Experience Manifesto

Some (Potentially) Unpopular CES Opinions

I've been giving tours of #CES for 10 years now, this is the first year that I'm not checking into a Vegas hotel today! One of the reasons I was brought in to give tours was to help separate things that would be trends from things I didn't think would be trends. While I've had a few misses over the years, I haven't done that badly. So, while most people are currently posting CES trends, I thought I would talk about some things that won't be trends, at least any time soon.

• 8K TV's. Truth be told, no one needs an 8K TV. The average consumer can see the difference be 1080 & 4K, but unless you're seeing the TV's side by side, you can't see difference between 4K and 8K. Secondly, while they certainly will come down in price, 8K TV's are still ridiculously expensive and without a compelling amount of content to watch on it, there's no consumer need. In fact, there's actually not much 4K content out there now. There's no reason to go beyond 4K. Thirdly, after spending billions in capex to upgrade all broadcast facilities to 4K, they're not spending the money to go to 8K. Especially being given that there's not a lot of 8K TV's to pump the content to. 8K and beyond is great for #OOH, but it will be the next consumer 3D.
• Self-driving cars. I have a teenager & believe me, I would love to have self driving cars, but we're at least a decade away from it happening. First, in order for it to really work, all cars need to be connected on same system. So, simple math: There are approximately 284.5 million vehicles registered in the US and we sell about 17 million a year. So it would take about 17 years to replace them all. Then, there's the entire ecosystem around cars today. For example, who does the insurance liability fall to? The consumer in the car? The car company that manufacturers the car? The self-driving AI software? It will take years just to answer that one question and there's are many others like that.
• Drone deliveries. If you follow me on Twitter, you know I'm not a big fan of drone deliveries. Sure, there are remote areas where delivery by drones might make sense, but it certainly doesn't make sense in suburban/urban areas. It's only real advantage is that it's cheaper than human delivery people.
• Slight improvements being touted as big deals. I've been giving tours for 10 years and year after year, we saw slight improvements. I even titled my 2019 review The Year of Being Incremental. Everything got slightly faster & smaller, more things got connected. Maybe missing this year will make next year feel like a real improvement.
• More Data, Less Help. There are lots of health & fitness tools out there helping me quantify, but not quantify. Sure, it can tell me I've met my step goal, but when will it help me adjust my goal because it's raining today? And how many ways do I need to track my sleep? I don't need more data, I need actionable plans!

I'm sure I'll add more throughout the week. So follow me to see what will be the real trends will be and what things everyone will talk about but will never really become a trend. LMK what you think!

You Need to Captivate, Not Capture, Your Audience

(NOTE: I originally wrote this article in 2005 and was reminded of it this morning while surfing the net and dealing with autoplay videos. One more way that we try to capture, not captivate, the audience. And worse, they usually make them very hard to stop or turn off the sound. That little 'x' is so hard to tap, that you end up opening the brand website and I'll put money on the fact that their agency calls it a win. "Look at how many clicks you got! Um no, they didn't spend much time there, but at least they clicked, right? I usually have many windows open and frequently have to either kill the sound and stop listening to Pandora or go through all of my windows to find the offending site. Folks, if this is the age of relationships and the consumer being in control, how do brands justify such behavior?)

The audience is getting smarter and tougher. We keep talking about transparency and the audience being in control. Well, if we keep telling them they're in control, they're eventually going to expect to be in control. Then what are we going to do?

Caution: Reading this piece is likely to result in raised blood pressure, seeing red and perhaps a core questioning of what the hell you do every day!

OK, so I've read another series of articles in the various trades about the growth in in-"Something" advertising. Ads on cell phones, ads in airplanes (one airline is even making a pitch during the pre-flight announcements!) and even more eBay "body advertising" auctions. And all of the articles come with yet another series of quotes by execs saying something to the effect of "Isn't it great that the audience can't leave and they have to watch your ad?" (UPDATE: As we start to see mobile and location-based advertising take off, I believe we'll see the ad industry try to deliver more ads that can't be turned off.)

Is this what the advertising industry has become? Is this how we want to harness the incredible, creative power of our industry? In trying to figure out places that the audience is trapped so they can't get away from our messages? Are we really aspiring to create the world of Clockwork Orange, where we hold your eyelids open and force you to watch our messages?

Well, if so, let's really tap into our creative abilities. How about ambulances and hospital emergency rooms? "Welcome to your emergency, triple by-pass. Brought to you today by LowChol. Don't want to be back here again in six months, ask your doctor for LowChol, the prescription rotor rooter for your arteries. Our one-a-day pill will save you a visit here in the future!"

