Surprise! Creating experiences for your customers

For many years now, we’ve been telling our clients that one of the keys to connecting with younger customers (Generations X and Y) is to add an experience to your offering. No longer are the traditional “Ps” of marketing (product, price, placement and promotion – and even people) enough. You need to create experiences that transcend these, and give customers a further reason to connect with you.

Some people are talking about tribes (see, for example, a great video by Seth Godin at TED.com). Others are doing funky stuff with their stores (Walt Disney have Steve Jobs to turn their stores in mini theme parks, for example). There are countless examples of creating experiences that develop your brand (Red Bull are geniuses at this).

But here’s a new one…

Hipstery ask their customers to fill in a questionnaire about yourself. They then choose a T-shirt design for you, and send it to you. It remains a surprise until you open the package. This adds an interesting thrill to the boring task of choosing a T-shirt.

It seems that while most companies are providing ever more choice and ever more information, there is a growing trend of businesses relieving consumers of the burden of decision, and helping them make choices. Obviously this can go wrong. So Hipstery will replace any t-shirts that customers don’t like, with the option of a refund if they’re wrong the second time too. Sometimes a lack of choice is a good thing, especially if it is used to surprise and delight consumers.

Nice one.

Power of Mobile Money

In the early 1990’s I started work for one of South Africa’s largest banks. The most innovative project I worked on was the use of smart card/chip technology to enable people to purchase items using the smart chip inside their mobile phones. I thought it was the best idea out! Back then mobile phones were the size and the weight of a brick, but the advantages of the mobile chip technology in financial services seemed limitless. The project though never gained traction because the bank was concerned about handing over too much power to the mobile phone operators, and eroding profits.

So it was with great enjoyment that I read the Power of Mobile Money article in a recent Economist. This article illustrates the power behind markets and shows how even the poorest farmer in Africa can force bank managers to support one of the best financial innovations of recent years.

You can read the article below or follow this link to The Economist

The power of mobile money
Sep 24th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Mobile phones have transformed lives in the poor world. Mobile money could have just as big an impact

… Continue Reading

Stop Tweeting about these…

Had to smile as this post from The Oatmeal this morning. It it Monday morning, and if anything it’s bound to give you a little smile. 10 Things you need to stop Tweeting about.

It’s a large and often question I’m hearing these days: what is Twitter all about? I’ve got it down to 3 categories of Tweets in order to explain it:

• The ‘I’m having a shower’ crew
• The ‘I’m at a conference/church meeting and this is what going on’ gang
• The ‘I’ve just read this great blog post, and you should too’ group

Or put another way:

• What I’M doing tweets
• What WE’RE doing tweets
• What YOU SHOULD be doing tweets

They all seem to have their own following based on the people I followers. There are some that cross over, but most people seem to stick to one particular genre.

Of course there are the ‘do business with me / look at my sexy profile online’ folk. But they’re despicable, in my opinion, and simply shouldn’t be allowed on Twitter. They do have a right to play with the rest of us, but it’s a pain in the butt to have to look at their tweets when I’m looking for something to feed my soul.

And yes, for some of you reading this, what and who I discover on Twitter does feed my soul : )

Building your own healthcare community

Many years ago when I was in community development, some of the cutting edge thinkers were promoting the idea of less professionals and more community involvement in ensuring the growth, development, safety, etc of family. It was a simple but profound concept of building a care system less reliant on the ‘usual suspects’ (professionals) by involving people around a particular family who had an interest in them, who spent more time with them, and who, if integrated successfully could provide more useful and meaningful support.

There was a book I remember having to read while studying called ‘The other 23 hours’, that made the point in a residential child care environment. The book was written to encourage Child Care Workers, and to see the value and importance of their role. Social Workers in these setting often got all the glory and were seen to be the most important people in a child’s world. But as the book pointed out, a child may only see a Social Worker for 1 hour each day (and that’s a lot), there were another 23 hours in their day.

