Posts Tagged ‘Customers’

19 August 2010

The Customer is (Almost) Always Right

by Nora Tickell

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We’ve all been there. The frantic phone call to try to get your cable fixed. The standing in a post-holiday line to return that not-so-perfect sweater your aunt bought for you. While there are undoubtedly a number of times when these interactions go off without a hitch, the ones that come to mind first are often the ones that leave us most jarred, jilted or just plain angry. As consumers we have been taught that we deserve to get what we want, when we want it. (See my colleague Sarah’s post from last week…)

We’ve all been there.  The frantic phone call to try to get your cable fixed.  The standing in a post-holiday line to return that not-so-perfect sweater your aunt bought for you.  While there are undoubtedly a number of times when these interactions go off without a hitch, the ones that come to mind first are often the ones that leave us most jarred, jilted or just plain angry.  As consumers we have been taught that we deserve to get what we want, when we want it. (See my colleague Sarah’s post from last week…)

However, a recent article from “US Airways” magazine (yes, my iPod battery died on a recent flight and I started exploring the in-flight reading material) got me thinking about the other side of the equation: the customer service representative. How do we really interact with these people?  While many of us likely dread the call to question an electricity bill or cancel a gym membership, I wonder what can be done to make these relationships more effective.  How can we make these interactions more about collaboration and problem-solving than venting and blame-placing?

The above article emphasized how important this relationship really is: “Customer service and customer relations management is going to be so critical to all corporate futures. […] It’s going to be all about cultivating, exploiting and collaborating with consumers.”

So, where do we go from here?

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26 April 2010

Wallet Half Shut

by Diane Hessan

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All posts by Diane Hessan

Understanding the post-recession consumer is a hot topic in the press. Recently, we released a study done in partnership with Ogilvy on this very topic. The study, Eyes Wide Open, Wallet Half Shut, provides a holistic look at consumers in the aftermath of one of the worst economic crises of our time. Next week, Manila Austin and Graceann Bennett will be presenting our detailed findings at an ANA conference for financial services professionals in Boca Raton. In advance of the conference, I asked them about the research and its implications for companies and brands in the financial sector.

Understanding the post-recession consumer is a hot topic in the press. Recently, we released a study done in partnership with Ogilvy on this very topic. The study, Eyes Wide Open, Wallet Half Shut, provides a holistic look at consumers in the aftermath of one of the worst economic crises of our time. Next week, Manila Austin and Graceann Bennett will be presenting our detailed findings at an ANA conference for financial services professionals in Boca Raton.  In advance of the conference, I asked them about the research and its implications for companies and brands in the financial sector.

What did you find most surprising when you were digging through all the data and research?
As stressed out as people are about money—homes being devalued, losing jobs, no raises—that consumers seemed much less interested in the pursuit of money.  They are drawing clear lines and have fallen out of love with the rat race.  They’d trade upward mobility for a secure job, they’d rather work less and have less junk (but more time with their family).  People have realized that striving for money is exhausting, doesn’t always pay out and is not necessarily worth it.

Have people changed the way they relate to money?
Yes; most definitely. They’re thinking much more on a macro and holistic level when it comes to money and how they spend it.  It’s macro in terms of the purchase decisions that go way beyond traditional category decisions—so we see people doing things like putting off buying a new car to support their Starbucks habit in the short term (as opposed to looking more narrowly at how to “trade down” by brewing coffee at home or switching to Dunkin’ Donuts).

What are the new values we see emerging from the “Great Recession,” if any?
The big one is the notion of sustainability on a personal level—people are figuring out how to live more sustainable lives.  The shift we are seeing is people seeking relative peace of mind in making choices that don’t bankrupt the ecosystem, their finances, their health and what matters most.

What advice would you give the financial institutions who survived this ordeal?
One of the things we found is that Americans are even more distrustful of banks than before the recession (which is no surprise), but they also see the media and other Americans as contributing to the mess we’re in and not trustworthy either. The circle of trust has really shrunk.  What is going to matter to people the most is what companies are doing at local and tangible levels.  If banks, investment firms, insurance agencies and other financial institutions can show people they are making a positive impact within local communities then they can rebuild that lost trust (so spending money on local programs that people can see and touch vs. a more abstract communication like a national brand advertising campaign).

Looking down the road five years…do you think the lessons learned from 2009 will still be relevant?
Yes, in the way that we learn to appreciate all those experiences that end up making us who we are.  People are people and will, inevitably, slip back into some bad habits.  However, the new awareness they have won will still be there. And the money-management smarts and strategies people have learned will also continue to serve them (being much less inclined to take on large debt or buying things that don’t add value beyond simple novelty or entertainment, for example).  After all, it isn’t really possible to “un-know” something; and so we don’t see people returning 100 percent to the folly of their old ways.