Or maybe funeral homes? There's another place that people are generally captive. "This eulogy is sponsored by HappyPill. If you're depressed over the loss of your loved one, let a HappyPill make it all seem better." And let's not forget the casket. I mean, we don't really know what happens in the afterlife and I have lots of friends who think that shopping may be involved. Do you really want to miss the opportunity to have your message be the last thing someone sees before heading off into eternity?

If you're reading this publication, there's a good chance that you're in the advertising business. So, riddle me this Batman -- when was the last time a friend, colleague or family member came up to you and said "You know, if you could just figure out more places to put ads that I can't escape, that would be really cool!"

And yet, while the industry is happily writing articles about how we can capture the audience, there are numerous articles from people outside the industry complaining about being captured. A recent article by Edward Wasserman, Knight Professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University, discussed the proliferation of branded content and even quoted from Brandedtv.com to ask "Why create a commercial when you can own the show?" And it's not just TV where branded content is a hot topic. Print media are feeling the challenges, both from companies looking to create "branded editorial" to companies asking for control over how they are covered in magazines where their advertising appears. And while it's not the first time it's happened, Sweet Charity got trade press when they changed a line to include a sponsor mention. He ends his piece with this, "What's astonishing that the same audience that has proven acutely sensitive to any whisper of political bias is tone deaf to the glare of grossly manipulative communication that our media are eagerly mutating to serve."

Advergaming is booming today and I have rarely seen a single mention about the audience in the discussion about what a great opportunity this is. In fact, rarely do you see a discussion about the impact on the audience of the many, pervasive techniques we're using today. Well, other then isn't it great that they can't get away.

It's what happens when tactics over take narrative and strategy. Look at the press the Paris Hilton commercials have scored for Carl's Jr. But a recent article in Ad Age indicated virtually no lift in sales. And Carl's is now going to create more teen male oriented content on their site, to make it a destination for that audience, based on the number of people who wanted to download that single commercial. That's an idea being driven solely by tactical thinking, not strategic thinking.

You can be sure that after the success of programs like BMW Films and Subservient Chicken that many companies called their agency and said "Give me one of those subservient chicken things!" There was no thought as to how it fit into their brand or story, but if it worked for them, it has to work for us!

And just look at the entire WOM phenomenon. Now, as part of full disclosure, we participated in the first WOMMA conference and am very good friends of the WOMMA team. But think about it, if you identify campaign A as your WOM campaign, aren't you saying that your other campaigns aren't worth talking about? Shouldn't the goal of great storytelling be that people talk about everything you do??? Shouldn't you be creating TV commercials, or events or online activities that all make people want to talk about them?

Here's what I say about great stories:

People want to tell a great story

People want to hear a great story

People want to participate in a great story

Examples like the Paris Hilton ads or the Pontiac giveaway on Oprah show what happens when tactics rule story. Yes, people will talk about it, but it doesn't translate into action.

But when the American Girl Doll Place opened in NYC, it was the toughest restaurant in the city to get reservations for on a Saturday night. That's the power of great story telling! No ads, no capturing the audience so the can't get away, well, unless you have an eight year-old daughter, then you're trapped! No, they've created a compelling, authentic and relevant story that they deliver to their target audience.

I'm an old theatre person, so I do tend to approach things from the theatrical point of view. We usually start with two things - the audience and the show. We don't say, "Hey, we have sets that look Roman, so let's do Julius Ceaser." (Although, I guess it does sometimes happen in smaller theatres!) No, we start with the audience and the show and then build backwards. My wife calls it backward design

This is not rocket science. There's always been an excellent ROI on telling a great story. Just look at the products and services you use every day.

And you can also very accurately look at what will happen if we don't make a change. People in captivity always revolt -- you can take that to the bank. If we don't start looking for ways to captivate rather then capture, then we need to start fortifying the barricades. For the revolt will come. And sadly, many people in this biz will be yelling, "Let them watch commercials" as they're led to the guillotine.

Download Are You Just Hunting?

What Real Time Marketing Should Really Be

Back in 2009, I wrote a piece about failing to communicate and how an abundance of information creates a scarcity of information. I wrote back then:

So we do we do in a world where we have an abundance of information and a scarcity of attention? Create just in time marketing that allows us to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time. When I'm shopping for a car, I want all of the car information I can find. Once I've actually bought a car, I don't want any more car information.

I believe that just-in-time marketing creates a huge opportunity, especially for placed-based media (like at retail), that we haven't even begun to explore. This is not just digital networks running content we don't really pay attention to, this is creating ways to give people the information they need to make a purchase decision when they want to and how they want it.

But that takes a lot of work and really, for the most part, I think that too often we don't really think it's worth the effort. We've got to find the balance between the abundance of information and a scarcity of attention. That's why I believe in just-in-time communication. Get people the information when they want and you'll find that people will give you the attention you want.

