BlogTippings - July

Happy July BlogTippings!

BlogTippings represent my interpretation of Easton Ellsworth's BlogTipping day! Here goes:

An intense, must-read: David Wolfe's Ageless Marketing blog and his series on "What Marketers Need to Know About Ageing Boomers." There's priceless gold in there that puts marketing into perspective.

I learned about Ageless Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Hearts and Minds of the New Customer Majority and Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation while attending the first M2W conference in Chicago on marketing to women in 2005.

Millennials Rising offered an historical perspective on the roles and characteristics of generations, their cyclicality and how generations learn from one another. Ageless Marketing sensitized me to going beyond demographic segmentations and developing universal value-based appeals. Why? Because for the first time ever, our developed societies have more people over the age of 40 than ever before. Over 40s represent a customer majority, and it's a wonderful thing!

Combine with that a population that becomes increasingly female as it ages, and all of a sudden so many marketplace trends make sense. Trading up, experiential marketing, creating memorable retail experiences, web 2.0, the increased interest in communities and authenticity, the search for trustworthiness, delighting the consumer, building relationships.... Consumers are more comfortable than ever before with being who they are, and they look for it in marketing.

Many of the principles of value-based, ageless marketing are at work in the blogosphere - we celebrate how much we learn from one another. We grow as a result of it. We benefit from the wisdom of the communities we belong to. We take part in amazing projects... It is so much greater than the sum of our individual parts!

So, do read David Wolfe's [ongoing] series about What Marketers Need To Know About Ageing Boomers: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part V - continued, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII. I expect part IX to be published any minute now.

An added bonus from David's series: we have something to look forward to in that Pine and Gilmore [remember The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage?] will soon be introducing Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want!

An example of the above-mentioned principles is BrandingWire's first brand project. A posse of top notch marketing pundits, in fact, the best of the best - experience them all on one page at The BrandingWire PageFlakes - offers fascinating individual takes on a small coffee company in need of expert branding advice: BrandingWire All Together Now. I anticipate many stimulating projects out of this group!

Finally, these two bloggers regularly challenge how we perceive consumers. Imagine transforming a lousy experience - in flooring, for example - into a positive simply by figuring out How to be Different - as Ryan Karpeles describes. Or, consider truly looking at the world from your customer's perspective as Becky Carrol illustrates via Customer Lenses. After all, "Customers are always wearing a different “hat”, or looking through a personal prism. I may be a businesswoman and blogger now, but in 30 minutes, I may be picking up the kids with my “mom” hat on my head and trying to decide what is for dinner."

Imagine that. A customer lens might lead us to better appreciate where our customers are coming from and going to - literally and figuratively - to then craft a better marketing experience with them.

Wow! I wonder what a really fun flooring retail experience would look like....

Technorati Tags: BlogTipping, ageless marketing, marketing, marketing to women, customer experience

BlogTippingDay - June

Happy June 1st! Just in time for BlogTipping Day as proclaimed by Easton Ellsworth of Business BlogWire in Announcement: May 1, 2006 will be blogtipping day!

This month's BlogTipping relates to the customer experience. The questions and thoughts below force soul-searching and honest assessment.

+ Stephanie Weaver wonders Do people care about "customer experience" yet? It looks like we've only just begun.

+ Greg Verdino asks Do you make your customers uncomfortable? and says "It is our obligation to see each and every action through our customers's eyes and do what we can to make them feel comfortable. Comfortable doing business with our companies, supporting our brands, with the product choices they've made. " How comfortable are you to do business with?

+ If you're not quite sure, then watch this video clip on David Armano's Logic & Emotion titled Breaking Up with Advertising. It puts into perspective our traditional methods of pushing a message onto the consumer.

+ Techno//Marketer Matt Dickman explains the benefits of Web 2.0 for Marketers:It's the community, stupid! "Web 2.0 is...about leveraging communities around your brand to add value to you customers." It amplifies the interaction, making mass communications look flat and oh-so-limited in comparison.

+ David also discusses Creating Compassionate Designers. Regardless of the field you operate in, read this article. It applies to all of us who truly believe in creating a meaningful customer experience.

+ Alan Thys captures his thoughts on How to delight your customers (10 thoughts). Anyone have additions to this list?

+ Tom Vander Well asks Do You Leave the "Customer" Out of "Customer Service?" What are you measuring? Does it really matter? "What is really important to the long term success of your business is knowing what YOUR customers expect and then meeting/exceeding those expectations."

+ Maria Palma brings up The One Thing That Scares Customers Away... Indifference. Avoid it at all costs.