FastCompany has recently posted an article (The Future of Healthcare is social), and they’ve done a great job outlining similar thinking for healthcare, with technology as a large enabler. It makes sense in this arena as well. Our health is something that needs 24 hours of proactivity. We can’t afford or expect professionals to be available for all that time. But if we can assemble a community of people around us, who care about us, and who’ll get involved with us, and then enable it all with technology, we may find ourselves in a far healthier place than we currently are.

Even when we do our best to stay healthy, we still get sick. Coping with sickness in our already hectic lives can be challenging. In addition to looking out for her parents, Susan manages the health of her two kids, her husband, and herself, and she looks for ways to save time and money while still getting the care that they need. Recently, for example, Susan’s son woke up with a sore throat and a fever. She used an at-home strep test to rub a swab of her son’s throat culture onto a card. Within minutes, the test results confirmed her son had strep. Through an embedded RFID sensor within the card, the test results were wirelessly transmitted to her computer’s reader. On her computer, she was prompted to connect the incoming test results to her son’s personal health record. Next, she used her personal health network to book the earliest visit for her son within a 10-mile vicinity. Susan elected to electronically send her son’s strep results in advance of her appointment, allowing the receiving retail clinic to accelerate her visit by pre-issuing an e-prescription. Before leaving her computer, Susan selected her son’s classroom network, comprised of his teacher and the parents of other students, and sent out a message that her son had strep throat and would be home for the next several days.

It’s a longish read, but definitely worth it. If not just to see where health care might go, I’m fairly certain the thinking will at least change how you see other parts of your world.

Newspapers and Blogs. A great conversation

It’s not often I get sent a read like this one. And I follow a truck load of ‘reads’ everyday. Twitter, RSS, e-mail links, etc, etc. There is a lot of stuff that flows through my browser (is anyone else frustrated by Flash and Safari with the new Snow Leopard upgrade?).

The article I’m referring to (Let’s get sentimental; the readers deserve it) can be found on Marketingweb. It’s written by Gill Moodie:

Gill Moodie spent 14 years as a salaried hack in print media in South Africa and the UK before escaping to the blogosphere and freelance journalism. She is the publisher of Grubstreet in between unpacking and packing the infernal dishwasher and bringing up a four-year-old with attitude.

I suppose in all web 2.0 fairness I should take the time to credit Mel Stevens for sending it on, via e-mail (she’s barely a Tweeter or a FB’er). Thanks.

Back to the article. It’s an overview of the conversation between, primarily, Peter Bruce (Business Day editor) and Matthew Buckland (20FourLabs) and their good natured exploration of the future of newspapers in the midst of a web 2.0 onslaught. It brings in Barack Obama’s recent comments, along with a host of other great thoughts and comments from other great thinkers in this space.

Now, here’s why I love newspapers. Most of this excellent debate came from people schooled in the rigours of newsrooms. I, as a blogger for instance, may delight in thumbing my nose to traditional media but I can only do so because I was knocked into shape and learned how to be fair, accurate and (sometimes) thoughtful because I worked at newspapers, including at OMG’s (Peter Bruce).

I can’t do justice to her great article. Definitely worth going ‘there’ for a read. Certainly you’ll leave with at least one thought.

Social Networks and how we communicate

On Friday 2 October 2009, I was interviewed by Rueben Goldberg on Classic FM on his show, The Internet Economy.

I’d not met him before we recorded the show. He’s a good guy, fairly active on Twitter, and interesting and interested to talk to.

Our PR company, SimonSays Communications, assisted in getting the interview and I’m hoping this wont be the last chat to Reuben. Yeah, it won’t be.

If you’d like to listen to the PodCast (7 min) of my interview on his show, you can find links to it here.

A happiness bank – connecting helpers with those who need help

I am doing some work in Estonia in a few days time, and so have been watching the wires for news reports from that country. One of these really jumped out at me.

“Estonians to lauch world’s first e-Bank of Happiness” – read the story here. The concept is simple: bring together those who are in need of help and those who can help. In the e-bank one can exchange information on needs, offer help and register good deeds. All for free. It’s basically elance.com for volunteers.