Today, people talk about real time marketing, but the mainly talk about reacting in real time to what's happening in the world, which seemed to really take off with Oreo's very funny tweet when the power went out during the Super Bowl. That was well done (and I'm a huge eater of Oreos!), but did it help people with their decision about whether or not to eat Oreos?

See I think the more powerful version of real time marketing is actually delivering information when and how people need it. I'd love to see more brands doing that.

What We Have Here is a Failure to Comunicate

Everything Old is New Again, or The Real Privacy Issue

[NOTE - This was originally writtwen in 2001 and focused just on the online space. Think it's still valuable as we continue to explore the relationship between brands, consumers & privacy.]

Online privacy. It's in our headlines every day. We talk about it at trade shows; over lunch and even the government is getting involved. How can it controlled? Who can use your information? Whose information can you use? The Child Privacy Act has gone into effect and it will have a major impact on how we collect information online. The recent outcry over Doubleclick's collection and use of user information is a testament to how we feel about our information and what people do with it on the net. All of this activity being built around the information that we can gather about what people do; like; click and buy. We know all about them and they seem to be sending us a message that they don't like that.

But is that the message? Are we are looking for answers to a question that might not be being asked. Is privacy the real issue? Are consumers really upset that we gather information about them?

A few years back, well maybe more then a few years, one of the most popular shows on TV was set in a bar "where everyone knows your name." Each time Norm walked through the door, the whole bar yelled "Norm!" and Sam or Woody poured a beer and got it ready at his stool. In fact, Sam knew everything about the people in that bar. He knew their likes and dislikes and used it to serve his customers well.

Another TV icon from even further back, and one that represents at least the myth of how we viewed America in an earlier time, was Sam Drucker. He always knew what the residents of Hooterville liked and ordered. His hello was usually something to the effect of "Got those lemon drops you like so much." Everyone in Hooterville appreciated that Sam knew what they liked and had it ready for them.

TV shows might not be the best examples of this phenomenon, but how many places to you know like this? My wife & I used to visit a small Italian restaurant in the Village where the food was great and the service and attention was even better. The first time we ate there, after I asked for butter for the bread, the chef/owner gave me a long lecture about how bad butter was for me and then brought me out some olive oil. Not only did we not get upset about his invasion of my privacy, his interest in us was the central reason that we went back time after time. And each time we ate there, he always prepared something for us that wasn't on the menu, but was based on what he knew we liked.

Who doesn't like to go to a store or restaurant where "everyone knows your name." In fact, how many times have you paid more for something or driven further to get it, just because a particular place gives you better service because that store "invaded your privacy." Don't you consider this a positive experience in the offline world? In fact, we get such a warm feeling from the invasion of privacy, that we usually make sure that we take our friends there, just so they can be impressed when the bartender or store clerk knows our name!

See, I think we're dealing with the wrong question. While we certainly need to protect privacy online, I think that we should be focusing our efforts on how can we bring a value to the consumer that translates into a better online experience? What will make the consumer feel as though everyone just called their name when they walked in? How can we create an experience where the owner comes out to greet each visitor and thanks them for being there, while pointing out that they know what the consumer likes?

Right now, we all know that the focus of gathering information from the consumer online is for our value, not theirs'. Sure, we pretend it's for them, but everyone knows better. Is it really a consumer value proposition that we can give them targeted ads? Is getting unsolicited e-mails about products that are similar to something they've purchased a value proposition for the consumer? No, of course not. It's a value proposition for us. If you look at how we generate revenue online, how much of it comes from the gathering, use and sale of consumer information?

The consumer knows that they're not getting anything of value for the information we ask of them. They know that right now, we're the only ones who really benefit from the knowledge we gather. Don't you think my wife and I would have stopped going to that little Italian restaurant if the information that he gathered from us was for his sole benefit? If we had walked into a restaurant around the corner and found that he had sold our information to other restaurants, how would we have felt? The reason we didn't mind telling him what we liked and disliked was because it always gave us a better meal and a better experience. And that, in turn, created value for him as an owner.

I think that's what the consumer wants from their online experiences as well. They want to see value from the information they give up. They want to know that if they give us something, they'll get something back. They want a place "where everyone knows your name." We need to create that place and do it pretty quickly.

There are two ways for us to create a value for the consumer. I guess the simplest way would be to cut the consumer in on the value of the information they give to us. Giving them great strike prices on stock would certainly entice the consumers to share themselves with us.

Of course, the better way would be to figure out how to put Sam Malone or Sam Drucker into every web site. To make sure that the consumer is the one who benefits from the giving of information, not us. Our benefit should come from the experiences that we create for the consumer, not from a quick sale of their information.

