Marketing Mangers should experience their campaigns like a customer.

I was at a bar tonight – the name of the place isn’t important as I’m sure this is how the promotion came across at any bar in the Toronto area.  [...]]]>

Note how the Coke between the two glasses is greatly different - one very highly diluted.

Marketing Mangers should experience their campaigns like a customer.

I was at a bar tonight – the name of the place isn’t important as I’m sure this is how the promotion came across at any bar in the Toronto area.  Nor is the promotion flop the result of the girls but rather that of the marketing firm behind the campaign.

After settling in a two scantily clad girls (dressed as wenches?) came over to my table and offered our table FREE Rum and Cokes (full glass) for a ‘tasting’  (I had noticed the costumed girls earlier as they were awkwardly hanging around near a servers station – clearly out of place).

On the table two glasses were placed – neither drink was the same colour of Coke.

Off a tray of several glasses – we were given a sample to try out.  Now remember bars are loud, so I didn’t clearly hear what brand it was she was promoting – it came across more like I was getting a free drink.

The glasses were standard water glasses – no logo’s, no branding, no coaster or anything to remind the customer of what product they were trying.

The Coke was flat and the drink tasted watered down – in fact nobody finished their drink.   The girls never came back to the table.  Our main server never inquired about our thoughts – never even acknowledged the campaign.  At the end it all boils down to us being given a few free brand anonymous Rum and Cokes.

So essentially some drink company paid for some girls to hand out flat drinks.  What a great waste of money.   And I’m sure back at HQ this has been reported as a runaway successful campaign.

Here’s what I would have done:

Giving away full glasses of Rum and Coke is  great – it’s an amazing deal and a win for the customer.  But don’t have inferior products being given away and make it an event.  The Coke and Rum should have been poured at the table.  The women could have gone table to table with glass Coke bottles and a bottle of Captain Morgan‘s Rum making drinks in-front of the customer.  While interacting with the customer done a quick natural spiel about the product attributes.  Leaving behind a branded coaster and maybe a scratch and win a free t-shirt ticket provide something lasting to the customer.

After 20 mins. the girls should go back table to table and just inquire if the customer enjoyed the drink.  Asking if the customers have re-ordered.   Again, I don’t want to come across blaming the servers – they were great – it’s their direction and the overall conception of the campaign which is the failure.

The dump and run is a waste of money – and doesn’t work.  I have no lasting impression of the brand. Any Brand Manager who would take the time to experience the campaign as a customer would most likely agree with me.

OH one final idea – run TV ads on the channels being played in the bar.  Get all the touch points at once.

*** Note: if this wasn’t a campaign for Campaign for Captain Morgan’s … I apologize … that’s what we thought the girls said  ***

A recent trip to the newly (launched/re-launched??) Marche in downtown Toronto shows that there’s a way to go in their restaurant management.  (This was formally known as the Movenpick)

Staff members running around with loud, obnoxious walkie-talkies.  It might be a oversight by restaurant management, but makes for a poor customer [...]]]>

Here’s a Quicky:

A recent trip to the newly (launched/re-launched??) Marche in downtown Toronto shows that there’s a way to go in their restaurant management.  (This was formally known as the Movenpick)

Staff members running around with loud, obnoxious walkie-talkies.  It might be a oversight by restaurant management, but makes for a poor customer experience.  As customers eat, they are exposed to walkie-talk chatter.

This should be a simple fix for the Marche that involves improving the communication technology and staff training.

Microsoft is at great risk of being taken out by the next generation of users if it doesn’t [...]]]>

Google has announced that it will be porting it’s Google Doc’s platform to the iPad.   Google has yet to go head to head with the Microsoft Office suite – but it’s begun to nibble at it’s target.

Microsoft is at great risk of being taken out by the next generation of users if it doesn’t learn to adapt to the new competitive field quickly.   Apple has wisely learned that a $ 9.99 price point for it’s version of Word (Pages) is what customers are willing to pay.

The risk to Microsoft is that Google will take over the University/Student/Low tech audience.  If Microsoft hopes to remain relevant in the portable market it needs to get a free version of Word (or next to free) version out into the market ASAP.

Google is following the brilliant approach of Apple – don’t compete with Microsoft head-on.  Attack the fringe.

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A bit of background – in June Rogers announced that it would be providing customers with the ability to upgrade to the iPhone 4.  It was around the same time that Apple formally acknowledged issues with their new devices th

Rogers iPhone 4 Email from June 2010. [...]]]> How not to run a marketing campaign courtesy of Rogers.