The idea is not only to help people out digitally and online, but for this to extend into Estonia, with people in physical need (e.g. elderly people need help to get to the shops, house sitting while on holiday, looking for a gym buddy, etc) can also use the system. “The Bank of Happiness is an initiative to change the way of thinking. It’s a bank for exchanging good deeds. The wish of the Bank is to make people think and act with their heart. The Bank is meant for all those who value good deeds and have the will to make good themselves.”

You can check out the simple user interface here: http://www.onnepank.ee/en.

I’ll watch it closely, and hope it succeeds. A nice idea, well executed. Let’s hope people support it.

VWV Red Plug on Generation 2.0

VWV is an interesting company, that I still don’t know enough about. Take a visit to their web site to see some of the ‘interesting’ I encounter when I meet with their people (wherever they may be).

Tomorrow I’m spending the afternoon with them as part of their ‘Red Plug’. It’s an informal forum they pull together made up of clients, media, friends and other interesting people who don’t fall into those 3 particular categories.

I’ve got a slot at tomorrow’s Red Plug. Talking about Web 2.0 (whatever that is) and it’s impact on people and business. It’s a monster of a topic. I get to put my little bit forward. how I see it from this particular corner of the planet.

I’m going to test out the term ‘Generation 2.0′. I’ve borrow it from Gen X, who are often referred to as the ‘TV Generation’, simply because they were the first complete Generation to grow up with TV. Today’s younger set are the first complete generation to grow up being influenced by Web 2.0. I think it’s a fitting descriptor.

Of course you’d have to be at the Red Plug at VWV to hear some of my thoughts. Or perhaps another day over some coffee, a beer or a glass or two of red wine.

I’m looking forward to the afternoon. Fer sure!

[after the event] The session was tweeted by Bev from SimonSays Communications – click here for her tweets

From Hawaii: Four Things About Globalization

The stated goal of the East-West Center’s International Forum for Education 2020 is, ”to address the need for new paradigms in higher education that will respond to transforming economic, social and cultural changes”. The belief is that the capacity to address these dramatic changes lies in the educational system. The challenge of course is the realization that in the face on unrelenting globalization and uneven change, the response needed goes beyond simply reforming existing institutions. A deeper level of transformation is required.

Naturally, much the same could be said of business and the challenges facing big business are no less daunting. However, what got my attention in the work being done by the 2020 Forum was the identification of four characteristics of a globalized world. As much as these four characteristics are occupying some of the best educational minds in Asia Pacific, I believe they are relevant to business leaders everywhere.

… Continue Reading

12 ideas that’ll have you thinking a little differently

I picked this link up off of Twitter (@tomorrowtodayza if you’d like to follow us). It’s from Wired and it’s a list of 12 counter-cultural ideas from various ‘experts’ in a variety of fields. If anything else it’ll certainly have you thinking differently for a little while. Had me!

Warning: The ideas expressed here may be dangerous. For this year’s list, we walked right past the usual suspects and went looking for trouble. We wanted radicals, heretics, agitators—big thinkers with controversial, game-changing propositions. We found a prison reformer who wants to empty jails, an economist who thinks foreign aid hurts more than it helps, and a military theorist who believes the US should launch preemptive cyberattacks, right now. Then there’s secretary of defense robert gates, who wants to win wars, not just prep for them. Risky? Sure. But this is no time to play it safe.

Proof we had a Billboard

At the beginning of September I wrote of the billboard we got through a barter with INM Outdoor. Edward’s comment made me smile as he asked what we were doing with ‘old technology’ being a company that explores an emerging world of possibilities? Other than the fact that we swapped some of our time, for some of their space, there wasn’t really another reason for doing it.

We did all wonder what would come of our 2 weeks of space? We made sure the call center was open 24 hours a day and bought triple our normal bandwidth to deal with the large volume of e-mail, web and blog hits we were expecting. Of course none of that happened. Other than a supplier’s wife mailing me to say she’d seen it, I’m not sure we had any response. Doesn’t mean that there wasn’t anything useful about it? Just means we didn’t get to hear about it.

Anyway our 2 weeks are up on Peter Place, and I’ve been meaning to post a pic as proof that we did have one.

