Category: Marketing Ideas

Chipotle recently did something very interesting with their packaging: they reached out to famous authors and designers to write stories and create illustrations to go on their cups and bags. The idea is that as you are sitting their eating your burrito, they are giving you something thought provoking to read and enjoy. I think it’s a brilliant move that really puts an intellectual, Starbucks-like twist on the Mexican food experience.

Check out all the author’s works and packaging at cultivatingthought.com.

In “Seeing the Big Picture,” Kevin Cope makes the case for growing your business acumen. If you’re like me, you work within a specialized area (marketing, in my case). Although your knowledge can run deep in that area, your knowledge of other areas can occasionally be lacking. In meetings, conversations can go over your head and you aren’t able to contribute anything meaningful to the discussion. This book takes complex business concepts and breaks them down to understandable, every day language.

The core of the book discusses the five drivers of business: Cash, Profit, Assets, Growth, and People. Each of these are important elements that should be seen as a whole and compliment each other. For example, no business can survive for long without profit. But if you solely focus on profit at the expense of working with great people (perhaps quickly hiring the cheapest, least qualified employees you can find), the business may be profitable in the very short term but overall will soon suffer in the long run.

In many ways, the book serves as a “pocket” MBA – a reference to help you solidify concepts and understand how they work together. It’s a great read for both the experienced business person who needs a refresher and the novice still building a foundation of knowledge.

Learn more about the book and Kevin Cope’s programs at seeingthebigpicture.com

Bad Customer Service:

• Pretends to be personal.
• Pretends to be human.
• Pretends to care.

Check out United Airlines’ response to a customer complaint:

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Good Customer Service:

• Actually personal.
• Run by humans.
• Actually cares.

One Capital One customer said they couldn’t pay their bill because they spilled orange juice on their keyboard and the “2” key didn’t work. Rather than disregard the excuse (which sounds something like “my dog ate my homework”), the customer service rep did this:

Statement from Capital One:
“We encourage our agents to follow up on customer conversations in unexpected, personalized and creative ways. They look for and act on opportunities to practice random acts of kindness for our customers.”

Bad example from Cheezburger. Good example from Mashable.

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There’s a documentary streaming on Netflix called “Jiro Dreams of Sushi.” It’s about an 85-year-old Japanese man who is considered the best sushi chef in the world. He runs a humble restaurant at a subway station in Tokyo but has such a reputation for perfection that his place is completely booked several months out (despite costing $300 a plate). He spends several hours each day going to the market to pick the best ingredients, preparing and continually perfecting his craft. He literally dreams about sushi and jumps out of bed with ideas.

I think he’s an interesting example of someone who has tremendous passion and always strives to be just a little bit better. It’s these qualities that makes his business successful and can carry you far with many things in life.

As I was watching it, I wrote down a few quotes:

• “Once you decide on your occupation, you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. Never complain about your job. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That’s the key to success and is the key to being regarded honorably.”
• “These days people wants lots of free time and lots of money. They aren’t thinking of building their skills…. I don’t care about money. All I want to do is make great sushi.”
• “I continue to climb trying to reach the top, but no one knows where the top is….Always strive to elevate your craft.”

Check out the trailer than go watch it on Netflix:

Comcast has notoriously bad customer service. I’ve experienced it myself when I prepared to moved into a new house. I was told we were “all set” with our internet, since the previous owners had used Comcast. When we moved in and couldn’t get the internet to work, it took two weeks for them to come fix it and several phone calls to get a refund for the two weeks we didn’t have service. I think we actually got off easy compared to some of the stories I’ve heard.

Recently, one customer recorded the phone call from when he calmly tried to cancel his service and encountered resistance on the other end from a Comcast rep who basically wouldn’t let the customer cancel his service without a reason. He said phrases like “I’m just trying to understand why you wouldn’t want the #1 internet service in the country.” After several minutes of conversation, the rep finally gave in and canceled the service. The conversation was posted online on soundcloud, which you can listen to here:

After the story went viral, Comcast publicly issued an apology:

“We are very embarrassed by the way our employee spoke with Mr. Block and are contacting him to personally apologize. The way in which our representative communicated with him is unacceptable and not consistent with how we train our customer service representatives. We are investigating this situation and will take quick action. While the overwhelming majority of our employees work very hard to do the right thing every day, we are using this very unfortunate experience to reinforce how important it is to always treat our customers with the utmost respect.”

The customer who recorded the call, Ryan Block, has stated that he hopes that the recording does not result in a termination but rather a closer look at Comcast’s customer service training and policies to ensure better service.

This is a good example of the public relations challenges that happen in the digital age. Companies cannot afford to have anything less than amazing customer service in this era.

Read more about the story at Mashable.

This has gotten a lot of attention lately for not portraying the Dad figure as an idiot. I think it’s a fun and fast paced ad. I can’t help but be reminded of the Phil Dumphy character from Modern Family (who is often actually portrayed as a doufus but also a super great dad). In fact, they even have a similar home. Perhaps it was inspiration? The product is thrown in last minute and the tie is a little weak (“Being a dad is awesome…. Just like Peanut Butter Cheerios are awesome”) but I think the tradeoff of making this a memorable and spreadable message is probably worth it.

I came across this the other day on Fail Blog. The gist of it is that in ten years time, a restaurant went from an 1 hour customer visit on average (in and out the door) to a 2 hour average visit, due to their patrons constant use of cell phones throughout their visit. It’s a great minder of some the challenges we face as business owners and marketers in the digital age.

This bookstore is opening up in a long vacate and run down building in downtown Provo (just a few blocks from my old business). It’s great to see some creativity bringing to life these old, run down buildings.

AMA Utah Chapter Meeting

Dave Hunter (Halestorm) – evolved into a marketing company that happens to make films- Hallmark

Adam Able (Go Films) – Saints and Soldiers

Marshall Moore

Brandon

Utah Film Commision – encourages outside companies to come in. Offers tax incentives – 20-25 back for every dollar spent on set. resource directory – crew, location database. 39 million in incentives. Geographically diverse – snow, moutains, dessert.

How rich is Utah’s Talent Base? world class production, but not saleable talent (name recognition). Only exists in LA.

Reverse Engineers films – start with who is the audience? What do they want? identify elements that sell (topic, theme, actors, etc)

Built for marketing – star meter on IMDB, financing MATRIX – plug in actors names, topic, etc., assesses risk and determines how much funding.. sometimes actors bail and funding gets reduced or dropped because film is less profitable.

Get a distributor involved early – make posters sooner (and onset) rather than after the fact. Start Facebook and twitter posts, photos and videos on set. audience feels ownership.

Saratov Approach – nervious about topic (with families of missionaires), testimontials why they would feel safe, clips of mission moms reactions. Edgey poster (gun to hear) but safe values.

Channels – TV (local news times), billboard.

social media – mission driven “If you care about this, help spread the word and keep it in the theater longer.”

Wednesday opening: PR, top per screen – made easier to role out nationally.