A bit of background – in June Rogers announced that it would be providing customers with the ability to upgrade to the iPhone 4.  It was around the same time that Apple formally acknowledged issues with their new devices th

Rogers iPhone 4 Email from June 2010. The last email I have received from Rogers regarding the iPhone 4. Why so silent?

at under certain circumstances could result in dropped calls.  In the process, the supply of iPhones all but dried up as Apple worked on a fix.  As of the time of this writing, inventory in Canada is still in low supply.

As a current Rogers customer I was invited (well after visiting their website and providing my email address) to be informed of the upcoming release.   The last email I have ever received is the one shown here.  And NOTHING, not a word since.  In the meantime, the iPhone has been released to the public.  And still nothing from Rogers – no front of the line privileges, no phones set aside for me.  Instead I had to go and seek out the iPhone myself – of course they were sold out everywhere.

Finally in Mid-August by chance I stumbled upon a Rogers store that had 5 left in stock.  I got in line – and was customer number 5.  As the iPhones were issued – I got excited – here we go.  But when the line got to customer number 3 – that person decided to take two phones!   Thus denying me a phone.

Since then I’ve gone into Rogers stores that have told me they’ve never seen an iPhone 4, and the regular Rogers store has a sign buried inside the store that tells customers that they are currently out of stock of the devices.  But a clerk at this one location told me to keep coming in on Monday’s and Friday’s as they are the days that the store receives new shipments.

In the weeks since, I’ve continued my degrading visits into the stores to get my phone – of course each time leaving more annoyed and hater of the Rogers brand.

So what’s gone wrong?

Rogers should know better.  When the iPhone 3 and 3G were released – it was a highly sought out device – so there is NO EXCUSE for Rogers to not be prepared for high demand and have a plan in place.

What would I have done?

Let’s face it, once you’re locked into a Phone company, they own you.  Fine, I get it.  The money is in keeping customer and more importantly expanding their customer base.   With the launch of iPhone 4 Rogers now had to compete with Bell and Telus – as these companies now were able to sell the devices.

1.  Keep your customers updated.  Customers understand that problems can arise – are are forgiving.  So why on earth hasn’t Rogers sent out emails (to those who’ve opted in) informing them of the problems Rogers is having securing phones?  Silence is no answer, no excuse.

2. Incentivize Waiting. Every single new iPhone 4 should be going to new customers.  Those who already have an iPhone and Rogers customers should be at the bottom of the list.   Rogers should provide a good incentive for my patience.  Say 3 months free at the end of a 3 year contract.   Reason at the end of the contract is double fold – if I leave Rogers early they won’t lose out because of the offer also in year 3, I’ll have forgotten about this offer and it will be a nice feel good bonus at a time that I may consider moving to the competition.   This makes their current customers happy with the delay and frees up badly needed inventory to new customers.

3. Don’t play games with your customers.   A Rogers store rep admitted to me today that they aren’t allowed to display in the window signs stating that they’re out of stock of iPhones.  So they make their customers enter the store each and every time they’re curious about more iPhones being available.  Their logic is that by having me come in their sales clerks can sell me another device – good luck.   Just be straight up – find a real solution.  Text me when a phone is ready, send me an email, create a website showing where they’re in stock.

Really Rogers, you can do better.   Making your customers beg for a phone is a joke.  Even worse when you leave your customers in the dark.

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Many years ago I remember asking a newspaper representative if they were concerned about news stories being voted on by tracking clicks.  The person was perplexed at my question – and stated that their paper was not that sophisticated (this being one of [...]]]>

Are you voting for the news with every click you make?

Many years ago I remember asking a newspaper representative if they were concerned about news stories being voted on by tracking clicks.  The person was perplexed at my question – and stated that their paper was not that sophisticated (this being one of Canada’s largest papers).  But that question of the citizen deciding what gets reported has lingered in the back of my mind for several years now.

It wasn’t too long ago that the only way for a tv station or newspaper to know what stories mattered only by looking at ratings, focus groups or subscriptions.  It was a lot of guessing was involved.   But now an online edition of a paper can tell editors down to the second the amount of time your spending on a news story.  They know what stories you read, and what you don’t.

Factor in “rate this story”, “share this story” and “comments” – the citizen is now telling news organizations what they’re interested in creating a full circle feedback loop.   Now the paper reflects what people want to hear.
Clearly the danger is that less popular stories – the early Watergate stories could be dropped and never persued if everything is a ratings game. But the upside is the average citizen can now have a say in what they hear.

