The Oyster Project | Daniel Oyston

I am not going to go on until every single person …

2011-07-04T21:27:00.001+10:00

A community managers and content managers we just get how it should all work and can see in our mind what it should or will look like.

We have a vision.

Getting others onboard and moving towards that vision is the challenging part. Sometimes it hurts our head when people can’t easily share in our vision and just ‘get’ how it should be and why. We speak to people and they still ask us “What’s this BookFace all about and why would I want to Twitter?” What is wrong with them?

But we don’t give up. We are determined to realise our vision. We stick to our guns and keep chipping away, day-by-day, one-by-one, until enough people are on board and we begin to realise the vision.

This was brought home for me today when I was listening to Benjamin Zander giving a TED Talk. Here is a snippet.

If you replace the word ‘leader’ with ‘community manager’ or ‘content manager’, and ‘classical music’ with ‘our community/vision’ then this quote describes us.

We know deep down we can get people to realise the vision and how things should be. We don’t doubt that. That’s not to say we have all the answers (I don’t), and collaboration along the way isn't important (it is essential) but community and content management is, as a profession, an infant. As such, not many people understand it well like they might understand accounts/finance, HR or administration. But we do.

I am interested to know whether Zander’s quote strikes a chord with you and whether you feel it describes you and the challenges you face.

View Benjamn Zander’s full TED talk Music and Passion

8 blogging tips from my blogging friends

2011-06-22T20:28:00.001+10:00

Part of my role as Online Community Manager at the Global CCS Institute is to help guide and support those staff and industry contacts who help us create great content for our online community.

They are all super smart people in the industry and have heaps of great information and insights to share. Like lots of industry people, however, blogging doesn’t necessarily come easily to all of them.

As part of the support I have drawn up a cool ‘Blog Writing Blueprint’ (a step-by-step guide which I will share here in the future) and developed a list of 44 blog ideas. I have also set up a ‘Bloggers Anonymous’ blog that kind of acts as a place for myself and Brenda Somich, the other Online Community Manager at the Institute, to share ideas and thoughts to help our bloggers.

One thing I have recently done is to go out to some of my favourite bloggers and marketing industry contacts and asked them to shoot a short video giving their top blogging tip or two.

A big thanks to @nathbush @juliancole @scott_drummond @leehopkins @joshstraw84 @zacmartin @jymmysim and @brendasomich

Enjoy and feel free leave comment and add your own blog tip that these guys forgot ;)

The best customer service ever

2011-06-14T21:44:00.001+10:00

We in the blogosphere are often quick to use our blogs to have a whinge about poor customer service we have received. I am guilty of it myself with blogging Is A Great Product/Service an Excuse for Bad Customer Service? and A Pure Unadulterated Rant.

We all come across instances of good and bad customer service every week but most of it is what I would call ‘acceptable’. I often muse that we get so used to ‘acceptable’ customer service, the type that is good but not memorable, that there are great opportunities for brands to easily stand out through exceptional customer service.

I experienced exceptional customer service the other week from a company by the name of Charles Tyrwhitt which was born in 1986 because the founder, Nicholas Wheeler, believed he could make a shirt better than anybody else. Since then, the business has worked to make “the finest menswear in the world, as well as a big dollop of good old-fashioned values including outstanding value for money and unbeatable service.”

I first came across the brand on a rainy day in Dublin, back in 2001, when I was in the city to see Ireland play the Wallabies. I was just killing time for the day and wandered into one of their stores. I didn’t really want anything, I was just browsing, but was so impressed by the store, the range and the customer service that I left with 3 shirts and 2 ties. They were beautifully packaged in gift boxes and I felt just a little bit posh walking around with my shopping bags. For a while after I always bought shirts from them.

But then I moved back to Australia and for one reason or another stopped buying them. Probably because there are no retail stores here in Australia. Then a friend was telling me he orders shirts online from the store.

So I jumped on and ordered a complete set of new business shirts (I was due anyway). They turned up from the UK in a week-and-a-half but unfortunately they fitted like a tent. Whoops.

I jumped online to chat with a customer service rep and that’s when the exceptional customer service started. Below is a transcript that was emailed to me as a follow up of our online conversation:

Andrew Blair: Hi, you’re speaking to Andrew Blair at Charles Tyrwhitt. How can I help you today?
Daniel Oyston: Hi Andrew, just had some shirts delivered to Australia but unfortunately they are too big. What do I need to do to exchange?
Daniel Oyston:
My order number was w36217982
Andrew Blair: Please return the shirts to us including a completed returns form and we will exchange them and send you a fresh order once we receive them back. Alternatively, you can place a new order for the correct size shirts now and then return the original order to us for a full refund.
Daniel Oyston:
Thanks Andrew. Think I will place a new order for the same shirt but diff sizes ... that way they will arrive quicker.
Andrew Blair: That's a good idea as this will speed up the process considerably.
Daniel Oyston:
Do you have a link for the returns form? I just had a quick look on the returns page of the site and couldn't see it
Andrew Blair: I don't have a scanned copy of a returns form anywhere. If there isn't one included with your order, just enclose a brief letter or note with your return detailing your name, address, customer number, contact number and the reason for return.
Daniel Oyston:
oh, oops, sorry, it is on the back of the form that's in the box.
Daniel Oyston:
Thanks for your help. Appreciate it.
Andrew Blair: My pleasure. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
Daniel Oyston: Yes there is. I notice on the form one of the options for return says "2 sizes ordered - one kept". I don’t want to be a smart arse but is that acceptable if you are unsure of sizing? Just order 2 and send the one back that didn't fit?
Andrew Blair: Yes, that's something that we'd encourage our customers to do if they're unsure about sizing.
Daniel Oyston: awesome. sounds good then. I'll do that. Thanks again. That's everything sorted. Good work mate - keep it up
Andrew Blair: My pleasure! Many thanks for contacting us at Charles Tyrwhitt and enjoy the rest of your day. Goodbye.
Daniel Oyston:
Actually, one more thing - how the hell do you pronounce Tyrwhitt?
Andrew Blair: I know it doesn't look that way but it's pronounced 'tirrit' to rhyme with 'spirit'!

So I did exactly that and got 2 sizes of new shirts promptly delivered and returned the others for a refund.

Nicholas, if you read this post then you need to go and give Andrew a massive pat on the back, employee of the month, case of beer or free shirt or whatever you do there to reward employees because the way he easily looked after my problem, let alone made me feel like a valuable customer, was outstanding.

The brand also has a great presence on Facebook including some great video tips for men's dressing and they also make good use of Facebook as a customer service channel by engaging with customers.

You too should buy all your shirts from Charles Tyrwhitt because as the website says you will get “the finest menswear in the world, as well as a big dollop of good old-fashioned values including outstanding value for money and unbeatable service.”

Trust Oyster, you won’t be disappointed.

Community Manager Round Table – Brisbane, June 2011

2011-06-06T21:03:00.001+10:00

Last Friday I attended the Community Manager Round Table organised by Greg Lexiphanic (@lexiphanic) #acmrt

It was a great opportunity to meet some new people and hang out with like minded individuals (something some of us don’t get to do at work all that often). The format was pretty causal with everyone having the opportunity to submit topics for discussion. We spent about 30 mins a time discussing topics such as building a community from scratch, engaging difficult/fragmented communities, metrics and just the general lie of the land.

We all have our unique challenges with some of us building communities around climate change, credit unions, government initiatives, large corporations and two of us building communities around the inevitable fact of life … death. While we all had unique challenges I think we also face many of the same challenges. It was a bit of a support group at times :)

One little project that came out of the day is on engagement. We were discussing engagement when Russell Allert (@RussellAllert) mentioned that in his role he started down the path of creating a scoring system for measuring engagement e.g. +1 for a like, +3 for a share, +5 for a comment etc. He said that it all got caught up in the detail a bit, so he shelved it, but with a promise to help the group has taken on the project of the engagement measurement framework finished.

Others involved in the day were @corza @alisonmichalk @joolliee @amandaolsson (in spirit) .. BTW – is Bob on Twitter?

A big thanks to Greg for organising. He did an outstanding job with wifi organised, coffees on arrival, lunch ordered before we got to the pub and even the offer of a lift to the airport. All that and great conversation for $40.

The next one is being slated for Melbourne later in the year with @venessapaech looking likely to coordinate? If you work in community management, or know someone who does, then I highly recommend you get along to this day. It certainly got my mind ticking. You might also be interested in Swarm Sydney being organised by Quiip which will “connect Community Managers with the aim of sharing resources, best practices, information and ideas, alongside creating a dialogue around the future of online engagement.”

We will be sure to share the results of the engagement framework in due time.

Image by Jyri (via Quiip)

Now this is an awesome job application

2011-05-30T22:06:00.002+10:00

I have often said to myself that “next time I am applying for a job I am going to cut out all the bullshit resume talk and do something that stands out”. Somehow, I never get around to it. I end up playing it safe.

Not Josh Mishell. This is a truly cool website/resume application to New Belgium Brewing for the the role of Strategic Marketing & Branding Director (I think, I don’t actually know the specific job but looking their site it would appear to be this one).

I retweeted Josh’s link and he seemed genuinely impressed it had made its way to Australia (the home of Cascade, one of his favourites). Whoops, update, I am told it is Cascade in Poland :(

Check it out by clicking on the image below. Would you like to get a a job application like this?

44 Content Ideas

2011-05-23T21:42:00.001+10:00

Here is a list of 44 ideas for creating content for your blog or website.

I thought I saw a similar list somewhere once before but I can’t find it in my delicious bookmarks and none of the websites I guessed I might have seen it on had it.

So I scoured the net for ideas, and add some of my own, and now I have a list of 44 things that I can use to give people inspiration when I ask them to create content for me.

If you would like a word version so you can brand it yourself then shoot me an email at danieloyston [at] gmail.com and I’ll flick it over to you.

The list is primarily ideas for blog posts, so doesn’t include things like ‘Host an Event’ but maybe we should have a more rounded list? Leave any ideas for content in the comments and I will add them to the doc over time.

DOWNLOAD 44 CONTENT IDEAS >>

31% of people that have ‘liked’ a company on Facebook have actually ‘unliked’ it

2011-05-16T21:39:00.001+10:00

ExactTarget and CoTweet have released research that provides us with insights into Facebook users and “liking” companies – or more specifically, what happens when fans decide they no longer like a company.

As with most research, you have to read the words very carefully to understand what they are saying.

For example, the report states that 55% of people have liked a brand but then later decided they no longer wanted to see posts from that brand. My gut tells me it is probably higher but it is the nature of how the question is asked that influences the answer (unfortunately we rarely get to see the questions). I recon the results would have been higher if people were asked “Do still like 100% of the companies you have liked on Facebook?”

The report goes on to say that of that group, only 57% actually seek out the unlike option of a particular company. In other words, 31% of people that have liked a company actually unliked it. Again, you might have liked 100 companies but because you didn't like one particular one, and maybe actually unliked it, you get counted.

Fair enough though, I don't want to sound negative about the results but you always have to take it with a grain of salt and consider how it applies to your situation. It is always useful because it gets you thinking.

So I started thinking … there are more than 500 million active users on Facebook with 50% of active users logging in on any given day. Of that, there are more than 250 million (50%) active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices and these people are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users (Official Facebook Stats)

But you can’t unlike something from your mobile – well, from the iPhone Facebook app anyway. Not that I can see. Facebook provides advice but it is only relevant if you are accessing Facebook through a browser as opposed to an app. Starts to make the figures above seem pretty murky to me.

So I thought, what should Facebook do? The average punter probably couldn’t name all the companies that they have liked let alone all the ones they don’t like. Maybe Facebook should have a tab in our account settings that let’s us go in and view all the companies we have liked and let us uncheck those that we no longer like. They could send us an annual “like” review reminder so that we are prompted to keep our info up to date.

Surely this would strengthen their position and help them target ads better?

The competitive advantage of a “no assholes” policy

2011-05-09T21:41:00.001+10:00

I read a great post today over at Brand Builder, by Olivier Blanchard, in which he argues that “The customer-facing organization with the least amount of assholes wins.”

Love it! Not only is it true, but asshole is such an apt description of some of the people we receive poor service (and a bad attitude) from.

I started writing a comment on the blog but my mind kept coming up with points to make so instead of leaving the world’s longest comment and I have decided to write a post (yes, yes, I know I have been sporadically posting but I have good intention to stick to posting more regularly … well I intend to anyway).

You should really head over and read the post here

Ok … you’re back … nice to have you.

It’s often argued that people expect good customer service from everyone these days. It’s a must, a gimmee, you can’t do without it. I agree to a point but people also expect to run into assholes in customer facing roles. It’s just that they don’t know when and where and what brand will provide them with an asshole.

Oliver gives some examples of how to asshole-proof your company – two of which result in assholes working for your competitors – a) Don’t hire assholes (this assumes they stay in the industry and thus work for a competitor) and b) give your current assholes the “opportunity” to go work for your fiercest competitor.

We all know that a competitive advantage is hard to maintain. The beauty of a “no assholes” policy, however, is that it IS a competitive advantage that you can maintain (assuming your competitor aren’t smart enough to read Oliver’s blog and thus do not know that their businesses are invested with assholes).

The further beauty is that time compounds the competitive advantage for you. The longer you ensure that you have no assholes, and the longer your competitors keep damaging their brand by employing assholes, and the longer customers are leaving them and coming to you, then the standard of customer service gap just keeps getting wider. Furthermore, your company will increasingly attract the good staff from competitors, further weakening their position, and new employees into the industry will also be attracted to your company.

It’s beautiful in it’s simplicity and all the while your competitive advantage is becoming easier to maintain (and your organisation a nicer place to work)

The customers are not guilt free in this problem though. It’s not just management’s fault that assholes continue to prosper. The fact that customers can’t stick up for themselves only encourages assholes. Just like a bully.

Now, I don’t mean yelling and carrying on like a goose. I mean put them in their place.I guarantee that saying, in the right tone, calm, but with purpose … “Excuse me, I would appreciate it if you didn’t speak to me like that” or “Excuse me, please do not talk over the top of me. I let you have your say and now I would like you to afford me the same courtesy. May I continue?”

It will make the asshole feel like a child and it will a long way to helping them keep their heads pulled in. It doesn’t need to be rude, just stern. Don’t be an asshole yourself.

4 Awesome Posts/Links You Probably Missed

2011-03-23T22:04:00.001+11:00

I have been a bit busy playing football for a week and then being best man at my mate’s wedding. So, time for a bit of a lazy post. Lazy for me anyway but for you its awesome! Here is a collection of awesome links/posts that you probably missed over the last week or so. You can thank me by standing up at your desk and clapping loudly.

Buyer Personas: Where (and How!) to Start

Aligning your content to your target audience is essential. But how do you know who your audience is and what makes them tick. Buying persona’s help solidify, in your mind, your audience and are particularly useful if you ask a guest blogger or other staff members to produce content. In this post, Jeremy Victor, answers the questions that are most likely top of mind for you when it comes to buyer personas. Check it out >>

3 Marketing Lessons From Drug Dealers

In this post Mike Volpe recounts a presentation he attended from John Moore of Brand Autopsy. John’s talk was an analogy that drew heavily on two ‘drug’ denizens – Frank Lucas, the purveyor of ‘Blue Magic’ heroin in the 70s as depicted in the movie American Gangster, and Starbucks, our own nation’s top retailer of caffeinated energy in a cup. Though only one of these substances is illegal, both organizations used product and marketing to develop a uniquely loyal following. Great stuff! Check it out >>

5 Totally Awesome Social Media Infographics

Gary Thomas provides some stats and interesting tidbits on just how many people are using the internet to share, research, and network with one another. Check it out >>

Relevance is Not an Option

Ardath Albee outlines what happens when people don’t find your companies messages relevant. She goes on to outline that part of what causes messages to become irrelevant is that companies make assumptions about what customers want via a relationship on social media. A new study by IBM found that the perception gap is likely wider than you think. This is deffintley one of my favourite graphics … ever. Very powerful. Pull your head out of the sand! Check it out >>

What Is The Future Of Your Product?

2011-03-15T21:59:00.001+11:00

Today I was sent a video – “A Day Made of Glass... Made possible by Corning”. Super cool.

Personally I love these ads that take a current brand or the product it produces and shows what the company envisages it will be in the future. Some may argue that they aren’t ads because they aren’t really selling anything. Maybe they are more promotional videos? Semantics I suppose but for me they are ads that are working in a brand sense.

So many companies spend their marketing budget on the here and now trying to change behaviour or elicit a response (someone buying something). For me, companies that project themselves into the future are subtly saying “hey, we’re gonna be here for a long time”. It creates buzz that these companies are working on bigger and better things and not just shifting current product.

Done correctly, the video can go viral. In fact, I tweeted a link to the glass video and got an @mention from Trending Tube (@TTube_) that the video it was #38 on the most viewed videos for the day. In fact, the video has had just under 9 million views in a month! I bet not too many of those 9 million had heard of Corning before. They have now.

The Corning video and the idea of sharing your vision borrows loosely from a common sales technique called “projecting”. I used to use it all the time when I was selling gym memberships back in the day of my European adventures (HT Trent Jakubowski). Instead of simply saying “here is a spa that is open until 10pm” I would instead project the potential member to a time when they would use the spa e.g. “When you finish you workout on a Thursday evening you can sit and enjoy this spa up until 10pm”. Real Estate agents also use it when they suggest you de-clutter your house before selling it so that people can "imagine” (project) themselves to a time when they would live there and how it would look with their stuff in it.

I know we don’t all have big budgets to spend on these types of ads/videos. But companies should still consider how they can produce compelling content that gets people excited about the companies vision of the future and what its products would be like. Consider a round table podcast discussing products in 20 years time. Ask customers what they would like to see. Write a blog post. PROJECT!

3 Awesome Posts You Probably Missed

2011-03-01T21:47:00.001+11:00

I am going to start following the lead from a few other bloggers and start sharing some of the better pieces of content I come across each week. It won’t be in lieu of something more thought provoking or analytical, which I will try and still do each week, but gives me a chance to pump something quick and useful out to you each week regardless.

