That's Not How We Explain Things.

Much as I love New York, it seems to me that the signage has deteriorated greatly - nowhere more so than on the subway. The most prominent part of this poster delivers a message that is incorrect for the majority of the day on which it appeared.

It would have been much clearer to announce that there were "No late-night Brooklyn bound trains" at this station, but that didn't happen because someone has decided that the conformity of communications format is sacrosanct. Consequently, timings appear in a small, unobtrusive header because the internal communication rules dictate that, even if doing so renders the message opaque.

Something to think about when you next hear the argument that you can't do that because "it's not on brand".

Co-Opting Causes Causes Customer Concern.

If your company believes in something, then don't just co-opt the sentiment as a tagline. Walking the walk is what counts, both in real life and in terms of customer approval.

Missing The Customer Target.

Just saw this tweet from my CTO friend Matthias.

"I hate when Dell asks "what segment are you? small business? large business? home?" without explanation. Just show me computers, ok?"

He's right. Yet businesses still insist on trying to categorise customers by their criteria rather than ours. Why should they presume to know us better than we know ourselves? Make it easy for customers to tell you, if it's really necessary, and then just focus on giving them what they want.

Being Missed (aka Seth Godin Agrees With Me!).

Last night, I had the privilege of being one of a group of people invited to watch and comment upon a run-through of Seth Godin's newest talk. In it he adds some of the ideas from his latest book Tribes to the mix while synthesising a lot of thinking that is bubbling around social media and marketing. It was terrific.

Coincidentally, one of the points he made was what I had intended to blog about today. That point is that among all this talk of social objects, friending on Facebook or herd behaviour, the underlying test is what would happen if you were suddenly not one of the group. Would you be missed?

If your product/service is not so remarkable, so well able to meet your users' need and (in some more ephemeral sense) adds to their lives by virtue of standing for something, then they will not miss it if they don't buy it. You want your product/service to be one of those that people pine for when they're travelling overseas or suddenly discover they've used up. You want it genuinely to engage them rather than just get their attention. You want it to be something that truly engenders passion.

Being missed is ultimately what all the oft-quoted examplars have in common(think Nike, think Innocent, think latest industry poster-child) and being missed is what your marketing should be all about.


Addendum: The actual talk happens later this week and thereafter the slides will be online. You should check them out.

Make Marketing Exciting.

If you're not excited about your product, why should a customer be?

Everything Is Marketing (Chapter 271).

The previously featured Ferrari emporium in Regent Street is seeking staff. But the marketing department - who previously used it to announce the arrival of the emotion of Ferrari - seems to have fogotten that its temporary storefront is still the billboard for their brand.

By allowing such a badly written piece of copy (for that's ultimately what it is), they've the location all the aura and emotion of the corner-shop window replete with DIY ads for gardeners and second-hand prams.

Don't Watch That, Watch This.

The news that ITV has developed a technology to embed advertisements into the uninteresting part of TV dramas is indicative of a desperate attempt to cling to a model that customers have started to abandon. Even if there is a lot of dead screen-space in ITV dramas these days.

People change their behaviour for a reason. The appropriate marketing reaction is to understand that reason and adapt accordingly. It is not to ignore their mindset completely and seek to impose your unwanted thinking on them. Viewers won't let this happen, of course, and ITV will have to think more about how to adapt their medium to their users' viewing habits rather than trying to change the way their users behave.

If they are to remain advertising-funded, then they must ensure that their viewers receive those advertisements that they want to see, when they want to see them. Not when ITV want them to see them. Like all broadcasters, they have to acknowledge that technology and choice means that it is the viewers (more so than the advertisers) who are now their customers.Times change and you have to change with them.