("control-clicking," Mac-wise) this link here, or check out all the Talent Blog Podcasts on iTunes.
Highlights of the podcast can be found at the following time coordinates:
01:08 - Does your target audience even exist in another market?
03:18 - It's not just words: How do your visual elements translate?
05:20 - Take localization into account when creating the original message
07:20 - Define the use of company terminology
10:00 - Plan for expansion of foreign text
12:08 - The investment in planning vs. The cost of getting it wrong
13:33 - What companies should look for in their localization partner
17:35 - The cause of localization disasters
20:39 - Is "success" just the absence of "disaster"?
Image courtesy of mmarchin.
(Note: I had to repost this entry without the Odeo player due to a technical glitch. If I can fix it I will. - Matt)
William Lunderman is VP of Global Strategic Brand Design at Colgate-Palmolive. He's thus far led quite an illustrious career as a designer and design leader for well-known brands like Revlon and iconic brands like Campbell's Soup. I invite you to listen to our conversation. I went into it assuming, somewhat naively, I admit, that globalization was all about localization and tailoring your products and messages to the world's varied environs. While that is certainly part of multi-national marketing execution, this sort of endless variation is not the essence of global brand strategy.
From a strategic standpoint, as I learned, the key is, on the contrary, honing in on the universal need addressed by your brand's promise. The trick then becomes effectively translating that promise into a culturally relevant consumer language. At least that's how I understood the sage words of Mr. William Lunderman when we spoke.
If you would like to hear what I heard, you can download the mp3 by "right-clicking" ("control-clicking," Mac-wise) this link here (of course, if you just click on that link, it will play the file for you), or check out all the Talent Blog Podcasts on iTunes.
Highlights of the podcast can be found at the following time coordinates:
00:50 - What is "Global Strategic Brand Design?"
04:32 - The Emotional Aspect of the Brand
07:41 - Thinking about Consumers on a Universal Level
09:55 - "Children like to play in their food"
10:41 - AXE - as a Brand
12:16 - Kellogg's and "Owning the Morning"
15:13 - Package as "Delivery Mechanism" of Brand Design
17:08 - The Current Consumer Language
19:55 - The Consumer's Perception of "The Best"
24:23 - Brands at Home and Home Brands
28:09 - Why We Move to New Brands
30:22 - Design Careers: When You Move to the Next Level
32:59 - "Obsolete yourself" - On Evolving and Avoiding Extinction
Image courtesy of 00dann.
Jim Sterne, the producer of the eMetrics Summit and the president of the Web Analytics Association, has been talking about the internet and marketing since 1993. Indeed, he was kind enough to talk to me about it just the other day as part of the Talent Blog Podcast. We discussed highlights from the various eMetrics Summits in 2007, how the conference is evolving, and what folks can expect from the summits in 2008. We also talked about changes in the field of web analytics since he and Matt Cutler issued their landmark 2000 white paper, "E-Metrics - Business Metrics for the New Economy."
You may listen to our conversation by clicking on the device below:
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You can also download the mp3 by "right-clicking" ("control-clicking," Mac-wise) this link here, or check out all the Talent Blog Podcasts on iTunes.
Highlights of the podcast can be found at the following time coordinates:
00:45 - 2007 eMetrics Summit Overview
02:50 - Summit Content for 2008: More Mainstream Marketing
04:29 - The Buzz around "Engagement"
06:40 - The Slow Growth of "Standards"
09:29 - Website "Slipperiness"
12:20 - Measuring the Success of the Website Overall
16:39 - The People Component of eMetrics
20:18 - Your Website is Your End of the Conversation: Are You Listening?
23:20 - "Website" Is a Verb
Image courtesy of ohaiyoo.
An Aquent Talent Spotlight
Article by Anne Stuart
Figuratively speaking, our planet is smaller than it used to be, thanks to jet travel, the Internet and other inventions that reduce the historical limitations of distance and time. But when it comes to global product launches and marketing campaigns, it's a big world after all--and going global involves serious challenges as well as significant opportunities.
Cindy Dyer understands that reality all too well. Dyer, who is currently in an Aquent placement as senior manager of consumer strategy and insight at Frito-Lay Inc. in Dallas, started out as a food scientist, but moved into marketing while at Pizza Hut Inc. She's also worked for global giants like General Mills Inc., Campbell's Soup Co. and Mead Johnson & Co., the infant-child nutrition division of Bristol-Myers Squibb. Throughout her career, she's been involved in international branding and marketing campaigns.
Following are a few of Dyer's tips for successfully taking your products and messages beyond your own borders:
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On November 29th, Aquent will be sponsoring an American Marketing Association webcast entitled, "Global vs. Local: Seven Key Insights for Global Marketing and Brand Management." The featured speaker will be Donald A. DePalma, who is a business globalization analyst with Common Sense Advisory, and author of Business Without Borders: A Strategic Guide to Global Marketing.
Mr. DePalma has written extensively about the challenges associated with taking a brand or a business global, including this article on global toe dippers and toe stubbers, and characterizes the web-based, global marketplace as an "eighth continent," with all the peril and promise that that image implies.