To learn more about this report don’t miss the Eyes Wide Open, Wallet Half Shut Webinar on Thursday, May 6th 2010.

3 Responses to “Wallet Half Shut”

  1. Paul Dredge says:
    April 26, 2010 at 9:07 am

    Diane,

    The line “it isn’t really possible to “un-know” something” is wonderfully engaging. I’m not sure it’s true, given the state of my memory sometimes, but your point makes a lot of sense.

    Paul

  2. Richard B says:
    April 26, 2010 at 11:20 am

    The idea of sustainability on a personal level is very cool. I had never thought of it that way. I wonder if some folks will find greater quality of life and think twice before reverting back as much to their pre-rescission habits.

  3. Chris Campbell says:
    April 28, 2010 at 2:29 pm

    08 and 09 were certainly great wake up calls to all consumers. Brands will need to prove their salt as well over the next 2-3 years with “wiser” consumers and sku rationalization at retailers a current reality

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9 April 2010

Data vs. Insight: Make Meaning from What Matters

by Debi Kleiman

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Thanks to the great folks at Dachis Group for inviting me to guest blog on their Collaboratory. They are doing terrific things for companies interested utilizing social business design to reinvent themselves. Thought maybe Verbatim readers would also enjoy the topic…

There’s too much data. Way too much, and it’s not helpful. There, I said it.

Social media monitoring, web analytics, quantitative market research, trackers, clickthroughs and opens… your ecosystem produces a firehose of data, but not a whole lot of meaning.

Thanks to the great folks at Dachis Group  for inviting me to guest blog on their Collaboratory. They are doing terrific things for companies interested utilizing social business design to reinvent themselves. Thought maybe Verbatim readers would also enjoy the topic…

There’s too much data. Way too much, and it’s not helpful. There, I said it.

Social media monitoring, web analytics, quantitative market research, trackers, clickthroughs and opens… your ecosystem produces a firehose of data, but not a whole lot of meaning.

How about some insight instead? Insight – what we’re really after – can create new businesses, grow existing ones, solve problems, tell stories and deliver real value to your organization. Businesses today are drowning in data and missing real insight. But they don’t have to. The same forces that are converging to bombard us with more data are the same ones that will help us. Customers today want to participate with businesses and brands more than ever before, which creates a real opportunity to use that connection for insight.

It’s great that your customers can give you feedback on products using the ratings and reviews, and being alerted to their dissatisfaction on Twitter is important. But what if I told you that you’re missing the heart of what really matters to your customers? CRM expert Denis Pombriant calls this “CSI approach ” to customer intelligence badly reactionary, and he’s right. How powerful would it be to truly understand your customers in a way that allows you to be relevant to them, right out of the gate?

To read the rest of this post head over to the Dachis Group blog.

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7 April 2010

Listen up, Mark Cuban

by Bill Alberti

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All posts by Bill Alberti

Mark Cuban, Internet entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks as well as a number of other businesses, recently authored a blog post titled, “Why you should NEVER listen to your customers.”

While his underlying post makes some interesting points (e.g., “part of every entrepreneur’s job is to invent the future”), the title and overall theme of his editorial sends a harmful message.

Mark Cuban, Internet entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks as well as a number of other businesses, recently authored a blog post titled, “Why you should NEVER listen to your customers.” 

While his underlying post makes some interesting points (e.g., “part of every entrepreneur’s job is to invent the future”), the title and overall theme of his editorial sends a harmful message.

In his post he cites an example from a company he works with – “a company that at one point had a product that was not only best in class, but also technically far ahead of its competition.”

His story continues:

“Then it made a fatal mistake.  It asked its customers what features they wanted to see in the product and they delivered on those features. Unfortunately for this company, its competitors didn’t ask customers what they wanted. Instead, they had a vision of ways that business could be done differently and as a result better.  Customers didn’t really see the value or need, until they saw the product.  When they tried it, they loved it.”

I would suggest that the company was asking the wrong questions, the wrong way.  If customers are asked what they want, they are going to respond with what they know.  And what they know is often what you might expect to hear.  As Henry Ford said, “If I asked my customers what they want, they simply would have said a faster horse.”

But what Ford had – and so many successful business leaders have – is an understanding of customers’ needs, motivations and behaviors.  And this understanding comes from listening.  From empathizing.  From looking past what customers explicitly tell you to uncovering a latent need or insight into their lives.  Then solving for it.  It does not come from simply asking what features they’d like.

As Cuban rightly points out, it’s the company’s job to “create the future roadmap for [a] product or service.”  However, doing this without customers – as Cuban suggests to “NEVER listen to your customers” – is a sure path to failure.  Companies will fall into the trap of designing for themselves without seeing the challenge from the point of view of the customer.  Ultimately, it is that customer who will determine the success or failure of an idea or product.

