Number one rule of technology marketing is that word of mouth is the number one source of new customers. Now do you generate word of mouth? By turning an organization on its head and empowering those closest to the customer do do the right thing.
Why am I writing this post? Because Ben McConnell over at the Church of the Customer Blog has a great article on the subject which is partially quoted below.
"...real PR, is generated at the root levels.
The root levels are the clerks, the sales people, the support staff,
the receptionist, the call center people, the on-site technicians and
consultants, or the police officers, the clerks at the government
offices, or the nurses who take your temperature and blood at the
hospital. It's their work that generates real PR.
The best PR comes from the smallest of actions by the root-level
people. They smile when they first meet you. They call you by your
name. They compliment competitors. They don't blame you for their
system's misgivings. When forced to make a decision, they always,
always, always do the right thing, even if it's not in the economic or
political interests of their employer. They break the rules when it's
obvious they must.
That's real PR. It's the total sum of stories people tell about you."
You have to have mechanisms in place to drive the behavior in your employees that you want your customers to see. Mostly these are things that make employees love their jobs. It comes through in their customer interactions.
So you want happy customers talking about you in a positive manner? Create happy employees.
Brand Atlanta has rightfully decided to dump the "Everyday is an opening day" campaign that they have wasted millions on.
The replacement.
"City Light, Southern Nights."
Great job folks. Another distinctive, rolls right off the tongue slogan. First thing that popped into my mind? A porn shop I pass on the way to photog class.
Several years ago when Atlanta developed the three O's of boundless opportunity, inspired optimism, and universal openness I thought they had created a pretty good messaging platform. Why do they keep messing up the execution. Could it be because they are still using Lattimer Moffitt (no Web site to link to, that says boatloads right there), an agency involved since the inception of Brand Atlanta? Perhaps.
Not just to be Mr. Negative Boy, here's a suggestion. A free suggestion at that, that won't cost millions of dollars. Introduce another O. Oh Atlanta. As in the Little Feat song.
"Oh Atlanta
Oh Atlanta
I said oh, oh Atlanta
I got to get back to you"
It builds on the O's, it is distinctive, and it is memorable. If you know the song it will be in your head for the rest of the day. Contemporize the song with newer artists/execution and you would have a winner.
Seems like the City of Atlanta has come to its senses and is abandoning the "Every day is an Opening Day" marketing campaign.
According to Ken Bernhardt, who did some research on the matter, only 3% of respondents could recall the slogan. On top of that, participants in test markets (where the ads ran) were less likely to recommend Atlanta for a weekend getaway then those markets where Brand Atlanta did not advertise.
And while I have to buy soap to take to school so my kids can wash their hands after they go to the bathroom, the city spent $15 million on this. 23%, an outrageous amount, was spent on ad agency fees. Shame on you Grey Worldwide, Lattimer Moffitt, Spunlogic, and Ignition.
Money quote; "This was really just a joke from the beginning."
Indeed. Told you so.
Blake Purdue and Guy Tessler made a few comments on my Seeing Leadership post that deserve further discussion.
The New Media Exchange was one of the more energetic pitch events that I have recently been to with a good pace, plenty of breaks, and hordes of interested potential strategic investors. AOL, Cox, Microsoft, and Turner all had an obvious presence.
The emerging companies that presented generally fell into the category of web app or nextgen cotnent delivery network. The quality of the companies (complete list) was strong with Arootz, Asankya, Gumiyo, PLYmedia, and SimplyGen all standouts for me. I was a little disappointed that only two companies were from the Southeast. The vast majority were Israeli based.
But it is easy to understand why. Why Turner certainly deserves the props I gave them previously, the real driver behind this event is the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce. Like Turner, I commend them on their ongoing efforts.
And save the weather, the "Gala Reception" on the rooftop of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce was a good ol Internet party event with A lister Jeff Pulver attending and blogging about his experience.
I am looking forward to being part of future events.
Not to long ago there was a little chatter about what Atlanta needs to do to become a world-class technology city. My $.02 on the subject was that we needed to see corporate leadership from the tech titans. And I am seeing a little leadership, in to many, an unlikely area.