How to Optimize your Company’s LinkedIn Profile

Are you aware of the recent changes that LinkedIn has made to enhance the Company Profile part of it’s site? There is some pretty cool stuff in there where you can now add video, picture carousels and add specific product/service pages. Adam Kleinberg has a nice post on it however a fair few of us were confused when we tried to have a play on our company profiles. In response, Adam has posted a helpful follow-up blog LinkedIn Companies Questions. Check it out >>

Five Point Social Media Idea Checklist

My man Julian Cole provides a few questions to ask yourself before going ahead with that Digital/Social idea. Very handy in keeping you on the straight and narrow. Check it out >>

Passionate About Your Product: What Brands Can Learn From Unofficial Bloggers

Leigh Duncan-Durst over at Marketing Profs catches up with Melody Overton, who writes a popular unofficial Starbucks blog. It is pretty interesting to get inside the head of a brand fan and even find out more about how Starbucks handles/manages her activity. Check it out >>

Product Placement Law – Opportunities for Brands

2011-02-22T22:11:00.001+11:00

I was reading one of Stan Lee’s most excellent posts today on how the UK has just introduced a product placement law.

I left a comment but as is so often the case with me I feel inspired to leave a comment but then decide that the comment could be turned into an actual blog post (rather than clog up Stan’s comments section with 500 words or so).

Stan writes that the “logo only has to appear for 3 seconds at the start and end of a show” and that “it has to appear in a corner of the screen and be the same size as any network logo or watermark”.

No doubt we all agree this is pretty lame and a complete waste of tax payers money. I shudder to think how much they spent on this exercise while they cut public services in the UK following the GFC.

For me, I think the real winner are the products/brands. I think there is a real opportunity for brands to leverage this. Why even pretend to hide in shows anymore?

Imagine this …

Logo shows up at the start of the show and the brand uses is social channels, or maybe even buys paid space before or during the show, to alert fans/customers that the product will be in the show and that they are running a competition around when people see the product placement. Product bingo if you like.

This situation would strengthen ties with existing fans/customers and would probably end up attracting more as they tweeted or facebook status updated their spotting of the product. It could create a hell of a lot of buzz and engagement.

I can see that opportunity for products but do you think his will take away the focus on the show as people look more intently for the product placement instead of paying attention to the content?

Or can you see other opportunities for the brands?

What Makes A Good Hashtag?

2011-02-15T20:30:00.001+11:00

It was Friday night and I was on the lounge watching the cricket. I had moved from Tooheys Old to red wine and was regularly picking up my iPhone to check what people were up to on Twitter and Facebook.

I saw a tweet from @SeanCallanan, of Sports Geek with the hashtag #madeupbaseballfact. Sean was retweeting some of the made up baseball facts that people were tweeting. They were pretty funny.

I Just Came Up With It

“I just came up with the idea to generate some connection” Sean says. “The next night, @SportzfanRadio were calling the final game of the Melbourne Aces for the season. Baseball commentary is all about statistics & telling great stories while the action continues out of the diamond. So I thought that a fun way to get people involved would be for them to tweet made up baseball facts that we could use during the broadcast.” Sean also used the Sports Geek blog to promote it here.

Making Stuff Up

I started following the hashtag and even though I don’t know much about or follow baseball I decided to participate. I figured I was as good as making stuff up as anyone else. I mean, I once told someone, after they told me they didn’t have a middle name, that the reason they didn’t have a middle name was because their parents were poor. “What?” they asked. “Yeah, they were poor. You see, it costs $10 a letter on your birth certificate for your name and your parents obviously couldn’t afford it”. They believed me. I still feel a little bad. Just a little.

So I tweeted …

@SeanCallanan it used 2 b a baseball rhombus but was revised to a diamond cause groundsmen didn't know WTF a rhombus was #madeupbaseballfact
@SeanCallanan #madeupbaseballfact Jesus Christ, pitching 4 Jerusalem, pitched the perfect game 10 times in a row #devineinterventionscandal

Apart from my own comic genius tweets, there were a few crackers but this was one of my favs,

@downesy Prior to the advent of the "cup", a batter was awarded 1st base only if struck in the testicles. Hence "a base on balls" #madeupbaseballfact
The Power of the Hashtag

One of Sean’s favourite tweets was @adamajacoby: 7th inning stretch introduced in 1959 to give fans an opportunity to move car and avoid parking fines #madeupbaseballfact

What struck me was the power of the hashtag to get someone to join in when they weren’t really part of the baseball community. Normally when I see a hashtag it is simply about being able to follow a conversation rather than generate one. In fact, often I see them in a tweet and have no idea what they are referencing.

Successful or Not?

“It was definitely successful” Sean says. “I wasn’t really sure how it would go. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don’t. I didn’t have any real expectations but we ended up getting 134 tweets using the hash tag on the night. That gave us a reach of about 30 000 to 40 000 people. About 20 of those Tweets reached over 20 000 people. Interestingly, the radio station that we were broadcasting for, 88.3 Southern FM, had an increase in listeners on the Saturday night of about 1000%”

“The hashtag also started trending in Melbourne and then after a couple of hour it eventually started trending in Australia. So I think all in all it was successful” Sean added.

How to use Hashtags more Effectively

So, should we be using hashtags more often for more than just merely tagging a conversation or to simply track how often we have something retweeted? I figured that if a hashtag like this one could get me engaged then surely it would be even easier for those communities/topics/brands that I was actually interested in to get me involved.

My advice would to use a hashtag like the old blog tip “finish with a question” so as to invite people to join in. Sure it might not be a question but don’t make it a meaningless hashtag unless you simply want to track tweets. It should start a conversation where people feel compelled to add to it. Something that seems like a question or an invitation will do the trick perfectly.

Further Hashtag Education

If you want another great example of a hashtag people feel they can just join in with and contribute content, as opposed to just using it to organise tweets, then check out the post What Makes a Good Hashtag? It’s Not Science by Mathew Ingram over at GigaOM which looks at the hashtag #lessambitiousfilms

More on Sports Geek

Sean was a great sport (pardon the pun) in giving me some time on the phone to pester him about the hashtag exercise so be sure to check out all the cool stuff he is doing at Sport Geek and follow them on

@SeanCallanan – want to talk sports & tech with Sean then follow here.
@SportsGeekHQ – the company account – news, blog posts, articles.
@SportzfanRadio – weekly radio show Sean appears on follow for show reminders and in-show tweets

More madeupbaseballfact#

My New Job as a Knowledge Sharing Community Manager

2011-02-01T21:36:00.001+11:00

Today I resigned from my role as Strategic Marketing & Sales Manager at Tanner James Management Consultants.

It always feels weird, but also nice, resigning from a job when you aren’t leaving because you are unhappy. It feels weird because there is nothing wrong with the role, I enjoy it. It isn’t like I hate it and can’t wait to get out. It also feels nice because it is a career move and not one made in unhappiness. It means that I can leave with good relationships intact. The bosses are genuinely happy for me.

It has been almost 3 years since I joined Tanner James and I have learnt plenty. I haven’t just learnt things about business but also things about myself and I am very very grateful for the opportunity John Howarth and Ian McDermott, the Directors, have provided me.

Mrs Oyster and I have some family goals which we need to fund so a move or asking for a raise was always on the cards but I wasn’t going to worry about it for a while. It wasn’t like I was unhappy!

But then I got a Seek job alert on the email which was a little different. It wasn’t the usual “we are a leading IT company blah blah selling software/blue cable/boring stuff to the government”. That’s most or the “marketing” jobs in Canberra. Instead, as I read it I thought “now that is the kinda job description I would write for myself if I could create my own role”.

So I went for an interview and got offered the job and in a month’s time I will be the Community Manager at Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute.

The Institute is a not-for-profit entity which brings together the public and private sectors to build and share the know-how and expertise necessary to ensure that carbon capture and storage (CCS) can make a significant impact on reducing the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

CCS can reduce some 20 per cent of the total greenhouse gas emission reductions necessary between now and 2050. At the moment CCS can be done although it hasn’t been implemented on a commercially viable level and doesn't have widespread adoption. As such, the Institute is focussed on supporting projects and sharing their knowledge to assist more than 3,000 projects which need to get off the ground over the next four decades.

Should be awesome working on something that can have a global impact. It is excellent that an organisation realises the importance of this type of role and that the emphasis for knowledge sharing through communities is coming from the top down. I think one of the advantages is that it is not an old organisation and so they aren’t trying to retrospectively fit social media and a knowledge sharing approach.

One of the things that drew me to the role was a quote I have stuck on my office wall from a Fast Company interview with Alex Bogusky,

So, I have to ask," I start. "Is there any notion of a midlife crisis in this? You do happen to be 46." Cradling a cup of chamomile tea, Bogusky releases a quiet laugh. "Yeah, just happen to be," he smiles. "You know, I'm not completely unaware that that's what this could be." He pauses, looking off to the Rockies.

"I'm trying to think ... midlife crises occur generally because we fear death, right? And I'm pretty sure I don't fear death. So maybe, what do I fear?" He pauses again.

"What I fear -- actually, I'll tell you what it is -- what I fear is, I fear" -- his eyes start to pink around the rims, his voice cracks -- "I fear a moment when my children are older, and they look at me and say, 'What did you do? The world is like a spiralling cesspool. You were an adult, you needed to do something, I was just a kid. What did you do?' I want to be able to say, I did this, this, and this. And did my best. Yeah, that's it. It is a midlife crisis, and it's not my death. It's the fear of not being able to say that you tried, in all sincerity. I think it's a new kind of midlife crisis."

As Community Manager, I will be facilitating the sharing of that knowledge in the CCS community and working towards making a difference in the world.

Good News - People Don’t Quit Because They Hate Your Brand

2011-01-24T22:37:00.001+11:00

Technorati Tags: customer service

I was watching a show the other day called Undercover Boss which sees senior executives of a company working undercover in their own firm to investigate how the company really works and identify how it can be improved.

It is essentially built on the old saying “walk a mile in my shoes” as well as the concept that staff should spend time working in other peoples roles in their organisations – although not under the veil of secrecy – to gain an appreciation of other parts of the business.

Truth be told, I have ever seen it actually happen.

The episode I watched saw an Australian woman, Marija Simovic, become the new CEO of Harry Ramsdens, Britain's best loved fish and chips restaurant chain. Marija joined Harry Ramsdens when it was a struggling brand hit hard by the recession and increased fast food competition.

Marija spends time at 3 different outlets and spends time with a young assistant manager, waitresses and kitchen staff, all the time working like she is one of them.

What she uncovers is bizarre. Systems so broken that people with no business acumen would immediately see that they don’t work. She encounters equipment that has been broken for a long time (12-18 months) and which increase waiting times for customers by 50-100%, ultimately putting pressure on staff.

I shook my head a lot but none of it really surprised me. How often do manager’s just expect people to get on with it?

What did strike me was the underlying theme of love. That’s right, love, and it underpinned Marija’s views and the staff.

Throughout the show, Marija kept using the expression “Harry Ramsdens hasn’t been loved”. No top down managerial love of the brand.

Strangely, there seemed to be a lot of bottom up love from the staff as, despite the obvious problems with systems, store layout, lack of support and broken equipment, the staff kept working there. Why wouldn’t they just go and find a job where all the deep fryers worked? Cooking fish n chips is cooking fish in chips right? Waiting tables is waiting tables? Right?

Maybe. But if you love the brand, like these staff did, then you stay put.

So I wondered what would make people leave a job and a quick and dirty Google search here, here, here and here confirmed that the none of the major reasons people leave is because they don’t like the brand.

Think about it. People put their blood, sweat and tears into working for a brand and they become immersed in it. If you are running a service business, and who isn’t today, then it isn’t your customers who are the most important and it certainly isn’t the shareholders. Your staff, providing the service are the most important because the service they deliver directly effects customer satisfaction and ultimately the shareholders.

So next time the balance sheet or sales funnel isn’t looking too rosy then do a Marija. Your staff in the trenches, and not your middle or top level managers, will be the ones who can give you the best insights. They are ones on the front line, delivering services and using your systems and equipment.

More importantly, they probably love the brand. Most importantly, they are likely the ones who will be most affected by your new fangled system or targets. Best you have their buy-in from the start.

Your problem is that you are probably already know as a manager who doesn’t really care about their problems. So the trick for you is to build their trust and provide an environment where they can be open and honest about the business.

Good luck. Think you might need it.

Deeeer, It’s Red Bull You Idiot!

2011-01-17T22:02:00.001+11:00

I read a good tip the other day that suggested, if you are short of blog topics or really pressed for time, then you should post an old post. I am really pressed for time this week and while I have a few good blog topics I don’t have much time to write them. Don’t worry @seancallanan … I will come knocking :)

So, a personal favourite of mine and of the readers, is a little post I wrote about a dumbed downed logo at the Olympics and a little test for the readers.

This was my second ever post back in March 2008 and amazingly holds the record for the most number of comments on a single post with 20. While I was going back into the archives of posts it actually shows a tally of the total number of comments ever made on this blog. The figure is very close to 250 so I will be awarding a special prize for the reader who makes the 250th comment on this blog (and no you can’t just keep commenting until it reaches 250 :)

I haven’t made any edits to the original post. Enjoy …

I am a regular listener of Peter Wagstaff’s Marketing Today Podcast (if you don’t listen to it then get on board at http://mkf1120.blogspot.com/). It’s a great podcast and will really get you thinking about current marketing topics – plus if you listen to it in the car then you can avoid the commercial radio station drive time dribble!

Over the last few months I started writing some feedback to the podcast and really enjoyed having it discussed on air … from there I started this blog (thanks to all the encouragement from the blogosphere following my first post last week).

One week on the podcast, Wags and Col were discussing the Olympics and I wrote some feedback which went like this …

“Here is a very cool piece of ambush marketing that I am sure you guys will like. The International Olympic Committee does not allow sponsorship on athletes uniforms (like most sports teams have). In fact, even the manufacturers logos have to be smaller than 3.1 squares inches. I searched and searched but couldn’t find a picture or a reference.I think it was the 2004 Olympics, and a track cyclist lined up with his normal slick suit on. There were some very unusual markings on his uniform in red and yellow and I remember thinking to myself “That’s not even his country's colours”.Then he sat up on his bike and the colours were organised as two red triangles meeting with a backdrop of a yellow circle. Instantly recognisable as the Red Bull Logo! I thought it was pure genius to capitalise on the equity of the logo and be able to reduce it to its basic shapes and colours yet still have it instantly recognisable to an audience.”

I suggested to Wags and Col that it would be a very cool exercise to get some famous logos and “dumb them down” and see if consumers could still pick the brand just from just the shape and colours. We’ll Wags and Col agreed - so I set about doing it.

I have tested it on a few people and all enjoyed it and it was funny listening to them and/or watching them when they had an answer on the tip of their tongue but couldn’t get it out.

Click the link below to download the dumbed down logos and see how many you can recognise. A big thanks to Jules @ Soul Mann for hosting the spreadsheet (as Blog Spot doesn’t allow uploading of word or excel files?!?!)

Download the spreadsheet here>>

Please make sure you register how many you correctly answered using the pole on the right hand side of this page.

If you have any logos that you reckon would be good for a Version 2 then let me know and I will “dumb it down” (Hint: it has to be a logo without much reliance on words/letters/fonts. For example, the Goodyear logo wouldn’t work).

Finally, one more thing, Current Issues in Marketing has an interesting post on the Red Bull Air Race.

Your Customers Are Like Water

2011-01-10T21:57:00.001+11:00

Lots of businesses put terms and conditions, access signups/restrictions and other things in place to ensure that their customers purchase or use their products and services in a particular way. Sometimes this is completely justified and the average consumer doesn’t mind if it is clearly explained to them why certain arrangements are in place. and how it will add value to them.

In contrast, I call anything that makes the transaction/relationship more difficult than the customer perceives it needs to be and/or doesn’t add value, a “rock”. It is even worse when they put rocks in place that are designed to manipulate the market (or rip customers off).

I call them rocks because … well … imagine your customers are a river. Moving along at a fast pace, getting on with their lives. Then there is you, a business, on the banks, hoping to grab their attention as they speed past. Sometimes they will slow down and interact with you. Sometimes they keep going.

Your standing on the bank, frustrated at the volume of water passing you by. So you throw a great big dirty arse rock in the middle of the river. It hits the bottom but is big enough that you can still see half the rock above the water.

What happens? Does the river slow down? Of course not, the water just goes right around it. Carries on. Doesn’t care about your feeble rock. Loser.

While you can dam it up completely, this isn’t usually a viable option for one person (business) standing on the side of the river with a pile of rocks. Even if you throw heaps of rocks in and manage to block it up pretty good the water won’t stop at your rocks. It’ll just find a path of lesser resistance and it will carry on.

Mostly it is only governments and really large industries/companies that can truly re-route or dam a river.

The point is, if you put rocks in place, and the customers don’t see the value or the point, or worse still hey think it is unfair, they will find a way around it or they will go somewhere else.

Take the iTunes and Beetles scenario at the moment.

Australian music fans are forging foreign iTunes accounts to make big savings on their purchases. The practice, which is a direct breach to iTunes terms and conditions, has exposed the inflated price that Australians pay to access songs off the popular music and entertainment site. By creating an American iTunes account through the use of a US credit card or gift card, users are saving up to 80c per song and $7 per album. The recently released Beatles box set collection can be bought with a saving of more than $100. Deals offered on the internet also include $US50 vouchers on sale for $US40, increasing the savings even further for music buyers.Not only limited to music, the same price differences can be applied across movies, television series and audiobooks — even titles that are not available to buy in Australia. Read the full story here>>

While the practice might be a direct breach to iTunes terms and conditions, consumers don’t care because they are being clearly ripped of by the rocks iTunes tries to put in place.

Another example is a website I visited recently to download some management templates. The templates are free, everyone in the industry uses them and loads of other websites provide them free as well. To download them you don’t have to complete a registration form or anything. However, the site says “If you wish to use the templates for anything other than for your own personal use, for example for your organisations internal use, to distribute copies to the public, or to re-use content from the templates etc, then you will need to apply for a PSI Licence from OPSI. Further information and instructions on applying for the PSI licence are contained in the following link”

Ummm, why the hell would anyone want management templates for personal use? Of course they are going to use them for work. Do you think many people apply for a licences? Of course not. They either ignore the rock or find a site where there are no rocks.

Why do companies even bother? Why don’t they just focus on great value and customer service?

What weak arse rocks does your company put in place because it gives senior managers a false sense of control/security? Or do you have any examples of weak arse rocks that companies have in place?

If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it

2011-01-05T21:47:00.001+11:00

So I got through the Christmas shopping ordeal pretty well this year. Sometimes good gift ideas just flow but if you are like me then there are plenty of times when you you need to get a Christmas, Birthday, Anniversary present and just draw a blank.

My mate Yabba (sorry, no shout out this time Trentles, flashmobs are soooo 2009) once told me about an idea he had where people in his office could list presents they got and rate them. It was about 10 years ago so I am pretty sure the extent of the idea would have been on a whiteboard or maybe extended to a spreadsheet. I always thought, in theory, it might have some legs but would need to be on a bigger scale.

