Orange Envelopes | Small Business Optimized Marketing > By Design

I was invited yesterday to attend a couple of high-level presentations at an enormous Cleveland-based health care concern that intends to pursue web-based fundraising initiatives.

Two groups were invited to compete for a seven figure campaign to test the efficacy and potential of web-based fundraising and each sent high-powered teams to deliver their extraordinarily mediocre messages through their numbingly ineffective PowerPoint presentations.

At the end of the day, after our private recap of both presentations, we were all in agreement that neither company did themselves any favors with their presentations, although each had the potential to blow the other out of the water with an exemplary, creative, memorable and distinctive presentation.

What went wrong? Both were wedded to the PowerPoint presentation template that insists on delivering text based information in a visual environment. With bullets. Endless bullets. Each one read to us. Just in case we had become suddenly stricken illiterate.

So, let’s review. Each presenter brings a laptop to connect with a high-resolution LCD projector capable of displaying brilliant video, and each decides to present…. (wait for it)… TEXT. Brilliant.

Here’s the rub. Both competitors had amazing, compelling and memorable stories to tell. Huge, nationally recognized clients with exciting success stories. Creative campaigns that generated lasting results. And neither elected to tell any of these stories.

However, we were graced with annoyingly derivative methodology diagrams, dense process flow charts and unnecessary recitations of dry stats and figures that contributed nothing to our attempt to determine one thing: are you the guys we want to execute this campaign?

Let’s revisit the irony here… two firms send teams to demonstrate how wonderfully creative and capable they are and both center their presentations not around story, emotion, community, engagement or connections (words not even mentioned for the first 90 minutes), but around bullet points. I’m sold.

I know it’s been said before, but let’s say it again:

1. tell a story. first. foremost. If you don’t know how, read Beyond Bullet Points and learn. Before your next presentation. I’ll remember a story. I won’t remember that 4.8% of direct mail recipients will elect to give their contact information if presented with a free premium option. Or is that 8.4%? Or 6.9%? Oh hell, I forgot.
2. use visuals. See the slide deck embedded above. Simple graphics aren’t so simple, but they are devastatingly effective. And they support your story. (see how this all ties together?)
3. edit ruthlessly. Don’t use eight words when five will do. Or two. This is a presentation, not a shared group reading session. If you pick the right visual, you won’t need a single word on the slide.
4. learn your presentation. I believe that most presenters fill their slides with bullet points as a crutch. They’re afraid that they’ll forget to mention something, so they make sure that every single talking point is included in their slides. The solution: practice. Learn what you want to say with each visual. Use the slide notes feature if you need to have a visual reminder visible only to you. Just get rid of the lists of text that detract from you and your story.

Want to separate yourself from your competitors? Learn how to tell a visually compelling story. Your clients will be eternally grateful that they never have to sit through another miserable PowerPoint bullet point recitation and you’ll be their hero. Win win.

A recent study released by Universal McCann reveals that we are immersed in the fourth wave of internet usage characterized by social networking participation. Their study notes that social networks are becoming the dominant platform for personal interaction and content creation and distribution.

The global internet audience now totals 625 million people, with almost 100 million of those users located in the United States. Nearly two-thirds of these users are active in one or more social networks.

What’s also revealed is how these users spend their time on the social networks. The most popular activity was watching video, followed by listening to streaming audio, blogging and connecting with friends.

What does this mean for you or your industry?

First of all, the place to connect with people – whether personally or professionally – is on one of the social networks. They’ve made their choice how they want to interact with others, and it’s not through email. For professionals, this typically means LinkedIn, though Facebook is being used more and more by professionals who have learned to adjust their privacy settings so as not to share overly personal information with other professional contacts.

These trends also mean that you need to generate content that is interesting, engaging and compelling enough to generate views and inspire your connections to share your content with their own network of friends and colleagues. The dominant format for this content: video. If you’re not creating videos to put on your site, your blog, your LinkedIn page, your Facebook Fan Page, then it’s time to start.