While I don’t know any more about Mr. Cuban’s company or its competitors than what he shared in his post, I do know that never listening to customers is never the right answer.

8 Responses to “Listen up, Mark Cuban”

  1. Jeff says:
    April 7, 2010 at 9:47 am

    I work for a company that has made it’s mark on the industry by listening to its customers so I was intrigued by Cuban’s post. As I reflected on my own company it came to me that we implement our customer’s wants and needs on a feature/function level but chart our true path independent of their requests.

    Our company believes in the “conversation” above all else and have helped our customers create their own forum for their community conversations; but I was here when we began to chart our current course and customers didn’t get it, didn’t want it, didn’t ask for it. Now they love it.

    I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on whether customer feedback is better served on the less integral feature/function level while staying true to your own vision is best for the overarching strategy of the company.

    Thank you.

  2. Raymond Pirouz says:
    April 7, 2010 at 10:16 am

    Exactly right — this is why ’surveys’ and ‘focus groups’ miss the mark (and give market research a bad name) while those who understand the power of ethnography know that it’s not about literally asking customers “what do you want?” but rather about immersing oneself into the world of the customer in order to understand their perspective on things to know what they truly need. It’s not about asking. It’s about engaging, learning and discovering through a process of empathy and curious observation — and yes, even some listening where appropriate.

    I feel that those who make blanket statements like “don’t ask the customer what they want” but “instead, define the future you see and the sheep will follow” totally miss the point. It’s not an either/or proposition.

  3. Jani Fraga says:
    April 7, 2010 at 10:49 am

    I find it interesting that Steve Jobs is so against market research to determine the next Apple product (granted it has really worked for him). To quote Mr. Jobs:

    “It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do. So you can’t go out and ask people, you know, what’s the next big [thing.] There’s a great quote by Henry Ford, right? He said, ‘If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me ‘A faster horse.’’’

    Is consumer feedback an accessory to innovation, or is Steve Jobs just on the luckiest streak in history? He does speak of how the developers at Apple focus on their own specific wants or needs for solutions to their current gripes, and he seems to keep hitting the profit mark with his strategy…food for thought. Thank you for this post!

  4. Michael Colombo says:
    April 7, 2010 at 10:51 am

    I don’t think Henry Ford had an understanding of customers’ needs, motivations and behaviors. He was an inventor, not a marketer. He had a vision that changed the world. He invented the future.

    I think Jeff and Mark make good points. There is certainly a line to be drawn in the sand between entrepreneurial vision and instincts and listening to the market. I’d guess that most entrepreneurs are not commissioning large research projects to figure out what kind of company they are going to build. Typically that comes in a eureka moment where the innovator sees a problem and thinks of a new way to solve it. In fact, most successful entrepreneurs face lots of nay-saying from folks (potential customers included) telling them their idea will never work, and yet they find the resolve to carry it through nonetheless. Incidentally, the big companies that behave this way are the ones that continue to innovate.

    Once you are in the market, get some feedback for sure as Jeff mentioned, but never lose your vision or stop trusting your instincts. When you do that, you stop innovating and you stop acting entrepreneurial, which I think is what is at the heart of Mark Cuban’s post and Mark Cuban himself.

  5. Bill Alberti says:
    April 7, 2010 at 11:10 am

    Jeff, on your question of customer feedback being better served on less integral features or functions, I don’t think it’s fair to assign customer thinking to less important things and keep your vision for more important things. Instead, it may be helpful to think through two different lenses: Feedback and Discovery. If you are looking to refine an idea or product, getting customer Feedback is important – i.e., their reactions to concepts, products and idea. If you are looking to innovate a new approach, you are going to want to broaden the lens with Discovery – i.e., look for unmet/latent needs, competitive white spaces and the like. Strategy is probably better served via Discovery and Tactical execution is probably better served with Feedback. I’m oversimplifying, but hopefully you get the idea.

    Raymond, I agree, it’s not an either/or proposition but a question of how…i.e., how you involve your customers in your business. Are they simply the end market or are they participants in your business? Are you just using them downstream to test and validate or tapping into them throughout an idea’s development cycle. The latter approach will help you develop better ideas. The former will probably kill lots of good ideas.

  6. Diane Hessan says:
    April 7, 2010 at 11:42 am

    Great conversation. First of all, there is a ton of controversy about whether Apple listens to its customers or not. Many internal Apple people say that they do, but heck, they might not need to with a Genius like Steve Jobs at the top. The problem that some people miss is that visionaries like Steve Jobs come around once every century. If you don’t have him in your organization, it’s pretty difficult to use Apple as your reason for ignoring customers.

