We are throwing a great party next week! Invitations will be going out to those invited shortly.

A great Facebook event next Monday for anyone who will be in Hong Kong. There will be experts in from Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters who rarely ever visit the region.

Click on the invitation to request a seat! (or go to bit.ly/advancedfacebook)

I couldn't help but feel sorry this year for anyone who only watches the Super Bowl ads for entertainment. Perhaps the most defining feature of all the ads this year was how uniformly uncreative and dated they were. Marketers turned to old and obvious gags like girls in bikinis and dogs (lots of dogs) to try and carry their ads. The result was a very disappointing collection of ads for anyone who loves marketing and the hype of Super Bowl advertising. Still, there is plenty of marketing to learn from all the efforts this year, so let's get started in breaking down the strategy behind the ads and my picks for the biggest winners and losers this year.

BEST STRATEGY - Samsung

For months now, Samsung has been running a brilliant series of ads poking fun at all the "iSheep" obediently waiting in line overnight for the latest Apple product with their tagline "the next big thing is already here." Boosted by their recent announcement of record profits last quarter from strong sales of mobile devices, they are one of the small few mobile devicemakers who offer a viable alternative to the iPhone. What made this ad so good is how it took the message from previous ads and changed the "us vs. them" dynamic of the guy in the know about Samsung to give everyone in line the Samsung. Filled with celebrity cameos and lots of product shots, the ad got their overall strategic message across ... the next big thing is indeed here, and it is a Samsung.

WORST STRATEGY & WASTE OF MONEY - Budweiser

This year Budweiser had 6 spots and all of them inspired more confusion than anything else. In half they focused on the heritage of Budweiser and how they have been around for a really long time (long enough to be served by bars after prohibition was lifted). In two they introduced a new kind of beer called "Platinum" which I think you might be able to earn airline miles for drinking. Or maybe it was a luxury version that they plan to offer in high end restaurants. No one was really sure. And just in case the lull wasn't complete, they even went for the "dog gets guy a beer" gag. If there was a strategy behind any of these ads, it was surely tough to pick out. That alone isn't unique for Budweiser, but at least in previous years they managed to entertain us and make us laugh. Not this year.

BEST AD - Fiat Seduction

My pick for the best ad of the night comes from Fiat with their ad called "Seduction" for the new unique looking Abarth. Unlike so many other ads this year, Fiat didn't feel the need to put a hot girl in a bikini and have her play the part of dream girl. Instead, they create a sense of mystery by having her speak in Italian, make her clearly in control of her interaction with the guy in the ad, and use the familiar experience of the first time you see an unforgettably beautiful woman to explain the feeling of seeing the new Fiat Abarth for the first time. The connection was easy to understand, memorable and fit perfectly with what looks to be a great car.

WORST AD - TaxAct

Um, a kid runs around trying to find a bathroom and ends up going pee in a swimming pool ... and this relates to taxes how? This was easily the dumbest ad of the night, not remotely strategic and completely unfunny. When drunk guys at home watching the SuperBowl tell their buddies they could create a better ad for $2 million, this is the ad they probably point to.

BEST TREND: CORPORATE REALISM

Throughout the night, there were a few examples of what is becoming a great trend in business which I have written about before - the rise of humanity. The way it came out through the Super Bowl was in more focus on real people and the things they are doing. I agree that on a day like today, the ads that took this approach were probably a bit drier and not likely to show up on a USAToday poll as favourite ads. But in terms of marketing strategy and demonstrating a real and human side to the brands, they were big wins. Best Buy, for example, featured real entrepreneurs who created mobile apps and tools (earning them great social media cred and buzz). GE featured real people in their two inspiring ads that continue to position GE as a brand that puts their employees front and center. The last great example was the NFL running their ad featuring players going to fan's homes and offices to sing their own rendition of "wind beneath my wings" to thank fans for all their support. Whether humanizing employees, NFL stars, or visionary entrepreneurs ... the ads that chose to do this universally worked on a strategic level.

WORST TREND: DOGS EVERYWHERE

Let's just count the things that dogs did this year in Super Bowl spots:

1. Dog wins race wearing Skechers running shoes.
2. Dog buries cat and buys owner's silence with Doritos.
3. Dog gets Bud Light beer.
4. Dog loses weight then chases car.

Add them to the clydesdale horses and cheetahs and it makes for a slate of Superbowl ads that would make the Humane Society proud. Unfortunately, none of them stood out as anything more than ordinary.

BEST ORIGINALITY - Bridgestone

In case you forgot that the Superbowl is actually a football game, Bridgestone was one of the few advertisers to remember that - using the idea of optimizing the balls for all sports as the background for the great creative concept in this ad.  Using their high traction material to make footballs and basketballs was a great example of how they made their technology relevant to football fans and watchers in a new way.

