As hotels continue the march up the sustainable innovation curve, they just get better and better, don't they? My current hotel started out as a motel on a strip development, but looks more like an oasis for road warriors now.
In-room amenities include a two-tiered desk suitable for a laptop as well as the piles of paper we all still seem to need. A giant Philips flat screen TV looks almost like art. [I'm here working at a trade-show type of event, and looking forward to the design innovations I'll get to see later on.]
Such pedestrian items as a blow-dryer, in-room coffee maker, and luxurious bed are now pretty much mandatory to stay in the game. Free parking and free in-room internet are among the distinctions between this kind of a place and a major downtown hotel. Even the quality of the restaurant food has improved, no longer smacking of diner-with-a-garnish entrees.
But I had a genuine surprise when I logged in to the internet this morning. Charming post-cards you can customize and send! [I suggested just such an application to a business a couple of years ago. Too bad they didn't try it to support their hair care product line. But I digress...]
These postcards could charm the kids you are traveling with, or the road warrior keeping in touch.
The insight: when you are traveling, you are either having an adventure with family and friends, or you are lonely and missing them - or perhaps just knowing that they are missing you. The postcards neatly nail this insight and speak to it. So they win on two counts: they show that the hotel 'gets it', and they give you something nice to do with those emotions.
I was also pleased to see a truly useful web site, with things like 'check your flight' and 'local dining'. Best I have seen in quite a while. Good on you, Holiday Inn. Or should I start calling you Holly, to reflect your new sensibility?
I'm a big fan of IKEA, among the most successful retailers in the world. Every time I'm in one of their stores, I see something worth thinking about.
Check out these signs. They were evident in several of their room arrangements.
This is the kind of description that might be created by a marketing department but never seen by a customer. It's a description of a market segment that evokes needs, behaviors and activities. And the furniture matches.
What's interesting about this is putting the segment information on display. Really, very few organizations do this. They may have offerings that are designed for a certain segment, but they don't make it explicit.
One exception is Umpqua bank, which doesn't exactly describe their segments, but gives you a clue in their product descriptions.
Descriptions like these are often used in innovation work to describe the target customer that you are seeking ideas for. Why hide it once you have it?
As additional benefit here, the description helps someone affirm that "yes, this is the kind of furniture someone like you should have." It helps the customer put themselves in the picture. And this is a good thing.
Susan's tips:
[1] Create evocative descriptions of your market segments [2] Use the descriptions to help staff stay in tune with the customer [3] Use the descriptions to help customers find their best fit among your product/service offerings.
You've likely heard about a new service Google has launched called Latitude, that can enable you and your pals to track each other geographically via your mobile phones. There's a bit of controversy about the potential abuse of the service for stalking, but that's not what I want to talk about. At least not directly. I tested this concept a couple of years ago in research. Let me tell you about it.
About two years ago, I was planning a session with some grad students in a research program. You know the drill -- guest instructors who are practitioners come in and show their stuff. So I did an advance study with the group using an online bulletin board method. Then we talked about it in the class.
To try to find a topic of interest to all the students of various ages, I picked cell phones. Among other things, I cooked up a number of possible features and enhanced services that we concept tested. One of them I called "Friend Finder", which was essentially a product like Latitude.
I thought this Friend Finder concept was pretty clever, actually, and that if I tested such a product concept with a broad base of young adults, that it would likely be well received. I was really surprised when this group of research students reacted pretty badly to the idea, and were REALLY worried about privacy. Freaked-out and creeped-out about privacy, actually.
They also didn't like "Taxi Finder", something I personally would love. And they didn't like "Bus Finder". I don't think there was one concept that tested well.
So I pondered this finding ... and here's what I think.
This was not an average slice of humanity in any respect. Most of these people were into quantitative i.e. they enjoy statistics. A number of them had just finished a four-year degree and were running out of money. Several were mid-life career changers who were also pretty cautious about their spending. And they were in a small city on the edge of the Canadian Shield (lots of big rocks) and they told me cell coverage was often spotty. [Who knew? When I go up there to canoe, I'm pretty much ignoring my cell phone.]
And it was not a well targeted slice either. A number of the students turned out not to have a cell phone at all, or used it very sparingly. In a real study, the client most likely would have been looking to gain insights into only those people who were already pretty keen on their cell phones and were already using some advanced features.
My colleague that day, Tania Heintzman, was personally VERY keen on Taxi Finder. But she uses taxis a lot and students don't. Off target.