My mind wandered the other day, probably because I was listening to Gerry Harvey whinge about how hard he has it (read as “I have no idea how to innovate or understand what my customers needs are so I need to get someone else to fix it) and I was thinking about how, if they end up surviving, shopping centres/malls could help out shoppers who need guidance. I started thinking about the Minority Report.

While I was looking for the above example of the Minority Report scene I also came across the 2nd

video posted about 9 months ago.

I am reading the 10th anniversary of the Clue Train Manifesto and there is a comment in there that says that advertisers just drooled over the internet as another way to push messages/ads. At the moment, the technology in the video is just another way for brands/advertisers to yell at you. Sure the technology is kind of cool but where is the innovation?

Imagine if you walked into a mall and up to one of the directories they have, it scans your face, recognises who you are and asks “how can we help?”. You speak and outline a few important elements of what you are looking for i.e. wife, 20 years old, likes exercise, romantic movies, reading, has a 2yo kid, hates anything tacky etc” Then it gives a sample of a few items and you nominate “Yes” or “No”, maybe even why “No” i.e. too cheap, too girly, already has one etc and then the directory refines its search and suggestions.

Then when you are happy it gives you a list and points you off to the shops.

This could probably even be an iPhone app that you could run through in your own home before you even get to the shops? And easily order online if you are one of the freaks who gets this organised before December. (stop press – just found a few but they seem to be more driven by you logging your own ideas for people and not them being targeted suggestions).

There probably needs to be some sort of personalisation to assist such as a card/file/app that tracks your friends/spouses shopping habits and allows even more targeted suggestions. Yes, yes, privacy etc is a concern but lets not let details get in the way of an idea. Einstein did say that “If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it”

So, what can you add/suggest to the idea?

My Year In Status on Facebook

2010-12-18T11:58:00.001+11:00

My Year In Status on Facebook is a neat little app that lets you create a collage of randomly selected status updates from the year.

It would be a bit better if the links from your status updates were active in the collage. Brought back some nice memories though.

Create yours here - My Year In Status on Facebook >>

Why Discounting Your Product or Service is a Shit Idea

2010-12-15T20:34:00.001+11:00

I read the other day that discounting is the most expensive form of promotion. You can tell by the post title that I would agree but only if we are talking non-B2C.

Not only to do you lose revenue but most likely you have also paid for the discount to be advertised e.g. a newspaper ad. It is especially dangerous if you are a premium brand as I there is something very subtle and reinforcing when a premium brand is never (or very rarely) on sale.

This time of year is tough especially if you work in B2B or B2G (Business to Government). Lots of places are slowing down and shutting down over the Christmas period and consumers are distracted with all things festive. The reaction of poorly prepared and educated marketers and sales staff is to discount to increase activity (and, in theory at least, revenue).

This is a shit idea but at the moment I see lots of businesses offering 2 for 1 deals or 50% off.

If you are in this position in B2B or B2G, and considering such deals, do you really think people are suddenly going to think "Oh, I knew about that offering but never had a need. But now they have a 50% discount I really need it! I know that it is a really busy time of year and I am on leave but they are on sale! I am going to buy it!”

I don’t think so and if you think i am wrong then you are naive. It is does it hurt the bottom line – the opposite of what you are trying to do.

Imagine you run training courses and a course normally costs $2000. At the 2 for 1 or 50% offer it means your revenue per head is $1000 less. That now means that in a quiet period you need to sell twice as many to get to your budget. Remember – the reason you are discounting is because you don;t have enough activity and now you want to double the activity you need to hit budget?

Why would you do that? You only make it harder - not easier!

Why Nutritional Information on Packaging is too Late

2010-11-22T21:31:00.001+11:00

Mumbrella reported last week that cereal manufacturer Kellogg’s has been named the main villain at the Fame & Shame Awards, organised by campaigning group Parents Jury.

Parents Jury handed out the “Smoke and Mirrors” award to Nutri-Grain which is for the use of claims on children's foods that make an unhealthy product appear healthier than it is. Nutri-Grain won for promoting the sugary cereal as a suitable breakfast cereal for boys who aspire to become elite athletes.

In response, Kellogg’s points out that it is a signatory to the industry’s codes of practice on marketing of food to children and abides by those standards. They also advised that “We take our responsibilities seriously. Nutritional information appears clearly on the product labelling”.

For me, that information comes way too late.

The decision to buy Nutri-Grain has already been made prior to getting to the supermarket and therefore circumvents any negative perception of the product that may be communicated on the package. How many parents who decide to start buying Nutri-Grain will seriously stop and read the nutritional information? Not many because the ad has already convinced them to buy it or maybe the kids have pestered them enough to buy it.

Printing nutritional information on the product simply forces Nutri-Grain to head upstream in the buyer decision process and create positive nutritional messages in a forum where they are not required to be as forthcoming with the truth as they must on packaging.

That’s not rocket science I guess and they are playing within the rules but it makes a mockery of an industry code.

I wonder whether one day TV, print ads etc will be forced to carry nutritional information in those channels? How effective would TV advertising be if the Nutri-Grain ad had to carry a note on the screen that informed us that a 100g serving provides the 32g of sugar at 37% of your recommended daily intake?

For those that work in the advertising industry – would you be scared by this prospect if Nutri-grain was one of your clients?

Just Because Someone Has a Knife …

2010-11-16T19:28:00.001+11:00

My boss was in a meeting with client the other day when somebody’s qualifications were being discussed.

Someone piped up with “Just because someone has a knife doesn’t make them a heart surgeon!”

It’s a cracker observation and one that sharply brings into focus the difference between having access to tools and being able to use tools effectively.

Then I saw this video today, from xtranormal, which pretty much shows it in practice.

Enjoy.

Thought Leadership as a Marketing Stratgey – Part III of III

2010-11-10T22:08:00.001+11:00

Read Part I here>>

Read Part II here>>

It Is All About Publishing Content

With the increase in thought leadership as a strategy to position a company as a trusted expert we are starting to see companies embrace a more public attitude toward publishing what they know. This distils to various content marketing tactics.

While whitepapers have long been a traditional vehicle for thought leadership, blogs have exploded as a much less formal, easily accessible and personal vehicle. Hosting events is also a particularly relevant option. This list is certainly not exhaustive but most tactics have their pros and cons.

Big companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have embraced blogging, allowing employees to publish to a sanctioned space, as a method of creating or maintaining corporate thought leadership. These companies do not necessarily expect senior management to be the content creators/authors.

The key with the above 3 example tools (blogs, whitepapers, events) is that they are not selling. Thought leadership is not about selling. It is about thinking and sharing those thoughts which in turn shape the market and build trust.

This is an important shift in business in that we need to be far less guarded in sharing of intellectual property or thinking in the P3 field. Jamie Oliver doesn’t keep all his secrets to himself because he is worried that someone will use them to open a restaurant across the street and put him out of business (hat tip Jason Fried). It goes a long way, however, to helping sell cook books and TV shows and as such becoming a thought leader by embracing the exchange of information that can help to propel the business.

Push vs Pull

Think of it in a marketing “push” vs “pull” approach. Push is all about interrupting and convincing the market to buy services. The pull (of clients to a business) is what thought leadership provides because they trust the company and see it as an authority. They are drawn to it.

The Results Of A Thought Leadership Strategy

The tools used to pursue a Thought Leadership strategy will provide and/or contribute to;

A pre-educated market resulting in a shorter selling process,
The ability to maintain trusted relationships through the provision of value in information,
The ability to shape the market both on a macro and micro level,
Brand Awareness, and
Attainment of premier/trusted provider status

The True Test Of Thought Leadership

The true test of a thought leadership strategy, and resulting tactics, is to ask the following six questions.

Ask “Does our thought leadership efforts”:

Add real value to our client’s work?
Position us as a trusted advisor engendering trust in the company/brand as the leader in our field?
Help underpin sales?
Provide a content rich platform from which we can write, talk, publish online and share with clients our valuable insights?
Position our company as the experts and ‘go to’ people in the field?
Ensure our brand is not focused on product and sales and instead on market leadership and in the process deliver long-term, sustainable advantage over our competitors?

In conclusion I would like to acknowledge the following sources that contributed to my thinking.

http://www.brittonmanasco.com/

http://www.thoughtleadershipstrategy.net/

http://www.wdfm.com/thought-leadership.php

http://blueflavor.com/blog/2006/jan/04/thought-leadership/

http://andylark.blogs.com/andylark/2010/04/what-is-thought-leadership.html

Thought Leadership as a Marketing Strategy – Part I of III

2010-10-28T21:52:00.001+11:00

">Read Part II here

This is part one of a three part series on using Thought Leadership as a marketing strategy. I won’t pretend that I thought this all up myself. I read far and wide and distilled it all into what I think are the most important elements. I will be sure to name the influential sources at the end of part 3.

What Is Thought Leadership?

It might sound obvious but a thought leader is a recognised leader in the current thinking, advancements and improvements needed in one’s field.

What differentiates a thought leader from any other knowledgeable company/person is the recognition as being at the forefront of understanding and/or application of a discipline(s) and having the confidence to promote or share those ideas.

This means providing both clients and competitors alike with insights which can be actioned or applied to their own work. Thought Leaders have a lot in common in that they have a public outlet for their thoughts (blog, public speaking, whitepapers), have something valuable to say and a commitment to publishing on a regular basis. Thought leaders are committed to being fair and balanced, to sharing experiences and fostering the learning and development of others.

It can be difficult to determine who is a thought leader and who is just a pundit. Essentially, a company/person is simply a pundit if they undertake any ideological discussion or criticism of a problem without presenting solutions that are grounded in some experience.

A Position That Is Granted – Not Claimed

Occupying a thought leadership position is important not only because of the advantages that it provides but also because of the disadvantages that a company would experience if a competitor occupies that position (and becomes more trusted or positions conflicting thoughts/messages).

On the flip side, the market advantage for a company is where thought leadership positions it in the minds of clients. That position is one of a premier provider and trusted advisor in their field.

A Thought Leadership position is, however, perishable. It is granted by the market and it is the market that sees a company as a thought leader (and which the company must work to build/maintain). A company is not a thought leader simply because it claims to be.

Within this is an inherent paradox – what is important to a company/person might not be important to their clients (at least at first). One of the critical roles of a communicator or marketer is to make the case for the thought (thinking about a problem or need). This has an important alignment with the traditional buying‐decision process i.e. awareness.

Thought Leadership as a Marketing Strategy – Part II of III

2010-10-28T21:46:00.001+11:00

Read Part I here>

An Attractive Strategy

A Thought Leadership strategy is attractive because it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to communicate and get their message across on a mass scale. Traditional “interruption” methods (i.e. advertising), is working less and less in the consumer market let alone in the business-to-business (B2B) market.

Consumers are increasingly expecting value without an exchange i.e. a purchase. This means that consumers are expecting information about solutions to their problems without having to buy any services.

This is particularly important if a company is responsible for making the client conscious of a problem they were not previously thinking about or aware of. Thought Leadership quietly positions a company in a trusted relationship - waiting for the time when a client becomes conscious of a problem and requires a solution.

It’s not necessarily that consumers expect a free solution but instead that they expect to be well educated during the information gathering stage of the buyer decision process. Essentially they are more resistant to being sold to. As such, a company should spend time positioning themselves and softening (educating/informing) the market prior to a sale. This positions the business as a go-to solution with which they have a trusted relationship. Trusted because they see the business as a thought leader willing to contribute to the greater good by sharing their thoughts and information.

Some of this positioning will inherently be to those that do not require a company’s help.That’s OK. When they do have a problem they are more likely to the company. Additionally, as they move between organisations, or are promoted, they will take their view of the company as a thought leader and trusted advisor/partner with them.

Priorities

A Thought Leadership strategy must have the buy-in and ownership of senior management.

Unfortunately, the pressure on senior management to meet monthly budgets can be a major dampener on a deep-seated, long-term thought leadership strategy. The longer-term reputation and trust building resulting from thought leadership does not satisfy the need for immediate results i.e. sales.

One of the biggest issues is the perceived high cost, in time and energy, relative to perceived benefits. Such perceptions can sometimes discourage investment in thought leadership tactics that promise to position a company as thought leaders and a trusted authority. Sometimes, the value may be agreed by all yet efforts to pursue the strategy must be prioritised in the wider context of the business.

The danger in this situation is the company has no choice but to market in conventional ways and rely on product-focused brochures, mass emails, call-to-actions or mass advertising – all of which are aimed at short term revenue. They have no real value for the client and the situation will be no different the following month.

Thought Leadership as a Marketing Strategy – Part I of III

2010-09-21T22:06:00.001+10:00

What Is Thought Leadership?

It might sound obvious but a thought leader is a recognised leader in the current thinking, advancements and improvements needed in one’s field.

A Position That Is Granted – Not Claimed

On the flip side, the market advantage for a company is where thought leadership positions it in the minds of clients. That position is one of a premier provider and trusted advisor in their field.

WTF Was The Agency Thinking?

2010-09-06T22:17:00.001+10:00

I know I have been slack in keeping regular blog posts coming but thanks to all those people who keep telling me to pull my finger out (just like the voice in my head).

I have some good posts in mind and I promise to be more regular in my postings (uh oh, there it is in writing!). I actually have a series on pursuing a thought leadership strategy that will be ready soon.

But until then, here is my third instalment of WTF Was The Agency Thinking?

This one is from McDonald’s and if you have any idea what they are trying to sell then you are doing better than me!

Why Don’t More Sports Brands Have Apps?

2010-07-14T21:51:00.001+10:00

I have a couple of favourite app games on my iPhone at the moment – One of them is a Soccer free kick game and the other a Rugby Union goal kick game.

I find it really odd that these great, and highly addictive games, are not branded. It seems the perfect fit to reinforce the brand connection and/or tribalism that sports fans have. I think if they were branded it would strengthen the emotional connection and even make them more addictive. Plus there is the obvious revenue stream for the clubs or brands.

Here are my favourite app games at the moment and an example of a great fit. Click on the icon or the title to download the game.

		Flick Football by Neon Play - $1.19 Awesome free kick game with walls set-up and plenty of ability to “bend it like Beckham” My high score is 25126	Perfect for any Soccer team but more importantly a massive missed opportunity with the World Cup just finished. Could be customised to go head-to-head against all 32 teams at the Cup.
		Flick Kick Rugby by PikPok $1.19 If penalty goals weren’t enough in the real world then get your fill here. Includes cool rugby quotes. My best sudden death score is 362	Great for Super 14, Guinness Premiership and Heineken Cup clubs. Could even incorporate real scenarios to kick goals from where a player has in the game and include video footage into the story.
		Virtual Horse Racing 3D by Nateni.com $2.99 Seriously addictive. Start with a $1000 and bet on 8 horse races with all the trimmings of tris, quins etc. I am up to $5,919,918,330!!!	Emirates and the Melbourne Cup would be a perfect fit! Could be customised to include current horses but what about Makybe Diva vs Archer vs Phar Lap! Would it be legal/moral for the TAB to sponsor this app?
		Footy Flick – by E. Potter & E. Lancaster FREE Fairly basic but a nice touch where you can throw grass up to check the wind. The crowd even throws cans at you sometimes. My best is	Obvious fit would be AFL teams and could be customised so I could be the Buddy Show every night!
		Bobble Surfer by Lemur Software $0.99 A nice surfing game where you can pull big airs and spins. A little addictive trying to see how many 360s you can pull of one air! 33-23-221	This one would be a nice fit for a surf label such as Billabong, Rip Curl or Quicksilver.

Surely a club or brand could just approach the makers of the app to tweak it to carry club colours, games scenarios, players etc and promote it through their sites?

Why Sport Really Isn’t Business

2010-06-29T21:35:00.001+10:00

If you ask most people they will agree that sport is business these days. It’s big business no matter how you look at it.

However, it has sometimes been an uneasy fit as the long traditions and tribalism's of sport are pushed together with the quest for the almighty dollar. Granted, there are aspects that work perfectly but it came into sharp focus this week just how unlike sport can be compared to a traditional business.

Imagine if you had a massive customer base and they were fairly captive, not completely, but that your product has been used by them, their families and their friends for so long that it has become part of who they are. Technically they could stop using your product but they are so attached to it that it wouldn’t even cross their mind.You’ve been so successful for so long and you are safe in the knowledge that your revenue streams are safe.

Sound like the perfect business right?

But it comes to your attention that there is a fault with your product that pisses a lot of people off. Thing is, you don’t really care. Why change it? People will still buy the product. Worst thing is, from the customers view point, is that its so bloody easy to fix that they just really think you are a wanker for not fixing it especially when similar businesses have done their best to fix the exact same problem. A lot of your customers feel really pissed off and angry that you could let this happen.

2 points if you have guessed what the business is.

FIFA.

This week we saw two unexplainable errors from the referees and linesman. Both could be easily fixed with introduction of video technology. But the reality is that FIFA are so pompous and arrogant that they really don’t give a flying whatsit about the fans (the customers). They are happy for the game to be wrecked and write it off as “that’s just football”.

Bet we wish we could all tell the boss “that’s just business” when something went wrong and absolve ourselves of any responsibility.

They’ll alk about introducing technology at a meeting and they’ll make a decision because they believe they know best. And that is why the marriage of sport and business is sometimes rocky because it’ll be the wrong decision because it will be based on what they think and not what the fans think. Any normal business would conduct the first step of marketing – conduct some market research.

All FIFA need to do is some market research to determine if it is what the customers want. Assuming they want video technology then trail it in small segments then roll it out when needed.

That’s what any normal business would do.

WTF Was The Agency Thinking?

2010-06-21T22:04:00.001+10:00

This is the third ad (really a collection of ads) in my WTF Was The Agency Thinking series.

Just like the last post in the series, I was scared watching this ad!

I know that this is old school artwork but surely these were scary even in their time? WTF Was The Agency Thinking?

This is Good Customer Service

2010-06-08T21:33:00.001+10:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about a bad customer service experience and pondered if "a great product or service is an excuse for bad service”

Interestingly, I was recently at one of the competitors of the restaurant I received bad customer service from. Here’s what happened.

Mrs Oyster and I took little Oyster (18 months) out for dinner to La Porchetta at Tuggeranong, Canberra. As usual, the guys behind the counter said “g’day” even though they weren’t going to seat us. A waitress showed us to a table and promptly got us a high chair. She offered us drinks and we obliged.

A couple of minutes later a second waitress came past and offered us drinks. Not smooth but better to have two drink offers than none, right?