On the retail experience front, Conversation Agent, Valeria Maltoni, shares No Advertising... And Thriving, Retail Style describing Anthropologie's non-traditional approach to retail. Here, too, passion for the consumer's experience matters. I frequently refer to Anthropologie in presentations, given how unique their approach to retail. If you don't know them, then do so immediately.

On the marketing-to-women front, Michele Miller from WonderBranding: Marketing to Women shares this priceless video clip guaranteed to have both men and women in stitches [I have tested it on both]: A Guy Thing. Someone here spent time understanding this particular customer experience...

Flooring Toe Taps of Amazement go to:
+ Steve Woodruff from StickyFigure for creating the Marketing Bloggers Portal and organizing the many terrific marketing blogs into such a user-friendly format.

+ Arun Rajagopal pays tribute to the authors of The Age of Conversation in Getting to know 'Age of Conversation' authors - 8 & finito!. It took him 8 separate posts and a great deal of research into approx. 100 authors, but he did it. [For more information on The Age of Conversation, please refer to The Conversation Age - Enabled.]

From a big picture perspective, consider the following:
+ Daria Radota Rasmussen from MediaBlog shares a Few Slides on Life which, using PowerPoint, offers a poetic perspective on the meaning of life. Talk about an unusual way of creating a customer experience....
+ Marijean Jaggers from StlWorkingMom has been working on a fantastic project about Helping the Homeless in Charlottesville. Every one of your customers has a voice. Are you listening?

June marks the official beginning of Summer. To add to the fun -- and for my Wear-Dated associates who missed the original hoopla on this -- here is the official link to the original Diet Coke/Mentos experiments: eepybird.com & the Diet Coke/Mentos experiments [this link takes you to the original and -in my opinion- best of the experiments]. Do check out the section on The Science [for educational fun with your kids, of course]. You'll learn more that you thought possible on the interactions between sodas and candy.... [Thanks to Arun for the reminder!]

Happy June!

Technorati Tags: blogtipping, marketing, customer experience, retail experience, marketing to women

BlogTippingDay - May

Here it is - May 1st. Another BlogTipping Day as proclaimed by Easton Ellsworth of Business BlogWire fame in Announcement: May 1, 2006 will be blogtipping day! - and a one-year anniversary, too!

This month's blogtippings focus on the brand experience, the evolution of marketing, and the power of the positive.

This short clip from Marketing Headhunter on Tom Peters and The Brand is The Talent captures the essence of Tom Peters, getting right to the point.

Maria Palma in Eight Reasons Why Nordstrom is a Customer Service Legend reminds us of what we need to focus on to deliver an amazing customer experience.

John Jantsch's Duct Tape Marketing is a gem of common sensical marketing advice. What Have the Senses Got To Do With Marketing? touches on the positive sensory elements that your brand or business should incorporate to be memorable.

The Perfect Customer Experience features this post by Dale Wolfe on Great Companies Are Great Employers. Face it: "Employees are the most critical driver of improved customer advocacy because they shape and deliver the experience. "

Co-creation came up during my Disney trip [see I Have Met The Mouse!] and I will be discussing it further. In the meantime, check out Susan Abbott's post on Co-Creation & Fashion Brands. Not only does it make a great case for the future of strong brands, but it also explains how 'co-creation' can strengthen the experience or the bond with consumers [i.e., involving them in the creation process].

David Meerman Scott has strong thoughts on the evolution of PR and marketing. If you are fascinated with where marketing, communications and public relations can take us, do check out Welcome MarketingSherpa Viral Marketing Hall of Fame readers.

Get Shouty's Katie Chatfield has a post that is guaranteed to make you smile. Manufacturing Happiness will get you thinking about the experience you create. She refers to Mack Collier's Viral Garden and Australians taking it upon Themselves to create a vibrant community. How might you offer more smiles and foster greater happiness through your experience? Remember how powerful 'random acts of kindness' can be?

Finally, Purple Wren's Wordless Wednesday: Bleeding Hearts brings a smile to my face, reminding me of the beauty and magic of Spring!

Happy May!

Technorati Tags: blogtipping, marketing, brand experience

BlogTipping Day - April

Here it is - April 1st. Another BlogTipping Day as proclaimed by Easton Ellsworth of Business BlogWire fame in Announcement: May 1, 2006 will be blogtipping day!

These Blogtipping posts relate to the retail experience, to the magic that emotional engagement can create, and to the power of conversation.