Consumers all want their experiences to be authentic and that's why my wife & I liked our Italian restaurant. And that's why we wouldn't want to walk into another restaurant that had received information from ours and acted like we were old friends. It would not be an authentic experience! And neither is getting e-mails and ad-specific banners. We're all consumers ourselves, we should know better.

Now, we are the creative industry, so perhaps we could at least come up with some better terms! I mean, can't we make 'data mining' at least sound warm and fuzzy? At least that would buy us some time while we wait to see whether or not either of the Sam¹s is available for our sites!

The Real Privacy Issue

Challenging Conventional Thinking

UPDATE: As I was writing my post, Fast Company came out with their piece, The Future of Advertising, which has generated a great deal of conversation the challenges facing the advertising industry. What's interesting is that the same challenges facing the biz were probably said when we moved to from print to radio; from radio to TV and every time something new arrived. I recently wrote:

Of course, there's no mention of creating better commercials that people actually want to watch. And that's the challenge with any ad that's delivered without consumer control. As long as they don't have any choice, we don't really worry much about the content.

I wonder what would happen if agencies got paid based on the Nielsen ratings for their commercials. If most people skip your commercial, you don't get paid. If it draws big numbers, you get paid a lot. Betcha' that would change the industry a lot.

Yes, technology is changing things. But have you seen any movies set in the future, say Blade Runner or Minority Report? What do you notice about those films as it relates to the future of advertising? Yep, that all of that time in the future and advertising is still pretty pervasive. In fact, it's even more pervasive then it is today. Think of those giant billboards from Blade Runner or the famous (or infamous, depending on your POV) scene where retinal scanners welcome Tom Cruise to the Gap. The only future world I can think of without pervasive advertising is the one from Brave New World and there, they train you in-vitro to be a consumer. That's pretty pervasive.

While we talk a lot about the measurement of advertising, one thing we don't do is connect advertising to sales. Yea, it's not always a direct connection, I get that. But at the end of the day, business is about selling things. What we do in advertising has to have a positive impact, doesn't it? Many of the recent hits in advertising seem to have created better opportunities for the agencies that created them then they did for the brand.

So it's time to challenge some of the conventional thinking about SM and the ad biz in general. Too often we just accept things as truth without really questioning them. In the end, we may find out that they in fact are true, but let's do some questioning for a few minutes, shall we?

