Canadian Marketing Blog

Harry and Me

Recently I was in the hunt for a new suit as the wardrobe required an upgrade. Watching the Devil wears Prada or finding a great blog on local clothing sales can do that to you.

Not too long ago I was on vacation in Florida and when I was not at a theme park (the joys of parenthood), I found an incredible deal on a Hugo Boss suit.

Yes, some people have alcohol, gambling or other things as a vice but mine is nice suits. The trick is finding ones that are affordable so I can still feed my family.

As I purchased my suit a few days before leaving Florida, I did not have the opportunity to get it properly tailored. I brought it to the Harry Rosen store by my office. A great employee (Alex Cheung) who I've dealt with a few times took care of it no problem. I was late for a meeting so I bolted out of the store and said I'd pick it up when it was ready.

My schedule has been a disaster lately so I came a few days later in the evening but Alex was not there. The staff tried to find my suit but after 20 minutes no such luck. They looked high and low but it just wasn't in the cards.

The staff apologized and said they did not want me to wait any longer. One gentleman said if I needed it that night they would keep looking and courrier it to me. (Wow #1)

I told them that was not necessary but I needed it for an engagement later that week. They assured me they would find it the next day when Alex was in. They also said they would ship it to my home at no charge (Wow #2). As I worked closeby, I said they could drop it at my office.

Sure enough the next day, they dropped off my suit all properly tailored in a nice garment bag. I also had a voicemail from Alex the next morning asking to call him. I dialed up Alex and he politely explained the reason they could not find it was that I did not leave my full name before I left the store.

Well didn't I feel special. I apologized and told him I'd come and pay for the tailoring and any delivery costs. Alex said it was not necessary. I said it was my fault as they delivered the service I asked for. If they couldn't find the suit when I came it was because of my own fault and not his or Harry Rosen's. Alex insisted it was not necessary. Keep in mind that I did not purchase the suit from Harry Rosen to begin with. (Wow #3)

Imagine, a customer insists on paying for services renderred and the company refuses to accept payment? Was I in some kind of parallel universe? Is that the Twilight Zone music in the background? Not so. I sent an email to Harry Rosen thanking them and recognizing Alex's efforts and received a reply from Larry Rosen, the Chairman and CEO himself. (Wow #4)

Talk about exceptional customer service. Talk about earning a loyal customer. Yes, their prices are not cheap but you do get what you pay for. I've been to other high-end clothing retail stores around the globe and the service at times has been nothing short of abysmal.

Looking for great service and great men's wear? Check out Harry Rosen at the Eaton Centre and ask for Alex. Tell him the guy who forgot to give his name sent you.

Be relevant – and lessons learned from mom

Last week CMA's Not-for-Profit Council hosted a great conference – the theme being “the new reality of engaging donors.” Arieh Singer posted a good overview of the conference over at One Degree.

What we heard loud and clear is BE RELEVANT – to your audiences. Use of newer media can be a huge (& often exponential) boost - but let's not forget the basics. We were reminded of a couple things that might just as well have come from ‘mom’:

Listen to donors - sounds simple doesn't it? Take the time to genuinely care about the interests and concerns of your donors - and not just those concerns related to your organization - it's all about the relationship - treat donors as you would your own family and you will be rewarded.

Act thoughtfully - the novel approach taken by the William Osler Health Foundation in naming its new emergency department after Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism (& first of the ten Sikh Gurus and revered worldwide by Sikhs and Hindus) demonstrated to the community its investment in citizen culture. No monies transferred hands for this naming - but monies were indeed raised from within the community because of the pragmatic effort to build community.

On a tactical note – Angie Mackie of the Donee Group had this advice for those of you driving offline traffic online: when directing donors to a URL for more information about a campaign or to make a donation - be sure to create a microsite specific to that campaign – otherwise, donors may get lost wandering around the corporate or general website and forget why they came.

Some pretty simple things to consider.

Recipe for Retention

A 2006 poll of Contact Centre executives found attrition to be the #1 business concern. Not surprising when you look at the statistics – the average attrition rate for internally run Centres is 20-30% and for outsourcers, it is 40-50%.

The statistics simply point to the root cause of why Call Centre staff, primarily agents, leave. Leaders do not focus enough of their time on agents “What’s In It For Me?”! They may have a monthly incentive plan and decent induction training but a rigorous consistent approach to WOWing their agents is often missing.

When it comes to customers and employees, there is a useful expression: “Loyalty is the absence of a better option.” If you want your employees (and customers) to remain loyal you simply have to be the best option available to them. Remember, you are competing for valuable resources.

The way to do this is what we call the “Recipe for Retention.” The recipe is a useful analogy. Improving retention is similar to baking a cake – you line up all the ingredients in the right measures put them together in the right sequence and cook for the right amount of time at the right temperature. Voila, cake! Leaving out 2-3 ingredients or deciding to lower the temperature (to save on electricity?) may give you a “baked something” but you may not want to offer it to your guests.

