Start with the truth. Identify the worldview of the people you need to reach. Describe the truth through their worldview. That's your story. When you overreach, you always fail. Not today, but sooner or later, the truth wins out. Negative or positive, the challenge isn't just to tell the truth. It's to tell truth that resonates." (Seth Godin, Creating Stories That Resonate)

Hello Belgian politicians. This is your wake-up call.

Un bel esempio di knowledge transfer via .ppt...

Slideshare sta assumendo sempre più le caratteristiche uno strumento fondamentale - non solo per la trasmissione di contenuti, ma anche come strumento stesso di corporate communication.

Lungi dall'essere il senso della vita, il documento offre comunque una facile e molto semplice panoramica su potenzialità del web networking ai tempi del 2.0, alcune delle quali ben applicabili all'universo marketing & PR, come il "flipping the funnel" di Godin o il drive circolare di brand e communities.

Onlinemarketerblog has an interesting post comparing the words of David Olgivy to Seth Godin both on The Big Idea.  Of course coming from different generation, different styles, and even different goals as marketers, it's difficult to compare these two but their perspectives come down to this:

Olgivy: "These are the rules that have made me successful.  Break them or follow them, but know them."

Godin: "All the rules are different today than they ever were.  Follow the old ways at your peril."

The article quote Olgivy as advocating The Big Idea that needs to be at the core of all marketing and advertising.  Godin basically says that big ideas are still important but they need to be embedded in the product and not in the advertising.

So how does this apply to BtoB?  Oddly, most BtoB companies fall in camp with Seth Godin...in not such a great way.  Most B2B companies want a perfect product that is exactly what the market needs and is like nothing else out there.  Then, and only then, will any marketing be invested.  Unfortunately, those products don't always come along.  Often in BtoB we compete with similar products of very high quality and end up competing on price.

Leveraging market advantages in marketing is where the big ideas should be.  Coming up with bold, big, brash marketing around the one or two advantages of your product or brand highlights all the reasons why you should not be having a price discussion with your customer.

The biggest mistake a BtoB company can make is waiting for that huge innovative product to come out before investing in marketing.  The risk there is that on launch you customers sees you as a commodity company with an innovative product.  Instead of being something they have to have, your big new product is just something they have to pay more for.

The message for BtoB?  Invest in big bold ideas, but don't wait for the big bold products.  You already have some advantages -- now it's time to talk about them.

Read the post here: (Link)

The web is a great equalizer.  Use it to your advantage!

I currently have two on my wall, one is a transparent black top with a rosewood fingerboard and the other is an amber flame top with a maple fingerboard. All SD’s have a beautiful, highly figured maple veneer top. The color of the guitar is applied in a light transparent stain over the veneer top. They are really beautiful instruments to see.

But let’s get to the Godin guitars themselves.

The first thing to know about the SD22 is how incredibly comfortable it is. It’s got a short scale (24 3/4”) neck similar to a Gibson Les Paul with a rock maple neck closer in feel to a Fender Stratocaster. This is a great combination that, at least to me, is entirely new. The combination of short scale maple neck and compact body design make this a seriously fun instrument to play. By reducing string tension (to my mind always a good thing)the short scale neck makes string bending easier and gives the guitar a great low frequency response.

The three pickup configuration is the classic two single coils with a humbucker at the bridge. If you haven’t played Godin guitars before you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the sound of the Godin pickups themselves. Like everything else about these guitars, the pickups are fantastic.

Having said all of the above, the most amazing thing is the Godin SD 22's price. The guitar sells for less than $500 (let’s talk) and that price includes a high quality, fully padded Godin gigbag.

Keep in mind that we’re talking about a guitar that’s hand-assembled in the good old USA, in Berlin, New Hampshire. You might well be asking how Robert Godin can sell a guitar of this quality for so little cash? Well, let’s let Robert Godin worry about that one. Just make sure you sit down and play one BEFORE you go to your local guitar megastore and lay down your hard earned cash for a guitar with higher name recognition but way less soul!

Quitting is a good thing if you know the effort you put in isn't worth it.

My problem is procrastinating.... I have to figure that one out...