WORST ORIGINALITY - Pepsi Max

Seriously Pepsi, haven't we seen the "guy with the Coke shirt/hat/truck drinks Pepsi" gag before? This ad has marketing executive unwilling to pay for a new creative idea written all over it. 

BIGGEST WINNERS - Adriana Lima and NBC

After the big game, one of the biggest winners are likely to be Victoria's Secret model Adriana Lima who was featured in both the Teleflora ad and the Kia Dream Car ad. To be the leading girl in two Super bowl spots in a single year is unheard of and I am sure she is already seeing a big awareness bumb in her personal profile and career.  The other big winner will likely be NBC, who filled the broadcast with ads for their own new and upcoming shows. Everything from Celebrity Apprentice to The Voice to 30Rock was promo'd for the world to see.

BIGGEST LOSERS - GoDaddy & Budweiser

After a few years of sticking with the same gag of almost naked girls and the promise to "see more online" it is starting to get old. The live commentary recorded the same kind of sentiment. These were both traditional Super Bowl advertisers that seemed to be advertising again more out of tradition than any real strategy.

BEST NOSTALGIA - Acura

There were a few ads that pointed backwards in time, from Honda's Ferriss Bueller remake to Budweiser talking about their long history, or the NFL showing an ad called timeline that looks at the evolution of the NFL. The best of the lot was Acura's use of Seinfeld, where the ad took moments from the show that fans would recognize and incorporated them into an entertaining spot.

BEST CASTING - Dannon Oikos Yogurt

The Dannon Oikos ad with a woman head butting John Stamos for a yogurt was funny on its own, but to choose a dreamy actor who people haven't seen in a while (and one with a Greek heritage!) was a perfect choice for promoting greek yogurt to women. Not over the top like the David Beckham underwear ads from H&M, but just right. Oikos itself may have been an unexpected brand to advertise, but one who likely did a lot to reach their target audience by remembering (unlike all the bikini-featuring brands) that plenty of women watch the Super Bowl too.

BEST USE OF HUMOR - M&Ms

Picking the funniest ad of the night is not a hard choice. Only one ad all night actually made me and several friends laugh out loud while watching ... the brown M&M spot. Maybe it was funnier because I'm brown myself, but this was perfectly scripted and executed.  The animated dancing of the creepy "naked" red M&M who strips off his red was perfectly done - and a great usage of the M&M candy personalities.

BEST RISK TO PAY OFF - NFL

Calling attention to the controversy of player head injuries and the dangers of football was a bold move for the NFL. In Evolution they offer up the timeline of everything that has happehend to help protect players through time and point the spotlight at the fact that they aren't done yet. It was a risky move, but one that I think will pay off as a powerful reminder of how seriously the NFL is taking player safety as an issue.

BEST TIMING - TELEFLORA

while some have already objected to the underlying message of this ad (that flowers on Valentines will lead to getting action), the timing of this ad stands out only because no other advertiser seemed to realize that Valentine's is less than two weeks away.

WORST OVERHYPING - Century21

For more than a dozen ads during the pregame show, Century21 played ad after ad showing their agent up against some recognizable celebrities in a few different categories. Each ad hyped their upcoming BIG ad that would play during the third quarter and warned viewers to watch out for it. The actual ad itself had been so built up, you were expecting something significant.  The ad it self was little more than something ordinary. We get it, you can pay some celebrities to show up in your ad. Any other time, that would be cool. For the Super Bowl, we kind of expect that.

WORST KNOCKOFF OF A PREVIOUSLY SUCCESSFUL IDEA - VW

The whole connection of the dog losing weight both in the actual VW ad and the "prequel" ad that was released several days ago was stretched. While their Star Wars themed ad with the kid dressed as Darth Vader was a hit last year, this year just seemed like they were trying too hard to be just as cool. At the end of the new ad, the guy at the bar said the "Vader kid was better" ... he was right.

BONUS ADS - 2 Non-nationally Televised Ads Worth Watching (SeaWeb + Kaufmann Foundation)

Often cause related ads don't get the national spotlight because of the high price tag, but do get shown during pregame programming and regionally. Here are two that stood out for me - one for the message (which I truly believe) that entrepreneurs can change the world.  The second from an organization that I have worked with in the past which used the bold strategy of fading to black for 5 seconds in their 30 second spot to illustrate the power of silence when used creatively. 

Il y avait longtemps qu’un sujet marketing ne m’avait pas donné envie d’écrire sur ce blog. Par chance, je peux le faire cette fois puisque le sujet ne croise directement ni mon agence, ni mes clients. C’est tout simplement un cas unique (au moins en France) de réussite digitale exemplaire dont l’analyse par les quelques commentateurs m’a parue parfois un peu hasardeuse. L’outil Twitter et ses 140 caractères ayant montré ses limites pour faire part de mon point de vue et expliquer mon désaccord, je prends l’occasion de développer ici.