The recipe for retention has the following ingredients:

• Offer competitive compensation and benefits - this is foundational. People in entry level jobs are often stressed about making ends meet and a 10% increase can make a difference. If you are well below market rates, you will not be able to keep the best.

• Select the right people for the job and your culture - if sales are required, hire people willing to take that on (with support), if your comp plan is “pay-for-performance,” don’t hire the risk averse.

•Coach and train them for skill development, confidence - there is an unfortunate lack of coaching in Contact Centres. Like anyone in any job, if agents lack the skills to do the job confidently – including dealing with tough customers and selling – job stress may trigger an exit.

• Give them a schedule that matches their lifestyle - do not underestimate the pressures to deal with childcare or meet school demands. Respect these issues and they will be more devoted.

• Strong support structure in systems, processes - poor systems, confusing marketing information, out of date policies all add to the frustration of the job. Constant frustration is a trigger to consider other options.

• Personal recognition - everyone craves a pat on the back for a job well done! A personal thank you from their supervisor or the CC Director goes further than being on a chart for a quarterly incentive.

• Open and engaged leadership - being heard, having personal support, feeling inspired, having fun, feeling important and unique requires a tuned in and on the floor leadership group.

The best measure of customer loyalty is found by asking customers about their “loyalty behaviours.” Will they continue to purchase? Purchase new goods or services? Recommend your company to others? The same measurement applies to your employees. The best measure of employee loyalty? They tell you they are not looking for a new job, they rave about and recommend your company to their friends and family.

If your agents are not raving, you may want to go back and find out which ingredients are missing. Providing an inspiring, fun, high performance environment requires discipline and is the #1 job for Contact Centre leaders.

Moments of Truth in the Customer Experience

We've all had them - good and bad. But I bet you remember the negative moments much more clearly than the positive ones. I am fortunate enough to chair the CMA's Integrated Marketing and Customer Experience Council and at our March meeting, we held a roundtable discussion on this very topic. Our informative and entertaining guest 'expert' was Ken Wong. Included in his vast experience and many achievements, Ken is currently a faculty member at Queen's School of Business and was named to the American Marketing Association Hall of Legends in 2006 in the Mentor category. Ken shared his insights with the Council on issues such as defining moments of truth, ownership and accountability, measurability and balancing shareholder vs. consumer value (which he says companies aren't doing well at all).

Ken's insights will be documented and posted on this very site for all to view in the coming weeks. But the event was so informative, that I didn't want to wait to provide at least a couple golden nuggets for fellow CMA members.

Ken outlined something that we all know - marketing makes a promise that the rest of the organization has to keep. Simple enough? Not a chance. If the rest of the organization doesn't understand or buy into the promise, how can we expect them to keep it? And without understanding and empowerment, how can we expect our front line staff to provide positive, a-ha moments of truth that will build loyalty and ensure retention? All too often, we focus on negative moments of truth and how to avoid them. We need to invest more time and resources in ensuring positive moments of truth. Those moments that delight our customers to the point where they talk about their positive experience at this weekend's dinner party.

One idea Ken had was for companies to consider focusing resources ($$) for customer service staff to provide "random acts of kindness" to customers.

Keep an eye on the CMA site for the full transcript of our roundtable on Moments of Truth.

These are a few of my favourite things...

So I've been spending the last week really trying to pay attention to the media world around me to see if there's anything that resonates with me as a Creative Professional and as a consumer. Here are my Top 3 in no particular order:

1. Yoplait "YOP" 30 sec TV: Catchy tune. Knows its target audience and offers a fresh take on yogurt advertising. Neat digital effect that doesn't overpower the spot but dares you not to watch it.

2. Sell-off Vacations.com radio commercials: The day after I wrote my rant about radio advertising on this blog, I was driving in my car and this spot with the two British birds came on. They acknowledge that they're in a radio recording studio and then proceed to question one of the many buttons in front of them. What happens if they push the button? They push the button and it plays the Sell-off Vacations.com jingle. Too much fun not to push the button again, so the less mature bird keeps pushing it. The banter between the birds is witty (Smothers Brothers-like in fact) and smart and even as I type Sell-off Vacations.com I have the jingle playing in my head. If only Canadian Beavers were as witty as British Birds. Brilliant.

3. Mentos Outdoor Campaign: I hope you've seen these billboards and transit shelter posters. Each execution is comprised of small round white dots (Mentos) coming together to draw a picture (in the negative space between the dots) of a food (for example, fish) that stinks up your breath. The solution? Mentos mints. Now they're round! What's brilliant about this campaign? 1. The creative is simple, easy to understand, even from a distance, and clearly on brief: "Communicate that Mentos freshen your breath and are refreshingly round versus just about all of the competition (Hello square Extra. We're talking to you). 2. The posters in the transit shelters draw their pictures with hundreds of ACTUAL Mento mints. What an innovative use of the medium. What a surprise and delight.