I personally was very keen on Bus Finder, but the bus service in small cities is often terrible and so irrelevant to this group who all drove to campus. Off target again.
Basically, researching any number of the wrong people does not help. A bigger sample of the wrong people does not help. Statistical significance would not get you out of this issue either. The wrong sample is the wrong sample.
Sometimes only a few of the exactly right people can help you dive very very deep into powerful insight. So you really need to figure out who those right people are. Especially when you are trying to see into the future with new concepts for products.
If something like this happened in a real project, it would be a mistake to conclude that the concepts had no potential market. Because clearly, Latitude will find users. And all sorts of people are developing open-source products like my "Bus Finder" idea, even here in the frozen wastelands of Toronto. Soon it will be available via smart phone apps.
On the other hand, some of the learning would have been valid. For example, the concern about privacy. That's an attitudinal and behavioral segment that you would want to understand. Even knowing about this issue would help you design a better service, and avoid the criticisms Google is getting now.
This is the third of a three-part interview with Christine Whittemore, creator of Flooring the Consumer, a trade blog in the carpet industry, and Carpetology, a consumer focused blog on everything carpet. Read part 1 here and part 2 here.
Pushing further into social networks
As Ms. Whittemore has continued to learn more about the social media environment, she and her colleagues have reached into new areas.
In 2007, and again in 2008, she participated in writing the Age of Conversation, a collaborative book created with bloggers around the world. Each author contributed a chapter, and the book proceeds have been donated to the children’s charity Variety.
Being involved in that project was what led Ms. Whittemore into other online sharing tools, including Facebook and Twitter. “We had a reason to experiment with some of these tools to figure out whether they make sense and how to use them. I’m in admiration over Wiggly Wigglers (here on Facebook) and The Engaging Brand (here on Facebook) and how they use Facebook to nurture their community and business.”
She has now started experimenting with Facebook for Wear-Dated, and has a video series called A Foot’s Perspective on YouTube. True to form, both these properties are cross-linked and linked to the Carpetology Blog. There are Flickr sets for Wear-Dated, Solutia’s brand of carpet fiber. “These are long term projects that allow me to keep on learning and experimenting.”
Ms. Whittemore also describes herself -- accurately -- as an "enthusiastic participant" in the Bathroom Blogfest, an annual event that I was involved in instigating that created many opportunities for additional blog profile through cross-linking.
The "social media paradox"
When asked about key learning and missteps, Ms. Whittemore says, "The biggest misstep is not experimenting and trying these tools. They are efficient and powerful and here to stay. So, not becoming familiar with them puts you at a disadvantage."
Unfortunately, as many new media practitioners know, time pressures often expand with involvement in social networks, something she calls "The social media paradox".
"My biggest frustration is not having enough time. I bet you are familiar with what I term the social media paradox: you get involved because you have a bit of extra time. Before you know it, the social media project has snowballed and taken on a life of its own.
"You develop a community. You must nurture it, but that leaves less time to be looking outward at what others contribute to the conversation, and keep up with other new developments."
The challenge becomes to "still be aware of what’s going on outside your immediate circle". If you don't maintain this connection between the online and offline worlds, she believes you become "too insular".
Another key area of learning has been in keyword placement and search engine ranking. "I knew nothing about SEO when I started out. As my writing has improved, I’m developing more sensitivity for how to position ideas and keywords for greater benefit. The Carpetology Blog has helped tremendously as all postings have some relationship to carpet."
She still wishes she had more time for formal training in online copywriting principles and SEO (Search Engine Optimization), as well as Google Analytics and other tools. All in service to meet the goals of the entire exercise: "understand what matters to web visitors".
Trends: social media is growing, and the consumer is in charge
Ms. Whittemore believes that blogs and other social media tools are becoming more accepted, even in traditional industries. "I’m seeing more exploration taking place with LinkedIn groups forming", she notes, and "Corporations are getting increasingly involved in social media which means that acceptance is growing."
What isn’t changing is that the consumer is in charge and begins research at a web browser. "The only way to be discovered is by participating in the online conversation and creating content that is authentic, trustworthy, relevant and valuable. And that will only become more true going forward."
Christine Whittemore is certainly one of the people actually driving change in traditional industries. I have no doubt that Solutia's competitors are wondering how to catch up to this two year lead in online conversational presence. They could take a lesson from her, and just get started.