But don’t stop with video. Over 70% of social networkers also post photos to their pages. People want to see who they’re connecting with, and a thoughtfully designed series of photos can generate a powerful impression. For the professional, these can include images of your office, your personal workspace, your coworkers and even photos from events that you participate in. Sharing some personal visual insights will increase your familiarity, strengthening your connections with your networks.

Finally, if your company really wants to engage online, you need to create a community that’s worth joining. That means frequently updated, compelling content. The promise of interaction with other, like-minded people. A thoughtful, meaningful – even delightful – user experience. And the ability to listen to your community members and adjust your activities to satisfy their needs, not yours.

How would things change in your business if it were acquired by The Four Seasons? What would happen if new management came in and asked the question: How can we be the very best provider of (your product/service)?

Even without knowing the details of your business, I can proffer some guesses how Four Seasons management would change your operations.

1. Become obsessed with quality. Four Seasons CEO Isadore Sharp commented in a seminar at The Rotman School that his goal was to be the best wherever he established a hotel. He defined “best” as delivering the best service to his guests, so he had a specific business component to focus on. He did not define “best” as having the best designed hotels (the W chain excels at design), or 5-star rated restaurants or the finest artwork. Unless those elements were necessary to contribute to the overall service experience.
2. Deliver a memorable experience. Several years ago, on a trip to San Diego, I stayed at a Four Seasons property. When I gave the valet my car keys he asked me my name to put on the valet tag. As I headed into the hotel to check in, I was greeted by name by four employees. How they could know my name when I just gave it to the valet moments before, I don’t know. What I do know is that it was a distinctive and memorable example of personal service that I never forgot.
3. Focus on the personal. When I stay at a Four Seasons, I expect a beautiful room, a plush robe in the closet, a comfortable work area and marble in the bathroom. These environmental attributes are just the essential table stakes to compete in the arena of luxury hotels. What’s unexpected, and therefore memorable, are the small, personal touches that truly resonate with the individual guest. Employees who can greet you by name. The hotel in New York knowing that you like strawberries, but not grapes, because the staff in San Diego noticed the fruit you ate and the fruit you left and noted your preferences in their online system. The hotel in Chicago that plugs in a power strip next to your desk because they know you always plug in multiple devices and two outlets just aren’t enough. They pay attention to each guest and make sure that every stay conforms precisely to that guest’s needs and desires. My preferences are different from yours, so they will treat me differently from you. And we will both be delighted with our stay.
4. Empower your staff. The single biggest contributor to the Four Seasons’ success, according to Sharp, was his decision to empower his staff to make decisions on their own to resolve guest concerns or complaints. Problems were addressed instantly, without the need for time consuming approvals and management intervention. The guests were happier, the staff members took personal pride in delivering exceptional service, and the hotel extended their competitive advantage over their lumbering competitors.

I’m pretty confident that the Four Seasons has no interest in your business, but why not examine your business processes to determine how you can radically improve your customer interactions? Brainstorm with your staff to discover ways to deliver delightful and memorable personal experiences, empower your staff to make service decisions on their own and commit yourself to delivering a level of service that provides you with an unassailable competitive advantage.

I wrote yesterday how Continental Airlines lost my luggage Sunday night on my trip from Tulsa to Cleveland and yet managed to salvage their reputation by accepting responsibility, apologizing quickly, detailing how they were going to solve the problem and then following through and delivering my bag to my house.

But I got to thinking last night how they could have turned their failure into a memorable example of their customer commitment with the application of imagination and creativity.

The steps I detailed yesterday are the customer service minimums necessary to assuage an aggrieved customer. But what if you want to do more? How can you transform a customer service mishap into a distinctive, memorable, brand building event?

Let’s consider Continental’s dilemma: they lost my bag and must return it. So, how could they transform this simple logistical exercise into a memorable experience? Off the top of my head I can think of several.

