bwagy

I was reflecting on an opportunity that is coming up, a big budget with a big client…

What would I do? and the common thread was to

Invoke action. Why?

Well new initiatives are now transparent (and you should stimulate this) which communicates a message.

For example::

• CEO on Twitter -> We are listening.
• Customer Helplines with real people (no computers…) -> We value you
• Product Development stemming from customer feedback -> We’re here to help you succeed

Are you planning ahead? or trying to build / create something new?

Quite often during this process.  I will say stop.

Take a step back.

Take an overview.

What happens next? What are the next steps?

Are we doing the best thing to make that happen? yes / no?

How can we make sure Step 1, sets up Step 2 and 3 (all in light of the bigger picture).

For example, I am doing a joint venture to do a series of workshops.

We wanted our selling point, so I took a step back and said, What is the conversation that’s going on in our target’s mind?

What are they going to say to their boss that makes them say yes I will pay for that.

Stop. Take a step back.  Think two steps forward.

I have discussed somewhat about building a community to enhance customer engagement (amongst many other benefits).

Given recent conversations I’ve had there appears to be a bit of a stigma around the labour investment in building a community.

So I wanted to highlight a recent example from Vodafone New Zealand.

They launched an online forum at forum.vodafone.co.nz August 1st 2008.

Investment was:

• $150 for forum license
• 3 people engaged over a month, checking in every now and again to keep an eye on it
• Link under Help on Vodafone website and a mention on Geekzone

Results:

• 250,000 visits with an average time of just under 4 minutes.
• That’s a whooping 1 million minutes/ month.  Or the equivalent of 697 days (back to back) of attention.
• 356 registered members and ~3000 posts (till Sept 17th)

From other forum’s Vodafone has run, they have found only 1 out of 5 questions requires an official response.

Over time the forum will build a repository of information that will provide answers to users without ANY extra work by Vodafone.

Isn’t this brilliant? What a fantastic way to help your customers.  I hope this makes others stand up and give it another look.

Oh and….

If your trying to figure the ROI on that.  Compare the attention time on the forum vs the equivalent cost of having them dealing with front line staff OR cost of getting that amount of attention OR measure impact on brand loyalty OR measure the value of the feedback you receive.

You can see your return comes in many forms.  Measure what is important.

Great to see Vodafone trying new methods to help their customers, keep up the good work!

Everyone likes a good story

That’s why we tell them / share them / grow them

Now look at all your actions, what story does this create? How can i make it a better story…

When giving a gift, what story can they (the recipients) tell themselves and others?

When dealing with customers, ie red bull gives me wings…….

Go on tell a remarkable story you know you want to

Philanthropy in the past has been limited to individuals of mass wealh or huge companies.

However every one does do their bit helping one another out and their local causes.

We view Philanthropy as out of our reach…. for now… maybe later in life.

Causes such as Kiva unlock this and unleash the long tail.  So we can all engage in helping others out (in $25 usd increments).

Kiva provides a platform for people like you and me to provide funds to micro finance companies in developing and third world countries.  On this platform you invest in their project or business and in return they provide blog updates and knowing you’ve had a direct hand in helping someone else out.

Your investment doesn’t end there.  Once its repaid you get the money back and can reinvest it in others.  Yup you get every cent back.

As a bit of a hobby economist this concept is awesome, using the multiplier effect (looking at how additional investment will flow in an economy) you can find how many times your investment will flow through the economy.  Simply 1/percentage of savings ie in Peru the savings levels are 17% so 1/.17 = 5.9.  Meaning your investment will add ~ $125 to the gdp of Peru.

Thats only on a basic level, there are further flow on effects.

So my idea to you is:

• Create a philanthropy focus in your company, commit some money to invest in projects like kiva.
• Let your employees pick the companies to invest in and follow their progress.
• Take it a step further and match the lend that your employees place in Kiva.
• Get your family together and place a loan in a business.
• Get your workmates together and all join in to support 1 business.
• Your local group such as Rotary / Lions or your church could support causes on this and get your members to keep up to date with what is happening.
• Help Kiva out with their operation costs by sending them a donation.

You can check out Kiva at www.kiva.org (my lender loan page is here).  Facebook group is here.

So jump on, lend some money, help make a direct difference and see what happens.

Your marketing decision can help others too.

Him get it. (Band)

417,000 friends on Myspace

214 videos on Youtube, millions of views

Fan Club that fans actually want to join (and pay for)

Extended dvd’s and limited artwork for die hard fans

Limited dvd releases that are actually limited

I can see why Him are so successful. Can’t you?

Marketing is more than advertising.

In fact advertising takes up the smallest component of my marketing strategies…

Wake up! I am busy. You are busy. We are even busy when we sleep. Face it everyone is busy.

Surely you realise by now that you are marketing for [peoples] time, time to try your product, time to enjoy it.

Time is becoming more and more valuable. Your product should be too.

Make your product fun, enjoyable, make us really long for the day to pass till we can enjoy it.

That’s a magic position to be in right there.