The Idea:

- Take your customer to work day (a twist on take your kids to work day)

How It works:

- Invite your customer into your workplace to shadow an employee; parties are encouraged to sign up and then paired

- Open your office, back-shop, or factory doors for the day to give your customers a behind the scenes glimpse of your working environment

- Your employees represent your brand for the day

- Customers see for themselves what truly makes your company special

Why It works:

- It’s the ultimate case for accountability and transparency

- Responsible businesses will be rewarded for their good practice; irresponsible competitors will be exposed. Can you imagine the charade some companies would try to pull? False scripting points and employee actors!

Obviously this idea would be difficult to make happen. But if a few influential partners jumped aboard and issued a corporate challenge, I believe it could potentially make a real, positive impact. What do you think? Does anyone spring to mind that might be interested in championing such a crazy idea? Anyone? Bueller? Godin? It's an idea I'd love to share out.

------------

Afterthoughts

1. Fairmont’s Shop with The Chef initiative demonstrates the value of a non-traditional employee/ customer interaction. Not surprisingly they have been named a category leader in social responsibility.
2. A search for “take your customer to work” uncovered this rant. I guess I’m not the only one who sees value in the concept.

In a recent post, Seth Godin reminds us of the importance of product story. No place is this more evident than the cluttered world of new music. Take the story of Bon Iver; one of my favourite artists of the last year:

Following the break-up of his previous band, Justin Vernon secluded himself to a cabin in northwestern Wisconsin for three months planning to "hibernate." Three months of solitude resulted in the creation of For Emma, Forever Ago. "All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt that had been stock piled over the course of the past six years, was suddenly purged into the form of song."

In today’s music age, when online reviews and forums are a go to filter, the pre-experience story set Bon Iver apart. The hauntingly gorgeous product fulfilled the legend.

As for the White Stripes, they sold their ‘official story’ as a two-piece brother-sister outfit clad in the peppermint colors of “innocence and anger”; a bizarre tale of the Zag as told in Neumeier’s most recent book. Again, the pudding was proof enough.

April 29, 2008 by OnlineMarketer Blog

Is the concept of the Big Idea dead in advertising? How much has the
internet and Web 2.0 specifically altered the fundamentals of the industry?

In his 1983 book, On Advertising, master David Ogilvy held forth on the
central tenet to sell products:

“You can do homework from now until doomsday, but you will never win
fame and fortune unless you also invent big ideas. It takes a big idea to
attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product…Research
can’t help you much, because it cannot predict the cumulative value of an
idea, and no idea is big unless it will work for thirty years” (emphasis by
the author, page 16).

And yet, almost the very same day as I read this from Ogilvy, I find myself
almost stunned off the treadmill as new master Seth Godin holds forth on the
big idea in the third disk of his audio book, Meatball Sundae:

“There’s a difference between a big idea that comes from a product or
service, and a big idea that comes from the world of advertising. The secret
of big-time advertising during the 60s and 70s was the big idea…Big ideas in
advertising worked great when advertising was in charge. With a limited
amount of spectrum and a lot of hungry consumers, the stage was set to put
on a show. And the better the show, the bigger the punchline, the more
profit could be made. Today, the advertiser’s big idea doesn’t travel very
well. Instead, the idea must be embedded into the experience of the product,
itself. Once again, what we used to think of as advertising or marketing is
pushed deeper into the organization. Yes, there are big ideas. They’re just
not advertising-based” (disk 3, minute 48).

Of course, we should probably define a “big idea.” As explained, a big idea
is an advertising tool to sell products. It stands the test of time. It
originates with the company and is distributed far and wide. It is
inextricably linked to the product and the experience of the product.

In my mind, big ideas include cut-out coupons. By-mail Sears catalogs and
mail-in rebates. Tony the Tiger and the Trix Rabbit. Toys in cereal boxes
that had kids begging Mom to pick that one! (Why cereal innovation is on my
mind this morning, I have no idea.) Shopping malls. Radio jingles. Anything
that fundamentally affected people’s decision about whether to buy a certain
product or not.

So where do I stand?

I side with Ogilvy. The big idea isn’t dead - in fact, it can only be
expanded. I don’t see Tony the Tiger disappearing from the hills of Grand
Rapids. In fact, I would be disappointed if there wasn’t a new way to
interact with Tony. I want his roar as my ringtone. I expect to see him at
Club Penguin.

