… so why would you even consider using a service like Izea to pay bloggers to write about you? Just because it's social media doesn't make it right. This isn't an issue of fine lines and gray areas: Writing an endorsement of a product you have never used is illegal and has always been illegal [...]
Archive | May, 2009
Double your value
Lunch meat vs. lunch meat + reusable container. A reusable package turns a simple product into two simple products. Twice the reasons to buy. What simple thing could you change or add that doubles the perceived value of your product?
Too many choices
More choice doesn't mean more sales. Instead, it often frustrates customers and sends them to a competitor. Canon offers 20 models of small digital cameras. How different can they be? Dell offer 6 lines of consumer laptops in 14 variations, every one customizable beyond the 4 choices they suggest. (Plus business, small business technical, and [...]
Mother’s Day WOM Smackdown — WOM is a two-way conversation — El Pollo Loco vs. KFC
KFC scored an amazing word of mouth hit when Oprah offered a coupon for a free meal at KFC. It was amazingly popular. Until El Pollo Loco discovered a loophole: The coupon wasn’t good on Mother’s Day. From National Restaurant News: El Pollo Loco on Thursday posted a viral video suggesting that KFC doesn’t honor [...]
Word of mouth is more than social media
It’s easy to talk about blogs, Twitter, Facebook. and viral videos. We can see how they work, we can sign up and play with them. Word of mouth is much bigger. It is a wide-spread natural phenomenon that happens online, offline, and everywhere. Social media is one set of tools that we use help word [...]
Simplify to start conversations
If you want people to talk about your business, you'll have more success of you give them a single thing to talk about. Many people are just crazy in love with their Flip video cameras. Flip has a following as passionate as TiVo or iPhone. It confuses me, because many digital cameras take the exact [...]
Talking word of mouth with restaurant chain executives
On Saturday, May 16, I'll be moderating a discussion with top restaurant companies on how chains and multi-concept operators are increasing revenue and guest loyalty through word of mouth and social media. The discussion is part of the National Restaurant Association's annual Restaurant Executive Breakfast here in Chicago. The breakfast runs from 8:30 – 10:00 [...]
Sales vs. Marketing
Sales – you call them. Marketing – they call you. Marketing makes sales work better. Sales covers for weak marketing. Peter Drucker: “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” (Thanks to Olivier Blanchard)
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