Advertising Archives - Page 23 of 26

Southwest Airlines – customer service

Posted on April 6, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Here’s a nice piece of personal input from a staff member at Southwest Airlines. Although they do have a reputation of doing things a little different, the thing that really matters is the fact that they let staff ‘add value’ and be real people.

I like it…. I’d be interested to know if you do, or if you’d find it annoying?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0KbDUUt63M]

For startups, simple service innovations and staff input cost almost nothing. If you’re lucky, 25,000 people will see it on the internet!

Entrepreneurial Chat

Posted on April 3, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Here’s a Skype chat I had with a fellow entrepreneur I am fortunate to know (Michelle) who runs the super terrific Deck of Secrets business:

The chat revolved around a few topics, But I thought I’d share my pearls of wisdom from the chat, as they were written. There is some Adult content – a little swear word or two… but who am I to censor reality?

Steve Sammartino
Yeh, Here’s my new web marketing policy… are you ready?
Michelle Matthews
hit me with it.
Steve Sammartino
It comes with a warning of Adult content…. Still wanna hear it?
Michelle Matthews
now you’ve got me scared but yes i’m ready
Steve Sammartino
do lot’s of sh*t… do it quick as f**k
Eventually something will stick….
and be a tight arse… get that shit free
Michelle Matthews
I like it. Its suits my non-planning, do what you feel like ways.
Steve Sammartino
Planning is a joke – I’m serious. rentoid plan. 1 page.
Companies do it to justify wages… of people who do f**k all
Michelle Matthews
Planning looks good and big companies do it longish term to mess with the small players who can make things happen over night except that they weren’t booked in 18 months earlier.
Steve Sammartino
Well here’s my view on plainning….. This is serious. 1 page per million of revenue. No more than 10 pages of planning regardless of revenue.
Otherwise It simply cannot be strategic.
Michelle Matthews
A friend of mine wrote a book a while ago called Things Big Businesses Do , subtitle that small businesses should do (Mark Brownley) When will you publish the reverse?
Steve Sammartino
I will publish the reverse…. (personal view is I disagree with that maxim…) Companies over plan when they don’t know what to do, how to do it, or how to motivate people to get it done….. Do is key. Mistake quick and often. Find what works, the truth is no one really knows what works because we live in a state of flux.
Michelle Matthews
it must be illustrated
Steve Sammartino
Most of the good shit that has happened in life and business for me has been through experimentation, not planning. Even my life plan is a simple Venn diagram…. wanna see it….
?
Michelle Matthews
Mark had some good lessons but with the pace of change now and the loss of confidence in big companies and governments there has never been a better time to learn from dynamic, nimble companies.
Steve Sammartino
Agreed
Michelle Matthews
yes, please show it to me.
Steve Sammartino
Like you – rockstar… Hoping some will rub off
Michelle Matthews
When I start raking in the $ then I will feel like I’ve made it. Because then I can indulge in more of my ideas.
It’s not about the $ though.
Steve Sammartino
Just look at the visual: Venn
Success = The progressive realization of a worthwhile ideal (as you say $ is not mentioned)
Michelle Matthews
I’d like the $ so I can scoop up all the talented people out there and pay them good $ for them to put their talent to satisfying projects.
Steve Sammartino
Scoop them up now so they can share your success and make it inevitable….
provide ‘options’ for sharing wealth… while you share your dream.
Michelle Matthews
I like your diagram. I think I saw it at breakfast that morning. I should have a crack at my own but Ross keeps distracting me with places to visit on the internet.
Steve Sammartino

Yes – Ross…
hmmm me too – I’ve been getting a bit hungrier lately…. gotta make it happen this year…. my opportunity cost is very high to forgo wages….

Some interesting insightsin the chat. Take from them what you will.

Mind your language – Hyperbole

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Light, Low fat, no fat, fat free, rain forest alliance, low carb, high protein, calcium enriched, fair trade, retail partnership, heart foundation approved, recycled packing, reduced packing, no msg, low salt, low sodium, 5 star energy rating, green energy, eco, carbon offset, carbon free, carbon neutral, low sugar, no sugar, no trans fat, recycled materials, as seen on TV, television first, world premier, made for TV, made fresh, frozen fresh, real, all natural, nothing artificial, easy opening, 25% off, 10% extra, free, no added colors or flavours, diet, bite size, king size, sugar free, caffeine free, may contain nuts, dolphin safe, premium, value, gluten free, Low GI, lowers cholesterol, imported, made locally, no added sugar, made locally from imported ingredients, Australian owned, vitamin enriched, concentrated, biodegradable, recommended daily intake, enjoy responsibly….

Enough.

We’ve all read this oxymoronic language. But when we are using any of these words in our marketing we should step back and ask why?

Are we trying to ‘clean up’ our stuff?

