Customer Crossroads

Bathroom Blogfest 2010: Bathrooms are aspirational

 

We haven't seen a lot of bathrooms in Mad Men, but you can bet Betty aspired to one with two sinks in the kind of iconic 60's colors shown in this year's blogfest logo.

The bathroom is aspirational, as are many of the things in it.

If you have been using a modern bathroom much of your life, this may sound silly. So consider the many countries in the world where most people do not have good sanitation facilities. A small market of about 2 billion people.

Or ask someone who grew up in the Great Depression, as my parents both did, when many were still using outhousees, but aspired to indoor plumbing. (Okay, you walked to school. Fine. But a lack of indoor plumbing in a Canadian winter is a genuine hardship.)

The most successful development projects now consider a marketing angle to behavior change, and positioning the latrine an affordable luxury is a stroke of brilliance. Here's the story of Easy Latrines, an organization designed to support small businesses and improve sanitation in Cambodia.

Easy Latrines in Cambodia

globe+mail image

 

Canadians Tamara Baker and Cordell Jacks are part of a booming new business in latrines in Cambodia, a country where more than 80% of the population defecate in a field.

Sanitation updates video stills

Quoted in the Globe and Mail in October 2010, Mr. Jacks said, "somehow we had to make the world’s most unsexy product seem attractive to people who knew very little about it". They created an appealing latrine for a price of about $30, compared to the existing market price of about $150.

Ms. Baker took a marketing, rather than a public health, posture to market the new product. "So we sold sanitation as something that will make you feel proud, something that fits the budget, as achievable aspiration,” she advised the Globe.

As the video from the Sanitation Updates story shows, the aspirational marketing approach, combined with the health benefits and the affordable price, is helping people make a decision to improve their lives. What at first seemed like a luxury, perhaps unnecessary, is becoming something a family would aspire to in these villages. "Now when relatives from Phnom Penh visit we have somewhere good for them to go," a quote from the video, is a statement of aspiration achieved if I've ever seen one.

Resources

Improving Third World health one toilet at a time, Patrick White, Globe and Mail, Monday October 18, 2010       

Cambodian “Easy Latrine” wins international design award, Sanitation Updates, June 27, 2010

The first few paragraphs of the Wikipedia article on aspirational marketing are worth looking at, but use a narrower definition than what I am using here.

Other innovative projects for third world latrines are described here, and here.

Bathroom Blogfest

This little project, launched by Christine Whittemore, Stephanie Weaver and me five years ago has taken on a life of its own. Here are this year's participants, ably co-ordinated by Ms. Whittemore, with graphic support from yours truly inspired by Mad Men. Our theme this year is "Still Stuck in the 60's?".

