Monthly Archives: July 2009

The value of information

Posted on by Brian Steketee

Recently I’ve had the opportunity to sit through a lot of discussions around the use and translation of market intelligence. Most of these have been focused on the usability and functionality of the various sorts of tools that grace our industry and help us “listen to the conversation” in the Social/Digital space. There are a lot of these floating around. From Radian6 and Techrigy, to PR Newswire and my new favorite, Dow Jones. Everyone is casting out lines and focusing on listening to all of the noise out there. What’s even more interesting is the there seems to be such little focus on what all the noise actually means. It’s one thing to display a pretty graph, bar chart, or impression metric, but in the end… What is that really telling you…? It gets even more interesting when you start trying to set up the knowledge paths between business functions (Legal, PR, Sales, Marketing) where you have different audiences with different needs trying to make sense of it all. In the end, the data needs to be real time and have the ability to translate into key insights for business strategies and tactics.

It’s a multi-dimensional world out there. The relational database is so yester-year.

Way to go, Chase Amazon Visa!

Posted on by admin

chase-amazon-com-business-visa-card

It’s official. I’ve finally had an amazing customer service experience with a credit card company. I started my company on credit cards. I had a LOT of them. So, being a responsible guy, I recently went through and closed all the accounts I’ve finally paid off.  The way you do that is to call the credit card companies and tell them what you want to do. Of course, I’ve decided to keep one or two cards open for regular use, and I’ve made my decision on which to keep based on the following:

1. Interest rate

2. Incentive programs

All that said, I started my calls and met with interest rates ranging from 13 to 25% from Citibank, Capital One and US Bank, as well as really lousy customer service. They’d say, “Oh, I’m so sorry you’ve decided to close your account! May I ask why?” To which, I’d reply, “High interest rates.” To which, they’d reply, “Oh. Well, I’ve closed that account for you. Can I do anything else for you? No? Goodbye.” *CLICK* That was, until I called Chase to close my Amazon.com card.

I called them and received all them same “Oh, I’m so sorry!” stuff, but once she (and I say “she” because I can’t remember the CSR’s name, but she should get a raise) got through that, she actually offered me a reduction from 13% to 9.5% on my interest and jumped through all sorts of hoops to make sure that my points program is optimized for my spending habits. When I asked her why she was so helpful, she said that every time I went to use one of my credit cards, she wanted me to use my Chase Amazon card. No other reason. From there, we talked about how we were both newly married and how she is expecting her first child. All in all, she demonstrated the level of customer service and care that companies HAVE to live in to if they want to survive the wave of Customer Service 3.0 that’s accompanying the digital marketing age.

Consumers are getting smarter and less patient with rude corporate dictatorships. It’s time to think things through on the business side and decide if you’re going to be a company that actively participates and plays nice with your customer base, or it you’re going to try to live according to the old rules.

Think about it and let me know where you land. Also, get a Chase Amazon.com Visa card. You’ll be happy you did.

Cheers

Does the “Free Market” economy make sense for Marketing/Advertising agencies

Posted on by Brian Steketee

I can be a believer at times. Running a small agency over the past two years has given me a new perspective on terms like “overhead”, “profitability“, and “% of billable time”. The model really does need to be changed. Does free work here? How can we change our structure to take just a little % of a brands “win”, or ROI if you will, and still allow us to continue to innovate, share, and grow. I like the concept of the true win/win. The closer you can align your agenda with that of your clients almost ensures a strong finish… If not at least a great attempt. So how do you translate that into revenue? A small % of the total unearned/earned impressions generated from your activities? A “fee” for the number of successful conversations that you have enabled through the use of your tools, platforms, or communication medium? How about a small commission for each new product sampled, believer made, or actual conversion to purchase? I’d be happy working towards that goal. It is in effect the goal that we are always working towards. The difference is how you create a compensation structure that rewards mutual success and is ultimately track-able. Tracking keywords is one thing. Picture tags are another. I’ve seen more tools try to capture this only to not deliver the “real picture”. That picture is something that changes – with each new client and each new business objective.

“I know how to control your social media presence!”

Posted on by admin

No you don’t. No one really does. Please don’t think for a minute that ANYONE has ANY control over what happens out there. Your only hope is to be honest about what your organization does and what you have to offer to the world and to contribute in a meaningful way to the greater conversations that are already going on around you. But how? That’s the real question.

Where do you start? Start a Facebook page? Put some tweets out there, and the people will listen? Maybe, but probably not unless you get lucky. You have to accumulate an understanding of what’s happening around you and find a point of entry into the conversations that concern and interest you. Again, but how? This is your lucky day, I can tell you how. You don’t start with a tactic (opening Flickr accounts, etc.). You start with a plan. And to build a plan, you need data. Sooo, it would seem that you need to collect data, UNDERSTAND IT, build your plan of attack, execute it (here’s where you get to contribute to the greater conversations), track it and tweak your plan of attack accordingly. Does that make complete sense to you? If not, let me know, and I’ll help you figure it out. If it DOES make complete sense to you, please do share your thoughts…

Inspiration for today’s markets and economies

Posted on by admin

I try to listen a lot. Although some of my employees may not agree with that statement, I have found that by following and listening to key influencers in the market is critical to keeping up with the rapid pace of technologies impact on our business. The following is a short list of those who should be heard.

Jeff Jarvis
Malcom Gladwell
Chris Anderson

A new agency is formed

Posted on by admin

Okay, so the agency hasn’t officially been “started” however I don’t see the harm is starting the conversation. This new business is going to be centered around creating a new level of transparency in the somewhat convoluted and hard to measure traditional marketing and advertising space. See, I’ve been in this business for quite a few years and have been grappling with what ROI really does mean to our clients, their Brands, and ultimately their up-lines.

We’ve developed and tested a number of different approaches. The approach that seems to always resonate best with clients is the one that delivers an “end result”. If I spend X I will achieve the desired outcome for that spend.

One client was looking at how they can increase conversion rates in “tire-kickers” for student housing. Another manufacturing client wanted to build a direct to market model that allowed them to reclaim a lost parts tail business that was being gobbled up by unruly competitors and a unhappy dealer network. Ultimately it didn’t matter what the tools or tactics we were going to use, what mattered was that we could get the job done.

I was recently reminded of “paying for the end result” approach as I worked with a firm to help me rent out a condo I still own out of state. If we rent it (the account rep said) you pay us. If we can’t, you don’t owe us a thing.

In the end of it all, I see a great opportunity to create true transparency in how brands and agencies spend their money.

So we are going to build that transparency in a new form of web based, open source, free market analytics. More to come on this later.