1. Provide me with text messages, Tweets or email notifications when my bag makes it onto the plane, when it lands, when it’s put in the delivery van and when it’s delivered. Every bag is barcoded and it would not be difficult to extract this information along the bag’s route and keep me posted regarding its progress home.
2. When delivering the bag, put a special luggage tag on the bag, preprinted with name, address and frequent flyer number that connotes special bag handling treatment on future flights. The tag could instantly communicate to baggage handlers that this customer was inconvenienced before, let’s make sure this passenger’s bag is never mishandled again. It would be nice to know that my bag was being treated like a VIP on future trips.
3. How about popping a free upgrade into my frequent flyer account for use on my next flight to compensate me for my inconvenience?
4. Attach an envelope to the returned bag with coupons for free drinks or movies on my next flight. The envelope would be designed to stay attached to the bag so that I would have them in hand the next time I went to the airport and checked in.
5. Send me an email apologizing for the airline’s error and providing a link to an assortment of perks that I can print or send to my smartphone to use on my next flight.

Instead of putting the failure behind them and forgetting about it, they should use it to provide continuous reminders of their commitment to passenger comfort and service. Celebrate the mistake, bring it front and center, let other Continental staff members recognize those passengers that have suffered from less than stellar service so they can make up for it. Track the mistakes, publish them, and make sure your staff is aware of your trends and rewarded for eliminating poor service.

Or, they could follow United’s example and just break my stuff. Any other ideas?

United Airlines suffered a very public viral humiliation last week with the release of YouTube sensation United Breaks Guitars. As of this writing, more than 2.6 million people have watched the video and more than 13,000 people have left scathing comments about United’s lack of compassion and minimal care.

So, when I returned yesterday from a 3 day trip to Tulsa, OK on Continental Airlines and my suitcase (an orange Tumi bag, naturally) failed to circle the baggage carousel, I was wondering if I was about to suffer a similar customer service nightmare. Fortunately, Continental did just about everything right – with the exception of actually delivering my bag, along with me, to Cleveland.

Rule 1: Accept Responsibility
Don’t try to shift blame to another department, another city’s staff, heavy airline traffic or aberrant weather. Your client doesn’t want to hear excuses. United took their beating largely because they refused to accept responsibility for what was undeniably their staff’s fault.

Continental’s baggage claim rep, unlike United’s, was cordial and professional, acknowledged the airline’s error, immediately discovered where my bag was (Houston) and expressed concern whether there was anything in the bag that I needed that night. She then adhered to Rule #2, looked me in the eye and I listened to her…

Rule 2: Apologize
I’m constantly amazed how few businesses actually apologize for their errors. Dry cleaners, waiters, mechanics, cable installers. No matter who you are, if you or your company screw up, the first words out of your mouth should be “I’m sorry.” Even if it’s not your fault. Even if it may be partially or largely your customer’s fault. Your apology isn’t an admission of guilt, it’s simply an acknowledgement that you have sympathy for the customer having to deal with their situation.

At 11 at night, after traveling for 7 hours, I was tired and annoyed, and Ms. Robinson’s sincere apology and concern salved my irritation. She knew my bag’s sleepover in Houston wasn’t her fault, and I knew it wasn’t her fault, but by apologizing for the company, she shifted the focus from the mistake to…

Rule 3: Explain How You Will Correct The Mistake
Everyone screws up sometime. We understand. What’s crucial is how will you correct your error? What’s your plan? How will you resolve the problem without introducing more inconvenience or disruption in your customer’s life?

After accepting responsibility and apologizing for Continental’s mishandling of my bag, Ms. Robinson told me exactly how they were going to resolve my problem: my bag was going to be flown up in the morning and they would deliver it to any address I specified. Then she provided me with all the contacts and phone numbers of anyone I might need to talk with the next day and I left the terminal hoping that they would actually…

Rule 4: Correct the Mistake
Promising to correct the mistake is an important step, but actually taking the promised action is essential. So, when I received a call from the third-party service that dropped my bag off on my front porch I knew that I wouldn’t be writing a viral song about Continental’s baggage handling miscues.