Check out the security we had on it : ) Electric and metal fence. Can’t be too careful with our well designed billboard.

Oh and that’s me, to prove I at least saw it.

Oprah and Supply Chains

We all know about Oprah’s ability to significantly impact sales. In both directions. She loves it, we love it and we buy it. She hates it, we hate it and don’t ever buy it. It’s one of the reason’s, I suppose, that her business is as large as it is? Started as a simple talk show, added a ‘home shopping network’ component, and now she moves markets (and I’m sure a whole lot more)

I enjoyed this article from CIO because it moves from sales and profits and focusses on supply chains and logistics. I suppose it’s an obvious curiosity, but it does create an interesting question around logistics and supply planning for a product being Oprah-tised.

There’s a great case study exercise around Amazon.com and their Kindle being Oprah-tised. Even the highly efficient Amazon didn’t seem to cope with the added demand apparently created by Oprah.

“The day of the endorsement, visits to Amazon’s website were up 6 percent over the previous Friday, according to Experian PLC’s Hitwise. Web traffic going from Oprah.com to Amazon.com increased more than 15,000 percent.”

Mom’s are big

Every now and then I discover thoughts from marketing experts exploring the value of women between 35-55 and in this example mom’s. Their research and observations remind the marketplace of the value of the people who match the criteria of these segments, and how over-looked they are from a marketing and communication perspective. They either have incredible spending power, or massive decision rights in their world, or are inhabiting a particular channel that isn’t effectively communicating to them.

The Israeli Diamond Industry web site has an article around social media and mothers titled, ‘Mothers use FaceBook, Twitter, Blogs more than average adults’, and again suggests the retail world is missing a trick if they’re not using these platforms to speak to them.

“Retailers who aren’t engaging customers through social media could be missing the boat. Twitter, Facebook and blogs are becoming increasingly popular with moms as they search for coupons or deals and keep in touch with loved ones. The web provides efficient, convenient ways for brands to stay in front of their most loyal shoppers and attract new ones.”

I am always left wondering if these segments have been overlooked for so long is it because there isn’t an effective way to single them out, or is it because companies aren’t wired to see them. Reminds me of that quote that goes something like this, “Do we look at what we see, or do we see what we look at?”

Conferences of the future – more online / more connecting

New and ever improving telecommunication technologies have improved how we communicate. From the first telegrams to virtual reality holographic conference rooms, we’ve come a long way. The key now is not so much the technology (we have the technical ability to put a 3-d representation of a person live on stage anywhere in the world, after all). Of course, we still need better, faster and cheaper broadband to be more evenly spread around the world, but that will happen – sooner rather than later. It’s now more about our acceptance of these technologies, and the user friendliness of their application.

It won’t be too long before a significant number of our conferences go fully digital. That is, the speakers and delegates will all hook up to the Internet, and participate digitally. This will take many forms, the best of which will include video walls and full interactivity.

There are many reasons to go this route, including: making it easier for people to work from home, reducing commuting time, office space, the need for conference rooms (which often stand empty for long periods of time – especially the big auditoriums), reducing the number of flights around the world and the amount spent on corporate conferencing. So, save money, reduce pollution, save time… why would we not do it?

Of course, what we lose is the time between sessions. Conferences are a lot more than just information transfer meetings. Lots of networking happens, and relationship development. It’s often the time between formal sessions that is most important. We can’t change this, and virtual conferences will not replace this aspect.

However, this means that those people who put conferences together need to know exactly WHY they need to get people together physically. There are good reasons to do this – but these need to find their way into the design of the conferences themselves. This is a challenge for the next few years for this industry.

Lessons from the Titanic

“Today the balance of advantage may be shifting…Governments have been rescuing companies they consider too big to fail… The recession is squeezing out smaller and less well-connected firms” says the The Economist in their leading article this week, titled “Big is Back”, The article argues that back in the 1990’s, with the advent of the internet, big companies were under attack by smaller nimbler companies and argues that now big companies are back in the driving seat. To support this notion, the article notes that between 1974 and 1998, GDP produced by big industrial companies fell by half between from 36% to 17%. This statistic is misleading as it has less to do with big companies becoming less dominant during this period and reflects more the shift away from an industrial driven world towards the rise of the knowledge companies such as banks and IT companies. During the same period the GDP contribution from knowledge based companies increased dramatically and today the knowledge sector now contributes 75% and 79% of GDP in the UK and USA respectively.