Au début du mois de janvier, un homme nu est découvert en arrière-plan d’enfants sur une photo de catalogue de la célèbre et très politiquement correct marque de vente par correspondance. Emoi généralisé sur le web, d’abord sur Twitter en mode moquerie, mobilisation plus profonde sur Facebook, emballement incontrolable : c’est le « bad buzz dont tout le monde parle ». Depuis l’avènement des réseaux sociaux, les internautes adorent ces moments où ils peuvent s’envoyer une « institution », que ce soit une entreprise, une personnalité ou acteur du corps social.

Pour couronner le tout, le concurrent Les 3 Suisses tire parti intelligemment du moment dans un mode très guerilla marketing en habillant le désormais célèbre homme nu avec la légende « Visiblement, tout le monde ne sait pas que nous avons des maillots de bain ». Malin.

La Redoute en est réduite à retirer immédiatement la photo et présenter ses excuses (notamment sur Facebook). Affaire classée ?

Comme le défend Olivier Cimelière sur Le Plus du Nouvel Obs, on pourrait penser que tout cela ne dépasse pas un microcosme qui n’atteindra jamais la clientèle très mainstream de La Redoute. Auquel cas, il serait en effet prudent de passer vite à autre chose, en espérant que les internautes soient prêts à laisser passer. Seulement voilà, la trace est laissée partout sur le web, espace évidemment stratégique pour un acteur de la VPC. A titre d’exemple, sous la pression de l’intérêt des internautes, Google renvoie très directement sur la malencontreuse aventure dès le début de la requête sur son moteur de recherche. De quoi attirer le regard du consommateur le plus éloigné de Twitter et Facebook.

Si on arrive comme moi à la conclusion qu’il faut absolument réagir, la grande question est : comment le faire de façon acceptable pour les internautes, sans provoquer un nouveau bad buzz encore plus dommageable ? Cora, attaqué pour ses démêlés avec une caissière renvoyée pour des raisons obscures, s’y était essayé en publiant maladroitement un vidéo de promotion interne totalement contre-productive.

Avec son agence CLM BBDO, La Redoute a donc décidé de publier cette semaine une vidéo

Sur le web, la réaction est immédiate, accueillie comme un « rebond sur le bad buzz », comme si La Redoute essayait d’en tirer parti. Avec la même dynamique sur Twitter, Facebook, YouTube et les blogs. Au final, le sentiment laissé est celui d’un coup marketing malin, sur le mode de ce qu’avait fait Les 3 Suisses. D’autant que les médias plus traditionnels s’en mêlent, parlant même parfois de « coup de pub », à l’instar de France3.fr, Paris Match ou Marie Claire.

Quels enseignements ?

On peut s’attendre à voir fleurir dans les benchmarks des agences de marketing digital pour leurs clients et les étudiants « le cas La Redoute qui a su transformer un bad buzz ». Mais il va falloir intégrer pas mal de finesse pour en tirer des enseignements clés pour le marché.

Pourquoi la réponse de La Redoute est un modèle du genre ?

Parce que la réponse vidéo applique adroitement au digital l’ensemble des règles de bases de la communication de crise et prend le niveau de risque raisonnable nécessaire. Une fois de plus, je ne sais rien de ce qui a présidé au choix de la marque et de son agence mais je le déduis de la vidéo et de son environnement. Dans le détail.

0:00 : le message est délivré dans un cadre très officiel, incarné par un dirigeant légitime et concerné : la Directrice e-commerce et développement de la marque. Le décor est sobre et professionnel, la voix posée et juste. Seule erreur : un mouvement des doigts qui traduit une certaine nervosité et aurait pu facilement être évité. Le tout dans une vidéo intitulée « les fails de la redoute » qui reprend la main sur un mot savamment utilisé pendant le « bad buzz », expression qu’on laissera aux commentateurs le soin d’utiliser.

0:10 : rappel des faits, sans fioriture, ni trop ni trop peu de détail, illustré de l’image. => Admettre les faits en les rappelant

0:19 : les excuses sont présentées, sans équivoque, clairement, le mot « erreur » est utilisé sans amplification. On ne parle pas de « problème », il n’y a pas d’usage d’adjectifs tel que inacceptable, incompréhensible ou simplement embarrassante, juste une erreur. => Prendre acte et s’excuser au niveau de la gravité de l’erreur, sans minimiser ni en rajouter (dans ce cas, il n’y a pas mort d’homme, il serait déplacé d’en faire trop par exemple)

0:25 : après le constat et les excuses vient le temps de l’action. On apprend donc qu’une équipe a immédiatement vérifié l’ensemble des images. C’est l’occasion de rappeler le nombre de photos (des milliers), une façon de dire en creux qu’avec un tel volume, l’erreur humaine est possible… et le sera toujours. => Annoncer les mesures prises immédiatement pour remédier au problème

Il s’agit ensuite de reconstruire en recréant de l’adhésion de la connivence ou de l’empathie selon les cas.

