What Today’s Marketing, The Boer War, and Call Centres Have In Common

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Have you ever been so frustrated by the automatic computer generated voices that give you 500 options, then tell you that your call will be answered in five minutes. Which then turns into fifty minutes. And worst of all you are paying for the call.

A Whole New Brand World

The call for the longest call at Zappos lasted for over five hours. The call centre agent became a hero. Can you imagine this happening to the companies you deal with. No, we cant either.

Today Walter and I discuss the narrow minded thinking of business that look at operational efficiency that is busy destroying business’s. And no, this is not going to make things fall apart in the next year or two but definatley in the not so distant future.

From Command Control Tactics To The Boer war

We discuss how marketing has evolved from the command and control strategies and tactics to mobility and organic marketing and look at:

  • How customer thinking has changed and the role of business
  • Is the chief marketing officer is dead – no role
  • Why bad business is run by efficiency experts rather than customer happiness
  • Are customers a necessary evil
  • Zappos – why they really are such a good example and not just a cliché
  • Why your competition is Zappos, Amazon and any other brilliant customer experience
  • Your brand is everything and you are good as your worst experience.
  • Why big brand companies have a shelf life — and why the boring gurus CEO wont win tomorrows awards
  • The customer experience is the new benchmark. It is the new differentiating factor and defines what is possible.

Go here to listen to the podcast.


Why Copying Poster Child Campaign Like Old Spice Will Hurt Your Social Media Strategy?

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The Old Spice campaign became the poster child for social media and selling to The Mobile Consumer. Yet, after the initial word of mouth marketing explosion, when you look at the Old Spice engagement after the campaign there is a huge let down.

I went and looked at Old Spice after some conversations I had regarding South African brands that have bought into the Social / Mobile idea. They initially embraced the idea, hoping for some word of mouth marketing and then got quite badly burnt.

Burning Money On Poor Social Media

Many have spent a lot of money on building FaceBook pages, twitter profiles and so and got marginal returns on from these mobile / social strategies. And if there is one thing that marketers want to see is a return on the investment, or else they wind up in the dog box.

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Introducing The BuzzVine Network. Try and Tell for Word of Mouth Marketing.

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Most marketers’ job is to control the communication, influence customers and drive sales. Well, at least it used to be. And unless you have had your head under a rock for the last 7 odd years you will know that marketing has changed.

I know; it is starting to sound like an old drumbeat that is getting quite tired. Truthfully though, many marketers are adapting to this process and getting the importance of word of mouth marketing. Of course that is if you can call it a process.

One of the big changes is that you cannot control what your customer thinks about you. For many marketers this idea really is quite a scary thought and raises questions like:

  • How do we quickly boost sales?
  • What and how do I tell the board / my boss / exco that things have changed?
  • If I tell them, how do I get evaluated for my year-end bonus?
  • If this medium is no longer as effective, what do I use?
  • Surely this social stuff is the same as TV. It should work, shouldn’t it?
  • How do I know that I am getting a return on my money?
  • How do I make sure some dumb customer will not screw up my message?
  • How do I develop a word of mouth marketing strategy?

Getting Into the BuzzVine

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Sour Tasting Dirty Talking Politicians and Good Coffee

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It’s the eve of the local government elections in South Africa and Walter and I chat the development of the raving loony political party.  This idea was born when we asked the question: If brands behaved like politician’s what would happen to them?

Dirty Politics and Crowdsourcing

There have been many messages from the racist madam who can’t dance, to the debacles about human dignity and open toilets, and … well, you get the idea.

Without becoming a political platform we chat about the behaviour of politicians, the messages they send, the ethics behind it and how people will drive change through their empowered voice.

The idea of crowdsourcing and democracy is compared and Walter shares his thoughts about the impact of Egypt. You can read his latest post on this on his Organic Marketing Blog.

The Future Business Model

We also looked at the business model of the future that does not need advertise.

Bean There Coffee is an inspiring brand. They focus on fair trade; they look after their suppliers in a way that most brands cannot even imagine. Maybe what is most telling is that the staff are really happy and having fun. They also see their customers as a key part of their business rather than a necessary evil.

This is the type of experience will get people talking. And its not the just the smell of freshly brewed coffee.

Splatt Feedback

And, please let us know what your experience is with the Splatt Podcast. Is there anything you want to chat about or discuss?

Go Here To listen to the podcast

Why Marketers Settle For A One Night Stand Rather Than The Holiday Romance.

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The Old Spice campaign is a one-night stand. It grabs your attention, flirts with you, gets you all steamed up, gets you to engage and then dumps you like a bunch of rotten tomatoes.

This is certainly not the way you should be talking about the poster child of social media campaigns. Heck, maybe Mustafa will hot tail it on his horse to come and deal with the sacrilege. Or maybe, hopefully he will just have a cool shower and move on.

All joking aside, the question we look at in today’s podcast is the issue of engagement. Why marketers insist on embracing a campaign that spikes like mad and dumps you down with a crash.

Some thoughts that we chat about include:

  • Why social media should be social engagement.
  • Wonder if the company culture creating a problem for marketers?
  • Why your advertising agency can really damage your social media campaign
  • Why a like is worse than a cheap suit and is not love.
  • Why you need to treat your customer as a first-class citizen.
  • Why trial and awareness is not enough anymore.
  • Why a coffee shop owner is doing a better social media job than high-end brand managers.
  • Your brand is about feelings – create good ones and word of mouth will spread.

What are your thoughts?

You can listen to the podcast here

Is Your Marketing Prince Frog Marketing?

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We all know the story of the princess and the frog. The story goes that true love lies hidden until the princess kisses the little green brut. Disney just made a movie about it and my kids loved it.

But what would happen if the frog were swopped out for a prince. Along the way she has a bit trouble and he gallantly offers to help as long as the princess marries him. She is a bit dishonest and sees nothing wrong with this. She believes she can run away and avoid his advances. Of course that is until he kisses her and true love blossoms.

Surprise Is A Key to Word of Mouth

The prince version is a lot more boring, isn’t. You are not going to run out and recommend it to your friends, Disney certainly is not going to be making any movies about it, and my kids are not going to be inspired by it.

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