At the moment though there is a fascination with the BIG and a massive fear of their failure. This is not surprising. Big companies provide large amounts of tax revenues, employ large numbers of people and in many instances are the source of huge national pride. So the motivations and politics behind keeping flailing big companies afloat are huge. Governments are pumping billions into propping up big companies, their investment in them now is so huge that they can’t afford for big companies to fail. The question at hand now though, is this fuelling a virtuous or a vicious cycle. How much longer can this course of action be sustained and at what price will western governments continue to protect big companies? Western governments appear to be behaving more like the captain of the Titanic before it struck an iceberg – stoking the engine to get more power out of it and racing across across an ocean they know is littered with obstacles. There is now a danger of artificially maintaining companies that have become ineffective and inefficient in the new world of work. Let’s not forget that if big is back, a notion the article seems to support as a good development, then why is it that the economies that are rebounding fastest such as China and South Korea are those dominated by small companies?

Rather than continuing to bail out big and potentially ineffective companies, governments need to be removing the burdens and barriers which prevent entrepreneurs from starting businesses and turning small companies into big effective ones. It is on this last point that I do agree with the Economist

What Microsoft’s “racism” teaches us about ourselves

The ether is alive with enraged twits, tweeting and blogging on about Microsoft’s racist blunder. If you’ve not heard the buzz, it has to do with MS photoshopping an advert as it transported it from the US (where it features a white woman, older black man, and an Asian man) to Poland (where it now features a white woman, a young white man with a black hand, and an Asian man). Outrage, disgust!

Here are the two pictures:

Microsoft is pulling the advert, and after investigation discovered that all four of the people responsible for the advert have left the company (how convenient).

I am NOT going to join the clamour of voices shouting racism, though. This is just good business (and bad photoshop), and a bad marketing decision, and a great example of the new world of work (yes, it is all of these things).

… Continue Reading

The world is changing cell phones

Once upon a time cell phones changed the world. They arrived when we didn’t expect them, and allowed us to do things we never imagined possible. We can quite safely say that our world today (where cell phones have had an influence) bares scant resemblance to the world of 15 years ago.

But people, being who they are, mastered the new opportunities cell phones created and we have individually and collectively pushed cell phone manufacturers and network operators into spaces they once never imagined possible. It’s a lovely example of what we’re capable of with opportunity, resources and a little time to tinker.

FastCompany recently published an article focussed on one cell phone manufacturer, the world’s largest, Nokia. If the article is to be believed then I am incorrect calling them a cell phone manufacturer. They no longer see themselves in that category. As to who they are, not even Nokia is certain?

“Just three years ago, we were competing against Motorola, Sony Ericsson, some Korean players, even Siemens,” he says from his office in Espoo, Finland, just outside of Helsinki. “The competitive environment in the industry at large has changed, and I sometimes struggle to define what industry we are in at the moment and what are the boundaries. But remember, I spoke in 2001 about putting the Internet in your pocket. And now consumers are realizing that these devices are not just for communicating by voice: It is all about information.”

While cell phone companies once significantly impacted how we saw the world, their new task is to take our post-cellphone worldview and re-imagine themselves for the future. That is if they’d like to stay in business.

This article is a great read. One worth sitting through to get a glimpse of a global leader finding their way in a world they’ve had a large role in influencing.

Seeing the world through your customer’s eyes – your key to growing your business

I regularly write articles for magazines and journals. Some of these really strike a chord, and just “work”. Here is a recent article that has been getting a lot of comment, and has been helpful to business leaders trying to cope with the economic downturn. See the original article at The Entrepreneur magazine SA, or download a PDF copy of it here.