What more could I expect? They screwed up. They admitted it, apologized, promised to fix the problem quickly, and did what they promised. No hard feelings, Continental. Now, can you send Ms. Robinson over to United to show them how it’s done?

This week saw the debut of a YouTube video United Breaks Guitars by Canadian songwriter Dave Carroll that satirized United Airlines’ negligence and indifference to the way their O’Hare baggage handlers damaged his guitar. The video went viral and accumulated more than two and a half million views and over 14,000 comments in less than a week.

The attraction and impact of Carroll’s video demonstrates the enormous potential of social media tools when wielded skillfully and exposed the vulnerability of sclerotic organizations with no social media aptitude or capacity to engage their clients in substantive dialogue.

Do you want your SM content to have the same impact? Follow these lessons:

Lesson 1: Tell a story. Marketers continually preach the value of storytelling for a reason: stories stick. Carroll’s song tells his entire story from witnessing the guitar carnage at O’Hare to the denouement nine months later when his claim is finally rejected by the kind Ms. Irlweg. There was no recitation of United’s lost baggage policies, their industry ranking in bagage claims or even details of the damage done to his guitar. Raw data simply doesn’t have the impact of a well crafted story. No one who views his video will forget his basic narrative: United broke my guitar, they don’t care, they don’t take any responsibility for their negligence and he’ll never fly them again.

Lesson 2: Keep It Simple. Carroll’s song reinforces a simple message directed at United: You broke it, You should fix it. Simple, easy to grasp and powerfully true. If you click through to his personal website, he provides a written narrative that contains all the gruesome details of his nine month saga. But the song is actually more powerful because the core elements are all contained in his facile lyrics.

Lesson 3: Be Authentic. Authenticity is powerful and persuasive. Carroll doesn’t embellish his story, but relies instead on understated frustration and anger that thousands of his viewers can empathize with. Although he may be entirely justified in ranting against United’s casual indifference, his temperate presentation enhances his believability and strengthens his message.

For those wanting to emulate United, these simple lessons should help you enrage half a million clients yourself:

Lesson 1: Design Client Interactions to Maximize Anger and Frustration. One of the reasons that Carroll’s video resonates so powerfully is that it perfectly captures the indifferent response that so many travelers have encountered with the major airlines. While several upstart airlines like Virgin and Southwest have adopted business models that reflect a genuine concern for their passengers, the legacy airlines, including United, American and Delta retain business models that appear to be designed to antagonize and disappoint their passengers. Until the advent of accessible social media channels, they could get away with boorish behavior, but not anymore.

Lesson 2: Refuse to Engage Purposefully In Any Social Media Channels. United has a corporate presence on a single social media channel: Twitter.  And that presence appears to exist for outbound dissemination of ticketing specials and other company promotions, not to engage passengers in active dialogue. Is it any wonder that they appear coldly imperious and uncaring?

Lesson 3: Outsource Your Limited SM Participation to Public Relations. Visit United’s Twitter page and their profile reveals that the account is managed by their public relations department. Not by someone on the front lines of customer service. Not by anyone who has the authority to solve problems immediately. Nope, United apparently views Twitter as another media channel to be managed for their corporate interests, not as a method to interact in real time with their passengers. Want to complain? Not our department.

Lesson 4: Limit Your Response When Confronted With Execrable Behavior. In a case study for what not to do when confronted with appalling corporate behavior, United has limited their response to two brief Twitter messages (right) asserting that they intend to make it right with Dave Carroll and to use the video in future training so everyone receives better service from us. This anemic response is being overwhelmed by over 14,000 nearly universal negative comments attached to the YouTube video. As the video gains more exposure, it will be picked up in other media outlets and has the potential to inflict serious damage on United’s precarious brand image. But it appears that their ingrained, insular culture will trump any creative response that takes responsibility for their negligence and embraces serious change in their service delivery.