I'm going to keep looking and listening. And I'd be interested in hearing what you think is working out there and why.

Anyway

As marketers things are never easy. "Do more with less" is a common refrain heard. Or the lovely "Your marketing budget is flat (or cut) from the previous year but we still want x% sales increase." Ah the joys of marketing and the expectations placed upon us chosen few.

My view is that we now have to be proactive in the online space and not just be 'marketers' but 'entrepreneurs' almost. Thinking outside the box is no longer a cliche but means of success. Who wants to simply survive? Even if we are part of a large firm, be it agency or client-side, this mindset can no longer apply to only to small or start-up companies.

If it came down to one word? Innovation.

These days it's as if you must incorporate that in your business DNA to be successful. Granted, one could always take the route of competing on price but it's a zero sum game. Someone will always be around the corner who will find a way to be cheaper than you. And even if they are not located in your city, province or country - they are somewhere in the world.

Don't get me wrong. Being innovative isn't easy as it requires both patience and persistence. Two commodities that are in short supply these days but are there if you find the right company and culture. It's also important to keep in mind that what is 'innovative' thinking for one person/organization could be construed as stone-age thinking by another. It's all relative.

So when you have those moments that you feel like you are in a game of snakes and ladders, remember to persist. I came across the adage below many years ago by an unknown author and has helped when I come across some slides in life and in business.

So remember, People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; do good anyway.

If you're successful, you win false friends and make true enemies; try to succeed anyway.

The hard work you do today will be forgotten tomorrow; work hard anyway.

Honesty and frankness will get you nowhere; they make you vulnerable and weak; be honest and frank anyway.

What you've spend days building may be destroyed overnight, I've seen that happen; build anyway.

People really need help but they attack you if you try to help them; help others anyway.

Give the world the best you've got and you'll get kicked in the mouth; give the world the best you've got anyway.

The I in iTunes.

I've been downloading music, shows, podcasts, and movies from iTunes since they were introduced. I just got my Apple TV box in the mail and am blown away with what it can do. The more I play with it, the more it's been spawning ideas of a business and personal iTunes server site.

I'm talking about a place where you can upload, download, and store video's, images, and songs on a personalized iTunes space. This type of space, if it could stream directly to the Apple TV system, would be revolutionary in combining a MySpace-type atmosphere with an HD viewing experience. Imagine being able to upload home movies of your family's vacation to Florida, and instantly having your friends across the country be able to watch it in HD on their TV screens.

In the business world, it makes sense, a completely separate server for uploading and downloading samples of advertising for clients to view on a big screen TV in their conference room. The Apple TV system makes it possible for HD streaming video, which would be perfect for providing simple RFP demonstrations remotely. Imagine paying a bit extra for an iTunes space with sub-domains. You could have a dedicated, personalized, secure client page for every client. More and more, people are finding ways around watching commercials broadcast during television programs; TiVo, PVR, online streaming, podcasts, DVD's, and now iTunes makes it possible to buy TV to watch in HD.

If nothing else, we need to start making advertising more interesting. Interesting enough, that consumers want to watch the spots, and go seek out what we've crated. It may still be a decade away, but I'm sure I'll see the day when commercials are simply :30 trailer, encouraging you to go online and download the full version from YouTube, or iTunes Spaces. In the end, I was so impressed with Apple TV that I would recommends buying it. It's worth every penny, and if you own an agency, get several. At least one for each conference room, and one for the games room. Apple TV kicks ass, and I'm just waiting for them to take it to the next step... putting the I into the iTunes.

Lead Definition and Certification

I continue to find a key flashpoint between sales and marketing often occurs over the transition of leads to either an inside or outside sales resource for followup. Because the key constituencies don't agree upon the definition of what characteristics these “leads” need to possess before they are worthy of further pursuit, frustration soon follows. It is the responsibility of sales and marketing leadership to select characteristics of a lead that will be deemed either inside- or field-worthy; these definitions will be a key foundational element to reduce friction between the two functions.

In the companies I see this established, the marketing organization is able to “certify” their output, in effect guaranteeing the leads they are sending to sales meet the agreed-upon requirements. Sales can only reject a lead if it fails to meet one or more key criteria, and will have a mechanism (usually through an SFA tool) to notify marketing of the reason for rejection. In turn, when a lead is accepted, sales agrees it will act within a given time period (usually 48 business hours) to follow up; this type of arrangement drives accountability on both sides, and significantly reduces the chances that good leads fall will through the cracks.

