Archive for the ‘Blogroll’ Category
Do Customers Leave Brands By Mutual Consent?
News out of London has Jose Mourinho leaving his post as manager of Chelsea Football Club by mutual consent. As a fan of Manchester United myself, I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I respect his track record and football acumen. He’s also amusingly arrogant and a true showman. But with big bucks behind him, he’s also turned Chelsea into a massive rival for ManU. I’d imagine Ed Lee has similarly mixed feelings…or maybe not. A lot of people hate Mourinho.
To say that he left by mutual consent is spokes-babble for the fact that he lost a pissing match with his boss. There’s been a well-documented chilling of relations between Mourinho and Roman Abramovich, the club’s owner, over the expect standard of sucess. Something gave. But not before "the
special one" (a handle he picked up after saying at his opening CFC press conference: "Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.") had completely reinvented and revitalitzed Chelsea. And that’s the reason for the official line.
But do customers leave brands by mutual consent?
For the most part, brands wouldn’t consent to a customer leaving them. That means lost revenue and a lost supporter. Brands (and I use the broadest sense of the word) are constantly working to prevent you from leaving them. Relentless advertising extoling benefits. Product placements and strategic alignments to help us realize how the product/service/whatnot completes us. Occasionally brands will stop courting a particular set of customers if they feel they need to move in another direction. But that’s by mutual disinterest really.
There are loads of reasons why a customer leaves a brand. The main one would be breach of trust. It’s really a category of reasons:
- failure to deliver on brand promise;
- a bad customer service experience;
- failure to live up to legal or social standards;
- personal or financial injury and so on….
When a customer leaves a brand its a one-sided affair. The brand can stand outside the customer’s window blaring "In Your Eye"s all it wants. There’ll be no happy ending. The term we’re looking for is Irreconcileable Differences.
And that illuminates some parrallels between the Mourinho/Chelsea saga and the Brand/Customer relationship (apologies for the shoddy production values…):
Tags: Mourinho, Chelsea, brands, customer relations
Old Friends More Trustworthy or CPR for the 30 Second Spot
A just-released study called Compose (conducted by Kantar Media Research and the Dutch firm Pointlogic) examined the impact different media has on consumer choice, awareness, preference etc…Among the findings are:
- Consumers recognize TV as the No. 1 medium for building awareness: 43% rate it as excellent or very good. Magazines (31%), newspapers (29%) and radio (24%) all also performed well
- Asked which media helped them decide whether "they can trust a brand," TV ranked first again with 26% of the respondents, followed by newspapers (21%) and magazines (19%).
- The newest media tracked in the survey – platforms like video games, video-on-demand, interactive TV and streaming online video – by contrast are still regarded by most consumers as being niche communication vehicles. Their scores on these measures ranged between 2% and 5%.
This is useful reminder that for all the hype around social media, emerging technologies and what not, the vast majority of people still consume and trust more traditional media. Of course, the future for these new media is good. The popularity of 2.0 apps/site among younger demographics is high and will translate into greater acceptance over time.
I suspect a major barrier for the new media is a credibility gap. With UGC or community/citizen journalism, its hard for the average consumer to evaluate the accuracy or trustworthiness of content they consume online.
Tags: compose, media consumption
A PR Agency Comes Knocking or Finally, someone trying to sell ME something.
One of my first tasks at my new job was to write up and send out a release talking up myself and a couple of other new hires at the company. Certainly not ‘set the world ablaze’ news, but it did get picked up by a few industry newsletters. And clearly someone was reading as I have just received my first solicitation from a PR agency.
Though there are lots of skills needed to succeed in PR and plenty of schools where you can learn the tricks of the trade, business development (oh, lets just call it what it is…SALES) is a frequently under-taught, under-appreciated and under-utilized skill (at least until one reaches the more senior ranks).
So, here’s the note I received with some commentary on why I think it’s a pretty good effort:
Hello Jonathan,(Spelled my name right…can’t tell you how often I get ‘Johnathan’, ‘Jonathon’, "John" etc…and thus avoided the #1 way to ensure I’m not interested)
Congratulations on your new role at Vortxt Interactive. You’ll have plenty of interesting times ahead.(Starts off with a compliment. Who doesn’t like that. Also indicates a reason for his note)
I’m preaching to the converted when it comes to using PR effectively to reach your target audiences,so I don’t need to convince you of its merit. Your blogs indicate that you’re very savvy of Web 2.0 as an effective means of promotion. (Did some research. He visited this blog as I can tell from the search terms used to land visitors here).
I was wondering if you’re going to be attending the Mesh Conference in Toronto at the end of the month. If you haven’t considered attending, it would be a great opportunity to network and learn more about the industry. I was speaking with Mark Evans last month during a Mesh mixer about the event and he’s very keen on the interest the conference is generating. The panel schedule should be posted soon.(Mentioned something that might be of interest to me and demonstrated that he is engaged in the world in which I work).
On a separate note, Mediacaster Magazine has a special focus on mobile content later this summer. I’m sure you’ve already got Marketing Magazine covered (Showed he was on top of media opportunities that are appropriate for my firm as well as having taken the time to learn where I came from and what that might mean).
