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There have been 8 million Toyota vehicles recalled. There are car manufacturer meetings, government meetings, blog entries, and water-cooler discussions, yet brand loyalty has not dropped as much as expected. The Consumer Reports 2010 Car Brand Survey shows Toyota only down by 10% with Honda now in the lead. Depending on...
The two most important functions for a web host is to keep the servers running smoothly and provide quality customer service. Like all technolog,y there is always a chance the customer’s web site could go down; it’s how the complete process is handled that ultimately makes the difference. The customer...
Quirky customer service commercial
A successful commercial is no easy task, but what a value it is when it can deliver your message to an audience and entertain as well. Humor seems to always appeal to the masses, and the new Zappos commercial successfully calls attention to the company by creating the perfect juxtaposition...
How any business handles complaints and returns defines customer service. Since the benefit of any product or service is realized once the sale is made, it is imperative that an exchange or return be made easily so as not to make the buyer feel pressured. Customers will buy more with...
Branding your customer service
Branding is about that logo we wear on our cross-trainers, the polo pony on my shirt, and the signature leather on my French made purse. It sets products apart from the generic and with some branding shows the world “we have arrived.” It’s important to set customer service apart by creating...
Broadband provider Eclipse praised for customer service
Based in Southwest England, broadband provider Eclipse Internet was awarded the Best Customer Focus prize by Best Business Awards 2010. Praised for their quality of customer service, the award celebrates the best public and private excellence. According to Andrew Areoff, chair of the judging panel, the company “embeds important customer...
Warady's Riffs, Raves and Rants on Marketing
The art of writing great and memorable taglines seems to have disappeared. A great tagline should tell a story about the brand, and more importantly, help the consumer recall the brand instantly, without the brand name ever being mentioned. They......
Do you remember when people talked about "online" stores versus "brick and mortar" stores? Industry experts use to love to argue which retail strategy they thought would win. The reality is, they have both survived, and in many cases thrived.......
I'm attending the WOMMA Summit in Las Vegas, where I am speaking on Friday. I'm fortunate to be one of MANY great presenters, and not only do I get to share my knowledge, but I also have the opportunity to......
Have you noticed that when a patient is laying in a hospital bed, the nurses and the aides come in and try and position the patient so that they will lay in the bed properly. They use pillows and blankets......
It is funny how brands can become iconic, but still mean different things to different people. About six months ago, I had to terminate an employee, a part of the job that I never get used to. I chose to......
How Video Can Enhance Your Brand
I'm a big proponent of using video to communicate a company's message. If done properly, videos can be a great addition to the overall marketing campaign, and can reach a targeted group of potential consumers who are not willing to......
Modern Metrix
How friendly is Twitter when it comes to real research?
Twitter API Team just rejected my request to be whitelisted for no apparent reason: Hi *****, Thanks for requesting to be on Twitter's API whitelist. Unfortunately, we've rejected your request. Here's why: Please address the issues above and submit another......
Geographical differences in online behavior?
Do folks on the West coast behave differently online than folks in the North-East or South? See yourself (charts show indices, based on total online population): Source: Anonymous....
What news articles are more likely to be shared?
This interesting study by researchers from University of Pennsylvania looked at how the topic, content, lenght, style and other characteristics of the news articles affect the likelihood of people sharing them. "To make sense of these trends in “virality,” the......
Grab some free data on 215 mln. Facebook users, for free!
Pete Warden is making data on over 200 mln Facebook users available to academic research community this week. The fields in the dataset are limited to publicly available info such names, location, fan pages, and friends lists. Pete also shares......
Top 50 Netflix Rentals of 2009 by Zip Code: Data Visualization
An awesome interactive data visualization of geographical distribution of top movies rented from Netflix in 2009 (NY Times)...
Eureqa, a computer program for fitting equations to empirical data
Wow, this is awesome! Andrew Gelman from Statistical Modeling, Casual Inference, and Social Science blog writes about computer program called Eureqa that helps to find a curve (and corresponding function) that best fits the given data. If you are tired......