0:30 : alors qu’on s’attend à un message un peu langue de bois qui rassurerait sur le fait qu’aucune autre image comportant une « erreur » n’a été à déplorer, la Directrice y commerce amorce un twist. « Le résultat est assez EMBARRASSANT ». => Effet de surprise

0:34 : un exemple d’autres « erreurs » relevées est présenté, de façon à faire comprendre immédiatement le second degré de la révélation qui ouvre à un jeu présenté en détail, avec à la clé une récompense en résonance avec l’origine de l’affaire. Sans jamais quitter le ton institutionnel qui fait le succès du second degré. => une proposition participative, avec un enjeu.

1:04 : un rappel des différents espaces web concernés est clairement et sobrement présenté (site, Facebook, Twitter). => infuser dans tous les espaces concernés par le bad buzz d’origine. L’animation du jeu y est gérée minutieusement (ici sur Facebook)

Les deux grands enseignements qui me seront utiles pour décider et convaincre mes clients dans un cas similaire :

- Appliquer les règles de la communication de crise : prendre acte, s’excuser et montrer qu’on est dans l’action pour réagir, clôturer et enfin reconstruire. On notera que la temporalité du web impose d’entamer la reconstruction immédiatement après l’action, alors qu’on avait appris à le séparer en 2 séquences distinctes dans le cas de com de crise traditionnelle.

- Accepter un niveau raisonnable de prises de risque sans lequel un format trop institutionnel risquera de renforcer encore le problème de départ.

Merci donc à La Redoute et à son agence CLM BBDO (concurrente de la mienne, je le rappelle) pour le support qu’ils nous offrent afin de progresser tous ensemble dans le champ de mines que représente le nombre de Bad Buzz de grandes marques sur le web.

I was looking for a pair of shoes.  Something fairly particular.  After a bit of searching I came across a brand I liked.  No reason to name names.  

I scoured their website, found the pair I liked and decided I needed to try them on before ordering.

Only problem is I couldn't find a retail locator on their site.  So I found their Twitter handle and asked very politely, twice, if someone could help me find a retailer in Chicago.

Crickets.

Then I sent an email asking the same thing.

Crickets.

Finally I walked Michigan Avenue and found a department store that carried the brand.  They had the shoe, but not my size.  But no big deal - I had confirmed my choice.

So I did what I always do - ordered them from Zappos.  Came the next day.  As sure of a sure bet out there.

I love the shoes.  Would probably buy another pair.  This, despite having a pretty poor experience with the brand (really, no experience at all).

The moral here is that a lot of companies have Zappos to thank for bridging the customer experience gap. I hope they realize that.  Both Zappos and the brands they sell. 

Last year on a trip back to the US from South Africa, I picked up a magazine about a topic I knew very little about. It is of the common tricks I use to learn about different industries outside of the ones I work directly with – and in this case, the magazine I ended up with was called Farmer’s Weekly.

The content was as you would expect, advice for farmers on techniques, information about regulations that will affect their industry and ads for tractors and things like that. In the middle of the issue I picked up was a feature article about what the author called the “Amish Paradox”

This paradox describes the unexpected methods that the Amish use when farming their land that are working so well that they are continuing to run their farms profitably without interruption while many other farmers are struggling to make ends meet and often going under as well.  What makes the Amish technique so special?

They rotate their crops consistently (planting different items at different parts of the yar. They never use chemical fertilizers and use something called “legume-based pastures’ to keep the fertility of their land. They tend to grow smaller fruits and veggies (which some say they are tastier to). Perhaps most importantly, they do what is called “adding value” – by producing additional products such as fresh cheese.

In an industry facing increasing pressure from large industry leaders to plant more genetically modified crops, and focus on volume above all else … the Amish philosophy stands out. What can you learn from their lesson, even if you are not in farming?

1. Stick to your ideals. For the Amish, their farm culture is mixed together with their religion and belief system. Few of our small businesses take such a principled approach, but if you do – it can help serve as a guidepost for what your business will do and how it will evolve, and what you will avoid.
2. Think longer term. One of the biggest challenges in any business is to think of the long term and not of today. Crop rotation, for example, is a principle focused on making sure that land remains good for cultivating crops far into the future. Sometimes what it requires is passing up the opportunity to simply plant the most profitable thing every time.
3. Avoid following the “experts.” The Amish philosophy goes against many experts in the farming industry who push for higher production and instead follows their more traditional path. This tends to draw many critics and also probably causes them to have lower revenues from their crops.  Yet this goes back to point #2 – and how your priorities tend to be different if you focus on taking care of your land for future generations instead of just maximizing profit today.