Soon little Oyster’s dinner arrived and I accidentally knocked my beer over while helping him eat. Once I returned the bottle to it’s rightful position I didn’t even have time to turn around and ask for a cloth before a waitress arrived and took care of the spillage.

They obliged nicely when I asked for some tap water in his bottle.

So far we were proving a little high maintenance but nothing a family heading out for dinner would expect. But what happened next was pure customer service gold.

Little oyster was being a shit and wouldn’t eat his dinner properly. This went on for a few minutes before a waitress arrived and offered some sauce, “kids love tomato sauce on anything” she said. It worked a treat as he got to dunk his food into the sauce before trying to get it in his mouth.

Then she noticed that Little Oyster was using a big person’s fork and returned with a kids size fork to make it easier (for all involved).

This type of customer service, above and beyond, is what made our dinner a much nicer experience.

La Porchetta is fairly similar to Zeffirelli but the great product is enhanced by La Porchetta’s customer service and damaged by Zeffirelli’s.

I suppose a lot of what happened at La Porchetta is as much to do with the general attitude of the staff (rather than some sort of systematic training). However, in a broader sense, the opportunity for any business is to understand what your customer’s “expect” and deliver above it. You don’t have to deliver much more, maybe only 1%, maybe a kids fork and some sauce, but boy does it create a great experience and positive word of mouth!

In comparison, I haven’t even had a response from Zeffirelli despite emailing them my post. Just a “sorry, we’ll try harder next time” would be nice. They are lucky that they make such great calzone because if La Porchetta made calzone then I wouldn't have to go near Zeffirelli’s again. Hint hint La Porchetta ;)

Tooheys New Ads

2010-05-31T21:12:00.001+10:00

You have probably seen the Tooheys New ads on TV positioning Tooheys new as the official currency of the beer economy. They are ok, made me chuckle the first time I saw them – especially the one where the bloke is helping his mate clear toxic waste and they drop the barrel and his mate pegs it!

Tooheys have been running some topical print ads in the paper as part of the campaign. There is a cracker one that relates to the Melbourne Storm Salary cap scandal that I ripped out of a paper at a cafe but am still to retrieve it from the bottom of my son’s pram.

Tooheys ran these two ads in last Wednesday’s paper – State of Origin Day. Loved them.

Marching on Together

2010-05-17T22:11:00.001+10:00

I’m a massive Leeds United fan – the club where Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka became household names. In recent times they have gone from being a top 4 team to being relegated from the English Premiership and then from the Championship to spend 3 seasons in League 1 (3rd division).

Two weekends ago they won promotion and are now back in the Championship with an eye firmly on the Premiership where they belong.

They are a massive brand with fan clubs all over the world - the biggest global fanbase of any English Club outside of the Premier League. This week they are attempting to capitalise on the support of the club to try and propel the club’s theme song “Leeds, Leeds, Leeds”, sometimes called Marching on Together, into the number 1 spot.

A Facebook site, titled Celebrate Promotion by making Leeds, Leeds, Leeds (Marching On Together) number one, quickly amasses 30,000 fans and apparently many wasted little time in downloading the track.

The song has been digitally remastered and was released on Sunday. leedsunited.com report that “The club's anthem quickly hit number one in the Amazon Download chart and was also faring well in the iTunes chart and the play.com chart.” Currently it sits at 8 in the UK iTunes chart.

They are estimating that around 50,000 downloads would be enough to take the song to the top of the charts next weekend or 30, 000 to keep it in the top 10.

It’s certainly a great strategy during a time of strong engagement with the supporters not to mention the income it can generate for the club. If 50, 000 people download it at $1.69 that’s $84 500.00

Even though I already had the old version (current play count = 100) I still bought a copy. Get yours here then pump up the stereo and wind down the window!

It would be a massive guerrilla marketing achievement considering the original song was a b-side released in 1972.

WTF Was The Agency Thinking?

2010-05-05T21:21:00.001+10:00

This is the second ad in my WTF Was The Agency Thinking series.

I was scared watching this ad and kept waiting for the doll to produce a knife!

The little girls in the ad looked scared and not excited about the noise the doll is making!

WTF Was The Agency Thinking?

2010-04-26T20:47:00.001+10:00

This is the first instalment of my “WTF Was The Agency Thinking” series.

First cab of the rank is kinder surprise. Whoever worked on this ad was either off their chops on drugs or had some serious psychological problems.

Chochadooby! Seriously creepy …

Is A Great Product/Service an Excuse for Bad Customer Service?

2010-04-19T22:05:00.001+10:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but I have been busier than a one legged man in an arse kicking contest … Ok, back to the blog.

Zeffirelli is a cracker Italian family restaurant known for its down to earth, delicious food and generous sizes at great prices. They have their marketing mix (the 4 Ps anyway, not really the 7 Ps of customer service as you’ll see as you read on") pretty much bang on and as a result they are always busy.

I rang them two Friday’s ago and is often the case with a busy restaurant the person answering the phone quickly said “please hold”. That’s cool, I know they are busy and appreciate they answered the phone (after all, it took about 10 goes to get through as it was constantly engaged).

So I held.

And held.

For about 10 minutes.

That doesn’t seem to long but when it is a Friday night, and your in your car, wanting to order dinner so you can get home and see your family, and your on you mobile … well it seemed like a year.

I could hear, in the background, other calls being answered and unless they have about 10 lines into the place then people were definitely getting served before me. Then, I am pretty sure I heard one staff member say to another “that phone is off the hook” and then I heard a voice “Hello Zeffirelli, what can I get you?”

I responded with “Mate, I have been on hold for 10 minutes”

“Yeah, sorry about that, we are really busy” (“no shit!” I thought, “It definitely wouldn't have been because you forgot about me would it?”).

“How long for 2 calzones?” I said. “Oh about 25 minutes” he said.

“They’d be almost ready if you had of served me quickly wouldn’t they? Oh ok, I’ll have 2 Calzones thanks” I said

“Home delivery or pick-up?” he asked

“Oh yeah, home delivery, that’ll be better, I can head home and you can drop it off. How much is that?” I asked

“$8.50” he said. Holy shit $8.50 to deliver 2 calzones! But I ordered home delivery anyway. NOTE: Here is a great opportunity to say “Home delivery will be free of charge as a sorry for making you wait 10 minutes on the phone”

I gave him my phone number, my house number and my street. Then I told him my suburb. “Oh we don’t deliver to that suburb” he said.

“Really” I queried, “what does you add say about delivery?”

“I dunno, what does it say?” he asked.

“It says you deliver all over Canberra and this is definitely the closest store to my suburb” I said. As evidence I present you you a picture/ad from their website.

“Oh, ok, I’ll just check if we can deliver there” and he put down the phone.

By now I had had enough. I hung up.

NOTE: Here is a great opportunity to ring back (remember I gave my number when placing the order) and say “Hi mate, really sorry for stuffing you around, we’ll get your calzones out ASAP and delivery will be free of charge as a sorry for making you wait 10 minutes on the phone and for me not knowing what we promise in our ads.”

Now, this bloke was clearly so busy that he really didn’t care if I got looked after or not. They obviously had a full house and plenty of other orders to fill.

So my question is, and it is a serious one, don’t be too quick to jump to an answer but “Is being so busy, or having such a cracker product/service, an excuse for bad customer service?”

I mean, if you have so much business then does it really matter if you piss a few customers off?

Marketing Observations from England

2010-01-18T22:18:00.001+11:00

I have just spent a few weeks in snowy England for Christmas and made the following marketing observations.

KFC still use “Finger Licking Good” instead of the Aussie “Can’t beat that taste”.
When I was in England last time, in 2006, every 2nd ad was for debt consolidation. Now, in 2009/10, every 2nd ad is for websites that compare services e.g. car insurance, rates, utilities.
Radio 1, a popular BBC run FM station, included “breaking Tweets” from celebrities read out during news bulletins. e.g. “Breaking Tweet from Robbie Williams - “Just announced upcoming tour dates”.
I didn’t give a shit about Twitter while I as away for 3 weeks and I didn’t miss it. Interestingly, 40 people still chose to follow me.
Coco Pops positions itself as an after school snack for kids. Check out the commercial on the right.
One of the equivalents of Coles or Woolies in the UK is Tescos.

Good – They have a massive fridge full of fresh sandwiches. Great tasting and great value. Supermarkets would make a killing in Australia if they took this approach. I don’t know about you but I am getting a bit sick and tired of paying $8-9 for a sandwich which is so obviously made with ingredients bought at the supermarket anyway.
Good – They have mores semi-prepared food options. For example, fresh options that just need a little more prepping to be ready for dinner.
Bad – You have to pack your own bags. This just slows the whole process up as if you don’t have those recyclable bags. The the cashier has to stop scanning to unravel bags and then throw them at you! Then, if you don’t pack quickly enough both the cashier and the others in the line glare at you because the cashier can’t start scanning and sending items down the chute. Bizarre.
Neutral but interesting – the checkout chicks all sit down at the register.

Warm beer is a fucked idea. I wouldn’t feed it to my dog.

This one isn’t really a a marketing observation but interesting nonetheless. Once when I was in England somebody told me that all houses who have a TV have to pay for a TV licence. The government checks this by sending a van around where they point a scanner at the house to see if you have a TV but haven’t paid a licence. I thought they were pulling my leg but apparently it is true. A licence costs $250 per year!

McDonalds Listens To Me!

2009-12-08T20:48:00.001+11:00

Well, well, well. Looks like old McDonalds recons Oyster knows what he is talking about. A few months ago I wrote a post about how much I used to love the McDonald’s calendars and asked “Why the hell did they ever get rid of them?”

It seems Ronald reads The Oyster Project.

So I was in the drive through on Sunday night and I get to the window where they give you your food and what do I see? The 2010 Ronald’s Big Calendar of Fun! And for only $2. I thought I was in the Delorean and had gone back 25 years but Doc was nowhere to be seen!

I said to the 16yo kid serving me, with a lot of enthusiasm “Is that the Ronald McDonald Calendar?” to which he replied “Yeah” - not matching my enthusiasm in the slightest. “Man I used to friggin hang out for that calendar every Christmas when I was a kid! Can grab one?”

I stopped short of telling him I blogged about them a few months ago.

So I eagerly handed him my $2 and got a shiny new colouring in calendar with over $100 of value in vouchers for not just McDonalds (like the old days) but also Luna Park, Jamberoo, AMF Bowling and IMAX. The calendar still has colouring in each month but also has plenty of brain teasers as well as lots of encouragement and ideas for exercise

McDonald’s restaurants in NSW and ACT are supporting Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) by selling Calendars from November 17 – December 31. All of the profits are going to Ronald McDonald Houses, Family Rooms and other RMHC programs being run in the region.

So if you used to love this calendar then grab one for your kids, nieces or nephews and make sure they now how much fun the good old days were before iPods and interwebs.

Now, where are my pencils?

(BTW – is it just me or does the picture of Ronald on the calendar look like he has been aged back about 20 years? Botox and the health choices menu maybe?)

Are Blogs Becoming Less Social?

2009-11-30T21:01:00.001+11:00

Is it just me or do are do you get the feeling that blogs are not really all that social?

As a blogger, I want people to comment and I want my posts to start a conversation. The more comments I get then the the better my blog right? Well … maybe not.

One blog in particular that I have been reading for a while now used to attract a nice stream of readers and a moderate number of comments. It was good because the I like the writer and the content and I always felt I could contribute to the conversation and people would read my comments in the context of the post and other comments.

The blogger has worked hard and smart in the last 12 months to build their blog into a powerful one and widen their audience. I am sure they believe they have been successful and I am sure if the stats were wheeled out then all signs would point to success. Certainly if we could move a client/corporate blog ahead like this then there would be plenty of slaps on the back.

But here is the rub. What I find more and more is that the blog in question, and to be honest plenty are moving down this path, attract so many comments I feel that my opinion will not add anything. It is kind of like going to a party. If you are in a small group then everyone has their say, adds to the conversation and gets listened to. Every one seems happy and is entertained. Go to a public debate and you’ll probably get drowned out even if you get a chance to talk and many will leave thinking “I never got my say”.

Time is also a factor. Sometimes I get to a blog and it has 20-30 comments already. I have something great to say but to be honest I feel like people probably won’t read it because there are so many other comments. So I often just don;t bother commenting. Maybe it is just that the conversation has passed me by?

Add to this situation that some bloggers are happy to post and let people comment but really don’t tend to their comments all that often. Makes me think they are very un-social and makes me think twice about helping their blog by leaving comments in the future.

Marketing & Selling to the Government

2009-11-05T22:47:00.001+11:00

I am a little slow getting around to this post considering it is a response to an article in last month’s Marketing Magazine’s B2B article “Love me tender” by Kimon Lycos.

The article is not really B2B but more B2G (business to government) and while I am not even sure that is an acceptable marketing acronym Kimon certainly outlines a lot of things that highlight how different it is to market and sell to the government. For those that don’t know, this is exactly the area I work in, marketing and selling to Federal Government Agencies

Kimon is jaded. The article is very negative however I must confess that from time to time I have felt exactly the same way about the process of marketing & selling to the Government. Yet this is simply being the victim. It isn’t always like that and marketers don’t have to let that happen. That’s why I thought I would share a few “tricks of the trade” in working and tendering to Government.

Kimon believes that government just announces to the market their need and everyone responds and it is competitive and fair and a great solution is found (I paraphrased there). I agree with him this is delusional, however, this is too simplistic. It doesn’t address the real possibility/fact that a provider or business has an existing relationship with the Department and that they have a deep understanding of the problem and have helped shape a buying vision (a solution, which they can provide, and which the client believes it wants).

It is the buying vision, built from a need or pain, that prompts and shapes a tender or request for quote.That’s why getting a tender or request for quote should not be a surprise because you knew it was coming because you shaped the clients buying vision.

If you are sitting back and betting your company’s survival on Departments just knocking on your door and telling you what they want then you are a lunatic. Sure you will win some work but hear this – in the B2G space you will only win 20% of tenders/quotes where you don’t have an existing relationship with the Department. Considering some tenders take months and a team of people to respond then I wouldn’t be hanging my hat on winning 1 in 5.

Often a mechanism that provides a reason to talk to clients is a panel. If you aren’t familiar with panels then they are essentially a pre-qualified group of suppliers from which a Department can purchase without having to jump through all the procurement hoops. Being a member doesn’t guarantee any work whatsoever but it does provide you a reason to start talking with key people in Department’s.

Often it is from panels that Departments will seek suppliers who are invited to tender for work. For example, the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) has a Capability Development Panel and then has approximately 55 Federal Departments signed on to access pre-qualified suppliers. The structure of the panel is such that it satisfies the Government’s Procurement Guidelines and allows Department’s to sole source (they don’t need to go to a competitive bidding situation and can instead just approach one company who will quote pre-accepted pricing). It’s kind of like your Mum giving you some money and then taking you to the shops and saying “you can buy what ever you want when you think you need it, I trust you and all the shops here".

There will also be times when you will receive a tender out of the blue from a client you are not currently working with. Often your response will be “excellent, it will be great if we can win this”. But remember, there is most likely another marketer somewhere who shaped the buying vision and who is expecting the tender to come out. Sometimes a Department will still ask for 3 quotes just to keep it all above board but really they have made their choice. This is what we refer to as a “donkey vote”. The skill comes in recognising these and choosing not to spend valuable time and resources on writing a tender that you will not win.

If this isn’t teed up for you to get on and build relationships and buying visions then you need to move on. If your company provides development services in areas such as Leadership, Learning and Development, and this is the first you’ve heard about the APSC panel then you better hope your boss doesn’t hear about it because you’ll be a dead man walking.

However, the APSC panel isn’t the only panel around. There are heaps and often Departments will have their own and even have a few depending on the type of services they believe they’ll need e.g. IT, Marketing, Training etc

To help businesses be aware of current panels and tenders the Government has a website called AusTender at www.tenders.gov.au where you can essentially set up an email alert, similar to Google, for Tenders or Panels that meet your key words.

Once a tender does come out it is too late to start building a relationship. There are rules governing contact with public servants and businesses and it is essentially a closed shop. Often even a question trying to clarify something will be published to all tenderers along with the Department’s response.

One of the most important steps in tendering for Government work is what happens after you get a “No”. It doesn’t end there and you should be seeking a debrief where a Government employee will outline for you why you did not receive the work. For example, I went to a debrief this year where it was outlined to me that I positioned the company’s strengths too much instead of focusing on the individuals being nominated for the work.

I believed that this approach would help position us as big, strong and dependable and that the individuals were not as important because all our staff are great and we had capacity to meet their timeframe and needs. However, I now know that future tenders into that Department will need to strongly showcase the individuals and not so much the company.

Marketing and selling to Government is complex and wile I have tried to cover some major points above I would love to take questions or hear your thoughts or tips in the B2G space.

One Year On …

2009-10-28T07:58:00.001+11:00

Over the last few weeks I have read about a few blogs that have celebrated birthdays – Gavin Heaton’s Servant of Chaos turned 4, Julian Cole’s Ad-Space Pioneers turned 3 and Zac Martin’s Pigs Don’t Fly turned 2.

You get the picture yet? 4, 3, 2 …. yes that’s right, today The Oyster Project celebrates birthday number 1. I recon I would have missed it if I hadn’t of read posts on the aforementioned blogs spruiking their birthdays. Pretty weird that they all fall in October!

I remember my first post and the doubts I had about sending it out to the world. In the end it was what I would consider a success with 9 comments (6 from readers and 3 from myself) especially considering that it is often hard to get that many comments regularly even with a bit of a following. Thanks so much to my mate Zac Martin who posted the first ever comment on this blog and who pointed out to me over a beer that he was jealous because it took him a long time (a year?) to get even one comment. I should never have rubbed a Whopper in your face :)

You can check out my first ever post “Have You Seen Any Bananas?”

I don’t profess to understand in great detail why I got off to a good start but Zac did offer some insights into a post he wrote about me at the start of the year in What Brands Can Learn From An Oyster

It has been a cracker year and I have met some cool people – Zac Martin, Nathan Bush, Kate Kendall (that one took a while :), Peter Wagstaff, Lucio Roberio, James Duthie, Julian Cole, Jye Smith, Josh Strawczynski and enjoyed some great chats and plenty of beers. Even a year on I still don’t know how to answer Mrs Oyster’s question “So you are going to meet some bloke you met on the internet?”

I really am appreciative of everything people have done to help me out and I don’t want to single anyone out because the list would be a bit long (but if you have written a post, got me to an event or let me talk dribble on your podcast then you know I am talking about you).

What’s Your Victory Dance?