Seeing the world through your customer’s eyes – your key to growing your business
By Dr Graeme Codrington
Entrepreneur Magazine, July 2009

In turbulent times such as these, only those companies that can prove they have real value to offer will survive. Yet, in tough times, most companies tend to focus more on their internal systems and processes than on what their customers are looking for. Seeing the world through your customer’s eyes is essential for success, especially during a downturn.

… Continue Reading

Competing rights and freedom claims

In a world of increasing complexity, we will continually need to deal with competing claims and rights (and the flip side, too, of responsibilities). America, as the sole superpower, must currently find a balance between “bringing freedom to the world” and protecting its own national interests. It is internally engaged in raucous debates about the competing rights of people with and without healthcare options. Companies must find a balance between shareholder demands for profit, customer demands for service and staff demands for work-life balance and a reasonable wage.

There are many ways to deal with this issue of competing rights. Here is a fun way…

I grew up in a cat loving family, and some of my favourite childhood pets were cats. But I have married into a family with a chronic genetic allergy to cats, and so we can’t have them at all. I am caught between two worlds – one that loves cats, and one that does not. I therefore had a good laugh at this article in the most recent Spectator magazine. It tells the story of a cat, a python and some enraged neighbours who don’t understand the limits of their rights. Enjoy it, and reflect on the bigger issue behind it.

… Continue Reading

Challenges – and solutions – to Work-Life Balance

A recent report from the Corporate Executive Board was summarised by Brian Kropp on the Talent Management blog. Read it online at their site, or an extract below:

Challenges to Work-Life Balance
by Brian Kropp

The uncertain economic environment has placed tremendous personal and workplace pressure on employees. Corporate Executive Board (CEB) analysis has shown a drastic decline in employee engagement since the start of the economic downturn, with the number of disengaged employees having risen dramatically from 1 in 10 in 2006 to 1 in 3 in the first quarter of 2009.

With financial instability fueling growing demands in many areas of employees’ lives, it comes as no surprise that leveraging work-life balance practices provides employees with much needed flexibility and can greatly improve employee engagement overall. In this volatile economic climate, with downsizing and restructuring efforts having left employee morale low and workloads heavy, creating opportunities that can improve employee work-life balance can also have a tangible bottom-line impact for the business. Implementing effective work-life balance initiatives, however, can be challenging, and is directly linked to how well today’s workforce development executives can identify and provide the right mix of benefits that are highly valued by the workforce.

… Continue Reading

A changing global landscape

The RBS Economic Unit in conjunction with The Economist have just completed a report on ‘Exploring the Changing Global Landscape for UK Companies.’ This is an independent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, providing you with insight into the latest trends and opportunities in global trade. It makes interesting reading given the current economic climate. You can download the complete report here or read the headline results below:

… Continue Reading

Secrets of success in The Emotion Economy

The industrial economy was based on ‘make and sell.’ Take, for instance, the massive production of Henry Ford’s cars and his dictum, ‘you can have any colour you like as long as you like black.’ But, back in Henry Ford’s time there was little regard for the customer. The focus was on the production process.

Then, starting in the late 1950s, came the information economy which is based on a ‘listen and serve’ dictum. Nearly 80% of the world’s employees are now in the service industries. Microsoft is the equivalent of the Ford motor company. The focus now is on quality and customer satisfaction, ‘the customer is always right.’ Market research, segmentation models and distribution channels all contribute to making the customer ‘king’. In spite of this, customers are generally ‘faceless’ because they’re lumped together in demographic segments. And, the systems in place to meet their needs are, on the whole, inflexible.

But now a new approach is emerging. The emotion economy recognises that companies will have to take providing service and information a step further if they want to attract clients, and staff, away from their competitors. Go to a banking court and assess the points of difference between banks. Not much, is there? If you’re buying cars, cosmetics or hair care products, except for the very sophisticated and expensive, or the really cheap products, there’s not much in it today price or product-wise. Take supermarkets – you’ll find some are a little more up market than others but on the whole you could shop at just about any of them with much the same quality and service. Furthermore, people are increasingly shopping on the Internet: they will call up a trolley of products from one store and compare it with a trolley from another and then make their decision to buy. The same applies to a travel agent, or indeed, any other kind of booking agent. You’ll shop around for information on the Internet and then choose your agent, or, bypass them completely and make your own purchase.