Facebook may be blocked in China, but the world’s most populous nation features throughout Facebook’s IPO prospectus filed last night to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Here are the references (my comments in bold):

Facebook sees China’s social networks as key competitors
We face significant competition in almost every aspect of our business, including from companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Twitter … We compete broadly with Google’s social networking offerings, including Google+, and also with other, largely regional, social networks that have strong positions in particular countries, including Cyworld in Korea, Mixi in Japan, Orkut (owned by Google) in Brazil and India, and vKontakte in Russia. We would also face competition from companies in China such as Renren, Sina, and Tencent in the event that we are able to access the market in China in the future.

China’s blockage is a risk that Facebook may face elsewhere
It is possible that governments of one or more countries may seek to censor content available on Facebook in their country, restrict access to Facebook from their country entirely, or impose other restrictions that may affect the accessibility of Facebook in their country for an extended period of time or indefinitely. For example, access to Facebook has been or is currently restricted in whole or in part in China, Iran, North Korea, and Syria. In addition, governments in other countries may seek to restrict access to Facebook if they consider us to be in violation of their laws.

Facebook is still very hungry to enter China
We plan to continue the international expansion of our business operations and the translation of our products. We currently make Facebook available in more than 70 different languages, and we have offices or data centers in more than 20 different countries. We may enter new international markets where we have limited or no experience in marketing, selling, and deploying our products. For example, we continue to evaluate entering China. However, this market has substantial legal and regulatory complexities that have prevented our entry into China to date. If we fail to deploy or manage our operations in international markets successfully, our business may suffer.

China’s lack of Facebook penetration highlighted as a key hurdle for Facebook’s ambition
There are more than two billion global Internet users, according to an industry source, and we aim to connect all of them. We have achieved varying levels of penetration within the population of Internet users in different countries. For example, in countries such as Chile, Turkey, and Venezuela we estimate that we have penetration rates of greater than 80% of Internet users; in countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States we estimate that we have penetration rates of approximately 60%; in countries such as Brazil, Germany, and India we estimate that we have penetration rates of approximately 20-30%; in countries such as Japan, Russia, and South Korea we estimate that we have penetration rates of less than 15%; and in China, where Facebook access is restricted, we have near 0% penetration. We continue to invest in growing our user base, particularly in markets where we are relatively less penetrated.

Admission that China may, in fact, be impossible for Facebook
China is a large potential market for Facebook, but users are generally restricted from accessing Facebook from China. We do not know if we will be able to find an approach to managing content and information that will be acceptable to us and to the Chinese government.

One board member’s China fund garners a mention
James W. Breyer has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2005. Mr. Breyer has been a Partner of Accel Partners, a venture capital firm, since 1987. Mr. Breyer is also the founder and has been the Chief Executive Officer of Breyer Capital, an investment firm, since July 2006. Mr. Breyer is also a co-founder and has been co-lead on the strategic investment committee since inception of the IDG-Accel China Funds.

What is your social strategy? Are you trying to increase the amount of positive consumer generated media (CGM) for your brand or are you trying to inspire and manage brand advocacy? The media mindset thinks in terms of CGM. How can they make more of that and put it in all the places where customers will find it. How they “make” that media happen is a means to a simple end. 

The social mindset thinks in terms of genuine brand advocacy. How can we give customers, employees, stakeholders a reason and a means to share a sincerely positive point of view about a brand with their friends, family and people ‘like them?’ How they make that advocacy happen is more than a means to an end, it is indivisible from the end. 

The VIP Deals Deal

It’s not just semantics. Look at the recently reported case of VIP Deals offering free iPad covers (their product) to customers who submitted a favorable review on Amazon. The NYTimes covered this recently and even posted the deal memo sent to customers here. Their goal was to generate overwhelmingly positive reviews. They offered the value of the product price ($30-$35 retail?), told the customer the action they wanted to take and insinuated the tone of that review. Can you split hairs and say that they did not require a favorable review? Perhaps. But there is no mistaking their intention. They wanted to “buy” favorable reviews, consumer generated media, to dominate a channel, Amazon reviews. 

The review space has long been suspected of abuse. Employees giving their own hotel, restaurant, lawnmower a positive review. We imagine  pay-per-review farms in off shore locations and more incentive programs like VIP Deals than are ever revealed. It is not clear what most consumers think of product reviews. I would guess that there is a large amount of skepticism even while we all still look at them to make quick judgments (who wouldn’t download the 4 star weather app on iTunes over the 1.5 star – presuming similar price?) 

Media or Advocacy?

