An interesting recognition of the 'new' customer buying journey via these posters that have appeared on the tube for online electricals store Dixons.
The cheeky posters mimic the graphical style of posh department stores Selfridges and John Lewis, recognising that people will do their research in the places that give them the most useful information but might not necessarily make the purchase there.
Also the road to purchase is not linear or channel specific.
Of course, if Dixons/currys customer service was up there with that of their competitors mentioned then their high street 'channel' might not be in such a pickle..
As a life-long anarcho-socialist it's a tough one for me to be quoting a Tory PM with a family line connected to the aristocracy and English royal family but there you go.
'Gentlemen, we have run out of money, now we shall have to THINK' - Winston Churchill.
Using recession as an opportunity to out-think the competition and be in a different game when the better times arrive. While others are tightening their belts, invent new kinds of trousers, or something.
Riddle me this... In reference to another nugget from the McKinsey 'consumer decision journey' report mentioned a couple of posts ago.. 'Our research found that two-thirds of the touch points during the active-evaluation phase involve consumer-driven marketing activities, such as Internet reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family, as well as in-store interactions and recollections of past experiences.'
Surely then, proportionately two thirds of marketing budget would be best applied trying to add value and tip sales at those touch points?
Can't help thinking the whole kerfuffle with corporate rapper Kanye West was an elaborate stunt engineered - a la the Borat/Eminem bottom incident and Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction - in a desperate bid to stir some interest in 1- said irrelevant rapper and 2- these irrelevant, dull-as-dishwater industry (formerly known as the music biz) back-slapping awards. Yawn. Even the prez has waded in. Phew! Rock'n'roll. Where's Bill Grundy now?
Quoting Bill Shankly in the previous post led me to this further nugget of wisdom from the great man. "A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe that you are the best and then make sure that you are. In my time at Liverpool we always said we had the best two teams in Merseyside, Liverpool and Liverpool reserves."
Shankly also had some insight into the nature of karma, or co-dependent origination if you prefer.
[To Tommy Lawrence after the ball went between his legs and into the goal]
Lawrence: 'Sorry boss I should have kept my legs closed'
Shankly: 'Don't worry son its not your fault, it was your Mother who should have kept her legs closed'
Re-reading Dan Ariely's 'Predictably Irrational' again. For the uninitiated, Dan is a professor of behavioural economics and the book features his stories of a number of 'experiments' undertaken in order to give a better understanding of the 'hidden' reasons humans behave and make decisions in the way they do.
In one small experiment described in the book, Dan and his colleagues placed 6-packs of Coca Cola in the communal fridges around a university campus. Within 72 hours all of the Coke's had been taken. They followed this up by placing a plate with six dollar bills in the same fridges (the approximate monetary 'value' of the Cokes. 72 hours later the dosh was still there.
In simple terms Dan's experiment showed that humans have more propensity to 'cheat' or 'steal' items that are once removed from cash rather than actual cash.
In the end Arsenal comfortably won the tie without reliance on the penalty kick Eduardo gained by cheating, however, had the match been delicately poised at 0-0 it could have had wider implications.
I'm sure Eduardo would not have lifted a million quid out of the Parkhead petty cash box had he chanced upon it while limping down the corridor but the stakes are so high in modern football that there is a serious financial implication connected to winning and losing. Eduardo's £100k a week, or whatever, requires Arsenal to be competing in the Champions League, just as Celtic's P&L is hammered by non-qualification.
I'm an Aberdeen supporter, so why should I care about whether Celtic were cheated (and UEFA endorsed cheated) out of a million quid?
Interdependance. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Celtic's failure to qualify will impact Scottish teams UEFA rankings (and hence the number of European places allocated to the SPL) so a 4th place finish that has previously guaranteed Euro participation may not be enough.
So Eduardo's cheating has potentially taken money out of the Scottish game as a whole (which it can ill-afford).
Dan points out in his book that perhaps the recent financial crash can in some way be connected to the financial fiddlings of yer Enrons being so removed from actual cash transactions that it doesn't feel like real money in real peoples lives or deaths. Hence the greater likelyhood of cheating.
Back in the day I was involved in some record labels, a loose collective of producers and dj's. This was in the period 89-96 when house/techno was still reasonably underground and left field, before the superclub boom (Cream, MoS etc) of the mid 90's when it all went Pete Tong.
Such was the transient/faddy nature of club music it was important to shift as many copies in the first couple of weeks as possible because after that your track was pretty much finished (unless you got licenced by one of the major labels dance offshoots, but that's another story).