2009-10-14T23:03:00.001+11:00

You won’t often see me on the dance floor, because I am hopeless, but one dance I don’t mind doing is my victory dance.

WTF is that Oyster? We’ll, my victory dance is what I do when something good at work happens. If you work in marketing and/or sales then you will know what I am talking about - that feeling when you are working on a pitch or sale and the client says … “Yes”. It’s that feeling when things are going your way and you are on a roll. It is especially good if a few things haven’t been coming off lately.

After one such recent victory dance I posted the question on Twitter “When something gr8 happens @ work does any1 else get up & do a little dance & a few fist pumps? Or is that just me?”

@poptrashmusic and @officeranni saw the tweet and I was encouraged to tape a victory dance and post it here. So here it is … me getting of the phone to some good news at work.

OK, so maybe it isn’t really a dance but more of a jig or even an outright display of excitement but I thought you would find it entertaining nonetheless!

Now I expect @poptrashmusic and @officeranni to post videos of their victory dances and it would be great if you could tape yours as well and upload them to YouTube. Just post the link in the comments. Come on, please don’t keep your victory dances to yourself!

Mag Nation, alive and thriving in the age of dying print | Part 2 of 2

2009-10-05T19:12:00.001+11:00

If you missed Part 1 of this story then you can read it here

If you visit a store or check out their website, and because they are cool and edgy, then you would be forgiven in thinking that Mag Nation is a Gen Y focussed and run business. However, Sahil would be quick to correct you, “That is crap – we have more 30-40yo customers than 20–30yo customers because of the income difference” he said “but by the same token all the branding and marketing that gets done is largely through 20-30yo because they are much more likely to spread the love.”

What Mag Nation did to build their offering is about as pure a marketing concept approach as you can get. “We just had a dialogue with these people and asked them ‘what do you want?’ and what came back was fascinating. They told us ‘Ok, we love your magazines but we also love other stuff like designer stationary’. So we started offering designer stationary and it is now the fastest growing part of the business.”

That meant that Sahil had to do something a lot of businesses should do when they realise they maybe didn’t know everything – eat humble pie. “It was funny because I had gone out to the press and said we will never ever ever stock stationary. I had to eat my words. However, we don’t do cheap stuff, we do the designer stuff, imported from around the world. This is all high-end, gorgeous stuff, and this is what aligns with our customers.”

“We have also branched out into graphic design books and we even have a t-shirt exhibition on for niche one off t-shirts. Again, we are doing this because it aligns with the graphic design community. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t, but we are testing the boundaries and we are even selling the one-off t-shirts.”

In typical Zac Martin style, he wanted to know about what they do that is ‘remarkable’. I asked Sahil what he thought about customers always expecting ‘remarkable’ from companies. “I believe in the sentiment but you have to be careful because it can be tempting to try and manufacturer a remarkable moment rather than it being part of your essence.”

Showing his down to earth attitude, Sahil noted that is “a bit of a wanky stance” but wanted to give me an example. “I believe it is a good approach to try and do 100 things better than your competitors such as Mag Nation allowing people to browse and read the magazines, and actually encouraging it. It is part of our philosophy and we believe that the more someone will touch and feel and read the product the more likely they are to buy it. Yes some people will spend 2 hours and not buy but that is fine.”

Sahil is unsure if that makes them remarkable but continued to offer me examples of things he believed might qualify. “We have free wifi licenses, coffee, 4000 mags, we are a mag store that looks good, a cool 3^rd floor, a t-shirt exhibition, we go to conferences and share our experiences, we run fun viral campaigns for free coffee and we give people a code and encourage them to pass it on”. I asked him more about the free coffee code and he elaborated “We give them a code to use when they order their coffee and one time it was ‘excuse me I am a little bit itchy do you have any anti-fungal cream?’ and as a reward we gave them a free latte.” he explains. “None of these things by themselves is remarkable but we believe that with them added all together then maybe it does make us remarkable.”

The first two entries of their blog has comments that hint that the readers believe Mag Nation is remarkable but Sahil believes that this may just be because they bare their soul but he doesn’t believe they try and be remarkable.

Maybe that is where the simple genius of remarkable lies – in just trying to be themselves. Maybe, with so many companies trying to be remarkable, and often having to manufacture it, then it is just companies being themselves and being comfortable that makes them remarkable? We are so often used to companies being guarded, of the CEO wanting to control the message, the legal department polishing it to within an inch of anything even remotely engaging and of communiations being one way. Instead, Mag Nation just puts itself out there, not really caring what the world thinks. To me, that is an attractive quality and kind of like the girl at the party who doesn’t really care whether you like her or not.

“We are completely aware and comfortable that we can’t control everything. There is too much noise and communication. Instead of trying to control it we just embrace it and go with it. You know what? Fuck the idea of trying to get a message across, we just wanna be who we are. We could fake a lot of things if we wanted but we can’t fake who we are.”

I asked Sahil if he had an example where they had received some negative feedback and how they handled it and he recounted a blog post “There is a blog entry titled ‘What is the problem New Zealand?’ which I wrote because we get a lot of love in Australia but not so much in NZ. We got bagged a lot but we took it on board because it is just amazing feedback. We need that pure feedback. We want that feedback. However, some of it was unjustified, and we won’t just take that. We’ll stand our ground and defend ourselves against what we think is unfair criticism.”

Eventually I wanted to hear it from the horses mouth so I asked “Is print dying?” Of course I knew the answer but I wanted to hear it from someone who is obviously comfortable with their business and would give it to me straight. Sahil explained, “Yes print is in decline. We don’t put our head in the sand. Yes it is serious and whole bunch of magazines will die and so they should ... they are crap. That’s good. It will be those mags that just peddle information that will die because you can just get their info anywhere. Why would I get car info from a magazine? I can just get it online. It is those mags that create a community because the community is strong and the magazine is just a window to that brand.”

Having had a few interactions with them on Twitter, and having read a few blog posts, I was keen to find out what Mag Nation’s Social Media strategy was. “We just use it for engagement and the key is that when a brand talks directly with a consumer the consumer feels very special. The thing is, the conversations don’t take a long time. If I could have 10 000 conversations I would be happy.”

Mag Nation have been using SM tools since March this year and Sahil described the company as being “newbies”. Their Twitter account boasts 2500 followers but they are only following 500. I asked Sahil how they decide who to follow. “We will follow someone when they take part in an interesting conversation” he explained. Sahil prides himself on answering any Tweet, that asks a question, within 24 hours. Something that most owners would not do let alone set a target on.

“We even set up the Twitter alter ego to @mag_nation just to have fun and because we know how to laugh at ourselves. However, it was important that we disclosed that it was us as it was important that we weren’t seen as being deceitful. The alter-ego heckles us in the background.”

Sahil believes that SM is now an absolute vital tool. He believes it is a way to connect with customers and that if they are a company that is all about customers then SM is one of the best ways to connect with them. Sahil recounted a story that highlighted the importance of SM and the strong following they have built “We are looking to open a store in Sydney in October and I was looking at sites. But I cant be in Sydney every 2^nd day and I don’t know Sydney as well as Sydneysiders do. So I asked the question ‘where should I be in Sydney?’ and I got a whole bunch of responses and people even started sending me photos of sites for lease!”

Finally, I asked Sahil which his his favourite magazine title. “I can’t tell you which is my favourite title, that is like asking which of my 3 kids I like the best.” I wanted to ask him which is the coolest title they stock but you all know he was going to say “Oyster”.

Mag Nation currently have 5 retail stores, 3 in Auckland and 2 in Melbourne, with a new Sydney store opening in Kin St Newtown mid-October. So get in and check them out. Maybe you should ask the barista “excuse me I am a little bit itchy do you have any anti-fungal cream?” (but only if you are itchy because this code is no longer valid).

Mag Nation, alive and thriving in the age of dying print | Part 1 of 2

2009-09-29T23:09:00.001+10:00

I had noticed it before. In fact, last time I was in Melbourne I visited the coffee shop a few doors down and I over heard the barista say “oh yeah, you can get any magazine you want in there. It is right next door.”

This time around I was on the hunt for a Mountain Biking Magazine so I wandered in to see what Mag Nation had to offer. As its name suggests, there is a lot of magazines, in fact, they stock over 4000 titles so I had to climb a few flights of stairs to find what I was looking for.

When you enter Mag Nation you can tell it is about more than just magazines. I am not sure if it was the smell of the coffee they serve, the sheer colour that is everywhere or the customers sitting around the store just browsing but it was obvious that it wasn’t as shallow an offering as “just magazines”.

I started to wonder how is it that a shop seems to be thriving when so many of the marketing and digital media experts are telling us that print is dying. How is it that essentially they can sell what I can get at the local newsagent yet create an atmosphere so very different? I decided to dig a little and got in contact with Sahil Merchant, Chief Magazineologist, co-founder and owner. Sahil was very willing to share his story.

I have never interviewed someone about marketing. I was a little nervous because Sahil had already said he’d do it before I had really thought much past the notes I scribbled on the plane back to Canberra.

So I did what any self-respecting marketing, social media user, would do – I asked my Twitter followers to source some questions and inspiration. Zac Martin and Nathan Bush helped me out with some ideas that I probably would have come up with myself if I had of applied my brain - is this the problem with having a ready made research group at your fingertips? I was appreciative nonetheless.

The most interesting Twitter response I got was from @mag_nation itself (a good sign they are listening to the conversation) with “@DanielOyston How is it that their founder can be so handsome and intelligent at the same time. (he he)”

However, the surprising Twitter response actually came from a Twitter handle @print_is_dead with “@DanielOyston When are they going to recognise that print is dying? (he he)” This intrigued me so I visited its homepage. I smiled when I read the bio - “Disclosure: We are @mag_nation. In the interest of baiting ourselves and balanced debate (and having fun) - we have created our very own twitter nemesis”.

It was then that I started to realise that Mag Nation was being driven by people who were serious but didn’t take themselves too seriously.

The enthusiasm and honesty is immediately realised when you talk to Sahil. Enthusiasm for what the business is trying to achieve and it comes lined with a sense of self-assuredness. Maybe the self-assuredness comes from the honesty – the honesty in telling me that the business, ironically a print business, almost died.

In a previous life, Sahil was a management consultant and lawyer who travelled the world advising large retail companies. Sahil’s uncle Ravi, and now business partner, migrated to New Zealand 12 years ago but was not allowed to work as a medical doctor due to non-recognition of his overseas qualifications.

Re-training as a doctor was out of the question so instead Ravi purchased a small Auckland based magazine store. At the time Sahil was consulting to a major NZ corporate.

As time went on, and family conversations were had, Sahil and Ravi hatched a plot to take the Auckland magazine shop well beyond a little store and create a new retail concept. The dream wasn’t to be just another big fancy newsagent and they believed it had to be skewed to magazines. The dream was realised when Mag Nation opened its doors in March 2006.

While other retailers are cheap and nasty, with worn carpet and fluoro lights,Mag Nation is built on creating an experience around magazines. “We don’t care about New Idea etc, we make our margin on the $40 magazines, the fashion, architecture mags, design mags. The niche interests. If we expect the customers to spend that much money on a periodical then do we think they really want to do it in a fluoro lit store with a pimply kid behind the counter who doesn’t speak much English?” Sahil explained

I asked Sahil to describe Mag Nation’s ideal customer and “Urban Savvy” was his non-hesitant response. “Urban savvy is a term we created. We didn’t originally have that focus but not having that focus almost saw us go under. Originally we focused on the product, magazines, magazines, magazines. We thought that was a smart way to go but it made us ask the wrong questions and that meant we got the wrong answers” Sahil said.

“Our original focus led us to ask ‘Who likes magazines?’ and the answer was ‘everyone’ because there are so many areas. There is one for every interest. That led to the question of ‘where is everyone’. Our answers led to us opening up in shopping malls in pursuit of foot traffic.”

The result was a disaster and on its deathbed, Mag Nation re-examined the every fundamentals of the principals of what the business was founded on. You can liken it to a person’s life flashing before their eyes but just before they drift off towards the light they just pull through and bring with them a heightened sense of purpose. Sahil provided this post-mortem “Mag Nation was too focused on the product and we got that wrong. We should have focussed on the core customer.”

That comment from Sahil highlights the timeless battle of sales vs marketing. Mag Nation were to concerned with moving product rather than creating a concept around their target market’s needs or problems.

“We didn’t know who the core customer was when we first started out. We never knew that there was such a latent, pent up demand for all the products that we stock.” Sahil continued “Of course we stock all the other titles and they are still very important to us but now what we have become known for is all the high end, fashion, architecture and design titles.”

“The high end was where all the love was coming from. So we asked ‘who is that customer?’ We didn’t find a single customer in terms of demographic but what we found was a characteristic, a common outlook on life and so we coined the term ‘urban savvy’.”

“The standard marketing segments don’t work for us because we might have a 22yo who only has a small amount of money to spend but wants to spend it on a particular mag that defines his fashion sense. Or we might have a 45yo architect who has a lot of money to spend and is conservative but buys all the high end architecture mags. It is not age defined or income bracket defined but an outlook on life.” Sahil said.

The second instalment of this story has now been posted here.

Travel All Over The Country Side

2009-09-15T08:24:00.001+10:00

It is always sad when someone who created great memories from your childhood passes on. It’s always really weird because often you haven’t thought about hem for a very long time. So it was when I heard the news about Mike Leyland’s passing yesterday.

For those of you too young to remember, Mike was one half of the legendary Leyland Brothers who had a TV show titled “Ask The Leyland Brothers”. From 76 to 84 they tripped across Australia in their 4WDs or Campervans after receiving invitations from viewers to come and visit their remote areas.

As a kid I got to see heaps of cool stuff that I wouldn’t ordinarily been able to. It brought all the cool places from around Australia into our house.

Even though they boasted 2.5 million fans (a figure any TV exec would give his first born for today) it occurred to me this morning that such a concept just wouldn’t float despite the tourism that it could drive. It is simply too pure a concept to get approval.

Instead, similar TV shows now have to be polished and product based to within and inch of their life. Instead of a show just bringing us great stories and entertainment it has to be all about pushing product with the last shot telling me how much I can expect to pay for flights and accommodation or the difference in price between mature plants and seeds or whatever.

Sadly, similar TV shows are now just a sales pitch and the people presenting it are B-grade celebrities that wouldn’t know if their arse is on fire, staying in 5 star hotels and having a support crew to help them.

BTW – the Leyland Brothers ran the risk of dying if they didn’t have the skills to meet whatever challenge popped up. They didn’t have support crews to help fix a broken down 4WD in the middle of the outback when it was 50 degrees.

Will anybody remember with the same fondness when Jamie Durie passes?

Now, everyone who remembers, start singing the song ‘Travel all over the country side …” or just play the video for some cracker memories.

Harold and the Price of Coffee

2009-08-17T21:54:00.001+10:00

A man (lets call him Harold) owned a coffee shop and it did ok. He often thought that it could probably do better and this was because mostly he sold lots of coffee but never made a lot of money. He didn't really know where to begin so he asked his mate (lets call him Trent), that knew a fair bit about small businesses, for some advice.

Trent spent some time with Harold looking at the business – all the usual stuff – promotion, the products on offer, the location, competitors, the price etc. Trent also did a bit of research on other coffee shops in the area and the thing that struck him most was that Harold’s coffee was 30 – 50 cents cheaper than the other coffee shops.

Trent had a chat to Harold about the possibility of raising of the prices because, from what he could see, every other aspect of Harold’s offerings were spot on and the price seemed the only place to leverage.

Harold didn’t like the idea and argued that the reason he got lots of customers was because the coffee was cheaper. However, Trent persisted and convinced Harold that the easiest and most obvious way to make the business more profitable was to increase the prices. Harold’s chin wobbled and his glasses fogged a little but he reluctantly agreed to trial it for a month.

The first two weeks saw sales drop as many of Harold’s regular customers had started going elsewhere. What would normally be busy morning periods had turned into a slow few hours. Harold wasn’t a happy camper and Trent wondered if he had given Harold the wrong advice. They resisted the temptation to drop prices and Harold stuck to his agreement to trial the higher prices for a month.

Slowly but surely, the customers started to return until they were just as busy before but making more money. Harold thought it was probably because he had great coffee and people had decided that it was worth the price increase after all. However, Trent encouraged Harold to ask the customers why they had left but then came back. Harold tried this and nearly everyone said something along the lines off “I initially left when you put your prices up because I wasn’t happy. I went around the corner but the barista wasn’t as half as nice as you. I really missed your smiling face and warm welcome in the morning as it really put me in a good mood before work. I missed you, so I decided to come back and now I think the extra cost is worth it.”

Technically, the customer value proposition is the sum total of benefits that they receive in exchange for money and time (or other). The small but important word in that sentence is sum.

Often businesses think too narrowly about what their customer value proposition is and focus on the pure product/service and the price the customer will pay. For Harold’s customers it wasn’t just about the coffee and the price. The value proposition for Harold’s customers was the whole customer service experience they received.

The interesting thing about Harold’s story is that what made his value proposition more appealing to customers wasn’t something that he had to spend any money on.

So what is it that your company offers customers that increases the value proposition from a simple goods for money situation?

As a consumer, what companies do you frequent that boost their value proposition in interesting ways?

Hat tip to Josh Strawczynski and Marketing Profs whose recent work inspired this post. You can check out the post from Josh that inspired me here and read the Marketing Profs “Get to the Point” email that inspired me here.

Why Social Media Isn’t The Answer For Coles

2009-08-03T21:56:00.001+10:00

Via a Tweet from Gavin Heaton I read a post on Walter Adamson’s blog where Walter highlighted the volumes of negative feedback that Coles have received for announcing today that they intend to be more consumer led and embark on a massive reinvention of the brand.

Walter highlighted that on news.com.au that the article covering the announcement attracted 134 comments in 30 minutes - 1.3 comments per minute! All of them were negative. As at time of writing there were 353 comments (a quick scan shows that recent ones are also negative).

It is pretty clear that the readers who left comments don’t know jack shit. Half of them say that Coles and Woolworths jack up the prices and the other half say they lower the prices and drive out the smaller shops. Which is it?

A lot of the comments suggest going to the markets to get cheaper food and better quality. This advice shows a complete lack of understanding of anyone outside how they do things themselves. Let me get this right. To save myself $20 in a weekly shop I should buy the essentials at Coles, get them into the car and the take a 1 hour round trip to get meat and fruit n veg (which will probably cost me $5-10 in petrol). Would be worse if you threw a couple of kids into the equation. Think about the value proposition you heathens!

The sheer volume of negative comments has left Walter “… flabbergasted enough to say that it is going to take more than social media to fix this lot” and he believes that “In the meantime Aldi and Costco stand to make huge headway if they develop and deploy effective social media strategies.”