The development of these online properties certainly shows the potential impact available from new media involvement for any industry, no matter how traditional, or even low-engagement the category might seem.
A lot of businesses still struggle with how to use social media effectively to communicate with their end consumers. They don’t see their company or their industry as high tech, or sexy, or particularly cutting edge – in short, they just don’t see the fit of social media for their situation. Manufacturers and wholesalers of consumer durables might well consider themselves in this situation. Take carpeting for instance. I can't remember when I have seen this industry featured in a marketing magazine.
This is why I have been fascinated with the success Christine Whittemore of Solutia has had with her personal business blog, Flooring the Consumer, and have been keen to ask her a few questions.
Ms. Whittemore agrees the carpet marketing environment is traditional. “It’s not high-tech, and not promoted as high-touch – even though carpet engages the senses more than many home products.” Far from being cutting edge in retailing or marketing, price is often a more dominant feature than fashion or design in messaging.
So carpeting is a market few would see as ripe territory for new media.Stay tuned as we find out more about bringing social media to the marketing of a carpet manufacturer.
Seriously good statistics
Flooring the Consumer was launched in June 2006, and is now ranked as #108 on the Ad Age top marketing blogs, and has over 800 subscribers. These are seriously good statistics for a blog of this type.
More importantly, as you'll see in the coming posts, the blog is achieving business results.
Ms. Whittemore is the Director for In-Store Innovation for the Wear-Dated carpet fiber division of Solutia, a $3.8 Billion company with 6000 employees. The company manufactures nylon fibers that go into residential carpet. Her work involves training, presentations, and thought leadership at retail for the flooring industry.
Below, authors of the Carpetology blog. The same team "elf themselves" at the Office Max site.
Born out of frustration with traditional marketing
The blog was born out of Ms. Whittemore’s frustration with traditional marketing to achieve her business objectives. “I had been flirting with the notion of a blog -- actively for 9 months prior to taking that step -- because I was so frustrated with traditional marketing, had things to share with my audience of flooring retailers and retail salespeople, and couldn’t get published fast enough and frequently enough by the trade press.”
In addition to this challenge, there was minimal budget for a traditional newsletter, and she felt these had become “inefficient” as a communication tool in any event.
After attending a Columbia Business School conference on marketing innovation, Ms. Whittemore says she realized “most of the people in the room not only blogged, but were also cutting edge marketers… and true innovators.” She took her content ideas and her sense of urgency to work, and the blog was born.
About consumers and retailing, not just carpeting
There are now three blogs as well as a Twitter feed, and Facebook activity. The blogs each have a distinct audience. Flooring the Consumer is targeted to the trade, and addresses topics such as marketing to women, the retail experience and consumers in general.
Carpetology, launched in December 2007, is a consumer blog about all things carpet.
The third blog, The Smoke Rise Blog, is a community-oriented, more personal blog.
While the consumers are online, not all the retailers are. There are retailers keen to reinvent the experience, however, and these are the ones that Flooring the Consumer reaches, and that keep the author motivated.
Next up: how to keep people engaged with relevant content, and how to measure success.
Building this kind of insight into your customers is achievable only with consistent dedication to gathering insight. I see evidence all over their marketing of high-quality research, both qualitative and quantitative.
I had hoped to interview someone from Harley's research team, but haven't been able to make that connection. However, I can share with you a small peek at their approach, because I happened to get a pop-up survey on their web site, and was quite impressed with the quality of the questions. [Naturally, I saved a few screen shots]
A look at H-D's pop-up satisfaction survey
The ratings covered these areas:
accuracy, quality and usefulness of the information on the site
ability to accomplish the purpose of the visit
reliability of the site
More interesting:
whether the site is consistent with the brand image, and whether it creates a positive impression [Everyone should be asking this; most do not]
Most interesting:
whether the site meets your expectations
how the site compares to your idea of an ideal web site
I need to explain this last one a bit. Sometimes we have low expectations. So meeting our expectations in that case is no big deal. But customer loyalty does not relate not just to satisfaction, or meeting expectations, they also relate to delivering high quality -- and people form this notion of quality quite independent of your specific brand or experience.
There were more questions, but these were the ones that caught my eye. Because if you are just asking overall satisfaction, you are not getting the full picture. You also need to know how well you are doing (on any topic) compared to a standard of excellence that your target customer has formed independently of you.