Junta42 Content Marketing blog
A Marketer's Guide to Social Media - 8 Keys to Success
I participated in an amazing social media webinar today from MENG. The expert roundtable included members of the newly formed MENG Social Media Council (Mack Collier, Paul Dunay, Beth Harte, Drew McLellan, Amber Naslund and myself). Here are eight key......
Interesting interview with Primoz Inkret and Igor Savic from Poslovni Mediji (Business Media) in Slovenia. Some points covered include: The use of the term content marketing in Slovenia, talking about the move from corporate magazines to integrated corporate content. Traditional......
Rethinking Print as Part of the Content Strategy: Fortune, APA Proving Print is Not Dead
I just took three flights to get to Slovenia. On each flight and in all the waiting areas, I saw people holding, reading and engaging in print magazines. Then, I spent the day listening to the state of content marketing......
What's Your Brand Story? - Moleskine Endures through Storytelling
My content marketing friends, Igor Savic and Primoz Inkret from Poslovni Mediji (Business Media) in Slovenia, were nice enough to give me a branded Moleskine notebook on my arrival to their beautiful country. I've heard of Moleskine before, but now......
Brands as Publishers - Where's Your Content Strategy?
Just returned back from Online Marketing Summit 2010 where the statement "brands as publishers" almost seemed overused. Although we've been talking about that on this blog for three years now and in more detail in Get Content Get Customers, this......
Ypulse
'Kick-Ass' bows at SXSW (looking forward to the buzz. Also Ypulse Mashup attendee Fourth Story Media hosts an interactive storytelling exquisite corpse-esque competition at this year's festival. And check out Superglued a live music app to help attendees navigate shows) (Variety, reg. required) (ReadWriteWeb) - French…...
Ypulse Jobs: Mr. Youth, Facebook & More
Today we bring you our weekly sampler of the cool youth media and marketing gigs you can expect to find on our Ypulse Jobs Board. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage…...
Does Gen Y Have Digital Drama?
Earlier this week I watched a screener sent over by MTV for an upcoming episode of "True Life." Part of the channel's ongoing A Thin Line initiative (see my interview with Jason Rzepka for more details), the show took on the issue…...
Ypulse Essentials: Nick Sees Pricing Gains, Top 2009 Magazine Ads, Tackling Terrorism In YA
Nick gets it right (seeing a major uptick in ad gains just as the channel presents a new programming slate to advertisers including teen-targed "Victorious" [star Victoria Justice pictured here] Also Yo! Gabba Gabba kicks off a third season of hipster-meets-pre-school entertainment) (Media…...
Research Roundup: Youth Voice Project, New! Ypulse Report & More
Today we bring you another installment of the latest youth research available for sale or download. Remember if your company has comprehensive research for sale that focuses on youth between the ages of 8 and 24, email me to be included in…...
Today's Ypulse Youth Advisory Board review is from one of our resident gamers Julia on iPod Touch/iPhone shooter game N.O.V.A. Below we see another good example of play that doesn't simply appeal to the girl in the gamer so much…...
Taylorisms
I have been using this long-form ad created for Microsoft Advertising for a couple of years to illustrate the failings of so-called customer insight. The truth is, if all we have is customer data then basing any kind of meaningful (and I mean relevant) messaging and communications on them is...
Exceptional idea and execution from a Google employee...in creating an example of what Eric Schmidt called "The last bastion of unaccountable spending in corporate America."...
Social networking is now the most popular Internet activity. According to Hitwise, visits to social networking sites now account for more than 13% of all Internet traffic.As this activity has grown, social networks have become an increasingly important source of traffic for major retailers - year on year figures indicate...
McDonalds advertising in Europe is generally much more interesting than anything I have seen from them in the US. For me, this is as true online as it is for their outdoor and TV efforts. Their latest online campaign, a tie in to the Avatar phenomenon, was created in conjuction...
The old adage that Google never advertises is no longer true.Indeed, it came as something of a surprise when, a couple of weeks ago I received a direct mail piece from the online advertising giant. Surprising in some ways but not entirely... I have long believed that direct mail, as...