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If there’s any hope for Microsoft it is that they deliver products/services customers want, before they demand them.  No more focus groups, expensive consultants or [...]]]>

So the New York Times has posted yet another article critical of Microsoft‘s failure to launch products that earn any wide spread appeal.  Surprise, surprise.  This time the Kin fiasco.

If there’s any hope for Microsoft it is that they deliver products/services customers want, before they demand them.  No more focus groups, expensive consultants or marketing studies.  Hire smart people and let them take the lead.

No company will move forward by trying to out-study their competition.  Instead study your audience.  What do they want? What do they need.

I was reminded of it today when I was using their MSN Messenger service (or Live or Bing talk, or whatever they call it now).  I typed in a word that was spelt wrong, but my initial thought was – “I can’t believe that’s the right spelling”.  But I’m so used to having my mis-spelt words kindly underlined with a red line (like most of my essays through-out public school).   But for whatever reason Microsoft STILL in 2010 not provide this common courtesy.

Do they need to do a marketing study to see what the ROI on offering spell check in Messenger is??  It’s a mute point – but a very important point.  If Microsoft can’t provide minor improvements on their own, how can they ever hope to be at the forefront of delivering consumers with devices (such as the Zune) that addresses the needs of greater society and become a beloved technology company?

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As I’ve said before 2010 is the year of the tablet, but we need to keep in mind – it’s not [...]]]>

So now Nokia is the latest participant in the tablet race.  And who cares?  Maybe the same crowd that thinks there’s still hope for Palm (See my note at the end of this article)?

As I’ve said before 2010 is the year of the tablet, but we need to keep in mind – it’s not about the hardware, but it’s all about the content.  As I see it the only worthy opponent for Apple’s market share is the Google Android, and it comes back to the applications.  And the HP Slate is bound to fail as it will be built on the cumbersome Windows 7 Mobile protocol, great for Netbooks – but not a thumb friendly OS.

The Tablet Market was open to anyone for the past several years, so this 12th hour attempt to get into a market because they need to compete with Apple is doomed to fail.

People seem to forget that the iPad isn’t some whim, rather it’s based on over a decade (plus) of software design, testing and real-world use centered around it’s iPod/iPhone platform.   Early versions of both the iPhone and iPod did have their bugs and flaws.

But at the heart of why Apple will win is content.  Every new iPhone/iTouch/iTunes app, song or video that a person buys is an additional strike against all other competitors.   Windows success as a computing platform can be traced back to being first to market.  As consumers purchased more and more Windows based products, the more entrenched the operating system became.

(This was wrote in April – before Palm was purchased by HP)

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This is one of those – what where they thinking?

Every spring, when patio season begins I always am reminded of how idiotic the Hoegaarden glass is. It’s so ridiculous, I can’t help but think that it’s a way for this European brewery to mock consumption sizes desired by Canadian consumers.

The problem is [...]]]>

Hoegaarden's Canadian Beer Vase

This is one of those – what where they thinking?

Every spring, when patio season begins I always am reminded of how idiotic the Hoegaarden glass is. It’s so ridiculous, I can’t help but think that it’s a way for this European brewery to mock consumption sizes desired by Canadian consumers.

The problem is the Hoegaarden glass served up at bars with the beer on tap.  The pint glass should be called a vase of beer.  The glass is HUGE and looks ridiculous on any table.  The glass is thick, heavy and very awkward to lift and hold.   Alongside other glasses on the table it’s disproportionately HUGE.

I can’t stress enough how awkward this class is to drink from.  Virtually every other pint glass I know of are of the shape where you wouldn’t mind walking around with it as you socialize – but not this beast, your arm would tire from holding it up.   In addition, as you get near the bottom of the glass, you feel like a 5 year old who’s drinking from an adult sized cup, as the glass covers your whole face whilst you can see your guest starring back at you (usually with a smirk).
Solution:

So Hoegaarden is not a low-priced beer aimed at low-brow people.  This is a premium, import brand.  The glass should first and foremost convey this to the consumer. Because this is what I define as a summer patio beer, I would highly recommend that they only serve the beer in 1/2 pint glasses or 3/4 pint sized glasses – with the focus on it being a beer best served cold – quality over quantity.  The well designed pint glass has been done.  We know the half pint is the way Europeans enjoy their beers, no reason why Hoegaarden can’t bring this tradition to Canada.

=== UPDATE ===

A few weeks ago (this past August) I witnessed a couple sitting at an outside patio in Toronto.  The woman was posing with the over-sized Hoegaarden glass – holding it with both hands up to her face as her husband snapped a picture.  Embarrassing for the brand.