    Re entrepreneurial vision, most entrepreneurs I know started their businesses with a quite different idea and plan than what they ended up with — and sometimes, customers make the initial idea much better. Communispace has this story: we started out in a different space and we actually got the idea for what we do from a client. It was a much better idea than my original vision.

    In general, I agree with you, Bill. Most people who say not to listen to customers have a pretty fundamental misunderstanding of all of what market research can do — especially in 2010. Clearly, if your market research department is just testing and validating what they already know, or asking the wrong questions, your customers will be unhelpful.

    This is a TERRIBLE time to lose touch with customers. Look at Sharper Image or Krispy Kreme or even some unnamed auto companies. As customers of those companies, most of us are pretty sure we could have helped.

  7. Michael Colombo says:
    April 7, 2010 at 5:48 pm

    Thanks for the input Diane. I think you are right on that not every company has a vision (or a visionary) like Apple does, but I am not sure the customer’s perspective brings you that culture of innovation either – which might be why it is so rare. However, maybe you have some examples to the contrary.

    I think the distinction between “launch and learn” versus “learn then launch” could be an important one, meaning the context for which you are receiving the feedback is key. So feedback will help you continuously enhance the value of what you deliver and it can also, in some cases, help you validate a concept (which I think you alluded to in your own Communispace story), but I don’t know how much it helps you “invent the future” – which again I think is the punctum saliens of Cuban’s post.

    So if Henry Ford asked for customer input BEFORE presenting them with the automobile, he might have been lead down a different path. However AFTER inventing the automobile, he could then ask a customer how to improve it.

  8. Raymond Pirouz says:
    April 7, 2010 at 7:22 pm

    In so far as inventing the future goes, is the future invented in a vacuum?

    Is the inventor basing his/her vision of how things should be by looking down at their twiddling thumbs?

    It’s not an either/or proposition of “do you ask or don’t you ask”.

    Observing people, observing patterns of behavior, observing emerging trends, observing problem areas that need addressing, being inspired by an unmet need based on an observed phenomenon, all of these take place in the context of real human and societal behavior, not some imaginary world in an inventor’s (or entrepreneur’s head).

    You don’t literally have to ask…but it would be dishonest to proclaim that the genius is he who creates the fantastic from his dark lair — with the help of bloated ego alone. :)

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12 March 2010

The Risk of Not Making Mistakes

by Bill Alberti

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All posts by Bill Alberti

Risk is a tricky concept. Business typically wants to limit, manage, or mitigate it. Eliminating risk altogether probably would be seen as the ultimate success (thank you, Six Sigma). But in life, most great things don’t come without some level of risk.

Getting married, having kids, quitting a job, taking a new one. Think of any of the biggest developments in your life or the broader world around you and I’d bet none of those happen without a fair amount of risk.

Risk is a tricky concept. Business typically wants to limit, manage, or mitigate it. Eliminating risk altogether probably would be seen as the ultimate success (thank you, Six Sigma). But in life, most great things don’t come without some level of risk.

Getting married, having kids, quitting a job, taking a new one. Think of any of the biggest developments in your life or the broader world around you and I’d bet none of those happen without a fair amount of risk.

However, from an early age we are taught to avoid risk. We understand that with risk comes mistakes. And mistakes can be painful. But making mistakes is also how we learn.

We aren’t born knowing that the square peg doesn’t fit into the round hole. We need to try it for ourselves. We experiment. We learn not only what doesn’t fit, we also learn what does. And in that process of learning we begin to see relationships—those between shapes and spaces, challenges and solutions, effort and satisfaction. More is learned from the time spent trying than if we got it all right on the first attempt.

But in business, mistakes mean more cost, more time, and lost opportunities. With the drive towards higher levels of productivity, higher margins, and more efficiency we don’t have room for mistakes.

Without that room, the ability of business to learn and grow is limited. Sure, companies can capitalize on incremental opportunities but they will miss the bigger breakthroughs because they didn’t see as many relationships, have as many experiences, or try as hard. They won’t learn as much from their mistakes, because they won’t make as many of them.

Companies need to create room for mistakes. To explore and try out stuff with their customers. To learn. And to do so faster, to get to the right solution sooner. When companies can make mistakes (ideally outside of the public eye) they can learn invaluable lessons from doing so and bring their customers better solutions because of it.

Risk isn’t that tricky of a concept if you think about it differently—not as the negative value of an event, but as a process capable of yielding positive, even breakthrough results. Make a practice of making mistakes. Create a private space in which to do so. Build a “learning agenda” for your company. And embrace risk. Because what’s true in life is true in business—most great things don’t happen without a fair amount of risk.