None of this has changed - the ways companies persuade, coax, cajole, argue,
and convince us to buy their products - except for Godin’s point about the
ideas being provided solely by the company. Of course consumers have more
opportunity to interact and suggest to a company and the wise companies
listen.

But for Godin to claim that the experience of the product is only now linked
to the big idea is folly. Mothers bought a particular type of margarine
because of the coupon. We chose Honey Smacks cereal because of the colors,
the kinetic energy in the commercials, and the cute, cracked-out frog mascot
(again, with the cereal…).

The big idea has always been linked with the experience of the product
because the experience has often been more important than the product
itself! This is nothing new.

The internet and Web 2.0 only give us more opportunity to riff on that. Big
ideas may not have to originate with a company, but they will still likely
need to flow from or be enacted by the company. Maybe the new importance in
advertising is not creating the big idea, but being wise enough to hear it
when it is whispered from the crowd.

Some of my favorite points...

10. Have I corresponded with this person before?
11. Really? They've written back? (if no, reconsider email).
13. Am I angry? (If so, save as draft and come back to the note in one hour).

Ever have an email "disaster"?

I am a professional guitarist and teacher from Walnut Creek, Ca. Walnut Creek is a city approximately 15 miles east of San Francisco. I've run a successful downtown teaching studio for the last 15 years and have now expanded my business to include a by-appointment showroom for Godin and Seagull Guitars, both based in Montreal, Canada.

I found out about Godin Guitars about five years ago when I was in the market to purchase a jazz guitar for myself. I had decided that I was going to buy my guitar of a lifetime and ordered a L4 from Gibson's custom shop. The list price was about $6000. but I got a good price and was thrilled and anxious for the guitar to be delivered. As I recall, it took 4-6 months to arrive. 

I opened the case and the guitar was stunning, absolutely beautiful. It looked like the ultimate jazz box,  in the classic Gibson sunburst. This was the guitar that I had been waiting decades for, perfect! I took it out of it's case, prepared to spend the entire evening playing this beauty.

And then I played it, but something was wrong. What was that vibration I kept hearing. Could something be rattling inside my custom Gibson jazz box? And is it really possible that the intonation is as far off as I think it is? And the tone, it's just not that good. Well, you get the point, it wasn't a very inspiring guitar, it wasn't even a good guitar. 

Luckily, I was able to return the guitar. This started me on a quest to find a great guitar, regardless of price. That's the next part of this story, what I ended up finding.

In the ever elusive search for readers, it's not unexpected that many will take the easy road and skew negative.  The target is almost irrelevant.  Like sharks to blood, people love the opportunity to pile on.

Plus, the alternative is too difficult.  Why should I attempt to provide useful content when I can draw as big, if not bigger, audiences merely by telling you why someone else isn't as honest, or well-intentioned, or orthodox, or as honorable as you and me?  

And if I can't get you to rally behind me, I can hope to at least get you outraged.  Perhaps I can get you so riled that you'll have to tell all your friends.  Regardless, I have at least succeeded in getting attention.

For the record, I do not believe Seth Godin is an idiot.  In fact, I believe quite the opposite.  But I had to do something to get your attention, right?

Seth Goding has a great blog post today about specialists. Please read it at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/  

by Seth Godin

Three years ago, I published this list, which was very much a riff, not a carefully planned manifesto. It has held up pretty well. Feel free to reprint or otherwise use, as long as you include a credit line. I've added a few at the bottom...

What Every Good Marketer Knows:

* Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.
* Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
* Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.
* Share of wallet is easier, more profitable and ultimately more effective a measure than share of market.
* Marketing begins before the product is created.
* Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that.
* Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing, though, that’s efficiency.
* Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.
* Products that are remarkable get talked about.
* Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.
* You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.
* If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you’re viewing marketing as an expense. Good marketers realize that it is an investment.
* People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
* You’re not in charge. And your prospects don’t care about you.
* What people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.
* Business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy.
* Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work.
* People all over the world, and of every income level, respond to marketing that promises and delivers basic human wants.
* Good marketers tell a story.
* People are selfish, lazy, uninformed and impatient. Start with that and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
* Marketing that works is marketing that people choose to notice.
* Effective stories match the worldview of the people you are telling the story to.
* Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.
* A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone.
* Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in an conversation-rich world.
* Marketers are responsible for the side effects their products cause.
* Reminding the consumer of a story they know and trust is a powerful shortcut.
* Good marketers measure.
* Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.
* One disappointed customer is worth ten delighted ones.