Blogger	Blog Name	Blog URL
Susan Abbott	Customer Experience Crossroads	http://www.customercrossroads.com/customercrossroads/
Paul Anater	Kitchen and Residential Design	http://www.KitchenAndResidentialDesign.com
Shannon Bilby	Big Bob's Outlet	http://blog.bigbobsoutlet.com/
Shannon Bilby	Carpets N More Blog	http://blog.carpetsnmore.com/
Shannon Bilby	Dolphin Carpet Blog	http://blog.dolphincarpet.com/
Shannon Bilby	From The Floors Up	http://fromthefloorsup.com/
Shannon Bilby	My Big Bob's Blog	http://blog.mybigbobs.com/
Toby Bloomberg	Diva Marketing	http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/
Laurence Borel	Blog Till You Drop	http://www.laurenceborel.com/
Bill Buyok	Avente Tile Talk Blog	http://tiletalk.blogspot.com/
Jeanne Byington	The Importance of Earnest Service	http://blog.jmbyington.com/
Becky Carroll	Customers Rock!	http://customersrock.net/
Marianna Chapman	Results Revolution	http://www.resultsrevolution.com
Katie Clark	Practial Katie	http://practicalkatie.blogspot.com/
Nora DePalma	American Standard's Professor Toilet	http://www.professortoilet.com/
Nora DePalma	O'Reilly DePalma: The Blog	http://www.oreilly-depalma.com/blog/
Leigh Durst	LivePath Experience Architect Weblog	http://livepath.blogspot.com/
Valerie Fritz	The AwarepointBlog	http://www.awarepointblog.com/
Iris Garrott	Checking In and Checking Out	http://circulating.wordpress.com/
Tish Grier	The Constant Observer	http://spap-oop.blogspot.com
Renee LeCroy	Your Fifth Wall	http://yourfifthwall.com/
Joseph Michelli	Dr. Joseph Michelli's Blog	www.josephmichelli.com/blog
Veronika Miller	Modenus Blog	http://www.modenus.com/blog
Arpi Nalbandian	TILE Magazine Editor Blog	http://www.tilemagonline.com/Articles/Blog_Nalbandian
Maria Palma	People 2 People Service	http://www.people2peopleservice.com/
Reshma Bachwani Paritosh	The Qualitative Research Blog	http://www.onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/
David Polinchock	Polinchock's Ponderings	http://blog.polinchock.com/
Victoria Redshaw & Shelley Pond	Scarlet Opus Trends Blog	http://trendsblog.co.uk/
David Reich	My 2 Cents	http://reichcomm.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Sandy Renshaw	Around Des Moines	http://www.arounddesmoines.com/
Sandy Renshaw	Purple Wren	http://www.purplewren.com/
Bethany Richmond	Carpet and Rug Institute Blog	http://www.carpet-and-rug-institute-blog.com/
Bruce Sanders	RIMtailing Blog	http://rimtailing.blogspot.com/
Steve Tokar	Please Be Seated	http://stevetokar.wordpress.com/
Carolyn Townes	Becoming a Woman of Purpose	http://spiritwomen.blogspot.com/
Stephanie Weaver	Experienceology	http://experienceology.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Flooring The Consumer	http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Simple Marketing Blog	http://www.simplemarketingblog.com/
Christine & Ted Whittemore	Smoke Rise & Kinnelon Blog	http://smokerise-nj.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	The Carpetology Blog	http://carpetology.blogspot.com/
Linda Wright	LindaLoo Build Business With Better Bathrooms	http://lindaloo.com/

How to win customers for life: of taxis, smartphones, and Dunkin gift cards

I was in Philadelphia last week for the QRCA conference. A wonderful event, and I will write more soon about the cool stuff I learned.

On the Lady Liberty Shuttle back to the airport, I pulled out my BlackBerry to send a quick note to my spouse. Then -- stupidly -- set it down on the seat, instead of in my handbag.

I discovered this error on the plane, of course, when I went to shut down the BB for takeoff. So had the whole flight to fuss about the problem!

What happened next was just so nice.  

[Not quite as spectacular as the rescue of the Chilean miners, but it did reinforce my faith in humanity.]

As soon as I got off the plane at home, I called the shuttle service. Amazingly, my phone had been turned in. They suggested I contact them Monday to arrange delivery.

In the meantime, a nice person in the shuttle saw my phone and called the last number dialed. [Was that not clever?? Great thinking!] My friend Betsy recognized the area code, and suspected it was me, so sent me an e-mail. The kind stranger, meanwhile, gave the phone to the driver, George.

George, clearly an honest man, turned in my phone. Yup. He did. [Thank you George. I'm sure the Phillies will benefit from your support. And thank you Sonny and the other office staff for helping me get my phone back. Most of all, thank you kind stranger!]

Where Dunkin comes in

I had a pleasant call with the shuttle service, who agreed to ship my trusty BB back to me on overnight courier, provided I would cover the cost. [Of course! I'm already in withdrawal! Plus I have no alarm clock!]

They were so helpful, I wanted to do something nice, so thought of sending a gift card from Dunkin Donuts. That was actually a bit of a production.

Dunkin's web site makes the assumption -- wrongly -- that the only people who would ever want to send a gift card are residents of the USA. Took me a while to figure out some hacks to make this work, but I successfully fooled the system into taking my credit card with my Canadian address.

It surprises me how often I run into this very problem.

Web developers take note...

... allow for the possibility of foreign fans. They might be somebody's grandma. They might be someone like me, wanting to acknowledge a good deed.

Every now and again ...

... it's nice to be reminded that human beings still walk the Earth. We had a great reminder of stellar leadership and teamwork in the Chilean mining disaster, and another one happened to me in an airport shuttle. I hope one passes your way one day soon.

One more thing -- when in Philadelphia, do take the Lady Liberty Shuttle service.