Turns out most times people use these words to sell stuff, they are trying to ‘de-bad’ (from the startup blog dictionary) something. A banana doesn’t need any descriptors – we already know it’s biodegradable, easy opening, no artificial colors and isn’t passed it’s used by date just by looking at it. The point for startups is this – if we are using language of this ilk, we must ensure it is authentic. If not, people will see right through it and will spread the ‘truth’ for us.

Digital Footprints – the power of

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Recently I took a photo in New York of something I thought to be particularly interesting. I uploaded it to twitpic and posted it on my twitter page. The net result was approx 100 views of the image. Here it is below:

Fast forward 2 months and the image is ‘re-tweeted’ back to me from someone else after it has made the rounds and it now has more than 38,000 views. Holy Wow. (You can click the image to see the current view count)

How did it get 38,000+ views after only 100 people cared when I first posted it? Well the answer is simple, it’s digital, which means its footprint stays forever – the digital footprint. And when someone more influential on the web than me share’s it, it spreads in a compound fashion. Sure it got shared, call it viral, call it what you please. But the thing of true power here is the digital footprint. It wasn’t an instant in market reaction. The spreading happened 2 months after the launch. Not the day it went to air, like a TV advertisement.

The lesson for startups and marketers is simple. The real power of digital media is the footprint it leaves, the permanency, and the ability for people to catch up. This is something traditional media (newspapers, radio, billboards, Tv) just don’t have.

Radvertising – James Boag

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Here’s some more radvertising from local Tasmanian beer brand James Boag. Watch it, then I’ll tell you why it is radvertising:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnc50XU8l1A]

Sure, it’s very entertaining, even funny. But as I’ve said many times before this isn’t why is ‘radvertising’, it’s because the creative idea is inextricably linked to the product…

Brand Heritage evident in the visuals and story
The core idea of ‘special water’ relates strongly to the brand and it’s Point of Difference
It’s conversation worthy, which means it’ll spread digitally, like it is right here on startup blog
And yes, it’s a joy to watch

The only negative, if there is one, is the potential for it to do a ‘category job’ for all beers Tasmanian, but that is inherent in their proposition and difficult to avoid.

The lessons for startups trying to create ‘radvertising’ is simple, make sure your ‘creative idea’ is linked the actual product.

The Feedback Trap

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

I recently heard an interview with the Drummer from band Midnight Oil, Rob Hurst. He was asked how he felt about a particular record which made it to number 1 on the US charts. His response was this:

‘We were too busy touring, putting on shows to follow the bands progress.”

It sounded as though serving the fans they already had was more important than gaining new ones. And guess what happens when we do that? Our reputation grows and more fans arrive, they find us because we are delivering something special to those who already appreciate what we are doing.

The formula for success is to continue to focus on delivering good stuff to those who already believe in you. To improve our delivery to them. Just like Midnight Oil was continuing to perfect the live performance of it’s songs. They weren’t worrying if their songs were good enough, they weren’t focused on external feedback from sources like sales revenue or chart positions. They ignored all feedback, except that from existing fans (customers). They didn’t get caught in the feedback trap.

So what are the feedback traps of the modern entrepreneur?
–   Website traffic
–   Google analytics
–   Facebook friends
–   Twitter follows
–   AC Nielsen data
–   Market share statistics
–   (Insert feedback mechanism here)

These tools can be useful, but they also tempt us to change tack. They tempt us into believing we are strategically wrong, because the feedback is so instant. Where as the benefits of our strategy is never so instant. Strategy takes time to work, it takes belief and patience, more over it takes ‘the real feedback’ cycle to spread before we can truly know if we have something. And the real feedback cycle is what our current customers have to say, and if they spread the word.

Startups out there – don’t fall into the feedback trap.

1 versus millions

Posted on March 19, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

It’s easy for us to be taken by the one in a billion websites like Facebook, Youtube and the like and think we need millions to make what we do work. The reality for most of our businesses is that we don’t need huge crowds, just a handful of good loyal people who dig what we do.
Sure some of us do need the zillions, like my business rentoid.com does… but the large majority of us don’t. We don’t need global awareness and brand recognition. What we need is a small group of dedicated fans, much like what Kevin Kelly has espoused in 1000 true fans.

But it’s often hard to get our heads around this, to believe this could really be all we need in the social media millions focus. So here’s what we ought do. This about how long it takes to have a decent conversation with 1, 10 or even 100 people. To imagine lining up 100 people, all of which are interested in what you do. To imagine them all in your living room or backyard at a BBQ. Your house would be very full, very busy, and chatting to all 100 people individually would take a week or so. In the real world it’s a lot of people.

And the internet is ‘the real world’….

The real world we are doing business in, not a virtual one. The real world where each customer matters and is always the start of our journey towards potentially millions.