There was more evidence of sophisticated thinking. For example, a typical list of "why did you visit the website today" has 5 or 6 generic responses. This questionnaire had 22 options! Ranging from "seeking employment" to "getting screensavers". This list itself was undoubtedly based on previous research with site visitors.
It was no surprise to discover that H-D had enlisted the help of research specialists to get to this happy place. The ready availability of inexpensive survey software means we see a lot of weak satisfaction questionnaires. Many of these probably came from a template provided by the hosted software application.
Gathering and using customer insight is like making a pearl
The fact that you see these weak surveys everywhere doesn't mean this is the way to do it. It just means a lot of people won't invest in good information. There isn't a lot of substitute for real expertise, hard thinking and thoughtful testing.
As I have often said to prospective clients, 'You are paying for insight, not for method". However, I digress.
Seeing a sophisticated approach to one small element of the insight equation only confirmed my suspicion that considerable sophistication goes into Harley-Davidson's marketing, including the gathering of customer insight.
It has to. Because that is how you get messaging that is outstanding -- you base it on genuine insight, gathered over years, layered on prior learning, and guarded like the crown jewels. It's like an oyster building a pearl, layer by layer.
Resources
I've written about customer satisfaction a few times.
Harley-Davidson is a great example of brand stewardship over many years. Whatever false steps they may have had in the past, they are a case study in customer engagement.
The Harley-Davidson web site has many opportunities to get involved.
There are places to post your personal 'rally cry' for this season. Harley is so closely associated with America, that when America is in trouble, customers likely feel concern in a deep, gut-level way. Not because they are Harley owners, but because of their values. So this season, you can post a rallying cry for America by filling in a few blanks [marked in yellow above] and adding your name to the list, as some 21,000 people have done. And you can invite a friend to post theirs too.
Of course you HAVE friends if you are a Harley owner -- ever heard of HOG, the Harley Owners Group? Events, insurance, roadside assistance, touring manuals, you name it. In fact, Harley owners likely bump into each other all the time, recognizable not just by their ride, but by their gear.
If you don't want to post a rallying cry on the site, you can post your personal riding creed, and look at the creeds of others.There's an inspiring film about the Harley creed, and even stories about the making of the film. There are downloadable goodies for your desktop or your iPod, and skins for your electronics. You've got to love a business where people pay to advertise your brand.
This is a company that has operationalized their brand values in a very meaningful way. It's not about Harley-Davidson the brand as much as it is about the Harley-Davidson brand experience.
Here's the thing that really got me. A lot of companies say they are experience-focused. And maybe they are. But this is the first time I can recall actually seeing a menu item on the home page labeled EXPERIENCE. [Okay, one more web design needed for my site too. Jeez.]
In the previous post, I talked about Harley-Davidson's strategy for marketing to women.
Next post I'm going to get speculative about Harley's research.
This is the year Harley-Davidson really hopes to crack the women's market. And this ring, offered as a premium, almost makes me want to surrender my Vespa. The ring is available to women who complete a Rider's Edge course and buy a new Harley-Davidson or Buell motorcycle before the end of October. Having one will instantly identify you to the rest of the secret community of Harley riders.
H-D has a whole section of their site geared to women, and includes some fabulous historical images and stories of iconic women riders. There's a book of stories that highlights core brand values in a way that resonates with women:
the feeling of freedom and confidence that come with riding a Harley
feeling like your own person
doing what you really want to do
being in the moment, being one with your bike
For the women, there's a subtle emphasis on making life changes, often involving a mate. Here are a couple of excerpts from the stories:
"After a long days ride, dirty from the road, sunburned and windblown, I have to say that I've never felt more beautiful!"
"As I ride through the mountains ... I am overwhelmed by the beauty around me. I have never looked at this landscape the way the Sportster shows it to me. As I turn my head to admire the splendor of these mountains, I hear the roar of the Sportster engine. It speaks to me as if to say, "Hold on to me and leave all your cares behind".
For the experience marketer, there are several great take-aways from Harley's efforts.
The historical photos make it clear that Harley has always wanted women as riders. They're no fair-weather friend. And they've taken the operational steps to support this, by having dealer events geared to women, and responding to women's concerns about body size and strength as barriers to riding.
Harley has also managed to be female friendly without watering down the very masculine nature of the brand. They've done this by emphasizing their core values rather than their masculinity. And they haven't gone all pink in their marketing.