Brand marketers must decide what their intention is – media or advocacy. That choice will inherently guide their actions. Big, multi-national brands need to make this choice more than any small business. What they do in one market will quickly infect another. It’s not as simple as saying “when in China….” All local activity is now global.  The danger in a pure media mindset is the possibility of losing sight of what makes social media so powerful – its ability to earn people’s advocacy and share that at a large scale. 

Getting the right actions and intentions

• One of the best resources for brand and business leaders on practical social media ethics remains the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (disclosure: we are a governing member and I remain as a non-voting board member). Their ethics code and disclosure guidelines  are a foundation that any brand marketer can apply with confidence. 
• We have just updated our Ogilvy Social Media Engagement Code  which is being reviewed in draft form but I have shared here. We have had a social media-related  ethics code in place since 2005 and find it invaluable to rally our global network around. This is how we roll. 

When it comes to economic theories, there is plenty of fascination in the business world around how to explain what drives business and purchasing activities. Behavioural economics, the field of economics concerned with examining why people behave the way they do when it comes to their purchasing behaviour, is hot right now.  Bestselling books like Freakonomics and Predictably Irrational dig deep into the psyche of people to try and explain seemingly illogical actions.

My own upcoming book called Likeonomics, to some degree, looks at a similar theme of why we do business with people and businesses we like and what impact likeability has on building a trusted business. As part of the research for that book, I have come across a disturbing number of examples of a new type of economic philosophy which is becoming sadly common, and which cannot be explained by modern economic theory.

I have started referring to this philosophy as Delusional Economics – a new economic principle which explains the growing number of businesses who expect some type of unreasonable behaviour change or act of altruism among their consumers in order to help their business succeed.  This is not a strategy for success, even though sadly many businesses fall prey to it. Here are what I believe the four key principles of Delusional Economics are, and how you might avoid applying them to your own small business:

1. Change a customer’s worldview. A worldview is generally how a person sees the world around them, and it is usually the toughest element of perception to change. It is why people vote the way they do, why they sometimes blindly believe something or someone, and why they approach life in the manner that they do.  To attempt to change how they see the world as part of your business strategy is usually a waste of time and effort.
2. Getting people to pay for something that is currently free.  When a customer has become used to getting something for free, you really need to offer a compelling reason about why they should pay for something similar. Is it better, faster, more complete or more premium? Whatever the benefit, you need to make sure it is truly compelling to move people past the hurdle of being free.
3. Basing a business model on revenue from nonexistent advertisers or customers.  More than one tech startup has been launched over the last several years with an extremely naive view of what advertisers will pay for.  They have a revenue model based on advertising, but no pipeline or ability to get those customers.  The end result is that their entire business success hinges on being able to connect with a key audience that doesn’t even really exist.
4. Overestimating a customer’s ability to appreciate value worth paying a premium for.  A common problem with products or services targeted to the higher end of the market is that people in general are not that good at being able to detect what value is worth paying for. If I told you a bottle of wine was $100, you would assume it was great wine. If a wine bottle cost less than $5, it probably wasn’t. This is fine when it comes to wine, but in your business and industry it is probably much harder for a customer to discern the real value that they get and understand that it may be worth paying more for.

A few weeks ago it was my birthday. The day before on a Saturday morning, my two boys came leaping into our room very excited to wake me up. It wasn't so much about my birthday, unfortunately, as it was about getting ready to do their favourite thing on a Saturday morning: going to IHOP for pancakes. And when there is a birthday involved, it is an even bigger deal. Your birthday is a celebration there. They bring over at least 6 of the wait staff to sing their own version of the birthday song to you. You get ice cream for breakfast (what kid wouldn't love that?).

People love celebrations - and they love to be at the center of attention. Birthdays are easy. Probably any restaurant would do something special for your birthday. But what about the moments that people forget to celebrate? 3 days ago was the first day of the Chinese New Year. It is the Year of the Dragon. What did your business do to celebrate? Unless you happen to be Chinese, probably nothing. 

Life and culture gives us plenty of moments to celebrate, but often we let them pass without doing anything. If we could, however, it would be an unexpected delight. Today FinnAir offered a perfect example of that - as they filmed and posted a video on YouTube of their cabin staff performing a surprise Bollywood dance on a flight from Helskinki to India in celebration of India's Republic Day:



South Asians and anyone with a passion for India (or marketing) have been sharing this on Facebook and talking about it all day today. It is going what you might call "micro-viral." In other words, it is going viral among the exact small target community that a marketing team should care most about - people highly likely to travel to Southeast Asia. The timing is perfect too, as one of the things that many South Asian families start to think about at the beginning of the year is planning their travel for the rest of the year. And flights to India get booked far in advance.

So this surprise dance has a potentially beautiful marketing payoff - to get people who are considering travel to India later in the year to consider using FinnAir to get there. As of now the video only has a few thousand views. Perhaps it will never get a million or more. But by offering an unexpected celebration, they have positioned their brand as one that offers a connection to India (literally and figuratively). My guess is that it is already paying off.