Imagine if all the social media tools and channels that we rely upon today were available back in the 1930′s while Stalin extended his dominion over the Soviet empire.

Eager to propagandize stories documenting the unrivaled success of his agricultural collectivization and industrial expansion, Stalin would have turned to his battalions of Party apparatchiks and impelled them to repeatedly Tweet the wonders of Sovietization. And like the advertising agencies slammed in today’s AdAge article, Stalin’s Soviet Ministry of Communications Enterprises and Functions (Digital Formulations) would have been an abject failure.

Mimicking Stalin’s command and control methodology, today’s behemoth advertising agencies are simply attempting to appropriate the assorted social media platforms as yet another ancillary broadcast channel where they can propagandize their uniformly one-way message.

Pursuing social media tactics that would have made the commissars proud, these ad agencies lack a few significant components that differentiate successful SM campaigns, including:

1. Transparency – the best SM programs enlist senior executives to participate in the conversations. They may not tweet with the regularity of their employees, but their participation sends a distinct message that dialogue with their clients is important for everyone in the company.
   The laggards outsource their SM chatter to ad agencies or other third parties, clearly communicating to their own staff and their clients (who will inevitably discover their dereliction) that social media is employed simply as another tactic, not as part of any strategic communication or brand building plan.
2. Authenticity – Twitter posts from named executives and employees resonate with clients and prospects. When the CEO pronounces his commitment to customer service or product quality in a global, open forum, that proclamation has significant meaning and impact. It’s not a nameless, faceless corporate voice, but Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh or Richard at Dell making these statements. Real people articulating real promises in their real voices.
3. Conversation – Social media is about dialogue, not broadcasting. Relationships aren’t built or strengthened when you yell your message at an individual over and over. He resents it and you derive no value unless your hectoring somehow compells him to purchase your product. Not likely. SM is all about generating conversations. Getting to know others online, building relationships, engendering trust and maybe, just maybe, finding a way to transact business together.
4. Longevity – Mars, Inc, the candy company that produces Skittles, followed the advice of their ad agency to make a highly visible commitment to convert Skittles’ entire online presence to Twitter. It turned out to be a huge failure. One of the biggest mistakes was for Skittles to cannonball directly into the Twitter pool and expect an enthusiastic welcome. Although their splash was huge, their welcome was not. Skittles had made no effort to create an online community, to engage with their customers or to provide any type of customer support or interaction. The strongest SM participants are in for the long haul. Their employees establish online reputations, contribute to discussions, interact freely with all participants and integrate their SM activities with their daily routines.
5. Community – Ad agency employees need a huge banner strung across their  ergonomically pure, ecologically sustainable Herman Miller outfitted cubicles reading: It’s Not About You. Self interest may be the single defining quotient of Twitter accounts that are managed by ad agencies. They formulate dozens of clever ways to announce their new product, to roll out a contest or slick giveaway and to link to their own promotional websites. What they don’t engage in is dialogue of any kind.

I read a post from Chris Brogan this morning about Dunkin Donuts’ new iPhone app designed to assist the office coffee runner who needs to keep all the orders straight.

Brogan’s blog post and accompanying screen shot exemplified how simple, effective and targeted design could deliver a terrific user experience while solving a common problem: how to collect increasingly complex coffee and breakfast orders from an entire office staff.

I intended to write a post about the effectiveness of simple design so I downloaded the Dunkin Run app, launched it and immediately decided to change the theme of my post.

3 Quick Steps to Devastate Your Clever iPhone App:

1. Compel your user to enter login information that refers back to an unnamed site where the user ID must have already been created.
2. Provide no instruction, hints, links or ability to create a user ID from your application.
3. Ignite burning hatred of your application that cannot be accessed.