* In the googleworld, the best in the world wins more often, and wins more.
* Most marketers create good enough and then quit. Greatest beats good enough every time.
* There are more rich people than ever before, and they demand to be treated differently.
* Organizations that manage to deal directly with their end users have an asset for the future.
* You can game the social media in the short run, but not for long.
* You market when you hire and when you fire. You market when you call tech support and you market every time you send a memo.
* Blogging makes you a better marketer because it teaches you humility in your writing.

Obviously, knowing what to do is very, very different than actually doing it.

I have only one thing to add: Follow this!
Technorati Tags: marketing, godin

by Seth Godin

Three years ago, I published this list, which was very much a riff, not a carefully planned manifesto. It has held up pretty well. Feel free to reprint or otherwise use, as long as you include a credit line. I've added a few at the bottom...

What Every Good Marketer Knows:

* Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.
* Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
* Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.
* Share of wallet is easier, more profitable and ultimately more effective a measure than share of market.
* Marketing begins before the product is created.
* Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that.
* Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing, though, that’s efficiency.
* Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.
* Products that are remarkable get talked about.
* Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.
* You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.
* If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you’re viewing marketing as an expense. Good marketers realize that it is an investment.
* People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
* You’re not in charge. And your prospects don’t care about you.
* What people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.
* Business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy.
* Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work.
* People all over the world, and of every income level, respond to marketing that promises and delivers basic human wants.
* Good marketers tell a story.
* People are selfish, lazy, uninformed and impatient. Start with that and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
* Marketing that works is marketing that people choose to notice.
* Effective stories match the worldview of the people you are telling the story to.
* Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.
* A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone.
* Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in an conversation-rich world.
* Marketers are responsible for the side effects their products cause.
* Reminding the consumer of a story they know and trust is a powerful shortcut.
* Good marketers measure.
* Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.
* One disappointed customer is worth ten delighted ones.

* In the googleworld, the best in the world wins more often, and wins more.
* Most marketers create good enough and then quit. Greatest beats good enough every time.
* There are more rich people than ever before, and they demand to be treated differently.
* Organizations that manage to deal directly with their end users have an asset for the future.
* You can game the social media in the short run, but not for long.
* You market when you hire and when you fire. You market when you call tech support and you market every time you send a memo.
* Blogging makes you a better marketer because it teaches you humility in your writing.

Obviously, knowing what to do is very, very different than actually doing it.

I have only one thing to add: Follow this!
Technorati Tags: marketing, godin

When?: May 6 2008, 12pm

Who?: Female salesclerk (name to be confirmed)

What?: I made the mistake of visiting the store during the lunchtime rush. The line was fifteen people-deep; the automatic door stayed open due to people standing under the sensor. I'd been uncharacteristically caught without phone credit, and as I was attending a show with a friend that night, I had to recharge to reply to his logistical query.

Cue fifteen solid minutes of queuing. I silently lamented my lack of foresight to bring reading material, though I hadn't anticipated the store to be this busy. I passed my eyes across crappy pink stationary a dozen times, and attempted - along with everyone else in the store - to block out the moronic blonde yapping on her phone. "Anyway, I've gotta go, everyone in the store can hear me, haha." No shit.

By the time I'm served, I'm understandably a little annoyed. I'm a patient dude, but I'd found Australia Post's customer service to be rather lacking up until this point. It was as if they'd scheduled their employees' lunch breaks at the same time every other worker in the suburb was on their half-hour, and attempting to post mail - or buy credit.

I gave a cursory "g'day" to the female salesclerk and requested my service. She complied silently for a moment, before asking - apropos of nothing - how my weekend was. I was taken aback, as the tone in which she asked the question conveyed that she would actually give a shit about my response.

I responded that I'd had a great weekend; I spent Saturday with my parents and brother, and we all went to a concert together. Though, I neglected to mention a largely unfavourable event I attended on Sunday.