In that upfront period your sales chances were boosted if you could make it onto the Mixmag magazine 'buzz chart' - the top 20 pre-release records as decreed by 'charts' that club djs submitted (bribery of drugs, sex and over-inflated dj fee's to the DMC mafia also helped!) and a good indicator of what the happening tunes in the club chart would be in the coming weeks.
With that in mind it was be a good idea to make white label copies available to dj's, pre-release, in order to get some buzz going. This is standard practice, dj's wanted upfront music before it was in the shops for the general punters to buy.
For the first few releases we compiled a list of the top 50 or so 'influencer' djs to mail out white label copies. These were the guys and girls who regularly headlined on the club circuit, yer Oakenfold, Rampling, Greame Park, Lisa Loud the Flying lot etc etc.
What we soon realised was that despite being the ones with the biggest reach and the biggest percieved influence we got little or no traction from it.
We spent a lot of time and effort trying to convince the big boys and girls to tell our story but of course, so was every other fledgling label in the country (and the world).
When these lot were getting hundreds of free records every week your chances of being the 'tune' that they picked up on was pretty slim.
We soon changed our strategy and began mailing our promos to the little guys. The resident dj's in the small clubs in the unfashionable towns with small networks (fans).
These djs were pleased to recieve free records, played them and charted them, plus they often had day jobs as club music buyers in small record shops so would stock the tunes that were kicking off in their small clubs.
BINGO! - sales.
You can see a win-win situation starting to develop here.
The double whammy is, however, the so called influencer headline djs were more likely to pick up on records that they heard the little guys play, and get massive reaction to than the stuff they were being mailed.
Hence, the little guys djs - despite the smaller reach/network - were in fact more influential than the 'influencers' in the beginning.
So whatʼs better?
1 dj with a ʻreachʼ of 100,000 who might play your tune once?
OR
100 djs with a following of 250 fans who will play your record a lot and talk about your record a lot and have the grass-roots credibility that means the (comparitively) mainstream 'influencers' look to them for the latest fashion?
'Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.' - Sun Tzu 'The Art of War'
I also like: 'let victory be your main objective, not the conduct of lengthy and costly campaigns'.
Essentially McKinsey argue that the traditional 'funnel' analogy has several holes in it and no longer represents an accurate picture of the 'consumer' route to purchase.
The major spanner in the works has been the rise of consumer empowerment, the web has given consumers unprecedented ability to research and learn about products and services and then make decisions, often independently of marketing and advertising messages and increasingly following recommendations of other people, just like them.
Something we have all been talking about in this space for some considerable time, however it's interesting to see that these ideas are now finally permeating the mainstream.
In summary, McKinsey say:
You have a trigger of some sort (ie recognition of some unmet need), where people start across the decision journey — they are now going to move towards making a purchase.
They call the first stage initial consideration. In many categories, people start off with a fairly narrow list of potential brands.
However, once they move into a stage McKinsey call active evaluation, the number of brands they are considering increases. Which is exactly the opposite of the premise of the traditional funnel, which goes from broad to narrow.
This is the stage when we are intent on purchasing and we are actively researching the product.
Here's where the disconnect happens as much of advertising focuses on 'awareness' and trying to get into the 'initial consideration set', being the and yet, 'when the consumer reaches out during their active evaluation stage, they’re not providing the right facts and testimonials that the consumer is looking for'.
This is where content and consumer-driven marketing comes into it's own as it makes a brand findable, credible, believable and ultimately delivers value during this all important active evaluation phase, where sales are won or lost.
In all, it's conceptually similar to the 'Flipping the funnel' notion of Seth Godin's from a few years ago (turning the funnel into a megaphone so fans/advocates evangelise on behalf of the brand) though - at the risk of excommunication from the Church of Seth - I'm coming round to the idea that Advertising is still important, but in different ways from it's traditional top down role.
1 - in the initial consideration phase to build 'category awareness', before active evaluation, then 'two thirds of the influence came from consumer driven touchpoints — word of mouth, talking to friends and family, searching on the internet.' The other third would still be made up of brand driven communications and touch points, including advertising.
2 - As a 'reminder' in evaluation and, of course, post-purchase reassurance. An interesting example of this in action is Best Buy, who use Twitter as customer service and almost sales promotion tool and the TV ads advertise that, rather than products or services. I'm thinking the idea is that while in active evaluation you are more likely to pay attention to advertising from brands that have added value, been findable, and been credible during that phase. This encourages active 'loyalty' through service (passive loyalty being the juxtaposition - when a customer will be open to switching based on experiences encountered post-purchase or in evaluation)
So, it's official - there's a hole in the funnel, dear Lisa. People no longer make buying decisions in a linear way. People turn to peers, friends, and other users for advice above other media. The potential number of choices increases in active evaluation. The more reasons (value) you can give customers to stick or prospects to switch, you win.
