Being Peter Kim

Doing what's wrong for the customer: JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Do you ever get privacy policy notices from the financial institutions you deal with?  You have to according to the law.  I got one from Chase today and found the phrasing quite interesting.  Chase gave me two privacy option choices.

- Option 1:  "Even if you do tell us not to share, we may do so...as permitted by law."
- Option 2:  "Even if you do tell us not to share, we may share other types of information within our family."

To me, this says that Chase is going to try and make money off of my information in any way legally permissible.  Whether I like it or not.

This is very far from the concept of customer advocacy - defined by Forrester as "the perception on the part of consumers that the firm does what's best for its customers, not just the firm's own bottom line."

It seems to me that if Chase really had my best interest in mind, they'd write this policy in plain English and give me an option to truly retain my privacy.  Is 2 - 3% on all of my transactions not enough to run a business?

Business traveler? Watch what you eat on the road.

If you travel on business, however in/frequently, you know that finding "good" dining options can often be a challenge.  For example, look at Joseph Jaffe's fatblogging chronicles (good thing your SL avatar never gets fat, right?)  I've done about 800,000 miles over the past decade or so; early on, it used to be steaks and sit down meals, but now it's whatever I can get.

Funny, I had just read an article in American Way about Austin breakfast tacos. I was about to grab a burrito last week at DFW but went for McNuggets instead.  When I'm on the road, I'm a fast food connoisseur and gravitate towards Chipotle, In-N-Out, Chick-Fil-A, and Jamba Juice when available. 

But sometimes it's not about how tasty the food is - sometimes its about how safe instead.  There's a great article in today's WSJ about staying healthy on the road.  I'm not a big fan of potty humor, but reading euphemisms in the Journal like "Montezuma's Revenge, Delhi Belly, Hong Kong Dog, the Aztec Two-Step, or the Trotskies" is a great way to start a Tuesday morning.

Stay healthy out there!

links for 2007-04-24

• Business Week: Instant Stampede
  viral marketing and peerflix.com
  (tags: pressquote wom)

Ad Age Digital Fact Pack 2007 is out

Ad Age has published their 2007 Digital Fact Pack.  If you're not familiar with it yet (there's a 2006 version as well), it's a great one-stop source of information on the state of digital marketing and media.

Why would I post about it?  Because in a Monday information wave of email and RSS, it almost escaped my attention and I'm guessing you might have overlooked it as well.

links for 2007-04-18

• Brandweek:  Marketers of the Next Generation (pdf)
  Congrats, Eric!
  (tags: pressquote)

My panel at ARF re:think

I had a short panel discussion at the ARF's re:think conference on the gap between marketers and agencies.

This being a research conference, I expected questions regarding research methodology.  Fair enough.  The research clearly got some audience members feeling defensive - one exchange went like this:

Audience member: "What's the purpose of advertising?"
Me: "Is this a trick question?"
Audience member: "No."
Me: "To drive sales."
Audience member: "How do you define sales?"
Me: "Is that a trick question?"
Audience member: "No.  The purpose of advertising isn't to drive sales."

This is what's wrong with advertising today.  More people need to be aware that they're part of a business.

Digital Agencies at ARF re:think

The second panel of the day at ARF's re:think conference was "The Agency of the Future" including R/GA, Avenue A|Razorfish, Nitro and Digitas.

Continuing on the one-of-these-outfits-is-not-like-the-other theme, Nick Law, Chief Creative Officer from R/GA shows up in short sleeve shirt, jeans, and swooshes in stark contrast to other panelists in standard business casual.  Interactive is the new traditional and its agency executives appear to have followed suit, so to speak.

Get it?

Followed suit?

Ok moving on, Rance Crain of Ad Age did a nice job of moderating and stirring up the pot.  He suggested an alternative title for his panel as well:  "Digital:  Just Another Silo?"  BTW, I'm guessing he's not a big fan of subservient chicken, either.

Torrence Boone of Digitas described his company as a "full service agency" with roots in direct marketing and capabilities today in integrated and digital marketing.  Which is a good thing because I'm planning a Forrester Wave on integrated agencies later this summer.  Torrance defined a big idea as a filter on what to do or what not to do.  It's built out of consumer insight, media context, and consumption patterns, along with a good dose of gut and intuition.

Steve Marrs of Nitro spoke about his company's small size and global reach.  They have three main offices, in London, New York, and Shanghai (the largest).  Shanghai as largest is intriguing (unless I heard wrong).  Steve said that his agency approaches work by separating strategy from advertising - the way it used to be.  Nitro defines a big idea in part as something that drives business results.  Note to Nitro:  a good place to start would be SEO for "nitro."