Now comes the crunch. Which agent, supermarket, cosmetics and car will you choose? Increasingly, your decision will be based on relationship, connection, trust and emotion, and not on price, quality or speed of service.
… Continue Reading

Don’t mess with your customers

My good mate, Steve Simpson, creator of UGRs (unwritten ground rules – still one of the cleverest management tools I’ve ever seen!), just posted this story on his blog. The new world of work is going to filled with this type of story – especially, I fear to say, in the airline industry where everyone blames everyone else for everything…

Remarkable development in the voice of the unhappy customer

Technology has just enabled a remarkable shift in the voice of the unhappy customer.

In March 2008, the musical group ‘Sons of Maxwell’ were travelling on United Airlines to Nebraska for a one week tour. Just prior to departure, one of the band members heard a woman seated behind them say ‘My God, they’re throwing guitars around’. Sure enough, as they looked out the window, they could see the baggage handlers literally throwing the band’s equipment.

On arrival, the band discovered that a $3500 Taylor guitar had indeed been broken.

That was the beginning of a long saga of buck passing and avoidance. After nine months, an employee from United provided one too many ‘no’s’ in response to accepting responsibility for the damage. On hearing this, band member Dave Carroll promised to make three songs about the experience and post them on the internet.

As I write this, the song ‘United Breaks Guitars’ has been viewed by over 3 million people. Yes, you read correctly, over 3 million views!!

You can view the video on YouTube by clicking here
There’s even a blog that explains the whole saga which is here.

This is a remarkable example of how unhappy customers can now be heard!

Source

Guy Kawasaki on how he Tweets

Anyone who follows @guykawasaki on Twitter assumes the man never sleeps. We’re all certain that Tweeting isn’t his main job, but he never seems to stop tweeting. So how does he do it?

Click over to ‘How to Change the World‘ for an interview with Guy, that I certainly enjoyed reading. Well actually it looks like it’s an interview with Guy by Guy?

Clearly he’s doesn’t mess around : )

“Yes, four people contribute to my tweets: Annie Colbert, Gina Ruiz, Noelle Chun, and Neenz Faleafine. This is why you will see the initials “AC, “GR,” “NC,” and “LF” at the end of some tweets. If there are no initials, then it’s me.“

The 100 Euro Note

Received this via e-mail today. Would anyone care to comment…..?

“It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town.

He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The Butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower.

The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.

The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town’s prostitute that in these hard times, gave her “services”
on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is doing business today and the main reason thatthe rest of the world is now ‘messed’ up!”

Will Twitter change the way we live?

There’s a lot of hype around Twitter. I hear it all the time. And there seem to be two distinct camps. Those rabidly for and those against. The against camp speak of just another fad. I say that they’re possibly correct in their thinking. To be honest though, that’s not the question. The real question is for however long Twitter is with us, will it change something about how we look at the world and each other, and therefore how we connect and interact?

Steven Johnson writes a great piece on Time (online) that gives a small insight into some of how Twitter added a new dimension to at least one conference. I like how it was used, and how it brought in a new channel for communication to add to the dialogue in the room.

The social warmth of all those stray details shouldn’t be taken lightly.

I’m really interested more in the social changes than the platforms themselves. Personally I think whether Twitter stays or goes, it will change our lives in some way going forward.

Zappos hits $1 billion sales

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Zappos, the online shoe and accessories company. They are a “new world” company that interests me immensely. The company just hit a major milestone 10 years in business and $1billion in sales. The CEO Tony Hsieh was interviewed recently about their success, interestingly rather than talk about the financial success of the company he focuses all his answers rather around the culture of the company, its values and its customers. You can read the interview below or visit Zappos’s website and read it there.