• Really, You Do Control The Message. I think this where I disagree most with conventional thinking. Sure, you may not control the distribution of the message, but you start the message. You have all of the control based on the experience you deliver. People amplify the message you start. You want people to pass along a good message, give them a good experience.
• SM in business isn't really about friendship, it's about business. We wrap SM up in the language of friendship, but more often then not, it's about generating business. If you're following more then a few hundred people, do you really have a relationship with them? Or are these new tools just another distribution channel to get our information out? Look at how many companies still use Twitter or FB as a one-way communication tool, not And BTW, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's OK to conduct business, that's what businesses do.
• There is no such thing as word of mouth marketing. WOM is not a marketing strategy; it’s the outcome of a great product telling a great story. And let's not forget that many WOM programs start with the brand telling something to someone. WOM doesn't occur in a vacuum where the product just mysteriously appears and people start talking about it. If you're paying people to talk about your product, that's called advertising.
• Do we really want to be part of a tribe? I think that there are really just a small number of brands that inspire people to join their tribes. They can be big companies (like Apple or Urban Outfitters) or smaller companies (like Moosejaw or maybe a local bookstore). But I'm not sure the vast majority of companies will ever inspire people to join their tribe. We usually just want the products we use to do what they're supposed to do. By pretending all brands can create tribes, we're creating a set of expectations that the vast majority of companies just can't deliver.
• More then most industries, the advertising biz thrives on the shiny bauble syndrome. We can't wait to play with the latest tools and too often, we declare them the future of advertising. We jump from tactic to tactic all the while pretending that they are really strategies, not tactics. Just in the past few years, ad agencies have transformed themselves from ad agencies to Second Life agencies; branded entertainment companies; WOM marketing agencies and now social media agencies.
• Too many companies are using SM only at a surface level. Yep, companies like to talk about the consumer being in control, transparency and all that stuff. But are they making changes that matter throughout the organization? Whole industries -- like banking or airlines -- continue to operate in complete disregard for what's in the best interest of their customers. Their policies and procedures still show how they really feel about the people who buy their products. Hiring some folks to Tweet or handle your FB page doesn't change your business. Putting your employees and your customers above everything else, that changes your business.
• It's easy to get people to talk about you, it's much harder to get them to engage with you. When I'm speaking at events, I always joke that if I were doing my presentation naked, I could get everyone in the room to talk about me, but probably not as many people who would save a place for me at lunch. Too often we confuse talking about with engaging. Talking about can lead to engagement, but only if there's real connection behind it. Are you really delivering on your message or do you say things simply to get people talking.
• SM is a new way to engage. The tools we're using today are new, but SM is as old as people. The first cave drawings were SM. Pamphleteers were SM. It's faster and broader today, but the underlying concepts are the same as they've been for thousands of years.
• Advertising is the cost of being boring. Nope, advertising is the cost of doing business. Zappos does advertising. So does Apple (I've seen at least six Apple commercials while I've written this article). They're not boring brands, are they? Yes, some companies, like Urban Outfitters, don't do traditional advertising, but again, they're pretty few and far between. And is it advertising that's really bad or is it how we do it?
• People don't mind advertising, they mind how we deliver it. I talk a great deal about just in time marketing in my presentations. People want information about brands and products, but more and more, they want it on their own terms. What we don't want is the constant interruption of advertising. It's everywhere and it never stops. Companies that spend their time looking at how to captivate, instead of capturing their audience, will be the companies that people want to hear from.
• Social Networks + Advertising = Amway. When I was a kid, everyone knew at least one AMWAY salesperson who never stopped looking for a sale. They were constantly trying to sell you or convince you to become an AMWAY salesperson like them. We didn't like it in person and we don't like it in SM.
• If you think that listening is new, then you're already in trouble. All too often, I hear people saying that the really cool thing about SM is that it lets you listen to your customers. Some companies have even added Chief Listening Officers. But thinking that listening to your customers is a new way to engage just shows how out of touch most companies are.
• You can't force listening. Have you ever been in a conversation and you really didn't want to listen? You nod politely, you occasionally say something, but mainly, you're planning what you're going to say next. You're not really listening and having a conversation. You're simply exchanging sentences. You can't force someone to listen. And if you look at how many companies still operate today, they're not listening.
• Legacy vs. history. This will someday get it's own post, but there's a huge difference between history & legacy. Legacy holds you back. It's what keeps those policies & procedures in place, even when you know they're not right. It's the walls that you put around creating a better experience. History guides you to the future. It's knowing where you came from.
• Few like to co-create. Many like to complain. Yes, there are brands that have created tribes that want to help co-create your brand. But more often then not, people like to complain when you've done something wrong. And complain they will. When you've wronged them, they will make sure that anyone who listens will hear about what happened. Remember United Breaks Guitars?
• No man can serve two masters. In the battle between doing what's right for customers or doing what's right for the investors, the investors usually win. Again, there are a few companies who buck this trend, but mostly, companies do what's best for investors or shareholders. Banks continue to add fees to boost profits. Airlines nickel & dime customers every way they can to add to the bottom line. It's OK for companies to make money and to make even lots of money. But when they do it at the expense of customers and employees, that's when things are wrong.

For over 10 years, I've been talking about the need to create authentic, relevant and compelling brand experiences and it's even more important today. And yes, I think SM and all of the new tools available to advertisers today can have a very positive impact on business. But let's put them in the right place. Let's question what we're hearing today and really see how these tools can make our businesses better. And if you want to think that this is a new way of business, then really change your business. Lip service doesn't really do service to anyone.

ADDITIONAL READING

Polinchock's Ponderings: Social Media.

Polinchock's Ponderings: Future of Advertising.

2010 Predictions - Polinchock's Ponderings.

Are You Just Hunting?

Originally published in 2003, before the social media craze started, these are five ideas that every company should still be exploring today. I believe that these five rules are even more important in the social media world we live in today.

The Marketing Chase Continues

It’s not just a cliché, it is a new world. The problem is, if you listen to the language of marketing, it sounds a lot like the language of a hunt. It’s about capturing the audience, capturing “eyeballs.” Capture audiences everywhere and claim that as success. I know it’s not a pretty image, but I keep seeing the pictures that were used years ago to protest seal hunts—except that now the marketing community is holding the clubs and the consumers are the seals.

During the last decade, I have read business plans and heard pitches for new media formats such as advertising on postal trucks, on ATM machines, and at gas pumps. The ideas range from the ridiculous to the outrageous. What makes this even more bewildering is that in a time of media uncertainty (increased fragmentation, declining viewership), costs are going up while frequency and reach are going down.

Here are some surefire rules to help integrate your media mix to increase efficiency and efficacy.