Whoah, back up there buddy. What? Since when do a few comments on a news website make Coles’ strategy all about social media? Certainly nothing in the article suggest so.

This is what is wrong with marketing and social media today. Too many people think that social media IS marketing.

Lets unpack what Coles have decided to do. Assuming that what they are sprouting is true, and they will actually take a consumer led approach, then this approach is known as The Marketing Concept (or being consumer centric). I have gone over it before on this blog but essentially it is about creating the marketing mix and a value proposition that is built from the ground up to meet the consumer’s need or solve a problem. It shifts the focus from selling to marketing (and yes there is a difference tut tut).

However, none of this can be done without the first step – market research. How can you truly create an offering without first understanding what the consumer needs or wants?

Social media certainly has a part to play but anybody who thinks that social media will be the driving force behind Coles’ approach is delusional. Sure they can listen to, and engage with, consumers through social media but social media isn’t the strategy.

So I agree with Walter. It certainly will take more than social media but I am unsure how anyone could get the impression that Coles’ approach is social media driven. Additionally, if Aldi and Costco do have an opportunity to develop and deploy effective social media strategies then it won’t mean anything if they aren’t customer centric themselves and are focused on solving customers problems or needs. Social media is a tool and a tool that needs to be considered and then either used or not (but you must listen).

Walter also believes that “In any case, it's going to take just a little more than a brand makeover!” That’s right, I agree. Again however, where does anyone get the impression that Coles think that a brand makeover will do the trick? In fact they don’t. The foundation, once again, will be The re-invention of the brand will a by-product of being consumer led. to be consumer led.

Coles are saying that they want to listen more and the consumers certainly have plenty to say so there can be no excuses for not getting a customer led approach correct.

I personally think that it is great that Coles have gotten back to basics in a marketing sense and will attempt to put the customer in the centre of what they do. I will watch keenly.

I’ll Tell You What I Want

2009-07-23T22:01:00.001+10:00

Over at Marketing Magazine, Zac Martin wrote an open letter to potential employers outlining the kind of things Gen Y look for in employment. Zac is his usual abrupt self and so I thought it would be fun to play devils advocate and write a “I’ll tell you what I want” open letter to Gen Y from the point of view of an employer. Make sure you read Zac’s article before reading on …

Look, I am a bit old school but I think I kinda get this social networking stuff. It looks like great fun. However, you Gen Y are always carrying on about how you need it for work and collaboration. Deep down I don’t doubt it. Only problem is I never see any actual evidence of this. I am starting to think it is just an excuse to stop me from banning it at work. In fact, every time I walk pass your desk it looks like you are “poking” some girl or looking at photos from the weekend.

Here is why I kinda think the whole “I need it for work” argument is all bullshit. You see, over at Marketingmag you say “Chances are I’ll need Facebook and Twitter to work” but then over at Matt Granfield’s blog you left a comment that says “For the most part, my Facebook is just my friends, people I’ve met a number of times and have an ongoing relationship.”

Seems a bit contradictory to me. You can bet your next pay cheque that the mobile phone I provide for you and pay the bill for isn’t because “chances are you’ll need it for work but for the most part it is just for your friends”. Why should Facebook be any different?

Wasn’t happy about those pics I saw of you. Just because you did that stupid stuff on the weekend and now it has ended up on Facebook doesn't matter that it happened in personal time. Our clients, and potential clients, don't care that it happened on Sat night at your local pub. All they see is a drunken idiot dressed up in girls clothes with vomit all over them. It’s cool to a certain extent because most of our clients have a good sense of humour and believe me, we have all done stupid stuff in the past. In fact, I remember a great night that involved a gorilla suit, a dancer, a beer keg and some fireworks. But seriously, we didn’t have this internet stuff back then so nobody knew what we got up to (I had to dig this photo out and scan it in!). Now everyone has a bloody camera on their mobile and sticks the pics up on Facebook or MySpace.

I realise it is all about trust but you see there is an old saying “once bitten, twice shy”. Your generation always says we should trust you but just a couple of months ago a couple of Gen Yers, that I trusted, used a whole month of our download limit in just one week when they used work PCs to play World of Warcraft. Then we all had to work slower cause the internet speed was rooted. That’s just not fair and very disrespectful.

Now listen close. You see this business? I worked my friggin arse off to build this. I am talking me working more hours than you have even spent being alive. My marriage suffered and I didn't spend as much time with my kids as I probably should have. I am pretty sure one of them actually hates me. I even used to have a full head of hair and weigh 35kgs less. You’’ understand that this company is my life’s work and I take it very seriously.

I've learnt a lot along the way and I don’t want to blow my own trumpet too much but I recon I could teach you a thing or two. Now, these are not things that you have already learnt at uni nor something you can learn of the internet. These are things that you can only learn on the job. The thing is, you haven’t been gainfully employed full-time for all that long so I recon you should stop telling me what you want for 5 minutes and pay attention to me.

It is things like how to get access to power in an organisation. “What?” I hear you say. Access to power, you know, the person that can actually sign the cheques and has the power to buy. We don't want to get caught talking to someone who is just going to gather info to tell their boss and act like a gatekeeper. So please don’t book us in to just go and speak to anyone who rings up asking about our services. Instead, I will teach you how to ask questions the right way so that they say "Oh, maybe you should meet with my boss because I can't answer that”.

It is also things like what we can and can’t do for our clients. You know that big government client we have? Well we can’t treat them the same as the private company clients we have. They have rules they have to adhere to. We can't just take them out on a boozey lunch and pick up the bill because they are not allowed to accept stuff like that because it may open them up to being biased in buying our services. Not a good look for them when they are spending tax payers money. Instead we have to respect the position they are in or we may end up not doing any more business with them.

At the end of the day we are a team, and I truly believe that. I hired you because you have some great skills, drive and a lot of potential. But you are not God’s gift to my company. I need you to realise that in the cold hard light of day it is my family home that the bank will re-poses if this business goes under so you'll forgive me if I might get a little jittery if I think you spend half your time on Facebook and Twitter instead of working.

Now get back to your desk and get on with what I pay you for ;)

Marketing Blast From The Past

2009-07-13T22:12:00.002+10:00

Recently, Australia’s fast food industry agreed to a voluntary code to govern the way it markets products to children. McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Hungry Jack's, Oporto, Red Rooster and Chicken Treat (who?) have signed up to the code which sets new nutrition standards for the foods featured in television advertisements, and other marketing efforts, which target the under-14s. Read more here >>

It made me think of when I was a kid and the advertising that fast food chains used to throw at me. I remember the “two all beef patties, special sauce …” Big Mac jingle and the “When you taste Kentucky Nuggets, what do you do?” jingle.

But the most enduring fast food marketing memory from my childhood was the McDonalds colouring calendars. Do you remember them? Man I used to hang out for them so bad over the December period.

In case you don’t remember them or your memory is a little hazy then they were 12-month calendars where each month had a picture to colour in (I think they may have even come with coloured pencils) but at the bottom was a tear-off voucher that could only be used during that month e.g. free apple pie.

There is one up for grabs on eBay at the moment

The idea was great because

1 – It armed the kids with a weapon to get Mum and Dad to take them to McDonalds (and it was time bound),

2 – It was available in December/January when lots of families were travelling for Christmas and holidays and it was easy and/or a treat to take the kids to McDonalds,

3 – The colouring in aspect help keep the kids occupied during the holiday period

Why the hell did they ever get rid of them?

A Pure Unadulterated Rant

2009-07-02T14:57:00.001+10:00

Warning – this is an angry rant … rude words used

I have a VISA card with HSBC and I get paid monthly. It’s a real pain in the arse getting paid monthly because the payment date for the credit card falls on the 30th of each month. I often get slugged overdue fees. Doesn’t matter that I am a regular payer. Despite having all the data their in front of them they just fine me.

So I rang them twice last month only to be told that my payment date couldn’t moved. I rang a third time cause I was convinced that was bullshit and a lady told me they could actually change the payment date but “we can’t change it over the phone though”.

Oh yeah, that’s right, you are happy to discuss in full my complete financial details including activating new cards but can’t move a payment date. What the fuck was I thinking? Aren’t you recording this phone call anyway? Can’t you use that as authorisation?

So I had to send fax. “All sorted” I thought, payment date changed to the 2nd of each month to allow me enough time to BPay it.

So I paid about $1800 off on Tuesday but then today get a phone call. This is basically how it went …

HSBC - This is just a courtesy call to check that you have made your payment.

Me – Yes I made a payment on Tuesday for $1800

HSBC – Oh OK, it isn’t showing up yet but the payment date was the 30th but BPay takes 3 days to come through.

Me – Then shouldn’t you call me after the 3 days if the BPay doesn’t come through?

HSBC – As I said, this is just a courtesy call.

Me – Seems pointless if it isn’t suppose to arrive at your end until tomorrow.

HSBC – As I said, this is just a courtesy call.

At this point it was anything but courteous for me. In fact it was a down right pain in the arse.

Me – Anyway, I changed my payment date a month ago to be the 2nd of each month.

HSBC – We have no record of that. Oh hang on, here is a note on your file. Yes, it says that you had requested a change and that we asked you to fax us a request.

Me – I did that

HSBC – There is no record of us receiving it. Do you still have a copy?

Me – No, I expect you to look after it.

HSBC – Well you will need to check your statement because …

Me – Are you gonna ring me like this every month cause it seems pointless if you are going to ring me every month inside the BPay payment window and even when the payment date is today and not the 30th. You can see all my payment history there right?

HSBC – Yes

Me – Considering I pay the same time each month, and I have paid like this for year, then what did you think I would say when you rang to ask if I had paid?

HSBC – We weren’t sure, as I said at the start, this is a courtesy call.

Me – Seems pointless to me.

HSBC – Well sir, if you feel that way …

Click – I hung up.

Here’s a tip HSBC … READ MY FUCKIN CUSTOMER FILE BEFORE RINGING ME AND WASTING MY TIME. It was anything but courteous. Maybe if you read the files before calling then you would have noted that I had requested a change of payment date. If the change hadn’t arrived at your end then you could have rung and asked if I had faxed it or if something went wrong. In fact, you’ve had 4 or 5 weeks to fuckin action it!

Don’t fuckin ring me and ask where your payment is when a) The payment date is today, and b) even if the payment date was still the 30th then it would fuckin turn up at your end until tomorrow.

Fuckin clown.

Maybe I need to get a new credit card provider?

BTW – If someone from HSBC reads this then I am more than happy to have a calm conversation with you about this.

Where Social Media Fits Into The Marketing Mix

2009-06-29T22:30:00.001+10:00

Over at the Copy Write blog, Jonathan Crossfield writes that he is often asked what he considers to be the wrong question about how businesses "can use social media to increase sales, income or awareness. He notes that because the question focuses on a business’ goals, rather than consumers, then the application of social media is probably doomed to failure.

Jonathan’s comments allude to an important mindset – the mindset of being consumer centric – something that is known as the marketing concept. Basically it is an approach where you start with the consumer and identify needs and problems and build an offering to satisfy them. So long as you keep the consumer in the middle of your offering then you are a log way to being successful.

It is also what separates marketing and sales at their most basic level. Marketing is about satisfying a customers needs/problems while selling is concerned with shifting product (and focussed more on what the salesmen can achieve from the transaction rather than what real benefit it provides to the consumer). Check out a post on marketingmag.com.au written by Andrew Wilson. It provides a great example about how Mazda re-invented itself by employing a marketing concept approach.

The offering, if it is a product, consists of 4 elements – product, price, place, promotion (the 4 Ps or marketing mix). If the offering is a service then not many people know/remember that 3 more Ps are added, they being;

The Process – The process that the consumer goes through to receive the service (think massage),
The Physical Environment – what does it look like? Is it classy, basic, rundown? This is different to '”place” in the 4 P’s as place relates more to where as in shopping centres, online, in-home etc and does not give consideration to the appearance of the location.
The People – the staff employed to perform the service.

Ok, so how does social media fit into all of this? The use of “fit into” is important in the question and ultimately should be what people ask Jonathan because social media doesn’t work by itself, in isolation from other activities. Instead, social media must be added into or used inside a company’s existing marketing mix.

Even if the company hasn’t approached their marketing from a theoretic framework then they will still have a product, price it, sell it somewhere and promote it somehow. If the offering is a service then they will also have a process in place to perform it, have staff that perform it and have a premises where the service is performed. Sometimes these elements are mixed together and executed well. Other times you wonder if the company gives a shit about you.

For some companies, it may be useful to do an audit on these marketing mix elements and think about how they relate to customers needs and problems. Then some thought can be applied to how to use social media in the existing marketing mix.

Jonathan gets asked and outside in question – how can social media be used? Instead it should be an inside out question and companies should go right back to square one – the consumers need – and then work out to see if and where social media can be used.

The diagram on the right shows the marketing mix – the consumer in the centre and the 4 Ps of a product around them and then the 3 Ps of service on the outside. The diagram shows, in dark blue, where companies can focus their social media efforts. For example;

Promotion – can social media be used to promote your offering? Be careful, social media isn’t like traditional media where you can just push a message. This is definitely the P that poses the biggest challenge.
Place – can social media expand the places where consumers can access your offering?
Process – can social media improve the process? For example, can customers place their coffee order over Twitter or use Facebook to RSVP to your events?
People – definitely the place where social media provides the biggest opportunity through connecting your customers with your staff. It also helps portray your companies personality and values.

The use of social media should focus on how it helps solve your customers problems or needs. Don’t let your social media use focus on how it helps you sell more product.

Celebrity Tweets Built Into Foxtel’s Channel V

2009-06-26T18:19:00.001+10:00

Got home tonight and flicked on the TV and onto Channel V. Was watching a music video and I started seeing celebrity Tweets from Kelli Osbourne, Justin Timberlake, Lindsay Lohan etc pop up on the screen. Check it out below.

For some time, shows like this have allowed people to text messages for display on the screen. I wonder how long until shows allow real-time Tweets to appear on screen (maybe filtering with #channelV or @channelV?).

The Importance of Social Media in the Post-Purchase Evaluation Stage

2009-06-22T21:58:00.002+10:00

Stephen Collins over at Acidlabs, by his own admission, is “inclined to go off on a ranty diatribe” and posted a very thought provoking post about how social media is not actually about selling something. He admittedly states that social media isn’t actually about selling anything, mostly, and that he means “marketing ultimately focused on getting people to buy stuff. Not on changing opinion, not on awareness. It’s a deliberately narrow definition for the purposes of this post.”

The narrow definition is fine for his post, as he has openly admitted that he is not a marketer, and instead his skills lie in communications. So maybe he isn’t aware of some of the thinking that is fundamental to marketing (when it is done properly).

However, he has highlighted that a lot of people in marketing and sales forget about the whole process and focus a lot on the sale – just focus on the steps up to the exchange of cash for product. However, saying the SM isn't about selling stuff It is like saying that the telephone isn’t about selling stuff. That would be true as the telephone it is a communication tool but that would be too narrow a view. The telephone, used skilfully and appropriately with a well thought out strategy, absolutely can sell lots of stuff. Put it in the hands of an Indian telemarketer and you will get lots of pissed off people.

Social media is no different. We’ve all seen the snake oil salesman.

What Stephen’s post did get me thinking about was the buyer decision process. Don’t friggin groan with “here Oyster goes with bloody theory again!” … the theory has much more academic rigour and history behind it than some bloke sitting in is study telling the world how marketing is (that’s not a dig at Stephen by any means. Just some marketing blogs in general)! I’ll be quick on the theory though …

The diagram below shows the 5 stages that a consumer goes through when making a purchase. I disagree with Stephen, using his narrow view of selling as a transaction, that SM isn’t about selling stuff. Totally depends on your business and goals but the underlying point, for me anyway, is about contributing and adding value to the consumer. And that is why I think that it is the 5th stage is where I think that social media has the most potential.

Post-purchase evaluation - Cognitive Dissonance

The last stage is post-purchase evaluation. It is the situation where you have bought something but then have second thoughts about the purchase. It is known as “cognitive dissonance”. It is where you think “maybe I could have got it cheaper”, "maybe I should have kept looking for a better option”, “maybe I shouldn’t have spent that much” “what the hell am I gonna tell my wife?” etc

A lot of marketers forget about this stage but is is just as important as the others. In fact, it is here that brand loyalty can be cemented and re-purchase guaranteed. It can also stop a consumer changing their mind and returning the product (if that is an option).

Marketers need to continue to work after the purchase to reinforce that the consumer has made the right decision and that it fits their needs. It is here that social media can be a seriously dominating force. Here’s an example …

I need a new mountain bike. I went to the shop the other day “just to look” but ended up talking to the salesperson and ended up walking out having put a deposit down on new bike. But I felt guilty that I had made an impulse decision (I was always getting a new bike but hadn’t planned on it that day). It went down like a lead balloon with Mrs Oyster.

My mate also needs a new bike. He’s been talking to lots of shops and looking at lots of bikes and found a cracker. Then I got jealous cause he got a better bike and a better deal than me. So I asked him to ask the bike shop how much we could get off if we bought two bikes together.

Now I am getting a different bike. Purchase lost to shop number 1.

The point is that the bike shop I put a deposit down with has put in zero effort into the post-purchase evaluation stage. Surely the tell tale signs are there because I only put a deposit down (despite having the ability to buy it on the spot if I wanted). In fact they positioned lay-by as a way of making me feel comfortable to committing.

They could have kept the purchase if they had of put some effort into the last stage. They could have collected information such as twitter name, Facebook profile and even email. They could use these to introduce me to their MTB blog or podcast (if they had one, I wouldn't know, haven’t heard from them since) and told me about user reviews and forums for the brand and model I bought. They could have used the channels to make me feel that I had made the right decision. Plus ore and more people have blogs where they can share their experiences, good or bad.

Instead I will get my deposit back and get a better deal elsewhere (here’s a pic of my soon to be new bike).

Connecting with me through social media would have also given me the impetus to tell others about my purchase. It is often in this space where your friends and family say “yeah that’s cool, great buy” where you feel you have made the right choice. It can be as simple as them saying “well done on saving $300” (how the hell do they know how much I could have really saved or whether it really is a great purchase?”).

Social media could have got me hook, line and sinker and made me a loyal customer to the shop. It is exactly the thing that could have helped me change my opinion (and others) and helped built awareness.

Do your customers exhibit any tell-tale signs (like only putting down a deposit) where you could use social media to reinforce their decision? Should you be connecting with people more post-purchase by using social media? … and I don’t mean the boring “thanks for picking ABC for all our needs” or just following them on Twitter.