One of my favourite Beatles stories describes how Paul McCartney developed the song 'Yesterday'.
Apparently, McCartney had the melody and some makeshift lyrics (Scrambled eggs, oh my darling how I love your legs) kicking around for months. McCartney was forever playing the tune in progress to the other Beatles and George Martin and quizzing them 'what is this tune, where have I heard this before?'.
After some time the others got fed up and instructed him to go off and finish the song. The result was, of course, one of the most enduring (and covered) songs of that - or any other - era. He had not heard it before, apart from in his own head.
McCarney famously said; 'Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought if no-one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it'.
Inspired by Macca, this week I decided to pitch an idea for a service based mobile application which has been knocking around G Towers for a number of months.
It seemed like such an obvious idea for the category it plays in that we had hesitated to bring it fully to life as we were convinced that it must surely have been done already, such was it's no-brainer-ness.
Many weeks trawling the google machine tells us otherwise so we are going to roll with it.
The lesson seems to be, regarding creative ideas, just go for it. If it feels good, it is good.
The best ideas, the ones that truly connect, will be the ones that feel like they have always been around anyway, such is their seamless integration into life.
Even if it turns out that it has been done somewhere else, well as my main man Godard says ' It's not where an idea comes from that matters, it's where you take it to'. Editors note: The Long and Winding Road just seemed like a more descriptive title for the post, ok?
How - and why - did Tony Soprano die in Holsten’s diner in the final scene of The Sopranos? This incredible series of articles (link below) attempts to clear up one of the 'most misunderstood endings in film or television history'
A thorough examination of the directing and editing in the final scene, a conclusion on what Tony's death 'means', the symbology of Holstenʼs, 'The Godfather', 'Goodfellas' and Kubrick references, 9/11 and the Iraq war and, of course, who killed Tony?
A must read for Sopranos obsessives (wether you agree or disagree).
The theme is 'conversations matter', I'll be doing something on consumer empowerment, engagement and active evaluation. How purchase decisions are made often independently from marketing and advertising messages and increasingly following recommendations of other people, just like them.
Other contibuters include Chris Hambly, Neville Hobson,Joanne Jacobs, Judith deCabbit Lewis, Benjamin Ellis and Will McInnes.
If there's anyone you know who might be interested then point them to the SMiB site for a butchers.
The 19th century was an era of widespread invention and discovery, with significant developments in the understanding or manipulation of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, electricity, and LOLcats.
Who would have thought that search for the origins of the LOLcat would lead us to the site of an olde English public house in the depths of leafy Hampshire?
The picture here of the sign for the former Red Lion pub, in the high street of the small Hampshire town where i live, clearly shows the Lion (biggest of the big cats) bearing a standard with the initials LOL emblazoned on it.
19th Century geeks could be heard muttering 'I can haz gout-burger' as they fiddled with clockwork gyroscopes and guzzled mead in the back room while formulating plans for the industrial revolution and contemplating Antoine-Jean Gros' 'Napoleon Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa'.
Fast Company reports an 'out-of-business branch' of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Los Angeles has been repurposed as a 'medicinal' marijuana dispensary (a current health trend in California apparently). The store is called Kind for Cures (geddit?).
This trend has perhaps been influenced by activities in areas of South London where fully functioning fried chicken establishments - and also minicab offices - have embraced the spirit of diversification by sideline trading in marijuana products for many years.
Editors note: For younger readers, What's the New Mary Jane is a 'great' long lost Beatles non-classic recorded around the time of the White Album sessions.
The pub down the road from me is under new management again.
Routinely every 6 months or so some new management come in re-arrange the furniture, change the menu and post a sign outside saying 'under new management'.
It might be news for the new managers but for the rest of us it's become boring. Particularly because; although the management may be new it's the same 20 regulars stood at the bar every day, hogging the pool table, the juke box, swearing, falling over and being generally offensive.
New clientele would be a more interesting statement than new management. But the new management never have the balls to do anything about that. It's just a different wrapper.
Yesterday at G HQ we were discussing products and/or brands that seemed like a good idea at the time but never made it for one reason or another, and OK Soda came up.
For younger readers, a bit of history.
The Coca-Cola Company did international market research in the late 80s and found that 'Coke' was the second most recognisable word across all languages in the world.
The first recognisable word word was 'OK'. No-brainer for the Coca Cola people.
Who could pass up the opportunity for numbers 1 AND 2?
World domination would surely follow...