Susan Abbott from Customer Experience Crossroads posts about Optimum Mess: should staff decorate the store for spring? I love Susan's discussion about striking the right balance between too much messiness - a major customer turnoff - and too little which can look sterile, boring and character-less. Now, flooring stores tend to err on the side of too much mess, so don't take this post as a license to continue those excesses. Do, though, consider the benefits of letting your personal touches shine as a means of better connecting with your women consumers.

The next two posts delight me because they feature the perspective of the core woman shopper's significant other: the man.

QAQNA's Tom Vander Well posts about Marketing & Service: Serve the Bag Man. Tom says: "How about a couple of chairs, a few old copies of Sports Illustrated, and a small television tuned to March Madness? Keep the bag man distracted and content - and you just might keep the females in the shop longer. The longer the girls stay the more you might sell. The happier the bag man is - the more likely he will be to loosen the purse strings at checkout time." I couldn't say it any better!! Paco Underhill would be proud of you, Tom, as am I!

Service Untitled contributes Customer Service in Store Design commenting on Tom's Bag Man post: "If all companies thought like this, I believe they would notice a big difference in customer satisfaction and ultimately, their bottom line. Shopping should be a pleasant experience. It really isn’t that bad when stores get it right. However, when stores don’t do it right, the experience is downright terrible. " Yes. Yes. YES!

Conversation Agent brilliantly captures what good retailing is all about in Selling and Price. This story illustrates the power of focusing on the consumer, and creating visual anticipation through conversation [and story building]. It engages the consumer in the possibilities that the product can offer. After all, isn't retail all about seduction and engaging the emotions?

Talk about seducing people and engaging their emotions: Kevin Roberts contributes this post on How to Surf the Attraction Economy to Branding Strategy Insider. It is intense and inspiring and ties together these other posts via: people, lovemarks, SISOMO, creative connectors and fail fast/learn fast/fix fast. [Interesting, too, that Kevin brings up convergence and divergence, the topic of the recent MarketingProfs Book Review on Al & Laura Ries' Book? See Round 2 and in the Ring with Al & Laura Ries. Kevin, did you participate in the online discussion?]

Finally, if any of you are wondering how serious this blog thing is and how CEOs might use a blog to create community, address tough subjects, demonstrate warmth and humanity and engage in discussion, I suggest reading Running a Hospital by the CEO and President of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Paul Levy.

[I'll give CK credit for this blogtip - see It's nice when CEOs listen (especially when they listen to me) - however, - for the record - I came across it separately while pursuing a technorati lead and noticed that CK had been there already!]

Technorati Tags: Customer Experience Crossroads, Service Untitled, Blogtipping, Conversation Agent, QaQNA, Branding Strategy Insider, Running A Hospital, CK's Blog, marketing to women, retail buying experience

BlogTipping Day - March

And another hat tip to Sandy Renshaw at Purplewren and Try Montage-a-google for a Neat Visual Experience for this "BlogTipping Montage".

It's the first of March. Do you know what that means?

Why, it's BlogTipping Day as announced by Easton Ellsworth himself of Business BlogWire fame in Announcement: May 1, 2006 will be blogtipping day!

For me, blogtipping is about highlighting blogs and/or specific blog posts that get me thinking.

Here, then, are my March BlogTips. I encourage you to check these blogs and postings out:

+ Service Untitled has put together an amazing, fascinating and thorough interview with Robert Stephens of The Geek Squad summarized in Robert Stephens interview round-up. It's a four part series and well worth the read - if you're serious about your customers and your relationship with them. "It's about listening and building solutions." Isn't that a great way to describe your interactions with customers? "We are in the perfection business." Wow! And read about the feedback tools that Geek Squad uses.

+ Subscribe to Woolgathering for a daily dose of creative zen. It soothes, delights and inspires. I will paint again, and soon. I can feel it, thanks to you, Elizabeth!

+ I'm really intrigued with David Reich's new blog My 2 Cents and am -once again- grateful to Christina Kerley from CK's Blog for her infectious enthusiasm [David says she's the reason he is now blogging] and amazing commitment to causes marketing [e.g., MarketingProfs Book Club Hosted by CK].

+ The Perfect Customer Experience featured this post by By John I. Todor, Ph.D., Author of Addicted Customers, titled Who We Trust and Why We Trust. Definitely download the pdf. It discusses the differences between transactional or "satisficing" trust vs. relationship trust, with some interesting parallels to The Problem With Too Many Choices [e.g., the notion of "principal-agent"].

Definite food for thought! I hope you enjoy March's BlogTips.

Technorati Tags:blogtipping, customer service, Business Blogwire, Service Untitled, Woolgathering, My 2 Cents, CK's Blog, The Perfect Customer Experience, Geek Squad