Clark Kokich of Avenue A|Razorfish described his company as a "full service interactive advertising agency."  He mentioned that he's been in the agency game for a long time and left his first stint because of a feeling that what matters to client businesses happens inside the core of their firm - untouched by agency projects.  He brought this focus back to AARF to focus on what's "crucial to the client's business."  Clark also mentioned that his agency's purpose is to drive business results, because "you can't build a brand through advertising." 

Nick Law of R/GA showed how the "Agency of the Digital Age" is helping one client - Nike - beyond advertising.  Their work on Nike+ gets deep into product as well as promotion - these being "wearable, networked computing devices."  Not much more to say, because Nick showed how R/GA is doing it.

These agencies are certainly well-positioned for the future, especially given the way consumer behavior is shifting to digital.  However, as interactive agencies compete for strategy work, they are going to run into formidable competition - traditional management consultancies.  We've been here before and last time the old guns won.  This time around...?

Research Agency CEOs at ARF re:think

The second day of the ARF's re:think conference opened with a panels research agency executives, called "The Research Agency of the Future" with the CEOs of GfK, Kantar, TNS and Nielsen.  Moderator Jim Figura of Colgate-Palmolive said it should have been called "Insights Agency of the Future."

Most of what these CEOs had to say didn't get beyond what you can read in the press today.  Thus as Joe Mandese wrote in his post on the official re:think blog, the interesting parts of the panel came from reading between the lines.  In fact, most of the talking points were so generic that I didn't know what company was being referenced for the middle two speakers.  GfK was introduced by the moderator and Nielsen went last by process of elimination.  But for Kantar and TNS, it was a few minutes before I knew what company was being represented.  This was because none of the CEOs told the audience their name, title, or company when they took the podium - they all just started talking.  Perhaps these guys are rockstars of research to the ARF audience.

Klaus Wübbenhorst from GfK proposed his company was best positioned to help businesses - after all, GfK stands for "growth from knowledge."  I asked Klaus about GfK's brand monitoring plans after the panel.  No response - he looked at me as if I had just asked him to go a grab me a coffee with cream and two sugars.  I asked again, mentioning how TNS and Nielsen were building capabilities in the space.  He mumbled something to the effect of "sure, it's important."  I asked him if he thought brand monitoring were an important capability for a research firm to have in its portfolio.  Certainly a slow-pitch underhand softball in my book, but it must have looked more like a Matsusaka gyroball.  No response.  Pretty clear he just wanted me to leave; unfortunately, I had to in order to deliver my breakout session.  Note to Klaus:  70 million and growing.  Think about it.

Credit to Eric Salama from Kantar who was aware enough that the Blackberry in his pocket was creating interference with the mic.  Salama says it's time to mind the gap between what research firms promise and what they deliver.  His firm's strategy hasn't changed for four years, built on three principles:  people, innovation, and data quality.  I asked Eric about brand monitoring, too.  He said none of his companies were doing it.  I asked about Visible Technologies - he said, "yes, we have a partnership with them."

David Lowden from TNS had this to say:  "The research company of the future will be a partner with its clients."  "Cost-effective servicing is an increasingly important issue, but quality must remain."  "Clients will only commit to insight that positively impacts business in a meaningful way."  He did mention the Cymfony acquisition as part of their efforts to stay cutting edge.

David Calhoun from Nielsen was certainly different in appearance - he was the only panelist sans jacket.  He also heavily referenced his client-side experience, which others did not.  Calhoun was formerly at GE and mentioned his experience and mentors from there both in his prepared remarks as well as the Q&A.  These remarks certainly pointed out management acumen that puts The Nielsen Company in good hands - hopefully Calhoun will be able to change the industry standard as well and help marketers make advertising work.

Involved in WOM? Let's talk.

If you are involved in the WOM marketing space, you want to know how big it is, how fast it's growing and where you fit in.  Me too.

My commitments with Forrester's Marketing Forum are complete and now it's time to get back to the research.  I'm starting to work on a WOM marketing forecast in conjunction with WOMMA.  To kick things off, I'll be at two events next week and would love to hear your thoughts:

- Tuesday April 17th:  The ARF's re:think, New York (my session will be on agencies at 11:15 am)
- Wednesday April 18th:  WOMMA's WOMBAT 3, New Orleans (not speaking, attending to listen to you)

Feel free to leave a comment or drop me a note - I'd be happy to set up a specific time/place to meet!

Wunderman: We create relationships...or else

Lester Wunderman, speaking at Forrester's Marketing Forum:

“We create relationships…or else.”