So to take advantage of this opportunity OK Soda was born.
The subsequent soft launch in 1993 was supported by marketing targeted at the 'slacker' generation (late Gen X/ early Gen Y) ie young people who didn't pay much attention to advertising.
And if advertising often aims to associate a 'feeling' with the brand, then how postmodern clever-dick to associate with the feeling of disillusionment with the products of 20th century capitalism.
Despite the cool package (see pic) and one of the most arch tag lines in the history of advertising:
'Whats the point of OK Soda? Well, what's the point of anything?
It didn't fly and the project was canned 7 months later.
Ahead if it's time, maybe.
The environment wasn't quite ready for pessimism, defeatism and parodied self-indulgent.
If it were to launch today however....
In typical postmodern paradoxical circular-irony, there would indeed have been a market for these fictional anti-products used as part of the promo for the Sex Pistols movie 'The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle some 13 years earlier, had they been made commercially available.
The East London cash machine that displays it's instructions in alleged 'Cockney rhyming slang'.
Problem is, in proper cockney slang the rhyming word is never said. ie 'cash no receipt' would read 'sausage no receipt'.
Nice try but ultimately pony from the posh boys in the pr department ;) There's precious few cockneys in east London anymore, anyway. They all live in Chelmsford or something.
Perhaps the greatest long lost nugget of post-punk and, without any doubt, way way way ahead of it's time.
The undisputable champions of the total look; Boys Wonder. Fusing punk, mod and pop; celebrating 'Britishness' and it's diversity in their greatest non-hit, Shine On Me. Hard to credit that this was some 6 or 7 years before Britpop.
Boys Wonder didn't fit with the NME or MTV or Radio 1 back in 1987 so never got the mass media exposure, and ergo record company moolah, that would have seen them break.
By the time that the conditions were right they had already morphed into acid-jazzers Corduroy and Blur et al rolled in and stole the thunder.
Today it would be a different story, the web would have allowed them to find their audience (and them find each other) much quicker.
Mediocre careerist popsters take note: You now do not need to compromise. You do not need to rely on mass media for exposure, or the opinions of some student NME journo. Or the bloody X Factor.
'If you're ridin' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there' Will Rogers
Still, pump up the volume and stick on yer eyebrows. Let's rock.
This is about helping people feel good about their decision to buy your product or service.
Are You Lonesome Tonight?. There are millions feeling the same as you all around the world.
Or maybe you are just Totally Wired? Then you are part of a more select club.
People like to know they have done the right thing, and knowing that others like them have done the same is a good starting point. Sometimes inclusive, sometimes exclusive. Always remember. You are a unique individual. Just like everybody else.
The full story of the infamous Tevez poster that launched a million conversations. Market to situations not demographics. And a social object to boot Pure genius.
UPDATE: 21/08 Sadly, I've been asked by Man City representatives to remove the video from You Tube. Ho hum.
Some marketing lessons from Da Bruddas - Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy (also Marky, Ritchie, CJ and Elvis - for the benefit of completists..) - Ramones.
1. Eliminate the unnecessary and focus on the substance – the heart and soul of the message you want to convey.
2. Captivate your audience in a nanosecond - Make every headline catchy and simple enough that your readers can’t help but read on.
3. Never lose focus on your audience - Giving the audience an awesome experience is your main priority.
4. Blow self-obsessed smug corporate speak to bits - with razor-sharp relevant content.
Good stuff.
Michael also adds 'Throughout their 22-year career, the Ramones never lost focus on their fans..'
Not strictly true, Micheal. And here is the other lesson.
Between 1980 and about '83 Ramones released 3 mainly duff albums using 'pop' producers - Spector, a bloke out of 10cc and even Dave Stewart (pseudo wierdo out of Eurythmics) - in a desperate, and ultimately fruitless, attempt to capture the mainstream audience that had temporarily paid attention when their sugary sweet cover of 'Baby I Love You' had bothered the top 20 charts in 1980.
During this period, slowly but surely, they started to lose the fans that loved them for the no-nonsense 3 chord rock'n'roll that made their name as, sadly, the much coveted mass mainstream pop audience failed to buy in.
Normal service was resumed, and lessons learned with 1984's 'Too Tough To Die', which ditched the so-slick production and returned to the buzzsaw rock'n'roll. And slowly the fans came back.
Ditching the key distinctive elements of the brand that make 'you' look and sound like 'you' is is a risky strategy.
Other people are far better at being other people.
And, compromising your product or service, overstretching the brand in the hope of appealing to everyone, means you might end up appealing to no-one.