She enquired about which band we saw - she didn't know them - then told me that she was glad that I'd enjoyed my weekend. I politely enquired about hers, and she related some brief details about spending time with her kids.

This exchange took place while she scanned the bPay barcode and waited for the system to produce a serial number for me to enter into Optus' prepaid system. The line was still fifteen-deep behind me as we shared a friendly moment together within earshot of every other customer.

What's remarkable about this customer service experience is that the salesclerk turned an unhappy, impatient person into a happy, smiling customer purely by ignoring the outside noise - fifteen equally unhappy, impatient customers - and listening. In an edgeconomy, listen + respect x trust = loyalty and partnership.

Yes, this was just one salesclerk putting themselves second and the customer first. I'll admit, it's a step to extrapolate one man purchasing phone credit at a corner post office to an entire economic model.

But - imagine if every customer was treated with equal respect. Imagine if every customer was listened to. Imagine if every solution was customised to fit each individual need. That's the future we're aiming for. If we're not, we should be.

"The goal of every single interaction should be to upgrade the brand's value in the eye of the caller and to learn something about how to do better, not to get the caller to just go away." - Seth Godin discussing telephone customer service, but his message is equally applicable in any related situation.

Result?: I left the store with a smile on my face. Genuinely nice people are difficult to find - I don't claim to be one, either - which is why it's disarming and refreshing to encounter them.

What's crazy and seems totally unfeasible to you right now? What ideas do you have? What does your preferred future look like? Do you actively daydream? Do you intend on imagining? 

Are you so overwhelmed with the drastic change occurring around you like many I know that you take any role accept the role of embracing "new"? Why are we so afraid of change? Why is change later most always preferable to change now? Why do the majority of opportunities get framed as threats? Why are we so affraid of what others think?

Can you imagine a different relationship with change than you have right now? Is it more preferable? If so, what would it look like? I submit to you, your new view of change will be a building block to your future? You could start changing your view of change today by finding at least one "feature" or "functionality" in your technological stuff that you don't know how to use and take 10 min to figure it out. That would be change, right? Then you would be on your way. Then you could start measuring your delta, your change.

Bold. Brash. You bet, and I agree. At least in part. You look at the campaign metrics Rick is discussing, and they resonate with Seth Godin’s 1964 in his Meatball Sundae. “Get retail shelf space; Use every penny you’ve got left to buy TV time. Sell as must as you can. Repeat.” Unfortunately, this tried and trusted approach is no longer strategically sound. The channels and consumers have radically changed and in so doing have dramatically drained the insights garnered from the old ways of measuring.

This is not, however, in my opinion to say that the value of metrics has been obliterated entirely out of the equation. Rather that we are using the wrong metrics. If done right they can play a vital role in building and sustaining customer relationships. As opposed to focusing on campaign impressions or conversions, however, what needs to be done is targeting the quality of a customer’s interaction.

Today we are still telling stories about ourselves or our products and volleying messages from the fat toward the skinny end of a funnel. We need to flip this funnel. Instead of focusing on what we want, we need to focus on the wants of our customers. As iconoclast Carnegie tells us (paraphrasing here) people want to discuss themselves, or their own interests.

The question then becomes how do you operationalize this and build the funnel into a two way street? In future posts, POV’s, and even ebooks I will explore this in much greater detail, but to start you need to clearly map out where and how you are interacting with your consumers. The map is key because in turn it will be used as a blueprint for not only where, but how you build your listening posts.

By listening post, I mean a place of interaction (regardless of channel) with the customer where you have the opportunity to listen to the expression of their interests. Of the numerous possibilities, a couple specific examples of ways to listen are: Surveying (without straying too far into Net Promoter land); or rewriting and tagging content with action words or phrases that are correlated into behavior patterns of key segments.

This latter point gets at the crux of the new role metrics and measurement can play in the customer centric marketing organization (CCMO). Again, to Mr. Webb’s point there is definitely a squishy aspect to modeling motivations and behavior patterns. There is no doubt intuition, and a nose for a good idea is essential. What can turn good to great, though, is the series of micro improvements you can make to your relationship value props by finding ways to measure and gauge interactions.