Trust Me

After 18 years in marketing communications, I can tell pretty quickly when I’m working with an agency “partner” or an agency “vendor.” By that I mean I know if I’m working with a team of people who are truly aligned to my business needs and share my sense of urgency to develop great work, or who are simply pushing my projects through their creative department. Call it refined observation or a 6th sense, but I’m usually good at recognizing if the agency relationship I have will give me 90% of my happiness or 90% of my frustration. Over the years what I’ve found the key ingredient to be at growing this relationship is….good old fashioned trust.

I believe trust is the most important ingredient in developing the partnership and giving clients the courage to take creative chances with an agency. For me it wasn’t about slick power point presentations or trendy restaurant appointments – rather attention to detail, investing time in my business, asking me in to collaborate and executional excellence that gave me the courage to trust my agency’s recommendations and fly with their creative. Here’s what I found helped me build trust in my agency and let me call them “partner.”

1. Be a subject matter expert – take the time to crawl all over a client’s product or services. Keep an active clipping and competitive file. Know the business and category drivers at least as well as the marketing team does. I was known as the account guy who asked questions in client meetings. Because of this trait, we usually heard about new products and assignments earlier than our competitors.

2. Be a creative collaborator – as a client I love it when the creative and account teams are in a room together solving issues ‘real time’ with me. If we’re in the room collaborating as ideas are being generated (not always but sometimes), it builds confidence and sends the message the agency is secure in their abilities and their people are engaged in the business.

3. Sweat the small stuff – in the agency world, it really is about how effective the account manager is at managing the zillions of details that live with every project. An agency I worked with recently still couldn’t get our brand logo correct in print layouts after more than 2 years of us working together. Instead of managing a small correction, we saw it as repeated sloppiness and poor attention to detail which made us feel we couldn’t trust them with the big projects because they couldn’t get the small tasks right.

4. Take ownership – When a mistake happens, acknowledge it and focus on solving the problem. Clients feel like time is being wasted when there’s a long discussion about who did what to whom and when. I had experience working with an agency that was notoriously bad at writing contact reports within 24 hours of a meeting. The result was unclear roles and assigning responsibilities and slow starts to projects. It usually required a follow up meeting to iron out miscommunications and reassigning tasks and the feeling that agency was always playing catch up to us.

5. Deliver value for money – Clients are paying for original thinking and points of view on emerging subjects and issues. When creative recommendations have an air of déjà vu about them, clients will question how much time has gone into a creative recommendation and ask whether they are getting good value for their money. After a particularly long planning cycle for a major customer initiative, we received a creative recommendation form our agency we believed they had executed with another client. We couldn’t confirm this, however, it resulted in my Vice President feeling our investment in time and money wasn’t paying creative dividends or generating breakthrough creative.

When I began my career I worked as an account manager in advertising agencies for 8 years. During that time I had two strong influencers – mentors really – who taught me the fundamentals of account management and why building trust is so important in helping an agency reach “partner” status and realize the benefits that this recognition brings– faster approvals, taking creative chances together and sharing in more successes. Being a client for more than 10 years, I look for these traits in account people, confident that together we will build a healthy client / agency relationship together. These principles work every time – trust me.

Sending End

Not long ago I had a musing about a positive customer experience. Upon reflection one point that I should have elaborated on was the act (or art) of recognizing others.

We are all demanding as customers and even more so with the advent of the Internet. We know what is available and out there both in terms of products, service and/or the lack thereof.

Once a travel agent remarked (you could replace that title with 'car salesman', 'mortgage broker' and countless others) that the Internet was the bane of her existence.

If a girl has a lousy customer experience at Starbucks, it's quickly posted on the world wide web for all to see. A guy can show the world step by step how a kryptonite bike lock can be hacked with a bic pen.

You can't run from it. We are all quick to complain about bad customer experiences. And we are all subject to the consequences in the new digital age.

Nevertheless what about the other side of the coin? We all should take the time to recognize and acknowledge great customer experiences. Doesn't it feel good when you get a letter, phone call or email from a customer recognizing your efforts, your team or your company for a job well done?

So if you enjoy being on the receiving end, why not be sending end as well? If you have a great customer experience be sure to say thank you. But be sure to take it a step further and tell that employee's boss what a great job they did.

How? If you are in a restaurant, ask to speak to the manager and tell them of the great service you received. Myself and a colleague did that once when having dinner in Calgary a few years ago. The manager said she appreciated it because the same waitress apparently had a complaint the previous day from another customer.

I'm not recounting this to underline what a swell guy I am. I certainly have my detractors (the line starts over there) but if I can make a difference, then you can as well.

This practice doesn't only apply to external partners. If someone within your organization does an outstanding job, why not send an email thanking them but then cc. their boss or VP as well. That takes 'thank you' to a different level and requires little effort to do it.

So when the right opportunity comes to be on the sending end, what will you do? What goes around comes around.

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On a somewhat related and self-congratulatory level, I'm pleased to note that the CMA Blog was recently rated in the April 16, 2007 issue of Marketing Magazine as one of the top marketing blogs in a piece written by Mark Etting "If you only read 12 blogs..."

