Busted by the Honda police?
A colleague of mine just bought a Honda.
He needed to pick it up tout de suite but the Honda sales rep wanted to slow him down. Apparently the car needed to be detailed yet.
When my buddy declined the detail in favor of getting the car sooner, the rep said he couldn’t do that. Asked why, he replied “the law of Honda.” Apparently it’s Honda law that every car gets detailed before leaving the lot.
Sounds like good customer service … and good customer service matters … BUT …
The customer gets to decide what service means!. . .. . .
(That, and the fact that he was told the car was en route from a different location while it was actually sitting on the dealership’s lot all day somewhat soured my friend’s new car buzz.)
The $30,000 toothbrush
Mike Wagner has a great post (and follow-up) on how poor service, breaking promises, and essentially not living up to their brand cost a hotel $30,000 … all for a missing toothbrush.
Here’s the story:
He was in town to deliver a seminar, had forgotten his toothbrush, tried to take the hotel up on their stated in-room offer of providing replacement items for things that guests have forgotten, and was invited to purchase an over-priced toothbrush at the gift shop.
Here’s the result:
A seminar participant shared with the group, “I’m negotiating a contract for more than $30,000 with that hotel later this week. We bring our most important customers from around the country here throughout the year. That’s the hotel where we were planning to have them stay. Now maybe we won’t. Their sales staff has been great to work with, but if that’s the way they deliver on their brand…”
Buzz starts in the hive
Seth Godin fingered this post at The Messaging Times about buzz.
Key point: it starts with the people who want the buzz to spread. It starts with the people who are building/creating/growing/nurturing the product/process/market/widget.
Buzz starts in the hive. No buzz in the hive - no buzz on the street. You gotta drink your own koolaid, eat your own dogfood, be passionate about what you want others to be passionate about. If you can’t, tear it down and start over.
Makes me think …
Tags: buzz, marketing, hive, seth godin, marketing times, john koetsier
Yippey-yi-yay
Remember that …
totally innovative never-been-done-before six-figure customer support, training, and marketing initiative for a multi-ten-figure product line with extremely high gross margin
… project that I was pitching a week or so ago? It’s a go. Just completed it via conference call a few minutes ago. I am pumped!
Now, of course, the real work starts.
Tags: project, management, woohoo, john koetsier
VentureThree: best self-branding site ever?
Text Link Ads just informed me that (yay!) they’ve sold another ad for me. (You can see ‘em down near the bottom of the right column under, appropriately, text link ads.)
This is cool, because it pays the hosting bills and because I make more from TLA than I ever did from Google AdWords. It’s even more cool because text link ads are incredibly aesthetically better than AdWords. But it’s uber-cool because the latest one is for VentureThree.
Naturally, when someone wants to market themselves on my blog, I check them out. And VentureThree has the coolest interim site I’ve ever seen.
The title at the top says Branding | Brand Consultants | Strategic Identity Consulting Design, and the page looks like this:
Simple. Direct. Powerful. Intriguing. Bold. Clean. Smart. Beautiful.
I love it. I want to work for a company with that kind of strategic aesthetic vision.
. . .
. . .
In case you’re wondering, I haven’t posted anything about any of the other advertisers on this site … so it’s not like you buy an ad, you get a puff piece. Just so you know!
Tags: venturethree, branding, consulting, brands, john koetsier, adwords, text link ads
Alternatives, Inc.
I think I just saw one of the worst company names in history. OK, after ACME.
A truck passed me today on my usual lunch hour walk. On the side, in hand-lettered type, was the name of the company: Alternative Cartage, Inc.
I can just imagine how this plays in marketing.
“Um, yes, we’re Alternative Cartage Inc., and we do want your business, sir. The one thing I can tell you about us is that we’re definitely different than the other guys. See, they’re them and we’re us. We’re an alternative.”
Not the best alternative, not the only alternative, not even a better alternative, but I guess, yes, they are an alternative, just like everyone else.
I do give this business owner a modicum of credit, however. At least he didn’t name it Agressive Trucking along with the other 20 bozos who had that bright idea.
Or maybe he saw them in the Yellow Pages and figured that being #21 was worse than having an even lousier business name.
Tags: business, name, naming, branding, john koetsier
Microsoft oPhone
Now this is how to respond to your competition:
(Doesn’t change the fact that I think iPhone is going to rock, but it’s funny, well-done, and … it’s got me listening.)
Tags: iphone, ophone, microsoft, apple, marketing, youtube, john koetsier, pr
Kodak: Marketing with balls
Advertising this good deserves recognition:
This is marketing from people who have read the Cluetrain. This is marketing from people who give a damn. This is marketing from people who are having fun.
If all advertising was this good you wouldn’t need to skip commercials.
Tags: ad, advertising, kodak, kodak moment, guts, marketing, john koetsier
Russian chocolate: for men only?
I had no idea that chocolate was only for men. But then again, I’ve never been to Russia:
In case that’s not quite clear enough, there’s a warning on the back:
My niece just came back from Russia - visiting with her dance troupe. Amazingly, she attended a session in Catherine the Great’s private theatre. She also saw these wacky chocolate bars from Nestle.
Why are they only for men? I’d love to know the story - I can only guess.
Maybe manly Russian men don’t eat chocolate, and this is Nestle’s version of a Marlboro cowboy. Maybe the chocolate contains testosterone and other male hormones that would have deleterious effects on women.
If you know the marketing story behind this, let me know! (Please.)
[ update ]
My wife did a simple Google search and found this Russian site that explains chocolate for men.
An excerpt:
The idea of this product creation, intended only for men, is based on deep understanding of a modern man psychology. “The role of woman in a society is more and more increasing. A distinction between a woman and a man is gradually drawn. So much the men would like to have things, which will belong only to them. Considering this need, “Nestle” company developed a key idea of “untouchable man’s property”, which was laid in the basis of Nestle® Classic for Men strategic concept”,- Aleksandra Tarasinkevich, senior manager of trademarks of confectionery products department of “Nestle” company, says.
Interesting …
Tags: nestle, chocolate, men, russia, marketing, john koetsier
80% of the market is conservative
I popped into the local Toyota dealership a couple of days ago …
I’m looking for a car, and since our company is going through a lean transformation (essentially, we trying to grow a culture based on the Toyota Production System) I thought I’d check out the products of that process.
Unfortunately, while all of Toyota’s products are excellent mechanically, none of them stir my soul in the least. Camry, Corolla: bland as white bread. The Prius is interesting ecologically, but vanilla in terms of style. And so on …
I talked to the sales guy about it, telling him I was interested in something with style and aesthetic appeal, and he said that 80% of the market is conservative … buying 4-door sedans without too much regard for style and look.
Is that true? I sure hope not.
Tags: market, conservative, aesthetics, toyota, john koetsier
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Sparkplug 9 is John Koetsier's blog on life, the universe, and everything,
but mostly the stuff you see big in the tags to the left.
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