Tomorrow and Thursday Turner, in partnership with Microsoft and The American Israel Chamber of Commerce, is hosting a New Media Business Exchange. The purpose of this is to bring together emerging technology companies with large companies in Atlanta involved with new media to provide:
* Exposure to a wide range of cutting-edge media technologies from Israel and Southeast US in a concise and productive setting.
* Pre-arranged one-on-one meetings in order to foster joint venture R&D, investment, marketing alliances, and other forms of cooperation.
* A forum for leading media technology, operational and investment executives to network.
But most important is that it is also attempting to establish Atlanta as a center for "new media". And do not confuse new media as merely an electronic extension of previous media. Media is literally a method to communicate and the new media is the Internet.
And while I am very tired of having people stare at me in blank disbelief when I state this I gotta just say it. Atlanta is a center for consumer oriented Internet companies.
The proof points I provide when making this statement include Apartment Guide, AutoTrader, CNN, Cartoon Network, NASCAR, PGA, and Weather. All major web properties built and based in Atlanta. On top of that Cox and EarthLink are two of the largest ISPs in the country. I won't even go into the Internet infrastructure and security plays that deliver new media. Some of the folks that I say this to change their minds and say "well ok, Atlanta is not a consumer Internet startup city".
Well bull hockey! Remember WebMD, and the basis for EarthLink being in Atlanta? How about HowStuffWorks? There is a whole slew of consumer related Internet startup out there right now. Kaneva, Neurotic Media, ThePort and ViTrue immediately come to mind. And there are 24, yes 24 Internet startups alone at the Turner event.
The Internet is happening in Atlanta. I applaud Turner and Laurie Baird for showing some corporate leadership and taking a step to make Atlanta a world-class tech city.
Justin Rubner reported this week that the Coca-Cola Company (KO) recently hired the amateur video makers who created the infamous Diet Coke/Mentos spot. They have come a long way since proclaiming "Craziness with Mentos does not fit with the brand personality of Diet Coke."
Here is the video they created.
I went and signed up for a Ziggs account after reading about them in the WSJ. Did not care too much for what I saw after I signed up so I did not complete the profile.
This recently showed up in my mailbox:
Dear Lance,
Ziggs Inc has sent you a $10 gift from Starbucks. As a thank you for joining Ziggs, we invite you to have a cup of coffee on us. Instantly sending (and receiving) Starbucks cards as gifts to friends and colleagues is just one of the many friendly services we offer you at Ziggs. Enjoy the buzz. You can use your gift to purchase any of your favorite Starbucks items. In order to redeem your gift please click on the "Redeem" button below. A card will be mailed to you after you have verified your shipping address.
So I gave them my physical mailing address.
If this is some misquided viral marketing effort it worked. Sign up for your free coffee here.
They are not only not charging for the service but paying people to sign up. This is worse than Kozmo but you may as well take advantage of it while you can.
One of the things that Cam Lanier says a lot is that it is better to "creep out then leap out".
It is advice that I adhere to closely when marketing technology. Move slowly, close to the ground, like a reptile, measure where you are, and really pounce when you know enough about what you are doing to be confident of the result of your marketing effort.
Seth Godin posted today:
A lot of organizations decide to skip the rice and beans and studio apartment step. They decide to "go big or stay home." More often than not, they end up going home.
Don't go big early, pace yourself, stay out late.
Creep.
Guy put up the best (I honestly don't think I have ever seen one before)
ten step marketing program I have ever seen if you are business to business focused.
I might be able to boil it down to three. One, focus on a strategic target. Two, measure what is important. Three, commit to the plan while having the flexibility to adjust to the measured results.
That is how long it took for me to receive a snail mail piece from The Wall Street Journal offering a subscrption for $99 after they refused to offer me anything lower the $270 as a current subscriber. And on top of that they are throwing in a year of the online edition for free!
They are willing to do this to get me to come back but not to keep me. Somewhere in here are some bad marketing metrics.
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