Do you have any great examples of companies that do the post-purchase evaluation stage well in the social media space?

Don’t Worry About The Complaints You Get

2009-06-16T21:42:00.001+10:00

Zac Martin over at Pigs Don’t Fly has got some balls. His written recently about being a fire starter and wrote an open letter to the editor of B&T in which he raised some issues that he has (as a customer).

A lot of people got stuck into him about his style and a few even supported him in his approach. However, there are a couple of things that those that commented, including Zac, missed.

The first is that Zac is a customer and he is a customer with a gripe or two (ok, he has plenty :). Regardless of whether people believe his approach is correct or not are missing the point. The point is that he is actually rising his issues. The mere fact that he raises the issues shows that he wants to remain a customer. Huh? Are you still missing the point? Ok, read carefully …

Think of it the other way around. It is the customers that don’t raise their dissatisfaction and problems that B&T (or any business for that matter) should be worried about. It is those customers that choose to cease their patronage without having a discussion that businesses should be worried about.

You might remember a post a few weeks ago a post I wrote about Fitness First – Can You Force Word-of-Mouth? Well I completed their customer feedback form on their website and pointed them to all the constructive criticism that you guys provided. Additionally, I chose to add some personal comments, away from the eyes on this blog, and they were issues that I had directly with Fitness First and I wanted raise them away from public view and comment.

To date I have had no response. WTF?

No wonder customers like Zac take the tone and the approach he did. Maybe being aggressive is the only way to get a response.

Fitness First, you don’t even have to fix everything I raise. Sometimes just acknowledging that you have received customer feedback and concerns, from a valued client, is enough. You certainly seem to “value” me when a payment goes amiss or my contract is up for renewal. You are keen to talk then aren’t you? What the hell is the point of having the feedback form? Do you only get back to those you agree with? Did it go in the round file?

And then when I walk in you expect me to sell my friends names so that they can join? How about looking after me … the one who is giving you money already? The bucket is leaking – spend time fixing the holes instead of pouring more water into it!

Zac and I are customers who have chosen to take the time to articulate our concerns and try and begin a dialogue with the business. The businesses should be embracing us with open arms. I would be happy with a quick phone call saying “Thanks, we have taken it on board. We can’t promise anything but we really do appreciate your feedback”. I would at least feel valued.

For the record, I actually put in a good word for some great service I get from one particular staff member – it would be nice to know that you have passed it on. Instead, the silence is deafening.

A complaint or feedback isn’t pure criticism. Customers and businesses are in the relationship together. These interactions are a chance for businesses to connect to their customer on a deep level and a chance to listen.

This leads me to the other thing everyone missed about the post …

Businesses should be using this type of feedback to get an understanding of what their customers want. Those that have read the book Raving Fans, by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, will get this. If you haven't read the book then get onto it.

Businesses need to listen to what their customers want. Sure they may choose to not do business with some customers but there are some massive, massive, not so subtle hints in what Zac has raised. Daily emails in PDF? Sure one commenter said he didn’t mind it but surely you need to ask the customers?! I’d be willing to bet the majority hate it!

How can you deliver a great service if you have no idea what the customers want? Worse still, when they do try and tell you, wrapped up as a complaint, then you don’t even acknowledge them? (That’s a criticism of Fitness First and not B&T).

In these times I would have thought businesses would have this sorted.

10 Things I Hate About Marketing Blogs

2009-06-08T21:33:00.002+10:00

I hate marketing blogs that;

Don’t start conversations.
Start conversations but then won’t consider or accept other points of view.
Blog about things that everyone else is blogging about.
Post too often.
Don’t post often enough.
Have bloggers who think they are journalists.
Position social media as “holier than thou” e.g. free speech and having people heard is above the law or the employer because “you can’t stop me!”
Don’t tie their posts to marketing theory.
Create a list for a post when they might be a little dry for ideas :)
No. 10 is up to you. Tell me what you hate about marketing blogs …

Did You Used To Do This At School To Be Cool?

2009-06-01T22:37:00.002+10:00

A couple of posts I read earlier today got me thinking about “cool” and “brands”.

The first was Adam Ferrier’s post at Consumer Psychologist, “How Cool Are You?”, which talks about what makes people cool and and how he and team at Naked have built on some earlier work and developed a Facebook application (so you can take a questionnaire and determine how cool you are).

Then Dan Pankraz’s blog talked about Branding Bedrooms in Austria where he discovered that, despite kids living outside big cities, they loved urban streetwear brands and that both boys and girls often ask the staff in shops for stickers so that they can brand their bedrooms with their favourite brands.

Those posts combined to take me back to my school days …

I went to school about 2 hours from the ocean but one of the surrogates for being cool was surf brands - just like the Austrian kids living outside the big cities but still wanting to buy urban streetwear brands. We lived in-land but loved all the surf brands.

The other big thing that was a surrogate for being cool was how you branded your folder and you were only cool if you had a folder which you had covered with loads of surf brand logos. Truth be told we should have been studying but instead we would spend hours scouring our old surfing magazines for logos to cut out from their ads. We would take the logos and stick them on our folder and then apply contact (being so f#%&ing careful not to get bubbles in it!).

It might just be my perception and old memory but you wouldn’t have been caught dead without a great looking surf branded folder and we would often gather round when we noticed one of our mates had created a new folder (extra points if they put some bikini babes on it and the teachers never noticed!).

The thing that struck me today was that, back then when we were such avid fans on brands, the brands did absolutely zero to encourage and fuel this behaviour. Maybe they knew about it, maybe they didn’t. Maybe they weren’t worrying about the kids 2 hours in-land and instead concentrated their efforts on kids near the sea?

I wish I could find a post I read a few months ago that talked about consumers walking a path because my description coming up doesn’t do it justice. The post talked about how it isn't a brand’s job to create a path and try and make people go down it or to lead them in a certain direction. People are already on paths and journeys and as such it is the brands job to join them on their path, to pull in alongside the consumer, and help guide and make the journey more enjoyable (points for whoever can show me where that post is).

So do kids still do this sort of folder stuff? Or did you used to do it yourself?

If kids do still to it then it provides an awesome opportunity for popular brands to fuel this kind of brand love and surrogacy for cool. They could be giving kids the tools to create folders and they could run competitions for best folder design. Or are they doing this already and I am just too far removed from that market and don’t have sight of it? Does anyone have kids in this age group? Enlighten me …

This stuff was all happening before we really had the internet in our homes so maybe the surrogates for cool have shifted to iPhones etc. If so, does anybody have any great examples of how brands are engaging youth? By that I mean not creating events and sites that attract the kids but instead walking the path they are already following e.g. folder design, and getting involved an helping them

Man I wish I still had one of those folders …

Can You Guess The Famous Fonts?

2009-05-25T22:21:00.004+10:00

On of the reasons I started blogging was because some of the feedback I wrote for the Marketing Today podcast gave me some great ideas for posts. My second ever post, and a post that was shortlisted for the 2008 Moggies, was all about how recognisable famous logos are once they are dumbed down to their basic shapes and colours. The post provided a spreadsheet that presented a whole lot of dumbed down logos and readers had to try and figure them out (as per the example on the right).

If you haven’t seen it then check out the original dumbed down logos here >>

I have wanted to write a second version of the spreadsheet ever since but it is hard work finding the right types of logos and since I have been looking it is amazing how many logos are just text and colour – but still instantly recognisable.

So I decided, that instead of logos, it would be easier to create a spreadsheet of famous fonts from brands, movies, TV shows etc. Click on the famous font below to download the spreadsheet and see how good you are at recognising the famous fonts.

Make sure you use the poll on the left of the screen and let me know how many you got correct. If you are struggling with any then let me know and I’ll give you some clues …

Big thanks to Jules Mann at http://www.soulmann.com for showing me a trick for hosting files and hosting the original dumbed down logos file.

Marketing Shots – Man U, AFL, Detroit Lions and Fitness First Update

2009-05-18T22:19:00.002+10:00

This not one of my traditional posts where I try and encourage comments and discussion but I have a few little “Marketing Shots” that I wanted to share with you …

EPL Ambush Marketing Opportunity

I was watching the Man U vs Arsenal game at Old Trafford on the weekend. Have you seen the plush seats that the subs, coaching staff et al get to sit on? They are basically leather car racing seats. Nice big red ones with Man U logo and the Audi logo on it. Sneaky thing is that they also make the visiting team sit on the Man U/Audi branded red seats as well. Bet Wenger, Benetiz and co hate that!

So why don’t the opposition take their own club branded covers to slip over the top. Bet that would piss off Man U! They’d probably get in trouble but geez it would be funny and the visiting club’s sponsor would get heaps of publicity (and probably a round of applause from everyone that hates Man U).

Noel Gallagher would probably be impressed by this tactic. Gallagher said, after the Arabs bought Man City, that “Every time a Manchester United supporter fills up their car with petrol, they put a little more into Manchester City's transfer budget”.

The AFL Thinks I Shouldn’t Miss a Game of NRL

I was looking up the broadcast guide the other day for the AFL and a banner ad for Foxtel IQ was running at the top of the page. Here are two screen shots of the dynamic banner ad. Anything strike you as odd?

I would have at least thought the AFL would think its own product was more unmissable than a rival codes.

Over Paid Graphic Designers

Saw this snippet in the SMH the other week … talk about crazy!

Fitness First Case Study Update

Thanks to Hayley_Gleeson, poptrashmusic (do you have a link?), James Duthie, Hayley_Gleeson (again :), Matt Moore, Zac Martin (barely) and Rowan Wilde who all provided great comments, and very lengthy ones at that on my post about Fitness First and Can You Force Word of Mouth. It looks like it is a great way to get you all involved rather than the deliver a “sermon from the mount” which might not leave much room for you guys to add yours smarts to.

No word from Fitness First yet so they either don’t monitor this space or don’t care. Anyway, I am going to make sure they have seen all your comments as they are very insightful and they might just learn a thing or two.

The only thing I want to add is that they should put the power of recommendation more in the member’s hand. They present themselves as a polished brand, and even go to great lengths and cost to create a flashy magazine, but they don’t even email me with updates, newsletters, offers etc.

It doesn’t take much to promote the refer a friend scheme (with all your comments taken on board) through email and provide me with the ability to send it on to people who I think might be interested who could then contact Fitness First if they wanted. It would certainly get the relationship off on the right foot.

Plus, with the technology available today (e.g. www.emma.com which I use at work) they could track which members were forwarding on their emails and to who.

Thanks also to Mumbrella who provide some link love for the Fitness First post.

Wanna Know Some More About Oyster?

2009-05-11T21:10:00.002+10:00

A few months ago I got one of those emails that went around where you were suppose to blog 7 things that you guys didn’t know about me. Obviously I didn’t write it. Dunno why. Just didn’t seem like me.

Zac Martin often bangs on about uni and how it is out of touch and recently Simon Oboler has started blogging again and his first post back was along the same lines. Don’t get me wrong, nothing wrong with that, after all, they are the uni’s customers and their views are those of a customer. I’ll stop short of saying “the customer is always right”.

You are probably wondering where I am going with these opening two paragraphs … stay with me.

Last week I graduated from a Master of Marketing. After the ceremony, while my wife, Mum and Dad were taking more photos than were necessary, a couple of marketing officers from the uni approached me and asked if I would be willing to have a photo and a follow up testimonial for marketing purposes. I obliged. They had me at “marketing”.

So I thought that I would share the testimonial I provided as you guys will learn a bit more about me and maybe those who are still studying will take something from someone who is on the other side of the fence e.g. graduated and working in marketing.

Plus I have been sick the last few days and need a nice easy topic that won’t make my brain work too hard.

I have edited out some of the questions that weren’t really relevant e.g. Where did you live while studying?

What course did you study? Master of Marketing.

Please outline the factors you considered when choosing to study CSU. My old boss Lou Mayo recommended it because CSU has a great reputation for Distance Education.

What career, personal development and life skills did you learn while at CSU? In terms of personal development, I really enhanced my critical thinking, which was further enhanced because I work in marketing and therefore had relevant work experience to relate my studies to. In terms of personal, I am not sure I learnt anything new but it certainly reinforced my time management skills and I enjoyed achieving my goals and doing well.

Do you feel like your course has prepared you for the workforce? I already worked in marketing but it absolutely made me better at my job. I often found myself writing as many work related "notes to self", about an idea that my study had generated, as I did notes for assignments and revision.

What’s your most memorable CSU experience? I'll brag about this one but it would have to be getting 100% for an assignment (but I will be honest, I think the lecturer felt sorry for me because I put in so much work into it and didn't have the heart to take marks off - because it definitely wasn't perfect!). Graduation with Distinction was also a highlight after I only just passed my very first unit and was wondering what I had gotten myself in for!

What was the best thing about graduation? The sense of achievement. I'll be honest. I wasn't going to go to graduation because I thought "yeah, whatever, it's just a ceremony" but my parents and wife made a big deal about it so I kept quiet and we all went to graduation. Having said that, I couldn't have been more wrong. I am so glad I went as it was a great opportunity to reflect on where I had come from and the University really did a great job of reinforcing that I (and all the graduates) had really achieved something special. My advice is not to miss graduation for anything!

If you could describe CSU in 3 words they would be? A great opportunity.

How did you fit study into your life? Definitely hard. I got married in the middle of my studies so that was a nice distraction but a distraction nonetheless. I didn't really give up too much and maintained sporting activities and socialising. In reality, I just stopped doing those things that were "nothing activities" e.g. watching t.v. (you don't realise how boring and mind numbing it is until you stop watching it!). An understanding and supportive wife and employer helped immensely.

Where did you study? E.g. at home, local library, a study centre. Home and at work. I would often get up early and study for an hour or two before anyone turned up to work ... very peaceful. In saying that, for anyone else it is about finding your groove. If you are a morning person then work with that. If you are a night owl then work with that.

What are the advantages of studying by distance education? The flexibility of being able to do the work when I wanted. It meant I could maintain other activities (sport etc) and that it didn't really impact my employment e.g. can't make a lecture because I have a work deadline or meeting.

What are the disadvantages? Having direct contact with lecturers. However, this often taught me to be more self-sufficient rather than relying on their help all the time.

Was it easy to make friends and will you keep in touch with them? Why or why not? It was difficult being mature age and distance education. The tools were definitely there (forums etc) and I wish I had of made more of an effort to connect with people in my area who were also studying. I am not sure it would have helped all that much with my study but I am sure I would have met some great people.

What would you say to someone considering study at CSU? Do it. Especially if you are mature age. It has opened up so many doors for me and really ignited my passion for marketing.

Can You Force Word-of-Mouth?

2009-05-04T22:06:00.002+10:00

This week I want to take a little bit of a different approach with a marketing issue. Instead of telling you about an issue then offering my two, or maybe 10, cents worth, I want it to take a bit of a group case study shape. Hopefully it is a post that all you “lurkers” who read the blog but don’t comment will feel you can contribute as well.

The other week I walked into my Fitness First gym (what? you couldn’t tell I work out?) and could see it coming a mile off. Fitness First’s sales approach is known around the place as being pretty strict and I have heard of sales staff not being allowed to go home until they had made their quota of sales bookings (I am not even sure this is true but that is what someone told me) as well as them making it as difficult as possible for people to cease being a member. For the record, I am very happy as a Fitness First member.

What confronted me as I made my way to the change room was 3 of the sales staff and a small display. You know the feeling you get when you are at the shops and that annoying credit card bloke tries to catch your eye? Same feeling here. I just prayed they wouldn’t say something to me. But resistance is futile … you know you can be 10 meters away and they will call out to you.

As I tried to get past they asked me if I had any friends who would be interested in joining the gym. I kind of feel sorry for the situation the company puts them in (with unimaginative ways of finding leads) and so I didn’t want to just say “No” and keep walking. So I offered something like “I don’t have any friends who would be interested thanks”. But that didn’t appease them.

“What about work colleagues?” they pressed. “Just give us their names and numbers and we will get in touch with them and if they join you will get $5 a month of you membership”. I mumbled something dismissive and kept walking.

Ok, so now comes the hard bit. I really want to tell you exactly what I think of this approach, its chances of success and what I would do if I was in their situation and was looking to generate new leads. But instead I want all you smart readers to tell me what you think and contribute to a group case study.

Do you think Fitness First’s approach to generating word-of-mouth is a good one?

Would you offer up the names and numbers of your friends and work colleagues for a cheaper gym membership (or discount of any product for that matter)?

How would you change or improve this approach?

I will follow your comments and contribute my thinking as well. Who knows, we may come up with a win-win where Fitness First get some new ideas for generating leads, or harnessing word-of-mouth, and gym members won’t feel uncomfortable when all they want to do is get in, get change and get started on their workout.

Over to you … I am looking forward to hearing what you think.

Remember When Your Parents Yelled At You?

2009-04-27T20:55:00.002+10:00

I was reading the blog Dan Pankraz vs. Youth and the post Start Whispers … never Yell. In the post his 25yo cousin says of brands “Whisper don’t yell at me…if you whisper, i’m more likely to listen to what you’re saying and tell my mates”. Dan goes on to note that “the more intimate gestures we provide to youth via a ‘whisper’ the more likely they are to listen”.

It reminded me of a meeting I was in the other day. There were 6 of us and one of the people at the meeting was one of those people who seemed to just command respect in the conversation because when he spoke we all listened and no one jumped in before he was finished. Why?

Because he whispered.

We’ll he didn't exactly whisper whisper but he spoke really softly. He certainly didn’t yell. It seemed to me that he was deliberately speaking quietly so that people would listen.

Some people are just quietly spoken, never wanting to be in the spotlight, but there are others who use it as an effective tool to make themselves heard. Sounds like a contradiction right? Speak quietly so that you are heard!

What can actually happen when someone, in a conversation, speaks quietly, is that others have to stop an listen otherwise they may miss something important and it may be hard to continue the conversation.

It means that the others have to slow their thoughts down (instead of rapidly thinking about what they can say next) and it means the speaker can command respect and make sure their point is made. The flip side is that if they spoke really loudly, aggressively and never let you finish your points then you would get the impression that they didn’t really care what you had to say and they didn't really want to have a proper conversation with you.

It reminds me of one of Hugh MacLeod’s (GapingVoid.com) cartoons which reads “if you talked to people the way advertising talked to people, they’d punch you in the face”.

Remember when you were a kid and your parents yelled at you? Well, because you didn’t have the guts to punch them in the face you next option was to not really listen. Instead you just nodded begrudgingly and waited for them to finish. You didn’t really take in anything that they were saying (which probably explains why I was in trouble half of the time).