There's too much to the Harley story to cover it in one post. These folks are engagement experts. Next post, we'll deconstruct it a bit more.
About this time last year I was helping to plan a global study on teens and technology use, called Global Village. This idea was cooked up by my colleagues Ilka Kuhagen (Germany) and Corette Haf (South Africa) as a way to demonstrate the power of using bulletin board research to gather global insights.
We sponsored this research as a group, and conducted the research with 12 groups. This was an impressive team of researchers, it was my honor to work with them.
During the planning process, we had many logistical issues to work through. For example, our platform sponsor, Focus Forums, had to add Mandarin character capabilities to the bulletin board.
A decision was reached to focus our efforts on teens aged 14 - 16 years old. A challenging target in some ways, as ethical guidelines require parental permission to conduct research with this age group, which added to the logistics of the project. But we saw that this group is entering young adulthood with access to a level of technology that they have enjoyed since childhood. We wanted to see where things were heading with this group. So we found teens that had a cell-phone and used the internet relatively heavily.
The bulletin board was a fantastic tool for the project, and the teens loved the format. Age and gender barriers that would have been a major burden in a face-to-face setting evaporated, and we had high engagement and considerable openness and honesty.
In addition to this, the research team was also easily able to watch the research unfold, and share our own discussion about questioning strategies over the project schedule. This meant we could change and shift the later stages of the project based on earlier stages.
It was fascinating to see the style differences among the research team. As findings started to emerge, we were all impressed by how similar, in many ways, the attitudes of the teens were in each country. In picture sort exercises, for example, the same concepts -- and even the same images -- came up over and over again. We weren't really expecting this, it was a fascinating finding.
One thing is for certain -- these teens are joined at the hip to their cell-phones, and this is their life-line. If their house was burning down, it's one of the things they'd grab. The research team found text messaging a much more effective way to send out reminders to participate. (With an adult group, we would use e-mail). Almost none of the teens in the whole study had heard of Second Life. A few had been on Habbo Hotel, but these sites no longer held -- they are way too busy forming real-world relationships to care too much about the virtual world. Yet.
Overall, a fascinating group of teens. The Canadian group were very much "the New Phoenicians" -- ethnically diverse, open to new ideas, enterprising and optimistic. I wanted to give them all a virtual hug, they made me feel proud to be Canadian. I have no doubt the other researchers felt the same about their own youth.
I'll be presenting on this project with my colleague Betsy Leichliter from New York at the ARF conference next week, and also in Winnipeg at the MRIA conference in May. Other team members are presenting at various conferences around the world, including the upcoming AQR/QRCA conference in Barcelona. The slide at the top came from a presentation done by Diva Oliveira in Brazil.
You can also read the write-up that Ilka and Corette did for the QRCA publication VIEWS, which is available free online. How Global is Your Village? (the link spawns a PDF. Article is on pages 18 - 27)
An excellent article on this topic was written by Stephanie Rosenbloom for the New York Times, "Sorry, Boys,This Is Our Domain", (Feb 21, 2008).
No one is much expecting this trend to convert to a change in the dominant gender in the computing industry, it seems to be more about the acculturation of young women to tell stories about themselves, confess, dress to communicate identity, and otherwise put their inner selves on display in public in some fashion.
In a previous post I deconstructed the Curves experience -- how this organization has been successful at meeting the needs of people who want to be fit, but don't fit into the approach of other fitness organizations. In today's post, I want to look at a change they are making, and examine the potential impacts on customer experience. This is a great example of the trade-offs you need to make in customer experience, and why they can be so difficult.
The change
Curves is adding an RFID application backed by software called
Curves Smart. You get an RFID tag that you swipe over each piece of
equipment as you go through the circuit. At the end of your workout, you
can see a report of your progress against targets the software sets for
you. It's colorful and graphic and interactive. While you are on the equipment, you get flashing lights signaling
your progress -- green for 'good stuff', and yellow for 'pick up the pace, lady'.
This program looks like it will help people on a number of levels.
You work harder, but also more efficiently, so you will get fit faster.
[At least that's what I hope!] It's like having a personal
trainer and a customized program that adjusts for you each time. But
it's available for a very nominal cost, far below what a personal
trainer costs. There is rapid feedback, which should be motivational.
The challenge
Part of the ritual of Curves has been the heart-rate check. Everyone on the circuit stops and does a 10 second heart-rate count at the same time. It's part of the routine, ensures you aren't about to expire from heart failure, and also ensures you are working hard enough to get some benefit from the exercise.
