Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Wells Fargo Is Betting You’re Lazy
Yesterday, Wells Fargo announced it was going to charge a $3 monthly convenience fee for the privilege of using your debit card. They are testing this potential revenue source in five states to determine the impact on their customer base.
Because inertia is a powerful thing, Wells is hoping most people will keep their accounts because they don’t want to make the effort to change banks.
In fact, inertia is what keeps most people buying a specific product, going to certain restaurants and using lackluster services.
So how, as a marketer, can you disrupt inertia to gain new customers? You do this by understanding their pain points and providing a solution.
Ways to learn these pain points:
- Social listening – using a social media monitoring tool to listen to what your audience is saying about products and services
- Review sites – look at city search, yelp, kudzu and the like to see what customers are saying, about your company and your competitors too
- Customer research – conduct primary research with your target audience to gain a deep understanding of the challenges in their lives
Does providing a disruptive solution work? When marketed properly – yes.
Look at banking. Bank of America encouraged people to switch with their Keep The Change program.
P&G learned consumers weren’t happy with how brooms cleaned a floor and created the Swiffer.
Zappos changed the way we buy shoes with their selection, fast shipping and free returns.
How have you disrupted inertia with your products or services? Let me know.
GM expands the reach of OnStar
In September 2009 during the bailout of General Motors, I wrote about the opportunity to roll out OnStar as a product and service available for the general public. Less than two years later, I am excited to say that they did with OnStar FMV (for my vehicle).
Kudos to GM for recognizing the greater opportunity OnStar affords their company and for their strong turnaround.
Timing Is Everything. Or Is It?
Recency is a media term that speaks to reaching the audience at the right time. Selling someone a car loan when they are actually car shopping is a home run. Selling pest control in the dead of winter is not.
Last year, Shell Oil increased their marketing efforts during the BP oil spill. The speed in which they got their message out was impressive, though some could criticize them for taking advantage of something out of their control.
In a much more recent example, this week I started seeing banner ads promoting Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. Given the news this week regarding Bin Laden’s demise, President Obama stands to receive a substantial boost at the polls. Is he doing what Shell did, leveraging current events to help advance his reelection efforts?
The ads might have been running for a while. It might be coincidence. It might be brilliant marketing. It might be too much.
Party affiliations aside, what are your thoughts from a marketing standpoint?
Bravery in Marketing
I do not like the new Tide 2X. No matter how little I use, soap remains in dense fabrics, such as towels, and I can’t get it out. My daughter and I both have noticed that our clothes feel “itchy” with the new Tide. I have used Tide all my life, but I may have to change to something else, since I can no longer get “regular” Tide. Have others noticed this also?
Judy, Salt Lake City, UT
I used this product on a shirt of my husbands that had a new stain on the front. Bottom line stain is still there, I’ve used other products that worked much better than this one did. I would not recommend this product to anyone.
Miata, Waverly, NE
Companies don’t like to hear comments like these, or worse learn such comments are being shared with other people.
But those quotes weren’t pulled from a focus group nor from blogs, they were available on Tide’s home page from actual customers providing feedback regarding Tide’s products.
To take things a step further, Tide provides a slew of product reviews for all of its products so consumers can make an educated decision about the product in which they are interested.
In a time when consumers are asking for transparency (see SC Johnson’s new campaign about their ingredients) and using the social web (ie Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, Blogs) to share their thoughts, you have three choices:
- Ignore it and hope it goes away. (It won’t)
- Listen to what people are saying and respond in a defensive manner
- Embrace it and use it to make your products better and your brand more trusted.
Let me know what companies you think are being brave in their marketing.
Off The Grid
Enjoying a summer break before the kids go back to school. Recharging for the Fall. Look for our next post the week of August 9.
Microsoft Gives Employees Windows Phone 7
Back in April I wrote about the importance of making your employees ambassadors for your brand. The blog entry was prompted by a WSJ story talking about Steve Ballmer of Microsoft being frustrated by the number of employees using iPhones.
Fast forward three months. According to Stan Schroeder on Mashable, Microsoft will be giving its 90,000+ a new Windows Phone 7.
What better way to get people talking about your product then to get your employees talking about it first.
What are you reading?
There are so many good business and marketing books available that it is impossible to read them all or even determine which ones are worth reading.
I am currently reading Charlene Li’s Open Leadership. The author of Groundswell talks about the opportunity to built trust with your audience by moving your organization from one that shares little or no information a la BP to one that is willing to be open like the Red Cross.
Let us know what you are reading and why someone else might want to read it.
How is BP’s Beyond Petroleum Resonating Now?
Nice perspective by Jim Gregory, CoreBrand, on getting your brand aligned with your business. Aspiration is okay, but don’t over shoot your skis.
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