Are brands really that different especially when a lot of us talk about having conversations with the market?

Think about it. Does the brand you work for feel as though you are yelling at people all the time? Maybe not as extreme as yelling but does your brand just broadcast at people? If so, chances are, just like when you were a little kid, your customers are not listening.

Are there brands that you feel yell at you all the time and could take a softer approach to get your attention?

Oyster’s Favourite Blogs

2009-04-19T21:41:00.001+10:00

I thought I would share with you the blogs that I currently have under my “Favourites” folder in Google Reader.

If I am strapped for time then these blogs always get read first. No offence to any of the other great blogs I read but you can’t all be favourites (so please try harder). If you don’t already read these blogs then I highly recommend them. The blogs are in alphabetical order so I am not playing any favourites – besides, asking me to put them in favourite order would be like asking a father to pick which one of his kids he likes better (we all know that Dad’s like the eldest the best).

	A Digital Perspective (Jye Smith) Got to meet Jye when catching up with Julian Cole for a beer one day when I was visiting Sydney. Jye’s posts are always interesting and sometimes slightly controversial (I like that though). I like Jye cause he said my jokes are funny. He also ran an interview of me on his post here.
	Acidlabs (Stephen Collins) Canberra (and even Tuggeranong) based so he gets points. Started the Social Media Breakfasts in Canberra but gets testy if you turn up without RSVPing :) Stephen doesn’t mind being forceful when writing his posts which usually gets some feathers ruffled.
	Adspace Pioneers (Julian Cole) Met Jules for the first time a few months ago when visiting Sydney. Gave my blog a kick start when he listed it on a “new blogs to read” post on his blog when I first started. I returned the favour by sticking up for him on YouTube when some clowns took offence to his Samboy entry.
	Another Advertising Wanker (Nathan Bush) Despite being a Raiders fan I still like him. His blog and mine are fairly similar in that we don’t always write about the current popular topic but instead relate our own day-to-day experiences. Haven’t had a beer with him yet but not keen to go to Brisbane because XXXX beer stinks. Come to Canberra Nathan!
	Brand DNA (Stan Lee) I always liked Stan’s articles in Marketing Magazine and his blog is short, sharp and interesting (definitely not the “sermon from the mount” style that a lot of blogs deliver). I think he is a Scouser (but don’t hold that against him).
	Canadian University Marketing (Morgan Coudray) Morgan is a bit like Nathan Bush and myself in that he often writes interesting posts that aren’t always about the current popular topic but instead relate his own day-to-day experiences. His blogs often make me leave a comment (which I believe should be a goal of most blogs).
	Consumer Psychologist (Adam Ferrier) Adam’s take on marketing is grounded in psychology and I always like blogs that can comment on current issues while linking them back to theory. I almost met him when in Melbourne last time but the timing was out – it was a shame because he strikes me as the sort of bloke that you could have some really interesting conversations with. Keep your phone on Adam …
	Current Issues in Marketing (Josh Strawczynski) One of the first blogs I started reading. Invited me to be a guest commentator on this Red Bull Post. Has been very quiet of late … Josh, come on mate, don’t make me move you out of my Favourites folder.
	Marketing Today, Monash University Australia (Peter Wagstaff) A podcast rather than a blog but Wags is the man I credit for inspiring me to blog, particularly one of my most popular posts – the one that got listed as a finalist in the Moggies.I now provide semi-regular social media reports for the podcast.
	Pigs Don’t Fly (Zac Martin) Has the honour of being the first person to leave a comment on my blog. Since then I have become an avid reader of his blog which is typically youthful and irreverent. He was kind enough to write a post about what brands can learn about my entry into blogging (which was very humbling).
	Servant of Chaos (Gavin Heaton) Is it just me or does Gavin Heaton feel like the “Dad” of Aussie Blogging? (no offence Gavin, it’s a compliment). A wise head among young and enthusiastic bloggers? His posts are wide and varied but always provide great detail and thinking where applicable.
	The Zeitgeists (Kate Kendall) Online editor of marketingmag.com.au and recently asked me to participate in the first “Moment with Marketers” interview. Didn’t get a chance to catch up with her when in Melbourne last time but is on my list for coffee for my next visit.
	Zakazukha Zoo (Matt Granfield) Once described me as his favourite Canberra blogger (awww shucks). Always writes posts that seem to have a deeper level to them than most – might be because he works in a social media marketing agency. As per Nathan Bush, I haven’t had a beer with Matt yet but not keen to go to Brisbane because XXXX beer stinks. Come to Canberra Matt (bring Nathan)!

The thing that struck me about this list is it is almost exclusively Australian (except for one blog). I wondered why this was and I think it is because the Aussie blogging community has been very supportive and encouraging since I joined its ranks late last year. Often they are only too willing to lend a hand, some advice or encouragement. I wonder if this is because we don’t really have too many bloggers in Australia that are “too big for their boots”?

For example, I sent an email to a very prominent American blogger asking for a favour, and I regularly leave comments on his blog (so it is not like he wouldn't have seen my name before), but I never even got the courtesy of a response (negative or positive). Anytime I email or Tweet any of the people in the list above I always get a response. Now I am loyal to their blogs.

To a certain extent I think that social media should be used to meet people and it is certainly a pleasant result of starting to blog as I didn’t really think far enough ahead to think that I might meet so many new and interesting people in the marketing profession. It also seems that once I meet people (and spend a little time with them) then I take a keener interest in their blogs – not sure why this is. Maybe the Adam Ferrier can dissect that for us.

If you to have a blog or two that you really like, and it isn’t listed above, then please make sure ou let us know about it by leaving a comment.

The Real Reason You Got Sucked In To Buying Bottled Water

2009-04-14T21:10:00.002+10:00

This week, 60 minutes claimed that all of us that have bought bottled water have been conned. Charles Wooley said “I don't know it might be just a matter of perception but the heart of the whole argument is a public belief that somehow or other bottled water is purer and somehow safer than this water I just poured from a tap.”

Charles continued “Jon Dee, founder of the environmental campaign group Planet Ark, believes we've fallen for one of the biggest marketing scams of all time.” with Jon adding “The simple fact is we've been conned by the bottled water industry and they're laughing all the way to the bank.”

What a load of rubbish! Here’s why …

Often I leave comments on people’s blogs which try to take conversations bake to some basic marketing theory. Theory that as far as I know has never been disproved. It is important that we often re-set to some of this theory because they are the absolute building blocks of the marketing profession. One of my favourites is value.

The 60 minutes story took the basic and ignorant line that anyone who buys bottled water is doing so because they believe the value in drinking bottled water, over tap water, lies in the claims made about bottled water being better for you.

Marketing is about exchanging value and the value in this exchange, for the majority of us, does not lie in receiving the claimed health benefits of bottled water. The value lies in the convenience of obtaining bottled water.

Most of you would know about the 4 P’s of the marketing mix – Product, Price, Place, Promotion – if you don’t, Google it.

Now, before I get into this please note that I know the 4 P’s never work in isolation however the story basically pushed the line that the main reason we buy bottled water is because the product and the promotion are what sucks us in. In fact, it is the opposite.

The least important element of the marketing mix when selling bottled is Promotion. Closely followed by the Product (enhanced/purified water). More important are the Place and Price elements.

That’s why we don’t actually see that much advertising for bottled water. It’s because the manufacturers know that they should be concentrating their marketing dollars on the Place and Promotion elements.

Question: Would you buy a bottle of water for 50c - $1 if you knew it was just tap water? I would, because it is convenient and I see value in not having to carry my own water bottle with me everywhere I go and trying to find a tap to fill it up from. For the record, I always drink tap water if it is easily accessible and that is why the Place element is also more important than the Product and Promotion elements.

However, I know a sample size of 1 is dangerous so I would like you to take 2 secs and let me know on the poll on the left hand side which of the 4 P’s is most important to you when you buy bottled water.

Cartoon courtesy of - The Far Left Side by Mike "nature boy" Stanfill

For free: a multi-media course on blogging

2009-04-14T08:49:00.001+10:00

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

The best blogging techniques.
How to get traffic to your blog.
How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Drink Drivers – Blame Advertising

2009-04-07T22:19:00.004+10:00

60 Minutes ran a story a few weeks ago titled “Killer at the Wheel”. It was a story on drink drivers and how it has ripped apart families in a heart beat because some moron was drink driving. You can see the whole story by clicking on the link below (not sure why I couldn’t embed the video but it just wouldn’t work).

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-AU&brand=ninemsn&vid=1b87f28f-9209-4075-9989-9cd7eacda282

It hit me pretty hard, being a new dad of a 4 month old boy, and I found myself fighting back a few tears as I wondered what it would be like for a drunk driver to take him from us. I even have a lump in my throat and watery eyes as I write this now.

The story talked about how the law is too soft. While I agree that the law is too soft I also think advertising is to blame. Lately there has been a significant move away from shock tactics in campaigns against drink driving. An example can be seen in this ad.

This ad is not shocking. Sure it might be emotional but it is not shocking. This ad tells me that if I drink and drive and kill a child then I will at least get to spend the rest of my life with my family and lead a pretty normal life (albeit with guilt). It is just not a strong enough message.

If you saw the story on 60 Minutes, or watched the story above, then you probably felt sick listening to the mother talking about how she held her daughter’s decapitated head in her hands after a drunk driver hit them head on. Just stop for a second and imagine what that would actually be like.

It made me feel sick to my stomach. This is the feeling drink driving ads should be aiming for. And I think advertising companies should take the high ground and insist on stronger messages.

Has The World Gone Bonkers?

2009-03-30T21:47:00.004+11:00

Ok, this post raises something very unsavoury but I just couldn’t get this thought out of my head all day. Sometimes I just think the world has gone completely bonkers …

Most of you have probably shaken your head at the absolutely ridiculous situation where parents are banned from taking photos of their own children in public for fear of paedophilic activity. If you want something to shake you head at, something that is completely over the top, then check out examples of parents banned from taking photos of their own daughter at the park or a father banned from taking a picture of his daughter playing netball.

Not enough? Then check out the 82yo grandma banned from taking photos of an EMPTY POOL!

It’s just crazy. But, and just maybe I can’t see it, there is a real threat being kept at bay here and that I should be thankful that my son and other kids are being watched vigilantly by authorities.

However, I shook my head when I read about Johnson’s Baby Channel which is running a competition where parents send in videos of their children having fun in the bath for the chance to win $10 000. Check out this kid below … his laugh made my smile.

Can someone please tell me how is ok to post videos of naked kids for the whole world to see but it is unacceptable to take photos of fully clothed children playing sport (for family albums).

Don’t get me wrong, I think the channel and what Johnson’s are doing is a great way to connect mothers. But how long will it be before some bright spark decides that this is just as bad as taking photos of your kids in public and puts pressure on YouTube to take down any videos like this? After all, Facebook banned photos of mothers breastfeeding their children and that is one of the most natural things ever!

Technorati Tags: Johnson's Baby Channel,FaceBook,YouTube

Direct Mail: The Cool, The Lazy and The Stupid

2009-03-23T23:53:00.002+11:00

I have received a couple of pieces of that old war house lately, direct mail, and the thing that struck me was how they covered the whole spectrum between great and shithouse. The great one I shared with Nathan Bush, Another Advertising Wanker, and so I invited him to provide in post comments on my direct mail experiences of late.

Nathan says “Generally I try to avoid the letterbox as the Dollarmites puzzle books have been replaced by Commonwealth Bank debt collector threats. But when Oyster told me about the post he was writing I took a little more notice.”

The Stupid – BUDGET Direct

First cab of the rank was a piece of mail that turned up that carried no identifying markings. In the address window it read “You Have Been Specially Selected” and when I opened the envelope it was addressed to “Dear Resident”.

Wow, really? So special am I that they don’t even know my name! I couldn’t wait to see the offer and I was pleased to read that my suburb has fewer than average car insurance claims and that I should turn over to see what they could save me. I wasn’t surprised when the examples the provided didn’t include any from the ACT.

The culprit, Mark Deighton, General Manager of Sales, BUDGET Direct.

Nathan Bush reckons “This also includes letters from politicians. Why do they put it in envelopes instead of on pamphlets? So that they get you excited and then let you down. Kind of like an election.”

The Lazy – Foxtel

Second comes a combo piece from Foxtel. I have been a long subscriber to Foxtel and I received a refer a friend offer but then a few days later receive another “Dear Resident” letter encouraging me to subscribe! WTF?

Interesting to note that the one actually addressed to me as a subscriber was just signed off by “The Foxtel Team” (and not even a fake signature) but the one encouraging me to subscribe carried a fake signature from Patrick Delaney, Executive Director – Sales and Product. Seriously Patrick, how lazy can you be to not even cross check the database to take out existing subscribers?

Nathan Bush reckons “And there's nothing better that I like than watching football from the comfort of my home while texting the score to those living without Foxtel. I'm not going to recommend my friends get Foxtel - it will take the fun out of it for me”

The Cool – Centrebet

This piece of direct mail is seriously cool and I received it because I have a Centrebet account. The envelope contained a DL sized card and 3 tattoos. The card outlines that I would receive a free $10 bet if I sent Centrebet a photo of me wearing the tattoo at any sporting event in 2009. Each month’s favourite photo receives a free $100 bet and if I can jag a pic with a celebrity then I will go in the draw to win a free $1000 bet on the AFL or NRL grand final, two tickets to one of the grand finals plus $1000 for a charity of my choice.

What a great idea and I know Nath is a big sports fan so I asked him if he had an account and if he got his tattoos? He has an account but sadly, did not receive any tattoos. Last reports still have him waiting by the letterbox like a dog who has lost it owner. So, sharing the love, I sent him a tattoo and here he is proudly wearing it at the Broncos v Storm game last Friday night.

I am saving mine for the Socceroos v Uzbekistan World Cup qualifier next week in Sydney. I have one more tattoo left … free to good home. Let me know.

Nath says “It is a bloody big tattoo. Tho only place it would fit was up my arm or across my backside. My girlfriend chose the arm. Despite the embarrassment caused by sitting in a grand stand with a bunch of bigger guys with real tattoos - this was actually quite fun.”

I would however have liked to see them integrate some social media on this one. They could have set up Twitter, Flickr and Facebook accounts and posted pictures of people with their tattoos. Hey Centrebet, there is still time …

Oh, and please see if you can get Nathan Bush his tattoos. You don’t have to worry about him winning any money from the free bets because he is a Raiders supporter.

Finally, Nath says “The element that differentiates the stupid and the lazy from the good is offering something that no other medium can. The stupid and the lazy examples could have easily been emailed or brochured as they showed little creativity or relevance for the DM medium. On the other hand, Centrebet delivered a brand experience via the mail which surprised and excited me. It brought this idea and experience to my door, and to my attention, in a way that no other medium could. That is the power of DM.”

Does anyone have any examples of Cool, Lazy or Stupid DM experiences or want the last tattoo?

How To Suggest An Idea

2009-03-16T22:42:00.003+11:00

I often come up with new ideas just out of thin air that I think might work well. At the “light bulb” moment I obviously haven’t put too much thought into it and haven’t critically analysed it. But the idea is kinda like starting a fire. Unfortunately I have worked in a few places where the fire gets a bucket of water thrown on it people who are keen to tell me why it can’t be done and why it won’t work.

A fire needs TLC. It starts out small but you need to blow on it, nurture it and add more fuel (and do it all in the right order) before it can be something useful. If you show someone a fire that is in its infancy, with a very small flame and a few bits of dry grass then they will tell you it is useless. And they would be right because it isn’t big enough to cook on or to keep you warm. However, give it some TLC and it can become a very useful thing indeed.

Granted not all my ideas are top shelf but I think a work environment should encourage people putting their ideas forward and we should all be watchful of staff who have a bright idea and encourage them and work with them to flesh it out. Fleshing it out doesn’t mean we are committing to it … we are just exploring it to see if it has some potential to become something useful.

I use an egg timer to combat the bucket of water throwing co-workers. It is built on a technique that a former boss of mine used to use at our annual Think Tank. Her name is Lou Mayo and she used to be my boss at Australian Business Academy. At our Think Tank we used to have a session where any employee could suggest any idea and the group could only contribute positive things to that idea for the first 5 minutes.

It meant that all ideas had a chance to have some kindling put on them and a nice big blow of air to kick start them. Some ideas caught fire and were implemented. Others needed a serious bucket of water but it meant that we at least explored people’s ideas and gave them a chance to catch on. All in an environment where they felt confident to put their ideas forward because they knew that the buckets of water were not waiting in the wings.

So now I have an egg timer on my desk and whenever I have “a bright idea” that I wish to talk through with someone then I tell them that I am getting the egg timer out and that they can only contribute positive things for the first 5 minutes.

Once the egg timer goes off then it is fair game for a bucket of water. We can take a step back and critically analyse it.

Fosters Defaces Australian Flag

2009-03-02T20:34:00.004+11:00

You would have had to have been paying very close attention but if you were you would have seen the disgusting defacement of our national flag by Fosters.

It is something that companies in England have done for a while and it is something of a necessary evil (well sort of). Companies produce English flags, but put their logos on them, and then give them away or sell them cheap with the result being that lots of houses and cars would fly the English flag and patriotism would be displayed. It always made for a great spectacle around World Cup time.

However, it never sat well with me. A country’s flag is one of its most purist symbols and there are rules governing its use both in order to protect it and what it represents.

You may remember Dick Smith (2001) landing himself in hot water for defacing the Australian flag and breaking the rules when he used it on the packaging in his grocery line.

He got busted because the rules are set out in Australian Flags, released by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Under the heading "Commercial use of the flag or flag image” it states explicitly and unambiguously, (quote):

The Australian National Flag, or representation of the flag, may be used for commercial or advertising purposes without formal permission, subject to the following guidelines:

> The flag should be used in a dignified manner and reproduced completely and accurately
> The flag should not be defaced by overprinting with words or illustration

You can see why Dick got himself in hot water.

So, last Friday night, as Marcus North became the 18th Australian to score a century on debut, the camera panned to a section of the crowd with Aussie supporters in it … and there it was, a jubilant fan waving an Aussie flag with the Fosters logo emblazoned across it. Clearly in breach of the guidelines of its use.

With the Australian team sponsored by VB and the South Africans being sponsored by Castle (a South African beer), I couldn’t help, in my cynical mind, wonder if this was some sort of ambush marketing and that Fosters reps were handing out Fosters sponsored flags for supporters to take into the ground and display.

Or maybe it was a poorly executed attempt to strengthen the overseas perception that Fosters is the beer drunk by all Australians.

Are you disgusted by it as much as I am or do you think that all is fair in love and war?