1. Make it compelling. Is there a narrative story that the audience understands? Is there a narrative at all? What is the story that you tell to your customers every day? Could you define it? More importantly, can your audience? Make the product experience as good as the marketing experience. After the consumer leaves your event, will the message be retained during the actual consumer experience? This is probably one of the trickiest things to accomplish for those of us in the event marketing industry. After all, when we’re producing events and tours, we sometimes have a better opportunity to control the hiring of the event staff and the script that they will follow. But what happens when the consumer leaves the marketing event and experiences the real product?
2. Deliver on your message. Here’s something that I like to do, and I challenge you to see if your brand could stand up to my test. I was on the phone with a bank, trying to resolve a problem with an account. During the course of my conversation with the customer service person, I asked her to dinner. She got a little nervous, then I explained that since the bank marketing message is, “Where the right relationship is everything,” and since I wasn’t getting the satisfaction I was looking for, we must not have the right relationship. I was only trying to create a better relationship in order to improve my banking service.
3. Don’t use slogans to deliver an empty promise. Do you say that you’re committed to total customer satisfaction and then create rules of engagement that are of benefit to you and not your customers? Do you train your customer service staff to only say yes to a request after the customer has asked a certain number of times? Are you prepared to live your slogan in everything you do, and not just the easy things?
4. Make it a movement. Jim Ward, vp-marketing at Lucas Films, said recently that the next generation of brand marketing is creating a movement. Would people camp out in front of anything for up to three weeks for your product? Many companies have created movements—just listen to any Mac user talk about PCs. Is your brand a movement or simply a product? Are people passionate about your brand, your products, and your services? Do they sincerely want to share their stories of your brand with other people? Are you telling the same story with all of your employees? Are they telling the same story to your customers?
5. Be authentic. If you need more answers, talk to consumers. Be who you are and leverage what your company stands for. I recently had the opportunity to work on a product for a Fortune 100 company, helping to position them to a specific target audience. They wanted to talk about speed, but as anyone who has worked with large companies knows, speed is not one of their authentic story lines. They had many other authentic stories to tell, but it took a while for them to understand that and work with different language. Note that stories must be organic and can’t be rushed.

Remember, it’s a good story when people want to hear it, tell it, and participate in it. You can create a story that people will want to share in—once you do, your brand won’t just be a product.

Download "Are You Just Hunting?

Really, You Do Control The Message

Earlier today, Giuseppe Pacheco Tweeted "You No Longer Control Your Company’s Brand" with a link to You No Longer Control Your Company's Brand | Spin Sucks. BTW, I responded to Guiseppe right away with a link to one of my earlier posts about this topic and I follow him, so I usually like his links.

Now, you know how I feel about this "you're not in control anymore" blah, blah, blah conversation. I don't buy it. I think we're still behaving like consumers and companies are still behaving like companies. Sure, there's always exceptions to the rules, but outside of SM superstars, I'm not sure that the average person is really seeing a big change in how companies are operating.

While reading around the blogs this AM, I also came across this very fun post from The Ad Contrarian: It's A Wonderful World with this:

It's obvious. They have to advertise. Advertising is what you have to do when you're failing.

This is because the internet has created a new species of human being. And these new human beings live in a wonderful world in which they have relationships with all the companies that make the products they use.

And the only time companies need to advertise to these people is when that relationship is broken and failing.

And you know what I really love? The irony that most people writing about this new world order, do so using an Apple computer. A brand that not only advertises a lot, but does very little in the way of social media they all talk about. They very much control their message. Do you remember what happened when the new iPhone was leaked? The iPhone Leak Gets Ugly: Police Raid Gizmodo Editor’s House, Confiscate Computers. That's a company that wants to control its message.

Sure, we all like to complain about companies. We like to use Twitter and our blogs and whatever to complain. But none of that is new. In fact, most of what's happening right now isn't new. We just like to think it is because who wants to talk about old things, right? As I say, those that don't know history are destined to think everything they do is new.

As I wrote in Everything Old is New Again, this is just another part of the cycle that we go through. Advertising joined the industrial revolution in the mid-50's (maybe earlier, but I'm starting with TV) and now, maybe we're heading back to the pre-industrial days. The days when it was really all about the brand experience that a company delivered.

One thing that hasn't changed is that you still control your message. People amplify the message you start. Start with a great message and that's what people will amplify. Have a bad message and that's what they'll pass along.

But pretending that you don't have any control over the message is just being lazy. It means that you're not going to try to craft a better message or experience. It means that you're going to let someone else do your job. That's not a really good way to keep your job, is it?

Be Human & Listen, This is the Best Advice We Have? - Polinchock's Ponderings.

Stop Listening to the BS - You Do Control the Message! - Polinchock's Ponderings.

You can read all of my posts about the future of customer experiences at Polinchock's Ponderings: Customer Experience.

Everything Old is New Again

For years, people built brands (really their businesses, we didn't know about brands then) by learning how to deliver a consistent experience across everything they did. The product, their service, everything was teed into their business and they're profitability. They got instant feedback from the people who were their customers and word spread, both good & bad, based on the experience that was delivered. If you think about it, it was really all viral and social marketing back then, we just didn't have the technology at we talk about today.