Google's inclusion of an Ad Blocker into it's Chrome browser seems incongruous when you consider that Google is the largest broker of on-site advertising in the world. The company takes a (at least explicitly) different view, Google engineering director Linus Upson said recently at Add-On-Con :"We think about this a...
The Hidden Persuader
Perfect pictures - "Artificial smile camera"via...
Client: Think!Agency: WCRS London...
Client: BelCuore CafeAgency: Ogilvy, Brasil...
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"Body Paint" Installation at "Clicks or Mortar", March 2009 from Memo Akten on Vimeo.Quite interesting. Digital technology exhibition at the V&A Museum, London....
Client: Department for TransportAgency: AMV BBDO, London...
Advertising Lab: future of advertising and advertising technology
Nikon has launched a site to showcase the touchscreen on a new Coolpix camera and it lets you scroll and zoom through image galleries by moving fingers in front of your webcam -- a gestural interface of sorts. Only it's a bit wonky (or maybe it's my cam), and if...
Busted: Another "Consumer-Generated Ad" Myth
Exhale, Madison Avenue. Uninitiated content-generating user masses are yet to create a winning Super Bowl spot. In its predictable "Do-It-Yourself Super Ads" piece, NY Times writes about the effectiveness of home-brewed Super Bowl spots: "Be afraid, Madison Avenue. Be very afraid. That seems to be the message in the aftermath...
An Ad From Hell In Site's Source Code
Hats off to whoever came up with this: an ad for the Dante's Inferno game (launches today) done in ASCII and hidden in Digg's source code. Similar images were also placed on a few other sites. Each ad contains a password; collect all of them and enter them at hellisnigh.com...
Get a Free iPad (or Nine) Here
There's no point in this post other than general amusement, but I saw my first "testers wanted" banner ad today and got inspired to gather screenshots of nine different sites promising a free - FREE! - iPad after you buy a bunch of other stuff. Look, the top one uses...
Too meta. See what your Na'vi Avatar would look like as a cast member of Jersey Shore at Jerzify Yourself. ---------------- I'm reading The Advertising Research Handbook. ...
Get Cheap Tickets For Oceanic 815
Awesome! Price-comparison engine Kayak "shows" tickets for the Sydney-LAX Oceanic 815 flight prior to the premier of Lost's sixth and last season. Search for a one-way flight on September 22, 2010 and it will be right there, departing at 2.55pm. Love the "click to see rates" link to Expedia...
The Email Wars
Black and White OR White and Black
The other week Anna Yeaman at StyleCampaign put forth an idea and backed it up with a test on the concept of the uses of black and white as a background in an email and how it performs. Her test has been on my mind making me take a closer...
Are we setting realistic expecations as an industry on welcome emails when it comes to offline collection at stores, events and more? This is often a point that email marketers bring up and I would love to hear your thoughts on it. I sometimes think that as email marketers we...
We often talk about email preference centers, email frequency and optimizing the amount of emails we send in our weekly thoughts and conversations about email marketing. But all of these are really marketer side actions and don’t really focus on the email subscriber as directly as we think they do....
Spring Cleaning Your Online Tools
I was taking a look at all the tools and sites I use the other day and thought that it might be beneficial to share some of them with other marketers. I am often amazed when I sit in a meeting with a client to learn that these tools we...
We all know that we love getting emails on our birthdays. I was watching last year to see of all the 100s of emails that I was subscribed to from consumer brands to see how many of them actually used them. I mean why not treat yourself right? But what...
What Does All this Open ID Mean to Email Marketing
Over the past two years I have made mention to OpenID and how it is going to impact email marketers. Now some of the different versions of OpenID that I have worked are beginning to become more understood. Maybe my thoughts 2 years back were a little ahead of the...
SIGMA::BLOG
What scares you? What keeps you up at night, and nags at the back of your consciousness? There are few things that frighten me, one of them being that I have stopped learning and, like old bread, have gotten stale. Can you imagine waking up one day to discover that your...
Who Do You Want To Be in 2010?
In 2009 we saw marketers everywhere seeking out one-to-one connections with their customers. The world of “mass” seemed a far-off reach in a world pressed for ROI, leads and conversion. But what was most interesting to watch in 2009 was the uprise of technology and new channels, once only used...