Every year at the start of the new year there is something that most of us do without realizing it. It is related to making new year's resolutions, but it is more about sequencing your long term goals into the order in which you want to achieve them. One example might be saying to yourself, "I want to be married and then have a kid before I turn 35." Life is full of these little promises. So full, in fact, that often we make them to ourselves without even thinking. It raises an interesting marketing question as well.

What would it take to get a customer to reevaluate the life sequence they have already set for themselves?

It becomes a particularly important question when you consider a brand selling a product that is all about fitting into the right stage in life. A product, for example, like a car. When you consider when people buy new cars, it is very much about life's stages. Graduating from college, landing a new job, getting married or having a kid. Each of these life changes can often be triggers to consider buying a new car.

Honda's new campaign for the CRV may have found one way to solve that challenge. With their Honda LeapList campaign, they encourage consumers to go online and make their own lists of what they want to accomplish before they turn 30, or what they want to do before they get married. It is a brilliant way not only to encourage people to dream and perhaps even act on their longstanding dream to travel the world, but also to encourage them to think about how getting a new car might fit into that sequence. The underlying message is a perfect one for their consumers: why wait? You can do all the things you want to do, and you can do them on your own time. But maybe you should just think about buying that car right now instead of waiting.

Sure it's clearly a marketing message - but what they perfectly prove is something that any marketers would do well to remember. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do to sell your product is help your customers to imagine exactly when they should buy it.

 Via ndh

I'm not a traditional sales guy.  Not really a sales guy at all.  Rather than being pushy I take a more consultative approach, whether I'm working with an existing client or trying to win a new piece of business.

Something I just don't get is when salespeople use false scarcity and/or scare tactics to make a sale.  I see it all the time ...

Only 2 remaining!

Limited time offer!

I've got people banging down my door for this widget.  Don't miss your chance.

If you don't get on Twitter right away someone is going to high-jack your reputation.

I'm actually in the market for a fairly big ticket item right now.  There are plenty of these widgets in the marketplace, some worth more than others based on their condition.  I recently met a guy selling one of these widgets that I'd rate on the higher end of the quality spectrum; but not so high that I can't find it somewhere else with a little bit of looking.

So this guy threw a line at me:  Oh man, I've got like 15 potential buyers.  If you are interested you should move fast.

False scarcity AND scare tactics.  

Because what he's really saying is: My item is so unique that everyone wants it, and you'd be a fool to miss the chance to have it.

Really?  Then why haven't you sold it yet?  And why would I waste my time competing with the other 15 buyers when I can go find another widget?  And how do you know I'm ready to buy?

Rather than kid a kidder, a much better tactic would have been to ask me a few questions to understand my mindset.  How knowledgeable am I about the widget market?  How urgent is my need?  What anxieties do I have about pulling the trigger?

If he listened intently he might have picked up on something to use on me.  Or maybe he'd realize I'm not buying this widget, but he's got another one arriving soon that would be perfect for me.

But no, he missed that chance.

Oh, and the handshake part of this post title ... Man, woman.  Young, old.  Get a grip.  Literally.  I'd much rather buy from someone with a solid handshake.

Sales force-driven organizations are wising up to using social media to build relationships with customers. Businesses are investing in sales enablement software like Salesforce.com, iCentera and Jive that have social-related functions internally to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing and some even have ways to manage social contacts.

Sales as Content 

Sales organizations are all a-twitter about content marketing, certain the answer to closing sales is in a steady flow of just the right white papers or video talking heads. All that is right-minded in my book. The sales process, especially in B2B, starts earlier and earlier with business leaders investigating their problem online before they may have even formed the words to describe the problem exactly. Companies like IBM with their Expert Network and use of LinkedIn  are building presence and thought leadership online that tries to anticipate the business leader’s pain before it’s diagnosed. 

Sales as Service 

Thinking about content as sales “bait” is one thing (and a little insulting to the customer, I might add). Thinking about sales as a continuing service to customers and prospects is different. Instead of simply ramping up on valuable content, sales organizations who want to get into the sales cycle earlier and even build strong relationships with prospects well before closing would do better to think like IDEO. 

One of the most well-known product design firms in the world, IDEO is expert at getting to the root of customer problems whether they be rooted in usability, service, or some anthropological insight. They’re good at making life easier for customers. True, their solutions tend to be in the product and experiential like designing the Community Pharmacy for Walgreens. Beneath the actual solutions lie a relentless curiosity about behavior and behavior change, “We identify new ways to serve and support people by uncovering latent needs, behaviors, and desires.”