When you have a free moment to chat, I’d be keen to hear more about your thoughts for PR for Vortxt. Perhaps (his firm) can assist with your plans too. We have some great clients in the consumer electronics field including (a number of premier technology companies), and more. (Told me something positive about his firm and requested a time to chat, without being too pushy).
Thanks for the consideration and I hope to chat with you soon
While I’m not in the position to bring on an agency partner, I appreciate this thoughtful and researched approach. It offered something of value to me, showed that he had taken the time to research me and my company and positioned himself as a potential partner rather than someone out to just sell me something. Maybe he’ll even get a call someday…
Tags: Business Development, PR
The Hips Don’t Lie…Dubya busts a move.
Proving, once again, that white politicians and african rhythms don’t mix, here’s some delightful footage of Dub-ya dancing as part of a malaria-awareness event.
Though my favourite part is Wolf Blitzer calling this ‘something truly extraordinary’. C’mon. Something truly extraordinary would have been the Bushes not looking like starched white-breds.
Marcomedy Caption Competition # 3
It’s been a while since the last caption comp – mainly due to increased activity at work. Firstly, thanks to Collin Douma at Radical Trust for his response to Caption Competition # 2 and for revealing his tendency towards radical dissent…
Here’s the pic for this edition:
U.S. presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani seems to be addressing a ghost during this recent rally. What’s Rudy or his ghost got to say? What sort of snide comments would you whisper to the person next to you? Or…Collin, how would you radically disrupt this event?
Be creative. Be bold. Be obnoxious.
Are you on Marketing mag’s blogroll?
Since not everyone gets Marketing mag, consider this the WOM edition…
Marketing recently launched their own blog under their Mark Etting character. In the current edition (April 16, ’07), they’ve produced a blog roll of sorts…Mark’s favourite blogs from a piece titled "If you only read 12 blogs…"
For those who are listed or intersted, they are:
Good to see Marketing mag paying more attention to what’s going on in the blogosphere and social media.
The Future of Computing…today?
I like my gadgets. I have my 20 GB Ipod with all the requisite add-ons, my spiffy ultra-mobile laptop, my (currently) state-of-the-art cell phone with all the bells and whistles to ensure a mobile multi-media experience no matter where in the world I go. When I was a child, I used to love going to the Ontario Science Centre to learn about how and why things worked (and pressing all the buttons would usually leave me over-stimulated and my parents exhausted)..
I have to imagine that if you read blogs, you’re probably a fairly savvy, ahead of the curve, tipping point maven-type. Or, like me, sometimes like to imagine that you are…
So, courtesy of an old-fashioned (?) email forward, here is a glimpse into the future of personal computers. Not surprisingly, the Japanese are once again showing us the way.
Now this is something that will give new meaning to "live blogging".
Of course, now that I’m all excited…this is a concept design that has been around for a few years. Find out more about myth and the reality here.
But based on what I see my cell phone being able to do, what Crackberries can offer users, how small and portable my current laptop is, I see no reason why these ideas cannot become mass-marketed reality….unless of course they fall victim to the ‘electric car’ effect.
Tags: personal computers, bluetooth, future,
Misc Personal News and Links
There is a good reason for the lack of posts lately. There’s been a maelstrom of activity, the end result of which is that I have a new job. As of today, I’m coordinating communications (along with marketing, some biz dev and account support) for a small but successful mobile marketing and solutions company.
No doubt, this will start to find its way into my blog posts. But, for now, I’m just excited to have a new job where I can really sink my teeth into the work, build and drive my own initiatives and be the master of my own success.
To satisfy the link-hungry out there, here are some neat stories and tidbits that I’ve come across over the past week or so:
1. Hey Jude. How do you take your latte?: Paul McCartney has been unveiled as the first signing for the music label of Starbucks.
2. BBC Remains Ad Free: The BBC has decided they won’t (yet) sell ad real estate on their website as it might violate the impartiality (or the impression of impartiality) of the site. Interestingly, check out the pop-up that shows what the website might look like if there were ads on it. I’d suggest those companies that are featured in the mock-up are among the top prospects for ad space and this pop-up is now being used as a sales tool.
3. Classic Compaq Commercials: I came across a compilation of the commercials John Cleese did for Compaq back in the ’80’s. Brilliantly funny. Always on message. Very creative. One of my favourite comedians of all time. What’s not to like? As a bonus, the compilation (see related in the side-bar) also has spots designed for internal viewing among Compaq’s dealer network. I believe the spots were done by Ogilvy.
4. Also, Ogilvy just received high praise at the Marketing Awards as its much-talked about "Evolution" spot for Dove won Best in Show. Couldn’t agree more.
Tags: new job, marketing awards, evolution, compaq, john cleese, bbc, starbucks, paul mccartney
Marcomedy Caption Competiton # 2
Due to a lack of responses, there is no winner in the inaugural Marcomedy Caption Competition. Much like a golf skins game, the prize (the glory of victory and the admiration of your peers) will be rolled into this week’s edition
This week’s caption competition features the R2D2 mailbox that United States Postal Service has rolled out in honour of the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars saga.
So what’s being said?
Submit your caption in the comments below.
For a run down of the rules & regs, see the first caption comp (it’s pretty straightforward though…)
May the force be with you.
Tags: marcomedy, caption competition, star wars, usps
MarComedy: Don't make me laugh 