At the start of the 20th century, we saw the industrial revolution change how business was done. It was no longer about a handmade product made in your local town, products could now be mass produced in factories that could be very far away. The product no longer had any connection with the local community. The consumer didn't know where the product came from and, thanks to the lower costs mass-produced allowed, they probably didn't care that much about what they lost in the mass produced world.

In the middle part of the last century, branding was introduced. We created characters that became the icons of a brand. We pretended for the most part that brands had a personality and that there was something foe a real difference between product A and product B. The titans of the advertising industry created emotional reasons for us to buy a product. We heard slogans and saw characters come to life in radio and then TV. It was a new world for brands.

For 40-50 years, we build brands as a specially crafted and scripted experience. It was like being on the Jungle Cruise ride at Disney. We liked to pretend that our skipper was coming up with these lines off the top of his head, but really, it was a well scripted experience. Every touch point was carefully controlled. We didn't mind, it was still a good ride.

At the turn of this century, as the Internet boomed, we saw the rise of social media. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Amazon, Zappos. We suddenly new technologies and new brands being launched every day. We talked about building a relationship with our consumers. We talked about the transparency that the new social media world demanded. We talked about moving beyond the scripts to having a dialogue with the consumer. We talked about authenticity and engagement.

Then came the movement that said you don't control your message. Your audience controls it. You need to give up control. Be free. Allow your audience to co-create your brand. Let them be your partners in this branch new world for brands. And companies started acting like they were listening. Some companies even did listen. In my experience, most just continued doing business as usual.

Maybe we're heading back to the brand that existed before the industrial revolution. One where everything was local. One where good WOM built a company. And bad WOM buried it faster then anything else could. A world where the consumer expected and demanded to speak to the "man in charge." A world where complaints were taken seriously and dealt with as swiftly as possible. A world where your word had meaning and both buyer and seller took your word seriously.

But the honesty, transparency and need to create a great experience from beginning to end are here, possibly stronger then ever. And despite what you've heard, you do control the message.

Online Privacy, are we asking the wrong questions?.

You can read all of my posts about the future of customer experiences at Polinchock's Ponderings: Customer Experience.

Revisiting Some Thoughts on Listening

I originally wrote this post in March of 2008 on my previous blog and here, 2.5+ years later, I'm still reading posts about how revolutionary it is that we can listen to our customers and that we're not in control any more. I don't buy it, certainly not on a broad basis. Hell, the company that most SM folks love to love, Apple, certainly hasn't given up control.

• We should've always been listening to our customers and our employees
• We control the message through the experience we deliver. People will amplify the message we deliver.
• Most people don't want to co-create. They want to bitch & complain, but only a few want to put the effort in needed to co-create.

So please already, enough with the "it's cool that we can listen to our customers" proclamations. It just shows how out of touch business has been for years.

Why Advertising Will Destroy Social Media

OK, can I say I don't get it? I was reading Social Media Biggest Shift In Marketing Strategy Since Television? at ExperienceCurve and I read something that makes my head want to explode. Now, I read Karl's blog a lot and usually completely agree with him. In fact, he has two great pieces (here and here) just from the last few days that are well worth the read. But this one. Not so sure I agree with Karl on this one.

The article talks about a TNS media intelligence/Cymfony report on the difference between social media revolutionaries and those companies that are taking a more wait & see attitude about social media. There was a quote in the article that says "Revolutionaries focus more on listening to consumer and bloggers’ points-of-view." And that's where I thought to myself How the heck can listening to the consumer be considered revolutionary??? I mean, seriously, isn't this the cornerstone of customer service, something that's been around for, what like a 1,000 years? The tools of social media may be new, but if listening to your customer is the cornerstone of defining social media, then social media isn't new.

What is amazing to me is that our industry has so lost touch with the consumer that we think listening to the consumer is a revolutionary idea! Engaging the consumer isn't new, companies have been doing that for centuries! Listening to the consumer certainly shouldn't be new. And it sure as hell shouldn't be considered something that's only done by revolutionary companies!

One of my slides talks about those that don't know history are destined to think everything they do is new and social media should be right at the top of that list! Yes, there's cool stuff being done with technology out there and lots of it is fun. I told the National Association of Newspaper audience that every paper is the US should have Twitter set up for their readers. I believe in the power of connecting to your audience through these new tools to help create more authentic, compelling and relevant brand experiences. Look at how Adrenalina is using the Flowrider to create a cool surfing community right in the store. And I helped start a Lab here in Soho because I like cool new toys more then just anyone I know. I can't wait to see to start playing with things like augmented reality to see how we can create damn cool brand experiences with them.