Your service doesn't have to be perfect: but it can't be hideous. Bonus: hostage loyalty versus natural loyalty

We decided to cancel our HighBeam research account a while back, and just waited until the renewal date was upon us to do it. [Ed. note: where's the link? Me: I am not helping their SEO by linking to them. Forget it.]

Hostage loyalty versus natural loyalty

This organization is one of many these days that has a rather obnoxious approach to renewals: they automatically renew you unless you cancel. There is no notice, there is no reminder, there is no opt-out.

Naturally, this begs the question of why their natural loyalty is so poor that they can't count on renewals... When any organization uses a hostage approach to loyalty, this is not a good thing.

Our chief money guy thought he had issued cancellations on all of our accounts. Then a charge went through. A phone call to the company generated no happiness. Here's what they said, roughly:

• Each account has to be cancelled separately
• There's a no refund policy, didn't you read the contract
• The fact that the charge went through only yesterday is irrelevant -- our no refund, no pro-rating policy still applies
• The fact that you have an e-mail confirmation of cancellation is irrelevant
• We can, however, offer you a discount right now if you extend your subscription
• There is a supervisor, however we are not authorized to transfer any calls to this person

Okay, that pretty much defines hideous, doesn't it.

Not only is there no help to resolve the issue, but pretty much an attitude of 'we got your money, jerk, and we plan to keep it. You could cancel now, but you'd lose access to our database for a year that you just paid for.'

Money guy asks me: Did you renew? Did you get a notice? I say, no siree, I did not

Next step: contact VISA

Biggest point in their favor: trying to help. Explaining what is going on. Advising of options. Being calm and respectful.

Key learning from VISA person:

• If you sign an automatically renewing contract, your bank will put the transaction through even on an expired card [so your expired card on the account is no protection at all]
• If you change your card number with the same bank, your bank might put the transaction through, even though that is not the card you gave the automatically-renewing-jerks

But, and happily...

• if they sent you a cancellation confirmation e-mail, we just might be able to get your money back for you

You don't have to be perfect, just don't be awful

So VISA wasn't really promising a lot. But they did calm down the chief money guy. They offered helpful information. And they tried to find a way to help. They did not suggest by tone or word that any fool who ticks "yes" to such an agreement is beyond help.

You just have to be nice. You have to try. And if you do, you will look so much better than the other guys, that you don't really have to be perfect.

Are you counting on hostages?

I don't want to tell you that hostage marketing tactics will not work for a while. But they will not work in the long term. And they will hide the fact that people don't want to renew, they just got suckered. If you were valuable, they'd renew.

Clever or annoying?

I'm curious -- what's your thinking about these automatic renewal contracts? A convenience (ie. clever) or annoying (seriously annoying)?

Qualitative versus quantitative: how to tell the difference

Quantitative research will tell you that x% of Generation Y sleeps with their cell phones.

Qualitative research will tell you why ...

- it is not because they have a cell-phone fetish

- it is because they were texting late at night, and just put it down in a safe place

- they want to pick it up right away in the morning, so why not leave it handy

- they no longer own a watch

- and it's also because, for many of us -- not just GenY -- the smart phone is the best alarm clock we've ever owned. It always knows the right time, for one thing.

Both disciplines have their place and their role.

Using social media right - Tungle does brilliant video that made me look

Was just checking out my Twitter feed, and saw something interesting from @thealzel. I know that @thealzel only posts brainy, thought-provoking stuff, usually related to her VC work. So when I saw "Time waits for no one. I like the shot of the last poster of this video," I thought I would click through.

It's a lovely video. Watching it, at first I thought it was a video from Sunnybrook Hospital. It's not. Then I became so absorbed wondering where it would go next that I forgot to wonder what the message was.

At the end, I looked down at Tungle and thought: "I've never heard of this." And took a few minutes to click through.

Turns out Tungle is a linked calendar service; something I was looking into recently, but didn't find anything that seemed to meet my needs. This might.

OK, it's a hideous name. It sounds like the name-tag on a Beanie Baby.

But their video made me look.

It works because it doesn't address the issue directly. It comes up along side you and reminds you that your time is important. That you can do amazing things in small amounts of time. It feels like a connection to what's real and what's important. And reminding you of that earns the right to a click.

So simple. So complicated.