2 Responses to “The Risk of Not Making Mistakes”

  1. Dan says:
    March 19, 2010 at 8:23 am

    This really hit home for me, hopefully it’s not because I’m the type of person who makes a ton of terrible mistakes, but because I’ve learned some of my best lessons from some of my worst mistakes. My dad loves to joke about how I insisted on “learning lessons the hard way” until I was about 17 or 18 years old (which I continued to do after, only no longer under his supervision). This very topic actually came up in a conversation I was having this morning, and I learned of one company that does something unique that I think is such a great idea – awards for “mistake of the month.”

    Check it out – http://www.inc.com/magazine/20050201/strategies.html#
    (Link comes courtesy of Dylan Brown)
    Another example – http://www.businessclassinc.com/2009/08/31/mistake-of-the-week-keebler-cookies-crackers/

  2. Jan Bolick says:
    March 30, 2010 at 5:47 am

    Love this! Mistakes can be great if managed well.

    And “mistake of the month” is one good way to give structure to that.
    Another is the graveyard approach used by Ben & Jerry’s. Read more at: http://www.businessclassinc.com/2009/09/01/rest-in-peace-a-lesson-from-ben-jerrys/

    You might also enjoy this about Celebrating Mistakes: http://www.businessclassinc.com/2009/08/05/celebrating-mistakes/

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25 February 2010

A Cure for “Terminal Niceness” at Xerox

by Renee Piazza

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This past Sunday, I was derailed from my usual routine of bee-lining straight to the Modern Love column in The New York Times (by the front page of the business section), where the cover story read “Xerox’s New Chief Tries to Redefine Its Culture.”

Ursula Burns, who was appointed CEO this past July, describes an environment at Xerox where the employees are simply too nice to one another. She wants them to “become more fearless and be more frank and impatient with one another” to help the company grow.

This past Sunday, I was derailed from my usual routine of bee-lining straight to the Modern Love column in The New York Times (by the front page of the business section), where the cover story  read “Xerox’s New Chief Tries to Redefine Its Culture.”

Ursula Burns, who was appointed CEO this past July, describes an environment at Xerox where the employees are simply too nice to one another. She wants them to “become more fearless and be more frank and impatient with one another” to help the company grow.

Ms. Burns’ call for brutal honesty within her organization got me thinking—can Xerox’s 130,000 employees leverage anything we know at Communispace about building the kind of community that will cure Xerox’s internal positive bias? Here’s what I came up with:

1. Build intimacy.
Give Xerox employees a platform to be heard in a way that doesn’t make them feel like they are one of 130,000. Intimacy is what drives participation. For us, that means that a community of 500 members has better participation than, say, in a community of 2,000. With larger size comes increased anonymity, which means less engagement.

2. Talk to the same group of people over time.
Knowing what to ask is important, but knowing when to ask can be even more important. Our members become increasingly loyal about the companies who sponsor a community, and this makes them more honest over time. They become more committed to your success and stop being polite and when they feel you are committed to listening—and that you aren’t going away.

3. Close the loop.
Take listening one step further and close the loop. Tell them what you are doing with the information you heard, and how it is making a difference. This will make everyone feel that giving feedback—both good and bad—is a good use of their time.

4. Let your customers help.
Gather the customer stories—both the ones who’ve been loyal for years and the new ones you’ve acquired through Affiliated Computer Services—that will help open up the conversation. They are uniquely poised to keep everyone honest if you have the kind of relationship with them where they feel that you are truly listening.

And who knows—maybe in a few months the NYT headline will read something like “New Culture Redefines Xerox.”

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19 February 2010

Traditional Market Researcher Saved by Online Communities

by Karen Barone

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All posts by Karen Barone

A lot has been written about the value Communispace brings to its clients . I, however, tend to selfishly focus on the benefits that Communispace brings to me…as a researcher and formerly frustrated focus group moderator.

Here are my top three focus group frustrations all alleviated by Communispace.

A lot has been written about the value Communispace brings to its clients . I, however, tend to selfishly focus on the benefits that Communispace brings to me…as a researcher and formerly frustrated focus group moderator.  

Here are my top three focus group frustrations all alleviated by Communispace.

1. The “That’s All Folks” Frustration:  Many of us have been there.  A focus group has come to an end, the audio/video tape has stopped recording and the clients in the back room are packing up their laptops when…it happens:  the respondents engage EACH OTHER in a conversation that is critical to the client’s business needs.  As a moderator you try to nose your way back into the conversation, you write down notes, you look directly into the two-way mirror and start flapping your arms to get the clients’ attention, but you know the truth:  Your next group starts in five minutes and these folks need to get going.  Opportunity lost.

In the community, these members would start their own activities and/or we’d be able to get back to them (and the whole community, if applicable) directly and probe further. 