"The business of advertising is to create relationships between buyers and sellers.  We used to be in the business of direct marketing – now we’re in the business of relationship marketing."  We will eventually move on to personal marketing, which will be facilitated by the use of data.

"Communications used to be dominated by the seller.  Today, the hero is the consumer.  Advertising used to speak – now they must listen."  Marketers need to move from product trial to creating and retaining loyal customers.

Four goals for direct marketing:  Relevance, relationship, repurchase, and retention.

Do consumers switch brands because they’re not loyal?  "No - people aren’t loyal to brands like they’re loyal to country, family, or faith.  Loyalty means fealty."  "I doubt you’d put your life on the line for your favorite brand of breakfast cereal."

"Word of mouth is still the most powerful force around."

Closing thought:  “In marketing, as in life, there’s no substitute for imagination or leadership.”

UPDATE:  Mr. Wunderman's own post regarding his speech.

Making Customer-Centric Marketing Real

Yesterday, I gave the opening keynote at Forrester's Marketing Forum.  The audience was engaged and in a great mood.  In a nutshell, here's my message:

Customer centricity is easy to say - and hard to do.

We have some great bloggers here that have written recaps:

• Josh Hallett on hyku
• Julie Katz on Forrester's  Marketing Team Blog
• Marianne Richmond on the Resonance Partnership blog

The most interesting side note from the session?  Six different people told me afterwards that they are familiar with the Wellesley dump.  It's a small world after all.

UPDATE:  Got feedback on the scoring - I was the highest rated speaker of the event.  Good times!

links for 2007-04-11

• Heyday footwear
  Nice job Darin!  New line of global fashion footwear.
  (tags: footwear brand)

Don't fall asleep under a durian tree

Have you heard of durian?  People have a love/hate relationship with this Southeast Asian fruit.  Most people hate it. 

Seth has posted a durian analogy on brand essence and loyalty.  I've found that Seth is like durian to many marketers.  If you love his writing, you can't get enough.  If you hate it, the mere mention of his name is repulsive.  Most people love him.

I had some roommates one time who loved durian (the fruit).  It's on my list of foods titled, "Tried once, never again."  Black pudding is on there.   Chicken feet too.  Anyway, there are a couple of sayings in Laos about durian (h-among many):

1. You always know when you're walking by a durian grove.  Garbage dump?  Durian grove?  Hard to tell.
2.Don't fall asleep under a durian tree.  You may never wake up.

Strange how surströmming doesn't seem to have these problems...(and is quite tasty).

If you've never heard of these things, follow the links.  You'll be a better educated citizen of the global marketing village.  But honestly, nothing compares with the live experience.

Forrester Marketing Forum - this week

I'm in Miami for Forrester's Marketing Forum.  Beginning Tuesday, check out the team blog for updates.  I'll be posting here on the sessions I'm attending as well.

Wednesday morning I'm delivering the opening keynote, so hopefully we'll get a good recap from Josh, Marianne, Julie, or Ross.  (It's kind of tough to blog your own speech.)

links for 2007-04-10

• Seattle Times: Visible Technologies a software company to watch
  Andrew - did you really say that, verbatim? :p
  (tags: brandmonitoring pressquote)

links for 2007-04-09

• Business Week: It's the Conversation Economy, Stupid
  Written by David Armano, of Logic+Emotion/Digitas
  (tags: socialcomputing)

Sales and PR - learn from the mistakes of advertising

When I was a client-side marketer, I would get calls all day long from sales people pitching stuff.  After a month, I learned how to vet call value within the first 10 seconds.  After six weeks, I learned how to respond to aggressive sales pitches.

I don't have [a lot of] sales people calling me anymore, but I do get lots of people calling to try and pitch their great ideas.  Of course you think it's great.  It's your business.  But why would you assume that I am #1 interested in your offer, when I'm almost certainly in the middle of something else that has nothing to do with your call and #2 that I am interested in stopping what I'm doing to listen to your pitch?

Maybe advertisers don't understand this either.  Interruption and irrelevance don't work.  You can't annoy consumers into caring.

Push and pull.  Permission and relationship.  Use them wisely.

Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day

Public service announcement.

Ben & Jerry's free cone day is Tuesday, April 17th.  So turn in those taxes and get something back for a change.

Find a store near you.

links for 2007-04-05

• MediaPost: MySpace Announces Jan. 1 Presidential Election - 04/04/2007
  Great use of social networking - of the people, by the people, for the people.
  (tags: pressquote socialnetworking myspace)
• Economist: Marketing | Building buzz
  (tags: pressquote wom)

Video iPod - am I missing something?