But the happy ritual is also that the fitness coaches stop the music while this happens, and ask everyone "are you ok?". With the new equipment, this ritual has been dropped. The new equipment has a heart rate monitor on one piece of equipment. It's all automated now.
The analysis
The new system clearly adds to the quality of the workout. And likely puts Curves in a place where they can compete with gyms that have much better facilities. The members using this system are likely to get much better results, for a modest investment in the equipment.
Here's the problem. There are now two classes of member. We are not all-in-it-together anymore. There are key-tag people, and no-key-tag people. And something has been taken away from everyone, but especially from the no-key-tag people. It's the happy ritual of pulse checking.
Some people have complained about this. The staff response has been to show people how to check their pulse on the new machine (which works for you even without the magic RFID key-tag). But I think what we are all really missing is the staff contact. It showed they cared. Now they can safely park behind the desk and attend to critical paperwork without hopping up to shut off the music during the pulse-check.
So even though there is a big investment in something better, there is also a loss. And this is why designing customer experiences is always a challenge.
Curves fitness is an excellent example of market segmentation, of differentiation, and of customer experience design. Their strategy has been rewarded with extremely fast growth as a franchise -- more than 10,000 locations from their first franchise in 1995, and 4 million members.
I want to talk a bit about why I think they are so successful -- that's today's post. And then I want to tell you about a change they are now making that changes the experience. It's an improvement, but not everyone will see it that way. That's for the next post.
Systematically address needs of a segment
I believe Curves has been so successful because they have systematically addressed the needs of a market segment that found the gym experience hostile and unappealing. And they found a way to do this relatively cheaply. The net result is that they have tapped into a new market, instead of trying to shift market share from someone else.
I first started looking into Curves as an example of market segmentation for a course I'm teaching. And became so intrigued I joined the one down the street. It's a very different experience than any other gym I've joined. Here are some of the barriers / issues I think they have addressed in their approach:
Barrier #1: No knowledge about fitness equipment, and have no idea where to start. Response: a circuit that is the same for everyone, where equipment doesn't have to be adjusted because it adjusts itself
Barrier #2: Don't want to be seen in shorts by a bunch of men. Not comfortable around a bunch of men who are lifting heavy weights and making gross noises. Response: women only club.
Barrier #3: Overweight and intimidated. Response: no mirrors. No showers. Curtained change rooms.
Barrier #4: Fitness is hard work, no fun, and not motivating at all. Response: Create a relaxed, social environment with lively upbeat music and motivating coaches to help you stay on track. Offer prizes for attendance. Run contests and fun events for members, like food-bank drives.
Barrier #5: Not rewarded for my progress. Always measured against a standard I can't meet. Response: Monthly tracking printouts show your progress against your own starting point, not against some other standard.
Barrier #6: Too expensive, too far away, no time. Response: local operations that are small facilities and low cost, and a workout that takes less than an hour, door to door. You don't need an appointment, or to schedule around classes. You arrive whenever you want.
One of the interesting things about the Curves circuit training approach is their philosophy that you should keep your heart rate within the weight-loss zone. So in a 30 minute circuit, at least twice everyone stops and counts their heart rate for 10 seconds, and checks their chart on the wall. Coaches go around asking everyone if they are okay. This may have started as a liability-mitigation step, and to help members be sure to lose weight, but it became what I would call a happy ritual.
At least twice during your circuit, the staff would come and say hi to everyone during the count, and generally have a moment of human contact. Quite incidentally, this little ritual meant staff had to get out from behind the desk, turn down the music, and connect over the 10 second heart rate check.
Curves has been successful because they have focused with laser-like precision on a set of customers and a set of needs, and have addressed those needs. They have avoided frills that their market does not value. There's no hot tub. There's no juice bar. But it's convenient and inexpensive. And it seems to work for a group of people that would never have joined a hard-body fitness club.
Strategic Leadership Forum, if you're in the Toronto area, is a good place to hang. They may seem dusty, if you judge them by their web site and brochures, but they have great programs and speakers. Case in point, this week's session on using new media to communicate with customers.
James Powell, currently a Marketing Director at Rogers, and Sean Moffitt, word of mouth expert and world class networker gave a fabulous evening to a group of about 20 marketers. Good speakers, great examples, well prepared and engaging.