This is a definite compliment considering the CMA Blog has been up for less than year. Thanks to all contributors (whether you write, read or comment) who made it possible as we are in very distinguished company.

Run of ... The Runway?

I was working late with my team when someone mentioned the "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" was going to be coming on (back on Thursday, November 16, 2006). There was one lady on our team, and four guys; we were all interested in watching it. As a team, we decided to have a Victoria's Secret Party at my place to watch the show, play some games, have some drinks, and see what type of ad's were going to be played throughout the show. The team ended up having a great time. We drank, played games, looked at the advertising, and made some comments on how good the clothes and models looked.

As I was about to fall asleep that night, something occurred to me: why don't corporations participate in creating high fashion? I thought about it for a while, and the only answer I came up with was that they must be worried about a couple things: being taken seriously, and damaging their brand reputation. It's my contention that shareholders can be convinced of almost anything with the RIGHT pitch, so if a carefully thought out pitch was created, could a corporation take part in creating a high-fashion (or any fashion) line of clothing? The idea isn't all that far-fetched. Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods, Jessica Simpson, and P'Diddy all have their clothing lines. Why not give one to Apple, Swiffer, Nabisco, or Tide? Sure it takes market research, figuring out what people would wear, designing some cool designs, and putting together a fashion show, but these companies already do a lot of that stuff. Instead of wasting money on sponsorships that may not even be seen, why not design a line of clothes that would add SOMETHING to society.

Many of these companies already have spokes people, and endorsements from celebrities; many of them already have outlets for distribution; many already do market research and spend much more on advertising than it would cost to create a line. Imagine seeing a really cool, unique line of clothes that match the brand image of Apple walking down the runway. Not only could it represent a huge untapped advertising medium, but also it could represent some really cool clothing designs. It would allow Apple to really develop its own spokesman. Rather than saying, "Hi, I'm a Mac" and having him wear GAP, have him wearing APPLE brand clothing, designed to showcase Apple's band image. At the end of the commercial you could have something like: Clothing available at apple.com/clothes.

Now, I think everyone can agree that damaging your brand image though clothing design can be avoided easily by getting your ad agency and your clothing design firm to work together, but what about being taken seriously by the likes of Vogue, or GQ? There are hundreds of ways to make one of those magazines take you seriously; in fact, your ad agency probably knows how to do it better than anyone else. But here's an idea, get an established consultant to help design your line. Go out and ask the freakiest 15 muse-toting designers to consult on your fashion design project and I can pretty much guarantee that one will help you. These are the people the fashion world will take seriously. Make a serious attempt at making legitimate fashion, without plastering your logo, or name all over it, and you'll be taken seriously.

The most effective advertising has almost unanimously been agreed is word-of-mouth; and the best word-of-mouth advertising would occur with this exchange: "Nice hoodie, where'd you get it?" "It's the new APPLE hoodie. You can get them online, or at the Apple store." The best part is, you don't have to make a ton of money from the clothing line. If you break even, your golden. The amount of free press, free publicity, free traffic (in-store and online), and free word-of-mouth advertising is worth ten times the amount you'd ever make from your clothing line. So why don't corporations make clothes? Who knows?

How to Impress the On-Demand Consumer

One of the attributes of what we at work call the new "On-Demand Consumer" is that when 'Joe On-Demand' is in-market, he looks for fellow consumer reviews and ratings of the product or service he is interested in. Sure, he cares what official experts have to say on the matter, but the opinions of his friends and peers and the guy next door are what will really influence his purchase decision.

So, if Joe is trying to decide between a Sony plasma TV and a Panasonic plasma TV, he will browse the consumer reviews at epinions.com. If Joe is hunting for a decent hotel, he'll visit TripAdvisor to read what people who have stayed at the hotel thought of their experience.

I recently stumbled across a great example of a company that is managing this new "consumer-as-reviewer" reality. While browsing TripAdvisor looking for consumer reviews of a handful of hotels in Montreal, I discovered one hotel that clearly recognizes the importance of the On-Demand Consumer.

Like many of the hotels I had short-listed, the TripAdvisor listing for Hotel Omni Mont-Royal had over a 100 TripAdvisor Traveler Reviews. Most of the reviews were favourable, but there were a smattering of negative reviews as well. Pretty much what you'd expect to see for all the hotels. You can't please everyone!

Except for one thing.

Every single Traveler Review - positive or negative - that had been posted this year was followed by a detailed written response by a management representative from the Hotel Omni Mont-Royal. That's right, someone representing the hotel had taken the time to read and respond to each of the reviews.

This was the first time I'd seen a hotel respond to consumer reviews on TripAdvisor, and it really impressed my wife and me. Rather than bury their head in the virtual sand and ignore what was being said about them, this hotel took a pro-active stance by participating in the online dialogue and - at the same time - demonstrating their strong commitment to customer service. I'm sure we weren't the only potential customers who were positively influenced by this smart move.