But the discussion by most in the ad industry about social media is just the latest tactic du jour. We had branded content, Second Life, viral, WOM, and on and on. Read the trades and look at how many times over the past couple of years, a slew of companies were built around chasing the tactic du jour. How many social media companies have been started in the past 6 months? But we do this instead of helping clients understand the true value of connecting with their audience by any means possible and appropriate. For many agencies and clients, they're just tactics that we jump on and jump off like they were a trampoline.

And this is why I believe that, as a whole, the advertising industry will completely screw up the entire social media thing until it becomes just as useless as what we now call traditional advertising is today. Because too many of them think that listening to clients counts as doing something revolutionary.

SOME ADDITIONAL READING

What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate - Polinchock's Ponderings.

Stop Listening to the BS - You Do Control the Message! - Polinchock's Ponderings.

You can read all of my posts about the future of customer experiences at Polinchock's Ponderings: Customer Experience.

People Make The Experience, Technology Enhances It

I've been involved in a number of customer service conversations lately, as I believe that in our social media world, companies are going to have to deal a lot more with customers who complain publicly when things don't go well.

Back in 2007, one of my predictions was Everyone's a Critic: People like to critique you and today have no problem sharing their critiques with the whole world. I'm not a big fan of co-creation. I think that there are a relatively small number of consumers who really want to help companies by co-creating with them. However, I think lots of consumers are ready and willing to broadcast their complaints to the world.

Looking through my old articles, I came across this piece from about 2000 or 2001. Examples might be old, but message is still loud & clear. If you want to look into a crystal ball for your company’s future, take a look at where you fall. If you’re closer to lip service than real service, get your resume out today. Your future doesn’t look very good!

Tripping Over Technology

Like many people, I have a Palm Pilot that keeps track of all of my important information: phone numbers, addresses, upcoming events, family/friend birthdays, anniversaries and the like. What it can’t do is actually mail out the card or make the calls. This illustrates the difference between CRM—Customer Relationship Manager—and what I call CRE—Customer Relationship Experience. Having the information in my Palm is CRM. Using the information to make sure that Mom gets her Mother’s Day card is creating the right CRE.

Right now, CRM is all the rage. Companies spend millions to create CRM software, data mining and voice recognition tools. They build immense databases to combine a person’s multiple experience (online/offline buying, surfing habits, etc.) into a single record. New wireless technologies will allow companies to track where you go and deliver location-based advertising to you in real time, while you’re there.

I traveled last year and sadly, my luggage didn’t make the same trip that I did. Since I had taken two different airlines, I spent the first several hours of conversations with the customer service reps of both not to solve the problem, but to correctly assess blame. Finally, I was directed to the United Lost Baggage number, which uses the latest in voice recognition technology. The sweet voice would ask “What airport did you depart from?” and I would say “San Francisco, CA.” In a very sweet voice, she would say, “I think that you said London, is that correct?” I spent HOURS doing this. I started using words that I’m sure were not programmed into its database. It would ask “What airport did you depart from?” and I would respond ###***@@@@!!!! “I think you said Honolulu, Hawaii,” she would calmly reply.

I tried calling the United reservations line, but each time I was told that I had to call the lost baggage number. I finally reached one of the best customer service people I have ever dealt with. Linda spent at least 15 minutes on the phone with me, dealing with a problem that was not hers, that she had no control over—and she had to use the same lost baggage system they were forcing me to use! Not once was she anything put polite, apologetic, extremely helpful—and focused on repairing the damage United’s CRM had done to my relationship with the company.

Later during that trip I arrived at a beautiful Hilton Hotel at 11:30 PM. While I checked in, I asked about food options. I was told that they didn’t have any food service available. When I asked why, I was told it was inconvenient for them to provide those services after 11. Hmm, I asked, isn’t their job to provide hospitality for me, not for me to travel on a more convenient schedule for them?

CRM is often used as a tool to help the company touch the customer. Unfortunately, customer service is all about the customer touching the company! Many companies implement CRM to add bottom-line savings or to provide better sales opportunities. If that’s the case, it should really be called PRM -- Profit Relationship Management. CRM has little to do with the customer, and even less to do with the relationship. In fact, it often stands in the way of customer relations.

At the end of the day, it’s the people, not the technology, that will make or break the relationship. For example, being told by Jim Keating, a Customer Service Supervisor at AT&T Wireless that “it’s not our responsibility to meet your customer service expectations!” With all the dollars AT&T has spent on CRM, how long do you think it took before I found another company who would meet my expectations?

Increased business value used to be a byproduct of good customer service. Today customer service is a byproduct of trying to increase the business value. Consumers are smart. If you want to look into a crystal ball for your company’s future, take a look at where you fall. If you’re closer to lip service than real service, get your resume out today. Your future doesn’t look very good!

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