Fuel for Thought Recap: John Battelle’s Keynote Video
John Battelle shares his insights and offers suggestions on Social Media Marketing. Related posts: All Media Is Social. Now What? by Fuel for Thought John Battelle & The Conversation Economy by C. B. Whittemore...
Fuel for Thought Recap: All Media Is Social. Now What?
Last week, marketers from all around the tri-state area converged in New Jersey at our Fuel for Thought conference to learn, share experiences and develop ideas to get a handle on social media marketing. There’s a lot we covered/learned from each session and we’ll be sharing key highlights and materials...
Seeking Growth & Innovation? Join Us on Nov 5th
A year ago, we launched the Fuel for Thought Series with the goal to create a forum for marketers where we could share the most relevant trends, insights and smart practices that would fuel growth and innovation for their brands. We made a promise to keep all content unbiased and...
Small Is The New Big: Ad Age Selects Sigma as Northeast Agency of the Year!
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Branding Strategy Insider
How Brands Should Appeal To Women
In my work as a cognitive anthropologist I study how the mind works, how people "make meaning," how people form attachments to things (brands), and how people make decisions. Decisions like how to select what to invest in, whether stocks......
Seven Critical Factors Of Brand Strategy Success
The following seven factors continue to rule the day for building leading brands: Organization Support •CEO leadership & support •Distinctive corporate culture that supports brand promise •Ability to obtain support from a broad spectrum of employees •Alignment of brand messages......
Measuring The Strength Of Brand Identity
Ever wonder what is really behind this thing we call "identity? " It's one of those words that attracts a variety of meanings, ranging from a company's name and logo, to its business definition (Fuji: We're a digital imaging company),......
Brand Research and Neuro-Linguistic Programming
Focus group participants are often inspired to articulate themselves more fully and accurately than they could have alone. Any moderator worth his or her salt does this daily, without consciously using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques. Many focus group moderators instinctually......
Brand Building and Emotional Benefits
People buy benefits rather than features. For example: Time-release (feature) products are purchased because they are long acting (benefit). Clear bottles let us see the purity in color and consistency of waters. Dissolving tablets allow us to take medicine on......
Today, another request from the BSI Emailbag. Georgina, a student of marketing at Midlands State University in Gweru, Zimbabwe asks… “What is a global brand? How can an organization build and sustain a global brand?” Georgina, thanks for your question,......
Hard Knox Life - Dave Knox Brand Management blog
BlogWell is coming to Cincinnati to talk “How Big Brands Use Social Media”
BlogWell is going to be making a stop in Cincinnati on April 7, 2010 and Cincinnati Social Media will be partnering for the festivities. If you aren’t familiar with BlogWell, it is a great event put on across the country by GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council. As...
Brand Marketers need to watch how gaming is transforming popular culture
At the 2010 DICE Summit, Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Jesse Schell, gave a stellar presentation on how the world of game development is transforming popular culture. As Jesse states in the presentation, games have “crept out and they are going everywhere.” My favorite quote on this trend is his explanation...
The impact of the Social Media effect on great content
It’s not rocket science but I love this graphic that shows how Social Media will amplify great content. As more companies realize that “brands = publishers“, this is important thing to keep in mind. The key is making your content easily sharable, using great enablers such as Share This and...
The State of the Internet [video]
Everyone loves a good video that captures interesting facts & figures. In this latest take, digital agency JESS3 animated a video that shows “The State of Internet” with a good collection of recent stats. JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo....
Why the iPod Touch is the best way to reach teens & tweens
Thanks to a post by Augustine Fou, I came across this chart that breaks down which mobile platforms are being used by people of different ages. Amazing to see that over 6 out of 10 iPod Touch users are 17 years old or younger. And only 2 out of 10 are...
Two Years Later – A Recap of Top Posts from Hard Knox Life
I find it hard to believe, but today marks the two year anniversary of Hard Knox Life. As I did last year, I wanted to mark the anniversary by recapping my favorite posts that I have written on the site. I decided to include a handful of posts...