While we didn't end up staying at this hotel - we had a change of plans - its active participation in the TripAdvisor Traveler Review section certainly made a strong and favourable impression on us.

Campus as “branding ground” for success

As branding evolves to accommodate elements such as globalization, the transparency of new media and employee engagement, “brands” are becoming more widely defined. The practice of branding as a way to engage customers in the experience and promote employees as part of the whole package presents opportunities for less commonly marketed products and services to develop a clear brand strategy and build lucrative brand equity. Canada’s educational institutions, particularly universities and colleges, should take notice and consider embarking on their own individual branding projects.

The recent Maclean's University Student Issue, an increasingly critical source of information for prospective post-secondary students as well as a guide for potential employees, a job-search tool for professors and a reference for alumni, puts the spotlight on competitive university performance. The report highlights student satisfaction, quality of education and availability of resources. Within all of those rankings though, I do not see the universities as having unique, clearly delivered branding messages. As tuitions have climbed and enrolment increases, many institutions may feel relatively “safe” in their rankings, but as prospective students become increasingly aware of both the value and cost of a post-secondary education, many are looking for a clear view of just what each institution has to offer. And they certainly don’t stop at the “top” Canadian institutions on the lists, as prospective students are increasingly considering US and international options, online or distance learning and apprenticeships, not to mention, taking the time the make the right decision. This phenomenon, often referred to as a Gap Year, is prevalent in countries like Australia. (On a side note, the branding of the gap year is another hot topic, which travel agents, humanitarian organizations and companies offering internships may soon catch onto). Given these trends in post-secondary education, institutions may have some difficulty competing if they can’t communicate and then sell the quality of their services. The branding trend of companies aiming to recognize their brand's stakeholders beyond customers is crucial to educational institutions that rely on many stakeholders, including benefactors, alumni, students, professors and research grants. A unified brand strategy for the range of services that post-secondary institutions offer is indeed a difficult task.

The prominence of the power of brands to create and reflect social and cultural values is a major theme for educational institutions. The Maclean’s issue recognized that “students at smaller, undergraduate-focused universities say that they are generally more satisfied than students at larger, research-oriented universities.” This suggests that student satisfaction hinges on culture and not necessarily the superiority of education, which opens up many opportunities in terms of branding. How many times have you heard or said, in terms of post-secondary decisions, ‘it’s not where you go, but the experience itself that matters most’? Brands also need to be authentic – a tricky area for educational institutions that merely strive to roll with the pack in terms of quality of education and student satisfaction.

Of course, many universities and colleges in Canada do have “brands”, but these are often based on reputations defined by competitor schools or unfavourable media attention. (Not to single one out, but a certain university student newspaper scandalcomes to mind: Satire) These reputations are disproportionately created and communicated by the student populations than managed by the respective institution, which makes dealing with bad press an onerous task. Rivalries can also be damaging, as can homecoming antics and other primarily student-led realms, but if branding and marketing were focused, the repercussions may be more effectively managed. While the Maclean’s issue suggests that “while university students have complaints about specific aspects of their learning experience, most report they are “satisfied” or even “very satisfied” with their university experience,” institutions could be doing more to identify that experience in a way that students can appreciate. Of course, competition is an issue, but spirit and pride are also important, which is a way to counter negative images.

There are certainly examples of educational institutions that have engaged in branding projects, such as “The City College: George Brown”. But, then George Brown uses the advertisements “Brown gets you the job”, so what is the central brand message?

As the evolving experiences offered by the range of post-secondary institutions begin to blur, I think strategic branding accompanied by a smartly managed marketing and communications plan will become a very important theme.

In Praise of Volunteers

This weekend wraps up National Volunteer Week. We owe much gratitude to all those who volunteer for making our lives and communities better for it. Whether volunteers assist business organizations like the CMA, sort food at the food bank or raise funds to fight cancer – giving of oneself needs to be appreciated by all of us.

Yesterday, at an event held by the Canadian Society of Association Executives Trillium Chapter, we heard from a young woman who in 2005 was the recipient of the YWCA ‘Woman of Distinction’ award. At 24, she really understands the power of volunteerism and is using her own experience as a volunteer to role model others. She founded an organization called the Medina Collective to help women of colour participate in the urban arts community, where they might be inspired to affect change in their lives and communities. Medina Magazine was launched to provide a medium for dialogue with these young women. Here is a woman who has lived through adversity, is telling her story, and working at finding solutions. She understands the youth of today, and how to reach them. At Ryerson, she is studying marketing, and there is no doubt she will involve social media in a big way to help young women get ahead. The audience was totally captivated by her presentation; her poise, drive, and passion.