If a sales organization spent their energy on understanding their customer’s actual experience and behavior and then sought to deliver services that made their lives a little easier, they might end up with a great strategy for building enduring relationships. Inevitably it would actually point to creating content that is helpful to customers/prospects/influencers. So, right back to that content marketing model we are all working on just within the context of delivering service.  

It might also cause the sales organization to create tools and applications that make it easier to make a smart business decision. Pull out your iPhone. Mine is full of consumer-facing examples of new customer services from my airlines, Delta; my aspirational travel agent, Jetsetter; even my car insurance provider, Geico. IDEO would think holistically (design thinking) about the buyer’s experience and how we might overcome barriers, friction points, and emotional moats.  That is a refreshing way to state the goals of social selling. 

Do: I am all for quick hits and big solutions. I would suggest committing to a content strategy based upon delivering the most useful content possible to your customer’s decision-making process. What reports, white papers, customer testimonials would help them make a good decision? Simply putting on the buyer’s hat vs. your own seller’s hat can drive you to create more useful content. Meanwhile, try a process where you think more creatively about delivering useful services to help the selling/buying process. You can hire a consultant. You can interview customers. You can trigger some effective brainstorming to explore new service territories. 

Resources:

• IDEO Method Cards – this pack of cards introduces you to a variety of ways to apply a design approach to business problems. Flip through. Find 3 that sound promising and just try them.
• Patterns - a useful blog from IDEO on design thinking and application 

Timing: By 2nd Q it will be key to be executing on a content marketing strategy that embeds social components. By 4thQ, it would be terrific to have a utility or buyer service in place being used and tested.

(thanks to madupiyadasa for the pic)

Crossposted from my new blogging home at Spredfast.  I am thrilled to be there.  More about my new job can be found here.

I am kicking off my second week of growing Spredfast’s professional services offerings to drive customer success and reduce time to value.  It is a perfect fit for me – I’ve spent the last 10 years in roles on both the brand (Dell) and the consulting (Ogilvy) side helping organizations adopt Word of Mouth Marketing and, later, social in a way that makes sense strategically and can be executed well tactically.   Early in the journey, my time was spent was spent convincing organizations that they needed to start listening and get involved.  Later on, the bulk of my work progressed to actually putting together well-organized corporate presences and campaigns while, in many cases, cleaning up some social media driftwood cluttering the ecosystem.  In the last year, however, we have seen complexity explode.  Now instead of simply trying to stem social voice proliferation, we see strategies where the whole company can truly benefit from more and more parts of the organization being heard.  But how can you manage a proliferation of voices – Continents, Countries, Brands, Products, Regions, States, Reps – and NOT confuse the customers who want to find us in their social spaces?

That’s why I’m here.  2012 is the year to tackle this complexity at scale and Social Media Management Systems (great Altimeter review on the space here) will play a critical role for those organizations serious about being able to get a handle on their social footprint – from governance to real time, rolled up analytics – and be able to prove that they are making progress against social business goals.  Getting to that point, however, takes more than great technology configured correctly.  It takes clear articulation of goals, KPIs and strategy.  It takes savvy understanding of organizational dynamics.  And perhaps most challenging – it requires behavior change.   That’s when the fun begins.

As our journey progresses and my knowledge grows about traits of those brands successfully scaling the social business hill, I’ll update this space with some of the broadly applicable lessons.  I hope you’ll join in – “network learning” will get us all further faster.

Really amusing blog coverage of LeWeb ‘08 at The Next Web. Check it out if you’re tired of following my very frequent Twitter posts on the conference.  Dying battery and lack of a French plug — it’s a really annoying form of protectionism, if you ask me! — may prevent me from posting much before I board a plane this afternoon. See you back in Beijing soon!

I’m micro-blogging many of the talks at LeWeb ‘08, a very cool conference going on today and tomorrow, December 9 and 10, in Paris. If you’re interested in reading about what the speakers are saying, please follow me on Twitter. I’ll also be doing some round-up posts here at Digital Watch. Some very interesting comments from speakers from Microsoft (Dan’l Lewin) and Google (Nikesh Arora) so far this morning.

Sorry for the long absence, folks, but I saved up all my vacation days and in lieu of a proper holiday I went on the road with my band Chunqiu (春秋) to play shows in nine cities all over China — Wuhan, Changsha, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanning, Kunming, Chengdu, and Xining, where I’m now writing from. After the weekend I’ll be in Paris for LeWeb ‘08, which promises to be an excellent conference as Loic LeMeur’s conferences always are — or so they say. This one has an all-star cast, with the likes of Fred Wilson, Chris Anderson, Maurice Levy, Joi Ito, Robert Scoble, Michael Arrington, Doc Searls, and Hugh MacLeod. I’ll be sure to do lots of blogging from there.

Again, apologies for vanishing for so long, but believe me it was well worth it! I don’t believe I’ll ever shake the rock habit, alas…