B.L. Ochman's blog
Five Reasons Why Companies Should Not Block Employee Access to Social Networks
Last week, a client told me that they don't allow employees to access YouTube at work. "Do your employees carry cellphones?" I asked. The answer was "yes," of course. Well then, most of them already have access to YouTube - right in their pockets. The fact is, resistance to social...
All true! But i got me an iPhone and I love it. As many times as I've heard Pogue do this song, it never gets old. Most recently, he sang it at Ragan Communications' Social Media for Communicators conference in Atlanta, Ga. And hey, who knew Pogue could sing?!! He...
Reebok's naked workout video: just a bare attempt to create buzz?
Is it fake, like the infamous fake Puma ads simulating oral sex back in 2003? Or is the Reebok video featuring a naked Chuck Liddell and his girlfriend, Heidi Northcutt, working out in nothing but Reeboks an off-color joke produced by the company itself. The goal of this type of...
Chris Brogan (and I) rail against the 24-hour clock
My friend Chris Brogan has written a blog post that everyone needs to read. It's about the craziness of the rampant belief that we need to be available 24/7 to be successful; that emails have to be answered immediately; and that everything we do is so damn important is has...
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding ViewChange.org , which uses powerful semantic search technology "that dynamically refreshes information as the video plays, providing up-to-date links to related articles, videos, and blogs." The beta site, which is live now, is set for public launch in June. If you are...
If you work for a big company, I'm willing to be that more than once you've heard "we just need to get the work done. B+ is OK. Everything doesn't have to be A+" In offices all over the planet, people say that every day. But good enough isn't. If...
The Tom Peters Weblog
There are a few books by Cool Friends: Jason Fried has written Rework with David Heinemeier Hansson, his co-founder at......
The Little BIG Things is now available as an audio download through Amazon.com (although the link points you to Audible.com......
The video series continues with Tom describing a meeting with Barry Gibbons, former chief of Burger King. Asked to speak......
The Little BIG Things is available as an audio download. At iTunes ($26.95), from Audible.com ($30.61/$7.49 [promo]), and other places......
We have a book! The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence. It's for sale in stores! It's for......
We thought you might enjoy reading an early review of The Little BIG Things by Stefan Stern, management writer for......
Kim Skildum-Reid's Corporate Sponsorship Blog
How Do I Get Sponsorship for My Event?
One very big, but very general question has been popping up a lot on some of the discussion boards I monitor. The general gist is: “How do I get sponsorship for my event?” I could write a book answering that question! Oh yeah, I already have! As you can imagine, the discussion boards...
Bad Idea #98: Needlessly Increasing Your Sponsorship Level
While reviewing my news feeds a week or so ago, I came across an announcement that Qantas had taken up naming rights sponsorship of the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix. It was a short announcement, but the implications are much bigger. The first consideration is that Qantas is already the official...
Are Sponsors Worth the Headache?
This was a question I came across in the blogosphere this week. To be fair, the person who asked wasn’t that blunt, but had definitely seen a lot of headaches from sponsors who didn’t pay their fees, didn’t do what they had promised, and generally bullied the event. After a...
Sponsorship School for Charities – No Charge!
I’m delighted to announce that I’m doing Sponsorship School again in 2010 – yay!! This intensive, six-month program of corporate sponsorship training, coaching, and peer support was first run in 2003 for twelve people from six Sydney-based charities. It was very successful for the participants and their organisations, but I wanted...
Sponsorship White Papers Updated and Upgraded!
After hundreds of thousands of downloads, I thought it was high time to give my white papers a format that is as professional and well thought-out as I hope the content is. While I was at it, I also did some updates and revisions. Want to have a look? The download...
The Winter Olympics are in full swing and the organisers are busy implementing draconian “anti-ambush” laws. Too bad they won’t work. Anti-ambush legislation is mainly about tightening existing IP laws, bolting on a few proximity laws, and trying to control old-school communication channels. It is pedantic to the point of restricting...
All You Need Is A Good Idea!