Some of my takeaways:
[1] Know your customers. There's no one right medium to reach them. You need to reach them where they live, where they have fun, where they shop, and of course in the media they encounter while doing those things.When you know your customer, the choices are much clearer. [Of course, how can I not love someone who wants to go deep into customers' lives???]
[2] You don't have to use new media to be heard. You could just be creative with existing media. The point is to think about the media, not just blow the budget on television
[3] Don't assume the execs will see your edgy stuff. That's not the neighborhood they live in, and those aren't the magazines they read. Take responsibility for marketing IN to the organization
[4] When faced with questions about ROI and GRP and other payback-type acronyms, focus instead on the opportunity cost of shifting the budget to something different than your traditional spend. For the cost of one full page ad in a major newspaper, you could run a whole new-media campaign
[5] Major agencies have business models that don't support these kinds of projects all that well. Try out some small shops that want to win awards. And give them a bit of room to have fun and do cool work -- after all, you have them on a shoestring budget
[6] The blog world tends to say 'gotcha' a lot when a major company tries something different and it isn't totally brilliant. Ignore that and get out there. There's learning to be had and the risks are small relative to the potential
[7] New media are driven by advocacy, dialogue, authenticity, openness. Yes, you're heard that before. It's not going away. If anything, these themes are gaining momentum
Key insights:
It's pointless to talk about the internet as a specific, monolithic medium. E-bay may be a medium. Google Ad-words may be a medium. Facebook may be. Blogs may be. But the internet really is infrastructure, like asphalt or paper, that can carry many different kinds of things.
When we add the new, the old doesn't always go away. We have credit cards and debit cards and internet bill payment, but we still use cash and we still use cheques. They may be buggy-whips, but they linger on. Communication tools appear to be similarly constructed. We may have reduced our snail mail, but we still use it, and sometimes in new and creative ways.
Resources:
James Powell talks about the Rogers Picnic, an event created to target males aged 18 - 24, in Marketing Magazine.
Facebook's plan to hook up the world, by David Kirkpatrick, Fortune, June 11, 2007. Talks about Facebook's move to let anyone write applications for their platform. A blog buddy recently suggested we start a remote Scrabble game using -- you guessed it -- an add-on to Facebook. If you haven't taken the plunge, you'd be well advised to invest a couple of hours in your education. Be forewarned however -- as Sean Moffit told me a while back, it can take a lot of your time if you let it.
Sean's blog -- Buzz Canuck -- is worth a read. He's launched a blog-off which will make us all entered raise our game.
If you want your thinking to stay fresh, you need to browse outside your regular route sometimes. For me, that means sometimes reading the automotive section of the newspaper, [among other things]. It was a rewarding detour, because there was an interview with Lee Eisenberg, author of the book The Number.
The Number
The Number is the amount of money we think we need to enjoy our post career lives. But it also symbolizes our success and social status in a very significant way. Eisenberg's book [which I confess I have not yet read] is about the different ways people think about and plan for their financial future.
Reading the interview got me thinking about the boomer demographic, who is now moving into another major life change. The impacts will be huge, and not just for the automotive sector.
The boom
The boom in births following WWII spanned approximately 1946-1965, according to Diane Galarneau writing for Statistics Canada. Writers divide the boom in different ways. Ms Galarneau divides it into those born from 1946-1955 (Wave 1) and those born between 1956-1965 (Wave 2).
Wave 1 women today are aged 52 to 61. Wave 2 women today are aged 42 to 51.
Wave 1 encountered better economic conditions and less competition in the labor force than Wave 2 women. But Wave 2 women were more likely to get out of exclusively clerical jobs, and had higher representation in professional and managerial work.
The rates of higher education also show fascinating differences. By the age of 35, only five per cent of pre-boom women had degrees; 13 per cent of Wave 1 women got degrees and 16 per cent of Wave 2 women earned them.
Wave 2 women had their children much later, on average. At every age (in an admittedly old study), she found that Wave 2 women were in the work force in larger percentages. The dual income family became a reality of life for most baby-boom women, and it hasn't gone away since.
The ripple
So what does this all mean for customer experience? And why focus on the women?
The change in women's life circumstances during the last few decades has been one of the big drivers of change in society.
Unlike many of their mothers, these women will enter retirement having had a lifetime of dealing directly with money. They made their own money, they spent their own money, they saved their own money.