2. The “That’s Very Helpful” Frustration:  More often than not, you can’t confidently tell focus group respondents how their feedback will be used.  Despite rumors that respondents are only there for a sandwich and a quick buck, I found respondents desperate to hear that their time has been worthwhile, their opinions respected and actionable. (In fact, some even requested a hug.  It’s true.)   It’s not surprising, respondents want connection and they want to feel (not hear) that their input is valued. 

Communities show members why and how they are valued.  By building long-term relationships, members and clients are often put in conversation with one another.  Part of creating a robust community is providing feedback on how member input is driving client business decisions. 

3. The “Are We There Yet” Frustration:  Travel.

Communities are online.  Enough said.  :)

Certainly, there are more than three ways that online communities alleviate focus group pain points. Stay tuned for an upcoming Vlog by yours truly and fellow blogger, Rocky Prozeller.

2 Responses to “Traditional Market Researcher Saved by Online Communities”

  1. Diane Hessan says:
    February 19, 2010 at 7:58 am

    Thanks Karen! Here are a few more: 1) More than 10 people — Hooray!; 2) If someone in the community is adding no value or being obnoxious, you can (nicely) kick them out; 3) You can circle back and ask follow-up questions; 4) THEY can circle back and add additional thoughts that occurred to them after the “event”; 5) It’s easy to search the community for content; 6) Cost-effectiveness — one month of a community, with 8-12 separate projects, is less expensive than 2 focus groups. I’ll stop now. :)

  2. Nelson Merchan says:
    February 20, 2010 at 4:29 pm

    Happy employees working for great companies deliver better results. Online communities are the way to go. Congratulations!

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5 February 2010

And the Best (Big) Picture Award Goes to…Pepsi

by Karen Barone

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All posts by Karen Barone

I live for awards season. I love the Golden Globes, honestly believe the SAG Awards really do mean more, and [deep sigh] swoon over the Oscars. It is in the spirit of film awards, that I offer you some 2010 Super Brand Awards:

I live for awards season. I love the Golden Globes, honestly believe the SAG Awards really do mean more, and [deep sigh] swoon over the Oscars. It is in the spirit of film awards, that I offer you some 2010 Super Brand Awards:

Best Actor: Domino’s Pizza
I know that the idea to address consumer complaints in ads has been polarizing, but I’ve loved every minute. You’re advertising that you’ve changed; you’re listening to your consumers; you’re advertising that you’re listening. You’re so Meta—the Daniel Day-Lewis of pizza.

Best Supporting Actress: Diapers.com
You’re the new exemplar of online shopping. The selection! The free shipping! You’re the picture of flexibility, versatility, and consistency. You remind me of a young Amazon.com.

Best Director: The International Red Cross
Your “text ‘Haiti’ to 90999” campaign provided individuals an easy and affordable way to help victims of the earthquake. You harnessed the power of social media and of mobile devices to create change. Your work will be copied, but I doubt it could ever be out done.  Mmmmm… the “Avatar” of philanthropy. 

Best (Big) Picture: Pepsi
Kudos, Pepsi! When other, less innovative, brands are spending an exorbitant amount to advertise during the Super Bowl, you’ve made a bold move and decided to end your 23-year run as a big game advertiser. Instead you are using $20 million marketing dollars to listen to and better the lives of your customers. You’re the advertising equivalent of De Niro in ‘Raging Bull.’ Bravo!

One Response to “And the Best (Big) Picture Award Goes to…Pepsi”

  1. Rocky Prozeller says:
    February 8, 2010 at 11:46 am

    Despite distancing myself from the Oscars after the shameful decision to increase the number of nominated films for Best Picture from 5 to 10 (really, double?), I’d like to cast a vote for:

    Best Original Screenplay: Will It Blend by Blendtec – captured my heart with their crushing campaign of introducing a new ingredient (iPods, baseballs, video cameras and more) to their blender blog daily. http://www.blendtec.com/willitblend/

    Best Adapted Screenplay: Intel – the good folks of Intel have effectively given a personality to their inanimate product with their latest campaign. The ‘Our Rockstars Aren’t Like Your Rockstars’ series proved equally poignant in several mediums from TV to print, no simple task. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqLPHrCQr2I

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21 January 2010

TV in the ’10s

by Mike Jennings

2 Comments »
All posts by Mike Jennings

It sounds like 3D TV was the big hit at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, but I’m still wondering about content…

One day in ‘09, after paying a hefty cable bill, I flipped through my channels and came up with nothing. I went through my DVR queue, nothing. I wondered, “What did I just pay for besides the Internet?”