That was the offer. "Receive a FREE 1-Year Subscription to Popular Science No Purchase Necessary No Credit Card Required. Quantities are Limited so Act Now!" And it seemed to be a good deal. Any uncertainty I might normally have about......
LOYALTY IS NOT WHAT IT’S QUACKED UP TO BE
Image via Wikipedia Ten years is a long run for a client agency relationship. But it is inevitable, though still painful, that someday there will be a parting of the ways. Usually this happens when a client hires a new......
Image via Wikipedi This is part of a quote that has been attributed to everyone from Mark Twain to A. Nonymous. I really like the sentiment, which urges you to throw away your self imposed restraints and self-consciousness and just......
Image via Wikipedia Sixteen food and beverage makers have been warned by the U.S. Food and Drug administration against making claims that don’t adhere to federal labeling rules. One ice-cream snack, for example, says that the product has zero grams......
A WEAK ECONOMY NEEDS THE POWER OF A STRONG IDEA
Image via Wikipedia When I speak to small business owners, many are saying that they hear the economy is improving, but they don’t feel it yet. (An article in the New York Times finds that the recovery is plodding ahead,......
I DON’T BELIEVE YOU’RE THE BEST
Why would you want to proclaim yourself the “Best.”? Sure, you probably feel that the product or service you provide is indeed, the “Best.” Trouble is, your competitors all feel the same way, and you can’t all be right. It......
As Was Marketing Hall Of Fame
Connecting With Us on Twitter and Facebook
We're changing how you can connect with us. Here's what you need to know! http://twitter.com/aswas will be mostly business-related tweets with a few personal or observational tweets http://twitter.com/rocketplace remain as mostly eBay and eCommerce news http://twitter.com/dlev will be mostly the......
Well, I never thought I'd say this, but eHarmony seems to have gotten one right. If you read my blog, you know they got a lot wrong... and continue to. Looking at 9 new matches this morning, most sucked. Why?......
When A Celebrity Commits a Crime
A celebrity I used to be a fan of committed at least two crimes that recently hit the papers. One crime was stalking teenage girls in real life (he's 56 years old) as well as on Facebook. The other crime......
Posting to Other People's Facebook Business Pages
Yesterday, we blogged about an OOPS where an online seller I know found some Facebook pages that looked devoted to what he sells. So he joined them, and when he was holding a sale, he promoted that. He figured hey,......
Is Facebook Showing My Competitor's Ads On My Pages?
Earlier this week, I mentioned someone who spammed me on Facebook. She saw I was a fan of a Facebook business page for a company that does cufflinks. She evidently sells some cufflinks, so she spammed me by sending me......
Continuing in my series this week on social media, let's talk a minute about Facebook Fan Pages. They're free! If you have a business you want to promote, you can certainly set one up. And you can ask me once......
Digital Strategy
Foursquare, Brands and Location-Based Rewards
Foursquare announced a partnership with Starbucks last week. Starbucks' customers who check in with Foursquare have a chance to win a Barista badge. This comes on the heels of another brand, Tasty D-Lite, who’s rewarding loyal customers who check in......
Social Media Policies and Guidelines Have Different Audiences
More and more companies, organizations and government agencies have started developing social media policies. There are lots of good examples out there and even some interactive tools to help create them. However, if your company is thinking about putting a......
I’m on a little strategy blogging kick this week, thanks to Google Analytics. You see, except for people looking for the Burton Love boards most of my traffic comes from people searching for “What is Digital Strategy?” Hopefully all of......
When someone hires you to help with their marketing or strategy, how comfortable are you with saying those three simple but scary words “I don’t know”? Face it, when a company’s paying you the big bucks (or even the little......
When it comes to studies on trust, trust no one.
Social media is ushering in a new era of word-of-mouth marketing where we trust people we know more than ever, right? It’s shifting control from experts and brands to consumers, isn’t it? Not if you believe a couple of recent......
When it comes to studies on trust, trust no one.
Social media is ushering in a new era of word-of-mouth marketing where we trust people we know more than ever, right? It’s shifting control from experts and brands to consumers, isn’t it? Not if you believe a couple of recent......