USAA, a small US bank and insurance company (outside of the top 20) are updating their iPhone app with a cheque deposit function.
A customer snaps both sides of the cheque with the iphone’s camera then the app pings the pictures to USAA and your account is credited.
“We’re essentially taking an image of the [cheque], and once you hit the send button, that image is going into our deposit-taking system as any other [cheque] would,” Wayne Peacock, a USAA executive vice president.
The ten steps for innovation, as eloquently described by Guy Kawasaki at Cisco Live last month.
The ten steps:
1. Make meaning - Look to create meaning first, money will follow. 2. Make a mantra (not a mission statement) 3. Jump to the next curve - take big leaps, optimisation is not revolution. 4. Roll the dice - make it deep, intelligent, complete and elegant 5. Donʼt worry, be crappy - get your thing out there, use user feedback to finish it. 6. Let 100 flowers blossom - the users will decide how your product fits into their life. 7. Polarize people - don't try and please everyone. 8. Churn, baby, churn - test and learn, test and learn 9. Follow the 10-20-30 rule - pitching with power point, we all know this one. 10. Donʼt let the bozos get you down - see devil's advocate.
There's a key chart towards the end around value, which i've reproduced for future use. The more unique (ie innovative) your offering directly corresponds to the amount of value it can create for you (and the recipients).
The Wicked Sick Project.... The wacky Oz yoof-ness of this makes me baulk a bit but you can't argue with the result. These gentlemen bought a bmx bike on ebay, reposted it with a story that matched the worldview of the customer and it sold for 5 times what they paid.
The Washington Post reports that even the notorious Nigerian email fraud scammers are feeling the pinch in the credit crunch.
One of said scammers, Banjo (24) speaking about Americans is quoted "They don't have money. And the money they don't have, we want."
Had to chuckle at this.
'Nigerian officials dispute their country's prominence in online fraud, noting that scam networks rely on agents around the globe. But 419 [named for a section of the Nigerian criminal code] is cemented in Nigerian popular culture. The scammers, known as "yahoo-yahoo boys," are glorified in pop songs such as "Yahoozee," which gained even more fame after former secretary of state Colin L. Powell danced to it at a London festival last year.'
Or will they be 'bing-bing boys' now?...
Brands spend squillions of pounds/dollars on advertising and 'brand building' but more than ever brands are appropriated by forces outside of their control.
Just started reading The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley of IDEO fame. On the jacket there's a quote from Seth Godin '...there's a nugget on every page'.
This is true, so far.
In the intro Tom talks about 'The Devil's Advocate'.
This is the person WE ALL KNOW, who - in new idea development sessions - says 'Let me just play Devil’s Advocate for a minute…' and then proceeds to be the force for negativity that manifests to crush new concepts and potentially innovative ideas before they have even had a chance to grow.
Tom says 'This person represents a subtle yet toxic danger to your organization’s cause, greatly diminishing the chance for innovation with their negativity and naysaying.'
Step 1. Make something that touches peoples lives in some way. Make this objective you're number one priority. Remember, it don't mean a thing if it don't mean a thing. And It's not just the music. It's as much about how the rest of it resonates. Malcolm says ideally a mix of sex, subversion and style. OK Radiohead have none of those and they have done ok, but there's always an exception.
Step 2. Find your audience. There's no shortcuts here. Organise your own gigs, club nights, events or whatever. Try and hook up with 2 or 3 other bands/artists working in broadly the same area as you. Once there are 3 bands you have a movement. Assuming each band has about 4 members and each member has 5 mates, then you should have a crowd for your gig of at least 60 people. To the outside world, and particularly the early adopters, it now looks like something is going on. If it's controversial, even better. If you are any good, it will start to snowball.
Step 3. Remember step 1. If your product is worth it, then your fans will start to spread the word. Now is probably the time to have some music online that the fans can start to distribute for you. There's plenty of tools online for this. but don't get hung up on that. Keep focused on being amazing, and give people the opportunity to opt-in at every touch-point, so you can build your fan club.
Step 4. Make some stuff for fans to buy. Ideally physical objects that cannot be easily replicated digitally. And make them limited editions. True fans will want to support you and will pay for stuff. Just not mp3s.
Create a movement, play for the true fans, give them stuff to buy, if you are any good the masses will soon find you.
If I was an upscale urban hipster cycling daily through the metropolis I would certainly be having one of these stylish and talk-about-able cycling helmet covers by Yakkay.
They call it 'Brainwear for smart people'.
Might just get one anyway for when I'm taking my tractor out for a spin. The khaki 'Tokyo' is doing it for me, would go with my colonial Daktari safari suit.