She would like to connect with entrepreneurial women in the areas of media, publishing and fundraising who are willing to mentor her. Sounds like a great volunteer opportunity to put marketing know-how to good use. Expressions of interest welcome.

Humour

Dear Google,

I'm still concerned with you as per my last letter but I have to call a spade a spade. You've made me laugh a few times recently and it's not often a company/brand can do that. Well except maybe the Mac versus PC ads. (No personal bias or anything.)

Recently, two things that you've done caught my eye and seem to demonstrate you indeed have quite the sense of humour.

The first one was flagged by a friend who noted the April Fool's Day joke you put out about Google Paper.

Rather brilliant I must say. Sources tell me that you actually had inquiries where people believed it to be a real product launch and were ready to buy it.

I suspect the rationale was "If it's done by Google it has to be good." You know your brand is strong when you can pull off an April Fool's Day joke and not upset customers.

The second funny thing was sent to me via email this past week. The steps are listed below. (Or just click on this link for the express line courtesy of GK)

1. Go to Google
2. Click on Maps
3. Click on 'Get Directions'
4. Type "Toronto" in the first box (the 'from' box)
5. Type "London" in the second box (the 'to' box)
6. Click on 'Get Directions'
7. Scroll down to step #26.

What a cheeky little monkey you are! Perhaps it's the little things like that which allow you to be in a position where you can acquire Double Click for $3 Billion or be ranked #1 amongst the most innovative companies in the world by Wired Magazine.

Humour is a tough thing to play with in marketing because it can backfire easily. There are countless examples one can refer to. But when you pull it off successfully it's impressive.

That is perhaps one reason why I enjoy travelling to London as the commercials there are hilarious. It's probably the only place where it's SuperBowl weekend every weekend.

So good on you Google. Having said that, I still maintain my point about bidding on branded keywords so you're not off the hook yet my friend.

Regards,

Sulemaan

Staying Connected.

I’m excited to be a contributor to the Canadian Marketing Blog. Being a regular visitor, and now telling all my friends and co-workers to visit (!), I’ve read interesting stories and points of view on a range of issues. From volunteering to politics, hearing new developments in online marketing, branding challenging in today’s media world or sharing a jazzy creative idea, the site brings the marketing community together. Judging by the caliber of stories and comments, I’ll definitely be keeping my HP keyboard warm. In taking up this blogging challenge, my goal is to write about marketing and communications ideas, share personal and professional experiences with you, and ask for your feedback. Together, if we share opinions, solve problems or make a connection or two, this will be really cool experience for me.

Since my background is marcomm and technology, I read with interest about the Blackberry ‘service interruption’ that began late Tuesday April 17th that left millions of mobile uses without access to their email. Watching the stock price dip in the morning, it drove home the reality that we lead truly connected lives and these devices are a necessity for many of us. Further proof were the comments from Canadians – even politicians who were interviewed on the CBC – “I needed my fix…so I tried to keep busy but still got a little panicked,” or “I couldn’t stand not knowing what was happening at work, etc. etc.” That’s pretty powerful stuff! When customers were finally able to get back online and rush through the tens of emails that had accumulated in their inboxes, their panicked state subsided for the time being. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s talk in the future that the service should be regulated, so – god forbid – it doesn’t happen again.

This reaction was fascinating to me and I believe exposed a core human trait – it is fundamentally important for us to stay connected within our world and have the choice to connect and communicate with others. Today this is evidenced with the use of mobile devices. A thousand years ago it was storytelling around a campfire. You can see it in ancient European cities that were built with enormous town centres as gathering places. We read emails, send instant messages, visit sites and download files at a seemingly insatiable pace. Whatever the activity, we’re within reach of others, keeping the conversation going – staying connected.

In our crazy noisy, fast paced world, there’s solace knowing that we can connect with virtually anyone in just a few quick key strokes. And that's definitely what I'm looking forward to.

Dell does Customer Service right!

I have owned a few Dell Computers over the years and have generally been happy with their reliability. Every now and then, unfortunately, something goes wrong with the hardware and I need to call them for help. I have to admit I have been generally unhappy with the Customer Service that Dell provides (and I'm not alone). It's not that the people answering the phones are rude. It's more that I have felt like a number to them. They seem eager to tell me to try something and call back if it doesn't work. In many cases the suggested correction has not worked and I have had to call back (and wait for 15 minutes for someone to answer the phone).

Dell received allot of slack for offshoring their Customer Service in the past decade. During this time people let their money speak and turned to other PC manufacturers. HP became the leader in PC sales in 2006 and has not looked back. Michael Dell realized that their Customer Service was slipping and has been determined to fix these mistakes over the past year.

On Saturday I realized there was no sound coming from the Dell speakers on my 11 month old Dell computer. I called Customer Support and the call was answered in 4 rings! I was caught off guard since I assumed it was an automated voice. It was a live voice, and a very friendly one at that. Keep in mind this is a Saturday and probably one of the busier times for call volumes.