It sounds like 3D TV was the big hit at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, but I’m still wondering about content…

One day in ‘09, after paying a hefty cable bill, I flipped through my channels and came up with nothing. I went through my DVR queue, nothing. I wondered, “What did I just pay for besides the Internet?”

Soon after that I began researching my pay TV alternatives. It’s not that I didn’t want to pay. I just didn’t want to pay so much for so little. While facilitating one of our communities I discovered a thread between two members who had the same frustration. One member recommended Roku—the streaming Internet device that connects to your TV. I mail-ordered one and when it arrived, a whirlwind romance began.

It started with a marathon of the first three seasons of Miami Vice (click here for my analysis). Then I found out why so many of my friends are obsessed with Lost. After that I worked my way through the Ken Burns documentaries, but the passion eventually fizzled as I ran out of instant Netflix titles.

I didn’t want to do it, but I went back to my old standby—network TV. At first it was comfortable and familiar, but after awhile became too predictable and the commercials started to annoy me again. Then I went back to Roku and had a fling with Amazon Video On Demand. After paying $1.99 per episode of the first season of Fringe, I ended it. Now it’s 2010 and I’m back with the old ball and chain—cable TV.

I have to say that all of this has left me bitter about the future of TV. Will we ever be able to truly customize our TV experiences?

2 Responses to “TV in the ’10s”

  1. Nicole Adriance says:
    January 25, 2010 at 6:03 am

    I love this post Mike! I have the same frustrations with TV and long to truly customize my TV experience. Why does the guide show me all the channels – even the ones I don’t get, leading me to click on channels just to be greeted with a ‘no access’ message? Why is it that when I do a search to record shows on DVR it does not give me the option to select the HD channel resulting in the future dissapointment of discovering I accidentally recorded the non-HD version? Why can’t I do a search to find my favorite channels? I can never find HGTV or FitTV without slowly scrolling through each channel looking for the correct acronym.

  2. Mike Jennings says:
    January 25, 2010 at 6:29 am

    Thanks, Nicole. I suspect a lot of people share our frustration. We’re so used to customizing our music experiences through iTunes that we now expect it from TV. I guess time will tell when it comes to the future of TV…

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19 January 2010

An Open Letter to Restaurateurs:

by Jen Maltby

6 Comments »
All posts by Jen Maltby

Over the holidays I spent a lot of time in restaurants. I went to everything from fast-casual to white-table-cloth establishments, and I found that all of them were all but ignoring one important group of customers – children.

I know what you are thinking: Why aren’t you going to those “kid friendly places” that have the clowns and balloons and video games? Isn’t that where parents go? My answer: Have you been to one of these little corners of Hell? Ok, maybe that’s a little harsh, but I am an adult and I want to have a clown-free evening! Can’t I do that and still have my child enjoy the experience?

Over the holidays I spent a lot of time in restaurants. I went to everything from fast-casual to white-table-cloth establishments, and I found that all of them were all but ignoring one important group of customers – children.

I know what you are thinking: Why aren’t you going to those “kid friendly places” that have the clowns and balloons and video games? Isn’t that where parents go? My answer: Have you been to one of these little corners of Hell? Ok, maybe that’s a little harsh, but I am an adult and I want to have a clown-free evening! Can’t I do that and still have my child enjoy the experience?

An article in The New York Times touches on this quandary as it tells the tale of a group of Brooklyn moms who were banned from going to a local bar with their kids. Though I am talking about restaurants rather than bars, one of these moms made me think when she said, “[Going to this bar is] one way of denying that your youthful exploits come with a shelf-life… Psychologically, you feel like, ‘Oh, my life hasn’t changed that much.’”  So I’ll admit it, maybe I am still going to all the same restaurants that I went to before my three year old was born because I don’t want to admit that things have changed that much. But should they have to? Can’t restaurants do a little better job servicing our kids (and their parents)?

So, restaurant owners out there, I have some suggestions and observations that I would like to share:

Rethink your kids’ menu. If you had kids or were thinking about them, you would know that everything needs to have a fancy made-up name (think “super princess burger” not “hamburger”). And don’t be afraid to veer from the old standbys. The happiest my daughter ever was at a restaurant was the time she was able to order a “chocolate sandwich” from the menu. It was simply Nutella on toasted honey wheat bread, but she stared at it in awe and quietly ate the entire plate-sized sandwich without a single peep for 20 minutes. If this restaurant was local I would go there once a week.

Crayons are nice, but can you mix it up a bit? We went to a restaurant last year that brought over “Wikki Stix” when we were seated (for those of you unfamiliar – click here). They even let my daughter pick her favorite colors and brought extras when she had used all of her initial set. She was entertained for the entire meal and I was blown away. And how simple was that little idea? We now go to that restaurant at least monthly.