If your company has already gone global, and your toes hurt, or if you're thinking of wading into the global waters and want to know how cold they are, you should tune in on November 29th.
Image courtesy of Charles Haynes.
In this third and final installment of our podcast mini-series, we speak with Carol Burke, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at AMN Healthcare. Carol discusses how she makes sure that her team is using the marketing channels most preferred by AMN's constituents and what she does to create marketing content with a life beyond marketing.
You may listen to Episode 3 here:
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You can download this podcast by "right clicking" ("control clicking" on the Mac) this link, Episode 3 MP3, or check out The Talent Blog Podcast feed.
Image courtesy of pingnews.
In this episode, I speak with Jim Hauptman, Creative Director and Managing Editor at LL Bean. Jim addresses the complexities of "multi-channel" marketing, an approach that seeks to leverage the specific advantages of diverse channels, as opposed to "multiple channel" marketing, which tends to push the same message or content through many channels. He also reveals how winter camping off-sites can lead to great marketing insights.
Listen to Episode 2 here:
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You can download this podcast by "right clicking" ("control clicking" on the Mac) this link, Episode 2 MP3, or check out The Talent Blog Podcast feed.
Image courtesy of davelanders..
In conjunction with the webcast we're presenting today, I interviewed a few folks we work with and asked them how they coordinate their marketing messages and programs across a variety of media from print to web and beyond. I then created a three episode podcast mini-series of these interviews.
In this episode Dave Harrell, the Director of Advertising at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, talks about some of the grassroots, infotainment marketing efforts that his group has undertaken recently. In doing so, he also discusses the processes they follow to keep messages and branding consistent from channel to channel and audience to audience.
You can listen to Episode 1 here:
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You can download this podcast by "right clicking" ("control clicking" on the Mac) this link, Episode 1 MP3, or check out The Talent Blog Podcast feed.
Image courtesy of jimbowen0306.
On Thursday, September 27th, Aquent will be hosting a Webcast entitled, "Getting it All Together: Best Practices in Planning for Coordinated Print and Web Initiatives."
The Webcast will be conducted by the president of Aquent Consulting, Nina Eigerman. NIna will use examples taken from the work of companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, L.L.Bean, and Staples to show how careful planning can help your organization integrate print and Web efforts while simultaneously increasing consistency, reducing duplication, and eliminating design-team frustration.
I've had a chance to speak with representatives for these organizations myself and will be posting podcast interviews with some of them at the end of this week. Stay tuned!
Image courtesy of ellie.
A few months back I created and posted a podcast here on producing successful creative briefs. Now I've returned to the podcasting arena with another podcast on the tensions between Marketing and Finance.
As you can hear for yourself, I initiated the conversation by asking if there is in actual fact a tension between marketing and finance. Mark Anderson, CFO of Granite City Electric Supply Company, responded, "If you define 'tension,' as 'people coming after each other with hatchets,' then yes, there is tension."
While there was no actual bloodshed during the conversation, it became clear that the tension is very real, has several causes, and is somewhat entrenched. The good news is, the tension can be resolved and the two functions can work together productively.
In addition to Mr. Anderson, I was joined for this discussion by: Peter DeLegge, publisher of Marketing Today; Professor Bob Taggart of Boston College's Carroll School of Management; and, Nina Eigerman, President of Aquent Consulting.
The basic message of this podcast, which echoes the work of MarketingNPV's Pat LaPointe, is that Marketing and Finance are best served when they collaborate to create a common set of metrics and a shared understanding of their respective goals and cultures.
To hear how our panelists articulated this message you can do one of two things.
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The other day, my friend's step-father received a direct mail piece from his local hospital. It informed him that one of the unfortunate by-products of aging was erectile dysfunction (formerly known as "impotence"). This shouldn't be news to anyone who watches television or receives e-mail spam, but it was disturbing to my friend's mother since, as fate would have it, the step-father had been dead for several months.
Mack Collier, among others, has often stressed that every part of marketing is about customer experience. The above example illustrates how this even applies to something as bureaucratic and tedious as list management. It's bad enough that you may be irritating someone with unwanted junk mail, but what if you are actually reminding someone of a painful personal experience? When you are in the business of caring for people and easing their pain, like a hospital, shouldn't avoiding this scenario be of paramount importance?
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"Everything in marketing is measurable," Pat LaPointe of MarketingNPV states in an article entitled, "Building Blocks," which recently appeared in Marketing Management magazine. [You can download the article from the MarketingNPV wewbsite following free registration.]
The article focuses on the 10 things that your chief financial officer should know about "measuring the financial return form marketing investments," a subject that will also serve as the topic of a webcast Pat will be conducting on August 21 called, Is Your Marketing an Expense...or an Investment?. Anyone who has ever struggled to convince the folks in finance, or other business leaders for that matter, of the value of a particular marketing expenditure should tune in.
Ironically, the term "value" is often the trickiest sticking point in discussions between marketing and finance.
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