A Case Study On How Bad Profits Can Destroy Your Business

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Business is about profits. Yes, we all agree on this. Yet what we won’t all agree on is that some profits are really bad. To see the truth of this you just have to look at how some companies go about their business — and the way they treat their customers, how they make them feel and the negative word of mouth generated.

To put this into context I have put together a mini case study. I was inspired by the pain, frustration and anger I saw my wife go through with ADT Security and my absolute pleasure in dealing with Amazon.

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Customer Experience: The Psychological Shortcut

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Everyday we face hundreds of choices. It gets complicated. And this is why we create habitual behaviour — whether it is to take the same route to work, whether we put on our underwear before our sock everyday, or simply the same breakfast. It makes our life easier and we can go onto autopilot.

Consumer Decision Making Shortcuts

When there is no autopilot system, these choice get a bit to hectic. We look for the mental shortcuts that will make our decision making process easier. Its why we use the peer review system so often. For example,

  • If a hundred people say its good, we will try it.
  • If a blogger has a 100 000 RSS readers we follow them.
  • If some one we respect loves that product or service, we will give it a try. [Read more...]

The Five Different Types of Word of Mouth Marketing and How to leverage Them

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In my last word of mouth post I look at the five different reasons why we talk about brands. And there is a good reason why we all get very excited about word of mouth when you look at the numbers:

  • Up to 80% of your customers will see Word of Mouth as the most credible form of marketing.
  • Word of Mouth has the most effective cost per conversion.
  • Any customer who arrives via the word of mouth channel is more likely to buy than any other.

But Don’t get To Excited About Word of Mouth Just Yet …

As not all word of mouth is equal.

These figures and points above are a generalization, and there is no doubt of their value, but we must keep word of mouth in context.

To do this we must explore the five different sources of word of mouth: [Read more...]

15 Reasons To Start A Movement, Not A Campaign

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I get this a lot: “We need to improve our customer loyalty and the quality of our customer relationships. Michael, we need a campaign that will get this right.”

My answer is always the same: “If you want to get this right you must start a movement, not a campaign.” I am always asked what the difference is.

Well, here are 15 differences between a campaign and a movement and why you need to start one right now:

1. Loyalty versus awareness

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Are you asking the right questions to grow your business?

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I enjoyed my time at university. While I was not the most studious of students, I did learn a thing or two. And like most graduates I came out of varsity feeling as though I had been equipped to answer the world’s questions.

I was there to solve any problem and nothing was beyond me. I was the perfect customer experience solution. Hey, I was the graduate.

As I progressed through my career, and my life, it slowly dawned on me that I really knew very little. The answers that I thought I had were irrelevant, outdated or just plain fiction.

What questions are you asking?

Customer experience are about feelings and emotions just as much as they are about logical process and systems. What this did was make me realise that I had learnt two very important lessons while studying.

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Why Your Big Budget Advertising Is Doomed To Failure (Sorry)!

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The traditional media eco-system is going through a major metamorphosis. At first glance it would seem that this is largely driven by the changes of an evolving internet platform and mobile media — something where I think many marketers are taking huge strain just to manage the effects it is having on their brand and media strategies.

Changing Consumer Behaviour

Personally, I think this strain is more about the change in how our consumer are making decisions today. And I think this is the flaw where most media strategies fail.

There is no doubt that there is a symbiotic relationship between the evolving multimedia platforms and consumer behaviour. How consumers make decisions and what influences these decisions has  radically evolved from the first TV commercial and marketer’s ability to refine the advertising process.

Today, TV commercials do not have the credibility that they used to. As consumers, we no longer dogmatically believe what a brand says about itself to be true. Now we believe what other consumers say and we the ability to find information in different ways and validate what we want through a peer review system.

How Billions of Dollars Are Being Flushed Down The Toilet

All I have to do is go online validate if I am making the right choice about a product I want. Lets say its a new printer that I am about to buy. It looks like a good product and I know it has a good brand name.

What happens when I use my Blackberry, click through amazon to see what other people say and find 10 bad reviews? I replace the product with one that has good reviews.

For the brand that could mean millions of dollars of advertising investment and years of brand building down the tube. Ouch. And if your consumer believes that you are not being upfront and honest you will pay a severe price.

The Fragmented Media Eco-System

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