The Customer Care agent proceeded to ask me a few questions and then asked me if I would like to have her take over my computer and fix the problem (the other option was for me to follow her instructions). I had seen this technology demo'd in Boston at the CCSF conference and figured I'd give it a try. I had to load up some software (3 minutes) and type in a security key to release control of my computer (I could hit escape anytime to gain back control). I leaned back on my chair and watched the agent re-install some drivers and test the machine. It worked and all was good.

The next day I noticed the same problem had happened (no sound). I was checking my e-mail and noticed an e-mail from the same agent asking to contact her if there were any other problems. I e-mailed her back stating that the same issue was happening. She called me back within 10 minutes and asked me to enter in another security pin number. She took over my computer and fixed the problem and made another suggestion which seems to have solved the problem for good.

Another e-mail was sent letting me know I could contact her anytime for assistance. She also called the next day to make sure everything was ok.

I was truly wowed by the experience. There was not frustration at all on my part. Just fascination as this Representative kindly and efficiently fixed a problem that wasn't even caused by Dell (it was a software conflict). It was like having a Dell technician visit my house. This was outstanding Customer Service and has really rejuvenated my faith in Dell. I can't remember ever being this impressed with the Customer Service from any company. I'll be sending a message of gratitude to Dell and this Representative to make sure she get's the credit she deserves.

Way to go Michael Dell, now your competitors are going to have to catch up to you!

Pass it on

Who says brands are created in a boardroom and are limited to product or service? A brand is an experience represented by a collection of images and ideas. A brand could even be a person.

This blog is dedicated to a brand named Gavin Michael Booth. Some of you may have already heard of Gavin and the work he is doing in the social media world, some may have seen his films. What you may not know is that Gavin's "brand" is taking off - mostly through word-of-mouth communications and social networking.

Gavin’s latest project is called “How many days”. His mission is to meet 12 of the Hollywood professionals that have inspired him in his career thus far. The selected 12 includes: Steven Spielberg, Kevin Smith, Jimmy Eat World, Zach Braff, Tom Anderson, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Johnny Depp and Harry Knowl.

How is Gavin promoting his brand to the selected 12? Each day, Gavin will send a new video blog to his online community until he meets all 12 people on his list. In order to promote his brand and current project, he's relying on word-of-mouth, targeting key influencers through social media. He's already been asked to appear on various radio shows and local television networks. The message is landing in the right hands or on the right ears. Gavin has already successfully set up interviews with two of the twelve after only 8 days. To learn more about Gavin’s mission, go to his website, 'how many days' or visit his MySpace page.

Pass it on.

The Final 30

“Parting is such sweet sorrow” according to some guy named Bill. He was definitely spot-on.

I recently moved on to a new gig and the process of leaving has been both a learning and emotional experience. I’d be a liar if I said no tears were shed on my last day.

My decision to leave wasn’t one of desperation per se but the right opportunity came up and I couldn’t refuse. I had a chance to work with a brand I admired as a child and in a completely different industry with some very talented people. (Yes, this section is full of clichés so I will ease off the gas.)

Having said that, while moving forward it's important to be grateful for what got you to that point. I'm thankful to have worked with some terrific people at Sears Canada. Both family and friends reflected that I’ve changed for the better since I joined. Whether it was Sears employees, vendors or partners on the agency or client side of things - there is no question that my growth was a direct result of the people I worked with.

When time came to give notice, my boss was very gracious. I only hope that I have the maturity to behave in such a way if I’m ever in that position. With the demand on talent now being what it is, I’m sure I’ll be faced with that kind of situation. I’m sure many of you have been there already.

“They have already taken their pound of flesh" one person observed. Therefore the implication was to go into cruise-control down the home stretch. I suppose that was an option as I’ve seen others do that over the years but deep down I was never impressed with that kind of behavior.

Candidly, during my last two weeks I probably worked harder than any other two week period in the past six months. What drove that behavior was a comment a colleague made to me. She said “You can work your tail off for years but people will only remember the last two weeks. The question is - how do you wish to be remembered?”

A friend of mine switched jobs as well and we discussed this over dinner recently. It was his view that you never know when you will cross paths with others in future. So it was no surprise when he said, “I saw the wrong side of 6am a few times before my last day.” He was not trying to portray himself as a martyr but simply taking care of business when people least expect it. No wonder he is so respected in the industry.

Furthermore, as much as you may be overjoyed starting a new gig, be sure not to dump on the old one or come off as excessively happy. Remember those who helped you achieve success are still there and they have earned your respect.

When walking out the door be sure to go out with dignity, humility, thankfulnees and the same drive and work ethic you started with. Just as the first 30 days in any new position are critical, so are the final 30 days at the old one.

You owe it to your company. You owe it to your colleagues. You owe it to yourself.