Last weekend, I saw the one thing on my screen that no iPod owner ever wants to see:  the sad iPod.  I've had the folder icon before, but there's something a bit more depressing about the sad icon.  Despite my best efforts, I couldn't revive or reset my 4th gen ipod and was haunted by the *click* of a broken hard drive.

So I resigned myself to selling the old one on eBay for parts (where they actually fetch pretty good prices), then bucked up and bought a new 5.5th gen video ipod, the 5th one I've owned.  Slimmer form factor, better screen resolution (color!), way fewer accessories than the first ipod (where's the dock?  headphone controls?  carrying case?).

I jumped on to the iTunes store to download some video.  The shows I want to watch are already on DVR - why would I want to pay $1.99?  I figured news would be free - nope, $1.99.  Isn't this stuff highly perishable?  So what am I missing?  Why would I want to pay $1.99 for video that I probably already have on DVR, is already yesterday's news, and plays on a screen smaller than the size of a business card?

Is there something I'm missing about why the video part of the video iPod is so great?

links for 2007-04-04

• Brandweek: Google Starts Selling TV Ads
  (tags: pressquote advertising tv)

Publicis creates the Client-Centric Advertising Agency

There's great news this morning - P&G's Oral-B brand has dragged the agency model into the 21st century and a client-centric Publicis team has won the marketing account, including advertising, package design, public relations, in-store communications, and direct mail, among other duties.

Multiple Publicis silos will come together to get the job done.  21st century agency, hired.

Links:
- WSJ:  Procter & Gamble Seeks New Agency Approach
- Brandweek: All for One: P&G's Oral-B Assigns All Duties to One Company

The Reality of Second Life

If you are a marketer and are wondering what to do about Second Life, you need to read these two things:

- Eric Kintz:  Top 10 Reasons as to why I still need to be convinced about marketing on Second Life
- BrandWeek:  Are Marketers Dying on Second Life?

This is a NICHE community, people.  Just because [most] residents aren't running around with chain mail armor and big magic swords doesn't make it fit for mainstream consumer brands.

B.L. Ochman posts a good follow up here.

SL growth stats have certainly been impressive - but like everything, it's got a time and place in the marketing mix.

Google reinvents home wireless!

Here's the real reason I pulled the plug on Earthlink:  Google's new TiSP in-home wireless broadband.  Awesome!

When you're done installing it, you can go for a European vacation and save money on the trip.

What will these guys think of next?  A paper archive for Gmail?

So long, Earthlink. It's been a long 12 years.

I canceled my Earthlink dial-up account last night.  After 12 years of paying a monthly fee for a primary, then backup, then last resort internet access option, I closed my account.

The main reason I finally closed it?  Because after 12 years of being a monthly recurring payment for the company, I felt zero affinity for the Earthlink brand.  Their communication to me was never more than a monthly email invoice and as a customer, I didn't feel Comcastic or that I got more or that anything was really being delivered.  Present value aside, I've spent over $3,000 in payments for dial-up.  Maybe Earthlink didn't want to bring this to my attention, as if the reason I was still subscribed was because I had forgotten about it.

It hadn't always been this way.  I actually started out as a Mindspring customer back in 1995.  There was AOL, but I needed access to the "real" internet to supplement my research tools as an analyst at Coopers & Lybrand.  The internet wasn't key to the business at that point - we had a limited internal system called REACH and used "colybrand.com" as our domain.  I was issued a briefcase that held a two inch thick laptop on one side and a portable HP printer on the other.  Yes, I was expected to take a portable (albeit color) inkjet printer on the road with me, 5 days a week.

Anyway, Mindspring was a pretty cool company.  Their customer support people were smart and friendly.  I liked the company so much, that in Peter Lynch style, I bought stock in the company.  It started around $38 and ran up into the $80s during the dot-com boom.  I eventually ended up with some Earthlink stock and sold it to help pay for an engagement ring.

Over the years, I always kept that dial-up account.  I think it began at $6.95 a month for 5 hours, then I went to $29.95 for unlimited, and was a quite a few price points in-between, even when I got Verizon DSL and then Charter Cable, and finally Comcast Cable for the past four years.  But that wasn't the only technology that killed dial-up:  I think the emergence of wireless was the tipping point.  Not only can you get cable speed at home and T1 or better at work, but now you can get high speed in almost any hotel, airport, or coffee shop in the U.S.  Funny that we didn't care so much about coffee shops period ten years ago.

So farewell, Earthlink/Mindspring.  Your biggest fault was a bland brand that used to be something special.