I’ve got to wonder… did anyone from Dunkin Donuts’ marketing department ever take a look at this app?

Did no one consider that brand new users – without existing Dunkin Donuts user ID’s – would try the app and hit a brick wall?

Where was the beta testing?

Dunkin Donuts: FAIL.

Cheezhead this week wrote about Monster.com’s recent announcement that they will (for a hefty fee) execute a social media strategy for their clients.

What’s noticeable about this announcement isn’t that large companies are becoming aware of the value of social media and are trying to cash in on the gold rush of consulting fees that uncertain and unfamiliar companies will fork over to play in the social media pool.

No, the shocking thing about this announcement is that Monster.com has absolutely no social media presence themselves. They don’t tweet. They have no Facebook page. And I can’t find a Monster blog. All of which suggests that perhaps they’re not the best source of social media advice.

What’s also disturbing is that they don’t promise any tangible ROI, just a number of impressions. That’s right, for a mere $12,000 they will set up a Facebook page and Twitter profile for your comapny and promise that a banner ad will appear on 2 million Facebook pages.  Are you whipping out your checkbook yet?

Developing a social media strategy isn’t something that you can outsource to a third party. It should be part of your strategic marketing plan with specific objectives and an anticipated ROI. Company participants need to engage online in genuine conversations. Bloggers need to write about their real world issues. Problems. Successes. Difficult issues. Complex questions. With an authentic, human voice.

It’s not easy, it’s not cheap, it’s not quick and it’s not someone else’s responsibility.

Sony has transformed itself into one of the most disappointing brands of the 21st century. The company that dominated consumer electronics for most of my life hasn’t had a bona fide consumer electronics hit outside of their gaming systems in years, and their product releases, with business partner Ericsson, of multimedia playing phones and smartphones have been huge disappointments.

Sony Ericsson’s response to their negligible impact on the smartphone market? The introduction of an $800 smartphone to compete against the iPhone and Blackberry lineups. It’s almost as if they’re trying to fail.

Sony Ericsson is not renowned as a mobile phone provider, as evidenced by their 5% market share. Their forays into Walkman phones – phones capable of downloading and playing music – produced little consumer interest

Sony has always had a sharp eye for design, and they’ve certainly brought their design sensibility to their joint venture. Sony has designed and manufactured some of the most stylish and technically advanced electronics in the world. But their grasp of design apparently doesn’t extend to the full concept of design thinking, which also takes into account the entire user experience surrounding one’s product.

Play to Your Strengths
Anyone who has used a Sony product in the past 10 years knows how miserable the Sony user experience can be. I’ve owned Sony cameras, videocameras, ebooks and laptops and can attest that their devices don’t play well together, much less play well with others. Sony continually provides beautifully designed hardware with thoughtlessly designed software – a combination that guarantees a lousy experience. And yet they continue.

There is still a huge opening for Sony Ericsson in the smartphone market that can exploit one of Sony’s only remaining strengths: gaming.

Sony has sold over 50 million of their portable PSP gaming systems worldwide. They have experience in that sector that no other manufacturer has. They’ve watched the iPhone develop into a serious gaming platform, validating the market for combination phone/gaming systems.

So what does Sony Ericsson do? They release an $800 smartphone with a great camera and no gaming. Wow.

Maybe I’m the one who’s out of touch. It’s certainly possible. But I have serious doubt that a 12 megapixel camera will drive sales of an $800 smartphone when virtually every other smartphone offers at least a passable 3 MP picture. I just don’t believe that photos drive phone sales nearly as much as entertainment options drive phone sales.

Oh, by the way, Sony Ericsson isn’t even releasing their new phone for another 6 months. That just gives them more time to fall behind the new iPhone, Palm Pre and new Blackberry introductions before they launch an inexplicably expensive phone in a midst of a global recession.. Good luck guys. You’re going to need it.