These are the women who have adopted any method possible to streamline their lives, and were the force behind everything from better frozen food to workplace daycare to franchised home-cleaning services.
Because of improvements in birth control, they were able to defer having children. This means, for many, that when they finally get their children off on their own, they are in the crunch years of saving for retirement. And they may also be caring for their own aging parents.
What these women decide they want for the next couple of decades of their lives will be interesting to watch unfold. For organizations that pay attention to their evolving needs, there are likely to be tremendous opportunities.
But we'll need to be paying attention. Like every other cohort group, the boomers will bring their values and their history along for the ride as they move through the stages of their lives.
Resources:
Globe & Mail interview by Michael Vaughan, "How to enjoy that long post-retirement road", June 14 2007. Not generally available without a subscription. http://www.globeandmail.com
The Number: A Completely Different Way to Think About the Rest of Your Life, by Lee Eisenberg, 2006. ISBN 13: 978-0743270311 Baby Boom Women, Diane Galarneau, Statistics Canada Report, 1994
My parents are off to see one of the grandchildren who is at university in Dublin. Then they plan to rent a car and tool around the countryside seeing relatives and making their way to Belfast. At least, that was the plan.
They ran into a hitch -- when they tried to rent a car online, the same way the rest of the trip had been booked, they discovered that no one would book an online car rental to someone over age 65. Yikes! They knew train service was good, but wanted the freedom of their own car. And the certainty that they had firm arrangements in place before leaving home.
They did some more internet searching and discovered that Hertz had given this situation a bit more thought. According to my Mom,
"I kept checking various sites online and found that Hertz will rent to our age
group. (75 - 79) but you need a letter from your Dr stating you are in good
health and a letter from your insurance stating you have had no claims for 5
years. [My father] was able to get both this morning so we are back to Plan I. Doesn't
matter in Dublin of course but when we go to Belfast we did want to be able
to get around on our own - most people we want to see are in rural areas and not
all the same spot."
Way to go Hertz! This little policy enhancement won you the business.
Believe me, no-one understands better than another 70-something that not all older people should be behind the wheel. But if you are still driving, you keep it as long as possible. Because driving is freedom, and not just psychologically. It means you go where you want, when you want. The Hertz solution feels like a good one. It manages their risk, but provides a solution to the customer.
One of the first groups to take to podcasting were museums and art galleries. Several let you download guided tour information before you visit.
I recently read about how the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston is using podcasts to let us all share their classical music concerts. The museum is tied down fairly tightly by their charter, and can't make a lot of changes to the building or displays. But they've clearly found other ways to innovate.
The really interesting part is that the podcasts are bringing them a whole new audience, with as many as 40,000 downloads a month. Wow. Good for them.
Someone was paying attention to customers when they came up with these innovative grocery shopping carts, spotted at a Safeway on the West Coast.
The truck just looks like a lot of fun, doesn't it?
And I recently found these at a Home Depot... The gray-colored one is a bit utilitarian for my taste, but does let two little ones come and go, and sit down when they're tired. The race car is definitely zoom-zoom, however.
If you've been reading along the past few posts, you'll have seen several things that reflect weak experience design. This post is about one that's working.
You may have heard that Marriott hotels has been working very hard on customer experience. I'm here to report that they are having some success, at least with my last visit. Here's a couple of the things that impressed me:
A desk designed for working -- right height, lots of room, and will let you have dinner there and watch TV at the same time.
Note the red cable. Instead of making guests go to the concierge to ask for a cable, this one is in the drawer. They probably do lose the odd cable to theft. But if you buy them in the thousands, how expensive can they be?
The coffee maker is now pretty standard, and always welcome. Having take-away cups with lids is a good idea. The condiments all come packaged in a nice triangular box. I used both of my creamers up on the first cup [we're a nation of double-double people here in the Great White North, you know, and there should be extra cream.]
I have never seen such simple controls on a thermostat. Temperature readings available in either Fahrenheit or Celsius is nice. And if you can't cope with that, just guess with the up and down arrows. Love it! [Now if you could just do that to the clock radio...]
How about a shampoo bottle that stays where you put it. To see how they achieved this neat trick, check out the next photo.
All of these little things are evidence of starting with the customer. Learning everything you can about the customer segment you are trying to attract, and then systematically addressing that learning.
Forget this nonsense about "delighting the customer." Just systematically address customer needs, reduce irritants, and demonstrate that you are looking out for them. Delight will naturally follow.
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