Kids are customers too. I can’t tell you how many times I have been in a restaurant where the waiter completely ignores my child. I am not expecting them to tell me how cute they think she is (even though she really is cute), but it would be nice if you said hello to her when you were greeting us. And can you work with me on when you are delivering my child’s food? I know best when it should come, and believe me it changes with every meal, so involve me — and for the love of god don’t bring me scalding hot food! Let me tell you my friend, that is one quick way to lose your tip and our business. For good.

So, long story short, Mr. and Mrs. Restaurant Purveyor; I want you to think about kids and their parents. We are an important and underserved target. And if we are going to spend our hard-earned, disposable income in this economy, we are going to choose the restaurants that are doing it right and leave the plain hamburgers, crayons and scalding hot fries behind.

6 Responses to “An Open Letter to Restaurateurs:”

  1. Karen Barone says:
    January 19, 2010 at 8:56 am

    Jen,
    I totally agree with you and those insightful women from Brooklyn. We have found a GREAT adult/KID-friendly restaurant: GASLIGHT in the South End.
    I know. I know. It seems impossible, but it’s true. The food is incredible, there’s parking (!!!!!!!!!) and they’re totally cool with kids. They don’t offer toys/crayons/whatnot, but they don’t mind if the table gets crowded with the ones you bring from home. Not perfect, but it’s a start. (Did I mention the parking?)

  2. Jeffrey Gates says:
    January 20, 2010 at 9:48 am

    Jen,
    you rule! As the father of three children, 1 small, 2 not so much anymore, I hear you sister.
    I will share your blog with our 6 restaurants and who knows, Wikki Stix may be coming to a small French/Mediterranean Bistro/Brasserie or American Bistro near you soon!
    Thanks for continuing to dine out in this troubled economy.
    By the way, in my 30 years of business, I have never fielded a complaint regarding and unruly child patron. Wish I could say the same for all of my adult patrons.
    Please feel free contacting me directly with any comments or requests.
    Jeffrey Gates
    Partner
    Gaslight Brasserie du Coin
    Aquitaine Group
    jgates@aquitainegroup.com

  3. Jen Maltby says:
    January 20, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    Thanks Jeffrey, and you make an excellent point about this troubled economy. It’s really never been more important to pay attention to all your patrons. Keep up the great work and see you at Gaslight soon!

  4. Jani Fraga says:
    January 20, 2010 at 12:15 pm

    Jen,
    I love this entry, and as an ex-waitress, I can completely relate. Although the restaurant I worked at appeared to have an age limit, we had an arsenal of children’s books, crayons, and etch-a-sketches on stand-by for our high-chaired guests. The kids’ menu had a contest every year for the little artists to submit their best drawings of the kid cuisine, and some were featured in the menu. do-it-yourself ice cream sundaes and a good-bye balloon always seemed to leave a sweet impression.

    I always felt that in order for the parents (and myself) to have a stress-free experience, the kids were always key. “appetizer-soup-salad” timelines were modified to “appeI WANT MY HOT DOGtizer-soup-salad” … or any other customized randition :)

    Although I have no kids of my own (yet) I would love to hear more about kid-tested, mother-approved spots to go with my friends and their little ones!

  5. Erin (Giroux) Antonellis says:
    January 22, 2010 at 9:59 am

    As a veteran of the restaurant industry I have seen the best and worst case scenarios of children dining out. For the most part I didn’t agree with parents bringing their children, strollers, diaper bags, toys, CHEERIOS (you will find Cheerios for weeks after) etc. out on weekend night at a busy restaurant. It didn’t seem like the right place or right time for children. This could have been because it was mid-July on Martha’s Vineyard or the fact that I was a selfish twenty-two year old (I am guessing it was me!).

    As I think back I completely disregarded the fact that with every child is a couple of parents who are people too. They want to enjoy a night out, a vacation and God forbid each other! It wasn’t until my friends started having kids that I became the biggest supporter of our favorite couples keeping things status quo and not wanting their “youthful exploits to come with a shelf-life”. I still want to hang out with my best girlfriends and our favorite wine-loving couples with or without kids.

    So why can’t we have our cake and eat it too? Mr. Gates makes a very good point – no one is really going to complain about a child patron. For the most part parents that take their children out to a nicer “non-kid-friendly / corner of hell” restaurant come prepared (toys, extra bottles, books etc.). So in these tough times why not open your doors to these parents and welcome them with Wikki Stix and Princess Burgers because after all…their money is green too!

  6. Jen Maltby says:
    January 22, 2010 at 10:25 am

    Erin,
    So well said; and you bring up a really interesting point that I didn’t consider. Often times when my husband and I go out with our child it is with other couples. So you aren’t just losing our $ when you under-serve us, you’re losing theirs. Something to think about.
    Thanks for the comment!

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