Tony Hsieh wants to build Zappos into a Virgin styled company, with Zappos Bank, hotels, airlines etc using ten guiding principles. Have a look at them they are not about financial returns or market share but have to do with the people side of the business…get these right and the financial rewards follow. With $1 billion sales in the bank I think Zappos is doing things right:

… Continue Reading

The Myth of the Rational Buyer

What if what we understood about marketing wasn’t true? This is how the article from Fast Company, The Myth of the Rational Buyer: How too much thinking can hurt your brand, begins.

The author Mark Dziersk suggests that companies spend 95% of their time fussing over the 5% that the consumer thinks about when it comes to purchasing behaviour.

And as he points out, the average hypermarket in the US, carries more than 167 000 sku’s (units), compared to 40 000 in that late 1950’s. That’s a lot of product to choose from. And we’re missing what goes into consumer behaviour, then we’d better start doing things differently.

Read the full article here.

One Race CEO’s won’t Win…but need to!

Technique lags technology. Fact. The need for leaders to keep pace with technology is relentless and never-ending. It is a race that can’t be won. However leaders today cannot afford to hide behind walls excusing techno-illiteracy on their part. As decision-makers within their organisation they need to understand the possibilities and limits offered by technology. Only once they do this can they frame the ‘right’ questions to be asking in order to leverage the advantage technology offers. The lack of understanding impedes the CEO’s ability to make the right calls and leverage the advantage.

Usually IT systems are too expensive, complex and not flexible enough…this then impacts on the ability to understand, use and adapt them when necessary. Problem is, where do CEO’s go to get such insights, ask the ’stupid’ questions and explore how to apply and leverage the available technology? The answer is ‘nowhere’…well not that I am aware of at least!

That is why TomorrowToday.biz is seriously looking into providing a meeting boma for the CEO, the IT person, the HR person and well OK, the FD: after all they are the people who usually know the most about what is really going on within a business! Image such a meeting to expose this select group to some of the available technology followed by specific discussion as to how best to stategically put this technology to work? First some mindshifts will need to happen but that out the way, could make for a fun day with massive implications! Any takers?

Millenials reversing the trend

It’s always difficult convincing an adult audience, that from a Generational perspective, the so-called ‘Millennials’ (Gen Y, Echo Boomers) are going to be more civic minded, more conservative (whilst being more aware), and focus on rebuilding the planet (amongst other things). Mostly because their example of a Millennial is often one of their own kids. And let’s be honest, what parent thinks their own kids are going to be some of those things? Their kids are teenagers, and generally speaking teens are going through a life stage in which pushing the boundaries and experimenting are part and parcel of what they have to do in order to develop into healthy contributing adults.

So it’s with a smile of satisfaction that I point you to some research coming out of Canada (Project Teen Canada headed up by Reginald Bibby, a University of Lethbridge sociologist) that shows that today’s Millennial Generation are reversing some trends that you probably wouldn’t expect them to. Sex, Drugs, Family Values, having children, smoking.

This reversing trend has been captured beautifully in a short video clip entitled ‘Lost Generation‘. If you’ve not seen it, it’s worth a trip to YouTube see get a first hand view.

There are some thoughts about the role parents are playing in the reversing of these trends, but the article is summed up like this:

In the end, the kids will likely follow their own instincts. While they might be taking silent cues from their parents—and might even seek help in times of crisis—they’ve little time for adult authorities who worry about their futures. Jesse Lupini, the 17-year-old from Victoria, summed up the sentiment in a recent guest column for his local paper. “Adults have generated a number of teen stereotypes,” he writes. “Teens are irresponsible, untrustworthy, rude, sexually obsessed, loud, inclined to drink to excess, take drugs, eat badly . . . ” But how about the adults who lie, drive drunk and do drugs, Lupini asks? What about the corporations run by adults that market junk food and sexualized clothing to youth? What about the parents who buy that stuff for their kids? “Frankly,” he concludes, having worked up a rather adult-sounding rant, “it’s a wonder we’re coping as well as we are.”

TomorrowToday has been researching, exploring and communicating Generational Theory through our edutaining presentation ‘Mind the Gap‘ for 7 years now. We’re still as convinced as ever that it’s a framework every organisation needs to include in the multiple frameworks it uses to understand people dynamics and interactions.